Each year, since the Berlinale of 2000, the Stage Entertainment Theater am Potsdamer Platz, which is actually a musical theatre, is transformed into the main venue of the Berlinale: the 1,600 seated Berlinale Palast. Here the glamorous gala opening with an international star cast takes place, as well as the premieres of the competition films. In addition, the Berlinale Palast is the setting for the award ceremony of the Golden and Silver Bears.
For the Berlinale 2015, the International Film Festival Berlin planned a new sound system for the prestigious hall. Alcons Audio was invited in September 2014 by the operator of the Theater am Potsdamer Platz, Stage Entertainment, to have one of its Cinema Series speaker systems compared with systems from four other manufacturers.
The two-day tests included various measurements and listening tests with different parts of music and film sound material. Successively, the results were presented to a jury - separated into the individual screen and surround speakers sections.
The results from these tests were the reason for Stage Entertainment to propose Alcons Audio as sound system supplier.
Dr.-Ing. Reiner Chemnitius, who has been advising the Berlinale in all aspects of media technology since 1987, comments, "We are all very pleased and - although we were aware of the exceptional sound quality of Alcons' systems - the actual listening impression still surprised us. With the Berlinale Palast we're not talking about a normal and not even about a very large cinema. We are talking about a 1,600-seat theatre with two tiers, that is normally not used as a cinema. In view of the special requirements to the sound system imposed by this hall, the Alcons system even exceeded our expectations significantly."
"We are very pleased our products are part of one of the most important film festivals in the world. The sound of the Berlinale Palast is a reference project for the worldwide success of our pro-ribbon solutions in the cinema and theatre market," says Tom Back, founder and CEO of Alcons Audio.
Immediately after the award of the contract, the installation phase began under the responsibility of ASC (Amptown System Company) Berlin, working closely with Christian Lerch of Dolby Germany and Chris Quested of Dolby UK.
In the Berlinale Palast an Alcons pro-ribbon screen sound system consisting of 10x Alcons CR4 is installed. The eight-meter-high screen required an arrangement of the ten screen systems divided into two rows of five units.
All systems are driven by Alcons Sentinel3 and Sentinel10 4-channel amplified DSP controllers. A total of 32 Sentinels with 128 channels are fed with AES / EBU digital audio signal and are controlled by Alcons' ALControl remote monitoring and control software.
Berlinale festival manager Johannes Wachs says, "The new sound system in the Berlinale Palast with Alcons speakers and Dolby Atmos processing has not only impressed us, but also our discerning audience instantly; The many positive reactions to the sensational brilliance and the new surround experience have confirmed this."
(Jim Evans)
