The 10 breakout rooms are part of a new 5000 square metre extension project which opened last summer having been under construction for nearly two years, adding a state-of-the-art 800 seat auditorium / presentation space and 10 event rooms to ECC’s substantial multi-purpose conference, exhibition and hotel complex which first opened in 1999. It occupies a massive site in the south of Berlin city.

Each of the new break out rooms can accommodate up to 50 - 240 people, and in line with its quest to offer the best cutting-edge technology, Estrel’s owner and technical management teams planned mood lighting from the early stages of the design and planning process explains ECC’s technical manager for AV, Thomas Herzberg.

The busy venue is responding to demands from a diversity of clients in recent years who are requesting colour changing lighting to set different moods and tones in these important workshop spaces.

“People in general are much more aware of the power and reach of lighting now, how it can affect thinking and attitude, so we wanted to provide this facility as part of our standard lighting and AV packages,” he explained.

He started exploring mood lighting options, seeking “something completely different” from the usual white lighting requirements and contacted different suppliers.

The venue already owns a quantity of Robe lighting technology with which it is really satisfied, so looking at ‘sister’ architectural brand Anolis seemed a logical path. Robe Germany sent samples and conducted on site demos so the different options could be thoroughly tested, evaluated, and compared.

Thomas and his team liked the power, versatility, and quality of the Eminere lightsource, the smooth colour mixing and the rich and beautiful colour variants along with its quality made-in-Europe engineering.

They chose the Eminere RGBA as the optimum fixture, complete with wide angle lenses as the fixtures had to be mounted close to the wall in each of the rooms. The discreet design and housing of the Eminere 1 was a perfect fit for the environments.

As Estrel’s requirement was for ceiling mounting units, the factory was willing and able to provide a custom solution for the standard wall mounting Eminere 1s and meet the timeframe, and this will also be an option for future Eminere specifications.

“This willingness of Anolis to customise to our needs was also impressive,” commented Thomas.

Between 10 and 12 Eminere 1s are installed in each of the breakout rooms where they blend elegantly into the surroundings and produce colours and mood just as was envisioned.

This is the first time that Estrel has built permanent atmospheric lighting into their venue and its success means it will be something they consider for the future.

Mood lighting control is integrated via the building’s IP system and is designed to make it as straightforward as possible for clients to change the moods and create new colour schemes to suit their event using either wall mounting Crestron touch panels in each room or remotely via a tablet.

“Our goal was to make it effectively like a smart house in terms of control, and so far, everyone who has used it loves it,” declared Thomas.

In addition to the auditorium, event rooms and breakout areas, the new ECC extension offers extensive technical facilities and food & beverage service areas spanning two light-filled floors connected by escalators and open foyers. Mood and positive energies are at the very heart of the design, with contemporary artworks by Felix Kiessling, Cajsa von Zeipel, Tomas Sar-aceno and Jeppe Hein helping, together with all the lighting detail including the Anolis Emineres, to evoke a special ambiance.

With all the requisite AV technology needed for an event offered in such user-friendly packages in these breakout rooms, technical crew can be more efficiently deployed to other areas of ECC where they are needed, with that resulting cost efficiency also passed on to customers.

ECC owns a huge amount of production technology designed to supply all needs in house for around 1800 events, conferences, and exhibitions of varying sizes per year, looked after by a technical crew of around 40, full time and regular freelancers, headed by Thomas.

Photo Credit: Louise Stickland, Estrel Berlin