STADE DE LA ROUTE DE LORIENT


Audiolite has completed the installation of a permanent system for the Football Stadium of Lorient with 42 Adamson Metrix W enclosures. Lorient is located in Rennes, Brittany on the Atlantic Ocean.

‘Parc des Sports de la Route de Lorient' Inaugurated on September 15, 1912, Partly covered, due to Brittany's frequent rain, the new stadium had proper goals and the pitch limits were no longer set out by the referee prior to the game by using a white ribbon. As Europe descended into the darkness of the World Wars, France's quick defeat and Brittany's lack of notable industry meant that Rennes wasn't seen as a target, leaving the stadium untouched by both wars. However, the stadium was used by American troops following Operation Overlord as a military reserve base. After the war, the stadium underwent some improvements, leading to a concrete stand replacing the old wooden southern stand, roofing for the east and west terraces, and an overall increased capacity of 20,000. In 1957 the stadium was renamed “Stade de la Route de Lorient”.

In the year 2000 as sports revenue was on the up after France's historic World Cup win, French billionaire François Pinault bought the financially troubled club. As the 5-year building schedule was finished, the Stade Rennais Football League started the 2004-2005 Season in a 31,127 all-seated, state-of the art stadium. The soil remains un-heated as the team takes a winter break and Brittany is rarely recipient of heavy snowfalls. The stadium isn't covered as a choice, on the basis that a roof would increase the cost by a large amount, limit future expansion work, and probably worsen the state of the playing field due to lack of sunlight.

The Stadium's new sound system is mainly used for speeches and sports-event entertainment segments including music, but occasionally the venue is used for larger events such as the Festival Interceltique de Lorient.

The installation design was carried out jointly by Audiolite and DV2. On the site, project supervisor Franck Fily, sound system designer Sylvain Turpin - who was also in charge of the system alignment, rigging expert Lionel Gillet and cable manufacturer Jord Mallejac placed 3 clusters of 6 Adamson Metrix W's in the North bleachers and four clusters of 6 Adamson Metrix W's in the Presidential bleachers.

With the system's permanent placement outdoors at a close proximity to the salty winds of the Altantic Ocean, many anticipatory steps were taken to guarantee the system's longevity. First, was waterproofing it against humidity using a special paint for the birch enclosure. It was then varnished inside out with a special varnish covering every inch of the wooden surface. The usual Speakon connectors were removed and replaced with strain reliefs–directly to the box. The speaker components were tropicalized, further water-proofing parts such as the already weather resilient Kevlar cones. All rigging hardware including frames and pins were galvanized. The grill was constructed from aluminum, instead of the usual steel.

With the special rigging hardware and unusual coverage area, the W's proved a fine choice. "Due to difficult rigging point options, a vertical area of 90 degrees had to be covered with each cluster, making the Adamson Metrix W's 15 degree vertical coverage essential” comments DV2 Technical Director Didier DalFitto. Turpin adds: “We needed to find a system that would fix the problems with the old speaker system, which had bad coverage and frequency response, as well as insufficient SPL for this specific venue. The Adamson ND-8LM 16 Ohm drivers made us gain some savings due to less cabling and amplifying. We put 6 Metrix W LF & HF's on two channels of a Lab.gruppen C68:4”

The Adamson Metrix Series timely arrival to the marketplace allowed Audiolite to meet the demands of the venue on budget. The buyer has been very satisfied with the upgrade: “The coverage and the vocal intelligibility are top notch. The new system cannot even be compared with the old system that was there before. Now, all the spectators receive quality sound, thus improving the ambiance in the stadium during the games.” Sylvain Concludes.

Audiolite is the Western France dealer for DV2 - Adamson's Distributors for France.

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