Despite competition from multiplex cinemas, home theaters and every conceivable form of sporting event, there is still considerable interest in watching humans in live onstage performance, whether in drama, musicals, concerts, dance or opera. And smaller and mid-sized venues seem to be doing well, especially as artists once strictly relegated to arenas are now turning to more “intimate” spaces.
These days, audiences expect — and demand — a first-class audio experience where intelligibility and musicality are just as important as rock ‘n’ roll SPLs. With than in mind, we present a look at some recent installation projects — that reflect the current state of the art in theater and performing arts venues.
Karlín Musical Theatre, Prague, Czech Republic
Located in Prague’s Karlín district, the 921-seat Karlín Musical Theatre is considered the most beautiful theater in the Czech capital. Famous for staging of musical productions and operettas, the majority of its shows are musicals.
The venue has been steadily upgrading its audio capabilities, starting with a DiGiCo Quantum 7T console in 2022, followed by 2023’s addition of an L-Acoustics L-ISA immersive system driven by 188 loudspeakers (including nine frontal hangs of ARCS 10 speakers) and eight 16-channel LA7.16 amplifiers providing 166 kW of power.
To enhance its audience experience, the venue continues to upgrade its AV technology, most recently adding Naostage’s K System automatic and beaconless tracking solution (naostage.com). “The next logical step was to track the actors on stage, so the corresponding audio objects move seamlessly with them, allowing the audience to hear the vocals naturally from the direction of the actors,” says Petr Šťásek, technical consultant at Pro Music, Naostage’s distributor for Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Before the install, the team tested the system at Pro Music’s local UFFO theatre in Trutnov, also equipped with a similar spatial audio system. Šťásek, who first heard about Naostage at ISE 2024, felt the K SYSTEM was the most suitable and reliable tracking solution, due to its unique computer vision and AI technology. Supported by RF beacon identification, the setup provides precise and seamless tracking of the actors.
The venue wanted to be able to track at least 16 actors at the same time, as accurately as possible during a single show. “It’s a very challenging environment,” explains Šťásek. “Each show brings more complexity, with numerous decorations on stage and actors wearing elaborate costumes.”
At Karlín, the tech team installed one powerful AI processing server, Kore, to track up to 16 performers from a single box; Kratos, the software that controls the entire system; and two KAPTA visual sensors, made up of multi-spectral cameras, rigged above the stage area that scan the space in 3D and in real-time.
“Using the L-ISA audio system, each audio object, such as microphone, instrument and effect, was supplemented with parameters for panorama, depth, width and auxiliary send,” explains Šťásek. “This configuration determines the precise location and manner in which each sound is heard by the audience.”
The K System provides precise positioning data in XYZ coordinates, which are translated into panorama and depth information for individually tracked actors. Their voices, captured by wireless microphones, are transmitted to a spatialized sound system, allowing convergence of sound and image.
“This makes the performance sound much more natural, as the audience can hear exactly who is singing because the human brain naturally localizes the sound source,” says Šťásek. He adds that the setup benefits the majority of the audience and not only those sitting in the center sweet spot, “unlike traditional stereo setups where the voice may seem to come from off-stage.”
Karlín Musical Theatre
- Capacity: 921
- Key Components: Naostage K SYSTEM
- Designer: Petr Šťásek
- Integrator: Pro Music
Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, Saint Paul, MN
In its smaller Music Theater and main Concert Hall, the Ordway Center serves 400,000 people annually with nearly 500 performances, ranging from orchestral music to spoken word to rock, jazz and world music. The 1,100-seat main hall features dampeners that allow acoustic flexibility, but since it is designed for acoustic music with a 1.8-second reverb time, the space presents challenges for managing amplified music.
“Many acoustic venues have low-frequency deployment issues,” says the Ordway Concert Hall’s head audio engineer Collin Sherraden. “In essence, it’s designed to amplify the low-end coming off the stage, so control was a huge consideration. There’s a lot of volume in this room, and half of it you don’t even see — above the ceiling, the catwalk space and other infrastructure space above that,” he explains. “We gave serious consideration to what we are doing with the space above the arrays because there’s 40 feet of air.”
