Vienna State Opera invests in Robe Forte HCF
- Details
Vienna State Opera purchased 10 Forte HCF luminaires and four Forte HCF FollowSpots which work in conjunction with a customised RoboSpot control system, explained deputy head of lighting Robert Eisenstein.
The Opera House has a busy repertory schedule, and these Robe luminaires - delivered via Robe’s Austrian distributor Signal - replace the old manual-focus generic FOH tungsten fixtures with brighter, more adaptable, and more sustainable lights, and have upgraded the traditional follow spots in this impressive 1,709 seat and 567 standing capacity Renaissance Revival styled venue which opened in 1869, when it was the first building to be erected on the Vienna ring road!
With a throw distance of 50m to the stage from the FOH positions, they needed the most powerful and the quietest fixtures.
The fact that the FOH gallery lights no longer have to be manually focussed means valuable between-production changeover times can be saved by having moving lights, and that the system is hugely more flexible for accommodating the needs of all productions.
Robert and his colleagues are all delighted with the results, as are the visiting lighting designers who have so far benefitted from using the new system.
RoboSpots were first tested in the house three years ago when a system was rented in for the Vienna Opera Ball.
The Opera House follow spot slots rooms are in the high gallery in the middle of the FOH lighting positions which were already very tight for space, so having a small fixture was essential.
They wanted the human touch of the operator being involved rather than having a tracking system, so the Forte FollowSpots are fitted with Robe’s LightMaster kit handles which enable the follow spot operators to control the size and the intensity of the fixtures, while the other parameters are run via the venue’s main ETC Gio lighting console.
“Robe was flexible and willing for us to work with their RoboSpot software to get the precise solution we needed,” stated Robert.
