LES PLANCHES
VENUEVENUE
PARIS
FRANCE
On a quiet back street, tucked within a residential area, away from limited visual interference.
the bright lights of the inner city, is Les Planches. A long-standing The sound system installed by Sébastien Vaudez of SC
Parisian institution created in 1985, it has recently undergone a Management has been designed around the main ethos of the
redesign, aiming to offer its high-class patrons the most exclusive club: individuality, exclusivity and privacy. APG was selected
experience of their lives. This underground venue is a superb, for the redesign for a number of reasons; firstly because there
unique space, and the refurbishment in the summer of 2009, truly was already an APG system in place to begin with, which the
lives up to that expectation. technical guys and clients have always been happy with during
The club has a central dancefloor, which is encased by ruby red its time of use. Secondly, as Vaudez explained, “because of the
seating, laid out to create individual booths. Each one can be special relationship we have with this manufacturer that we simply
booked for the evening. The booths nearest the dancefloor are don’t find elsewhere. They’re not afraid to get involved and to
the most popular and can sometimes be booked as much as three accompany us every step of the way throughout the project,
weeks in advance. Besides the Main Room the club has three from initial specs all the way down to final commissioning of the
other sub-sections: the Billiards Room, a quiet, intimate room system. I really appreciate the dialogue and the synergy between
adjacent to the smoking area; the Tequila Bar, which doesn’t in our two companies, so I had no hesitation in selecting APG for this
fact house a bar but it once did; and the VIP Room, which has its project.” And thirdly because APG can fully customise a system
own sound system and can be rented out for private parties such from scratch if the customer so desires. Owner Gourcuff agreed
as birthdays or barmitzvahs. One particular private party that is a that APG was the best choice, and stamped his seal of approval on
regular occurrence and actually takes over the whole venue is the the system, as he did with every other aspect of the redesign, he
‘Rallye’; this is when wealthy parents from the surrounding area was further encouraged by a known associate, who also has APG
rent out the club so that their offspring can enjoy an exclusive SMX15’s installed in his club in the north west of France.
night out in the company of other affluent children. The main system on the dancefloor takes shape with four APG
Les Planches is owned by The Noctis Event Group and is one of SMX15, multi-purpose 2-way active loudspeakers arranged in a
eight clubs in its portfolio. The Director in charge of Les Planches circular formation. The SMX15’s face inwards and provide the
specifically, is Laurent de Gourcuff and he had a very hands on main sound for clubbers who spend their evening partying on the
approach when it came to the recent installation. He knew exactly dancefloor. To achieve high quality sound in near field applications,
what he wanted for the 650m² venue: a very discreet sound the SMX15 is ideal because it offers high fidelity, clear, transparent
system alongside minimal, unobtrusive lighting, in order to achieve sound, not high power rock ‘n’ roll. The SMX15 also has built in
060 January / February 2010
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