Eurosono, an events production company based in the Rhône-Alpes region of France, attended a pre-launch event of the new CODA Audio N-RAY line array late last year, made an immediate investment, and the system was soon in action being deployed at two significant events in Lyon.
First up was an event called “The Trophies of Enterprise,” staged by the Progrès daily newspaper and CPME, an organization supporting small businesses in the region and held at the Halle Tony Garnier in Lyon, which includes a concert venue that’s one of the biggest multi-use arena spaces in France.
Eurosono events director and CEO of tech and live service provision Mathieu Aufort explains, “The brief at this event was to cover a stall of 3,000 people without installing an army of speakers. The system needed to be discreet as this was an event rather than a performance or show. We needed a system that was light — good in terms of weight and visibility, whilst still fulfilling all the sound requirements of the situation.”
The system was comprised 12 N-RAY modules per side with eight SCV-F subwoofers on the ground. A further eight HOPS-8 were used as front fill to cover the stalls up to the front row, with six N-APS as side fills. “My first impression when I listened to it was the range, for a start,” Dutrève says. “We found ourselves at the top of the stalls more than 45 meters away and went — ‘Oh wow, yeah, that works!’ There’s a real vertical and horizontal consistency — when we moved from right to left, the sound stayed consistent, the same – it doesn’t move. There was a homogeneity across the whole distance which is very good.”
By contrast to the Tony Garnier, the 20th anniversary event staged for F&K Bistroclub in the Garre Des Brotteaux, a former railway station, was a more acoustically challenging space. Matthieu Aufort notes: “The specifications were a lot different. This was a very complicated place to fit out with a sound system because it’s very reverberant — there were shiny paving stones with gaps everywhere. The challenge was to create a clear sound (without spoiling the aesthetic of the space) that could really do justice for this important event that featured a group of around 10 musicians.”
In a long room with the stage running along its the length, the team decided to put up four stacks of three N-RAY modules, supplemented by N-APS loudspeakers to support the near field. Aufort concludes, “The team were very comfortable working with the system – we showed why we were there and the challenge was overcome.”
