Coda Audio Scores Winner in France as 300,000 Attend Toulouse

It's been 18 months since CODA Audio established its French subsidiary and Coda Audio France is progressing extremely well. Coda systems are appearing at more and more venues and this summer saw the company's now familiar speakers at some very high-profile events. At the Festival Arte Flamenco in Mont Marsan, one of Europe's largest of its kind, five different venues of assorted sizes were equipped with ViRAY, TiRAY, and HOPS systems. Production specialists Concept Group have been responsible for the audio at the festival for the last four years and had no hesitation in using Coda Audio for the first time. Both co-manager Johann Dubuc and sound engineer Baptiste Hazera, supplied glowing reports on the systems, praising both premium sound quality and very practical ergonomics. Later in the summer on an altogether larger scale, Coda AiRAY was installed to meet the needs of the main stage of a huge free concert on July 14, at la Prairie des Filtres, in Toulouse. A wider range of Coda speakers supplemented the main system for delays and backstage.

NRJ is France's most listened-to Radio station with an average audience in the region of six million. A major influencer in the country, the brand's NRJ Tour presents live music events around France, featuring bands and DJs both local and global. For a number of years, NRJ has staged a large free gig in Toulouse and this year's renewal, the largest yet, attracted around 300,000 people to see sets by international stars like David Guetta and home-grown talent such as Maitre Gims and Black M.

In advance of a significant further investment in Coda Audio, Concept Group rented a large proportion of the gear for the show from Studio Haifax in Belgium. Yves Van Moerbeke was asked by Haifax to lend his extensive experience of Coda Audio to Baptiste Hazera and Thibault Melsbach, collaborating with them on the system design. Van Moerbeke programmed all the amplification, while time-alignment involved further collaboration that included Coda Audio's Eddi Krueger. Prairie des Filtres is a large park next to the Garonne river and the nature of the event demanded coverage not only in front of the main stage but also at two bridges, one in front and one behind the stage, as well as the length of the walkway on the other side of the river (corresponding to the full length of the park). The fact that the bridges at either end of the park are approximately 700m apart gives a good indication of the demands to be met.

The main system comprised 32 x AiRAY, 20 x SCV-F 18" sensor controlled subwoofer, 12 x SCP dual 18" sensor controlled subwoofer and 2 x APS. The main delay system consisted of 48 x ViRAY and 12 x SCP. Given the extensive area of the site, there were further delay systems for the river and bridge locations, employing various combinations of AiRAY, ViRAY, SCP, G715, G308, and HOPS8. The backstage area was served by 10 x G715, 10 x TiRAY, and 4 TiLOW subwoofers. In total, more than 250 Coda Audio speakers ensured that every member of the vast audience experienced the full impact of every set regardless of their position in, or in some cases, outside the large riverside park.

Van Moerbeke felt that the team had achieved an excellent outcome at what was a challenging site and offered this appraisal of AiRAY:

"When someone asks me what I 'think' of AiRAY, I always say it's more what I 'feel' about it -- a freshly-rigged, full range driven AiRAY system always gives me goosebumps and chills! The fullness and accurate frequency response is just astonishing and rigging any Coda Audio array is a breeze because of the fully integrated rigging system. The sensor controlled subwoofers define a whole new approach towards gaining headroom and punch. The show was a great success and working with Baptiste, Thibault, and Eddi was a pleasure. NRJ Toulouse was a demonstration of just how effectively Coda Audio's excellent range of systems can be deployed."