Spot is an umbrella organisation set up to run music productions staged at two busy and vibrant venues in the city of Groningen, The Netherlands – De Oosterpoort and the municipality’s main theatre, Stadsschouwburg.
De Oosterpoort is the home of the Noord Nederlands Orkest and the 4-day Eurosonic Noorderslag (ESNS) festival, plus numerous other shows, productions and business events. Last year, Oosterpoort’s first Robe moving lights arrived as part of an upgrade to start replacing their old halogen stock with LED luminaires, with more recently delivered, so all their moving lights are now LED-based.
The venue has three halls. The Grote Zaal (Main Hall) can accommodate 1850 standing and 1150 seated, the Kleine Zaal (Small Hall) has a capacity of 750 standing and 450 seated and the Binnenzaal (inside hall) has a cosy 300 standing only.
Last year, the Main and Small halls received a total of 32 new Robe FORTES fitted with the HCF (High Colour Fidelity) engine and 32 Spiider LED wash beams to enrich their palette of creative lighting tools. “Every seven years or so, we look at upgrading to stay relevant and in line with the most appropriate tech available,” explained Spot lighting designer Henk Geuzinge.
This is their third moving light upgrade, and the first to see a major shift to Robe.
Binnenzaal is a special, intimate but high-energy space that hosts a diverse range of music shows and is known for its great atmosphere, which is now boosted with the arrival of 14 Robe PAINTES and 8 LEDBeam 350 moving lights.
The Binnenzaal lighting upgrade has effectively been Geuzinge’s ‘baby’. He and colleague Jack Rozema, also an LD, are delighted with the progression as previously an external rental company serviced the hall, so now they have full control over lighting and audio and all the kit to take Binnenzaal experiences to a new level.
When the investment opportunity arose, they first looked at the budgets, then drilled down into the full lighting requirements for Binnenzaal, rapidly figuring out that Robe’s PAINTE and one other contender offered the ideal choice for profile fixtures. They looked at both and quickly chose PAINTE, “It was a solid, well spec’d light that ticked many boxes,” stated Geuzinge.
Rozema recommended the LEDBeam 350s and noted that these two fixture types are often specified together and complement one another very well.
Four of the new PAINTE profiles are used for front lighting – effortlessly covering the 7-metre wide, 5-metre-deep stage, with the rest rigged on one of the overhead upstage bars. This positioning illustrates the fixture’s adaptability. “They are also excellent for dance parties and events, very nice multipurpose lights and in my opinion, one of the best in Robe’s current range,” noted Rozema.
Both Geuzinge and Rozema recognise Robe as a market leading manufacturer, and with around 70% of their shows bringing in their own LDs, they needed a brand that was universally used and accepted: “We were very pleased to get Robe in house here, as we see the products on shows and events constantly and the brand has an excellent reputation.”
Last year, when upgrading the Large and Small halls, the final pick of lights was also based on a series of shootouts, for which Robe’s Benelux distributor Controllux brought Robe to the table. Controllux were already well known to all the Spot technical team, and their excellent after-sales support and backup was another consideration, especially as they were purchasing a new brand.
Geuzinge, Rozema, Spot’s chief of technical Sascha Pil and lighting tech Pim Bleker had scoured the specifications of all the shows, companies, bands, and artists coming through, and collectively compiled long and short lists of potential features that were key, and fixtures that offered these. Added to that equation was their knowledge of what is popular and in day-to-day use across the Netherlands.
De Oosterpoort stages over 500 shows, events, concerts and commercial and private events annually, featuring all types of music from rock, metal and pop to opera and classical and they also present theatre and musicals.
