Stopl, who also owns the Sono Music Studio in Prague, is a big music aficionado and wanted to bring a fresh new venue onto the gig circuit. He decided the easiest way to do this was to build his own ...
Once the decision was made, he wanted it to offer only the very best production values - so Robe moving lights and L-Acoustics audio were specified for the main stage.
The eye-catching modernist building was designed by forward-thinking architect Frantisek Smedek and resembles a PA speaker cone from the outside - a large white globe pinched between two large black curving structures. The spherical theme permeates right through the entire venue which has an impressive 1400 capacity.
It also has live recording facilities and three floors with two large balconies, four bars, a generous stage around 13m wide by 7m deep, with 7m of headroom and a series of trusses flown in the roof to provide the lighting positions. For all this, it still retains an innate quality of intimacy and closeness between performers and audience.
The lighting supply was co-ordinated for Robe by Petr Kolmacka and the spec was finalised by him, Stopl and the music club's technical manager, Daniel Giac.
Robe makes up 90% of the lighting with eight Pointes, six LEDWash 1200s, eight LEDWash 800s, four Robin DLS Spots, eight MMX Spots and eight MMX WashBeams. All these fixtures are fitted with the Lumen Radio wireless DMX card.
These were chosen to provide as much flexibility and options as possible for the house and guest LDs, as the club will host a wide variety of artists and musical genres.
Says Kolmacka, "The space is incredible - the architecture, the acoustics and the aesthetics are all very special and it's completely different from anything else we have here in the Czech Republic. Apart from that it's been a real honour working with Jiri Stopl, who together with Daniel Kachlir from Marka AT, have been closely involved at every stage of the process. It was a full team effort and very satisfying."
He explains that they needed an abundance of beams, washes and spots and this drove the choice of fixtures. The rig was spec'd to give the ability to light full on rock bands to jazz performers, orchestras and anything in-between including regular club nights.
A grandMA2 light was specified for control and MDG hazers for atmospherics.
With such a distinctive exterior and with the globe also being white, it was always going to be lit - and for this Kolmacka proposed two Anolis ArcSource Outdoor 48 Integrals, fitted with wireless cards and run via Robe's VTX wireless system.
(Jim Evans)
