40 l July 2013
www.psneurope.com
livefeature FINISHING POST Nexo monitors on stage at the Solidays festival
vans at Groupement Technique des Hippodromes Parisiens (GTHP) and Canal+’s Pôle Gratuit channel taking a total of nine SSL consoles – 2013 has had “fewer opportunities” so far. “Music and post is slow but not dead,” he reports, “with ongoing interest in analogue sound leading to a few sales of AWS and Duality. A Duality went to Studio 160 in Chamalières, near Clermont Ferrand, both for commercial use and partly for education. We can also announce that an SSL C10HD is being sold to a new site for post-production facility Creative Sound in Paris, and is being used for the first time anywhere in the world for recording Foley (see box, right). Creative Sound is also taking a C372HD-2 – the largest C300HD frame in Europe. “This is a slow year for
broadcast because a lot of projects are now done and dusted – the Ministère des Finances’ C100HDS, the Hippodrome de Cagnes sur Mer’s C10HD – or about to finish, such as the final console going into Canal+’s Pôle Gratuit. But the live market is giving us a great response, with great interest in our campaign: ‘at last a live desk, purely designed for live, but with a pure studio sound’. The very first sale of a complete package – FOH and monitors – has gone to S-Group, based in Alès and Paris as well as Montpellier, for a tour by French singer Amel Bent.” As for the economy, Guerinet has some acute insight into market confidence. “The main challenge is for customers to dare to ask for finance from their banks – not so much the banks being reluctant to finance!” he claims. But if the reticent French buyer can’t afford a new console, perhaps the best thing to do is head for the premises of the SAE Institute in Paris this September: the 6th to 8th sees the inaugural
ProAudioccasion, a mini-expo, conference and forum for the exchange of second-hand gear “en toute convivialité” organised by French industry magazine Realisason in conjunction with SAE, Juke Box, TC Electronic, SSL and Parisien hi-tech dealer Home Studio. Check out
proaudioccasion.fr/wordpress for details.
BOÎTE-SHIFTING France is unusually abundant in high-end sound reinforcement loudspeaker marques, all focused on the global horizon but with deep roots at home. So while APG has just appointed Bruno Garros as executive VP of global sales & business development (see page 5), the company continues to nurture the domestic network of loyal customers with equal commitment. “It’s true to say that budgets
have been significantly reduced across the board,” observes Gregory Dapsanse, executive VP of R&D and marketing, “whether it be rental companies renewing or bolstering inventory or fixed installations upgrading or changing their systems. We are noticing that investments in new equipment are being much more carefully managed than before. Every last detail is scrutinised before a decision is made. More than ever, customers are looking for long- term ROI with ever-more stringent criteria – greater versatility, even better performance and of course impeccable reliability. “This shift has actually
worked in our favour, because our product range today is designed to meet precisely these criteria. Contrary to what other manufacturers in France may be experiencing, we’ve increased both turnover and market share despite having almost completely pulled out of certain market sectors. However, we’ve
Creative Sound is a facility very much setting the pace in French film post-production, with a second site in Paris nearing completion. Apart from several SSL consoles, however, including the first ever dedicated exclusively to Foley, the company’s second campus near the popular Rue du Commerce area of central Paris is reviving another name from the pantheon of mixing desks: a large-format Harrison MPC5 digital film mixing console is to be the centrepiece of a 470-cubic metre film mixing stage that will also include Dolby’s new Atmos immersive 3D sound system.
The new MPC5 will sport the latest Harrison Object++ software platform offering a complete routing matrix, object-orientated panning and 64-channel ultra-wide monitoring solution, all specifically designed for
integration with Dolby Atmos- equipped installations.
The MPC5 system will also include a 1,024 input Harrison Xrange 64-bit processing engine, a full suite of Harrison Xtools plug-ins and a dual-operator MPC5 control surface featuring twin master sections, 80 faders with 64 input strips and Harrison’s patented ESP Waveform displays. Twin producer desks mounted at 10° on the far left and
right ends round out the wrap-around console surface, that will span 18.5ft (5.75m).
Terry Nelson of Studio Equipment, the Harrison representative for France, notes that this order “marks the return of Harrison consoles in France. We are extremely pleased that Creative Sound has chosen to make a statement in what is often a very difficult market.”
www.creative-sound.fr
(L-R): Axel Brisard, Marcel Babazadeh, Didier Chagnon (MD Sennheiser France) and Alain Richer
STM modular line array, Nexo’s new flagship PA,” he states. “Our target customers for this system are rental companies of all sizes: although the smaller rental companies are having a difficult year, there is plenty of business for the larger full- service operations, even though their sector is increasingly competitive and they are making less margin. “We have seen a downturn in the installation market, as less government money flows into the regions. But, just lately, I believe we can see signs of improvement: we’re making more sales and they’re happening more quickly, which is a positive indication that the market is picking up.” Franck Surena is L-Acoustics’
L-Acoustics at the Airbus Conference in Toulouse
made significant inroads into others, particularly in the live entertainment sector.” To prove the point: Silence!, a full-service production supplier based in Saint-Denis just north of Paris, has returned with a comprehensive APG sound system for season 2 of internationally syndicated TV singing competition The Voice following last year’s successful debut. The Uniline cabinets used are said by FOH engineer Jerome Kalfon to provide “the homogeneity and
dispersion I needed for such a big, wide venue”. Meanwhile, with its factory just 25km north of Paris, Nexo supplies all its sound reinforcement products directly to the French market using a network of dealers. Sales manager for France Jean Jacques Vias confirms that business over the last year has held up well, despite recessionary economic conditions in France. “We have seen our turnover boosted by the arrival of our
national sales manager for France, and describes the manufacturer’s domestic thrust as reliant on 30 Certified Providers segmented into three categories. “The first category is system integrators,” he explains. “They are certified companies committed to offering the best installation services and benefitting from our sound design support, special training programmes, system measurement and tuning services and support for system commissioning. The second is rental network agents: the rental network is a platform of co-operation. It offers an opportunity to raise the agent’s visibility among top sound companies and the development of cross-rental business. With co-operation and synergies
t
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52