LIGHT & SOUND INTERNATIONAL • DECEMBER 2017
ENTERTAINMENT • PRESENTATION • INSTALLATION
IN THIS ISSUE:
Theatre: Network
Combining stage and screen
Tech Focus: Robin MegaPointe
Robe’s all-purpose moving head
Review: JTSE, Paris
Showfl oor highlights
A WORLD FIRST FOR BRISTOL HIPPODROME • ER PRODUCTIONS: RECORD BREAKERS
STAGECO: GOING MOBILE • BUILDING TRUST: AUDIO & ARCHITECTURE
FAC365: CHANNEL HOPPING • AUTHENTICITY IN DESIGN - AND MUCH MORE . . .
La Perle
Dragone Studio in Dubai
www.lsionline.com
DIGITAL
EDITION
IN THE NEWS
DECEMBER 2017
•
WWW.LSIONLINE.COM20
UK - Designed by eminent
theatre architect Frank
Matcham for Oswald Stoll,
Bristol Hippodrome first opened
its doors in 1912. This year - at
the grand old age of 105 - the
theatre has been treated to
a number of cosmetic
procedures, each sensitive to its
Grade II listed status. Chief
amongst the updates is the
world’s first installation of the
GDS Fade to Warm (FTW)
ArcLamp houselighting system,
but theatre owner ATG also took
the opportunity to upgrade and
improve other facilities
throughout the venue.
New seating in the stalls
and grand circle has been
installed by Northern Seating,
whilst a new pit lift from
Unusual has already come
into its own on the National
Theatre’s touring production of
War Horse, allowing the crew to
utilise previously dead space
and affording the theatre the
option of increasing its seating
capacity in the future. The
Hippodrome has also benefitted
from a fresh lick of paint,
refurbished dressing rooms,
carpets and various other
technical enhancements.
GETTING THE GLOW
In replacing the tungsten
houselight system in the
theatre’s 2,000-seat auditorium,
care had to be taken to maintain
the look and feel of the historic
venue, traditionally illuminated
with the classic soft lighting of
glass empire shades.
Installed at the Hippodrome
by Bristol-based Push The
Button (PTB) and designed
and manufactured by fellow
Bristolian GDS, the FTW
ArcLamp proved the ideal
solution, having secured the
prestigious PLASA Award for
Sustainability at the PLASA
Show in 2016 for its potential
to replace outdated auditorium
lighting systems.
ATG’s Brendan Gage
comments: “We were
introduced to the FTW ArcLamp
by PTB, who we approached
to refurbish the auditorium
lighting. Our decision was
assisted by the healthy
reputation of GDS equipment,
who also manufactured our
blue wing workers [GDS Blues
System] installed in 2005, which
work fantastically.”
He continues: “The FTW
ArcLamp is the first lamp
to overcome the biggest
stumbling-block for LED
houselights - the dimming
curve. Earlier attempts have
suffered from a thumping
drop in light rather than the
gentle enveloping fade out
of traditional incandescent
lighting. The ArcLamp has a
wonderful dimmer curve - even
with a lamp pressed to your face
the fade is gentle, especially at
the end of the fade - that also
matches the change in colour
temperature that incandescent
lighting gives.”
On the development of the
new LED lighting solution,
Matt Lloyd of GDS comments:
“Whatever GDS does in terms of
developing an LED lamp, it has
to be better than anything else
on the market. The benchmark
for achieving that would be
to perfectly mimic a tungsten
lamp, not only in terms of colour
rendering but also its capacity
to dim to an atmospheric warm
ambience.
Bristol Hippodrome: In a New Light
Claire Beeson reports on a world fi rst lighting installation for
Bristol’s Grade II listed theatre . . .
WWW.LSIONLINE.COM
•
DECEMBER 2017 21
“In developing the ArcSystem Fade to
Warm, we embarked on what was close
to a two-year journey, placing a lot of
technology into a lamp that can run for
55,000 hours owing to its intelligent thermal
management, whilst exactly matching the
appearance of a 45W light bulb. Fade to
Warm retains all of ArcSystem’s advantages
such as the perfect dimming, the
environmental and cost benefits - without
having to sacrifice the capacity to dim
houselights to the familiar, comforting glow
associated with the theatre experience.”
