Paris (France) – On 15th April 2019, an icon of history and faith was engulfed in flames, destroying its spire and roof and causing significant damage to the cathedral's altar, pipe organs, 13th-century rose windows and many religious relics. Five years later, on 7th December 2024, after what is described as one of the most ambitious and extensive house of worship reconstruction projects in modern history, the Notre-Dame de Paris officially reopened.
Appointed as the lead integrator for this momentous job, Novelty Paris handled the vast majority of the integration work, seeking critical support from its sister company De Préférence for fine-tuning and acoustic optimization, and the wider Groupe Novelty companies to undertake the challenge of equipping the religious monument with a sophisticated and fully integrated audiovisual infrastructure. The project incorporated sound system installation, live audio recording and video delivery, as well as remote video production capabilities for KTO, the French language Catholic television channel to broadcast the reopening as well as the subsequent religious services.
One of the project leads for this installation was David Créteur from Novelty Paris. To ensure a futureproof integration work, Novelty Paris requested from the onset an increased capacity for optic fibre to be used for the cabling infrastructure. A full-fibre infrastructure was deployed throughout the cathedral, enabling seamless management for technicians and external service providers, alongside a dual spine-leaf network topology that supports both audio and visual workflows and utilizes industry-standard protocols, including Milan-AVB (audio video bridging), Dante and NDI (network device interface) for synchronized, low-latency transmission.
In such a historic venue, custom and non-invasive mounting solutions were paramount considerations to preserve the remains of the original, iconic house of worship. Positioning of all the AV equipment was arguably the most challenging part of this highly ambitious integration, due to the restrictions imposed by the architecture.
Speaker placement was optimized using precise altimetry, angling and rotation, with discrete locksmithing to support 128 color-matching L-Acoustics speakers including KIVA in the main area and above the choir stalls, alongside a combination of 2-way passive 5” SYVA and 3.5” SOKA column speakers, coupled with 2-way passive 5XT and X4i boxes.
Most of the sound distribution is amplified by six 19” racks situated in the grandstands, with an additional rack located in a chapel on the ground floor dedicated to the technical room. The LA-2Xi and LA7-16i models were chosen for their channel density and native Milan-AVB compatibility. DiGiCo mic preamps have also been installed in the grandstand racks to relay audio ambiences and organs, as well as inside the two credenzas at the choir for all stage mics (20 Schoeps CCM4s and a Sennheiser MEB-114 SW at the altar), for the spoken voices and the Maîtrise de Notre Dame, as well as for additional live equipment.
With this installation, Novelty Paris not only addressed the acoustic requirements of a world-renowned religious venue but also cemented the groundwork for a next-generation digitally connected place of worship. “This integration was as much about discretion and precision as it was about performance,” confirms Créteur. “Working within a site as iconic and architecturally complex as Notre-Dame required custom engineering and solutions that respected its heritage while delivering high-quality, advanced technology.”
The resurrection of the Notre-Dame made way for the world’s first installation of Sennheiser’s Spectera, the first wideband bidirectional digital wireless system for live audio production. The Novelty integration team appreciated the qualitative and speed of the new Spectera, offering simplified management of microphones, IEM/IFB signals and control data on a single RF canal, allowing to optimize space and reduce installation time.
The broadcasting integration consists in eight Panasonic AW-UE150 cameras, coupled with three extra cameras for content feedback and onsite streaming. A Panasonic 4K AV-UHS500 live switcher with a Blackmagic Design ATEM 4 M/E Constellation 4K switcher for remote live production were chosen to enhance and feed the live stream to KTO’s HQ situated in the outskirts of Paris. Ten 43” NEC screens are standing behind pillars thought out the nave to allow guests to follow the ceremony.
Upon completion of the renovations to Notre-Dame, Groupe Novelty were also tasked with delivering the entire AV equipment for the grand reopening, attended by the world’s dignitaries and broadcast worldwide.
Having supplied equipment for several previous video mapping events at the cathedral over the years, along with a series of permanent audio installations over four decades, Groupe Novelty handled the full audiovisual setup through its subsidiaries Alabama Média, De Préférence, Dushow TV, Magnum, Magnum Power, Novelty and On Stage. The setup included projection mapping on the cathedral’s façade, power distribution, lighting, broadcast and staging for this project of monumental importance. For this historic moment, Groupe Novelty also deployed a vast 1,400m² marquee in the square facing the Cathedral.
After three weeks of installation for the re-inauguration, two days of operation and 24 articulated lorries of AV equipment, the reopening ceremony began with the ringing of the cathedral’s bells for the first time since 2019. Laurent Ulrich, archbishop of Paris, then struck one of the closed doors three times with his crosier, which had been made from a roof beam that had survived the fire, with the façade lighting up in gold each time he did so. The cathedral choir responded by singing and when the doors were opened upon the third strike, French president Emmanuel Macron entered the nave of the cathedral, where guests were already sat.
“We were approached by Publicis Live, who were overseeing the whole project, to go through the options at our disposal and their feasibility,” recalls Gérald Bouché, operational sales director at Novelty and Groupe Novelty’s project lead for this reopening project. “The first request was to highlight the cathedral; we studied the plans and started elaborating on various ideas. The Paris 2024 Olympics were also in the picture, so by the time we could get 100% focused on the project, we were already in October.
“We knew that event of this scale would require an extremely varied number of expertise, and that collaboration would be paramount to the effective management and overall success of this project. With hundreds of millions of eyes globally turning to Paris for the re-inauguration, we knew Groupe Novelty was perfectly equipped to deliver a show that would make world history.”
One particularly poignant section included projected words of thank you in various languages to pay tribute to the 160 firefighters who helped save Notre-Dame from the engulfing fire, as well as the many artisans from France and abroad who helped restore the 13th-century Roman edifice, a refuge for Victor Hugo’s Quasimodo in his The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.
Handled by sister company Dushow TV, the lighting played a major role in enhancing the grandeur of this historic ceremony. Over 200 lighting fixtures from Martin, Elation and Robe, with eight Viper 2.6 fog machines and eight AF-1 effects fans, were installed inside the marquee and another 200 Astera, Martin, Robe and ARRI units were positioned inside the cathedral. Lighting in each area was controlled using an MA Lighting grandMA3.
For the many spectators outside the cathedral, the team set up trailer-mounted screens and sound along the River Seine. Power distribution was also an important challenge, and in order to minimise cabling on site, Magnum and Magnum Power decided to host seven power generators on a barge on the river Seine which runs next to the cathedral, providing uninterrupted electricity for all equipment during the reopening show.
Jacques de La Guillonnière, founding president of Groupe Novelty, concluded:
“We are especially proud to have had the opportunity to contribute to the rebirth of Notre-Dame de Paris. This project, with its immense scope, ranks among the most prestigious we have had the privilege to deliver. It stands as a remarkable demonstration of the complementarity between our companies and the synergy within our group, drawing on individual areas of expertise to successfully carry out a project of such complexity.”
Photo Credit: Hugues de Beauschesne
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