Project Description

The Staatstheater Darmstadt,Germany with over 300 years of theater tradition, is a multi-purpose house with music and dance theater, acting and concert. In the theater more than 500 employees work in front of and behind the scenes. Each season, around forty productions will be performed. In addition, there is an extensive supporting program, which includes concerts and readings, introductions and open rehearsals. The theater is located on the Georg-Büchner-Platz in the neighborhood of the Ludwigskirche and the Mollerhaus and is visible for miles around with its eye-catching theater portal and its bright marble façade interspersed with shimmering brass plates.

In order to meet the ever growing demands of international productions, the loudspeaker system of the Kleines Haus had to be modernized. The Kleines Haus has a capacity for 482 seats, including a gallery. The choice was made after a few tests and comparisons to the Harmonic Design hd LSA12 LineArray system with hd Infra218 high-performance subwoofer in the sub-low range.

The hd LSA12 is a modern LineArray element with linear tuning and compact dimensions. The rapidly increasing listening surface required large splay angles of the individual elements among each other and was optimized by pre-made simulations of the array using hd LSA12 data sets for EASE Focus 3 in terms of sound distribution and consistency. In order to use the least possible amount of amplifier resources, the choice fell on the hd LSA12P equipped with a phase-optimized passive crossover network.

The positioning of the two arrays of four hd LSA12P each took place on the outer portals with coordination of the stage design and for the non-impairment of lines of sight, whereby the maximum system width of just over 57 cm was of great importance. One hd Infra218 was equipped with flying devices and can be flown depending on the sub-low needs of the upcoming productions in the trains, or operated on the ground. The power, control and monitoring required for all HD systems is ensured most efficiently by Powersoft KDSP and X-Series system amplifiers.

After successful installation, the “absolutely even sound distribution” and the “outstanding sound with almost unlimited dynamics” or even the “extreme naturalness and linearity” were confirmed by the guest sound engineers of the international productions.

The low ceiling height with additional suspended acoustic sails in the foyer requires a compact and powerful sound system, which has now been installed as hd HLS20 array. The loudspeakers have been designed so that the near field and rank are uniformly sounded while at the same time the parapet is excluded from the sound. Thus, an excellent speech intelligibility is achieved at all events.

For mobile use on the roof terrace, the Plug & Play system hd MP15N/P18-PA2 is available