David Harvey and Paul Hornsby with the ROH's new VL1000s
The Royal Opera House's purchasing has seen it add nine Martin Mac2000 Performance spotlights and seven Vari-Lite VL1000AS spotlights to its equipment stock. This adds to the comprehensive stock of automated lighting, including City Theatrical AutoYokes and custom fixtures created by installing Arri 4kW HMI fresnels in Licht Technik Yokes, which White Light Sales and The Moving Light Company have supplied to the Opera House in recent years.
"When we started specifying automated equipment for the House during the refurbishment, we knew that we would ideally need a unit offering shuttering facilities in our overhead rig," comments the Royal Opera House's David Harvey. "At the time nothing was really available, but lighting designers have increasingly been demanding this facility. Thanks to White Light Sales, we were able to take a look at the latest products to reach the market, comparing and contrasting them side-by-side and hands-on."
"After examining all of the options, we selected the Vari-Lite VL1000AS units for their great beam quality and low noise, and the Martin Mac2000s for their shuttering and the linear animation effect, which is very interesting and adds to the variety of effects available from our permanent rig," Harvey explains. "Both add to the HMI-quality of light available from overhead, something which many lighting designers are requesting - for the Mac2000s, White Light Sales suggested and have supplied a new whiter lamp from Philips to better match our HMI light sources."
At the same time, the ROH's lighting team expanded their conventional lighting rig, purchasing twenty Robert Juliat 2kW fresnels for their Linbury Studio Theatre and ten LDD Spectra Connect three-colour fluorescent fixtures for use as discrete, versatile footlights. "The LDD units are ideal for this," Harvey explains, "as you don't have to leave a gap between units, allowing unbroken, continuous runs of light to be formed."
The new sales continues the White Light Group's ongoing involvement with the Royal Opera House, with The Moving Light Company and The Service Company supplying service and support for the Royal Opera's automated lighting, lighting desk, dimmers and lighting network system.
Further information about the Royal Opera House can be found at the company's website, www.royalopera.org. Further information about White Light Sales and the rest of the White Light Group can be found elsewhere on this website.