PUSHING THE RIGHT BUTTONS
Installed by PTB - with project manager Nick
Ewins assisted by Ben Noble and with Gary
Burrows managing the site team - the
retrofit nature of the ArcSystem enabled the
team to largely utilise the wiring of the
Hippodrome’s previous installation to keep
costs down. “A re-wire of a building of this
type, and on such a huge scale, would have
made this unfeasible,” says Gage, who
worked in close collaboration with the PTB
team on the upgrade along with ATG’s
Stuart Graham and Peter Tovey. “I’d also like
to give a special mention to Pete Loft and
Greg Rowell who were involved in the very
first feasibility calculations for an LED
conversion,” he adds.
No stranger to the Bristol Hippodrome,
PTB’s MD Nick Ewins comments: “The
Bristol Hippodrome is very close to my
heart as I remember working on upgrading
the venue’s gas emergency lighting to
a central battery system much earlier in
my career. Like all LED retrofit projects,
the upgrade to ArcLamp required careful
planning and preparation. As an installer,
your preparation is key to the success of the
project. In this case, we were working with
old infrastructure and cabling, reinstating
missing fixtures and working in a Grade II
listed building.”
In all, PTB installed 212 FTW ArcLamps
with their associated drivers, plus an ETC
Echo Control System and two PTB-created
replica chandeliers. Meanwhile several of
the theatre’s other existing fittings were
replaced with PTB-designed or sourced
alternatives.
Ewins continues: “PTB installed
one of the first GDS ArcSystems at the
Birmingham Hippodrome and we have
been busy upgrading houselighting systems
ever since. Our team has a strong grasp
of the approach needed with these retrofit
installations and we are looking forward
to carrying out many more of them in the
future. It was great to work with Pete [Tovey]
and Brendan who both had considerable
input into the project.”
A WARM RECEPTION
The system is already having a positive
impact on the working life of the
Hippodrome’s in-house team who no longer
have to replace bulbs on a daily basis. Gage
comments: “The life of the new lamps has
meant that instead of changing a few lamps
a day, we’ve regained hours of time back,
limited our exposure to difficult-to-access
areas and found the running budget is
looking a lot healthier. Regaining these staff
hours has helped us focus on supporting
visiting shows to a higher standard and
realising other projects.”
Owning some 46 venues internationally,
ATG keeps a keen eye on the ever-changing
landscape of LED products in a bid to lower
energy consumption and maximise the
benefits that energy saving products can
offer. Stuart Graham, head of technical
operations for ATG, comments: “Our
challenge is to ensure that new LED
technology introduced to our venues does
not compromise the experience of our
patrons or the objectives of the producers
and companies who use our venues.”
He continues: “ATG were the first to
implement the ArcLamp when we installed
it in the Savoy Theatre in 2013, and
since then we have carried on with our
programme of houselighting upgrades.”
With LED retrofits to the houselighting
systems at the ATG-owned Piccadilly
and Playhouse theatres also recently
completed, the successful installation
of the new FTW ArcSystem at the Bristol
Hippodrome is the latest step forward for
the group. “We will continue to evaluate
our venue lighting systems across
the group and implement appropriate
low energy technology wherever the
opportunity arises,” says Graham.
Although the implementation of LED
lighting systems doesn’t come cheap,
Gage is positive about the Hippodrome’s
investment: “Whilst the tungsten lamps
were comparatively cheap, due to the
guarantees on the FTW lamp and the
support from PTB our initial running costs
have already dropped significantly. Long
term, this couples with the savings on air
conditioning to help offset the installation
cost. These factors also help with ATG’s
sustainability goals. Fewer lamps being
replaced results in less waste; less byproduct heat means saved energy and less
electricity used to light the auditorium.
A triple whammy for the green agenda.”
A mark of the upgrade’s success
is that it has gone unnoticed by the
theatre’s patrons. The houselights work
just as they ever have, dim just as they
ever have and are controlled just as they
ever have been.
Clearly pleased with the new system,
Gage concludes: “Auditorium lighting is
required to meet two very demanding and
sometimes contradictor
y ideals - light
the auditorium to express its beauty and
to provide the ambience of a ‘theatre
environment’, whilst ensuring the audience
are safe. The ArcLamp is both bright for
safety and gentle for the art!” Glowing praise
indeed . . .
I
P
www.ptb.co.uk
P www.gds.uk.com
Link S.r.l.
Rome, Italy
www.linkitaly.com
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