The Swedish National Theatre is situated in the heart of the city, one of six professional theatres in Finland to serve the Swedish-speaking population, and is considered to be the Swedish national stage. Why Swedish? Because Finland was part of Sweden until 1809 and its ties to the country remained strong until it became a sovereign state in 1917. Swedish is spoken by 6% of the population with roughly 40.000 Swedish speakers living in Helsinki.
Built in 1866 by a Russian architect, much of the Svenska Teater's interior is original. The auditorium has three balconies and a proscenium arch stage. On behalf of the theatre's sound team, Andreas Lönnquist describes the current system. "We have a L/C/R PA, with a surround sound system for the balconies. Because the main loudspeakers are mounted 8m high off the stage, the sound often felt a bit 'up in the sky' and a bit distant. We always felt that we should bring the sound down to the level of the actors."
Having seen the TTA, Stagetracker demonstrated in London and in Helsinki, the Svenska team appreciated how it could bring a sense of intimacy to the hall. "Our objective was to make the productions sound so natural that the audience would wonder whether we were using amplification. As a sound engineer, I feel that we achieved that."
The Stagetracker system comprises one RadioEye detector, and 16 actor's tags. Everything is done digitally; Stagetracker required only a small number of EQ changes, and these are stored in the Digidesign Venue FOH console. No alterations to the theatre's sound reinforcement equipment were required, apart from the addition of four front-fill speakers on the front of the stage.
The system was supplied by TTA's recently-appointed Finnish distributor Soundata, which is working with theatre personnel to explore the full potential of Stagetracker. "So far we've used it to track a maximum of 10 performers," says Lönnquist. "The feedback from the audience has been very positive."
(Jim Evans)
