It can now be revealed that L-Acoustics’ audio systems powered the complex set-ups required for the three-day ‘changeNOW’ sustainability conference, which hosted 40,000 attendees from 140 countries at the Grand Palais, in Paris, France. The annual event is held in a unique format combining live artistic performances with conference events across six main stages, plus 14 additional performance areas.
Previous events suffered severe sound spill challenges from adjacent stages in the glass-domed venue. The organisers had relied on headphone systems to solve the interference problem, but this isolated audience members in individual audio bubbles. For this year’s conference, held from April 24-26, the event organisers asked Fleik – the integrator in charge of audio – to find a better solution.
According to Antoine Secondino, co-founder of Fleik, the two main challenges were limiting interference between the six main stages and enabling the balconies to use traditional loudspeaker systems rather than silent headphones. Fleik selected an L-Acoustics L2 system for the main Legacy Stage.
The L-Acoustics team collaborated with changeNOW over eight months of planning and design, developing and refining dozens of plans using L-Acoustics Soundvision 3D audio modelling software to achieve the desired results.
L-Acoustics says that Soundvision’s integration with 3D design tools like Vectorworks and SketchUp enabled the team to optimise each system within the venue’s complex architecture before any equipment arrived on-site.
The set-ups for each stage were as follows:
Legacy Stage: An LCR setup served as the acoustic anchor with dual L/R hangs L2/L2D, a centre cluster of four Kiva II, and ground stacked KS21 in cardioid. Syva/Syva Low pairs provided in-fill, with X8 enclosures handling front-fill, while Kiva II arrays covered the surrounding stairways
Collective Stage: Fleik deployed nine Kiva II per side, centre cluster reinforcement, and dual cardioid SB18 stacks to maintain acoustic isolation between zones.
Gallery Stage: It featured Syva/Syva Low pairs augmented by SB15m and Syva Sub configurations. A unique delay solution saw discrete Soka enclosures mounted on lighting totems around the audience area.
Agora Stage: It utilised dual seven-element Kiva II hangs with out-fill arrays and SB18 low-end support.
Garden Stage: The solution mirrored the Syva-based approach with SB15 reinforcement and four strategically positioned Soka for delay coverage.
In addition, multiple more intimate performance areas (70-220 capacity) across balcony zones, workshops, and community spaces employed X8 systems with dedicated 108P monitoring.
Fleik prioritised line-source systems over point source throughout the installation for their ability to accurately direct sound to minimise interference between stages, according to Secondino.
He concluded: “Traditional sound reinforcement can work everywhere, even in the most demanding environments, when you have the right tools and the courage to push boundaries. The feedback was unanimous: both the end clients and our production manager were blown away by the result.”
