Sennheiser’s Spectera wideband wireless systems has been deployed at The Theater in der Josefstadt, one of the most prominent theatres in the German-speaking world, as part of a full digital audio upgrade. The Vienna venue – which attracts more than 200,000 audience members across around 550 shows each season – is the first theatre in Austria to install Spectera systems permanently.
The installation includes two Spectera Base Stations, 26 bidirectional SEK bodypacks and eight DAD antennas distributed across the venue to provide continuous coverage including dressing rooms and adjacent ballroom spaces.
The Base Stations operate in the UHF band and connect directly into the venue’s Dante network, running at 48 kHz with a latency of 1.6ms in Live mode. Each Base Station supports up to 64 audio links across two independent RF wideband channels.
Raimund Hornich, head of the sound department at the theatre, said: “When it came to the range of features available and real value for money, the competitors weren’t able to match what Sennheiser could offer us.”
A key feature for the venue is the bidirectional capability of the SEK bodypacks, which can function simultaneously as transmitter and receiver – allowing them to feed concealed active loudspeakers within set designs as well as carry performer audio. The eight DAD antennas, powered via PoE over CAT cable, are positioned throughout the building to ensure dropout-free coverage wherever performances take place.
Thomas Haas, deputy head of the sound department, added: “The latency of 1.6 milliseconds is absolutely fine. We can adapt the settings to suit the production if different wireless parameters are required.”
Hornich said the e-ink displays on the SEK bodypacks have also proved a practical advantage in daily use, eliminating the need to label each unit with adhesive tape. After a year of operation across hundreds of performances, he described Spectera as “absolutely the right choice” for the theatre’s requirements.
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