Pieter De Kimpe & Marc Lambert (TTAS) - Gerrit Walckiers (ingenium)

Marc: “TTAS stands for Theatre Technologies Advice and Study. That last word is very important, because we do more than just give advice. We stay on board until delivery, until everything is ready for the first performance.

Pieter: “The addition of 'Theaterbouw' to TTAS is no coincidence. My specialization is sightlines. In 9 out of 10 assignments we design the footprint of the hall for the architect. We deal with everything from the size of the boxes to the number of toilets.” (laughs) “It’s the contact between the audience and the performance – literally the distance between the front row and the front of the stage – that makes all the difference between a good theatre and a bad one. Everything is based on one simple principle: even the voices of lesser gods should reach the back of the hall. But the smooth technical handling of the performance and getting all technical material in and out quickly is also very important. That’s why in every project we also involve the room technicians who will have to make it work in practice.

Dropping a solution from above, without dialogue, certainly does not lead to the best solution. For the architect (m/f) of the project, we ensure that he can make the best design based on our data, without having to know himself what’s inside a stage tower. He can rest assured that it’ll be all right and that everything will work as intended.”

Pieter: “Ingenium’s takeover of TTAS Theaterbouw a few years ago was a logical step. Then in our early sixties, it was important for us that the knowledge we had built up in that quarter century not be lost when we bowed out."

Gerrit Walckiers: “I’ve been working at Ingenium since 2016 as a project engineer with a specialization in electricity. But the world of music and theatre has long had an important place in my life. As a voluntary stage technician with the small Ghent company Barraca, I got to know all facets of theatre technology. And I was also a sound engineer at lots of concerts and parties. I’m therefore very happy that I can further develop this interest at Ingenium along with my colleague Pjotr. The cross-pollination of TTAS’s expertise and that of Ingenium is exceptionally fascinating for me. Marc and Pieter are absolute experts in their field when it comes to theatre construction, while we are forerunners in technologies like HVAC. In this way, in years to come, we will most certainly be able to raise our services to the cultural sector to an even higher level.”