RCF vibe on Vibration Tour

Vibration Tour 2018, the summer tour of free concerts, was a success for Vibration Radio, a private French music radio station born in 1981. Four free concerts in the Center-Val de Loire region, provided an opportunity to bring together the artists of the moment, along with more than 72,000 people in the Center-Val de Loire region: Tours, Blois, Le Mans, Orléans, and Châteauroux. Different cities, different atmospheres, different artists such as Amir, Bob Sinclar, Boostee, Tal, Emmanuel Moire, Dadju, Kendji Girac, Soprano, Jeremy Frerot, Joyce Jonathan, Boulevard des Airs, Kungs and many others.

Vibration renewed its trust in XCPH Organization, the event company behind the tour, who were in charge of the whole management and technical production. With 30 years of experience, a vast fleet of trucks and 2000 square meters of warehouses full of first-class equipment, XCPH is not a traditional rental company.

“I have worked with RCF France since the beginning of this project, more than four years ago, and the choice of RCF was rather obvious. XPC is primarily an event company, so it does not have to answer to technical riders as a classical rental company; we can make our own choices based on our needs,” states Nicolas Fournier, technical director of XCPH Organization “I needed an excellent sound system, with effective networked control and a practical rigging system that only RCF could provide … not to mention the unbeatable price versus quality ratio.”

The touring package comprised two clusters of 12 HDL 30-A, 10 SUB 9006-AS in different configurations depending on location - cardioid mode or end-fire (which allows the bass to be opened a little more on the outside and projected in front), two delays with four HDL 30-A, four HDL 6-A as front-fills and two outfills with TT5-A. This was all managed through the CR16 (CONTROL8 and DX1616 matrix).

Behind the mixer we found Greg, front-of-house engineer who drove the sound system on RDNet and mixed the concert on a Yamaha CL5 console, assisted by Nico.b. On the monitoring side on stage, managed by Julien.S, there were 10 NX 15 SMA wedges and two 4PRO as side fills. All were mixed by Nicolas F. from a Yamaha TF5.

“We had 41 artists on stage. Some performances were live, others on BPO (playback orchestrated) sent from the control room,” Fournier continues. “In Blois, there was the smallest audience of 13,000 people and up to 45,000 people in Orléans. Having designed the system for a maximum of 20,000 people, the coverage of the system was perfect in all the concerts but one. Orléans had an impressive attendance we couldn’t have expected at a free concert, and our design was a bit small to reach the whole of that remarkable crowd.”

I needed an excellent sound system, with effective networked control and a practical rigging system that only rcf could provide