As the designated place where art, community and creativity meet, the contributions of theatre to society are valuable and undeniable. One of those theatres in the Netherlands is HOFtheater Raalte. With a maximum capacity of 400 visitors and 80 shows a season, HOFtheater provides emotional, inspiring but above all entertaining shows to tens of thousands of people a year.

Head of technical Hans Blokpoel is involved with all technical decisions that need to be made concerning the theatre: “We work hard and get plenty of previews of great shows. Hearing great reviews and seeing with our own eyes the joy that we bring people with our work, makes it all worth it to me. This is why I do what I do,” says Hans.

The search for efficiency

Which equipment does or does not need an upgrade, how is everything organized backstage, and what can be done differently? These are a few of the questions that Hans deals with regularly. Finding a way to make transport and storage more efficient was one of the biggest priorities for the theatre. HOFtheater had been using self-made racks for their fixtures, however these were kept backstage in storage and were not movable. Because of this, whenever a show required a specific lighting set-up the fixtures had to carried manually to the stage one by one. Hans knew that a new LED installation was going to be installed later in the year, featuring even heavier lighting equipment, and started his search for efficient transport and storage alternatives.

Finding out about Admiral

It has been almost a decade since Hans first found out about Admiral Staging: “I first came across these products at Rolight's stand during the 2016 CUE fair. There were rigging tubes displayed in the stand along with other innovative solutions from the brand. Seeing what is possible with their products really made me think about all the different ways in which staging can be made more efficient.” Hans stopped his search for alternatives when he discovered Admiral's modular carts and chose to invest in three Meatracks and a Cable cart. “These carts can be moved around unlike the racks we were using previously. Now we can easily roll our fixtures and equipment directly onto the stage.

Modular Solutions

This upgrade has of course significantly increased the speed of our operations. With the Meatracks we can now precisely position ourselves next to the rigging system and deploy the fixtures easily. Another benefit of these modular carts is that you can design them exactly to your needs. You can use them for bigger and smaller fixtures and decide the exact amount of storage space between the tubes for example,” Hans explains.

Determining the desired amount of storage space in-between of the tubes is only one part when it comes to Admiral's modular storage and transport solutions. The components are designed to work together and are available in multiple sizes, allowing you to build the exact cart you need. You can customize the height and length of your cart, decide how to use the space inside and even build it as dual-purpose cart for both cables and fixtures. No matter the desired application, complete the intuitive building process step by step and build your unique cart suited exactly to your needs!

We want to thank Hans for his collaboration on this interview and for sharing his thoughts on our products and brand. A special thanks to the Rolight team, our exclusive distributor in the Netherlands, for supplying HOFtheater Raalte with our products.