AC-ET supplies Mountview Christmas Concert
- Details
This evening of songs, speeches and a chance to see all of Mountview’s undergraduate and foundation students perform under one roof, took place in St. George’s Catholic Cathedral, Southwark, Central London.
Mountview senior lighting tutor, Alex Cann, created the Christmas Concert's lighting design in partnership with a student of the Academy's 3rd year BA (Hons) Theatre Production Arts course.
The lighting brief was to enhance the overall production, but also to ensure that the whole audience could see the performers. The design therefore needed to be practical whilst also subtly enhancing the overall performance.
When it came to choosing the lighting fixtures, there were a number of important criteria which needed to be met.
Alex comments: "Being a working Cathedral we had limited access time before the concert, so I needed to use fixtures that would be very quick and easy to set up. They also needed to be compact enough to not take up too much space in the performance area, or obstruct the beautiful architecture. With limited power available in the venue, I also wanted them to be LED, to reduce the power consumption. However, despite being compact, they still needed to be powerful enough to light the large archway columns either side of the performers, and the high vaulted ceiling above them."
Andy Mahaffey from AC-ET's lighting sales division recommended Chroma-Q Color Force II 12 powerful RGBA colour-mixing LED washlights to uplight the columns and high ceiling in subtle pastels. He also suggested ProLights SmartBat Plus compact, battery powered, portable LED units featuring wireless control, for their simple setup and positioning anywhere to uplight surfaces, and ProLights StudioCOB Plus LED PAR fixtures to provide subtle accent lighting.
Alex adds, "We had to ensure that all equipment was portable due to regular church services throughout the day. The Chroma Q Color Force II 12s are a great compact fixture, with excellent colour mixing and a very bright output that helped to accentuate some of the wonderful architecture of St. George’s Catholic Cathedral.
“The ProLights SmartBats were absolutely ideal for this type of event, and the fact that they were wireless was a real bonus. The ProLights StudioCOB Plus fixtures also did a good job providing cross-lighting."
Mountview supplemented the floor-mounted Chroma-Q and ProLights fixtures with stand-mounted ETC Source 4 Jr Zoom ellipsoidals from their existing lighting stock, to provide overhead illumination of individual performers from a distance.
Summarising his experience of using the lighting fixtures and working with AC-ET, Alex says: "We were delighted to work with A.C. Entertainment Technologies on our Christmas Concert. The high-quality fixtures added some real Christmas sparkle to our show. The service provided by everyone at A.C. is great and I look forward to working with them again in the future."
Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts is currently constructing a purpose-built new home in Southwark which will feature two theatres, rehearsal and performance studios, production workshops, music practice rooms, TV studios and a radio suite, as well as a 200sq.m rehearsal studio for hire by industry professionals.
AC-ET is the exclusive UK dealer for the Chroma-Q and ProLights LED lighting ranges. Selected models will feature on the company's stand at PLASA Focus Glasgow this month.
(Jim Evans)
