Gewandhaus Leipzig

Overview of references

Here you will find a complete overview of our projects.

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Modernisation in several steps

The renowned Leipzig Gewandhaus is a concert building in the centre of Leipzig that was inaugurated in 1981. It occupies a special role as a building type, as it was the only new concert hall to be realised in the GDR. The Great Concert Hall, designed as an amphitheatrical hall, offers outstanding conditions for all musical performances that do not require electroacoustic amplification. For several years now, the Gewandhaus has been working together with the City of Leipzig on the gradual modernisation and renovation of the renowned concert hall, which is over forty years old and now hosts around 600 events a year. Major construction measures already completed at the Gewandhaus include the renovation of the Gewandhaus roof in 2009, the fire protection upgrade from 2010 to 2017 and the renovation of a large part of the window surfaces from 2015 to 2017.

The 2nd modernisation phase May 2020: the Great Hall of the famous concert hall will be reequipped with LED lighting

The focus was now on refurbishing the Gewandhaus podium and, in parallel, on converting the entire stage lighting in the Great Concert Hall. The luminaires used since the opening of the house were replaced by dimmable LED luminaires. This achieved a uniformly optimal illumination of the podium and reduced stray light into the audience area. The modernisation of the light equipment now saves approx. 75% energy worth approx. 25,000 euros per year, which corresponds to an emission saving of approx. 77 t CO²/year. In 2021, the entire public lighting and the ceiling illumination were also renewed. The halogen luminaires used for this purpose until then were also converted to LED luminaires.
The lighting concept for this was planned by Conceptlicht GmbH, Traunreut (Bavaria). The luminaires, which had to be custom-made, were manufactured by Leuchten u. Metalltechnik GmbH from Hilpoltstein.

Control of the lighting technology

Seebacher GmbH from Bad Tölz was responsible for controlling the lighting technology with the ISYGLT® BUS system. The company was already involved in the digitalisation of the control system in 2005. The variable transformers used for dimming at that time were replaced by digital dimmers and the secondary console control was realised completely with ISYGLT. Reliable functionality with maximum flexibility and the possibility of control via DMX from the lighting control room have been the basis for smooth, successful concert operations ever since. Seebacher GmbH is a specialist for complex building control systems for large event halls and museums: the Kulturpalast Dresden and the Sistine Chapel are among its impressive list of references.

Left: old regulating transformer, right: digital dimmers

The lighting control in the Great Hall

The revision of the lighting control system in the Great Hall by Seebacher was in the position to completely reuse the existing cabling from 2005. LED luminaires were now installed here, which dim absolutely flicker-free from 0-100% using professional dimmers. The new luminaires are also used for emergency operation. Thanks to the LED-04B-ANA-DMX dimmer, they are 100 % camera-compatible. Over a hundred of these dimmers have been installed in the main concert hall. The advantage of this dimmer is the analogue dimming, the extremely wide control range with the possibility of analogue operation down to 0.001% as well as the possibility of mounting the dimmers up to 50 metres away from the luminaire. This allows the lighting designer to create the luminaires individually without considering ballasts. It also greatly facilitates accessibility for maintenance. The components can be easily installed in offset boxes or distribution boxes, e.g. in the fly loft. Likewise, the switch modules from 2005 could still be used.
All basic functions have been retained: the desired function in the hall can still be controlled with the existing stage console. The pass-through lighting could also be retained: if there is no performance in the auditorium, the existing switches in the auditorium can still be operated for cleaning or visiting.

BUS concept of the ISYGLT system

All switch cabinets come from Seebacher, including the necessary documentation. The BUS concept of the ISYGLT system provides for so-called emergency operating functions/states for possible faults. These are executed by the modules by definition intrinsically safe and with priority. Thus, the ISYGLT LED-04B-ANA-DMX dimmers are also ideally suited for emergency lighting. Project-specific configuration and connection to the emergency lighting system thus ensure that in the event of faults, the corresponding circuits control the defined brightness and the luminaires are activated with priority over the BUS control during the system test.

Another special feature of the system is the backwards compatibility of the components. Thus, the desired functions of the existing 2005 inset control panels and the main control panel have been incorporated into the operation and newly supplemented with WT-G touch displays in flush-mounted and desktop versions at each operating location. The modern touch displays are direct ISYGLT-BUS participants, absolutely insensitive to power failures (which not every PC can cope with) and are also in operation and fully operable after approx. 3 seconds after being energised. Further standard functionalities are the control points with release and lock functions, mutual take-over possibilities and releases for control by the lighting control via DMX. These authorisations are assigned to the consoles as required.

The lighting control system has access to each individual dimming channel. These channels are defined in groups and are thus available for safe operation for all operating situations, from events and rehearsals to cleaning lighting.