The 2011 edition saw over 270,000 revellers over the four-day duration, and 2012 was set to break all records with headline acts including Bob Dylan, Sting, The Cure, Portishead, LMFAO, Kasabian as well as many huge French artists such as Thomas Dutronc, Zebda, Orelsan, Amadou et Mariam and many others.
Console brand Innovason also had a strong presence at the festival in conjunction with Sombrero & Co who are specialists in live audio and video recording of major artists and events. Sombrero & Co were in action at Les Vieilles Charrues with no less than three consoles (one for each of the main stages) deployed to handle live audio recording, mix and streaming for both live TV and future documentaries and DVDs.
Each Eclipse was connected to a DioCore stagebox plus, in the case of the main stage and specifically for the performances of Sting and The Cure who required some 80 inputs each, a further Muxipaire stagebox which added another 24 microphone inputs to the 64 already provided by the DioCore. The onboard M.A.R.S. recorder of each Eclipse handled the recording of up to 64 pre-amps from each stage, with post-fader input recording handled by three MT-128s from VB Audio - interestingly, the same recorder that is inside the Eclipse - in order to keep an exact copy of the live mix destined for the TV channels. The signal from the stage to the console was transmitted via OptoCore over fibre optic.
Each stage was equipped with up to eight Solution D digital microphones from Neumann acting as ambient microphones, all directly controlled by the Eclipse consoles.
(Jim Evans)
