NEXO Speakers for France Pavilion at World Expo Osaka 2025

With the ambition to design a future society for our lives, World Expo 2025 opened in Osaka on April 13th, returning to the Japanese city that first hosted a World Expo 55 years ago.

Spread across a vast 960-acre site on Yumeshima (Dream Island), over 160 countries are displaying their culture, crafts, and technologies — none more striking than the France Pavilion, operated by exhibition organisers Cofrex. Positioned right at the entrance, this eye-catching venue expects to welcome over 20,000 visitors a day throughout the next six months.

“If there were just one feeling associated with the French mindset, it would be love,” says French President Emmanuel Macron. At the Pavilion, visitors are invited to experience this through Pulsations — an immersive journey of eight art installations, guided by music and a steady heartbeat. Visual artist and Artistic Director Justine Emard, together with international designers GSM Project, has crafted this multisensory experience celebrating French creativity and excellence, supported by brands including LVMH, AXA, LES VINS D’ALSACE, and NINAPHARM.

At the heart of this experience is sound. Over 250 NEXO loudspeakers deliver specially composed music and sonic content developed by IRCAM, France’s leading sound research institute.

Compact GEO M line arrays welcome visitors at the entrance, while ID14 loudspeakers discreetly cover interior zones. Highlights include:

Aubusson tapestry installation with overhead NEXO ID14s creating unique wavefield synthesis.
AXA’s immersive cinema featuring NEXO P18s, L20 subs, and surround ID series speakers.
Louis Vuitton’s tribute room, where 85 trunks encircle Rodin’s La Cathédrale, with invisible NEXO ID14s recreating the mechanical rhythms of the workshops.
Dior’s elegant space, blending white-finished ID14s with couture displays.
An outdoor garden with NEXO’s ePS Outdoor speakers surrounding a 1,000-year-old olive tree.
Alsace wine cellars underground, powered by NEXO P8s and L15 subs.

The Pavilion’s final section takes visitors through an archipelago of islands, from Notre-Dame’s rebirth to Mont-Saint-Michel’s restored ecosystem and into the coral lands connecting France and Japan — all unified by NEXO’s ID and P+ Series systems to maintain a seamless sonic signature.

Amplification comes from 65 NEXO Powered TD Controllers, carefully pre-configured for this massive installation. Maxime Poirot, in charge of sound for Cofrex, praises the system: “The speakers proved to be ‘plug and play’ in the sense that once the speaker is installed in in the space, it already sounds particularly good. There are minimal adjustments required for the various locations as some reverberate more than others, and I received very good support from NEXO, even before my arrival on site.”

NEXO’s Engineering Support Director, François Deffarges, adds: “We started supporting the system design last September, through to tuning on-site with our NeMo App. Our team has been present from January through the opening.”

Pavilion Director Philippe Mille describes the collaboration: “This is a complex project with over 240 channels and high demands. NEXO not only met our expectations but supported us daily, on-site, with their engineers actively involved in installation and fine-tuning.”

Speaking in conclusion for NEXO, President Jean Mullor says “As a French company, manufacturing in France, we are proud that our products have been chosen to help represent to the world the best of French culture, craft and technology. And as part of the Yamaha group of companies, we are particularly proud that our speakers have been selected for this prestigious event in Japan, the home of Yamaha.”