Munich’s State Theater Chooses Lawo IP Audio Technology

Munich’s Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz [State Theater at the Gärtner Square] has undergone one of its more dramatic renovations in its 165-year history: installing IP audio technology from Lawo. It will now produce its new season mainly based on an AoIP infrastructure.

The central elements of the new setup at Gärtnerplatztheater are two Lawo mc²56 audio production consoles with an A__UHD core engine. I/O connectivity is via several A__line AoIP nodes, in addition to Lawo DALLIS devices already in place in-house. Digitech acted as general contractor for the design, implementation and integration of the new technology.

In 2007, Lawo installed two mc²66 digital mixing consoles in the auditorium and sound control room for sound reinforcement and recording musical, ballet, operetta and opera productions.

The State Theater has replaced those mixers with two mc²56 (MKIII) consoles, each with 48 faders and an A__UHD Core engine. A software upgrade to A__UHD Core (Phase 2) is planned for the 2022 season to expand IP infrastructure further.

The existing DALLIS I/O systems are integrated into the network via a Nova73 HD router core, with additional connectivity via WAN-capable A__stage AoIP nodes. This permits the continued use of existing technology within new workflows, enabling a gradual transition to a comprehensive IP infrastructure. Implementing the entire system as a redundant network ensures security.

“We opted for a combination of existing equipment and new hardware and software – a perfect solution because the existing hardware, especially the analog/digital conversion systems, are still in impeccable condition, work reliably and can be integrated seamlessly with the new Lawo systems that will make the sound in the theater state of the art,” said Dirk Buttgereit, head of the theater’s sound department, about the upgrade.