Gerhard Scherer is a happy man since 24 x Robe DL7S Profiles and DL4S Profiles –
12 of each fixture – have been installed at the Theater Akzent Theatre in Vienna …
a busy producing and receiving house located in the Wieden district of Austria’s
capital city, famous for its culture and charm.

Head of lighting Scherer has been working at Akzent since it was founded in 1989 in
the grounds of the former Palais Nathaniel Rothschild. Its postmodern architecture
was designed by Rudolf Jarosch and it offers a 455 seat main house, a studio that
can accommodate 80 people and a 380 capacity event space.

When it came to the most recent technical upgrades for lighting, he was looking for
powerful, refined profile LED fixtures with additive colour mixing, and Robe’s DL
range ticked all the boxes!

Also responsible for lighting 90 per cent of the incoming shows, this has made
Scherer’s life infinitely easier and more enjoyable … and he’s not looked back.

For him, the DL7S profile in particular is “one of the best luminaires I’ve ever seen’
… and very different to what he would normally expect in the white ranges from an
LED light source.

They considered several different options by four leading brands including Robe
before making the investment, although right from the start Robe had an edge
because 11 years ago, Akzent purchased some ColorSpot 700E ATs … which are
still working really well.

“They have been used almost every day for all of that time and there’s never been
a single issue,” confirms Scherer … almost surprised himself with this remarkable
track record.

The DL4Ss were purchased first, and they were such a success that a year later,
they followed up with the DL7Ss, which feature the seven colour LED engine,
incredibly smooth and even colour mixing and a very high CRI and is “in a class of
its own in terms of quality” says Scherer.

During his time at the theatre he’s seen massive changes on the technology front.
First with colour changing devices like scrollers, then moving lights as they became
commercially available and affordable … and now the evolution continues with LED
products, a field in which Robe is paying specific attention.

Akzent was in fact the first theatre in Austria to have moving lights in its house rig.
“We like to upkeep abreast of the trends,” he comments, and a typical show lighting
rig will currently contain around 42 moving lights – all LED (they also have some
LED washes).

Akzent is part state funded and part self-financed. The show schedule is very tight,
but with the DLS Profiles in house – they are rigged on various over-stage pipes –
they can now be infinitely more flexible in their approach to lighting any type or
style of performance.