When it came time to upgrade the hall’s Meyer CQ Series system — originally installed in 1985 — the team sought a low-profile system that minimized visual interference yet would support a broad range of programming.
Meyer Sound’s Brian Bolly, working closely with Sherraden, designed a system centered around Meyer Sound LINA very compact linear array loudspeakers, 2100 LFC low-frequency control elements and ULTRA-X20/22 compact point-source speakers. TC Furlong, founder of TC Furlong Inc., set up an onsite demo system. After just a few listens, the Ordway team was convinced. “Even just with preliminary tuning, we all knew this is the one,” said the Ordway’s Andy Luft.”
The new system comprises dual arrays of 16 LINAs, supported by three 2100-LFC low-frequency control elements suspended in a forward / rear / forward-facing gradient array and 12 ULTRA-X20/22 fills. Everything is managed by a Meyer Galileo Galaxy network platform. “The three-sub array is great because now we can steer low-end, at least to a point,” says Sherraden.
The fills brought cohesive coverage to mezzanine and under-balcony areas that had previously felt sonically disconnected. “They did an excellent job of making it feel like you weren’t out of the P.A.,” says Furlong.
The full system is deployed as needed for high-SPL applications; a left/right pair of Ultra-X20 loudspeakers set atop 750-LFC control elements supports performances without high-SPL requirements.
Because the system is modular and temporary, ease of deployment is essential. “Things like how many people does it take to install, how long will that take, and where the system is stored, are all huge factors because they drive costs,” Luft says.
And, adds Sherraden, it’s now easier to dial in an optimal sound. “The system reacts so cleanly. I can make small, pinpointed changes and get the reaction out of the system that I want, which is great.”
“My hope when we built the place was always that we could promote this facility as a destination facility,” says Luft. “Now, we have a modern-looking, modern-sounding sound system. To have a system like this, in tandem with the recording facilities that serve the Concert Hall, will go a long way to help bring more activity into the space.”
“Getting the system into a theater setting like this was great because they sound much bigger than they are. They have a lot of output for a box that’s so small,” says Furlong, adding that the versatile and rider-friendly system “checks all the boxes for everybody who comes in that room.”
Ordway Center Concert Hall
- Capacity: 1,100
- Key Components: Meyer Sound LINA system
- Designers: Brian Bolly (Meyer), Collin Sherraden (Ordway)
- Integrator: TC Furlong Inc.
The Palladium, Carmel, IN
The nonprofit Center for the Performing Arts’ campus in Carmel, IN, comprises the 1,500-seat Palladium concert hall, the 500-seat Tarkington theater and the black-box Studio Theater, presenting hundreds of events each year.
Debuting in 2011, the elegant Palladium hall features interior architecture designed to optimize acoustic classical music with a minimum of electronic amplification. To handle a wider range of performances, from spoken word and chamber music to rock, pop and country bands with drums, amplified instruments and higher stage volume levels, The Palladium recently upgraded its audio system. The winning proposal coming from two Greenfield, IN-based companies that are leaders in audio technology, Force.Tech and Mid-America Sound. Their design was based on an acoustic analysis conducted by Carmel-based Haverstick Designs, which included the use of LiDAR technology to create a 3-dimensional digital model of the interior surfaces.
“In a sense, the Palladium is finally complete,” said Jeffrey C. McDermott, the Center’s president and CEO. “The technology has advanced so far since our opening that we were growing concerned about our ability to attract top artists. Now we’re heading into our new ‘Center Presents’ season with the latest sound technology to complement the room’s natural acoustics and deliver the kind of experience that today’s artists and audiences expect.”
Installation of the key components took place in July 2024. Most notable are the two L-Acoustics K3 dual-12”, 2-way active line array hangs, each with 12 speakers for better coverage throughout the room. Other L-Acoustics components include two KS21 21” subwoofers on either side of the stage for bass reproduction and new A10i and X8 fill speakers that supplement the sound in areas not fully covered by the main speakers.
