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The Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb marked its 130th anniversary with the opening of CNT2. A modern, flexible performance space designed to complement its historic venue.
CNT2 was created to host a wide range of productions, from intimate drama and chamber music to full-scale opera and rehearsals. To achieve this level of versatility, the theatre required a highly adaptable acoustic environment capable of evolving with each performance.
Photography - Lorenz Vogel
Designing CNT2 presented several key challenges, the first of which was the acoustic flexibility that the finished venue would need. The space would need to support vastly different performance types, each one requiring unique acoustic characteristics.
Aesthetically the integration needed to achieve the acoustic performance while remaining visually unobtrusive, a challenge when in order to achieve the desired end result you require a large number of microphones and loudspeakers to deliver an immersive and responsive acoustic field. The final challenge the designers would face is the performance consistency of the system, it would need to maintain clarity, balance and sound across all presets and configurations for the different applications it would tackle.
These challenges would require significant demands not only on processing and loudspeakers but also on the amplification infrastructure behind the system.
To meet these challenges, CNT2 deployed an advanced immersive audio system that employed various industry leading components to work in conjunction with an Amadeus acoustics ART system. Alongside the ART system the Rohde Acoustics team employed hundreds of AD System loudspeakers including the PicoSpot, i.Flex 8 and i.Flex 15B.
A key challenge the team faced was the lack of space for housing the infrastructure needed for the system to perform. As Clemens Frischmann from Rohde Acoustics mentions “Space was limited, as amps and everything for active acoustics was going to be located in the control rooms. Innosonix with their high channel count really helped.”
Employing conventional mulit-channel amplifiers would require a great deal of real estate to house numerous racks, not to mention the need for infrastructure to cool these devices. To address their needs, the team selected Innosonix products, specifically two MA32/D² units and one MA16/D² unit. This provided them with a total of 80 channels. This choice significantly reduced the physical space required for the infrastructure. Moreover, the inherent sonic quality, robust construction, reliability, and Dante compatibility of the Innosonix amplifiers were the ideal complement to the ART system.
This combination allowed the system to deliver seamless transitions between acoustic presets, ensuring that each performance type could be accurately and effectively represented.
The end result is a highly flexible and future-ready performance space where acoustic characteristics can be tailored at the push of a button. CNT2 now delivers a natural, immersive sound experience across all production types that enhances clarity for spoken word, increases the intimacy for chamber music, and broadens the depth and balance for opera. By bringing together a strong manufacturer lineup that provided advanced processing with efficient, high-density amplification, the finished venue achieves exceptional performance without compromising on space or design. CNT2 stands as a benchmark project, demonstrating how modern audio technology and employing innovative amplifier design from Innosonix can support the evolving demands of contemporary theatre while preserving artistic integrity.
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