A six-hour marathon concert in front of a capacity 17,000 crowd at the Paris Bercy set the stage for the largest Martin Audio MLA Compact rig to date recently. Called La Nuit de l'Outremer (the Overseas Night), the show was MLA’s debut appearance in France, and provided a sizeable challenge for production company Franck Sono, the first French customer for the system.
Since the company wanted to achieve coverage over the vast space without delay points, it rigged 24 MLA Compact elements per side as the main array, with 24 DSX subs, designed in a broadside progressive array across the front. An additional eight W8LC and eight W8LM provided outfills while 12 Martin Audio LE1500S floor monitors provided the artistes with their reference sound on stage.
‘Since the objective was to provide coverage without delays we simply doubled the size of the rig,’ says Martin Audio’s Nigel Meddemmen, who provided on-site support. ‘It was the first time in the world that we have flown 24-box MLA Compact hangs and it sounded superb – the coverage was excellent. Everyone was really impressed that so much sound was coming from these tiny enclosures.’
His views were supported by Bruno Dabard, technical director of Audia, the pro audio division of Algam (the Martin Audio distributor): ‘Using just the optimisation process we were able to achieve very smooth coverage of the system across the 90m throw, and up to the back rows, 18m high, where the presence of the sound was just as obvious. This included the left and right top of the bleachers where the delay systems are generally set up.
‘In fact, this was probably the smallest cabinet format ever used for a concert in the Bercy arena.’
He added that the DSX broadside array also demonstrated both clarity and high impact. And the succession of rap, hip hop and reggae artists pounding through the system in quick succession left Franck Sono director, Franck Lichtlé, happy with his investment: ‘We are grateful to the teams at Martin Audio and Algam for their support in helping us to meet the high level requirements within really challenging set-up constraints,’ he says.
This French Caribbean festival saw the appearance of a succession of artists highly popular in the black community, including Admiral T, Kreyol La, Akiyo, Daly, Esy Kennenga, Desiré François, Stony, Princess Lover, Jean-Marie Ragald, Tanya St Val, Jean-Marc Ferdinand, Daddy Yod and Tiwony.
Lichtlé also credited the personnel at Miel production company, for their confidence in MLA Compact, promising further big projects to come using the system.
More: www.franck-sono.com
More: www.martin-audio.com
