Officially opened in August 2015, Malmo Live is a major new music venue,
conference centre, and hotel development in the Swedish city of Malmo. The
complex is a joint public and private sector venture with the concert hall in
municipal ownership while the conference centre and hotel are part of the Clarion
Hotels group. To complement the facility’s outstanding technical standards and high-
profile repertoire, Arva Trading AB has installed an SSL L300 live console at the
FOH position in the main Concert Hall.
The Malmo Symphony Orchestra performs weekly at the venue, though shares it
with many other visiting acts from all music genres. “They call it the ‘complete
music house’ says Ronny Sjostrand, Technical Manager at Arva Trading AB and
Project Manager for Malmo Live. “They put on everything from heavy metal to
classical.”
Sjostrand has been working on the Malmo Live audio installation for eight months
and has overseen the complete project. More than anything, he is excited by the
exceptional sound quality in the hall. “It sounds so great,” he says. “We have a
1.5dB level variation across every one of the 1600 seats, which is amazing.”
The PA is a new d&b V-Series system, and all wireless provision uses the Sony DWX
digital system. Sjostrand was keen that Malmo Live should select an audio console
that could do justice to the room, the PA, and the artists. “Originally, they hadn’t
considered an SSL,” he notes. “But because of their emphasis on sound quality, I
encouraged them to try an L300.
“They compared it with their existing digital console and immediately heard the
difference – the SSL sounds so much better.” In addition, Arva set up a training
programme for Malmo Live staff so they could get the most out of the new console
and pass that knowledge on to visiting engineers.
The L300 is mounted on a motorised platform that rises from below floor level into
the auditorium when it is needed, creating an FOH position about 20 meters from
the stage. When a purely acoustic performance is scheduled, the FOH position is
lowered and replaced with additional seats. A Blacklight II system – SSL’s high
bandwidth MADI protocol – connects the console to the stage where there are SSL
Stageboxes providing 128 inputs.
Since opening its doors, the Malmo Live Concert Hall has been incredibly busy,
hosting many performances across a huge range of styles, and widely praised for
its production quality. “They have a fantastic room, fantastic microphones, and a
fantastic PA,” says Sjostrand. “They needed a fantastic console, otherwise all those
other things would have been wasted. The SSL L300 is that console.”