The AVL renovation, including both the rider-ready L-Acoustics system, acoustical treatment updates and a new state of the art lighting rig — at a combined cost of approximately $1.5 million — was paid from the city’s 2021 tax increment financing bond issue.
The Palladium
- Capacity: 1,500
- Key Components: L-Acoustics K3 System
- Designer: Force.Tech and Mid-America Sound
Kani City Cultural Creation Center, Kani, Japan
The 1,019-seat Kani City Cultural Creation Center was built to present civic activities, including large-scale performances. Designed primarily for live theatrical productions, the main theater in the complex has a short reverberation time of about 1.6 seconds.
In early 2024, the venue hosted an event combining onstage dancers with an orchestra seated in a pit at the front of the stage that was raised from the pit floor to stage level at different times in the performance.
The event challenged the venue staff to find a way to enhance the experience for the audience as the theater’s acoustic reflectors and additional curtain decorations used in the performance would significantly absorb the sound and not provide a rich, immersive atmosphere. The acoustic and audio engineers saw this as an opportunity to elevate the audio experience for the audience, so they reached out to Yamaha to use its Active Field Control (AFC) immersive audio system, which transfers audio over a Dante network.
“As the theater’s permanent audio equipment is fully Dante-compatible — from the Yamaha digital mixers to the power amplifiers — we were able to make the decision to give AFC a try,” says Kani City Cultural Creation Center sound engineer Hayato Ikeda.
The AFC system has two modes: AFC Enhance uses multiple mics and speakers to flexibly control the ambience of a space while making use of the environment’s distinctive architectural ambience; and AFC Image, that lets users adjust the perceived positions of sound within a space, supporting up to 128 object-based channels of immersive sound.
For AFC Enhance, two rows of four mics were hung from the ceiling to collect the natural sound in the theater, and Ikeda used that sound to process and create a consistent resonance throughout the room — regardless of the orchestra pit position. For AFC Image, 37 mics were set up in the orchestra pit, and seven boundary mics were mounted onstage for the dancers. The mics in the pit were mainly targeted at string instruments and reinforced the parts of the performance where of string instruments have difficulty reaching the audience when the orchestra pit is lowered.
The mic inputs were passed to a Yamaha QL5 digital mixer for EQ before being sent to the AFC engine for spatial processing before being amplified through 37 NEXO speakers (mostly 12” 2-way GEO S1210 and S1230 models) installed throughout the theater.
The effect of the spatial audio experience delivered during the performance was transformative and very natural sounding — so natural that when Ikeda turned off AFC Enhance during practices, it felt “strange.” Additionally, there were no complaints from either the musicians or the maestro, who were very strict about sound quality, which was an endorsement of its own.
Kani City Cultural Creation Center
- Capacity: 1,019
- Key Components: Yamaha AFC (Active Field Control), NEXO S1230 Speakers
- Designer: Yamaha Pro Audio
The Atlantis, Washington, DC
The newest addition to I.M.P.’s iconic D.C. venue portfolio — which includes The Lincoln Theatre, The Anthem and Merriweather Post Pavilion) — The Atlantis opened to mark the 44th anniversary of the concert promoter’s original legendary 9:30 Club. The new venue replicates as many details as possible from the original, while still providing the powerful sound I.M.P.’s venues are renowned for. The solution came as d&b audiotechnik’s A-Series Augmented Array and SL-Series subwoofers. The Atlantis launched with 44 intimate performances featuring high-profile acts such as the Foo Fighters, Parliament-Funkadelic, Maggie Rogers and members of Wilco and Death Cab for Cutie — among others.
The Atlantis is designed to provide a nostalgic ambience, while simultaneously delighting fans with a powerful and modern live music experience through the use of d&b audiotechnik loudspeakers.
“There was no question that I.M.P. wanted a d&b solution for the venue, as they rely on the brand for the sound reinforcement in all of their event spaces,” commented Owen Orzack of Eighth Day Sound, who played a crucial role in the sound system integration. “But due to the venue’s small size and I.M.P.’s strict adherence to the non-optimal layout of the original club (a corner stage in a rectangular room), neither a line array nor a point-source system was suitable for the space.”
