Amadeus immersive sound for Domaine des Etangs
- Details
Built of stone and wood, La Laiterie is a new gallery space within the Domaine des Étangs complex that is dedicated to exhibitions about the 'Meeting of Art and Nature'.
"As we collaborated in advance of the sound system installation with Amadeus experts, we were able to get rid of the speakers' common aesthetic nuisances and at the same time ensure a sound quality at a level rivaling the most famous concert halls," explains Manuel Gomez, architect and music lover, who was in charge of the renovation work for La Laiterie at the Domaine des Étangs.
Designed in a circular layout to get the best envelopment for visitors and to adapt to the geometric, technical, and aesthetic constraints in the Laiterie galley, the sound system comprises 44 speakers made by Amadeus and the Holophonix spatial sound processor.
"The specification was very complex. Mrs. Garance Primat, the owner of the Domaine des Étangs, is a great music lover and a contemporary art collector; she wished to turn this former 18th-century barn into a place where past, present, and future art would meet to serve culture and presentation," says Gaëtan Byk, marketing manager for Amadeus.
"This space had to be able to host art exhibitions, events, acoustic or amplified music, electroacoustic music creations, without having to modify, reconfigure or move speakers according to the application. The sound system had to be as versatile, scalable and integrated as possible. It appeared obvious to develop our project around the Holophonix processor," reveals Byk.
Mezzanines excluded, the hall is 23m long and 9m high. Thirty-two Amadeus PMX 5 coaxial speakers are integrated at mezzanine height: 10 evenly-spaced speakers lengthwise and six speakers across the width.
Eight low-frequency Amadeus ML 12 SLIM bespoke subwoofer speakers are integrated into the low section of the walls, spread out with four speakers on each side lengthwise along the walls. In addition, a new purpose-designed 'slim bass' speaker, named UFD 215, is integrated under each mezzanine.
The audio system is built around the spatial sound processor Holophonix. The integrated hardware and software product was designed by Amadeus in collaboration with the STMS (Sciences et Technologies de la Musique et du Son), a laboratory founded in 1995 and hosted in the IRCAM premises, in association with CNRS, the Sorbonne Université, the Ministère de la Culture, and the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique.
(Jim Evans)
