De Bosuil is a buzzing 850-capacity live music venue in Weert, southeastern Netherlands, AKA “The Gateway to Limburg” due to its close proximity to the Belgian border. It has been voted the greenest city in the Netherlands. The venue has recently received a new Robe moving light package – 16 PAINTES, 12 LEDBeam 350s plus 8 LEDBeam 150s – which is a substantial upgrade to their previous system of older Robe moving lights fixtures. These are all still working 11 years later but needed upgrading to newer tech to satisfy the string of local and international artists and lighting designers frequenting this popular venue.
Head of lighting Bart Mesman is a freelancer who has worked at De Bosuil for over 15 years, so he knows the venue inside out, and has enjoyed numerous memorable moments along the way. De Bosuil itself has been a music venue and on this site for many years. The current building opened in 2003 and was expanded 2 years ago. It is generally open Fridays through Sundays and occasionally during the week. Bands playing include classic rock and pop, all the way to pumping EDM.
“After 11 years of solid work, the previous fixtures and lighting console needed replacing,” explained Bart, and knowing this was on the cards, he and the crew researched what was available during Covid – when they had the time. Bart has an engineering degree and loves drilling down into the details of all the equipment. He soon concluded that “Robe was by far genuinely the most innovative, and the brand consistently comes out with the best and newest technology and ideas.”
While the 2013 new lighting package had comprised a number of other brands, this time the various routes led to Bart to consider “only Robe” for this one. Bosuil’s production infrastructure is designed to offer artists and their technical teams the very best experiences coming into the venue and their whole process has been streamlined to facilitate this. For example, the floor package can be deployed and fired up in 5 minutes by one technician.
Bart admits that when he green-lighted the PAINTES, he’d not actually seen them in action – as they were that new, but he “just knew” that it was the right fixture for them. “It was seriously bright – perfect for our stage,” and through working for so long with the old Robe’s DLX’s, he knew the “PAINTE was perfect”.
LEDBeam 350s and 150s he had already used on several occasions. Essentially here he sought “a moving PAR can type of light” and with both LEDBeam 100s and LEDWash 300s already in the house, the new LEDBeam350s and LEDBeam 150s completed the picture. “These are ultimately rider-friendly. All the touring bands want named brands, they are happy to work with Robe and you are guaranteed the quality and reliability,” he stated, adding that operators come into the venue and enjoy using the lighting rig.
There are 59 moving lights in total in the rig, which is a massive amount for a compact performance space. The lighting refit also included delivery of a new console from Controllux, Robe’s Benelux distributor. Eight of the existing Robe LEDWash 300s are still active on the ‘new’ rig for floor and side lighting, and 8 of their original LEDBeam 150s are now lighting the bar area. The 7 original DLX Spots are still in the venue as well, positioned above the audience and used to create ambience during changeovers, and also for crowd lighting during club and party nights and DJ sets.
Around half of the incoming bands will bring their own lighting engineers, and Bart operates for any that don’t, and in addition to him, there are six regular experienced freelancers working as lighting operators and technicians. As head of lighting, he has striven over the years to ensure that De Bosuil is an easy to work in space with well-maintained technology. “Everyone is delighted with these new Robe fixtures.” He visited the Robe factory in Valmez and was impressed by all the engineering elements and the fact that Robe conducts these vital operations in-house, maintaining the best quality control and most flexible manufacturing.
He underscores the importance of a good relationship with the local distributor – in this case Controllux who are “super helpful and efficient”, and this robust connection with both Robe and Controllux reinforced the decision to go with only Robe for this lighting upgrade to ensure that De Bosuil stays at the cutting edge of the vibrant Netherlands live music and entertainment scene.
Further information from Robe Lighting: www.robe.cz
Photos by Louise Stickland, and Maurice Moonen.
