SPIE provides scope for culture with kulturRAUM
The combination of effective lighting and saving energy was long considered an unsolvable problem for theaters and opera houses. Working with the multi-technology service provider SPIE, however, the Niedersächsische Staatstheater Hannover GmbH has now succeeded in installing energy saving ornamental lighting. For directors, the effects and warm tones created by lighting are hugely important. The challenge today lies in meeting artistic demands in the face of constantly rising energy costs.
For this reason the Niedersächsisches Staatstheater Hannover decided to give its lighting a refurbishment in energy efficiency terms, but the specifications it set out for the new lighting concept – drawn up by SPIE – were very clear: “The new lighting had to be fully dimmable, feature warm colors and, apart from low electricity consumption, also had to be adaptable to the theater’s lighting control system,” says SPIE lighting designer Gerhard Backhaus. The focus was only on the ornamental lighting in the grand hall of the opera house where the gigantic crystal chandeliers and the cove lighting were refurbished. The crystal chandeliers had been previously used 20-watt low- voltage halogen lamps while the coves (light apertures for indirect light) were even still using 25-watt lightbulbs. Unusually, SPIE’s lighting concept made use of LED technology in this special area. For the service provider this is the technology of the future that meets the need for both longevity and low electricity consumption.
Light tests and the complete refurbishment were carried out during the theater’s sixweek summer break. The director had to be 100 percent convinced – not only with regard to the color temperature but also the dimmability. “We managed to reduce brightness in a harmoniously gentle way so that the audience doesn’t notice any annoying transition to stage lighting. With regard to the cove lighting, we not only minimized electricity consumption but also optimized the quality of the light,” Gerhard Backhaus says. Ultimately the concept won over the Staatstheater Hannover because of its exceptional figures for energy cost minimization: The 540 lightbulbs used for cove lighting were replaced with 4,000 LEDs, thus reducing electricity consumption by 80 percent. For the gigantic crystal chandeliers, the experts replaced 1,350 low-voltage halogen lamps with 1,200 LEDs, resulting in a 90 percent cut in energy consumption. kulturRAUM from SPIE therefore makes it possible to give effect lighting an energy efficient makeover, saving a great deal of energy and freeing up more of the budget for art – while preserving or even improving on the existing lighting performance.
The Hannover event center, Schloss Herrenhausen, which SPIE operates and markets, is an entirely different kind of project. Here the company signed a ten-year lease agreement with the owner and founded an operating company, Schloss Herrenhausen GmbH specifically for the project. The multi-technology service provider is now responsible for all event and facility management at this premium property, and for its commercial success. Event management duties include the acquisition, organization and staging of events, inclusive of catering. “Here we guarantee the smooth and professional running of events, and we work in this area with local suppliers and service providers,” says Christiane Peter of Schloss Herrenhausen GmbH, who is responsible for sales and marketing. Facility management services at the Schloss include both technical and infrastructural building management – such as servicing and maintenance of the technical building systems including a modern geothermal plant – and reception services. “There are also specific services for event venues such as the operation of event technology, participant management, scheduling and materials planning, or security concepts for bigger events,” Christiane Peter explains.
SPIE has many years of experience with operating cultural and event venues. O2 World in Hamburg and the Bundesliga Stadium in Nuremberg number among the company’s clients, for example. With the “kulturRAUM” label the multi-technology service provider bundles all services for cultural real estate – always with the aim of creating as much scope as possible for art and culture.
