France - Amadeus and Holophonix were chosen to design and install a new sound system for the Amphitheater d'O, part of the Domaine d'O – a multidisciplinary arts and entertainment complex in Montpellier, South of France. Because the open-air theatre accommodates up to 1,800 people in a semi-circle of nearly 180°, this presented an electroacoustic challenge for audience coverage and directivity control.
The Amphitheater d'O hosts four major festivals during the spring and summer seasons, including Le Printemps des Comédiens (a theatre festival held throughout June), Folies d'O (a musical theatre festival held in early July), and the Radio France Occitanie Festival (July).
Over the 15 past years, the Amphitheater d'O has been equipped with various traditional front-of-house reinforcement systems, from Amadeus, L-Acoustics, d&b audiotechnik, Adamson, and other renowned manufacturers. All of them were line source-based, arranged in stereo or L/C/R configurations, and rented during the festival season. As a result, only a few people sitting in the ‘sweet spot’ could hear in stereo during live performances. More than 90% of the audience – especially in this Greek-style theatre – hears mono and comb filtering.
Realising that there was definitely no way to accurately locate sound sources unless the listeners were sitting in the centre of the venue – regardless of the loudspeaker manufacturer – the sound team began to take an interest in sound spatialisation systems. Texen, a long-time supplier of technical resources at the Domaine d'O, asked Amadeus and Holophonix to find a way to solve this audio problem and provide the best possible experience for the audience.
The Domaine d’O spatial sound reinforcement system designed and installed by Amadeus and Holophonix is composed of a nearly 20m custom-designed sound-ramp of speaker modules – each measuring 1,460mm – integrated into the front of the stage, with a line of 18 point source C15 speakers placed above it. These speakers are complemented with subwoofers made of four cardioid stacks of Diva M2 Sub Neo bass complements and two stacks of Maestro I infra-subwoofers.
All the Amadeus speakers are controlled by the newly released Holophionix Ultra processor.
Nicolas Minssen, technical director at the Domaine d'O, comments: “We wanted the sound to come from the stage as much as possible. We wanted the sound system to ‘disappear’ in terms of perception and location.
“The main advantages of the new Amadeus solution installed at the Domaine d'O are the precision of the sound, the perfect coherence of the sound image for all the spectators, and the aesthetic discretion of the system,” says Minssen, noting how the new sound system is visually integrated with the theatre.
Loic Lambert, mixing engineer at the Domaine d'O, offers: “Wherever you are in the amphitheatre, the sound is coming from the stage. It’s a very pleasant sensation, you completely forget about the amplification.
“The shows we host have not been created using immersive technology, and festival set-up and rehearsal schedules don’t allow any extra time for sound pre-production. It has to work straight away. We ensure ‘backward compatibility’. We are always able to broadcast classic console outputs such as the L/R and/or the central cluster simulated in a WFS bus, for example.”
“We also work with each show’s operator to prepare the sources pre-routed and pre-positioned in Holophonix, as well as the console configuration so that the switch from stereo to object mixing can be made with two clicks as soon as the operator is ready, without wasting any time. We can easily go from a stereo configuration to an immersive or hybrid configuration. Some people have gone fully immersive from the start, so the console workflow remains the same.”
“The key part in the system tuning was to get the best uniformity of sound quality across the amphitheatre. This system brings a spatial experience to the Domaine d’O which had never been obtained before, while keeping a great sound quality and uniform coverage for all to enjoy this new experience,” stated Adrien De Giovanni, Amadeus acoustic engineer.
“The Amadeus speakers, combined with the Holophonix solution gave the feeling of hearing the sound coming from the stage – which can’t be obtained using traditional L/R or L/C/R overhung systems,” added Antoine Lenfantin, technical manager at Texen, the company that provided the sound system this year and in previous years.
“Compared to previous solutions, the physical implementation of the Amadeus system required some adjustments and technical research. These challenges were effectively resolved thanks to close collaboration between the Domaine d'O, Amadeus, and Texen teams. Despite a tight schedule, the training of the Domaine d'O and Texen teams went smoothly, enabling them to quickly adopt the Holophonix technology.”
