Boasting the largest indoor stage in the world, at 2,542sq.m, the Palast was conceived as a technical tour-de-force from its outset in 1984, featuring staging and rigging intricacies capable of hosting the most outlandish and ambitious productions.
"This theatre was very famous in the time of the DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik/ German Democratic Republic)," says technical director Franz-Josef Münzebrock. "In those days it hosted revues, big-band performances, and TV variety shows. It's now a privately owned theatre company, not run by the city of Berlin, but the programme is essentially the same. It attracts a mixture of both locals and tourist groups, and the dance company resident here is one of the main draws."
The current revue, a Las Vegas-inspired spectacular entitled Qi: A Palace Fantasy, takes full advantage of the theatre's huge sets, ice rink, swimming pool, trapeze wires, and screens, as well as the recently upgraded lighting, LED, laser, and audio technology that places the Friedrichstadtpalast among Europe's most comprehensively equipped venues.
The Palast had previously used other Meyer Sound loudspeakers prior to installing the M'elodie system. "When we were planning this upgrade we had tenders out with three different systems," says Münzebrock. "We had the systems for three months each, and after that time, all the crew and I concluded that it had to be a M'elodie system. Previously it was mostly MSL-4s in here, but I've also used many other brands. Consistently I find that Meyer's products provide that extra clarity, especially when speech is an important application of the house."
The newly installed audio system is based around Meyer Sound's M'elodie line array loudspeaker, CQ-1 and CQ-2 loudspeakers, and MM-4 miniature loudspeaker. The central line array is comprised of eight M'elodie loudspeakers, supported by three 700-HP subwoofers. The left and right hangs each consists of ten M'elodie loudspeakers, also underpinned by three 700-HP subwoofers on each side. A centre-left and a centre-right hang, used for the orchestral program, each uses six M'elodie loudspeakers.
"The sheer size of the stage and auditorium demands an extremely wide dispersion," says Michael Pohl, Meyer Sound's technical sales support. "There's also a circular pre-stage that juts forward from the proscenium by about 16 - 17m, so there was a challenge to design a system to run properly in every situation. We did a lot of work with the matrix of the FOH StageTec AURUS consoles and within the PA system itself to apply the proper delay times."
(Jim Evans)
