The Café de Paris has been a traditional French brasserie since 1930, and now serves a selection of fresh produce in a luxurious surroundings with an unmatched view of the old port in Saint-Tropez. Having also designed and installed APG-based sound systems in a number of other local landmarks, the brief presented to local system integrator PM Production for the Café de Paris recently was simple: deliver high-quality, consistent audio fit for a world-class venue.

‘The Café de Paris is known for its masterful style and its prime location, where people come from dawn to dusk to savour a coffee, enjoy lunch on the terrace, have an aperitif with friends during the golden hour, and dine to the rhythm of the St Tropez buzz,’ says PM Production MD, Alexandre Pirotte.

‘It’s often DJs who put us in touch with our customers, because they know that the emotions they want to convey are always more effective with a well-integrated sound system,’ he continues. ‘That means a homogenous audio level and, above all, a system that’s well configured and not aggressive.’

True in the case of the Café de Paris, he continues, but with the additional requirement of multiple audio zones capable of delivering a unique soundtrack to the bar area, the lounge area and the outdoor terrace. To achieve this, Pirotte selected products from APG’s iX series of coaxial indoor speakers, with a range of finishes, accessories and ergonomic options, are tailor made for high-end fixed installations such as PMP’s projects on the Côte d’Azur.

All iX-series speakers combine coaxial technology with an integral baffle, with the front face of the speaker designed to eliminate diffraction and provide a consistent, linear acoustic field.

Inside the Café de Paris, PMP opted for 16 iX5 – a miniature two-way, full-range loudspeaker that offers studio monitor-like compactness and sound quality with improved performance and power handling – finished in sun-reflecting cream-white (RAL 9001), and paired them with two iS115 subwoofers.

Outside, a single iS112 sub complements two iX8-O speakers, from the iX-O series, the IP54-rated outdoor sister range to the iX series. All iX-O models incorporate a coaxial loudspeaker with passive filtering and bass reflex for wideband operation.

‘APG is a well-known brand in the industry, but not very well known to the general public,’ Pirotte says. ‘After Covid-19 we wanted to highlight French products, but we chose APG for a number of reasons. We’ve always been convinced by speakers with coaxial drivers, and APG fulfils this criterion perfectly. It’s a premium brand, but one which, compared with others, is more reasonably priced. The possibility of choosing colours is a real advantage, especially today, when we are often asked to make technology as unobtrusive as possible.

‘Finally, in our sector the APG brand is not as ubiquitous, which also enables us to differentiate ourselves from our competitors.’

Power for the Café de Paris system comes courtesy of Powersoft Quattrocanali amplifiers, while the zoning interface is provided by an Ecler MIMO1212 matrix paired with a dedicated touchscreen. Music can also be streamed via Spotify using any PC.

The new sound system, once installed and set up, won ‘unanimous approval’ from the Café de Paris team, says Pirotte. He adds that, from an integrator’s perspective, he appreciated how the APG team worked hand-in-hand with PMP on the project.

‘Working with APG, we discovered similarities in our philosophy, our business approach and our pride in the quality of the products and services we offer,’ Pirotte reflects. ‘All the projects we’ve done with APG so far have been successful because of these shared values and the trust APG put in their partners.’

‘We’re proud of the quality of the relationship we’ve built up and developed with PMP and Alexandre over the past two years, with very interesting projects both from a technical and human perspective,’ adds APG Sales & Technical Engineer, Rodolphe Portet. ‘This partnership has a bright future and we are delighted to be able to count PMP among our trusted systems integrators.’

More: www.apg.audio