Lighting Rig

PVC Tape in Lighting Rigs.

Rubber strap at work!

With each show that comes into Arcola comes a different lighting rig.  We encourage production companies to look at ways they can reduce the carbon footprint of their show, and last week we introduced a new way of doing this during the pre rig of Uncle Vanya.

The large amount of cable used in theatre lighting rigs is usually taped to a lighting bar with PVC tape, which is not reusable.  We have estimated that approximately 198m of this tape is used per production.  We did think of using Velcro ties instead, but Lighting Designer on Uncle Vanya, Alex Wardle came up with an idea using rubber bands, which we developed so we could use recycled materials.

For the production of Uncle Vanya however, we’ve swapped this PVC tape for reusable rubber straps, made from used bicycle inner tubes. Just under 100 of these were made especially for this production.  We hope that more companies will be interested in using these straps if the trial on Uncle Vanya goes well, so that eventually we can be free of PVC tape on our productions.

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Northern Light Events and C venues Green up their Act at Edinburgh Festival Fringe

The Events division of leading UK sound and lighting installer Northern Light is working with one of the biggest venue producers on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe – C venues – to ‘green-up’ the latest addition to its stable of festival venues – C aquila.

Head of hire and events for Northern Light, Nick Read, has teamed up with C venues production manager Richard Williamson, artistic director (and international lighting designer) Hartley Kemp, and industry journalist Sarah Rushton-Read to collaborate on an energy-efficient lighting rig that will not compromise creative expression or practical application.

To that end, Read, Williamson and Rushton-Read trawled the aisles of PLASA Focus in Leeds and the ABTT Show in London to source the very best in low-energy entertainment technology. Read comments: “I’m delighted to say that having established the kit we required we received unfettered support from a number of top lighting manufacturers and suppliers. They include Robert Juliat with its Aledin LED profile; White Light, which is exclusive distributor for a number of low energy and LED pro lighting kit including the impressive RevEAL CW LED Washlight from Prism Projection; ETC with its Selador range of LED wash lights, dimmers, consoles and low-wattage Source Four Juniors; and Philips with its Selecon range of low-wattage Fresnels and PCs. This is fantastic as we have just 63A single phase available to run two performance spaces, catering and a bar!”

Read, Williamson, Rushton-Read and Kemp’s priority was to develop a lighting rig that would offer full creative flexibility yet be as low-energy as possible. Williamson comments: “It‘s essential that we don’t go green just for the sake of it – that can often do more damage than good! The entertainment technology products we will be using have to make sense on all fronts – creatively, practically and logistically. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe presents a number of unique challenges. Venues generally have limited power available, many hosting up to ten different shows a day, and turnaround between shows is tight – less than 15 minutes in most cases. Such a gruelling schedule demands that technical kit is robust, quick to rig, de-rig, set up, adjust and programme and, in particular, quick and simple to maintain.”

Read continues: “We’ve chosen equipment we believe will sit comfortably with the demanding schedule, fast set up and turnarounds, however Northern Light technicians will be on hand to offer incoming theatre companies any training, help or advice they may need.”

Rushton-Read will document activities, measure results and feed back information online through Northern Light Fringe Networking Site, Facebook and Twitter, she explains: “Not only will we document the all important numbers, but also the artists and technicians response to the new kit. We’ll look at how user friendly and fit for purpose it is and feedback on how quick and easy it is to programme. We aim to evaluate the wider environmental impact of C venues using British Standard BS8901 – Sustainability Management System for Events. This process will help us identify areas where the operation can be improved in a truly sustainable way – environmentally, economically and practically.”

At the end of the Festival, Northern Light Events, C venues and Sarah Rushton-Read will compile a report detailing the successes and any issues raised and look at where improvements can be made. It will also detail recommendations for next year’s event. It will be available for download from C venues, Northern Light and The Fifth Estate websites.

Hartley Kemp, artistic director for C venues concludes: “We’re deeply concerned about the environmental impact of festivals like the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and we welcome the chance to play our part in improving its sustainability. However, we also believe strongly in what we do artistically. We are therefore aiming to take a realistic approach to reducing our carbon emissions and our wider impact on the environment, in order to achieve minimal environmental impact without compromising creative expression. C venues is not claiming to be the greenest of the green or anywhere near the elysian fields of carbon neutrality. What we’re doing is taking the first positive steps to reduce our CO2 emissions, waste and environmental impact. I believe this exercise will give us the context and benchmarks by which to achieve effective results year on year.”

Arcola Theatre launches hydrogen fuel cell powered lighting at Latitude Festival

THEATRE ARENA

Building on its success of the past 2 years, Arcola Theatre are once again providing low energy lighting and fuel cell power to the theatre stage; and this year we are providing sound as well.

In 2008 when the theatre tent was much smaller, we powered the whole lighting rig with a 5kW fuel cell, using low energy lighting fixtures including LED and low power tungsten lamps. In 2009 the tent grew to its present size, but, with a smaller stage and audience on fewer sides, we were just about able to power the rig on 5kW, with a little extra generator power for particularly bright scenes.

This year, with large stage, audiences on all sides and greatly increased technical expectations, lighting demands are significantly higher than in previous years. Luckily, great improvements in LED technology in the past 12 months mean that they can still play a role. We have thus switched our approach – instead of doing the best we can with 5kW, we are experimenting with the latest LED fixtures. With greatly improved light output and colour rendering there are LED fixtures emerging which can replace tungsten lamps even in mid-scale theatres. This lighting rig gives designers an opportunity to trial these technologies.

Theatre Stage

There has been much less popular attention given to low energy approaches to sound and thus we were keen this year to see what is possible. To ensure that there was no compromise in quality, we have enlisted the support of Steve Mayo, head of sound at the Barbican and a new industry partner Dobson Sound.

In these first trials our focus is on cutting energy consumption by two means – first by getting the right amount of sound in the right place, hence the skilled system designer, and second by improving system efficiency by using amplifiers employing pulse-width-modulation (D class) which use nearly 50% less power than a comparable solid state amplifier. We hope it goes well…

AROUND THE LATITUDE SITE

This year Arcola Theatre has launched a new strand of work developing low energy technologies for the live arts industry. Thus we have installed 7 of our new HyLight150 fuel cell powered lighting systems across the Latitude Festival site; providing lighting for everything from marquees, to forest performances to production areas, as well as powering laptops, phone chargers and ticket machines.

HyLight 150

HyLight is the first fuel cell product to be developed specifically for the events industry and offers the high reliability demanded through an onboard ‘brain’ which monitors performance and seamlessly switches to battery back-up in
case of fault or user error.

Running on hydrogen, with a run time of over 50 hours between refills, the system produces zero emissions and is almost silent. Carbon emission reductions of up to 60% are likely in performance settings through use of the latest LED lighting. The system is also perfect for safety and security lighting where emission reductions of up to 90% are possible by displacing the ubiquitous 500W garage floodlight with 15W LED alternatives.

Arcola developed HyLight with a consortium including regular partners – hydrogen gas producer BOC and leading events industry supplier White Light who also support our work with the Theatre Arena. A new partner is Horizon Fuel Cell, manufacturer of the fuel cell at the heart of HyLight. A family of larger HyLight products is now planned, built around Horizon’s extensive range of low cost, light weight fuel cell systems.

MORE INFO

Press Release – Fuel Cells Across Latitude Festival

Latitude Photo Gallery

Latitude Leaflet

Hylight @ Arcola Energy Store

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