Gebr. de Nobel (Nobel Brothers) is a brand new live performance venue located on
the busy, animated thoroughfare of Marktsteeg in Leiden, Netherlands, complete
with a brand new Robe moving light rig specified and supplied by Benelux
distributor Controllux to the delight of the technical crew led by Head of Production
& Technical Affairs, Bart van der Smissen.

Owned and funded by the city of Leiden, as the Netherlands’ newest “temple of pop’,
Gebr. de Nobel has been beautifully and cleverly designed by architect Ector
Hoogstadt to maximize every centimetre of usable space and ensure that it
functions practically and efficiently as a bustling entertainment hub.

Controllux’s lighting design was evolved with input from leading Dutch LD Nick van
Balen, and has 8 x DLX Spots, 12 x LEDWash 300s, 18 x LEDBeam 100s and ten
CycFX 8s at its core in the main hall. With 12 x LEDBeam 100s for the small hall,
together with a selection of strobes and generics, all of which are being worked
hard for the eclectic range of shows.

Gebr. de Nobel stages around 240 gigs a year encompassing all types of
performance – dance, EDM, rock, theatre, festivals – including film – embracing all
types of music, and with the vast majority of them using the in-house kit and some
augmenting the house top rig/s with their touring floor packages.

Van der Smissen, who has been a Robe fan for years, is extremely happy with the
results so far.

“Robe is a brand that is almost universally well-received when we send our specs
out to incoming productions,” he confirms, “you can also now find it most touring
riders as a first or second choice of moving light”.

Regular Gebr. de Nobel LD, Matt de Jong, is one of a number of freelancers and is
often designing floor packages for appearing artists.

“I love the DLX Spots, they are very powerful and versatile and I find the CycFX 8s
exciting and different, so it is great integrating these more unusual types of fixture
into shows”.

Van der Smissen’s also very impressed with the CycFX, and they have had a few
freelance LDs working there who have really pushed the units and experimented
with them.

As with any busy venue, the after sales support was a vital element in Controllux
winning the supply contract, as was the reliability and reputation of the product.
Talking more generally, Van der Smissen feels that Robe is currently “Right on
message’ when it comes to product development and producing new, inventive and
different fixtures, “they deliver every time,” he states.