France - Tribal Sound deployed Europe’s largest ever X-Line Advance X2 system for the recent 15th anniversary celebrations at the Sud de France Arena in Montpellier. Designed using Preview loudspeaker software and comprising 60 tops and 24 subs, the Electro-Voice system was powered by 19 Dante-networked Dynacord TGX series amplifiers and managed via Sonicue sound system software for a night of electronic music from an all-French lineup.
Sud de France Arena is a cavernous space, with a seating capacity of around 14,000. To do justice to the all-electronic music lineup, the venue needed a powerful PA that could provide the musicality and energy to every corner of the space.
“We built the system by using EV’s Preview software, and saw that to cover the whole venue properly we would need to dry hire some more X2 and subs from another local rental company,” says Julien Garcia, CEO of Tribal Sound. “When we flew the system and tested it, the results were exactly as Preview had predicted and we had the power to cover every area without pushing things too hard.”
To achieve these results, the main system comprised hangs of 24 X2-212 per side with a further six per side used for out-fills, while six MFX-15 served as front-fills. Low end was served up by eight sets of three X12-128 subs as an end fire array with cross over at 70 Hz. MXF-15 multi-use coax wedges were again in use as DJ monitors with a pair of PX2181 subs completing the DJ booth setup.
The team at the arena were keen to understand exactly what the Electro-Voice solution could achieve in their space, so put the X2 through its paces before the event. “To test the system before the show, they used a video of anniversary wishes from people,” recalls Garcia. “Even in the empty arena, there was extremely crisp and intelligible sound from the speakers.”
Another key factor was the small footprint the system would take up. “The arena team didn’t want the system to be visibly disturbing,” says Garcia. “The X2 is a small, discreet system with great sound quality. It provided the power of a big system but without taking up the space. The arena team were extremely impressed with the sound quality and coverage coming out of the small form factor of the X2.”
Dynacord electronics were chosen to drive the system. Ten TGX10 amplifiers were used to power the tops while nine TGX20s drove the subs, front-fill and DJ booth.
Reflecting on the overall experience, Garcia believes that the performance of the combined Electro-Voice and Dynacord sound system has opened more business opportunities for his company. “This was a public tender and we were under pressure to prove that we could deliver superior results with these brands for this kind of venue,” he explains. “We were confident that our solution would work and, in the end, the coverage was exactly as we predicted.”