The Company's technical director Niall Black explains: "ETC's associate regional manager for UK & Ireland, Jeremy Roberts, brought a range of different fixtures to Scotland in February to provide a demonstration to our technicians and others, including Scottish Opera, Scottish Ballet, freelance technicians, designers, and students from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
"Jeremy let everyone just play with the fixtures. We compared a 750W tungsten Source Four to the new LED version in a shoot out; inserted gobos; and got a chance to get a good all-round look at them. It was obvious that the Source Four LED is a fantastic unit.
"We've previously invested in some LED lighting units, and are very keen to start using more because of the reduced heat and power consumption. As a touring theatre company, we work in a wide range of different venues, with very different access to power. Our productions are not only in the great buildings such as Edinburgh's Royal Lyceum and Glasgow's Citizens but also in site-specific locations, community halls and sports halls, car parks and forests. With LED, we can plug into whatever's available, knowing that having very limited mains power isn't a problem, while also not having to worry about separate dimming circuits."
The Theatre's technicians liked the Source Four LED's ability to work alongside their existing Source Four spots; and while existing Source Four lenses work well with the LED version, they invested in ETC EDLTs (enhanced definition lens tubes) for greater optical accuracy. "We were impressed with the optics at the various different angles, but went for the 36ยบ beam in order to get the greatest flexibility," says Black. "It is rugged, which is important, since we're a touring company and it's going to need to be robust enough to be taken in and out over 100 times a year."
Black Light's managing director Gavin Stewart comments: "Theatrical LED lighting is still in its relative infancy, but the National Theatre of Scotland is keen to be a leader. They are starting with 12 of the Source Four LED Lustr+, which has a wide colour palette while still rendering skin tones in a very natural way. We're hoping that more requests will follow soon from other customers as they see how effective the fixture is. We've also bought some for our hire stock, so that we can supplement NTS's purchase and start introducing the product to other clients through rental."
The National Theatre of Scotland, which has now entered its sixth year, works collaboratively with companies and individuals to produce a range of different types of show. They travel all over Scotland, offering plays for adults, young adults and family theatre, creating large scale work, music and spectacle.
The first show that the fixtures will be used on is scheduled to be Appointment with the Wicker Man at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
(Claire Beeson)
