Opened earlier this year, La Source is a multi-function arts venue in Fontaine, south east France. As a brand new facility, the technical infrastructure was designed to be as high quality as possible. It was with this in mind that three DiGiCo SD8s were specified for its two biggest spaces.
Comprising three spaces, the ‘Big Room’ with a capacity of 400-600, the Ampli (240 standing) and the Auditorium (119 seated), La Source has a tricéphale (or three-headed) function. The first is educational, with the teaching facilities of the city’s Municipal Music School having moved into the new building. The second function is cultural – involving the local population in a range of events, both as audience and participants, while the third is artistic – providing high quality facilities for a wide range of live music and theatrical performances.
“Being a new building, the technical specification was designed to be as contemporary and future-proof as possible,” says La Source technical director Gilles Barjot. “(Sales and rental company) Arpège Son Lumiere gave us an excellent demo of the SD8 and we were so impressed that we bought three.”
Two of the SD8s, supplied by DiGiCo distributor Apex Audio’s French office, are installed in the ‘Big Room’, at the Front of House and monitor positions, with the third fulfilling both functions in the Ampli. The former is connected to the onstage DiGiRack via MADI, with a Yamaha DME64N routing output signals to L-Acoustics LA8 amplifiers, powering a dV-DOSC line array system. All audio within the system is at 24 bit/48 kHz resolution, providing excellent reproduction quality for audiences. At the monitor position, the second SD8 provides mixes for 12 L-Acoustics 112P active monitors, two-way sidefills and three sets of Shure PSM700 in-ears.
Meanwhile, in The Ampli the SD8 provides audio for another L-Acoustics FoH system and monitors.
“We use the SD8s on all the shows in both rooms and the sound is fantastic,” says Gilles. “We stage a wide variety of shows and they cope with everything superbly well. Visiting engineers are always extremely impressed and, even if they haven’t used a DiGiCo before, the surface is so intuitive that they learn it extremely quickly.
“We are really pleased with the DiGiCo consoles, which are doing a great deal to ensure that the local community is very impressed with every aspect of La Source.”
Leave a Reply