A programme of diverse music, comedy shows and children’s productions have brought Paris’ Alhambra Theatre and Music Hall a healthy ‘bums-on-seats’ count but also brought the need for an update to its sound system. Having provided years of faithful service, its Meyer Sound Mica system has now been replaced with Leo Family technology – a move that has been well received according to the theatre’s audio consultant, Thomas Legrand.
‘I would describe the Leopard system as offering greater accuracy and clarity,’ notes Legrand. ‘As soon as you raise just a few dBs in any frequency band, you hear the difference immediately. It also gives us a greater dynamic range than our previous system.’
The new system comprises Leopard compact linear line array loudspeakers and 1100-LFC low-frequency control units. The two main arrays of seven-each Leopard elements are supplemented by four UPJunior VariO loudspeakers, with two serving as front fill and two as under-balcony delays. For bass support, the system’s former subwoofer complement has been replaced by four 1100-LFC units set as a horizontal array under the stage.
‘The new subs were the same pleasant surprise as the Leopards,’ Legrand reports. ‘They are extremely precise. When pushing the bass frequencies in our mixes, the response stays tight and doesn’t ‘dribble’.’
Both the original Meyer Sound system and the recent upgrade were designed by Marc de Fouquières of Dushow Paris, the supplier of all sound, video and lighting systems for the venue.
At the front end of the system, the Alhambra has an Avid Profile V mixing console, Shure wireless microphones, and an extensive selection of wired microphones from AKG, Audio-Technica, Sennheiser and Shure. Loudspeaker processing is provided by a Meyer Sound Galileo 616.
The Alhambra’s exterior shell and a few interior appointments – notably a grand staircase – are all that remain of the 1920s vintage, 600-seat Théâtre Art Déco des Cheminots (Art Deco Theatre of the Railways) that once occupied the site. When acquired by current producer/owner Jean-Claude Auclair, much of the original structure had to be demolished for modernisation. It was renamed in honour of another famous venue once located nearby, the Alhambra Maurice Chevalier, before reopening in 2008.
