Silence is Robe at Wilminktheater en Muziekcentrum Enschede

The Muziekcentrum is one of three entertainment venues operating on the same site in Enschede in the eastern Netherlands, and recently, the old house orchestral lighting has been replaced with 16 Robe T1 Profiles and 16 T1 PC moving lights, all delivered by Robe’s Benelux distributor, Controllux.

Wilminktheater is the theatre space in the same complex. Head of lighting Paul de Vries has been there since 2008, when it first opened and he collaborates closely with Robin Bijker, head of technical for the Muziekcentrum. The Wilminktheater has a capacity of 1000, and the Muziekcentrum concert hall building can accommodate 1800 people standing and 800 seated.

These latest lights – which boosted the existing Robe products on the site – were purchased primarily to provide special orchestra lighting for the concert hall space.

The Phion, Orkest van Gelderland & Overijssel is one of the symphony orchestras regularly using the Muziekcentrum for rehearsals, concerts, and choral recitals, and this was the first orchestral venue in the Netherlands to use moving LED lights for this specific purpose.

Before the T1s arrived, the orchestra was lit with a series of aging MultiPARs which had been in place for around 20 years, so the upgrade was well overdue!

As the primary purpose of these T1s was to light the orchestra, the main requirements were for good brightness and colour temperature, together with silent running.

The fact that the T1s have a host of highly usable and useful multipurpose features was a huge bonus for the pop concerts that are also staged in the venue, but ‘suitable for orchestra’ was the first criterion.

Previously, when concerts were staged in the Muziekcentrum, Paul and the crew would purloin lights – including their existing Robe products – from the Theatre venue’s lighting rig for the evening.

That included the Theatre’s own Robe T1 Profiles, which were installed in 2018, CycBar 15s, which arrived in 2021 and LEDBeam 350s purchased in 2023.

The Muziekcentrum also already had some Robe moving lights in situ, in the form of 16 x T2 Profiles that were added in 2023 for front lighting, together with another 8 x T2s that are part of the theatre house rig, so Robe already had a good presence in the building.

The experience working with all of these Robes was excellent, however when it came to replacing the Concert Hall orchestra lighting, Paul and his team also looked at some other available options… before making a final choice, which was to again invest in Robe to achieve the best results.

The orchestra was also involved in this. Paul and the team showed them the lights they were planning to get, and the musicians were fairly rapidly convinced that Robe T1s were the way to go.

“Previously, they were not convinced about LED sources – like many in theatre, they initially thought outputs were low and the CRI was simply not hitting the mark,” explained Paul, “But of course, LED technology has advanced massively in the last 5 years, so when we showed them the T1 output and the CRI, they were impressed.”

This speaks volumes, as we all know how vital it is to create the right ambience and conditions for classical musicians to perform their best.

This part of the process was also aided by having the T1s in the theatre, so a proper real-world demo could be conducted with the orchestra, who are apparently now so satisfied with the T1s that they want to spec them for the other venues in which they work!

Paul further emphasised the importance of good relationships with the local distributor – and commented that the Controllux service is always spot on and also notes that the Robe products generally have been “very stable, reliable and don’t often need much maintenance.”

The Wilminktheater en Muziekcentrum Enschede in-house team light all the orchestral shows themselves, and their lighting rigs are used by the vast majority of the incoming ‘received’ shows in all venues. Additionally, they also stage their own productions for which all technical elements are delivered in-house by a technical team of 14, covering all departments and disciplines.

It is a busy and vibrant environment. Activities across the three venues on this site and two more in Enschede city centre – that are also administered and run by the Wilminktheater Muziekcentrum Enschede organisation – account for around 670 diverse shows and events annually. 

Photos: Louise Stickland.