Located in the eastern Dutch town of Hengelo, the Metropool is a long-established live music venue featuring a huge range of acts and genres. It moved to its present home in 2009 and at that point its console stock was updated to include three DiGiCo SD8s and a large-format analogue desk, covering all its audio mixing needs across its Jupiler and Jack Daniels halls. They were one of the first Dutch venues to invest in DiGiCo technology as Teun Zekhuis, their Head Technician recalls: We chose the SD8 for its sound, interface, workflow and overall look and feel. Being one of the first stages in the Netherlands with this first series of SD8s we were really pioneering in a new world of digital audio. The SD8s proved to be a great choice and served us very well.
Fast forward nine years to 2018 and through a series of events, Metropool found itself taking over the business of Atak, a venue for pop music, creating Metropool | Pop stages of Twente. The audio equipment we inherited at Enschede confirmed that we made a good choice back in 2009; unlike ours, it had not withstood the test of time! So, one of the first things we did in Enschede was to replace the consoles, Zekhuis continues. Having DiGiCos in Hengelo, the choice for a new series of DiGiCos in Enschede was obvious; why change a winning formula? But to be sure we checked a few competitors and concluded that there was no other brand with a product line so compatible with our business, both affordable and quantitive. So, in 2018 we chose an SD5 for front of house in the Hertog-Jan hall (850 capacity) an SD10 for FOH for the 350-capacity Saxion Hall and SD12s for monitors in both rooms. We also bought an SD11 for the Muziekcafe which can hold up to 100 people.
Then, in 2020 back at Metropool we purchased another set of DiGiCo consoles: the Jupiler hall (850 capacity) now has a Quantum 338 for front of house with an SD12 on monitors, the Jack Daniels hall (cap: 250) uses an SD10 for front of house. Both rooms have SD12s on monitors and in the Muziekcafe it's an SD11.
Zekhuis shares his vision for presenting and maintaining contemporary performance venues in technical terms. We run an average of 500 shows a year and have many volunteers and freelancers at work, he says. In order to guarantee continuity in personnel and to keep the workflow constant, we have chosen to provide the same audio quality in all rooms, optimally realised in audio terms due to the Stadius 32-bit pre-amp technology in the racks. Besides that, all the mixers and workflows on the stages are adjusted to each other, which means that when you know how to handle monitors on one stage you also know how it works on all the other stages. The same goes for FOH we want to keep it as simple and plug-and-play as possible, which saves time in setup and gives the artist more time to prepare and perform.
Meanwhile in Enschede some 10km away, Wilminktheater en Muziekcentrum, a major regional facility encompassing several rooms of varying sizes and which presents everything from rock and roll to comedy, opera, theatre, ballet, conferences, cabaret, jazz and classical music, was also in the process of upgrading its technical infrastructure. These two organisations in two different cities combined forces through municipal budgets and clever in-house solutions to realise their respective goals.
We were looking for an upgrade on our mixing consoles, explains Eelco Braakhuis, the main engineer and audio specialist for the Wilminktheater en Muziekcentrum. The guys from Hengelo already knew DiGiCo so for them it was a no brainer in the search. For us also it was a console we knew and are very pleased with as we already owned two. It ticked all the boxes in terms of usability because we have a wide variety of shows that we produce ourselves, so we needed a console that is as flexible as it can be. Anything you can come up with in audio routing and processing, a DiGiCo can do it!
DiGiCo made a huge step up in audio quality with their new 32bit Stadius cards and we were very pleased with the sound it delivers. Combining it with Waves plugins and with the ability to go to immersive audio already in the console's software is very nice to have. It takes us a step forward to the future of theatre and opera.
Braakhuis notes that Wilminktheater en Muziekcentrum has a crew that all have to know how a console works, and it was easy for them to get used to the new DiGiCos.
