The Summer Concerts at The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Lit by PROLIGHTS

	Photo: Michael Moorthaemer, Jim Cloots, Tiedo Wilschut, Simon Reinink

Het Concertgebouw in Amsterdam hosted the VriendenLoterij ZomerConcerten, a summer series of more than 80 concerts running for over ten weeks across classical, jazz, pop, and film music.

To support this demanding season, rental company P3 Podiumtechniek invested in 24 PROLIGHTS Muse Profile70CT+ LED profile moving lights. Peter Peereboom of P3 Podiumtechniek says, "Thanks to its broad versatility and the appreciation it has found among several lighting designers, this fixture is a particularly welcome addition to our rental package."

Before the final decision was made, Peereboom put several fixtures through testing and comparison, involving several lighting designers in the process. "Peter enjoys brainstorming creative solutions for practical problems. He understands the big picture but also has an eye for detail," says Tiedo Wilschut of CUE1, responsible for the lighting design and technical production of the concert series. "After several tests and discussions, we concluded that the Muse Profile70CT+ was a fantastic option for this project. In addition, it proved to be an interesting investment for P3, partly thanks to the broad support among various lighting designers."

Wilschut developed a flexible lighting design that could be adapted to the full range of concerts without compromising the daily productions already scheduled in the hall. Since roughly 80% of the ZomerConcerten program consists of unamplified performances, silent operation was a critical factor in the choice of fixture.

"It might sound strange, but when I design lighting for this hall, the first thing I look at is how the fixture sounds," Tiedo explains. "When everyone holds their breath during a delicate piano solo, even the hum of fans can shatter the moment. The Muse Profile70CT+ features a Silent mode where the noise level is exceptionally low. I was quite impressed by that."

Above the hall sits a loft with steel beams and hoisting rails, used throughout the series for sound systems, acoustic drapes and projection screens. Since these rails had to stay free for the hall's daily productions, P3 Podiumtechniek developed a solution in which the entire lighting set rested on the loft floor, complemented by a dedicated steel structure to mount a fixture at the head of the balcony for side light.

Across the season, the Muse fixtures were used for backlight, side light and supplementary front light. "The Muse has very high color accuracy, with a color rendering index of 98, and stepless color temperature control," Wilschut explains. "It produces truly beautiful light, and plenty of it. When I light a soloist, the spot is often set at just 40%."

Additive color mixing brought a further advantage on such a varied program. "Warm or cool white is virtually identical in intensity, and the red tones remain beautiful and very present," Wilschut continues. "That gives us much more freedom to give each concert evening a character of its own." The team filming the series noted how faithfully the lighting was rendered on screen.