The “Schauspielhaus Bochum“ (Playhouse Bochum) is one of Germany’s biggest and best known theatres. Build in 1908 as a Variety theatre, it became the town theatre in 1915 and was the biggest stage in the “Ruhrgebiet”. During an air raid in 1944 it was nearly completely destroyed, and then rebuilt based on the design of architect Gerhard Moritz Graubner in an operation lasting until 1953.
Since then the theatre has been modernised at certain times, and was recently equipped with a grandMA2 system for lighting control, consisting of 3 x grandMA2 full-sizes, 2 x grandMA2 lights, 3 x MA VPUs (Video Processing Unit), 40 x MA NDPs (Network Dimmer Processor) and 25 x dimMA Digital Dimmers.
Andreas Bartsch and Bernd Felder, joint Heads of Lighting at the Playhouse comment: “We have been working with two grandMA2 consoles and three MA VPU or more on both stages of our theatre since the summer of 2010. The main reason for choosing grandMA2 is the fact that the consoles are future-proof and can be easily updated to deal with all upcoming developments in the lighting world. Also video can be integrated as easily as any other parameter. Furthermore we’re convinced by the flexibility of the user-interface, e.g. the touch screens, which make the grandMA2 a very effective tool. During programming it is possible to work on the show with multiple programmers in the multi-user-session, and afterwards the show can be run by one person.”
The Playhouse Bochum has an audience capacity of 811 and the associated intimate theatre has 410 seats. The installation of the grandMA2 system including all the dimMA Digital Dimmers was realised by LSS Licht-, Steuer- und Schaltanlagenbau GmbH.
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