Helsinki City Theatre - AV networks

Helsinki City Theatre is Finland’s largest theatre, known for its broad and high-quality repertoire. Operating across four venues, it produces performances for more than 300,000 audience members each year — a scale that sets exacting demands on every technical system.

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That reality became the starting point for a comprehensive network overhaul, connecting all four venues into a single, unified AV network. The network now serves as the platform for lighting, audio, video, and stage systems, as well as facade lighting, information displays, ticketing, building technology, and access control. Audico Systems led the design, implementation, and ongoing maintenance of the entire project.

“The previous network infrastructure had reached the end of its service life. We needed a reliable system that would first and foremost support our productions, but also serve the overall audience experience. We decided we wanted the best solution available.”‍

Antti Rehtijärvi, Production Director, Helsinki City Theatre

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The AV network is the foundation of production technology

The requirements of production technology differ fundamentally from a standard office network. Data transmission is time-critical, bandwidth demands are exceptionally high, and a single configuration error can have immediate consequences for the entire system. Designing, dimensioning, and maintaining an AV network requires deep networking expertise combined with a practical understanding of how production technology actually works.

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“We wanted a genuine partner. We chose Audico because they have real experience with the specific demands of theatre and production technology. Audico understands that this is not just an IT project — it’s a mission-critical operation.”

‍Antti Rehtijärvi, Production Director, Helsinki City Theatre

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A whole-building network built around AV requirements

Over the years, the old network had grown fragmented. Building management systems and other functions had been bolted onto the office network, parallel local networks had been built to accommodate production technology, and the equipment at the satellite stages was inconsistent and outside central management.

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Audico designed and delivered a single, unified network infrastructure covering all of the theatre’s locations. The defining decision was made at the very start of the design process: the entire building network was dimensioned to meet AV requirements, not office equipment. When the infrastructure is built around the critical bandwidth demands of lighting, audio, and video systems, everything else fits naturally into the same framework. The reverse approach does not work.

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HPE Aruba was selected as the hardware platform, meeting the demands of a mission-critical AV network through a single, coherent architecture. Aruba Central brings all venues under one unified view, giving both Audico and HKT staff real-time visibility of network status and enabling remote management without separate VPN connections. Traffic between the production technology and the rest of the network is controlled by firewalls, and the service agreement continues after handover as a three-tier support model.

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What the overhaul makes possible

The satellite stages are now part of the same fast, reliable AV network as the main building. The network has the capacity to meet both current needs and the growth expected over the next decade, including increasing use of video and AI-based tools. Above all, the system gives the theatre what any mission-critical infrastructure must deliver: the stability on which every performance can depend.

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“The outcome of this project does not depend on any individual piece of equipment — it depends on getting the groundwork right the first time. A well-designed system pays for itself across the full lifecycle, because workflows function smoothly and the whole remains manageable years down the line.”‍

Jori Luoto, AV-IT Specialist and Designer, Audico Systems

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A network designed by production technology specialists

AV systems are at the core of Audico’s expertise, and its specialists understand production technology network protocols at the same depth as the systems themselves. At Helsinki City Theatre, that expertise combined with the HPE Aruba platform — an architecture built to carry the demands of large, critical environments. HPE Aruba’s unified management model, proven performance in large-scale installations, and long product lifecycle minimise both operational risk and total cost of ownership.

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The Helsinki City Theatre project demonstrates what happens when an entire building’s network is built around AV requirements. The result is an infrastructure that serves productions, audience experience, and daily operations equally well.