Melbourne-based Monitor City is the first Australian sound rental company to take on Nexo’s new STM loudspeaker system.

The first scalable modular line array to come to market, STM is designed to boost hire companies’ profitability through its flexibility, providing systems for audiences from 1,000 to 100,000.

Monitor City was started in 2006 by Matt Dufty and Ade Barnard, and already holds a Nexo inventory. ‘In this game, we have experienced being both the client and the supplier, so we get what the market is after,’ Dufty explains.

‘We took a small amount of STM as soon as we could – three M46 Main cabinets and three B112 Bass cabinets per side. That allowed us to do Angus Stone’s Australian tour with the system straight away. The results were great. We were groundstacking and doing venues of between 550-1,100 capacity and we had headroom left every time. The FOH engineer really liked it and so it was a great start.’

Supplied by Nexo’s Australian distributor, Group Technologies, Monitor World’s initial order was supplemented by six additional M46s and B112s per side, with another three of each per side arriving in February 2013. ‘We plan to stock an arena-sized system that will also break down to many smaller PAs,’ says Dufty.

‘I always really liked the sound of Alpha PA and when I first heard of STM I liked the concept from the start,’ he adds. ‘The fact that it is modular and scalable is brilliant. We will have a big pile of STM and can do all the various jobs by adding more/less to the order.’

Monitor City’s STM system will be used next across four stages of the renowned Port Fairy Folk Festival, where the scalability will really come into its own. ‘The stages range in capacity from 1,000 to 3,000, so the STM inventory will be broken down to handle them all,’ says Dufty. ‘It’s going to be a big weekend and the standard of artists is very high, so we are looking forward to covering the entire event with our new system.’