The Globe Theatre in Rome is an exact replica of the famous Shakespeare’s Globe venue in London, and like its English counterpart, is equally high profile in the Italian capital specializing in producing the works of Shakespeare.
A recent upgrade to the lighting rig saw a major new investment in Robe LED moving lights, which were specified by award winning Lighting Designer Umile Vainieri and delivered by Robe’s Italian distributor, Robe Multimedia.
The new fixtures are eight ROBIN DLX Spots, 12 x ROBIN LEDWash 600s and two DigitalSpot 7000DT moving projectors.
Vainieri is a freelance LD who has worked regularly at the Globe since 2005 and also works on a host of other shows around the country and internationally. He was keen to get the fixtures installed at The Globe because he knew first hand that they would add “Real production value” to the shows produced there, which are renowned for being of the very highest quality.
He was also keen to get moving lights onboard to speed up the process of focusing and make it a lot easier to re-set between performances as well as producing more complex and sophisticated lighting shows than they could achieve just with conventionals.
He specified Robe because it’s a brand he knows and trusts.
He frequently uses Robe products on his various shows and has been an advocate of the brand for some time, especially since the launch of the ROBIN series in 2009 and its ‘smaller-lighter-brighter’ philosophy. He feels this is what the market was waiting for.
The new Robe installation at The Globe reduces the roof weight loading considerably – it’s now less than three-quarters of what it was previously! Other advantages are fewer dimmers, less cabling and of course … less power consumption and no lamp replacements needed for the LED fixtures!
All of this amounts to a substantial long term cost saving.
The other consideration – which Vainieri knew to be true – was that the Robes would be weather resistant and deal with environmental factors like humidity and heat in the open air.
Creatively, the range of rich and proper CT whites produced by the fixtures was very important and the 3200K tungsten variant is constantly used and ideal for enhancing faces and skin tones.
Initially not everyone at the Globe was convinced that the LED sources would emulate all the intricacies they so loved with tungsten light, but after in-depth demonstrations they were extremely satisfied and so the sale was confirmed.
“The theatre wins all round with this purchase,” states Vainieri.
It was also the first DLX installation sale in Italy. Robe Multimedia’s Marco Bartolini comments, “We are very proud that our first DLX installation and sale is to such a prestigious and internationally recognized theatre”.
The DigitalSpots allow them to produce many different scenic effects in a venue where changing the scenography is often a challenge. Vainieri was also the first LD to bring DigitalSpots into the Italian theatre market, since when they have definitely caught on.
In addition to his work at the Globe, Vainieri is very busy lighting a variety of musicals including The Full Monty, Salome and My Fair Lady.
In 2012 he won an award from the Italian Association Anita Bucchi for Best Lighting Design for the dance show “Napoletango”, partly based on its eco-friendliness which included the use of Robe LEDWash 600s and four DigitalSpots run through a Catalyst system.
Since the Globe installation several LDs have visited the theatre to check out the new Robes, and it’s a “Great reference venue” in Italy for the theatre Market concludes Bartolini.
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