Head of lighting Gerhard has been working at Akzent since it was founded in 1989 in the grounds of the former Palais Nathaniel Rothschild. Its postmodern architecture was designed by Rudolf Jarosch and it offers a 455 seat main house, a studio that can accommodate 80 people and a 380 capacity event space.

When it came to the most recent technical upgrades for lighting, he was looking for powerful, refined profile LED fixtures with additive colour mixing, and Robe's DL range ticked all the boxes!

Also responsible for lighting 90 per cent of the incoming shows, this has made Gerhard’s life infinitely easier and more enjoyable … and he’s not looked back.

For him, the DL7S profile in particular is "one of the best luminaires I've ever seen”  ... and very different to what he would normally expect in the white ranges from an LED lightsource.

They considered several different options by four leading brands including Robe before making the investment, although right from the start Robe had an edge because 11 years ago, Akzent purchased some ColorSpot 700E ATs ... which are still working really well.

"They have been used almost every day for all of that time and there's never been a single issue," confirms Gerhard … almost surprised himself with this remarkable track record.

The DL4Ss were purchased first, and they were such a success that a year later, they followed up with the DL7Ss, which feature the seven colour LED engine, incredibly smooth and even colour mixing and a very high CRI and is "in a class of its own in terms of quality" says Gerhard.

During his time at the theatre he's seen massive changes on the technology front. First with colour changing devices like scrollers, then moving lights as they became commercially available and affordable ... and now the evolution continues with LED products, a field in which Robe is paying specific attention.

Akzent was in fact the first theatre in Austria to have moving lights in its house rig. "We like to upkeep abreast of the trends," he comments, and a typical show lighting rig will currently contain around 42 moving lights - all LED (they also have some LED washes).

Now they have the DLs, they have colour consistency throughout the rig, the dimming is "excellent" and the whites are “amazing” thanks to the 7-colour engine.

Akzent is part state funded and part self-financed. The show schedule is very tight, but with the DLS Profiles in house – they are rigged on various over-stage pipes - they can now be infinitely more flexible in their approach to lighting any type or style of performance. 

Gerhard is 100 per cent a Robe fan right now. “The DL7S Profile is very innovative and much more adaptable that a discharge fixture in this scenario and both these and the DL4S Profiles are ideal for us,” he concludes.

Photo Credit: Louise Stickland