TOULOUSE, France — Over
the past 31 years, with acts that range from obscure to household names like
Coldplay and Indochine, Le Bikini has earned its reputation as one of France’s
best live music venues one show at a time. Driven by its goal to help the more
than 150 bands that perform at the club each year deliver the best concert
possible, Le Bikini recently upgraded its lighting with the acquisition of new
HARMAN Martin Professional MAC Quantum Profile LED fixtures.
Le Bikini is widely
regarded as a true beacon on the landscape of French culture. The venue is located
in Ramonville, near Toulouse, France and takes its name from a painting by the
artist Clovis Trouille called "Les filles en bikini" ("Girls in
bikinis”). It initially focused on club nights when it opened in 1983, but the
management’s commitment to stay ahead of new musical trends began to cement its
reputation as both a club and concert hall. Numerous artists, including Zebda,
Placebo, C2C and Laurent Garnier have made their debuts at Le Bikini, which has
become a key venue on both the national and international touring circuit.
"Today, our
primary motivation isn’t to run a nightclub but to host concerts,” said Fabrice
Sansonetto, Le Bikini’s Technical Director. “We welcome bands with open arms,
doing everything we can to make them feel at home, and to make them want to
come back."
One of the ways the
venue entices artists to return is the professional environment. In 2001, when Le
Bikini’s first home was destroyed by a fire, a new building was constructed
beside the Canal du Midi.
"We wanted to
reinstate the venue in a grander and more professional guise", said
Sansonetto. The concert hall now boasts a capacity of 1,500 guests.
For lighting, Le
Bikini uses a range of cutting edge fixtures, including the MAC Aura from
Martin Professional.
“Since touring
musicians rarely bring their own kit, it’s very important to have lighting that
is both up to date and easily adaptable to artists’ extremely diverse needs,"
said Sansonetto. “That enables us to use our own equipment to configure the
venue based on their technical specifications.”
Sansonetto decided to
update the equipment when he realized that the existing spotlights were no
longer able to meet these requirements. “We were considering another brand but
then lighting designer Lionel Collet told me that Martin had released a
state-of-the art fixture that surpassed the MAC 700 — The MAC Quantum Profile,"
he said.
That caught
Sansonetto’s attention. Based on the inclusion of the MAC 700 in almost all of
the specifications provided by bands that play at Le Bikini, he approached
DUSHOW Toulouse for an initial demo.
"I was won over
right from the very start and suddenly, the competitor’s product was obsolete
to us,” said Sansonetto. “Although the technology in this field is developing
at an extremely rapid pace, the MAC Quantum is on the verge of becoming
indispensable for future requests. I'm absolutely certain that from now on we
will be in possession of a professional tool that will meet our needs
perfectly. Whenever we ask bands what they think of the new fixture, they
unanimously tell us that it’s a superb choice.”
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As a world leader in
the creation of dynamic lighting solutions for the entertainment,
architectural, and commercial sectors, Martin lighting and video systems are
renowned the world over. Martin also offers a range of advanced lighting controllers
and media servers, as well as a complete line of smoke machines as a complement
to intelligent lighting. Martin operates the industry’s most complete and
capable distributor network with local partners in nearly 100 countries.
Founded in 1987 and based in Aarhus, Denmark, Martin is the lighting division
of global infotainment and audio company HARMAN International Industries. For
more information please visit:
www.martin.com.
HARMAN (www.harman.com)
designs, manufactures and markets premier audio, visual, infotainment and
enterprise automation solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional
markets. With leading brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®,
Lexicon®, Mark Levinson® and Revel®, the Company is admired by audiophiles, musicians
and the entertainment venues where they perform. More than 25 million
automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment
systems. HARMAN has a workforce of approximately 17,600 people across the
Americas, Europe, and Asia and reported sales of $5.9 billion during the last
12 months ended December 31, 2014.
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