Solid State Logic System T Delivers Flexible Theatre Production

Flexibility is a key requirement in modern audio production, especially in live theatre. This operational necessity led the sound department of the Theater in der Josefstadt, located in Vienna city centre, to install a Solid State Logic System T digital mixing system that not only allows engineers to mix either in the auditorium or in the control room but is fully compatible with the consoles in a neighbouring venue, the Kammerspiele.

Known locally as Die Josefstadt, the theatre first opened in 1788 and was rebuilt in 1822, with its inaugural performance featuring music conducted by Ludwig van Beethoven. More than two centuries later, it remains one of Vienna’s most celebrated cultural institutions, staging both plays and musical productions. Together with its nearby sister venue, the smaller Kammerspiele, it now forms part of a shared production environment built around SSL’s System T platform.

The Kammerspiele became the first of the two theatres to install an SSL System T in 2024, because of its powerful feature set for theatre production. Raimund Hornich is the Head of the Sound Department for both theatres and moved on to the upgrade for Die Josefstadt after the Kammerspiele installation. "I started in the job three years ago and at that time both places had very old school mixing consoles," he says. "I had to install a new system with a modern workflow for theatre productions nowadays and SSL provided that."

​Hornich was already familiar with SSL consoles and technologies from his time working at the Burgtheater, Austria's national theatre, also located in Vienna. Die Burg, as it is called by locals, was the first fixed theatre installation of a System T. That system, like those for Die Josefstadt and Kammerspiele, was supplied by TSAMM Professional Audio, SSL's distribution partner in Austria. "I quickly realised that System T offered the flexibility, scalability and operational consistency that modern theatre productions demand," commented TSAMM's owner, Mario Reithofer. "Vienna has a close-knit theatre community, and once people understood the strength of the platform, interest started growing naturally."

Hornich agreed. Because of what he calls a consistently positive experience with System T at ​ Die Burg, particularly in terms of reliability, audio quality and flexibility for a repertory environment, Hornich says he was keen to have System T as the new audio infrastructure for Die Josefstadt and Kammerspiele. "I was not only looking for a system based purely on specifications," he explains. "I wanted a platform that was trusted in real-world theatre operation. We knew exactly how it behaved under pressure, how flexible and scalable it was and where its strengths lay."

​Following Kammerspiele's upgrade to System T in 2024, attention turned to Die Josefstadt the following year. During the summer 2025 closed season, when no productions are staged, installation work began on a similar system utilising two 32-fader S500 surfaces. This was part of a major refit of the theatre, which also included an Audio over IP network, a wideband Sennheiser multichannel wireless microphone system and a future-proof d&b audiotechnik PA system. System T utilises Open Sound Control (OSC) to provide real time control of audio objects using the familiar System T user interface for a range of external renderers, directly from the System T user interface. "One of the features I value most is the integration with object-based workflows," comments Hornich. This feature will allow Die Josefstadt to integrate Soundscape in the future while enabling operators to continue working within a familiar System T ecosystem.

​"The requirement was to make show files interchangeable, allowing operators to move easily between the two theatres, from one venue to the other," Hornich says. "System T allows us to treat both theatres as part of a common audio ecosystem rather than two completely separate installations. Because both venues share the same console platform, show files, channel layouts, processing structures and operational workflows, show files can be transferred between them with very little effort. That makes it much easier to move productions, technical resources and personnel between theatres whenever necessary"

​One of Die Josefstadt's S500 surfaces is permanently installed in its FOH position, while TSAMM built a customised trolley for the second S500 so it can be moved into the auditorium during rehearsals. An additional remote unit with 16-faders is also available to be used anywhere in the theatre. There is a similar arrangement at the Kammerspiele, with its 16-fader S500 in its own custom-made stand on wheels.

In both theatres the two desks can operate alone or together, depending on the production. "Sometimes both consoles are in use but on other occasions there's only the big console or the small one," said Hornich. "The consoles are used across virtually our entire production portfolio at Die Josefstadt and Kammerspiele. This ranges from spoken drama and productions with extensive multimedia content to live music performances and musical theatre productions with significantly larger channel counts and more complex requirements." Reithofer adds that an important aspect of the System T and S500s to enable this flexibility is the ability to reconfigure the desks at the touch of a button.

The installation timescales were compressed, Hornich says. "We only had six weeks to do that because rehearsals for the new season start at the end of August. It was all super-fast thanks to Mario and everyone that supported us." Reithofer comments that the planning stages by Hornich and his team, which defined every detail of the installation, were also key in making everything run to schedule.

www.solidstatelogic.com