New York, NY (September 22, 2016)—Canadian Celine Dion is quite fluent in her country’s native tongue…which is to say both of them. While many of her biggest hits have been in English, quite a few have been in French, too, and they were all on display during her recent international arena tour of French-speaking countries. Throughout the 28-show venture, her longtime audio provider, Montreal-based Solotech provided a Meyer Sound Leo-based PA system.
Tour FOH engineer Denis Savage mixed the tour on an SSL L500+ console, and system designer/engineer Francois “Frankie” Desjardin made certain that mix could be heard through each venue via the Leo rig.
“When you looked at the IMAG screens and listened to the system, everything seemed close and intimate, even when you were 200 feet from the stage,” said Desjardin, who has prepped the audio system for every one of Celine Dion’s shows since 1992. “The ‘proximity effect’ you get from the Leo system is remarkable. It removes the gap between performer and audience.”
Highpoints of the tour included a run of nine sellout shows in Paris at the Accor Arena and 10 at Montreal’s Bell Centre. For the Paris run, the system was configured with a total of 52 Leo-M and 12 Lyon loudspeakers in the four main front arrays, with dual arrays of 16 Lyon-W each covering the far side seating and eight Leo loudspeakers for rear delays. Sub-bass was supplied by end-fired arrays of six each 900-LFC low frequency control units flown behind the left and right arrays, augmented by 24 1100-LFC elements floor-stacked as three cardioid arrays.
The systems for the ten Montreal shows, as well as five performances at the Videotron Centre in Quebec City, deployed most of the same loudspeakers but in slightly different configurations as suited the acoustics and layout of the venues.
Meyer Sound
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