Opened in 1887, Stockholm’s Vasateatern is now among Sweden’s most popular theatre venues. In 2010 the 1,000-capacity theatre closed as Scandic Hotels began transforming the surrounding block of buildings into its new flagship hotel, the Scandic Grand Central.
Historically, the theatre had suffered from problems with sound leaking into adjacent properties. The renovation presented an opportunity to overcome these issues, but hindered by the building’s protected status. A solution was found, however, requiring the theatre’s interior to be dismantled and rebuilt on a slightly reduced scale, providing a sound insulating air gap around the auditorium.
The ‘floating box’ refurbishment features most of the original fittings, alongside modern acoustic materials, flexible seating and an Alcons LR7 loudspeaker system. Together, these improvements have made it a more versatile space and turned it into one of the best-sounding theatres in Sweden.
Swedish systems integrator Electrosound has handled the sound design and installation at a number of Scandic hotels, including the Scandic Grand Central complex. When it came to equipping the Vasateatern theatre, an Alcons LR7 system of 20 flown LR7, two flown QB363 bass units, four groundstacked BF302 MK2 subs and a flown centre cluster of three more LR7 micro line-arrays was specified.
Two Alcons SR9 and two further QB363 take care of mid-high front fills, with two VR12s for stage fills. Eight more SR9 cover the under-balcony seats and 16 CCS8 are used for a surround system – largely for sound effects, but available for use with movies if needed. The system is powered by Sentinel3 and Sentinel 10 amplified controllers.
All audio is distributed over a Dante network, mainly by a Bose ESP system and TiMax T2 surround effect processor. A Focusrite Rednet D16 interfaces between the Sentinel units and the Dante network, also taking care of incoming AES connections.
‘The rebuilt Vasateatern is a fantastic room. As an important part of Scandic’s flagship hotel, its audio system had to be of exceptional quality,’ says Electrosound’s Brollan Söderström. ‘The Alcons system has made a big difference to the experience for audiences for theatre, live music, DJ sets, conferences and presentations. Everyone loves how it sounds in there – engineers, visitors, performers – they are all really impressed with the quality and coverage.’
‘When I talk to promoters, agents and artists they say we have the best sound quality in Stockholm for venue this size,’ adds Samuel Laulajainen of Scandic Hotels. ‘In six months we have transformed the theatre into one of the most popular venues for live music, shows and conferences, thanks in no small part to a fantastic audio system.’
