The 1,700-capactity OM in Seraing hosts live music encompassing metal and jazz to techno and hip-hop, making it not only the largest but most versatile space in Belgium’s French-speaking Wallonia region. Opened in 2023, the venue sought festival-grade SPL and full-bandwidth sound in a space where neither visual bulk nor subwoofer sprawl were acceptable.
‘We wanted to amaze our audiences,’ says, Venue Director, Fabrice Lamproye. ‘We wanted a system that was loud, impressive and festival-grade, but also compact enough to fit into our medium-sized venue.’
The building dates to 1948, originally designed as a banquet hall for workers at the Cockerill steel complex, the industrial giant that made Seraing the ironmaking capital of continental Europe. Abandoned in the decades that followed the industry’s decline, the team behind the Les Liège festival saw its potential as a new kind of venue.
‘As someone from Liège, I come to OM almost every week as a punter,’ says Louis Lukusa, CEO of XLR, the company called in to address the challenge. ‘I was personally invested in getting this right.’
XLR has more than 15 years’ experience of deploying L-Acoustics systems across Belgium and Luxembourg, across theatres, cultural centres, clubs and bars. When it came to OM, Lukusa had the regional roots and the technical depth required. The brief was to design and deploy a system that would perform consistently across every music genre. It had to satisfy the expectations of international touring productions without visually dominating the design of a relatively intimate space. The K3’s variable curvature line source characteristics answered both requirements – 40Hz–20kHz without additional subwoofers, and compact enough to disappear into the room.
‘K3 was the logical answer,’ Lukusa confirms. ‘It’s the newest system in the range, and it comes with full bandwidth and uncomparable native contour — that changes everything in a venue like this.’
The choice was supported by L-Acoustics’ standing on international riders. ‘Touring productions know the brand,’ he adds. ‘Their recognition and acceptance is already there.’
‘The most important thing we consider when evaluating a new sound system is its quality,’ says OM’s Team Coordinator and booking agent, Fabrice Lamproye. ‘And we want to ensure that our artists will be happy with it. We’ve been working with L-Acoustics for years now, we have another system in a smaller venue that we’re really happy with, and that’s why we opted for K3 at OM. We knew that it would meet our need for clear and powerful sound.’
With K3 selected, XLR moved into the design phase using L-Acoustics Soundvision, modelling the system to verify the coverage predictions and refine the loudspeaker positions. OM’s design presented a challenging acoustic environment, and being able to model and plan for this in Soundvision before a single cabinet was hung made a significant difference.
‘With eight K3 per side, we could cover all of the audience area without a single delay speaker,’ says Lukusa. ‘We achieved about 3dB distribution across the full audience and a sound integrity figure of almost 93 per cent. We were incredibly impressed with these figures for a venue of OM’s size.’
The main system centres on two hangs of eight K3 per side – the install variant of K3, specified here for its permanent rigging credentials. Subwoofer support is from four KS28 per side, flown alongside the main arrays rather than groundstacked, keeping the stage area clear and unobstructed. The side-hung configuration also serves the venue’s electronic programme well, supporting the kind of stereo bass imaging that these genres demand.
To ensure consistent coverage throughout the room, a pair of X12 address the in-fill areas, while four A10 Wide as front fill maintain level and intelligibility for the audience closest to the stage. The result is a system that covers every seat from the front row to the back wall without disrupting any sightlines. Six LA12X provide amplification.
‘The new K3 system is very exact, and that helps you in a space where the acoustics aren’t perfect,’ says Lamproye. ‘It gives you the control to manage what the room throws at you.’
The response from artists and touring crews has been strong. International productions arriving with high expectations have found a system they already know and trust, removing the uncertainty an unfamiliar rig can introduce. ‘From the very first shows, the bands were happy,’ Lamproye adds. ‘That matters to us. We want artists to feel that this is a place where they can do their best work.’
For the venue’s audiences, the results have been just as tangible. OM has built a reputation in Wallonia both for the quality of its programming and its commitment to exceptional sound. ‘People come here because of the sound,’ Lamproye concludes. ‘We wanted to bring the feeling of a big festival into a mid-size venue, and that’s exactly what we’ve done. K3 made it possible.’
More: www.l-acoustics.com