"I think it's the best new piece of kit I've seen in ages - I never want to light a cyc again without it," is how lighting designer Peter Mumford describes his experience with EvenLED on Prima Donna. The new opera, written by Rufus Wainright and performed at this year's Manchester Festival, used an array of 111 panels to light Anthony McDonald's set. "I was able to use EvenLED for the cyc, but also for the back 'glass' wall of an enormous room - and even 'raw and exposed' in intense green for one of the enormous scene changes. The sequence for the aria Feu D'artifice, with the EvenLED behind a BP and a huge window, was really beautiful."
EvenLED's TV appearance came as part of Sky Television's Sky Arts Theatre Live season, six new short plays performed live to a studio audience while simultaneously broadcast live in HD on Sky Arts 1.
EvenLED's comedy appearance is for the current Eddie Izzard tour, playing arenas throughout the UK, Europe and then the USA. Lighting designer Keith Johnson is using a system of over 200 panels, controlled by Hippo Critter media servers, to create a stunning backdrop. Similar systems have been put to dramatic use on corporate events and parties by a range of designers, including White Light's own corporate events team at the Natural History Museum.
"When we first supplied EvenLED last year, we said that it was bringing cyc lighting into the 21st Century," comments White Light's managing director, Bryan Raven, "and the reaction of lighting designers - who've all loved it the moment they've seen it - has backed that up. We are delighted that EvenLED has sparked other new developments in LED cyc lighting which, as always, we are offering as part of our aim to give lighting designers exactly the tools they need for any given project."
(Jim Evans)
