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First DiGiCo Quantum 852 in France deployed for secret event on top of Terminal One, Paris Airport

A secret event took place on the roof of the Terminal One Building, Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport, on July 17, 2024. It was planned as part of the Olympic Celebrations and live streamed via Amazon Music’s Twitch channel. The entire proceedings, from set-up to pack-down, were also recorded for a feature film to be aired later in the year.

Tristan Mazire, sound engineer, product specialist at DiGiCo and co-owner of Paris-based consultancy company The Audio Agency, captured the whole event live, whilst mixing for the live stream and the roof-top audience of 2,000. The specially created audience areas were filled with a mixture of invited guests and Parisians who had won the chance to be there on the night via an event ticket lottery. There were live performances from Phoenix, Air and Zaho de Sagazan, plus DJ sets from Etienne de Crecy and Inès Mélia.

“The original plan was to use two DiGiCo Quantum 338s in Mirror Mode, but French partners MPM: Audio, Lighting, Video had just taken delivery of a brand-new Quantum 852”, says Mazire. “Because of the longstanding relationship between our companies, they were willing to let me do something a little bit crazy with it.” Much of the equipment was manually taken to the roof, but with the larger items, including the Quantum 852, a helicopter was employed to lower equipment into place.

Once in position, the Quantum 852 allowed two engineers to work side by side if needed, which was essential because the show ran for three hours, broadcasting constantly, without breaks. “The plan was to have multiple cameras, with live vision mixing, and to stay broadcasting the entire time”, says Mazire. “We had lots of surprises planned, but everything happened live, except some recorded footage at the beginning and end of the evening.”

Mazire’s system was designed with built-in redundancy to ensure nothing interrupted the broadcast or recording. The Quantum 852 utilised its two engines, and the Orange Box and SD Racks were run in a loop, with dual power supplies, plus analogue and digital outputs, so Mazire was certain the signal would get through, whatever happened on the night. “Because of the type of event, I couldn’t have a single point of failure”, he says. “It was a lot of responsibility and because of the location, everything had to be as small as possible, there was no OB truck, no fixed gallery, everything was all in flight cases and manoeuvrable, so nothing was ever in shot that didn’t have to be.”

Mazire designed the entire signal path around DiGiCo products. “When I first started, around twenty years ago, I would have to use many different brands to complete a system design like this”, he says. “You had to trust that everything would work together, that there were no firmware issues, or compatibility problems. Now, thanks to DiGiCo’s range, I can be confident that my set up will work straightaway.”

Wherever possible, Mazire used small, multi-purpose units, with minimal cable runs to ensure the sound equipment was as hidden as possible and not likely to trip up any of the camera or drone operators capturing the performances.

(Photos: Tristan Mazire/DiGiCo)

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