Vidzeme Concert Hall «Cēsis»

Stage Lighting System at the Vidzeme Concert Hall Cēsis

April 2014

The Vidzeme Concert Hall Cēsis is a unique multifunctional regional cultural centre which is located in one of the most scenic cities in Latvia, Cēsis, which is also home to many various cultural events. The concert hall was opened in the spring of 2014 and its architectonic image has been created by reconstruction of the old Cēsis community centre by adding some modern architectural shapes to it.

The building includes an acoustic hall with 800 seats, chamber hall, organ hall, movie theatre, and exhibition hall. It is also home to several amateur arts groups, Vidzeme Chamber Orchestra, and Alfrēds Kalniņš Cēsis Secondary School of Music.

The concert hall is an active cultural centre, which often hosts concerts of highly professional artists, dramatic theatre shows, art exhibitions, movies, regional and international conferences, seminars, meetings, and other events.

Cēsis concert hall may be proud of hosting concerts of world-known artists such as Gidon Kremer, Martha Argerich, Nicolas Altstaedt, Didier Lockwood, composer Gabriel Prokofiev, and others.

Cēsis concert hall is also home to several festivals - Cēsis Arts Festival, Kremerata Baltica festival established by the world famous violist Gidon Kremer, Čello Cēsis international cello festival, Vasarnīca summer festival of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, and dramatic theatre competitions.

Vidzeme Concert Hall Cēsis is a place where cultural heritage lives in harmony with contemporary art.

Event organisers, artists, visitors, and the staff of the concert hall have highly appreciated not only the visual appearance of the building and functionality of its layout, but also the integrated technical solutions, including, the lighting system.

In preparation works for the project SGS Sistēmas was involved in negotiations with the customer and the contractor in order to present its idea of a lighting system for the concert hall in accordance with the available construction design. As a result of the negotiations, SGS Sistēmas was the company which received the rights to carry out this job and in May 2013 it entered into an agreement with the general contractor UPB AS for installation of the stage lighting system at the new Vidzeme Concert Hall.

Within the project, SGS Sistēmas installed stage lighting systems both in the small and large halls of the building. After the completion of works, SGS Systēmas also trained the technical staff of the concert hall to work with the new lighting control system. We see the training process as one of the most important stages in the whole project, as the knowledge level and abilities of the technical staff will determine how successful the organisation functions in the future.

The Large Hall was equipped with one of the most popular and up-to-date stage lighting control systems MA Lighting grandMA2. The equipment included 180 adjustable and a number of fixed lighting control lines which were installed according to the design.

The stage lighting equipment included PC and fresnel lens light, zoomspots with adjustable light angle, and a PAR64 floodlight. Chauvet LED COLORado Batten 144 Tour wash was used for background lighting of the stage. Chauvet COLORado 1-Quad Tour LED lights were installed for an extra accent and colour change.

The lighting system is arranged in such a way that it is easily configurable and may also be used in the open-air events organised by the concert hall as well as in other halls. A special modular system (special cables and switches) as well as transportation and storage boxes were made for this reason.

Supplied equipment: