Vidéotron Centre | Québec

Project description

There it’s done. Quebec has finally its amphitheater to be able to compete with the Bell Centre in Montreal. And no, despite this introduction, we are talking here of a multifunctional place for up to 20 000 spectators and not a competition between Bell and Videotron call centers. Videotron Centre is an amphitheater with a high-performance technology infrastructure and a multifunctional structural environment allowing it to easily change volume to adapt to different programs (music, sports, theater, television). Whether it’s technical premises, access to technical spaces above the ice, public circulation areas and reception areas of the spectators, all these volumes, and many more, have been thought to offer what is best in the entertainment and cultural industry.

Read the article published on the Le journal de Québec website (press article in French)

Our implication

The challenge of this project was enormous and, to soak up the philosophy and technological characteristics necessary for a multifunctional arena of this size, we visited various famous amphitheatres; Pittsburgh’s Consol Energy Center, Montreal’s Bell Centre and Saputo Stadium and Amsterdam’s ArenA. Our work started immediately upon completion of Technical and Functional Programme with responsibility, as a consultant in scenography and multimedia, to identify the needs of this new place. So we wrote prescriptions for a main PA system, the main scoreboard, the power rings display, a large rigging system and a video broadcast system.

We have faced several different types of challenges during the project; the technical ceiling and the motorization of different equipment above the technical grid, achieving a video production facility used as much for the scoreboard as for the broadcasters and integration of mechanical ventilation in the structure of the scoreboard. This ballet of integration and complementarity between the different types of equipment have increased the complexity of the design.