latest news headlines
MA Lighting Furnish Rotterdamse Schouwburg with dimMA System
The ‘Rotterdamse Schouwburg’ is one of the leading theatres in the Netherlands, and every year its three halls are visited by over 200,000 guests. It has a long tradition of performing high profile national and international theatre shows. To meet modern technical demands and due to the fact that the former dimming system of the Schouwburg was 20 years old, a new dimming system had to be installed – a dimMA system.
Beginning in 2006 Gerben van der Weert and his lighting engineers started to search for a replacement of the old dimmers. Four products from different manufacturers undertook tests which included electrical characteristics, mechanical construction, ease of use, security, networking capabilities and even a “can you hear the PAR can buzzing” test. “All professional dimming solutions scored well, but there was one system that left the rest behind. Even sine wave dimmers couldn’t beat the MA’s. We were very pleased with the dimMA system, especially with the networking capabilities and ease of use,” explained van der Weert. “The dimmer feedback on the grandMA and the possibility to configure the installation in a clear graphical interface were unbeatable. This, together with the very high safety standard and the robust design of the dimming modules led to the decision for the dimMA and dimMA compact.”
Rolight Theatertechniek BV, MA Lighting’s distributor in the Netherlands, installed about 600 channels of dimMA in the building. The main hall was furnished with six cabinets, equipped with 248 channels 3kVA, 50 channels 5,7kVA and 11 channels 11kVA. Despite the fact that one Network Dimmer Processor (NDP) can control up to two cabinets of dimmers, every cabinet was equipped with its own NDP. This gives maximum redundancy due to the fact that in every two cabinets two NDP’s work together as master and slave. If one of them should fail, the other one would take over the work instantly. Since one cabinet takes only 60 x 60cm of floor space, a lot of space has been regained in the dimming room. The second hall houses 108 channels 3kVA and 12 channels 5,7kVA controlled by two NDP’s. The ‘Krijn Boon Studio’ is in fact a rehearsal studio. This studio is sometimes used as third hall for the Schouwburg. Therefore it is equipped with 72 channels of 3kVA dimMA. Since there is no dimming room in this studio the dimmers had to be placed underneath the tribune and consequently had to be absolutely silent.
Next to these three halls Rolight installed 48 channels of dimMA compact in the public area. The features of the dimMA compact are the same as the ones of the dimMA. It is called compact due to the fact that the module size is different (12 x 3kVA or 6 x 5,7 kVA). It is only four units high and 108 channels could be included into one dimMA compact cabinet. Despite dimMA compact being designed for fixed installations, Rolight built two mobile racks each with 24 channels of dimMA compact for the theatre. By doing this it is possible to benefit from the same features as the installed dimmers. The dimmers can be controlled via Ethernet and all feedback is sent back to grandMA onPC. These racks are for general purpose, but mainly used as decentralized dimmers on the lighting bridges of the main hall.
15th January 2008
HEADLINES
news archive
search stories
FOOTNOTE: Select the news type you require in the red band above; this will enable you to see the current news stories from that section
© 1999 - 2012 Entertainment Technology Press Limited News Stories
