Budapest's Operetta Theater Reaches an International Audience With Meyer Sound System

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The salient feature of the Operetta's design is that the sound system is always in time with the artist's onstage voice and correctly imaged to where the performer is located on stage.

Dating back to the end of the 19th century, Budapest's historic Operetta Theater occupies a site in the heart of the "Pest Broadway," the city's traditional theater and nightlife district.

As one of the music capitals of the former Austrian Hungarian Imperium, Budapest's reputation as an opera and classical music destination is unparalleled. Composers from Zoltán Kodály to Béla Bartók only add to its stature in the arts. To continue and enhance the city's reputation for high-caliber musical and operetta performances, a number of theaters in the last few years have been remodeled to include state-of-the-art professional audio systems – and one prominent recent installation is in the Operetta Theater.

Integrating the latest sound reinforcement systems into historic theaters such as Budapest's Operetta, says László Kovács of Atec Audio, allows the city as well as the Theater to attract not only the leading performances of today, but also to offer the quality of sound reinforcement necessary for the musical events of tomorrow.

Renowned Hungarian Sound Designer Istvan Kishonti designed the Operetta Theater sound reinforcement system around a "delta stereophony" approach. The salient feature of this design is that the sound system is always in time with the artist's onstage voice and correctly imaged to where the performer is located on stage.

The entirely self-powered sound reinforcement system comprises five Meyer Sound UPA-1P full-range loudspeaker systems flown over five UPM-1Ps with a series of USW subwoofers for the very low frequencies. To accommodate the Theater's needs, an innovative solution was designed using five movable masts with the loudspeakers suspended above the Theater's stage. When not in use, the loudspeaker pairs can be retracted into five special openings in the Theater's roof.

Kovács relates, "The Fall season will mark the Operetta Theater's grand reopening with its updated professional sound system. The Theater will host a wide variety of music performances, including operettas, European plays and modern musicals."

July, 2001

UPA-1P

UPM-1P