Rather reminiscent of a large bunker, the new national theatre of Saint-Nazaire is one of 70 national theatres that make up part of the network of the French Ministry of Culture. In fact, ‘Le Theatre’ occupies what used to be the of Saint-Nazaire. Railway station.
As a national theatre, the venue has to conform to exacting technical standards, making it an extremely highly specified venue at every level, including its audio facilities. For FOH mixing duties in the main 826-seat theatre, Technical Director Patrick Balaud was quick to spec an Innovason Eclipse GT digital console.
A number factors that worked in the Eclipse’s favour, not least the fact that its is essentially a French console.: ‘A certain amount of national pride influenced the choice,’ admits facility General Manager, Louis Perennou. ‘We felt that it was important to use French equipment where possible for one of the premier national stages of France. Although Innovason is now owned by a German company, Eclipse is still a French-designed console and, importantly, the technical support is French.’
Supplied by TechnoSolutions of St Nazaire, the Eclipse stood its ground from when tested against competing consoles. ‘We were particularly struck by the sound quality,’ Perennou says. ‘In an era of all-singing, all-dancing digital boards that deliver so much more functionality and ease of use than old analogue desks, the issue of sound quality is often overlooked – or at least plays second fiddle to other considerations. However, when we first heard the Eclipse GT at work, the exceptional sound quality instantly made the difference for us.’
The other feature that scored points for Le Theatre was the flexibility of the console.
‘The fact that you can configure it in any way you want is really quite extraordinary,’ Perennou explains. ‘I’ll admit that it takes a bit of getting used to at first, but once you’ve got the hang of it, it means that you can tailor the console to a particular show, or even to a particular engineer if he is used to working in a certain way. It’s a different methodology than that offered by most digital consoles, but once you’ve got used to it, you don’t want to go back.’
More: www.technosystems.us
More: www.innovason.com
