Events and Venues Technician students light up college

6th November 2026 – Tags: T Levels

T Level Events and Venues Technician students were centre stage as City College Norwich hosted Robe Goes East, a major lighting industry event in collaboration with Robe, Avolites, and ETS.

Robe Goes East gave the region’s live events professionals a chance to explore Robe’s latest range of lighting technology, including the new wash lights and Arianne series, theatre fixtures, RoboSpot systems, and the latest from Avolites control.

At the heart of the event were the college’s T Level Events and Venues Technician students, who put their skills into practice by helping to deliver this exciting industry event.

As darkness fell, the college’s Norfolk Building was transformed into a live demonstration space for Robe's IP65-rated fixtures, showcasing how the technology performs in a real outdoor environment.

After taking part in a series of hands-on workshops earlier in the day, the T Level students worked alongside the professionals to experience first-hand what it takes to bring a live production to life.

For the T Level students, the day was about more than observing from the sidelines. It gave them an opportunity to engage with industry professionals, practise using the technology they may go on to work with, develop their confidence, and gain an insight into the wide range of careers available across theatre, live production and technical events.

Find out more about our T Level Events and Venues Technician course

T Level Events and Venues Technician student Kodee Ives said:

This event has given us the chance to work with the sort of very bright lights you’d use for huge theatres and huge performances and gigs. They are really powerful, so they’re very expensive, but they are great!    

 

It’s great that we get to use them and see how they work, because if we were to go into something bigger, huge venues like Glastonbury or something like that, these are the sorts of lights we’d be using.”

Summing up the day, Rich Hanke-Hill, Course Leader for the T Level Events and Venues Technician course, said:

Our students have gained a huge amount of information about how to rig lights and how to operate them. They’ve also done RoboSpot training, which is about follow spot training for live events, and Avolites lighting desk training. It’s been a great experience for the students, building on their industry placements, and providing a further opportunity to showcase their skills to employers.”

This exciting opportunity for our T Level students came about thanks to City College Norwich’s partnership with Robe, which has seen the college recognised as an educational partner of Robe.