Set up last year by Darren Jackson, the Wisbech-based Fut-Euro has quickly become a one-stop shop for lighting designers and architects looking for imaginative ideas in a wide number of applications.
Said Jedi managing director Andrew Baldwin, "What we aim for first is reliability and value for money. If we need something specific Darren can usually find it - but any new kit we are offered we will strip and pull apart before we have the confidence to use it."
Jedi first specified the Futurelight effects - notably the PHS-220 pro moving head with 48 pre-programmed scenes for stand alone operation and EVO-7 effects projector at Tony and Inge Hubrich's Club Ice in Braintree. "Having tested them there we knew they were reliable, and that Futurelight (and sister company Eurolite) produced high quality optics. The EVO-7 is particularly versatile as it produces a stunning kaleidoscope effect." This then gave the Halstead-based company the confidence to specify a similar array at Tony Mead's new Sky Rooms in Colchester's city centre.
But it was first on an industrial estate in Braintree that Jedi were able to illustrate how a drab entertainment venue could be brought to life through imaginative mood programming.
Club ICE was formerly the fairly featureless Four Seasons Social Club, but a £500,000 conversion (and the introduction of an 'ice' theme) has given them flexibility and a dynamic dancefloor.
Over the dancefloor Jedi has specified a Trilite diamond-shaped custom ceiling rig (and ladder sections) from which are suspended four different sized mirrorballs at uneven drops. The rig incorporates four Futurelight EVO-7 kaleidoscope effects and six PHS-220 moving heads, four Eurolite TS-250 scans, four Eurolite 400W UV floods and a pair of Eurolite TW-150 water effects - all provided by Fut-Euro.
Martin Magnum Pro smoke machines bring to life a show which is powered by Anytronics Contractor 24 dimmers and controlled by a Martin Light Jockey (and custom PC).
Since the venue is used by tribute bands, Andrew Baldwin often has the chance to be creative with the Futurelight fixtures - notably when Pink Floyd tribute band Breathe Floyd requested 'psychedelic lighting' on their rider.
"My solution was to use broken glass gobos in the PHS-220's, put a prism wheel in front of them to create three-facet prisms, rotate the prism clockwise and the gobo anti-clockwise and put a slow rainbow colour scroll over the top," he explained. "This is what you can do with a product such as this."
Meanwhile, over in Colchester, Jedi again adopted an imaginative Futurelight solution as the mainstay of Tony Mead's conversion of the former 300-capacity Minx Lounge Bar & Nightclub, with its former 'Gentleman's Club'-style interior set on three floors. Fut-Euro provided both the disco and LED lighting for the Sky Rooms.
The main dancefloor is ablaze with lighting effects operating from a Penn Fabrication custom lighting rig around a 50cm mirrorball. Jedi has complemented some of the original effects by adding four of the Futurelight PHS-150 moving heads and two EVO-7s - operated (along with the video) from a Martin Light Jockey, with custom PC and touch screen, and energised by a Martin Magnum Pro 2000 smoke machine.
Upstairs, Jedi and Fut-Euro have augmented the existing effects by providing mood changers in the form of six MX-Colour RGB LED moving heads - two up in the Gods and one in each corner - and a 'chandelier' composed of six CLS-LED 30cm globes, at different length drops, and colour-changeable from their dedicated CLS-LED SRC-241 controller.
Jedi's Andrew Baldwin has programmed the Martin Light Jockey with some imaginative presets, enabling the various lighting st
