GDS plays key role in Rimini renaissance
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Following a first restoration, the theatre flourished until it was bombed in 1943 during World War 2. Badly damaged, the theatre, by this time dedicated to the nationally famous musician, composer and critic Amintore Galli, lay derelict until 1975 when it was partly restored and the City Council moved into its refurbished foyer. In more recent times, a long and intense culture-based debate took place about how to best reconstruct the entire theatre.
Following these discussions and with regional and EU support, a full restoration commenced in 2014 and was completed in October 2018. The fully restored Theatre Galli is up and running again and UK technology company GDS has played a small but very important role.
Decima 1948 of Padova, as part of its wider brief across the project, was responsible for installing the house lighting and sought to find the best possible light quality and dimming performance.
CEO Enzo Trovato was directly involved as a consultant to the project from its early stages and in 2016, he attended the ABTT show where he met GDS’s Darren Jackson, who subsequently arranged a presentation to showcase the Bristol-based manufacturer’s product ranges, as well as examples of their wide-ranging application.
It was immediately clear to Trovato that in GDS ArcSystem, Decima 1948 had found the high-quality dimming that such a prestigious project deserved. Impressed with what he had discovered, the Decima 1948 chief demonstrated the products to the project architects for sign-off and GDS ArcLamp fixtures were added to the project inventory.
Decima supplied drawings to GDS, enabling Jackson to specify the products, which in turn led to applications engineer John Blamey travelling to Rimini to oversee the commissioning of the system. His impressions were universally positive:
“Installers Decima 1948 carried out one of the best and highest quality installs I’ve ever seen. Everything on site was in perfect working order, which made for stress-free commissioning. The job was completely straightforward from our point of view - the system worked as expected and is a fitting addition to what is a tremendous setting. The Teatro Galli has certainly come a long way from being a bombed-out shell and it’s great to have played a part in its wonderful revival.”
This was the first time GDS had worked in Italy and the company was gratified to have made its Italian debut as part of such a prestigious and high-profile project. More than 450 x ArcLamp 24V FTW (Fade to Warm) Candle Clear 2700K fixtures were installed at Teatro Galli as part of what has been the largest theatre restoration of its kind in Italy
Reflecting on a successful new partnership, GDS business development manager, Darren Jackson comments, “It’s an absolute honour to be working with a company that has such a truly amazing heritage in the theatre sector. Having found a partner of such calibre it seems entirely fitting that we began GDS’s Italian journey with such a historically important and prestigious project.
Teatro Galli opened its doors to the paying public for the first time in 75 years on 28 October, 2018. Multi-award-winning Mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli took to the stage to launch a two-month run of special inaugural events.
(Jim Evans)
