"Studio 106 is one of our most important live studios that plays host to all kinds of live musical broadcasts from rock and roll to classical concerts and everything in between," explained studio chief Pascal Coulloux.
"A regular fixture at Studio 106 is the daily radio program on France Inter, Le Fou du Roi with French radio and TV personality Stéphane Bern, which takes a light-hearted look at current affairs, entertainment and politics. "The sound inside the studio is as important as the sound that is broadcast so we decided to invest in a live console of the highest calibre," continued Coulloux. "Although we already have several Innovason consoles throughout Radio France, and we are very happy with them, it is by no means an exclusive arrangement, so we tried out several consoles from brand leaders before we finally went for Eclipse."
The studio is a totally configurable space with moveable seating that can accommodate an audience of up to 150 people, a motorised ceiling which can be raised or lowered according to requirements, and moveable walls. "This allows us to adjust the acoustics of the room depending on how it is being used," said Coulloux. "It's a highly flexible, multipurpose space, and we needed a console that would reflect that in terms of set-up and configuration. Eclipse has proved to be the ideal choice."
The console is responsible for handling both monitors and FoH, running anything up to 10 monitor channels either on in-ear systems or traditional wedges depending on the requirements of the musicians. "It's not always straightforward running monitors and FoH from the same console, but Eclipse handles it with ease," remarked Coulloux.
"The SmartPanel function which allows you to configure and manage whole groups of faders on just one fader AND see exactly what is going on at any given moment is just fantastic. The internal effects are also superb, and of course the desk sounds amazing. It has made a huge difference to the audio quality within the studio and therefore to the quality of the audio that is broadcast as well."
(Jim Evans)
