Recent case studies, SineWave
Het Muziektheater, AmsterdamNational Theatre, Lyttelton, London
National Theatre, Olivier, London
San Sebastian Concert hall, Spain
Residenz Theater, Munich
National Theatre, Liechtenstein
Lampegiet Theatre, Holland
Overture Center for the Arts, Madison, Wisconsin
Copenhagen Opera House, Denmark
Amsterdam Opera
Home to the Netherlands Opera, guest programming, Holland Symphonia and the National Ballet, Het Muziektheater’s 1600-seat auditorium opened in 1986 offering a broad range of programming from opera and ballet to special concerts.
When replacement dimming equipment was specified, the reduction of acoustic noise and audio interference was a top priority to meet the environmental demands of the repertoire.
IES’s sine wave dimming technology - isine™ - was proposed in two forms to eliminate acoustic noise from lamp filaments and electrical interference from the electrical infrastructure. Both the installed and distributed versions of the dimmers provide a sine wave output for silent operation. This revolutionary technology also eliminates harmonic currents in the mains supply, in turn reducing the cost of electricity and eliminating distortion of the mains supply. This ‘green’ aspect of isine was a clinching factor in winning the contract.
The central part of the dimming installation comprises the IES Matrix™ modular dimmer cabinets similar to the those installed at the Lyttelton Theatre in London’s National Theatre complex. In Amsterdam, the main dimmer room is equipped with twelve Matrix cabinets accommodating over 864 equivalent 2.5kW channels of sine wave dimmers in 424x 2.5kW, 144x 5kW and 26x 10kW capacity ratings.
In addition to the installed dimming system, IES supplied its isine sine wave technology in distributed dimming formats for the overstage lighting bars. A quantity of fifty sine wave PowerBar™ dimmers provide a total of 300 dimming channels of distributed dimming. IES’s PowerBars lend themselves to customisation, and the Amsterdam specification called for a unique mixture of circuits and channels in a special configuration to suit the theatre’s wide variety of conventional, automated and discharge lighting sources.
Each PowerBar is fitted with three 2.5kW and three 5kW sine wave dimmers - also capable of dimming 4kW HMI sources and switching up to 6kW HMIs - and three 24V 150W power supplies for auxiliary equipment such as mechanical dimming shutters, colour scrollers and automated lights. Each channel is protected both electronically and by an RCBO, and each dimmer channel is comprehensively monitored using IES’s networkable DimSTAT™ software over Ethernet. DimSTAT provides real-time analysis of circuit conditions, reports of circuit faults, allows access for programming a dimmer’s characteristics and even allows direct remote control if the main control signal network fails.
All IES dimmers are controlled using a direct Ethernet connection from the control desk via IES-supplied network routers. Each PowerBar is fitted with a single RJ45 Ethernet connection that subdivides the data into three DMX universes within the bar - one universe for the dimmers and two for other equipment positioned either on, or adjacent to, the PowerBar. IES also supplied an additional twenty-five DMX network nodes with two DMX universes in and two universes out of DMX and DimSTAT combined.
Commenting on the choice of IES sine wave dimmers, Bert Pronk, Theater Project Leader and Hugo van Uum, Head of Lighting said, “We were particularly impressed, not only by the silent operation of IES’s isine technology and the options for both fixed and distributed dimming solutions, but also the energy-saving aspect, which has been recognised by the Dutch government through an energy efficiency grant.”