With the Mina loudspeaker's small footprint measuring just more than 51 cm long, the technical staff at the 1,500-seat Deutsches Theater was initially sceptical. "We first thought we would need boxes with at least two eight-inch drivers for such a large house," says Stephan Kirschner, sound engineer for the Deutsches Theater. "But when we heard a Mina system at Jugendstil-Festhalle hall in Landau, we were quickly convinced. You could hear the same level of music everywhere, and the imaging was excellent, which is important in theatre."
The main system comprises left and right arrays of 13 Mina loudspeakers each, with an additional center array of 10 Mina loudspeakers. Low-end reinforcement is provided by a cardioid array of three 500-HP subwoofers, with two 700-HP subwoofers each placed in two side loges.
For the rear balconies, where full musicality and speech intelligibility are vital for carnival balls, 20 MM-4XP self-powered loudspeakers with IntelligentDC technology are installed. An additional 12 MM-4XP loudspeakers provide front-fill, while a Galileo® loudspeaker management system with three Galileo 616 processors supplies drive, delay, and optimization for the entire system.
Technical renovation of the Deutsches Theater, including scenic lighting, video systems, media technology, and microphone systems, was handled by Neuötting-based Zeiler-Technik.
First built in 1896, the municipally owned Deutsches Theater's reopening was celebrated with a gala concert by the Munich Philharmonic. The theatre has since hosted musicals including The Wiz: The Wizard of Oz. Upcoming events include the Bob Dylan musical biography Dylan: The Times They are A-Changin', the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, and the musical We Will Rock You, based on the music of Queen.
(Jim Evans)
