How Iceland's Renowned Theatre Seamlessly Upgraded Its Intercom System
Reykjavik City Theatre recently underwent a major intercom system upgrade — with minimal disruption — to deliver flexibility within a unified production network infrastructure.
Edited by EE Staff
Stage Events
Feb 24, 2026
Since opening in 1989, the Reykjavik City Theatre (RCT) has been a cultural hub for Iceland’s theatre community, hosting a diverse range of productions in its three performance spaces which share foyer and backstage dressing rooms. During its operations, RCT has gone through multiple intercom system upgrades to meet growing demands. Most recently, RCT transitioned to a unified production network infrastructure. With this high-speed architecture in place, the move to the Arcadia Central Station proved ideal, seamlessly leveraging the new network to launch the theatre into a modern era of communication—ready for immediate needs as well as long-term expansion.
“This project demonstrates how existing customers can take a stepwise approach to upgrades without replacing entire systems,” said Gunnar Gunnarsson, General Manager at Atendia, Clear-Com’s distributor in Iceland. “Arcadia delivers scalability, performance, and effortless live configuration while minimizing disruption, a perfect solution for a busy theatre like RCT.”
The Arcadia upgrade included FreeSpeak® high-capacity IP transceivers and 24 FreeSpeak II wireless beltpacks, alongside HelixNet® networked partyline speaker stations to ensure comprehensive coverage throughout all shared performance spaces. By making extensive use of Clear-Com’s virtual Role configuration, the team effectively deploys this shared inventory across different venues and tasks.
Additionally, Dante® connectivity was added to the production audio network and paging system. This allows any audio input or output to be assigned within the intercom system while still retaining existing V-Series® keypanels, FreeSpeak beltpacks and analog partyline system components, now powered by Arcadia.
According to Steinar Snæbjörnsson, Technical Director at RCT, “Clear-Com’s Arcadia system proved to be the perfect fit for our new production network infrastructure. Its flexibility and ease of use transformed our communication workflow, providing the clarity and control that made a real difference during this season’s major productions such as Moulin Rouge.”
Flexible, Full-Scale Capabilities
The upgraded system provides RCT’s teams with the mobility, capacity, and ease of use needed to adapt effortlessly to dynamic production demands. Some of the new capabilities include venue-wide coverage of intercom support across multiple performance spaces, featuring wireless coverage that leverages the facility’s production network. Here are five additional benefits of the new system:
Flexible Role Configuration — Efficient management of shared equipment inventory using agile Roles, allowing for task-, persona-, or location-centric setups.
Dante® Integration — Integration with the venue’s audio infrastructure where any microphone or monitoring output can be routed to the intercom, while providing a flexible paging interface for front-of-house and back-of-house operations.
Efficient Intercom — High-density V-Series keypanels that provide efficient access to channels, direct point-to-point communication, program audio, and paging.
Live Management — Effortless Central Configuration Management (CCM) accessible from any web browser, facilitating live Role and label changes to adapt to user needs instantly, while providing real-time monitoring of transceiver loads to optimize system deployment.
Unified Control — Custom API control integration with the Q-SYS back-of-house audio system.
This upgrade is a model example of how modern intercom solutions can enhance efficiency, performance quality, and creative collaboration in live theatre environments.
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