Within two days of being derigged from the Stockholm Gärdetkonsert, DM Audio’s Martin Audio MLA Compact loudspeaker system was in action agin at the Maritime Museum. This time a similarly-configured 12 element-per-side set-up was fielded at the Vitabergsparken (White Mountains) for the annual Parkteatern Festival (staged by Stockholm City Theatre).
DM Audio has been servicing the four-week event for many years, in the open air amphitheater offered by the Maritime Museum. Working with show designer Mårten Ihre, this year’s event presented the opportunity to swap a conventional line array with MLA Compact.
Hosted by the Stockholms Stadsteater subsidiary, Parkteatern (Park Theatre), the varied programme ranged from soft ballads to high-octane hip-hop, and modern Danish dance to Opera. DM Audio responded by beefing up the LF with six DSX subs per side, double stacked in a cardioid pattern (in order to give the neighbours no grounds for complaint).
In fact, the biggest challenge facing the production crew was to eliminate noise escape from the rear of the stage: ‘We set up the “hard avoid” parameters for behind the stage and the controllability of the cardioid subs also ensured that no sound escaped,’ says DM Audio’s Lars Wern. ‘Everybody was immensely pleased how we managed to taper off the sound and the result was that there were no complaints.’
This was a fitting way for the Park Theatre, now clearly bitten by the digitally controllable bug, to celebrate its 70th year. ‘We are all very impressed with MLA,’ Wern reports. ‘It is a fantastic system.’
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