Nestled in the heart of Paris's Montparnasse district, the Théâtre de la Gaîté-Montparnasse is a classic théâtre à l'italienne inaugurated in 1868. Its intimate horseshoe-shaped auditorium has served the spoken word for over 150 years. The existing side-mounted loudspeaker configuration, however, left the centre of the room acoustically underserved, creating noticeable imbalances in coverage and sonic image across the seating area.
To address this, Amadeus designed and deployed a new front-of-house system, developed in close collaboration with the theatre's technical team.
The main system is built around twelve Amadeus PMX 5 loudspeakers, flown in a regularly spaced configuration at the stage frame, ensuring consistent coverage across the full width of the auditorium. To complement the main array, two stereo pairs of Amadeus C12 loudspeakers are flown as auxiliary systems, serving a dual purpose: providing first-balcony delay reinforcement and acting as down-fills for the parterre. This secondary layer stabilizes the sonic image, extends the spectral response of the system, and maintains SPL headroom across the room. Three Amadeus C8 R loudspeakers complete the installation as stage monitors, alongside two Amadeus UDX 8 units for additional coverage tasks.
All loudspeakers are powered by a suite of Powersoft Quattrocanali amplifiers with onboard DSP, and the entire system operates over a Dante audio network, ensuring precise and recallable control across the show cycle.
This system is driven by the HOLOPHONIX Native App for macOS running on a Mac Mini and paired with a RME Digiface Dante. Using Wave Field Synthesis techniques across the frontal array, HOLOPHONIX enables sound sources to be positioned and animated within the stage picture with a localization precision that conventional stereo systems cannot achieve, aligning sonic events with visual ones and giving movement to sound within the frame of the performance.
As Joffrey Kles,Technical Director at the Théâtre de la Gaîté-Montparnasse, notes:
In the past, we had major issues with sound balance. With loudspeakers only on the sides, the middle of the room always felt like a hollow bowl. Now, no matter where you sit, the sound is the same. The artists are delighted, when they perform concerts here, they can clearly sense the before and after.
The introduction of HOLOPHONIX spatial processing has added an entirely new auditory layer, enhancing both clarity and immersion.
The spatialization makes listening not only immersive but also extremely pleasant,
Joffrey Kles observes.
These improvements have dramatically expanded the theater’s programming potential. Today, around half of the theatre's fifteen annual productions integrate spatial audio processing as part of their sonic design, spanning concerts, musicals, and children's performances.
By combining Amadeus acoustic engineering with HOLOPHONIX spatial processing, the Gaîté-Montparnasse has expanded its creative range while preserving the architectural intimacy that has defined it for over a century.
