As a 14 year old James Simpson was intrigued by the moving lights being produced by the likes of Martin and Vari-lite but, as pocket money didn't stretch to a VL1, he decided to make one after school in his DT workshop. It was a new technology and he wanted to know everything about it so, using the stalwart tool of any young engineer - Meccano, he produced his own version. It even found its way onto local am-drams pantomime although Simpson is cagey about whether it would have passed the PAT test!
So: it's safe to say that James Simpson is passionate about technology and it's a lucky man who can indulge in his passion during the working day. As Lighting Visualiser at the Royal Opera House, with what he, himself, describes as 'the most amazing resources' he has had the opportunity to investigate new technical developments and assess how best they can be integrated into the live event industry to offer fresh and dynamic possibilities for staging and design.
Looking for fresh innovations for the stage is not always straightforward as Simpson explains, "Technology is always developed for other uses before we find it. That is partly due to the relatively small size of the industry, often rushed schedules and limited budgets that cap the opportunities for R&D. For example, LEDs first target market was traffic lights and look at how integral they have become in lighting and stage design. Just like stage automation and pyrotechnics, LEDs found their way into our industry primarily as they were invested in to be "something magical" that hadn't been done before.
'So to identify new possibilities I would look towards companies who pioneer in research such as Philips and Cera-Vision for lamp technology; Grand MA and Cast Lighting for lighting control systems and perhaps most exciting, the computing industry for ideas in software and databasing enhancements. Today, everything new has to be scrutinised, quite rightly, for environmental impact and sustainability and this is where industry bodies like PLASA, Julies' Bicycle and the ALD are vital to the way we shape the future of live entertainment."
Does that mean that, as an industry, we are lacking in imagination? "Absolutely, definitely not! We work in a market where everything is planned but certainly doesn't always go to plan and thinking 'outside the box' has made us great at adapting and using emerging technologies. I work with some amazingly gifted, intelligent colleagues and I'm sure most of my audience would say the same. But still, I find that a new idea is rarely used because it is available, but because it is needed. Visualisation for instance, is something that you must feel you need before investing in it otherwise you can't justify the investment if it doesn't work. At the ROH it started as a lighting tool but has now expanded to include any technical element of a production."
So if financial investment is an identified barrier to more research, are there other areas that require improvement? Simpson's reply underlines why the Professional Development Programme is so important to maintaining and improving standards: "As equipment becomes more complicated, different skill sets are required to work it. If I was touring a very expensive production with lots of media and AV I would want a couple of highly skilled media operators on my staff. There are many gifted people in our industry who can write their own software and start companies specialising in something that needs developing, but this in itself creates eddies in our skill sets which need to be filled by more training. There is an argument that perhaps the phase of software difficulty has peaked and more user friendly systems in the future will bring the design back to the designer and not rely on technical people with specialist training. But, for now, that type of totally up-to-date training is vital and th
