L-Acoustics Certified Provider Matrix Sales designs and installs an L2D system that brings all 1,005 seats in the Store Sal to the same standard without crossing a side-balcony sightline

Værket means ‘the works,’ and the name is literal. The city of Randers built it as the city’s electricity plant in 1906, and in 1990, Randers Municipality converted it into the performing arts complex that it is today. The complex now runs from an 1887 riding hall to an outdoor stage for several thousand people, and its programme takes in theatre, musicals, lectures, classical concerts and contemporary touring productions.

The Store Sal is the biggest indoor room on the site and the hardest working. It seats 1,005 across a stalls floor, a first balcony, an upper balcony and side balconies, and it changes shape with the programme, becoming a 400-seat theatre one week, a classical concert hall the next, or opening its orchestra pit for opera, ballet and large-scale concerts. Opening the pit moves the nearest seats back, so the front of the system has a different job on an opera night than on a theatre night.

All of that ran on an L-Acoustics ARCS II system originally installed in 2016. Across a programme that moves from the spoken word to full-scale concerts, Værket wanted every seat brought up to the same standard, and the case was commercial as much as artistic.

The brief pulled in two directions at once. The system had to deliver uniform horizontal and vertical coverage across all four seating levels, with speech intelligibility to match and headroom for high-dynamic-range concert productions. It also had to all but disappear. Nothing could cross a sightline from the side balconies, and nothing could sit heavily inside a converted power station.

Soundvision Points Matrix Sales to L2D

Værket turned to L-Acoustics Certified Provider Matrix Sales, a long-standing partner of the venue, which designed, supplied and installed the new system and trained the in-house technical team on it.

“L-Acoustics has always been our preferred choice, and we have enjoyed many positive experiences with the brand over the years,” says Christian Sadolin Linnet Sørensen, Operations and Production Manager at Værket. “When the time came to upgrade our sound system, it was a natural decision to build on our existing platform and invest in the new L Series loudspeakers.”

The multi-level layout set the puzzle. One system had to reach the stalls, the first balcony, the upper balcony and the side balconies with the same response, without crossing a sightline or imposing on the room, and the rigging allowed a single suspension point for the flown subwoofers.

Matrix Sales took the options into L-Acoustics Soundvision. “Soundvision allowed us to quickly narrow down the available options and identify an optimal solution,” says Ashley Cooke, Product Manager at Matrix Sales. “We could accurately predict which system would deliver the best results and quickly determine that the L2D was by far the best solution.” The L-Acoustics Application team then verified the design.

L2D answered both halves of the brief at once. Its progressive vertical directivity carries the same response from the stalls to the upper balcony, and the compact format delivers that performance from an enclosure small enough to leave every side-balcony sightline clear.

L2D and KS21 Fit the Hall on a Single Suspension Point

Two L2D on either side of the stage cover the stalls and the first balcony, with six KS21 flown directly behind them in two groups of three on a custom-fabricated bracket that makes the single suspension point work. Three further KS21 can be deployed at stage or floor level when a production wants more weight at the bottom. Five A10 Focus serve the upper balcony and the upper side balconies, and ten X8 fill the front rows and the front side balconies. Twelve X12 are on hand for stage monitors. A P1 processor, two LA7.16i, two LA12X and six LA4X amplified controllers power the system, while six LS10 switches run Milan-AVB with full redundancy.

Low-frequency energy on stage is controlled from both ends of the system. The KS21 are physically configured in cardioid, while L2D with inherent cardioid can be configured and reconfigured by presets. Performers get a noticeably cleaner field to work in.

A single preset recall switches the system between coverage settings to suit the hall configuration in use, including the performances that open the orchestra pit.

L Series Coverage Takes the Discounted Seats Off the Price List

The clearest measure of the upgrade shows up in the box office. Every seat in the Store Sal now sells at full price, because not one of them sits in reduced coverage. “House and visiting engineers are consistently impressed by the even coverage throughout the audience area,” says Cooke. With the same response in front of them wherever they work, the technical team builds mixes that hold up across every production format, and the controlled low end has measurably improved conditions on stage.

Værket’s technical team already knew L-Acoustics Network Manager, so the handover took a single day of training from a certified Matrix Sales trainer. “From the outset, we maintained a close and constructive dialogue throughout the upgrade process, exploring and testing numerous configurations to achieve the best possible listening experience for our audiences,” Sørensen concludes. “There has been tremendous enthusiasm for the new L Series across the venue from day one, and the upgrade has made a significant difference to the concert experience for both audiences and artists alike.”