Salzburg State Theatre

The Salzburg State Theatre was completed in 1893 and is today the leading venue for performing arts in the historic Austrian city. This 700-seat theatre stages around 400 productions per season, encompassing drama, opera, ballet and youth theatre.

For the project of renovating the stage facilities and installing new sound and lighting systems, the theatre turned to experienced stage technology solutions consultants BWKI located in Bayreuth, Germany, with the very specific instruction that no loudspeakers should be visible in the historic hall.

BWKI System Planner Jürgen Meyer explained: “To replace the existing line array, we worked with NEXO to design a system based around 4 x ID84/84L cabinets coupled to create a single, 4-metre column that was just 150mm wide, so it could be hidden in the narrow gold portal recesses on either side of the stage. Everyone was very impressed by how the cabinets couple perfectly to deliver coverage of the venue that would be more typical of a large and visually obtrusive line array system.”

The ID84s are complemented by 2 x L15 subs per side, also recessed into the walls, and 2 x ID24s for upper near fills. A total of 41 of NEXO’s ultra-compact ID14s, almost all recessed into the walls, are deployed around the theatre as part of an Amadeus acoustic enhancement system, with a Dante network of 19 x NEXO NXAMP4X1Mk2 powered controllers providing amplification and processing.

The theatre now has a system that serves a wide range of productions from spoken word to musical, can deliver 3-dimensional sound and acoustic enhancement, and is virtually invisible in the space. The NEXO ID Series delivers the perfect balance of high performance and low visual impact.