The theatre is the largest of three auditoriums in the complex in the modern Dutch town, where new audio, lighting and staging systems have been added to both its largest existing auditorium and a new 633-seat pop concert hall. The installation was the work of Ampco Flashlight Group company TM Audio, while sister company Lightco provided the venues’ lighting systems. “It was a key objective,” says the theatre’s technical manager, Rocco Malherbe, “to create a theatre complex that can stage all the shows that are on the road in Holland – and be able to program anything anybody wants right here.”

The main hall’s vast, resonant foyer, two stories high and boasting one long floor-to-ceiling glass wall and two others of marble, created a major acoustic challenge with over a thousand people mingling in the space before shows and during the intervals. A tremendous buzz of conversation reverberates around the impeccably polished surfaces as if in a giant echo chamber – and on top of that there’s the need for intelligible public address announcements to herald the start of the second half.

“In dealing with this central but acoustically very difficult space,” said Malherbe, “we needed the spoken voice to be totally intelligible everywhere. But we also wanted an audio solution that could handle music properly, including occasional small concerts.”

As Dutch distributors for Renkus-Heinz, TM Audio looked to the company’s renowned digitally steerable array loudspeaker, Iconyx, specifying a pair of IC24 units, flush-mounted some metres apart on one wall. Configured using the dedicated BeamWare software, they cover the space completely yet their digitally steered beams direct acoustic energy away from the highly reflective walls and window. Finished in white, they also meet the architect’s requirements for virtual invisibility in this striking open space.

“We chose Iconyx specifically for its dispersion characteristics, its musicality and low architectural profile,” says Malherbe, “and it’s an excellent solution”.