L-Acoustics At The Grande Halle de la Villette

Parc de la Villette is both a park – the third largest in Paris – and a focal point for art, music, and culture, housing the city's largest concentration of cultural venues, including the Philharmonie de Paris and Cité de la Musique. It's also home to the physically and psychologically imposing Grand Halle de la Villette.

A stunning example of 19th-century cast iron and glass architecture, designed by famous French architect Victor Baltard, the venue was originally an abattoir and was transformed into a multi-use space in 1985.

The Grand Halle hosts diverse events including exhibitions, concerts, theatre shows, and festivals. The annual Jazz à La Villette festival, hosted here, attracts more than 30,000 jazz enthusiasts every September.

The Grande Halle, which includes the 5,000 capacity Grand Halle, the Salle Charlie Parker, and the Nave, was one of the first venues in the world to benefit from V-DOSC, L-Acoustics' first full frequency line source array. Installed there in the mid-90s, the system offered more than 25 years of faithful service. When the venue's team decided it was time for an upgrade, they chose to invest in the powerful yet compact K3.

Supplied and installed by B Live, a mobile K3 system was chosen to deliver the versatility required by the Grand Halle's diverse program of events.

The Grand Halle's 18,000m2 space is modulable to accommodate a wide variety of events, from a cocktail party for 8,000 to a formal seated event for 4,000 visitors. K3 is the ideal solution, complementing the venue's existing inventory of Kara II, X Series, and SB28 subs; it also has the potential to be reconfigured according to the needs of the production or deployed in other venues as needed.

For most of the year, the system is set up in a left, centre, right configuration, with nine K3 per side flanking a center hang of six K3. KS28 is deployed in cardioid configuration, and the surround is provided by four X12 per side. Following the installation, the team at the Grande Halle received a full week of training from L-Acoustics Application Engineer Arnaud Delorme.

For this year's Jazz à La Villette, Technical Director Daniel Matthews designed a configuration using the new system, working closely with the Head of Audiovisual Department, Olivier Olry, and freelance System Engineer Valérien Langlais. The design comprised left / right main arrays of 12 K3 per side to limit reverberation, optimize coverage, and deliver an even SPL across the entire audience area. Two Kara II per side are hung below the K3 for down-fill with a center hang of six Kara II to help provide vocal clarity. AutoFIR array-processing was applied in groups of two K3. Four KS28 subs were flown in cardioid configuration.

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