DM Audio of Stockholm, Sweden recently deployed Martin Audio MLA Compact loudspeakers with 12 enclosures per side at the Vitabergsparken (White Mountains) for the annual Parkteatern Festival staged by Stockholm City Theater. The festival consists of four weeks of entertainment in the open-air amphitheater.
DM Audio has been serving the event for many years, and working with show designer Mårten Ihre, the company took the opportunity to swap out a conventional line array with MLA Compact as soon as it became available.
The varied program ranged from soft ballads to high-octane hip-hop and modern Danish dance and opera. DM Audio responded by beefing up the LF end, running six DSX subwoofers per side, double stacked in a cardioid pattern, to give the neighbors no grounds for complaint against noise escaping at the rear of the stage.
In fact, the biggest challenge facing the production crew was eliminating noise escape at the rear. “We set up the ‘hard avoid’ parameters for behind the stage and the controllability of the cardioid subs also ensured that no sound escaped at the back,” says DM Audio president Lars Wern. “Everybody was immensely pleased how we managed to taper off the sound and the result was that there were no complaints.”
This was a fitting way for the Park Theater, now clearly bitten by the digitally controllable bug, to celebrate its 70th year. “We are all very impressed with MLA,” concludes Wern, “It is a fantastic system.”
