The venue has an eclectic programme of arts and entertainment including live music of all genres, dance shows, corporate events and parties and is both a producing and a receiving house. The average performance rate is about six shows a week throughout the year.
The venue recently made a large investment in Robe moving lights at the instigation of technical manager Charles Konings. The Robes were supplied by the Dutch office of Benelux distributor Controllux, which has had a healthy and happy working relationship with De Effenaar for some time.
The first delivery of Robes into the venue was in 2009 in the form of four ColorSpot 250E ATs - which were an immediate hit with all the crew, technicians and lighting designers. This was then followed up in 2010 with 12 Robin 300 Spots which were deployed in the small hall.
These made such a difference to the quality and creativity of the shows they could produce that they then decided to purchase 16 Robin 600 Spots and 24 Robin MMX Spots in December 2011 to replace the existing moving lights in the large hall.
The Robin 600 Spots are rigged on the over-stage trusses and the MMXs on a box truss over the audience, where their repertoire of funky and mind-boggling effects really have a chance to make impact for dance events.
One of the venue's main lighting designers is Natasha Von Haaften (also a freelance) who says, "We are all very excited to be working with the new Robes, they are very fast, have good colour-mixing and are completely versatile - with the zoom out and the frost filter in, they can even mimic a wash source."
In both halls the lights are controlled by grandMA light consoles. The first shows for the new kit in the main hall included a popular Pink Floyd cover band and De Effenaar's fashionable marathon 1980s & 90s club nights.
(Jim Evans)
