The world's largest operetta festival, the Mörbisch Lake Festival has been a feature of Austria’s music calendar for nearly 20 years, and drawing thousands to its picturesque wine country setting. Its floating stage is integral to the festival experience which, this year, has seen a collaboration with L-Acoustics.
Over the past 20 years, the venue has evolved from a simple site, into a centre for performing arts. It now hosts productions such as this year’s Mamma Mia! and boasts a capacity of 6,200. In response to the escalating demands of an expanding venue and increasingly ambitious productions, the Mörbisch Lake Theatre identified a pressing need for a high-quality sound system, tailored to its unique layout.
Each year has ssen a new stage and audio design adoptedto align with the festival’s changing themes. However, after conducting numerous demonstrations to perfect the set-up, the decision was made in September 2022 to use the L-Acoustics A15 as the permanent sound system.
Demonstrations were conducted to refine the set-up, solidifying the decision to go with the A15 system. Five hangs of three A15 speakers are now used to achieve spatialisation across the entire plateau, with four centrally flown KS21 subwoofers for the low end. With a 25m gap between the stage edge and the audience front row, and an additional 60m of audience area to span, sound spill is effectively minimised. The L-Acoustics A15 emerged as the optimal choice to retain high frequencies.
‘The A Series was the perfect match for this project, providing a full range of audio from a compact set of speakers. Its size was a key factor, given our stage’s truss constructions are also used for set designs, meaning large speakers were not an option,’ says Raphael Rupprecht, Technical Sales Manager and ACC at Signal. ‘One of our biggest surprises was how well the A Series handled the wind, as it typically blows from the water towards the audience. This can cause problems for line array systems, particularly with higher frequencies being blown away. However, the A Series system successfully managed these conditions, ensuring a consistent and high-quality audio experience for all attendees.’
As the venue gears up to continue its series of shows, the feedback has already been overwhelmingly positive. Both Thomas Hofstädter and L-Acoustics Application Project Engineer Christian Schmid are pleased with the new sound system. ‘It’s a vast improvement over previous years and we’re excited for our audience to experience it,’ Rupprecht concludes.
More: www.l-acoustics.com
