Ayrton Eurus light up The Netherlands’ Tivoli Vredenburg

The Tivoli music venue at Vredenburg, one of the most well known music venues in The Netherlands, recently installed 64 Ayrton Eurus S Profiles within two of its halls – Ronda and De Grote Zaal – via Ayrton’s exclusive distributor in The Netherlands, Ampco Flashlight Sales.

This large venue built in 2014 has six unique halls with a total capacity for 7500 people. De Grote Zaal, the original building from 1979, was built as a Symphony Hall with a seating capacity of 1717, or standing room of 2000.

“Being a symphony hall, many orchestras perform here,” says Jolijn van Iersel,  Lighting Technician for the venue, “but the stage also hosts pop and rock shows including, in 2003, the Rolling Stones. More recently the likes of Iggy Pop, The Four Tops, Wadruna, Phillip Glass, King Crimson, Nils Frahm, Steve Hackett, The Temptations, Paul Carrack have also played here. » De Grote Zaal also hosts corporate events and award shows.

Ronda, also with a capacity of 2000 and in use since 2014 for rock, pop and dance events, has a more intimate feel: “Everywhere you stand is quite close to the stage because the hall is wider than it is deep. Artists that have performed here include Billie Eilish, Wilco, Massive Attack, Level 42, Mogwai, The Hives, Feist, One Republic, Angie Stone, Rudimental, and Ben Howard.”

The team at Tivoli was looking to update its aging lighting system which used discharge lamps. “The fans were quite loud as well, which created a problem for performing orchestras. It was time to update the lights and look into the newer technology,” explains van Iersel. “The basis of what we were looking for was a light that would at least equal our existing fixtures and be rider proof. In addition, it had to be up to date with LED technology, have shutter blades, and be future proof with, for example, an Ethercon port. Our preference was for a white LED source with CMY and, most importantly, the ability to be very quiet.”

Having worked with Ayrton lights before while touring, Ayrton was not new to van Iersel who was keen to see what Ayrton could offer that would match these criteria. “We’d been researching lights for a while already but, like the rest of the world, Corona slowed everything down. We investigated several brands, working with Ampco Flashlight Sales which organised extensive demos and shoot outs to help us find the right product, and discovered the Ayrton Ghibli, Khamsin and Huracán. It wasn’t until we went to PLASA London in 2022, that we saw the Eurus.

“Eurus immediately grabbed our attention because of its size and because it met all our demands. Amongst all its features, we looked specifically into the colour mixing and CRI, the diversity of the gobos, and the working of the blades. And most importantly we checked the output in Silent Mode, and tested for fixture/fan sound in that setting. It ticked all our boxes!”

The Eurus fixtures are rigged in each venue for use as stage lights, front lights and as floor packages, handling the diversity of use across two very different performance spaces with ease. “In Ronda, for the dance and rock shows, we use the full force of the light and add a few more into the hall for dance events. The speed of Eurus is good for those shows, and the light has a good balance with the other fixtures in the rig.

“The throw distance in both venues is about 25m, but in De Grote Zaal you hit the crowd quicker because of the arena setup. This is also why we chose the Eurus as the beam is perfect for this distance. And for the classical performances in De Grote Zaal, in super silent mode, there is still plenty of light output to illuminate everything nicely.”

Feedback on Eurus from technicians and lighting designers has been very positive. “People enjoy working with them,” confirms van Iersel. “Our own technicians like them, and we’ve had really good reactions from visiting crews as well. Everybody is pleasantly surprised by the physical weight of the light. They like the colour mixing, the variable CTO wheel and the variety of the gobos. Our dance operators in particular are very enthusiastic about the clearly different looks they can achieve switching between gobos, and how well the light output holds up. The difference between the narrow beams and how wide they can go is a much liked feature too. The same goes for the framing package.”

The durability and reliability of Eurus has also been a key bonus for the venue techs: “Our new Ayrton Eurus S are a relief for our technicians,” confirms van Iersel. “The internal design is solid and reliable and they’ve proved very durable and continue to do their jobs as expected. Ayrton provided us with in-depth maintenance instructions for quick troubleshooting if necessary, and we are delighted with the service we received from Ampco Flashlight Sales as our lighting supplier. The communication has always been really straight forward and accessible, which is key for us as a solid base for working together.”

Text: Julie Harper

Credits:
Production photos: © Tim van Etten
Crew photos: © Jolijn van Iersel