Bocholt theatre looks to the future with Elation
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The transition from conventional lighting to LED lighting was high on the city council’s agenda and Jasper Hendriks, technician at the theatre, was tasked with looking into the newest available technology. According to Jasper, the 400-capacity theatre had several good reasons for wanting to upgrade their lighting system. “One issue was with the conventional 1 kw and 2 kw lighting we had – there was simply no more spare parts for them,” he explains.
“Another reason is the local dance schools and associations that use the venue for performances. They were asking for lighting that is more dynamic - a greater variety of colours, cold and warm white light, better side lighting - and we just had no flexibility with the conventional fixtures. They were also concerned with inefficiency of the old system and wanted a cleaner more green-friendly solution.”
In September 2021, Elation key account manager for Benelux, Bert Schmeits, received a call from Jasper who had heard about the quality of the Elation Fuze Profile from another theatre in the area and wanted more information about it and other products. “The starting point was to save energy without compromising on light quality with focus on multifunctionality and ease of use,” Bert said of the initial talk. “After a preliminary discussion and an inventory of the venue’s wishes for the new system, we conducted an on-location demo with products that could replace the theatre’s conventional Fresnel spots and profile spots.”
Jasper used both his lux and decibel meter at the demo to measure objectively the lighting and acoustic level performance of each manufacturers’ product. He says they knew they wanted a moving profile fixture because of the flexibility and looked at several different brands. “We have a good relationship with our neighbourhood venues and had heard about the Fuze Profile,” he confirmed. “When Bert demoed the fixture, we liked the RGBMA colour source and there were other advantages as well like a high CRI and a nice framing system.”
Looking for a full-colour LED Fresnel luminaire to complement the Fuze Profile, the choice fell to the KL Fresnel 8 FC, a high-output soft light with precise colour reproduction and adjustable colour temperature that houses the same RGBMA colour source.
Bert says that Jasper also wanted to tackle the venue’s outdated house lighting system which consisted of 48 obsolete 350W light bulbs in the ceiling that gave off a lot of heat and ran off an old 1960’s-era dimmer. Jasper comments, “We needed at least 500 lux on the floor. Our first idea was to change the bulbs out with LED bulbs but the light output was too low. We tried different LED lights from various manufacturers and the Fuze Pendant’s light performance was the best. The colour source compatibility with the other lights was a benefit as well and now we can match perfectly the house lighting with what happens on stage.”
Silent with no fans, the Fuze Pendant’s output is up to 11,000 lumens. At GC De Kroon they are controlled via DMX through Elation’s E-FLY wireless DMX Transceiver, which allows for quick setup, programming and instant control and saves having to run meters of DMX cable.
The new lighting system is made up of nine Fuze Profile, 12 KL Fresnel 8 FC and 41 Fuze Pendant fixtures, along with a Netron EN12 node from Obsidian Control Systems. The first phase of the lighting install consisted of the Fuze Pendant house lights and was supplied by 8en of Overpelt of Belgium. The second phase comprised of KL Fresnel 8 FCs and Fuze Profiles and was supplied by De Naarstigheid of Merelbeke also from Belgium.
Bands, artists, traveling companies and local organizations will all benefit from the new LED lighting system and a number of local shows already have. “We really did a lot of research to find the best lighting solution for the venue and it came out great,” Jasper concludes. “The local community will benefit from this investment for years to come.”
