King in Kassel -- CODA Audio N-RAY Reigns Supreme at Kulturzelt

The Kulturzelt is an annual music festival in Kassel, Germany that has run since 1987. It began life in a former circus tent, before progressing to its current location in a temporary, self-supporting concert hall constructed in 2010. The specially designed, circular plexiglass structure covers an area of 860sqm and accommodates 900 visitors. Kulturzelt is now a strongly established event in the German festival calendar and attracts highly regarded national and international artists.

Events production specialist AMBION of Kaufungen has supported Kulturzelt with a full production since 2004 and was once again asked to supply the audio for the 2019 edition. The company took the opportunity to install a brand new CODA Audio N-RAY system. N-RAY is Coda's very latest ultra-compact line array and at the time of the festival had not yet been officially launched. As a very close and trusted partner of Coda Audio, Ambion were involved in pre-launch trials of N-RAY, and having experienced its power and quality, had no hesitation in deploying the beta system in their possession for this unique environment. The decision proved to be a good one, as Ambion's head of audio Michael Knauf reports:

"I was the sound engineer and front of house babysitter for the festival, and it was brilliant. We had no troubles...I can say it was just fantastic! You can be focused on the instruments not the system and just do your job with the sound. N-RAY is a milestone for the Coda family -- unpack it, rig it, and have fun. It's almost the simplest thing I've ever seen. It's so easy to use -- I love it."

The festival's managing director, Dr Juergen Truss, was delighted with the feedback he received from visiting technicians:

"Our festival hosts quality bands who deliver a fantastic experience for a very demanding audience. Engineers working with some top class bands said that the sound in the concert hall with Coda was beautiful and the best they'd heard!"

Ambion used ten N-RAY with two SCN-F bass extensions per side for the main hangs. In addition, three hangs of three Coda Audio N-APS were used for center and side hangs. Eight SCV-F sensor controlled subs completed the front-of-house set up with eight Coda Audio CUE Four for stage monitoring. The system was driven by six Coda Audio LINUS 14D and six LINUS10C amplifiers.

Popular German band Selig appeared at the festival and enjoyed a fantastic reception. Their engineer, Lars Luedemann, was an instant fan of the N-RAY system:

"I had to change my whole mix because the PA system transports all frequencies like I've never heard before. Normally, I have to work at the bass drum...at the subs or the vocals, but here I had all the EQs flat and it sounded right. It's a very open system that sounds great but also very smooth at the same time. It's like -- wow! It's small but you have everything you need -- direct sounding, in your face, no resonance, strong basses, highs, and the mid range is perfect. I can only say that it's brilliant!"

In September 2019, Coda staged an N-RAY pre-launch event at its Hannover HQ, where Ambion, having been so impressed with the system's performance during the trials, purchased more than a hundred pieces.

Coda officially launched the system at ISE 2020 in Amsterdam where it met with great interest and an overwhelmingly positive response. N-RAY incorporates a unique 6" double diaphragm planar wave driver (DDP), dual 6.5" neodymium ultra-low distortion low-frequency cone drivers, insta-fit Magnetic Couplers, and revolutionary Dynamic Airflow Cooling (DAC) technology, ensuring exceptionally high sound pressure coupled with low power compression.