Oman-The Royal Opera House Muscat,which is one of the Middle East's most prestigious arts venues,has made a point of stocking a variety of Vari-Lite luminaires since it opened three years ago.These include VL3500 Wash and Spot plus VL1100 TS and AS luminaires.Head of lighting Donald Cox explains,"We are just about to go into our third season and Vari-Lite is still the most requested luminaire by far by our incoming lighting designers."
The Royal Opera House Muscat is a spectacular building,housing a number of venues,each of which embrace an arsenal of state of the art entertainment technology and equipment.However this opulent fa?ade sometimes belies some challenging and harsh conditions.
"Oman is primarily a desert country,and this can be challenging for a number of reasons,"Cox,who previously worked at the Royal Opera House,Covent Garden,explains."The main issue is that there's a lot of sand and dust in the air and we therefore need lighting fixtures that are robust,easy to clean and reliable.
"In addition we haven't got the engineering and servicing resources that we'd have in Europe.We chose Vari-Lite because they rarely go wrong and they're pretty easy to maintain.In addition,we do quite a few large-scale outdoor events.Dealing with the sand,dust and heat during the day and with the humidity at night,it takes a toll on any technical equipment with moving parts."
David March,director of European Sales for Philips Vari-Lite,comments,"The Royal Opera House Muscat is equipped with some of the finest lighting equipment on the theatrical market.Therefore,we are delighted and honored that Donald has settled on Vari-Lite Luminaires to meet both the highly demanding creative and technical requirements,in this unique and stunning venue."
