[ATTACH=CONFIG]203086.vB5-nodeid=203086[/ATTACH]NANTES, France – August 2016 — UrbanVoices has been held in the French city of Nantes each July for the past six years and features a 1,000-strong choir of Nantes singers from seven to 89 years old. This is spectacular in itself, but this year the audience experience was further enhanced with the use of L-ISA Live, the latest sound reinforcement concept introduced by L-Acoustics founder Christian Heil.
UrbanVoices is a multifaceted project organized by the association of the Cité Monde [World City], which takes place over several months and is open to the entire city of Nantes.
Karim Ammour is artistic director and creator of the project, entitled The City is Beautiful, and also its composer and conductor. It is an eclectic program, which honors mankind and nature and features compositions that range from reggae, soul, pop and gospel to rhythm and blues, with the thousand singers accompanied by a singer/guitarist, three beatboxers, a percussionist and a DJ.
With 40 singing rehearsals spread over eight weeks in 18 different locations, starting at the end of April, UrbanVoices is an amazing musical adventure that culminated in the Grand Collective Urban Nantais, held on the 9th and 10th of July in the 2000-seat Grand Auditorium of La Cité Des Congrès Nantes.
Klaus Blasquiz, a renowned musician best known for his band Magma and musical director of UrbanVoices, had approached L-Acoustics with his wish to provide something special and more immersive for this year’s event.
“He visited our L-ISA auditorium in Paris together with Karim Ammour,” says Sherif el Barbari, Head of Application at L-ISA. “We introduced them both to the capabilities of our L-ISA Live concept, which immediately convinced them to be very suitable for what they wanted to achieve.”
Sherif and his team produced a design for an L-ISA Live setup for UrbanVoices consisting of five L-Acoustics Kara arrays of six elements each for the scene area, plus two 12XT per side for extended panoramic expansion.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]203087.vB5-nodeid=203087[/ATTACH]This frontal system was complemented by two flown SB18 per side for low frequency extension and stacked SB28s on the stage floor for ultralow frequency content. Six 8XT speakers along the downstage edge handled frontfill.
“The choir was divided into two groups of 500, alternating throughout the six performances over the weekend,” says Sherif. “The beatbox performers produced unbelievably low frequency content, which justified the use of large subwoofers to handle their signal.
“The massive choir provided the basis for a very wide immersive experience, which really benefitted from the L-ISA configuration, while the localization of Karim’s vocal and the instruments was maintained for every seat in the audience and with a clarity that is usually missed in a conventional L+R approach.”
“L-ISA Live connects the sound with the visual image of the artists performing on stage,” adds Mickaël Sourisseau, technical manager of La Cité des Congrés. “It allows every member of the audience optimum sound and consistency with what they are seeing, not just those in the seats located in the central axis of the scene.
“It was a great opportunity to deploy the L-Acoustics system—acquired two years ago during an upgrade to the Citè’s PA—in a new configuration that introduces the audience to a truly immersive experience.”
[HR][/HR][B]About L-ISA Live[/B]
L-ISA Live, a breakthrough in sound reinforcement technology that offers an immersive experience of hyper-realistic localization, is the latest technology from L-Acoustics founder Christian Heil. It provides a true connection between what’s seen and what’s heard, ultimately suppressing the sense of loudspeakers and delivering natural sound. Acoustical events are perceived as if they were emerging from the source, thus completely focusing the listener’s attention on the performance.
L-ISA Live requires the placement of a frontal speaker system, consisting of at least five arrays/loudspeakers, along with an L-ISA Processor that provides an intuitive object-oriented mixing approach through dedicated software: the L-ISA Controller. To achieve optimum results, loudspeakers need to be installed in suitable spots to provide the desired localization effect. Because humans have the capability of localizing sources horizontally in a much higher resolution, a maximum distance between loudspeakers needs to be respected, which allows the audience to experience a perfectly localized event connected to what they can see. Vertically this is less critical, which allows for more flexibility in positioning the arrays higher than the actual sound source.
For further information visit l-isa-music.com.
[B]About L-Acoustics[/B]
Founded in 1984 near Paris, France, L-Acoustics is a leading manufacturer of turnkey solutions for the professional sound industry. With 320 team members, 20 percent of whom are dedicated to R&D, L-Acoustics is present in over 75 countries either through subsidiaries or via a network of certified distributors or providers.
Recognized throughout the industry for pioneering the modern line array, L-Acoustics offers a total system approach for both the touring and fixed installation markets, and a product line responding to the needs of venues from the most intimate club to the grandest arena. L-Acoustics sound systems can be heard in places like the Hollywood Bowl, the NBA Houston Rockets Toyota Center, or the Philharmonie de Paris. L-Acoustics solutions have been used at seven of the world’s ten top-grossing festivals*, the London and Sochi Olympics, and on the Foo Fighters Sonic Highways World Tour, among others.
