The Netherlands - Two key performance spaces – Odeon and Spiegel – in the bustling Netherlands regional epicentre of Zwolle, chose Robe moving lights as a vital element of their transition to LED lighting, with the purchase of six T1 Profiles, 18 x Painte Profiles, 24 x LEDBeam 350s and 24 x LEDBeam FWQ 150 Washes, all delivered by Robe’s Benelux distributor, Controllux.
Discussions related to the move to LED started in 2022, and Zwolle Theatre’s head of technical Dennis Bouwhuis and head of lighting Jan Willem Jansen explained that, as they already had some older Robe moving lights – ColorWash 250s and ColorSpot 700s – in the inventory, they had already known the brand for a long time and enjoyed its reliability.
The Zwolle Theatre dates back to 1869 and also has the Hanzestrohm Hall (AKA the ‘Small Hall’) for 457 people, one of the oldest bonbonnière-style theatre halls in the Netherlands, and a truly beautiful and historic performance space.
Jan Willem 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 by Queen Beatrix 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, and in recent years, have become well known for supplying the full production needs of any incoming.
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,” Jan Willem explained.
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,” he confirmed.
The LEDBeam 350s and 150s were chosen for their sheer versatility, and Paintes were a good solution for both the large and small halls being lightweight, bright, quiet and good on power consumption.
Taranto noted that with the Small Hall being such a cosy 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 confirmed,
They quickly figured that Painte would also work nicely as a conventional spotlight and for key lighting – “it basically fitted every niche as needed,” said Taranto, highlighting that the short changeover times also informed the choices, assisting in the quick, straightforward, and efficient setting up of shows.
“The T1 profiles really 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 perfectly and would work elegantly and practically in conjunction with one another,” commented Jan Willem.
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.
Zwolle Theatre produces around 300 shows and events a year, operating with at least one or more of their spaces in use year-round.
