Gärtnerplatztheater relies on Sennheiser Digital 6000
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The repertoire of the Gärtnerplatztheater includes performances from all areas of musical theatre, from musicals and modern operettas to revues. The main performance venue is the grand auditorium, which is designed as a classical tiered theatre (balcony with a central box and three galleries) and can accommodate an audience of just under 900 people.
Dirk Buttgereit has been head of the sound department at the Gärtnerplatztheater since 2003. “We’ve been using Sennheiser wireless solutions for many years,” Buttgereit reports. “Even back in the 1980s, the theatre was already equipped with wireless systems from Sennheiser. These included a system working in the VHF range, which we operated with an impressive 12 channels. As part of a refurbishment in 2007, we acquired 24 Sennheiser wireless channels from the 3000 series. In 2014, we added 12 channels from the 2000 series, making a total of 36 channels available overall.”
Buttgereit adds: “In summer 2021, the acquisition of a new digital mixing console gave us the ideal opportunity to convert the entire Gärtnerplatztheater to state-of-the-art digital wireless systems. Nowadays, there are so many wireless signals in the air even inside a theatre that the Sennheiser digital microphone system, which does not generate any intermodulation products, is a big help in efficiently using the spectrum.”
Forty channels from the Sennheiser Digital 6000 series were acquired. At the Gärtnerplatztheater, 20 EM 6000 two-channel receivers are neatly installed in a 19” rack in a temperature-controlled equipment room. The audio link to the mixing console is digital via a Dante network.
Forty ultra-compact Sennheiser SK 6212 bodypack transmitters and four SKM 6000 handheld transmitters fitted with Neumann KK 205 capsules (super-cardioid) transmit their signals to the 20 two-channel receivers. The theatre’s extensive microphone equipment includes Sennheiser MKE 1 clip-on microphones (omnidirectional), and more of these microphones will subsequently be added.
At the Gärtnerplatztheater, the Sennheiser Digital 6000 systems are operated in the A1 - A4 frequency segment (470 - 558 MHz). AD 3700 are used as active broadband directional antennas and are placed in the same positions as their predecessors, using the wiring already available in the theatre.
The antennas are connected to a Sennheiser ASA 3000 antenna splitter that supplies signals to three cascaded groups, each with eight EM 6000. ze”.
The frequencies that are used in the individual performance venues at the Gärtnerplatztheater were calculated using the Sennheiser WSM (Wireless Systems Manager) software when the systems were set up in summer 2021 and, according to Buttgereit, they have not been changed since then. “This is a fixed installation in which normally nothing fundamentally changes. We have been using the new Sennheiser Digital 6000 systems for more than a year now. So far, we haven’t noticed any interference or other artefacts that might make it necessary to change individual frequencies.”
The Sennheiser Digital 6000 wireless systems were supplied by Salzbrenner media. The contact partner on behalf of Sennheiser was Roland Bachmann (account manager Pro | AV). “We are really pleased and proud that the Gärtnerplatztheater has been placing its trust in Sennheiser wireless systems for decades,” says Bachmann. “By installing the ground-breaking Digital 6000 systems, the Gärtnerplatztheater is excellently equipped for the most demanding sound requirements and has systems that are future-proof.”
Buttgereit is more than satisfied with the Digital 6000 systems: “The systems are reliable. Noise is not an issue at all with digital transmission, and because the channels have no intermodulation, there’s no problem in equipping the main actors with two bodypack transmitters and two headsets during performances. This regularly occurs at our theatre to ensure secure transmission, and our costume department has even made special straps with pockets to hold the SK 6212. The Sennheiser Digital 6000 systems provide excellent sound, and after our decades of positive experience with wireless systems from Sennheiser, we wouldn’t have expected anything else.”
