Leoland

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 opened a new multipurpose conference concert space.

This enhances its already excellent facilities at the heart of this picturesque city.

Given everything that Ukraine has been going through over the last 2 years, it is as much a small miracle as it is a testament to the strength and unity of all involved in the project who were determined it should be completed and immediately start further benefiting the community.

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 eight ParFect 150s that are positioned around the ceiling, all delivered by one of Robe’s Ukrainian distributors, Sound House, based in Dnipro.

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.

The planning for the venue started at the end of 2020 intended as a metropolitan venue for business events and gatherings. The original technical installation date should have been March 2022, but the war started the month before.

Since then, people’s immediate needs have shifted, so Leoland’s whole emphasis has also moved to it being more of a social and community hub that can be enjoyed by all the public of all ages as well as those engaged in business.

The requirement for staging commercial events and business meetings started to grow again in 2023, and these are much needed to stimulate different areas of Ukraine’s adapting economy, so the project was reactivated.

Sound House created a full technical design – audio, lighting, and AV – package for this new multipurpose room at Leoland and proposed it to their client after taking their brief. They then won the contract to supply and install all of it.

The constant and very real threat of enemy ballistic missiles, glide bombs and drone attacks … which are killing Ukrainian civilians every day.

Once the war started in February 2022, plans for the multipurpose venue were put on hold, but after a few months the client decided to take the risk and reactivate the project.

To no-one’s surprise, a degree of value engineering was required, but everyone wanted to make it happen.

Andrii Garkaviy and his Sound House team took everything in their stride at this stage given everything else going on

Those left at the company – 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.

However, this also wasn’t the biggest challenge for Sound House by that time!

On March 11th, 2022, two 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.

The complex security guard and his dog were sadly killed in the strike.

Luckily the LEDWash 600+s had not yet arrived, and as soon as the invasion began, Andrey asked the Robe factory and sales team to leave everything not yet delivered safe in the Czech Republic until the goods were needed on site.

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 wartime economy also brings many more logistical nightmares – massive increases in the time and cost, crew shortages and the fact that everything takes longer to install on-site amidst constant power and network outages.

But everyone was determined.

This project should win because it is a miracle and a huge feat to realise any kind of installation during a full-scale war!

It is a wonderful example of the industry and its people working together through times of hardship, and fantastic that the client had the balls and was prepared to take such a risk – knowing that it can also be destroyed at any time!

This project was an emotional journey in many ways, but also symbolic of strength, solidarity, and resilience.

Many people on all levels had to work together, believe in each other, and give above-and-beyond the normal passion that everyone puts into their work anyway by default!

This narrative says a lot about the spirit of Ukraine and its people.