Thought to be the first floating theatre anywhere in Europe, the extraordinary L’Île Ô theatre is permanently moored on the Rhône River in the beautiful French city of Lyon. This architecturally and technically unique structure hosts artistic, event-driven, civic and educational projects focused primarily on inspiring and training children and young people in the performing arts.
The structure comprises 6 modules providing 245m2 of space spread over 3 levels, including two performance halls with 78 and 244 seats. For the largest of these, venue operators Les Scènes Ôtrement turned to AV technology specialists Novelty AURA (Auvergne Rhône-Alpes) to design and install lighting and a sound system. Business Manager Maxime Humen takes up the story.
“NEXO systems deliver a unique balance of high performance and affordability. The client was surprised at the high cost of an existing proposal using speakers from another brand, so we worked with the Engineering Support team at NEXO to present a solution that could meet all the technical requirements of the brief without exceeding the available budget.”
The system at L’Île Ô comprises clusters of NEXO P12 speakers flown below L15 subs on either side of the stage, with compact ID24s performing the role of front fills, and NEXO NXAMPMk2s providing amplification and processing.
“At the design stage, it was obvious that being able to vary the HF dispersion of the P12s was going to be hugely helpful in achieving even coverage in the space” continues Maxime. “It’s also important that the system is compact and that we were able to fly the subs, ensuring sight lines are not obstructed from any of the seats in the house.”
NEXO Engineering Support staff were on site for the final system tuning, a service highly valued by Maxime and the team at Novelty. “The support we receive from NEXO extends all the way from the design and proposal stage through to commissioning the installed system. The client is very satisfied with the results, particularly the extraordinary low-frequency performance.”
About the Novelty Group
With 40 years’ experience and 280 permanent employees around the world, Novelty is a European leader in audio-visual, technical and scenographic resources and solutions for events, entertainment and their dedicated spaces.
For further information on Novelty, visit: novelty-group.com
For further information on L’Île Ô theatre, visit: scenes-otrement.com
