Opening in 2019, Auréo is an aquatic centre combining several pools with a 515 m² "wellness area" featuring saunas, a jacuzzi, a salt grotto and a balneotherapy pool. The 2,300 m², €12.6 million complex is the only municipal swimming pool serving the area's nearly 15,000 residents, following the closure of Bayeux's previous pool a year earlier.
When it came to modernising the audiovisual system at the aquatic centre, the previous installation having failed to meet expectations, the town of Bayeux selected local systems integrator Music Light, a long-standing partner of Bayeux and APG. "We had already equipped various Bayeux sites with APG, so our customer had references and was already familiar with the quality of the products on offer," comments Gaëtan Potier, Managing Director of Music Light.
After conducting an acoustic and technical study, Music Light specified a total of 12 APG MC2C loudspeakers dedicated to the column installation for Auréo, which are installed in three zones: four loudspeakers in the leisure pool, six in the sports pool and two in the wellness area.
Music Light has been working with APG since 2010 (it was "love at first sight for my ears", jokes Potier) and the company was able to draw on past experience to tackle the most challenging aspect of the Auréo installation: the high ambient temperature and humidity presented by an indoor swimming pool. To solve this problem, "APG covered the housings with stainless steel fittings to prevent the products from deteriorating over the coming years," explains Potier. "We equipped an MC2 stadium a few years ago with the same process and to date, all the loudspeakers have worked perfectly without needing any maintenance."
Potier explains that he turned to the MC2 series both for its versatility, being perfectly suited to a wide range of installation applications, and its innovative design - which takes advantage of the Appolito principle to allow directivity control without the use of a horn, making it one of the best performing products in its class, particularly for voice applications and low-power distributed sound.
"MC2 loudspeakers are very well suited to a number of venues, including social, sports and cultural venues. The wide range of models makes these speakers perfect for every type of venue," comments Potier, "as does the ability to make them IP55, on a 100V line, with a bespoke RAL colour. Appolito's design provides listening comfort and great intelligibility in a wide range of uses - music and voice - whether coupled with a subwoofer or not.
Matthieu Barey, director of the Auréo Aquatic Centre, said that a recent 'aquacine' film event at the pool was a perfect demonstration of the strengths of the new sound system. "The director and his technician, who are used to open-air cinemas, were both pleasantly surprised by the sharpness and clarity of the sound and the power of the system," he comments.
This atypical venue is packed with new technologies, as Yael Laporte explains:
"Le Hasard Ludique wanted a sound system to match its investment in lighting - a truly exceptional and innovative ambition and objective for a venue of this size. In order to be at the cutting edge of technology, we deployed a 'full digital' configuration from the console to the amplifiers, using Dante cards integrated into the DA15:4 APG amplifiers.
Vincent Merlet, co-founder of Hasard Ludique and in charge of communications and privatisations, gives his views on the project:
"We put our trust in D6 Bell Light to provide us with their expertise as a service provider and installer. We're very satisfied with the support they've given us, and we chose APG because of the products' outstanding performance, the brand's know-how and the excellent value for money."
Le Hasard Ludique now uses four APG loudspeakers UC206W and two subwoofers TB215SThese alone are enough to provide the coverage and power needed for this concert hall.
Yael Laporte concludes:
"We work with a number of well-known brands, but APG's Uniline Compact's size, bulk and weight compared with its performance, coverage and exceptional stereo rendering make it a product without equal!"
