The National Theatre and the National Concert Hall's history is as glamorous as the two buildings themselves. Built to commemorate former ROC President Chiang Kai-Shek in 1975 at a cost of $NT7 billion (147 million), they formed one of the first large arts complexes in Asia.
Its distinctive architecture - adopted from the tradition of ancient Chinese palaces - by C.C.Yang was matched with indoor acoustics, stage facilities and lighting designed by an international group headed by G+H Company of Germany and Philips.
Large quantities of ADB luminaires and Eurodim dimmers were supplied for the complex's lighting system several years ago. In 2007, its management turned once again to ADB and local partner Hosuei, when a decision was made to radically upgrade the venue's lighting with automated lighting and Ethernet control.
Top of the list of requirements for the in-house technical and stage management team was the ability to provide a high brightness, with daylight discharge sources. At the heart of the new system are 22 ADB WARP Daylight zoom profile fixtures with mechanical dousers, and a new control system based on the top end ADB Phoenix 10/XT lighting desk, with its backup, and the latest iteration of the ISIS software.
ADB distributor Hosuei Corporation said that Taipei's National Theatre staff were very enthused by the WARP Daylight's patented fingertip ring control, and also by the integrated beam shaping shutters, iris, gobos, zoom and focus, which provide a high degree of versatility and operating comfort in a compact package.
The complex installation has also been fully networked as part of the upgrade with DMX over Ethernet, along with two video nodes, wireless remote control and a dedicated file server application.
A joint team from ADB and Hosuei led the project commissioning, which was completed in time for the unveiling of the National Theatre and National Concert Hall's 2008 programme.
(Lee Baldock)