We chose the SD10 for our main auditorium and two S21s for our small auditorium and church where we host mostly classical music, and a SD11 for flexible use in front of the house or during small conferences, he adds. So now here in Enschede we have six rooms with a total of ten DiGiCo consoles, all equipped with various racks including SD, D2 and D types. The different consoles have been very consciously chosen for the individual rooms, so they exactly meet the needs of each. It also makes it possible to use the different consoles in different rooms, entirely according to the technician's wishes.
As this is a purchase that was made by the city council, we had to do an inventory of pricing from three different companies, Braakhuis notes. The Ampco Flashlight Sales team made us a very good offer, they also know the consoles inside and out and do all the technical maintenance for DiGiCo in the Netherlands. This made them a good partner in our purchase. They handled everything very well for us during finalising the order and helped us create a great set of mixing consoles.
At Ampco Flashlight we're thrilled to have worked with both Metropool and Wilmink for the last two decades and that we've had the chance to extend and fortify our relationship with these beautiful DiGiCo-setups in both venues, concludes Bart van der Smissen, Product Manager Audio for Ampco Flashlight Sales. Ensch
Europe Stories
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
13/03/2026
Spotify has always been built around your taste. More than 80% of listeners say personalization is what they love most about us. Now we're taking that even ...
13/03/2026
The new Spotify Legends Club has opened its doors. Its members: select German-sp...
13/03/2026
Pushing drum sampler technology into new territories
The latest version of Klevgrand's software drum sampler has just arrived, boasting a newly designe...
13/03/2026
Expanded headphone support & engine improvements
IK Multimedia's recently introduced ARC On-Ear system brings the power of their monitoring-correction s...
13/03/2026
Extra sound collections, more presets & new Keys category
UVI's rhythm and pattern instrument has just received a major update that introduces four new ...
13/03/2026
13 Mar 2026
VEON Delivers Record Digital Growth: 4Q25 Digital Revenues Grow 84%...
13/03/2026
Friday 13 March 2026
Sky Adds Blood on Snow to Original Film Slate in Acquisiti...
13/03/2026
RT has announced today that Rick O'Shea is the new presenter of Arena RT Radio 1's flagship weeknight arts and culture programme. Rick has been pres...
13/03/2026
Lights! Camera! Action! The 98th Oscars set to air live as RT backs the Irish n...
12/03/2026
Staines-upon-Thames, UK, 11th March, 2026 - Yospace, the trusted leader in Dyna...
12/03/2026
In Latin America, women are shaping music and defining its future. To kick off t...
12/03/2026
En Am rica Latina, las mujeres est n moldeando la m sica y definiendo su futuro....
12/03/2026
Let's turn back the clock 20 years: The music landscape was a world away fro...
12/03/2026
Bad Bunny is no stranger to Spotify's Billions Club. In fact, he has a whopp...
12/03/2026
Spotify was at the London Book Fair this week, joining conversations across the publishing industry about how people can make reading part of their daily lives....
12/03/2026
Mastering tool improves mono compatibility
Tokyo Dawn Labs' Ohlhorst Digital range is a series of mastering-focused plug-ins developed by Jan Ohlhorst, ...
12/03/2026
Wave FX processor integrated into four products
Lewitt have teamed up with Elgato to create a new processor for the company's Wave Next product range, i...
12/03/2026
Free tool for annotating audio files
Mix Notes is a new, free iOS App that provides users with a simple way to annotate their audio files. It's been cre...
12/03/2026
Side-chain ducking tool gets an upgrade
Devious Machines' popular side-chaining and envelope-shaping tool has just been kitted out with an improved enve...
12/03/2026
Ceremony to take place on 16 April 2026
The MPG (Music Producers Guild) have revealed the full shortlist for this year's MPG Awards, which will be takin...
12/03/2026
Emulates three classic dbx 160 variants
The latest arrival to Overloud's Gem Series plug-in range faithfully recreates not one, but three versions of th...
