Eclipse dazzles at the Hôtel de Ville, Paris

March 2011

Innovason console selected for Paris’s historic city hall

Paris’s first dedicated city hall was built in 1553 by King Francis I. Destroyed by fire some 300 years later, construction of the current neo-renaissance building began in 1873 and the Hotel de Ville was officially inaugurated nine years later. An historic Parisien landmark, the Hotel de Ville is as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside. As well as housing all of the administration for the city of Paris - the Hotel de Ville has been the location of the municipality of Paris since 1357 – it is also one of Paris’s most important cultural venues. It is the headquarters for all Parisien “associations” (non-profit social, cultural and sporting organizations) and hosts numerous public meetings and receptions. When the time came to replace the mixing console in the Hotel de Ville’s grandest reception room, the aptly named “Salle des Fetes”, technical director Dominique Dunesme selected an Eclipse digital console from Innovason.

“We host between 400 – 600 events per year,” he explained. “That’s an average of about three or four per week, and it can be anything from fashion shows to conferences and conventions to theatre and of course musical concerts of every genre. Our old console had simply run out of resources and needed to be replaced. The question, of course, was by what?”

After many months of painstaking research and demos, Dunesme finally opted for an Eclipse from Innovason. “It was the only console that ticked all the boxes,” he confirmed. “Ergonomically it suited us perfectly – it is pretty compact, yet still has all the inputs and functionality we require. It’s extremely easy to transport to another room when necessary – it fits onto a custom dolly and off we go, and you don’t need to be Hercules to lift it.”

Dunesme was also impressed from a user’s point of view. “We have a lot of visiting engineers, so it needed to be easy to use. The fact that Eclipse is totally configurable is a real bonus. If we can get the configuration in advance, all we do is set up the console to the engineer’s specifications, so that he has everything exactly where he wants, and he is up and running in no time. There is no scrolling through pages searching for things – everything is always right at your fingertips.”

“I looked at all of the digital consoles of that size, but there was no doubt that for me, the Eclipse offered by far the best value in terms of price to performance/features ratio. I wanted EtherSound compatibility for networking purposes: I got it. I wanted total flexibility: I got it. I wanted something that was powerful yet compact: I got it. And finally, I wanted excellent technical and after-sales support, and I’ve got that too. Everyone I’ve dealt with at Innovason has been fantastic and it’s been an incredibly smooth ride. In short, I’m delighted with my choice and can’t recommend it highly enough!”