Widely considered a national icon, Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre has reopened after a six-year refurbishment. As a partner of the Russian general contractor, Salzbrenner Stagetec Mediagroup designed, delivered and installed major parts of its new audio technology.

Three large Stagetec Aurus audio consoles with full DSP capacity have been installed. One is at the heart of the theatre in the sound control room of the grand auditorium, where the outstanding acoustic properties have been restored...

A second went into a central sound control room for the entire building complex with its numerous smaller stages, conference and rehearsal rooms. The third Aurus is a mobile console for flexible use, for example during rehearsals in the grand auditorium. A large Nexus system with more than 30 base devices and several Nexus-Stars is the fibre audio network. The system was designed from the start for maximum flexibility and expandability with the intention that all venues will be part of the total infrastructure.

To ensure smooth operation behind the scenes, the Bolshoi also opted for stage management and intercom systems by Salzbrenner Stagetec AVM. A total of nine custom control consoles in different configurations are installed in the various venues – the first use of the newly developed system PerformanCeTRL, which combines Salzbrenner Media Control and Delec Oratis (intercom) forming an extremely versatile stage management and communication system.

The PerformanCeTRL system at the Bolshoi performs not only as paging system, but also controls the complex signaling via lights and chimes and delivers automatic speech announcements. Finally, numeric displays show the number of the current scene in the dressing rooms, cafeteria and other parts of the house.

Opened in 1824 and rebuilt in 1856 to its current form, the Bolshoi was the showplace of the Tsars and the Soviets and is reputed to have one of the best acoustic auditoria in the world.

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