Renewed Splendor and Advanced Technology: The Vienna Konzerthaus Relies on AKG Sound
Along with the State Opera and Musikverein, the Vienna Konzerthaus is one of the famous venues that established Vienna's worldwide reputation as “the city of music.� Every season, about 600,000 people attend approximately 750 events including a wide range of concerts (classical, new age, jazz, world music, folk, rock, and pop), as well as movie screenings, revues, readings plus product presentations, receptions and dances. The Konzerthaus was opened in 1913 and today more than ever before, it sets new directions in Vienna’s music and society.
One reason for the continued success of the Vienna Konzerthaus is certainly, the beautiful renovation of the building which lasted from 1998 to 2001. The most important goals were to restore the splendor of the original appearance and to update the audience facilities and technical infrastructure to meet the requirements of a 21st century event center.
The Konzerthaus building houses a total of 600 rooms including one restaurant and seven performance halls differing widely in size, decor and acoustics to provide ideal settings for all musical genres. Each hall is connected to a recording studio and control room.
The 7 Halls
Heinz Repper, Technical Director of the Vienna Konzerthaus, oversaw and coordinated the entire four-year rebuilding effort. He recently gave us a complete tour of the completely remodeled building.
The redesigned entrance hall immediately gives you an idea of the many cultural events that take place at the Konzerthaus. From the entrance hall, ornate staircases lead to seven different halls.
The showpiece of the building is the "Großer Saal" with 1865 seats, an audience area of 750 m2, and a 170-m2 stage. This hall is perfectly suited for performances by symphony orchestras and big bands, including performances by the legendary Vienna Philharmonic.
As a Konzerthaus flyer aptly put it, "artists, audience, and the hall merge into a perfect triad ". The hall impresses the listener with its opulent elegance, harmonious forms and colors. This large hall with its classic proportions has seen performances by many of the world’s most famous orchestras, soloists, and legends of classical music and jazz. "During the renovation, we made a number of small, clever changes to the hall and stage in order to further optimize the acoustics," explains Heinz Repper. "The 'Großer Saal' is now among the top ten concert halls with the best acoustics in the world."
Mozart-Saal
This fascinating hall looks bright and modern and has been the venue of many performances by top international stars. With its unique acoustics, the Mozart-Saal impresses every visitor and most sound engineers, who prefer this hall to all the others for making recordings. Many jazz groups, chamber orchestras, small ensembles, and soloists have performed here. The 330-m2 audience area seats 704, while the stage area is 65 m2 and can be extended to 105 m2.
Schubert-Saal
A sophisticated music salon, this 240-m2 hall seats 366 in front of a 50-m2 stage. As part of the general renovation, a series of windows that used to be blocked off were uncovered to liven up the sound. The Schubert-Saal is used for chamber music as well as receptions and lectures. One specialty is a series of lunchtime concerts by young musicians, many of whom started their careers there.
Neuer Saal
In order to provide an even better forum for the musical trends of today, a new concert hall was created in the basement of the Konzerthaus. The Neuer Saal combines modern architecture and an intimate atmosphere, seating 400 on a total floor area of 340 m2. Movable platforms allow the stage and audience areas to be easily adapted to every type of event.
The flexible platform system along with advanced audio and lighting equipment enable the Neuer Saal to meet the challenges of today's music scene with ease. However, the Neuer Saal has not only become a new home for international contemporary music. Thanks to its nearly unlimited flexibility, it is also an excellent venue for workshops, concerts for children, recording sessions and rehearsals, artistic experiments and social functions.
Three other halls are available for smaller events:
The Schönberg-Saal seats 99 in a 112-m2 audience area. The Alban-Berg-Saal is about the same size and also designed for 99 listeners. The last of the seven halls is the Wotruba-Salon with its 135-m2 audience area, which is also ideal for receptions and workshops.
Sound systems:
Each of the seven halls is connected to a recording studio and control room.
Equipment:
A wide range of AKG studio and performance microphones make sure each of the many different concerts passes off without a glitch, provide excellent studio or live recordings, and ensure great live sound.
In addition to the equipment that had been in use at the Konzerthaus for years including AKG condenser and dynamic microphones (C 414 B, AKG Blue Line Series, C 480 B, etc.), AKG Acoustics supplied top-of-the-line WMS Series equipment plus a number of microphones and headphones:
Konzerthaus sound engineers use C 414 B-TLIIs, C 2000Bs, C 3000 Bs, SolidTubes, C 426 combs, C 547 BLs, C 477 WR/L-p head-worn microphones, a selection of Emotion/TriPower Series and MicroMic Series microphones, 14 x AKG Blue Line Series, 24 x C 480s. Six channels of WMS 4000 were added to the six-channel WMS 81 system that had been installed prior to the rebuilding.
The WMS systems were configured for mobile use as specified by project manager Heinz Repper in order to make sure the wireless systems can be set up quickly and easily in each of the different halls. During the reconstruction, antennas and antenna cables were installed permanently and invisibly for the audiences in every hall.
WMS 4000
- 6 x SR 4000 receivers
- 6 x PT 4000 bodypack transmitters
- 6 x HT 4000 handheld transmitters
- 6 x D 880 WL 1 microphone elements
- 3 x CU 4000 chargers
- 18 x BP 4000 battery packs
- 6 x RA 4000 racks
- 3 x PS 4000 antenna splitters
- 2 x HUB 4000 network concentrators with MCS 4000 Mission Control software
- 2 x HPA 4000 headphone amplifiers
- 6 x C 477 WR/L-p head-worn microphones
- 2 x PSU 4000 central power supplies Antennas - various
Headphones
- 4 x K 271 Studio
- 4 x K 240 DF ST
"Throughout the many years we have worked together, we have always been highly satisfied with AKG products," says Heinz Repper, " and when it comes to sound, the most important criterion for any concert hall, we made no experiments but relied on the familiar, proven quality of AKG equipment."
