Tianjin Grand Theatre is the hub of the Tianjin Cultural Centre, located in the landmark district of the city - just 29 minutes from Beijing by high speed train - and close to the city hall of Tianjin Municipal Government. The Centre covers a total area of about 90 hectares and is comprises the Tianjin Grand Theatre, Tianjin Museum, Tianjin Natural History Museum, Tianjin Library, Tianjin Art Gallery, the Youth Activity Centre, shopping centre and the city's underground traffic hub.
The Grand Theatre itself embraces four venues - a 1600 seat opera house, a 1200 seat concert hall, a 400 seat playhouse and a 400 seat recital hall.
Gmp Architekten explains the spectacular architecture, "The Grand Theater occupies the key position in the newly built Culture Park of Tianjin. The circular shape of the roof construction corresponds with the existing Museum of Natural History so that an architectural dialogue of an earth-bound and a "floating" circular volume is created to both ends of the park. Earth and sky represent a fundamental thinking in Chinese philosophy."
In common with the spectacular National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Beijing, which in many ways set the bar in China for high tech theatres and multi-use performing arts centres, Tianjin's Grand Theatre has elected ADB to be its lighting partner. Other venues in the company's China portfolio include Shanghai's Opera House and Oriental Arts Centre (OAC). The OAC provided an important reference as a similar application in a similar building at the NCPA.
In Tianjin, the Belgian theatre and opera house lighting specialist has been brought in to supply, in conjunction with Chinese partner Zhejiang Dafeng Industry, a complete ADB Lighting package for all the theatre's numerous spaces.
Kunkel Consulting International in charge of design for the entire stage machinery, sound and lighting system. German architects Gmp Architekten, whose credits include the airy and spectacular Bao'an Stadium in China, designed the project.
ADB supplied the lighting package for the-three venue site including Freedom lighting control desks, Eurodim Twin Tech dimmers and luminaires.
One of the key elements supplied by ADB was its new House Lighting Control system (HLC-1) for the venue, designed for simple, fully programmable, plug-and-play operation.
The lighting systems for the three auditoriums feature a substantial ADB Lighting inventory - 28 of the ultra bright Europe DN205 2000W zoom profile, 10 DS205s, 82 F101s, 188 WARP 1230 luminaires and 20 WARP 2250s. The WARP units are silent, fan-less spotlights, an essential low-noise element for concert halls, particularly during orchestral or operatic performances.
The 1600-seat opera house's 18m×12m proscenium fronts a main stage 24m deep and 25m wide, and has a lighting system with 4096 DMX channel Freedom consoles; in all, there are and takes 4096 DMX-channel dimmers as backup.
(Jim Evans)
