The 2022 season kicks off on May 2nd at the Hippodrome de Vichy-Bellerive in central France, and visitors can expect thrilling horse racing action plus a whole lot more, following a recent expansion of the venue’s hospitality and entertainment facilities. Now in its 147th year, the iconic racetrack intends to further cement its position at the heart of the local community with a program of family and charity events, exhibitions, and concerts.
Central to the development is the installation of a new NEXO sound system which was required to comply with a very specific set of technical requirements.
“The sound system is a key part of our mission to immerse the spectator at the very heart of the races” explains Hippodrome Délégue Général Olivier Louit. “From the entrance to the winner’s return, via the trackside, the system must communicate to everyone at the same time in superior quality, and it is essential that the line array system installed in front of the stands has to deliver the sound to the edge of the track in an optimal way without disturbing the horses that use the track for the competition.”
Working in conjunction with installation contractors LTE Sat and AVI, the NEXO Engineering Support team designed a flexible system for both commentary and musical entertainment, able to deliver on Olivier’s vision for an enhanced visitor experience, while also meeting strict budgetary requirements.
With precision directivity of paramount importance, eight clusters of two 25°angle and one 12° angle GEO M10 cabinets address the crowd areas immediately in front of the main stands, with optional 120° horizontal directivity flanges fitted to the GEO M1012 cabinets. Directivity control also informed the choice of seven NEXO P12 point source cabinets to cover the crowd in the stands, where cabinets are fitted with asymmetrical magnetic horn flanges providing optional 60°-100° x 40° HF dispersion.
Amplification and processing are delivered by NEXO’s NXAMP4X2MK2 powered processors fitted with Dante network cards, with an entire cluster of GEO M10s being powered by a single channel of the 4-channel amplifier.
“The new NEXO sound system has taken us from a family hatchback to a high-performance sports car” reports Olivier. “It’s really satisfying to hear our visitors vibrating when the horses go by!”
For more information on races and events at the Hippodrome de Vichy-Bellerive, visit coursesvichy.fr