Robe offers sounds of silence in Aalborg
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Inside the building created on the site of an old power station and opened in March 2014, is a 1,300-seat concert hall, a 600-capacity recital hall, plus several studios and practice rooms utilised by the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Academy of Music. Additional tenants include Orchestra Norden, and two of Aalborg University’s fine arts divisions, the Institute of Music and the Danish Jazz Centre.
In addition to the 300-odd concerts and live performances staged annually, it hosts around 200 ‘commercial’ events.
Production director Peter Klokker Iversen and head of lighting Jonas Kjaerulff explained that the T1 Profile investment was specifically for providing front and key lighting for whatever action was happening onstage in the main hall.
Typically, Jonas will light around 20% of the rock shows staged at the venue (most will have their own LDs), plus all the classical, recital, theatre and corporates, so his skills must cover multiple genres.
Being a concert hall, they were extremely concerned about the noise and so silence was a crucial factor when deciding on which fixtures.
“With the reverb in the venue, there are those moments when we can literally hear that proverbial pin drop,” explains Jonas, adding that five years ago, when the Musikkens Hus opened, there were simply no moving lights on the market that were quiet enough to take on the role.
When they discovered that the T1 was being launched last year, and that silence was one of its many features, they wanted to have a look and a listen.
They already had a reference fixture in mind - from a competitor brand - and with the launch of the T1 Profile, the timing was perfect to look at that as an alternative! Having had such a good experience with their Pointes and frequently renting additional BMFLs and other Robe fixtures for certain shows, they knew the quality and reputation of Robe was what they required.
Robe’s Danish distributor Light Partner conducted a demo, they were immediately impressed by the quality of the light output, the accuracy of the shuttering and the output of the 5-colour light engine being superior to CMY mixing.
In Denmark, there is a big green energy focus and the T1 scored again. “It’s a solid green investment that is an ideal replacement for discharge lamps in this context,” states Iversen.
(Jim Evans)
