Korean singer-songwriter Younha celebrated 20 years since her stage debut with concerts at the 15,000 capacity KSPO Dome in Seoul, formerly the Gymnastics Arena for the 1988 Summer Olympics.

Titled ‘Twenty’, the concerts were among the first large-format popular music events to feature immersive sound, with Yamaha AFC Image creating a thrilling, 3-dimensional soundscape delivered by a total of 210 x NEXO STM line array elements comprising 9 x clusters of STM M48/B112 with M28 down fills hung across the front of the stage, supplemented by 3 x central clusters of 12 each STM S118 subs in an end fire configuration. Power and processing came from multiple Dante-equipped NEXO NUAR Universal Amp Racks.

The system was designed and deployed by local event sound specialists and STM rental partner Way Audio, where they used AFC-compatible NEXO NS-1 design and simulation software to configure the system which was tested and tuned at the warehouse for a period of a month leading up to the concerts.

Drawing on songs written throughout her career so far, Younha recalled her debut performance at a small café in Shibuya, Tokyo. Twenty years later at the KSPO Dome, a venue known for its challenging acoustics, each audience enjoyed thrilling immersive sound with sources dynamically mixed on 72 channels and localised within the space.

When Younha greeted the audience, her voice surged around the arena like a wave, and fans knew they were in for something special. “When the performance began and the band began to play, a sound that no one expected burst out” commented Way-Audio Senior Engineer A-ram Nam. “The sense of positioning of the instrument properly arranged around the stage improved the separation of each instrument within the mix.

“After the performance, hundreds of reviews from general audience members commented on how they were impressed by the high level of sound quality.”

Production Credits:

• Sound System: WAY AUDIO Co., Ltd. and STM partners MICO SOUND, MASTER SOUND
• General Sound Director: Andrew Kim
• FOH Engineer : Young Cheol Kim
• Monitor Engineer : Hyeung Gu Kim
• System Design : Yun Cheol Lee, A Ram Nam. Way Audio Co., Ltd.
• Immersive Design, Processing Operator : SooYong Lee (AFC Certified Designer)
• Immersive Technical Support : Dai Hashimoto (Yamaha Japan)

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