Lawo delivers professional audio for Bastille Day Concert de Paris

France’s National Day on 14th July is celebrated with numerous events throughout the nation. For the 12th edition of the ‘Concert de Paris’, Lawo with its IP audio infrastructure including mc²96 and mc²56 consoles, once again met the live sound and broadcast requirements of the French public broadcasters and the Eurovision network, delivering ”impeccable” audio quality to the large crowd on site and millions of listeners and viewers worldwide.

In the year of the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games, the traditional Concert de Paris took place on the forecourt of the Hôtel de Ville, featuring the arrival of the Olympic flame in the city and the lighting of a cauldron.

For the audio coverage of the Concert de Paris, Lawo's advanced audio infrastructure was handled by a crew of Radio France professionals. At the front-of-house (FOH) position, Nadège Antonini managed the orchestra mix and FOH output using a 48-fader mc²96 console, while Stéphane Thouvenin took charge of the soloists and choirs mix on a 32-fader mc²56.

Overseeing the overall production at FOH was Alice Legros, serving as the producer. Stage monitoring was managed by Stéphane Desmons and Charles Bouticourt. They operated a 32-fader mc²56 with a 16-fader extender in a two-operator configuration with two separate control surfaces, ensuring precise monitoring throughout the performance. The setup included a redundant pair of A__UHD Core audio engines shared among the three consoles, with a redundant RAVENNA network integrating FOH and stage. A central HOME management cluster connected, managed, and secured all aspects of this live production environment.

Radio France also utilised an OB truck equipped with a mc²66 MkII console to produce the audio clean feed for broadcast on French radio and TV, as well as the Eurovision feed. Laurent Fracchia was responsible for the broadcast mix in the OB truck (Régie 5), with Arnaud Moral ensuring seamless production as the producer.

The evening was broadcast live on France 2 and france.tv, and simulcast by EBU-Eurovision in over ten countries, making it one of the world's biggest classical music events. A large crowd gathered on the city hall square to attend the performances by the Orchestre National de France, the Chœur and Maîtrise de Radio France, conducted by Cristian Măcelaru, and the internationally renowned opera singers and soloists including Lang Lang (piano), Nadine Sierra (soprano), Pene Pati (tenor), Gaëlle Arquez (mezzo-soprano), Khatia Buniatishvili (piano), Fatma Said (soprano), Gautier Capuçon (cello), and Renaud Capuçon (violin), with a special participation of the duo Thibault Cauvin & -M- (guitars).

The concert concluded with the arrival of the Olympic Flame at the Parvis de l'Hôtel de Ville and the lighting of a cauldron, just before the traditional fireworks display from the Eiffel Tower and Trocadero gardens.

Like in the previous years, the event reached around three million viewers on France 2 and many more listeners on France Inter radio. It was broadcast live in many countries worldwide via the Euroradio and Eurovision networks.