Alcons Audio Closes a Historic Chapter with Soldier of Orange - The Musical

	Raked seating for 1,100 people was installed on a 30m / 100'-diameter turntable, revolving with a 180-degree video projection between stage sets around the hangar. Actors moved between the sets as the audience turned.

On July 12, the final curtain fell on Soldier of Orange - The Musical. After almost 16 years, 3,967 performances, four million visitors and 29 casts, the longest-running production in Dutch theatre history came to an end. Since its Royal Premiere on October 30 2010, an Alcons Audio pro-ribbon system was central to the audience experience.

Set during the Second World War, the musical tells the true story of Dutch resistance fighter Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema and his fellow students, who faced life-changing choices after the German invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940. It was staged in the purpose-built TheaterHangaar at the former Valkenburg naval airbase, one of the first Dutch military targets attacked by German forces on May 10, 1940.

Raked seating for 1,100 people was installed on a 30m / 100'-diameter turntable, revolving with a 180-degree video projection between stage sets around the hangar. Actors moved between the sets as the audience turned.

The scale and realism extended far beyond a conventional theatre experience. The audience rotated past sets including a student residence, a palace, MI6, a real beach with water and dramatic rain effects, while in another scene actors rode full-size motorcycles around the seating area. For the finale, the hangar doors opened to reveal an outdoor scene -- in all weather conditions -- featuring a real Douglas DC-3 Dakota aircraft, recreating Queen Wilhelmina's return to the Netherlands following the country's liberation.

Because of the construction's weight, the loudspeakers were installed outside the turntable. The moving audience passed through their coverage areas, demanding consistent on- and off-axis response, tonal balance, localization, and speech intelligibility.

Sound designer Jeroen ten Brinke selected nearly 100 Alcons LR14 pro-ribbon line-array cabinets. Signals travelled via optical cable on a drum system turning through 7,000 degrees without twisting or breaking.

Each scene featured left-center-right LR14 arrays with a double 15" subwoofer. Fourteen arrays surrounded the venue and were powered by 30 Alcons ALC4 2 x 2kW amplified loudspeaker controllers. As the seating revolved, the right-hand array of one scene became the left-hand array of the next.

"In this rare situation, with a revolving audience area moving past 14 fixed loudspeaker arrays, the Alcons system delivered an almost phase-neutral result," says Jos Diergaarde, sound engineer for Soldier of Orange - The Musical, who had been involved from the beginning.

"The clarity and intelligibility of the Alcons systems were exceptionally high, which is essential for the reinforcement of voices in a musical. Over the years, I heard from many people who were genuinely impressed by the sound quality of the production."

Diergaarde continues: "We were equally impressed by the extraordinary longevity of the entire system. Throughout almost sixteen years of intensive use, I did not have to replace a single loudspeaker in any of the LR14 arrays. The system proved to be extremely reliable, while maintaining the same consistently high sound quality throughout the complete production run."

"It is very rewarding to see that the experimental and highly forward-looking sound design developed for this project was successfully realized and proven in practice with the Alcons pro-ribbon arrays," adds ten Brinke.

"The trust we placed in the Alcons systems has been fully validated, not only by their exceptional speech intelligibility and gain-before-feedback, but also by their faultless reliability, with not a single failure throughout years of intensive, almost daily use."

Alcons Audio co-founder Tom Back comments: "As a Dutch manufacturer, we are extremely proud that an Alcons pro-ribbon system was chosen for this remarkable production from its very first performance. Soldier of Orange tells an important story from the Second World War and from our national history, while the combination of technical innovation, creativity and craftsmanship made it a truly unique experience for everyone involved."

More information on www.soldaatvanoranje.nl.