Live and direct

Zepp Hall Network has been part of the concert-going experience in Japan for the past 20 years. The concept, which permanently installs all Zepp venues with standardised sound and lighting systems and stage machinery, offers advantages to tour promoters and artists alike. Pre-equipped in this way, Zepp venues allow bands to turn up and play without having the hassle and expense of sourcing the equipment to stage a full production.

Now Zepp is branching out across Asia, starting with a new venue which opened in Singapore in April. Located on Level 3 of the Big Box complex in Jurong East, the Mega Box Event Hall has been remodeled to open as Zepp@Bigbox Singapore, a joint venture between Zepp Hall Network and Singapore-based Big Box Investment. Two more are planned to open in 2020 in Taiwan and Malaysia.

‘This came together because Big Box had the building, and Zepp had the experience,’ says Shinichiro Honda, hall director of Zepp@Bigbox, explaining that a pre-installed venue like this is unusual for Singapore, which is better known for smaller bars hosting live music, as well as traditional venues such as Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay.

‘It’s a bit of a different style, and will appeal to young people in particular. Bands can arrive in Singapore and come straight here. It’s ready to go, and they don’t have to worry about sound and lighting.’

Having worked in the music industry in his native Japan for almost 10 years, Mr Honda moved to China In 2007. ‘The market for live entertainment hadn’t really developed at this stage,’ he explains. ‘The country hosted the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics and the Shanghai Expo in 2010 but nobody really knew what the possibilities were, going forward. Those possibilities were the main reason I moved to Shanghai, and soon I was setting up the MAO Live House performance venue in Shanghai. I quickly realised how important it was to maintain the technical quality of the equipment. So, when I heard that Zepp – which at that time was a 100 per cent subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment Japan – had a plan to develop its concert hall model overseas, it really interested me.’

Mr Honda joined Sony Music Group in 2014, becoming part of a team set up to research expansion into other territories. The tie-up with Big Box came a year later, when the company’s real estate arm located at the Jurong venue.

Next came the decision on what equipment to install. ‘The Zepp Hall Network in Japan has a sound consultant, so I spoke to him and we decided together on a Nexo/Yamaha system for Singapore,’ says Mr Honda. This was a departure from the equipment setups in Japan, for a very good reason. ‘We needed a good support network, and Yamaha has subsidiaries throughout Asia, so they can offer very good support for their systems,’ he continues. ‘In addition, sound engineers in Japan are very familiar with Yamaha consoles, and everyone knows how to operate a CL5, which we’ve installed here at FOH. We wanted to open the doors to everyone, while at the same time, providing a very good sound quality. And that’s why we chose to use Yamaha consoles and Nexo speakers for our first overseas venture.’

According to Lawrence Tan, assistant general manager of Yamaha Music (Asia) which is also the local Nexo distributor, STM is the ideal choice for the venue, which is a large box that has a total floor area of 3,500m². ‘The STM is a very directional system, and very well controlled,’ he says. ‘It’s not dispersing onto lots of different surfaces, so it’s targeting the audience.’