NEXO audio was recently installed in the beautiful theatre and concert venue Foirail, in the historic city of Pau, set along the northern edge of the Pyrenees, in southwestern France.
A former livestock market, Foirail opened in 2022 and quickly established itself as a vibrant cultural space hosting a varied programme of cinema, jazz and classical music concerts, theatre and dance. But the venue’s development as more of a live venue necessitated a change in the audio system.
Eric Vilchez, technical director, said: “The NEXO GEO M6 system originally installed at the Foirail was adapted for the location at the time. However, the theatre’s programming evolved with more live music, and we soon found ourselves renting additional sound equipment for these shows.”
So, members of the NEXO engineering support team revisited their designs for the Foirail and configured a new NEXO GEOM12 system capable of higher SPL and a greater dynamic range and arranged a demo to coincide with a Manu Katché concert at the venue. A tender was produced, and the supply of the new system awarded to local technical services company Axilon.
The full system at the Foirail comprises left and right hangs of 7 x NEXO GEOM12 with 3 x MSUB18s on the floor, a centre cluster of 3 x GEO M10, 3 of the original GEO M6s per side for side fills and 4 x NEXO P8s for front fills. Additional P+ Series cabinets are used for stage monitoring.
But what to do with the original GEO M6 system that was, after all, only two years old? Jean Phillipe Bordenave, general sound manager at Foirail, explained.
He said: “We were able to redeploy a large part of the original GEO M6 system at the Théâtre Saint-Louis, the city’s small 19th century Italian theatre located less than 2km from the Foirail. And of course, the original NXAMPMk2 amplifiers could also be used in a reconfigured system because all the NEXO speaker processing presets are integrated.”
At the Théâtre Saint-Louis, the system comprises a single GEO M12 + L18 Sub per side covering the stalls, 3 x GEO M6 per side for the first balcony and 2 x GEO M6 per side for the second balcony.
Vilchez concluded: “From now on, spectators at Foirail and Théâtre Saint-Louis can benefit from a world-class NEXO system, perfectly adapted to the locations and types of shows they host. Best of all, the city is getting great value for its investment in NEXO sound.”
