Roland Garros – Stadium Audio Installation
When Court Philippe-Chatrier, the iconic centre stage of the French Open, was demolished and rebuilt from the ground up between the 2018 and 2019 tournaments, the stadium faced a critical challenge: how to provide top-tier audio for 15,000 tennis fans in the interim.
Recognised as one of Europe’s premier Danley hire stockists, Neuron’s Technical Director, Kyle Marriott, was approached by Etienne Bérard, director of DEMOA, with a bold request: to design a temporary audio solution that could match the world-class performances on the court.
The first hurdle? Convincing the stadium’s AV Consultant, Creaprag, that just two Danley speakers could deliver intelligible sound across the massive crowd’s wide coverage area. We arranged for a side-by-side demo in Paris at the end of 2018, pitting our Danley J3-94 Jericho Horns against a high-end line array. The result? The Danleys exceeded all expectations, proving that quality can outshine quantity.
As the 2019 tournament approached, we shipped a turnkey system to Paris, including the Danley J3-94s, Danley Thmini15 subwoofers, and Powersoft X4 amplifiers. Kyle flew in personally to oversee the installation and system tuning, ensuring that every seat in the house received crystal-clear audio throughout the stadium.
Thanks to this expertly crafted audio solution, the heart-pounding excitement of world-class tennis was matched by an equally impressive auditory experience, making the 2019 tournament one to remember.
We offered proof-of-concept with a demo up against a high-end line array. The Danley J3-94 Jericho Horn showed vastly better intelligibility across its output pattern and 15dB greater rejection at the back of the speaker (at 500Hz). The CREAPRAG consultant expressed to the tournament officials that he had never experienced such phenomenal intelligibility at such distances and in such an environment (it measured around 0.75 STI at 60 meters). We received a lot of enthusiastic comments about the sound quality and power from such a modest-looking system, the Danley subwoofers also made a good impression. They combined to deliver a surprising amount of bass for such a large venue.
