Costa Rica National Theatre Chooses Robe

	Robe's Latin American regional sales manager Guillermo Traverso (second from right), and the team at the Costa Rica National Theatre.

The stunning Teatro Nacional de Costa Rica, the country's historically and culturally significant national theatre located right in the heart of capital San Jose ... has made its first purchase of Robe moving lights ... choosing the LED DLS Profile.

This important move was instigated by the theatre's technical director, Claudio Schifanni and the eight DLS Profile units were delivered by Mas Musica also based in San Jose, which is a Robe distributor in Costa Rica.

As the most important theatre in the country, and renowned for its acclaimed and world class creative productions, this is major news, and underlines a commitment by the theatre to embrace the latest lighting technologies available.

The theatre is both a producing and a receiving house, and stages at least three shows a week. It is reported the theatre wanted a "best quality" LED moving light product and started looking at Robe's DL range which has been specially developed for theatre and performance applications.

Schifanni also looked at other options, but following a shoot-out and due to the increasing international recognition and profile of Robe, particularly in the last two years, he says he decided that the brand and the DL product line were the best option to meet the many demands of visiting productions, and also to meet their own standards of technical excellence.

They wanted powerful fixtures with lower power consumption and absolutely no compromises in the quality of light output if it was an LED source. They also needed luminaires that are versatile to cover the wide range of shows and performance genres staged there.

Adoption of LED fixtures in installations, and theatre in particular, is still in its early stages in Latin America, comments Robe's regional sales manager for Latin America, Guillermo Traverso, but he reckons about five minutes into a DL range product demo ... people really start seeing that they have the best of both worlds. "The quality is there, plus all the main features of a conventional source are present in the LED fixture."

It's a quiet running unit with very smooth dimming and shutters. Power consumption is dramatically reduced ... and ongoing maintenance costs are minimal compared to a conventional profile.

So, the move was a bold one and "something that we are all extremely proud of" confirms Traverso.

The theatre's house crew already love the luminaires as do all the visiting lighting designers who have encountered them so far. They have been impressed with the color range and just how well the DLSs can emulate tungsten characteristics -- a feature that is reported Robe has spent considerable effort in fine-tuning.

"The product is excellent and the Robe brand id absolutely world class," stated Schifanni in conclusion.

Teatro Nacional de Costa Rica opened in October 1897 and is one of the highest profile theatres in Latin America, known for its artistically acclaimed productions. It is also a major tourist attraction in its own right and hosts a wide range of performances including drama, dance, comedy, live music, musicals, and orchestral recitals.

The venue is also known for its statues, monuments, and frescos which includes Calderón de la Barca and Ludwig van Beethoven at the front and Frédéric Chopin in the entranceway. Inside there is an elaborate mural "Alegory of Coffee and Bananas" by Milanese artist Aleardo Villa which is also featured on the Costa Rican five colón bill.