Rakvere Theatre Expands LED Range with Robe

	Lighting crew Roomet Villau, Martin Piir and Mart Sell. Photo: Louise Stickland

Rakvere Theatre based in Rakvere, Estonia, offers a repertory of classic, contemporary, and experimental works from around the world. In the last year, the theatre has invested significantly in new Robe LED moving lights as part of a drive by the Estonian Ministry of Culture to encourage venues to replace their conventional lighting inventories with newer and more sustainable options.

This is an initiative involving ten major Estonian theatres, of which Rakvere received the largest number of new fixtures, with 50 Robe T1 Profiles, 27 T2 Profiles, 69 Spiider wash beams, 75 LEDBeam 350s, 14 ParFect 150 RGBWs, 16 Tetra2s, 12 TetraXs, 36 T11 Profiles with drop-in gobo and iris modules, and six FOOTSIE2 Slim footlight units. The theatre also invested in two Robe RoboSpot systems together with one T1 Profile Follow Spot and one T2 Profile Follow Spot.

These luminaires will primarily be distributed between their two main performance spaces. Rakvere also has a touring company. The Robe LED fixtures will replace most of the theatre's old conventional lights, says lighting crew members Mart Sell, Martin Piir, and Roomet Villau.

Robe was also part of a previous upgrade in 2012, with 300E and 600E Spots coming in, and between then and now, more Robe gear was added: LEDWash 300s and 600s and Spiiders.

The T1s and T2s were chosen for their shutters, among other features. "We needed them to replace a traditional profile," Villaus says. "So, this was important and, while it takes more time to initially set up and program moving lights, once that is done, they dramatically improve the flexibility and scope of how we can light all of the productions here."

Piir adds that the quality of light output was another vital characteristic: "On top of that, we thought about the type of lighting that broadcast or streaming shoots need when drawing up the spec."

The twenty-seven T2s are in the 405-capacity Big House, which has over 100 new fixtures in total, including T1s, Spiiders, and LEDBeam 350s.

The Big House and 104-capacity Small House have RoboSpot systems, with the corresponding-sized T1 Profile FS/T2 Profile FS. The three lighting crew members all taught themselves how to use these systems before the new season kicked off.