Situated in the heart of Sweden’s capital, Stockholm Stadsteatern (City Theatre) is a major centre for the country’s performing arts.
The statistics of Stadsteatern make impressive reading. The complex has eight separate performance spaces - seven in-house and another a short distance away. It puts on around 40 performances per week to a yearly audience of half a million. It also stages an average of 35 new productions per year and employs over a dozen full-time sound engineers, plus several multi-skilled engineers who work with the sound department.
Stadsteatern productions range from dramas (a recent example ‘Dreamplay’ followed its Stockholm run with a world tour) to musicals, Shakespeare, dance productions, puppet theatre, short plays and shows designed specifically for audiences eating at the theatre’s cafe in their lunch break (dubbed ‘soup theatre’) and even ‘Babydrama’ for infants between 6 and 12 months old.
With such a wide diversity and large turnover of productions, Stadsteatern needs a sound reinforcement system that is extremely versatile. So it’s no wonder that Yamaha audio equipment was chosen as the ideal solution.
Since 2001, the venues have seen the seven ‘in house’ venues progressively installed with 14 Yamaha DME32 digital mixing engines, 36 PC4800N, 30 PC4801N, 16 PC9500N and 11 PC9501N amplifiers and seven Yamaha mixing consoles (two DM2000, four DM1000 and one 02R96V2).
In 2005 the ‘satellite’ hall at Skärholmen, 10 minutes from the city centre, was opened and the opportunity was taken to equip the hall with Yamaha equipment and also upgrade parts of the existing installation. Thus three DME24N and two DME64N have been added to the systems.
Ola Hellmark, manager of the Stadsteatern sound & video department, explains why Yamaha equipment has become so integral to the complex:
“Yamaha offered a combination of high service level, long guarantees and excellent sound quality,” he says. “We also considered electrical & mechanical stability, CMRR, sound levels from equipment fans and the possibilities of remote monitoring/controlling when we tested amplifier candidates. Yamaha’s pricing was also very competitive.”
The Digital Mixing Engines are absolutely integral to the Stadsteatern systems. Ola explains more about their use: “The large number of outputs is an enormous benefit,” he says.
“First, we need the same output options as a regular PA for live applications - multiple FOH outputs, monitor outputs for musicians/actors/singers, etc. On top of that requirement, we use various speakers on stage for directivity dependent sound effects and sounds that literally have to come from a distance.
“Finally, the surround system in the largest halls isn't about 5:1 or 6:1. There are many speakers, either fed individually or paired. If you want to give the audience the convincing audible illusion of a plane flying across the hall, it requires a high quality mixing engine, lots of speakers, time for programming and a qualified sound engineer. The DME processor is versatile, reliable and surprisingly easy to programme.”v
He continues: “The DME processors have what we call ‘Kinder egg characteristics’ - they are a patch, a powerful DSP tool and a speaker processor all at the same time. They are installed in all our halls, which makes it easier for the sound engineers to work in the different locations. It also gives the opportunity to have spare devices ‘on the shelf’ that suit all halls.”
Here he pauses, adding with a grin: “That’s a typical expression from the country which produced IKEA!”
One of the unique characteristics of Stadsteatern is that, based on a show's success and popularity, it might be moved from one hall to another. The Yamaha DMEs allow data to be easily transferred from one hall to another and even productions with a complex surround audio setup can be moved with surprisingly little effort.
As well as the benefits of the DMEs, Ola recognises the value of having an integrated system of products from the same manufacturer.
“A great advantage with a Yamaha family comprising mixing consoles and DME processors is the common mini-YGDAI slots on the rear panels,” he says. “This means that a system can easily be scaled up or down and it makes it so much easier to move equipment between locations without, for example, worrying about whether you need AES/EBU or ADAT connectors. We also use the Aviom Pro16 Monitor Mixing System, and it's really simple to connect it, thanks to the slot system. We use the DM2000, DM1000 and 02R96 and they all perform superbly.”
There are a number of features that Ola would like to see in future releases of the DME technology (a bigger screen, for example) but he is at pains to stress his appreciation of the technology. This is aided by an excellent relationship with Yamaha Scandinavia:
“Yamaha Scandinavia has taken great pains to affiliate with the best service engineers in Stockholm, first class suppliers and they always try to help out when we have urgent requirements,” he says, adding with a grin: “Yes, we have done the not highly recommended ‘pour-a-cup-of-coffee-into-the-console’ experiment...
“They have also paid attention to how we use our equipment and what features we need. Sales Director Tomas Nylén often comes by to see that everything is fine. All this is very appreciated - and essential - for us.
“Overall support is far better than I'm accustomed to and the DME architecture is very powerful and reliable,” Ola concludes. “In a venue with multiple halls with varying needs, it's hard to imagine a better solution.”