12/03/2026
New granular soft synth announced
Said to be their most advanced software synthesizer to date, Baby Audio's latest release has been built on a new granu...
12/03/2026
Latest version now live!
Edit 11 March 2026 - Bitwig Studio 6 is now live, and available for all to download!
The latest version of Bitwig's DAW softwa...
12/03/2026
Latest free eBook now available!
Designed for recording engineers, audio-technology students and technically minded musicians, our latest free eBook deliver...
12/03/2026
Rohde & Schwarz Cybersecurity expands SITLine network encryptor portfolio - more...
12/03/2026
Rohde & Schwarz to showcase future-proof EMC testing solutions at EMV 2026 Rohde & Schwarz will participate in EMV 2026, Europe's premier trade fair and c...
12/03/2026
Modern media operations demand a platform that unites automation, orchestration, and human oversight without compromise. In this post, we explore the six key te...
12/03/2026
A deep dive into the platform
Architecture The Blue Lucy platform follows a distributed microservices architecture, meaning the overall operational capability...
12/03/2026
Orchestration platform enables broadcasters to deploy multiple AI models safely with full auditability, rights protection, and regulatory oversight.
LONDON, En...
12/03/2026
Wuppertal March 12, 2026
Riedel Expands Managed Technology Division in the Ame...
12/03/2026
Advanced Media Server Delivers Double the Channel Density at Half the Cost per C...
12/03/2026
The Late Late Show Show St Patrick's Day special
Dancing with the Stars f...
11/03/2026
First Medium-Earth Orbit (MEO) deployment of the emergency.lu platform for refugees and their host communities' use provides dependable broadband for humani...
11/03/2026
Following a successful first series, UKTV today announces the commission of two ...
11/03/2026
Wednesday 11 March 2026
Sky and CANAL launch new partnership to develop English-language drama
Sky and CANAL are today announcing a strategic co commissioni...
11/03/2026
NTCA, Cartesian Release New Report on the Business Case for USF
March 11, 2026
Network Economics
News
NTCA - March 11, 2026 - As the FCC and Congr...
11/03/2026
TELL US YOUR (SHORT) STORIES
The 2026 RT Short Story Competition is now open for entries
Recognising and rewarding the best new Irish fiction writing for...
11/03/2026
RT 's The Traitors Ireland is among the nominees for the 2026 Celtic Media Festival Torc Awards for Excellence, announced today....
10/03/2026
10 Mar 2026
VEON's Largest Market Pakistan Almost Triples Mobile Spectrum i...
09/03/2026
Contains all six dual-ensemble libraries
VSL's Duality Strings series offers an intriguing alternative to your average string library, capturing two str...
09/03/2026
Outstanding Contribution To UK Music
Photo: Samuel Bradley
Ahead of their upcoming MPG Awards, the Music Producers Guild (MPG) have revealed the latest win...
09/03/2026
Two new high-quality DI boxes announced
Boasting some impressive technical specifications and versatile routing options, Strymon's latest active DI boxe...
09/03/2026
Latest MPE-capable Soundbox library released
The follow-up release for Sonora Cinematic's Pure Nylon has arrived, and becomes the latest addition to the...
09/03/2026
Popular wireless mic head design revived
Sennheiser have revealed that the MD 9235, a cardioid mic head designed to pair up with their handheld wireless sys...
Located in the eastern Dutch town of Hengelo, the Metropool is a long-established live music venue featuring a huge range of acts and genres. It moved to its present home in 2009 and at that point its console stock was updated to include three DiGiCo SD8s and a large-format analogue desk, covering all its audio mixing needs across its Jupiler and Jack Daniels halls. They were one of the first Dutch venues to invest in DiGiCo technology as Teun Zekhuis, their Head Technician recalls: We chose the SD8 for its sound, interface, workflow and overall look and feel. Being one of the first stages in the Netherlands with this first series of SD8s we were really pioneering in a new world of digital audio. The SD8s proved to be a great choice and served us very well. 
