Located in the center of Warsaw, Poland, Teatr Muzyczny ROMA is the city’s premier venue for hosting musical theatre productions and global concert artists, with Polsound, Meyer Sound’s distributor in Poland, recently upgrading the venue’s audio reinforcement capabilities by installing a new system based around LINA compact linear line array loudspeakers.
The prior system at Teatr Muzyczny ROMA, utilizing Meyer Sound components, had served the venue for more than a decade, but theatre management was ready to leverage the latest technologies as well as extend capabilities. The new system consists of left-center-right flown arrays with 13 LINA loudspeakers each. Four 1100-LFC low-frequency control elements are flown in a two-by-two end fire configuration in the centre of the stage. Additional low end is delivered through two VLFC very low-frequency control elements.
The theatre’s sound designer, Krzysztof Polesiński, changed the system design in the upgrade by adding a center array with the subwoofers flown on either side of the array rather than behind the left-right arrays. “MINA was removed and replaced with LINA, which is the same size but better sounding with increased intelligibility and more detailed reproduction,” Polesiński explains. “It was time to increase the centre channel to the correct size, too, so now we have 13 boxes in every hang. I feel the centre channel is very important, because you can make the positioning of the sound source better within the space.”
A surround system was installed along with the new main system to create an immersive experience for the audience. It comprises MM-4XP and MM-4XPD for upper side booth fill and zone fill, UPM-1P for lower surround, UPJ-1P for middle surround, and UPQ-1P for top surround (across the first, second and third floors), plus two 900-LFC compact low-frequency control elements. Custom-color was applied to the surround loudspeakers to blend in with the building’s architecture. The private VIP loge seating areas are covered by three UPM-1P loudspeakers.
Among the first performers at the theatre post-installation was the Polish pop artist Andrzej Piaseczny, also the first Polish musician to perform with immersive sound technology in Poland.
Like Broadway, the Teatr Muzyczny ROMA runs one show at a time. The Polish versions of many well-known musicals have premiered at the theatre, including Les Misérables, Cats, Mamma Mia!, and Phantom of the Opera. It is also the scene for their own productions like The Pilots, dedicated to the famous Polish Squadron 303 of the Battle of Britain. During this play, the new immersive sound system was deployed to dramatize the fighter plane flyovers and battle sound effects. Elton John and Tim Rice’s AIDA will resume once the theatre is permitted to safely open. A new, well-known musical is in preparation following AIDA.
Teatr Muzyczny ROMA was built in 1936 with a typical “Italian” style audience area, hence the name. As it was not destroyed in World War II, during the post-war era it served as the temporary seat of the Warsaw Opera and later the Operetta. In 1994, it became the current Teatr Muzyczny ROMA.
