Eclipse journeys into Futuroscope

24 September 2012

France - As part of the 25th anniversary celebrations of the popular French multimedia theme park, Futuroscope, near Poitiers in the department of Vienne, 1000 choristers from 40 different choirs, four soloists and a 40-piece philharmonic orchestra from the University of Poitiers gave an open-air performance of the epic Dogora in front of nearly 10,000 people on 1 September. Written and composed by Etienne Perruchon, Dogora tells the story of an imaginary nomadic people.

Handling all of the audio requirements was Poitiers-based rental and audio solutions company Agora Audio. Agora supplied an Eclipse digital mixing console from Innovason at FoH and an Innovason Sy80 for monitors in addition to the main PA and all the microphones which included sixteen KM 184 D digital microphones from Neumann.

According to Agora's David Rocher who mixed the show at FoH, the event presented a number technical of challenges. "Apart from the sheer scale of the show, the main issues arose from the fact that we were working against the clock," explained Rocher. "We only had an hour to EQ and line check 64 open microphones for a total of 96 inputs prior to the full dress rehearsal where everything was expected to work perfectly.

"This is where the Virtual Soundcheck function of the Eclipse is invaluable as it allows me to fine-tune the mix between the dress rehearsal and the main show. However, the Virtual Soundcheck function is only one of many features that makes Eclipse an ideal product for this type of event.

"We had 16 KM 184 D digital microphones from Neumann for the choir, managed by a pair of Neumann DMI-8 interfaces, which in turn are managed by the Eclipse, giving me full control of the digital mic parameters from the console. That is a big plus if you want to use digital microphones on your event. I also like the stereo faders for managing pairs, and the ganging of the mic preamps which enables me to adjust the gain of a group of microphones from a single encoder.

"The entire show was set up and performed without a hitch, which was quite an achievement given the number of people involved and the extremely limited time frame," concluded Rocher. "Both technically and culturally, the event was a great success."

(Jim Evans)