Lithuanian stage technology design and integration company and DiGiCo’s distributor for the Baltics and Georgia, Sonus Exsertus was called in by the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre to handle work on its stage technology requirements, including the installation of DiGiCo SD9, SD12 and Quantum 338 mixing consoles.
Situated in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, the theatre holds a significant position as one of the country’s foremost publicly funded performing arts venues and cultural institutions. Established as the Vilnius State Theatre in 1940, it transitioned into the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre (LNDT) in 1998, the theatre has since undergone extensive reconstruction and expansion and now boast four halls – the Small Hall, New Hall, Rehearsal Hall and Great Hall. Once fully refurbished, it will have an overall seating capacity of 1,200.
In 2022, Sonus installed an SD12 in the New Hall, while an SD9 found its place in the new Small Hall, which is designed to host experimental and small-scale productions. A further SD12 and a Quantum 338 are scheduled to be installed in the Great Hall by autumn this year.
As the home of the most prominent local performing arts work, as well as artistic discussion about the contemporary world, LNDT has been welcoming local and guest artists from around the world for decades. The theatre sees its role as an agora, a place for gathering and discussing the ‘here and now’ by delving into burning issues of modernity and society. Hosting conferences, dramatic plays and jazz festivals, LNDT has produced works by renowned playwrights such as Krystian Lupa, Árpád Schilling, Lukasz Twarkowski, Saara Turunen, Anna Smolar, Jo Strømgren, and Grzegorz Jarzyna.
The theatre required a flexible system that would connect each hall to the other. Ramūnas Alenskas, Head of Business Development and one of the founders of Sonus, notes that the venue-wide routing of audio signals posed one of the main challenges. ‘We successfully accomplished this by using the consoles and a DiGiCo 4REA4 processing engine, employing Dante, Madi, and Optocore protocols,’ he explains.
Sonus Sound System Designer/Engineer, Tomas Ždanovičius, explains that, while all LNDT’s halls have patchbays with additional analogue I/O, Dante, and Optocore connection points, 4REA4 is used as an Optocore and Dante signal combiner and distributor to points where consoles such as the SD9 in the Small Hall do not have Dante I/O.
‘Signals from mobile A168 D stage boxes are transferred via Dante to DiGiCo’s 4REA4 DMI-Dante 64@96 and then to the SD9 via Madi BNC,’ he adds.
As the theatre’s audio technical team were not familiar with DiGiCo consoles, Sonus also provided comprehensive training. ‘Thanks to DiGiCo’s exceptional support, we were able to deliver top-notch training to the LNDT team and we can proudly say that we now have more enthusiastic fans of DiGiCo in the market,’ Alenskas says.
‘The theatre is a renowned landmark in Vilnius, known for its striking façade that showcases a sculpture depicting the Feast of Muses, with three muses symbolising the arts and creativity, embodying the theatre’s dedication to promoting culture. We consider it an absolute privilege to be part of this project. Introducing cutting-edge audio technologies will enable LNDT to uphold its commitment to this cultural vision and the future of theatre by embracing new artistic forms, fields and disciplines.’
