The new venue is designed to be completely flexible; the capacity ranges from 180 seated to 250 standing depending on the set up and format which can be fully seated for banquets and dinners to standing with different sized stages, bare floor or catwalks.

The schedule includes a lively mix of performances from music, drama, theatre, comedy and spoken word to fashion shows and other presentations including lectures, seminars and news conferences.

With this in mind, when it came to choosing the lighting, the Castle’s technical manager Tomaz Novak specified Robe to offer the best options for all scenarios – with a rig comprising four Spiider LED wash beams and 16 x LEDBeam 100s – eight new and eight which they already had in-house.

They also purchased a fully-flightcased Robe LiteWare HO2 6-way battery powered up-lighting system, available for pop-up lighting around the place as and when required.

These were the first Spiiders purchased by the Castle from Robe’s Slovenian distributor MK Light Sound. As they already had eight LEDBeam 100s, it didn’t take much persuading for them to double their stock of these powerful and extremely useful little fixtures.

At the same time as kitting out the Hribar Hall, four DL4S Profiles were purchased for another venue in the Castle complex.

‘I really like the flexibility of the Spiiders” explained Tomaz. They initially trialled some units on a couple of shows, and then immediately afterwards committed to the purchase.

“It’s a fantastic wash light and a quality beam, plus you have some classy effects possible with the central flower LED effect” he stated, also mentioning that both Spiiders and LEDBeams are very light in weight, so great for Hribar Hall, and also extremely easy to move to other venues when necessary!

Lighting control in the venue is a grandMA system that is running over a Luminex network, so it’s possible to control the lighting in all the Castle’s venues from the main technical offices as well as locally in each space.

The lights, control and all relevant cabling for Hribar Hall was supplied and installed by a team from MK Light Sound overseen by Dean Karov who comments: “We have a great working relationship with the Castle, it is an excellent reference site and a good example of how the breadth of Robe’s range can benefit their multiple applications”.

The building is constantly being developed and The Castle buzzes with activities and events all year round, with six different sized halls and a large courtyard area which is also fully utilised for outdoor cinema and concert/music performances during the summer months.

They purchased their first Robe and Anolis products - LEDForce 18 PARs and Anolis CitySource 96s - around 6 years ago to illuminate the impressive exterior, and these have been in daily use ever since… so Tomaz knows, first-hand, the reliability of the products.

Each year Ljubljana castle welcomes over 1 million visitors into its dynamic environment, which remains a primary jewel in the crown of one of Europe’s most attractive capital cities.

Photo Credits: Louise Stickland; Ljubljana Castle