Leoland Space opens in Lviv Ukraine with Robe Lighting installation
Some great news from war‐torn Ukraine comes from Leoland, a 300,000 square meter state‐of‐the‐art sports, educational entertainment & leisure complex for the whole family in Lviv, in the west of the country, which has just opened a new multipurpose conference concert space.
The room features 270‐degree projections and is lit with Robe products including 8 x VIVA CMYs to cover the stage, together with 26 x LEDWash 600+s and 8 x ParFect 150s that are positioned around the ceiling, all delivered by one of Robe’s Ukrainian distributors, Sound House. The lights were all chosen for their expedient size, flexibility, and power. The height to the ceiling is 5.7 metres, so physically smaller fixtures were another consideration, and of course, they had to be bright and intense to fill the space and to dovetail in with the spectacular video projections for which Sound House worked closely with video specialist Front Picture, who supplied a bespoke projection control system.
Sound House created a full technical design – audio, lighting, and AV – package for this new multipurpose room and proposed it to their client after taking their brief, explained CEO Andrey Garkaviy. They then won the contract to supply and install all of it.
The stipulations included that the room must be able to stage anything from a medium size conference plenary session or a product launch to a similar standing or seated live performance / entertainment show with band, dance group or other artists.
Flexibility in every element was a key as well as value for money, so the proposed design contained a medium to high level of specification. In Ukraine, the company / team supplying the winning design will regularly get the chance to also supply the kit, which is why many of the sales and distribution companies there will also have a projects division.
“We try to put ourselves in the client’s shoes when building a spec,” noted Andrey, adding that the same thought process often informs the choice of brand to take on as a distributor.
“I completely believe in Robe as a group of individuals and as a brand! They are truly innovative and consistent across all their product ranges, and the company understands the need for building robust, high quality multipurpose kit that lasts a long time and does several things very well! So, the relationship comes first and then the technology!”
Once the war started in February 2022, the multipurpose venue was put on hold, but after a few months the client decided to reactivate it, and to no‐one’s surprise, a degree of value engineering was required. “We just took this in our stride at this stage and given everything else going on!” commented Andrey with a wry smile. Those left at Sound House – several crew and staff have joined the ZSU (Ukrainian Armed Forces) while others have found work abroad – “were just ecstatic that the project was able to continue – you can imagine!”
However, this also wasn’t the biggest challenge for Sound House by that time! On March 11th, 2022, 2 weeks after the start of the war, two Kalibr cruise missiles ripped into their warehouse in Dnipro, completely destroying the building and everything in it including the Robe ParFects and VIVA CMYs, a bunch of audio and AV kit which had already arrived in readiness for the installation. Luckily the LEDWash 600+s had not yet arrived, and as soon as the invasion began, Andrey asked the Robe factory to leave everything not yet delivered safe in the Czech Republic. When the project cautiously re started in mid‐2023 he had to re‐order all the kit that had been destroyed in the missile strike. The installation work was completed in August and September and the new room hosted its first events at the end of September. The Sound House team has already installed additional cabling and control infrastructure to expand all the systems – lighting, sound, and multimedia – in the future, which will include some more moving head luminaires.
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