L-Acoustics brings sound quality to Puy du Fou fireworks show

The K Series of L-Acoustics has provided complete coverage and sound quality to 14.000 Spectators attending the 45th anniversary of the opening of the French theme park Puy du Fou, and its fireworks festival.

After a fifteen-year hiatus, The Fireworks Festival Nuit des feux follets has been held again on the stage of The Cinéscénie, The show of Puy du Fou Best known and the biggest night show in the world.

With three pyrotechnic design teams from China, Australia and Portugal, This important international event selected the system of the K series Audio Manufacturer Standard L-Acoustics to offer the best coverage and sound quality to attendees, which should prevail over the noise of the fireworks themselves for the 14.000 Spectators who attended.

Ranked as the second most popular theme park in Europe, Puy du Fou opened at the end of the decade of 1970 by the entrepreneur Philippe de Villiers and his son Nicolas, in the Pays de la Loire region, in western France.

To celebrate the 45th anniversary of its creation, the Nuit des feux follets with the top three professional fireworks specialists in the world, each with a musical show of 15 minutes and pyrotechnics that had to be assessed by an expert jury.

"A year dedicated to your planning, with the technical and logistical management of the event, from the 3D programming to the handling and installation of the three tons of fireworks, It has been an immense job," he explains. Samuel Briand, sound designer of Puy du Fou-. A vital requirement was to provide the highest quality sound, So we needed to set up a system that couldn't just cater to the audience., but to project the musical and spoken elements of the screens onto the noise of the fireworks.".

Held at the Cinéscénie – a performance space located on a lake that features an arch-shaped stage 100 meters wide-, The fireworks were presented at 180º, surrounding the audience seating area.

With state-of-the-art lighting and 3D video projection, The permanently installed audio system has K1 speakers High-end L-Acoustics. For the Nuit des feux follets, The room system was extended with six K2, each with four SB28 subwoofers placed at the base of the seating bleachers in front of the audience.

In addition, For the surround sound system, five groups were installed, each consisting of three models Kara, that are part of the permanent system of this scenario, along with a P1 Milan AVB processor and the M1 measuring platform, also from L-Acoustics, to calibrate the system.

The audio of the fireworks display was a pre-recorded playback that included music and choreographed speeches., in which each pyrotechnic equipment provided its own soundtrack. In addition, There were live performances by guest artists during the celebration. The audio team installed three players, one main and two backup, to avoid technical setbacks.

"The goal was to provide uniform coverage., Clean and intelligible to the entire audience, counteracting the noise of fireworks, says Briand.. It was an incredibly challenging project., but we carry 45 years organizing events in that scenario, so it's a familiar ground. The biggest challenge with this special event was managing the delay., but L-Acoustics' P1 processor helped us ensure that the audio distribution was synchronized and aligned over time.".

The companies chosen to participate in this event are considered the best in the field of pyrotechnics. The Chinese Hunan Liuyang Fireworks designed the pyrotechnic display for the opening night of the Beijing Olympics; The Australian Howard & Sons Pyrotechnics is the oldest in this environment, and the Portuguese Grupo Luso Pirotecnia has participated in prestigious European events, such as the Eurovision Song Contest and the Rock in Rio Music Contest in Lisbon, and winner of the event.

"The best of the genre was showcased that night and allowed us to analyze technological progress in pyrotechnics and discover new creative ideas for our upcoming shows.. We set up a world-class AV system that easily handled the challenging audience parameters and creative elements of the displays. The success of the evening was mainly due to the excellent distribution range and sound clarity of L-Acoustics", Briand concludes.

Other articles on Grupo Luso Pirotecnia, Howard & Sons Pyrotechnics, Hunan Liuyang Fireworks, L-Acoustics, Nuit des feux follets, Puy du Fou