No Subs Required for Installation at Sports Hall

A new NEXO P+ system has been installed in the Dijon Palais des Sports. The primary focus of the brief for a new sound system centred around a requirement for significant improvements in the intelligibility of match commentary.

Named after the former French international handball player, the Jean-Michel Geoffroy Sports Hall in the French city of Dijon was inaugurated on January 21, 1977. Home to the JDA Dijon Basket basketball and the Dijon Métropole Handball teams and known as the Palais des Sports, fans at the stadium have a reputation for being particularly knowledgeable, and also vociferous in their support, resulting in an often-noisy atmosphere in the 4000-seat arena.

The Dijon Palais des Sports is the home venue of the basketball team JDA Dijon Basket and the Dijon Métropole Handball team. Image: NEXO

Nicolas Gaillard, Audiovisual Project Manager for Burgundy-Franche-Comté at information and communications technologies specialists BVS worked in collaboration with NEXO Engineering Support to propose a system which could meet exacting performance criteria in what is a highly reverberant space.

Modelling performance using NEXO’s NS-1 configuration software, a system was designed using just 16 of the company’s latest P18 point source speakers. Deployed in active mode with processing and amplification from a rack of six 4-channel NEXO NXAMP4X4Mk2 Powered TD Controllers, P18s achieve a peak SPL of 142dB and a full frequency response of 50 Hz to 20 kHz, meaning no subs were required in the installation.

“The P18 brings a number of advantages to arena installations of this size” reports NEXO ES team member David Hochstenbach following final on-site tuning at the Palais.

The focus for the new sound system was on significantly improving the intelligibility of match commentary. Image: NEXO

“There’s no need for subs and it’s easier to get a consistent frequency response over the venue as distributed point sources are so much easier than line arrays to deal with. And rigging and cabling are also greatly simplified, further saving on cost.

At the Palais, a ring of 4 x P18s address the north, south, east and west stands from a location directly above the centre of the court, with additional pairs of P18s above the fronts of each stand. “This distributed design allows a reduction in distance between the source and listener” says David in conclusion, “which helps to achieve higher STI values”.

“The P18 is a unique product” comments NEXO’s French Sales Manager Jean-Jacques Vias. “At this price, no other speaker brings the same combination of high power and full bandwidth.” (stadiaworld, 20.11.2025)