Situated in the centre of Sweden's Öresund region, the Malmo Opera and Music Theatre was originally opened in the 1940s with the aim of giving contemporary musical drama an opportunity to grow. The theatre has one of the largest stages in Europe and can seat up to 1,500 people.
Over recent months the management of the Malmo Opera and Music Theatre have been upgrading the sound system and FOH facilities to incorporate digital live sound. As part of this refurbishment, the Theatre decided to replace its 10-year-old analogue console with an SSL C100 digital production console because it needed a desk with more inputs and instant recall and reset capabilities.
Bengt Frienholt, technical manager of the theatre's sound department, says: "We chose the C100 because it provides facilities for a large number of inputs, which is important when we are staging musicals where we often use up to 46 radio microphones in a single production. Also, SSL has a very good reputation for after-sales support and that inspired our trust in its products."
Ronny Sjostrand, technical manager of SSL's Swedish distributor Arva Trading AB, project-managed the installation. He explains: "When Bengt Frienholt contacted us to enquire about a new console we suggested that he looked at the C100, which at that stage had just been introduced. We recognized that, although this was primarily a broadcast desk, it also offered a number of features that made it ideal for theatre use. These include an ability to handle a large number of inputs and outputs, the opportunity to interface easily with other equipment and its snapshot facilities, which are ideal for live productions where it isn't possible to use timecode. The console also offers facilities for surround sound, which was important for the Opera and Music Theatre has a 5.1 speaker system."
(Mike Lethby)
