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Solid State Logic System T delivers theatre production for Vienna’s Die Josefstadt and Kammerspiele

The sound department of the Theater in der Josefstadt, located in Vienna city centre, has installed a Solid State Logic System T digital mixing system that allows engineers to mix either in the auditorium or in the control room, and 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. 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.

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 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. “The requirement was to make show files interchangeable, allowing operators to move easily between the two theatres, from one venue to the other”, says Hornich.

“System T allows us to treat both theatres as part of a common audio ecosystem rather than two completely separate installations”, he continues. “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”, says 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.”

Pictured (left to right): Raimund Hornich (Josefstadt), Mario Reithofer (Tsamm, standing), Thomas Haas (Josefstadt). (Photo: Annie Lehner)

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