This year’s Bastille Day, a commemoration of the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789 that marked the beginning of the French Revolution, gives rise to multiple events throughout the country, including the 10th edition of a large-scale classical music concert at the foot of the Eiffel Tower where four Lawo mc² consoles were deployed for the live and broadcast mixes.
Under the direction of Radio France’s sound engineers, two mc²56 MkIII desks were used at front of house by Nadège Antonini for a premix of the soloists and choirs as well as by Alexandre Martin for the orchestra and the overall mix for the sound system delivering coverage to a huge crowd on the Champs de Mars.
A third mc²56 took care of the monitoring circuits on the stage in a two-operator configuration with two separate control surfaces for Tahar Boukhlifa and Charles Bouticourt in the execution of this complex task.
A system of passive splitters allowed the routing of all 144 microphone sources independently to the Lawo mc²66 console controlled by Laurent Fracchia for the mixing of the radio and television signal in a Radio France mobile production unit.
“It is a real pleasure to collaborate with Radio France for such a prestigious event and to see the enthusiasm deployed each year by the entire team to get a little closer to perfection,” says Joffrey Heyraud, Lawo’s sales director for France. “Radio France’s renewed trust is a tremendous confirmation of the company’s technological choices in a constant search for excellence in terms of audio quality and reliability.”
The Concert de Paris, followed by the City of Paris’ traditional fireworks display on July 14, remains one of the largest classical music events in the world. Approximately 150,000 spectators had the opportunity to attend the concert — with the Orchestre National de France, the Chœur and the Maîtrise de Radio France, as well as internationally renowned soloists — on site. The event was followed by millions of listeners and viewers on Radio France and France Télévisions channels and was broadcast live or recorded in many countries via the Eurovision network.