“We opted for d&b’s newly released A-Series, which is as an augmented array, a hybrid of the two that has the best qualities of both,” continued Orzack. “We chose the A-Series because its variable splay angles and Mid-Range Directivity Control enabled us to angle the sound and disperse it evenly, despite the challenges of the space. Its 90° vertical dispersion also allowed us to cover the club floor and balconies with just one hang. We’re now big fans of the A-Series, because of how easy and intuitive it was to correct for the room’s challenges.” continued I.M.P.’s Drew Kot.
Kot also shared that the choice of d&b SL-GSUB Subwoofers was similarly driven by the room’s constraints. “The subwoofers needed to be placed under a corner stage in a small space, which isn’t optimal. The SL-GSUB’s incredible rear rejection was crucial, in eliminating stage rattling and excessive boominess for the performers.” Kot further highlighted the impact of the subwoofers: “Everyone who comes into The Atlantis first comments on the amazing bass, which is remarkable because we only installed two SL subwoofers under the stage.”
“My favorite part of those [inaugural] 44 shows was getting to hear the new room and the d&b audiotechnik A-Series put through its paces by all the varying acts,” shared Jordan Grobe of I.M.P., but it was daunting to start immediately with a rapid series of such high-profile events. “Initially, I was concerned about having only six small boxes in the air and four side fills for the whole room. Some big-name FOH engineers were also hesitant when they saw the P.A., but those eight boxes really surprised us. By soundcheck, everyone was confident in the A-Series. The d&b A-Series performs powerfully and crystal-clear, night after night without a hitch,” Kot added.
The Atlantis
- Capacity: 450
- Key Components: d&b audiotechnik A-Series
- Designer: Owen Orzack
- Integrator: Clair Global / Eighth Day Sound
Théâtre de la Ville, Paris, France
Having featured Sarah Bernhardt on its stages for almost two decades, and staging the very first play by Sartre, Théâtre de la Ville has earned its place as one of the world’s most prestigious venues. Over its 150-year history, the venue has staged all manner of productions and today is known for its offering of modern dance, theater and world music.
Following a major seven-year refurbishment designed to equip the 19th century building with 21st century innovation, Théâtre de la Ville has again placed itself on the edge of technology, now able to offer L-ISA immersive experiences to audiences.
The venue — in collaboration with L-Acoustics Certified Partner BLive, a long-time technology partner and friend of the theater – embarked on a number of visits to immersive system demos. With optimal audio capabilities being the primary goal, other crucial considerations were weight restrictions and placement limitations due to the historical architecture and a need for versatility to address the hugely eclectic range of productions.
After careful deliberation, Théâtre de la Ville concluded that L-Acoustics L-ISA technology was the perfect fit, landing on a 20.1. Scene System of five hangs of two SB15m over eight Kiva II with a center-flown cluster of six KS21 subwoofers. Thirteen X8 hung around the sides of the venue, balcony edge and ceiling provide surround sound to the parterre while 17 further 5XT speakers nestled in the walls provide surround sound to the under-balcony seats. “The full surround configuration provides exceptional sound quality without compromising any of the space’s aesthetic splendor,” commented Alexandre Tramontin of BLive, who lead a team of engineers and experts throughout the specification and installation process.
Five LA7.16i amplified controllers were specified for their low energy consumption and high channel count, which allowed for fewer rack space and less cabling.
Théâtre de la Ville has reinforced its position as one of the globe’s most prodigious and pioneering spaces, combining the historic with the contemporary in a way that’s set to delight visitors and performers alike for generations to come.
Théâtre de la Ville sound manager Benoit Goupillon concludes: “We are very happy with the support from L-Acoustics on this project. They proposed a relevant and elegant solution, in the face of significant technical and artistic constraints. After several months of intensive use, we are proud to have this system, which in our opinion presents a major evolution in the quality of sound reinforcement for shows, with subtlety and efficiency.”
Théâtre de la Ville
- Capacity: 901
- Key Components: L-Acoustics L-ISA System
- Integrator: BLive
