Aktuelle News & Schlagzeilen

Zwolle theatres choose Robe

Odeon and Spiegel, two theatres in Zwolle, The Netherlands, have chosen Robe moving lights as a vital element of their transition to LED lighting, with the purchase of six T1 Profiles, 18 Painte Profiles, 24 LEDBeam 350s and 24 LEDBeam FWQ 150 Washes, all delivered by Robe’s Benelux distributor Controllux.

Discussions related to the move to LED started in 2022, and according to Zwolle Theatre’s head of technical Dennis Bouwhuis and head of lighting Jan Willem Jansen, they already had some older Robe moving lights - ColorWash 250s and ColorSpot 700s - in the inventory.

The Zwolle Theatre dates back to 1869 and also has the Hanzestrohm Hall (also known as the “Small Hall”) for 457 people, one of the oldest bonbonnière-style theatre halls in the Netherlands. Jansen and his team - including Antonello Taranto and Kathy Veldman - also look after all things technical for two other spaces in the original building, the 219-seat Black Box Theatre and the Studio which can accommodate 72 theatre lovers.

The large hall - Spiegel - is located on another site across town. It was built in 2004 and officially opened in 2006 to assist in accommodating larger and more contemporary productions, offering a capacity of 960. All of these are in the process of changing to LED lighting for the house rigs. The venues all receive and produce shows.

While being familiar with Robe, the lighting department considered various other LED options from different manufacturers, which culminated in a shootout of shortlisted products in the Spiegel. “The productions staged in our different sized buildings are diverse, so we needed the most properly ‘multipurpose’ fixtures available that met several criteria”, explains Jansen. With incoming companies usually keen to use their house lighting systems, they needed a good cross section, and this is why all these fixtures were selected. “These four types of Robe products were clear winners in the shootouts”, says Jansen.

Taranto notes that with the Small Hall being such a cozy space, luminaires with a low ambient operating noise were a must. “We checked off separate wish lists of different parameters, some of which overlapped, related to all of the spaces”, he says. They figured that Painte would also work as a conventional spotlight and for key lighting - “it basically fitted every niche as needed”, says Taranto.

The first fixtures to be upgraded were those above the stage, says Jansen, and when it came to front lighting, the T1 Profile with its multispectral lightsource was chosen: “The T1 profiles completed the whole set of fixtures for us. We felt that - with Paintes, LEDBeam 350s and LEDBeam 150 FQWs with the fresnel-wash output - they rounded off the equation and would work practically in conjunction with one another.”

All the new Robe fixtures move between the four venues. They are currently still using some conventionals in all spaces, but this will soon be changing. The Paintes are used in the Small Hall and the Spiegel; the LEDWash 350s are rigged in the Spiegel; the LEDBeam 150s are in the Main building, with the T1s in the Spiegel/Large Hall. The combinations change each week depending on the different show schedules and their respective production requirements.

Zwolle Theatre produces around 300 shows and events a year, operating with at least one or more of their spaces in use year-round. The types of production range from pure theatre shows like drama and dance to comedy, musicals, music concerts and opera as well as corporate, business, and industrial events.

Pictured (left to right): Kuno van Velzen (Controllux) with Antonello Taranto, Jan Willem Jansen and Kathy Veldman from Zwolle theatres. (Photos: Paul Clarke/Jan Willem Jansen/Nathan Reinds/Louise Stickland/Kasper Veenstra)

www.robe.cz

© 1999 - 2025 Entertainment Technology Press Limited News Stories