The commemoration of the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, which marked the beginning of the French Revolution, is the occasion for numerous events throughout France. For the 11th edition of Concert de Paris — the giant classical music concert at the foot of the Eiffel Tower — Lawo once again met the live sound and live broadcast requirements of the French public broadcasters and Eurovision network. Under the expert hands of Radio France and France Televisions’ sound engineers, Lawo consoles delivered excellent audio quality to the huge Champ de Mars crowd and millions of listeners and viewers.
The production used two mc²56 desks sharing a pair of redundant A__UHD Core units at front of house, controlled by Nadège Antonini for the orchestra and the overall PA mix and by Stéphane Thouvenin for the soloist premix. A third mc²56 and an A__UHD Core audio engine took care of the stage monitoring in a two-operator configuration with two separate control surfaces to offer Tahar Boukhlifa and Charles Bouticourt maximum flexibility for the execution of this complex task.
A system of passive splitters routed more than 140 microphone sources independently to a Lawo mc²66 console controlled by Laurent Fracchia for mixing radio and television audio in a Radio France mobile production unit.
This new technology allowed for a significant footprint reduction
Joffrey Heyraud, Lawo’s sales director for Western Europe
Particularly exciting
In a France Televisions’ OB truck, Gregory Chevalier was in charge of audio production for the national TV broadcast and international clean feed, also with an mc²56 console.
“Each year, it is a real pleasure to work with this team of passionate perfectionists coordinated by Christophe Lukaszewski on the world’s largest classical music concert,” said Joffrey Heyraud, Lawo’s sales director for Western Europe. “This year’s edition was particularly exciting as it was the first time we used our new A__UHD Core processing engines and HOME resource management system for this event. This new technology allowed for a significant footprint reduction, thanks to the compact solution and DSP resource pooling between consoles.”
The Concert de Paris takes place before the City of Paris’s traditional fireworks display on France’s National Day and remains one of the largest classical music events in the world. Around 100,000 spectators had the opportunity to attend performances by the Orchestre National de France, the Chœur and Maîtrise de Radio France, as well as internationally renowned opera singers and soloists. Over 3.2 million viewers followed the event on France 2, and many more listeners on the France Inter radio channel. It was broadcast live or recorded in many countries worldwide via the Euroradio and Eurovision networks.