Cankarjev Dom is the largest – and one of the busiest – Slovenian convention, congress and culture centres. Named after Slovenian writer and social-democrat politician Ivan Cankar, it is has seven venues, ranging from the largest 1500-1600 capacity Gallus Hall utilized for major concerts and high profile TV recordings, through to a rooftop club utilized for jazz nights and lounge events.
Between all the venues and galleries, nearly 1700 cultural events are staged there annually, plus over 900 congresses, altogether attracting over 500,000 visitors to the Slovenian capital … so things are hectic!
Cankarjev Dom also owns over 100 Robe fixtures and has just boosted its stock with the latest purchase of six Pointes and six more LEDWash 600s. This brings the current LEDWash 600 total to 18.
These join the 76 other Robe moving lights already in the house, the most recent being LEDBeam 100s, ROBIN 600E Spots and ROBIN 600E Beams, and their older fixtures, including ColorSpot 1200E ATs, Spot and Wash 575 XTs which are still going strong, plus some ColorMix 250 products.
The Lighting department of nine is headed by Zoran Najdenov. Cankarjev Dom is partly government funded and also run as a self-supporting commercial enterprise and is both a producing and a receiving production house.
The investments in new technology have been steady over the years as the funds have come on-stream explains Zoran. As far as Robe is concerned, the relationship started back in 2003, shortly after Robe first launched itself as a brand.
“Our policy has always been to purchase the best quality products that can be offered to all the professionals using our facilities. For the levels and profile of production that we are servicing, it’s what is expected”.
Being so busy, reliability is also a major consideration, together with rider-friendliness. “We host world famous artists and performers and their creative and production teams, so we need fixtures and brands that are accepted by international LDs,” he confirmed.
The Pointes were purchased for their power and brightness, their general versatility, wide range of effects and multi-functionality – as they do so much, they are perfect for the venue. They are mainly used in the Gallus Hall which has a lot of headroom and long throws to the stage. Even in dark colours and loaded with effects, they punch right through.
“These are exactly the type of fixtures a multi-purpose, multi-stage venue needs,” enthuses Zoran, who reveals that they looked around at other options when researching the purchase … but the Pointe was definitely the most impressive by a long way!
Many of their shows are set up, tech’d, programmed, rehearsed and performed in a day, live TV will often be involved, so reliable easily portable products that can be matched to additional hire-ins as required ticked all the boxes!
The LEDWashes are a favourite for shows broadcast live or recorded for later TV transmission which are often staged in the Linhart Hall. Even at 40% intensity, they can cover the stage and surface areas easily in the darker colours like blue – currently a popular aesthetic for the regular talk shows and some theatre performances.
For the larger performances they will often hire in additional fixtures. Zoran finds the MMX WashBeam very compatible to the Pointes and has his sights set on these and more Pointes as a potential next purchase!
Photos by Louise Stickland
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