Small dLive, Big Ideas for Denmark’s Royal Theatre

Det Kongelige Teater (The Royal Theatre) in Copenhagen recently invested in a compact dLive Wings system to add flexibility in its newly repurposed A-Salen contemporary dance space.

Formerly a rehearsal area, the theatre’s A-Salen is a true black box space, giving ample reconfiguration options for a wide variety of dance performances. In-house audio engineer and sound designer, Jonas Jensen set out to find a mixing system that could keep up with the versatility of the space itself. The greatest challenge was that the mix position would often need to share an intimate 3m² footprint with the lighting desk, so a typical 36-fader, full-format console was never on the shopping list.

Following a recommendation from colleague, Sebastian Eskildsen, Jonas opted for a 19” Allen & Heath dLive C1500 surface with 12 faders over six layers, paired with a CDM32 MixRack. An IP8 remote controller gives Jonas an extra six layers of eight faders, bringing the total number of available fader strips to 120. A Dante 128×128 card in the C1500 completes the setup, integrating the dLive system with the theatre’s comprehensive Dante network.

“I often run quite complex speaker layouts, like multiple surround setups, or immersive systems, and I do most speaker distribution within the console,” Jonas explains. “So I need a lot of busses with delays and filters. The versatility in the ways you can set up the dLive system makes it a great hub, and as we range from small Ableton-focused surround-installations to full on rock bands playing, I really appreciate the effortless configuring, routing and setup.” Specific features which are already getting heavy use include dLive’s DCA spills, Dyn8’s dynamic EQ functionality and easy virtual soundcheck functions.

When not in use in A-Salen, the dLive system has already been earmarked for monitor duties for larger performances, and for use on touring shows. All elements of the setup were supplied by Allen & Heath’s Danish distributor, Lightpartner.