Parktheater Eindhoven Facility Management

PARKTHEATER EINDHOVEN PUTS THE SPOTLIGHT ON ULTRA-RUGGED, INHOUSE PRIVATE GSM COMMUNICATIONS

The Company
Managing the infrastructure behind a major entertainment venue involves long hours, huge teams and tremendous effort – according to Parktheater in Eindhoven. With over 100 staff working behind the scenes to support its staff and visitors.

The Challenge
A prime focal point for over 500 classical theatre, ballet, opera, concerts and culture events each year, Eindhoven’s Parktheater has been attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors annually for almost half a century. Following a major refurbishment and expansion in 2007, its facilities, which include restaurants and function rooms, are now among the best in Europe.

Klaas Seelen, ICT Project Manager at Parktheater confirms, “With venues of this scale, each performance is a major logistical feat involving coordination of people, equipment and materials. Behind the scenes, it’s like a construction site with technicians involved in carpentry, rigging, audiovisual, prop design and even pyrotechnics. With heavy machinery – including flying systems, technical bridges, stage lifts and lighting rigs – and people working at heights of up to 25 metres, maintaining safety is crucial.”

“Each Performance Is A Major Logistical Feat.”
“Communications Is Vital For Fire Prevention And Evacuation”

An effective communication system is vital to help Parktheatre safeguard and manage front of house activities – particularly to maintain fire prevention and evacuation processes.

“The theatre has to conform to strict NEN-standards which specify requirements for design, implementation, compatibility and quality of evacuation alarms to ensure a quick and orderly evacuation in the event of a fire,” Klaas adds. “Our systems are inspected annually by the local fire brigade to make sure that we comply. If we don’t, they have the authority to instruct actions and ultimately withdraw the theatre’s license.”

In the past, Partktheater used a DECT based system but this was proving expensive and the handsets were unreliable and prone to breakage. Phones simply weren’t up to the demands of our challenging physical environment. Breakages were frequent, with handsets regularly being replaced every three weeks. In addition, all staff had to use the same expensive DECT devices, even those working front of house. What we needed was a system that could balance our requirement for highly effective communications, ruggedized solutions and specific compliance criteria with greater flexibility and better cost control.”

The Solution