The lights are controlled by five ETC Gio @5 consoles supplied by Controllux (photo: Kuno van Velzen)
The Netherlands - The new Theater Zuidplein in Rotterdam has over 200 Robe LED fixtures - including T1 Profiles, Spiiders, LEDBeam 150s and ParFect 150s - installed as part of an all-LED lighting rig. It is among the first cultural centres worldwide to have no dimmers.
Theater Zuidplein was designed by architects De Zwarte Hond and is located in the dynamic Rotterdam-Zuid (south) district, offering a lively programme of multi-genre work.
It has two auditoriums - the largest one with a 1000 capacity (standing) and 600 seated, plus a smaller flexible studio space and Hall Z which is in the entrance - together with a café / restaurant and a branch of the Rotterdam Library. It replaces an existing structure built in 1953 half a kilometre down the road.
The lighting specification was created by theatre consultants Theateradvies b.v. Amsterdam and Benelux-based Controllux won the tender to supply the LED lighting fixtures and related data systems and mains power distribution for the project, which was coordinated for them by Kuno van Velzen.
Kuno already knew the existing theatre’s lighting department including Fred den Hartog who is chief of the technical department, stage manager Rémon van den Bekerom and Jeffrey de Werker from the lighting department.
Three years ago, Theater Zuidplein invested in some Spiider LED wash-beams and DL4S Profiles which have also moved to the new building.
Some of the lighting department visited the Robe factory in Valašské Meziříčí in the last two years, ahead of this new building project starting, and when it did, the plan was always to go with an all-LED rig. It made sense in terms of sustainability and long-term cost-efficiency.
Central to the lighting scheme was the specification of an LED profile with a ‘multi-colour mixing system’.
Forty-eight of the Robe T1s in the house are the Profile version with accurate framing shutters, and 10 extra PC version T1s were then added, offering a precise +/- 90 degree rotatable (individually controlled) internal barndoor system, a 7 to 50 degree zoom and a beam shaper.
The LEDBeam 150 is appearing in all sorts of venue and house lighting rigs. With 64 units in the building, they will be distributed between the different performance spaces as needed. Matching the LEDBeam 150 are the 76 x ParFect 150s.
“The lighting was basically thought-through and chosen to give the theatre’s house LDs and any visiting ones the most flexible and high-quality options,” comments Kuno.
The lights are controlled by five ETC Gio @5 consoles which were also supplied by Controllux.
The equipment was purchased by Rotterdam City Council for the project which now opens at the end of 2020, postponed from the original date due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

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