Always aiming to offer a complete range of lighting services, leading lighting supplier White Light has had a chance to combine many of those services in its ongoing involvement with London’s Royal Academy of Music, which has been working to upgrade its lighting systems over the last few years.
Jake Wiltshire, Technical Manager for the Academy’s 230-seat Sir Jack Lyons Theatre, the 400 seat Duke’s Hall concert hall and the 180 seat David Josefowitz Recital Hall for the last seven years, has been masterminding the upgrades. He started the process by replacing the theatre’s existing and somewhat temperamental dimmer installation with 144 ways of ETC Sensor dimming and new dimmer outlets, internally wired bars and DMX data distribution around the building, the new installation supplied and installed by White Light’s Sales and Installation teams led by Technical Sales Manager Roger Hennigan.
More recently, White Light, working with Independent Studio Services & Bradbrook Electrical, has returned to the theatre to replace the over-stage flying system, installing five new motor winches, replacing the rigging on the cyc bar, replacing the up-and-down-stage flying bars, and refurbishing the theatre’s hemp sets as well as upgrading the building’s electrical distribution with new MCBs for dimmers, motors, houselights and worklights. White Light also upgraded the dimming system in the Duke’s Hall with a new ETC Unison system.
This year, Wiltshire turned his attention to upgrading the theatre’s lighting rig, in consultation with a number of lighting designers who work there regularly on the Academy’s Opera and Musical productions. After careful consideration and a number of equipment trials, he ordered a selection of equipment from ETC and Robert Juliat: 55 ETC Source Four profile spots (with 19 to 50 degree fixed plus 15-30 zoom lenses) and ten Juliat 310 1kW Fresnels plus new Par cans. He also opted for the SeaChanger Colour Engine for Source Four, picking the xG ‘Extreme Green’ variant. “Many of our productions use scrollers, so it seemed like an obvious thing to add to the stock – but after we considered the expense and time of making and fitting different scrolls for each show, the SeaChanger quickly presented itself as a cost-effective alternative. As a small theatre that regularly stages opera, noise was also important to us – and the SeaChangers are effectively silent. They have been really, really fantastic, impressing the many designers who meet them for the first time here.” All of the equipment, including the SeaChangers, was supplied by White Light.
The new rig was first put to use by Wiltshire himself, for the opera Hansel Und Gretel. “It was hugely important to me to demonstrate not only what the new rig could do but also to highlight what could be achieved with the right financial support; the result was an awesome showcase of our new kit, opening non-technical minded eyes to exactly what could be achieved with the right support and belief.”
More recently, the rig has been put to use in a very different style by the two musicals mounted by the Academy’s Musical Theatre course, this year Sweet Charity and Oh What A Lovely War. Lit by Rob Halliday, who has designed the musical theatre shows for much of the last decade, the demands of mounting two full musicals in just five days meant that a few extras were required. For these, the Academy turned once again to White Light, who have also supplied the equipment to the Musicals and many of the Academy’s other shows for the last decade; White Light’s Hire team supplied the shows with DHA Digital Light Curtains, framing ETC Revolutions, a selection of UV gear and some scrollers, “White Light’s stock scroll saving us the expense of having custom scrolls made,” Halliday notes. “What was remarkable was how much easier it was to get these shows on than when I first worked here, and how much less gear we had to hire this year – Jake has done a great job of updating the theatre’s rig with sensible, practical, useful gear, the SeaChangers, in particular, being an inspired choice.”
Just after the musicals, Wiltshire made one more purchase – a new ETC Ion control console with twin fader wings and twin touch screens, to replace the venue’s versatile but ageing Strand 300 console. “The 300 has served us well,” he notes, “but it was becoming increasingly hard to maintain it, and the moving lights and SeaChangers we now own really needed an easier to set up control system. I’m looking forward to putting the Ion through its paces.” The Academy joins the many other UK venues – from Leicester’s Curve to the Royal Opera House – to choose ETC’s award-winning control system.
“What’s been great about working with White Light on all of these large upgrade projects has been the confidence and trust we’ve been able to have that they would deliver a final result that fits well into an educational budget and time constraints yet has the finished quality, the attention to detail and the support and backup that the professional sector demands. I like the fact that the relationship between RAM and White Light is based on the same objective – working together to create and support both the arts industry and the production process within that.”
The Academy, for its part, showed its appreciation of the work Wiltshire has carried out to update and improve their venues by making him an Honorary Associate of the Royal Academy of Music – for which White Light offers its congratulations!
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