"It all began when we brought Forman & Associates in to speak about LED luminaires for the theatre," began Militello. "They then called me back a few weeks later with a proposition from Philips Entertainment that would allow us to get the PL Series LED luminaires into the hands of our students and we were very eager to accept. We don't own any LED fixtures and so we could sometimes rent a few but at those times the student designers would essentially use them for colour fills as opposed to their main theatrical fixtures.
"I personally have worked with LED wash and linear lights outside of Cal Arts, but the idea of an LED ellipsoidal is really very new so I had not gotten an opportunity to work with those types of fixtures until now. I was waiting for this next phase of lighting to come about and with the PL Series LED luminaires it looks like that next phase is here."
"We received the PL Series LED luminaires in the last semester of my junior year and I first began to use them in our light lab as part of our classroom activities," said Cal Arts senior Nicholas Diaz. "In the classroom we were able to work in a hands-on environment creating projects in our black box setting and then presenting to the class for critique and discussion. In this instance, we really were able to test ourselves and take chances we might not normally take by freely incorporating the LED fixtures into our classroom designs."
"This was my first time to use LED fixtures and before this I didn't really like LED because I thought the colour was sort of fake and the colour temperatures were never quite right," added Cal Arts senior Seth Chang. "I was a little worried about how they would actually perform for us so when we first got the lights I spent two afternoons in the theatre playing around with them. I have to say the colours they can create are truly amazing. They can literally provide any colour you want, plus because they are RGBW, I was able to not only adjust the colour but I could also adjust the color temperature if needed which to me is absolutely fantastic."
While first being used in the classroom environment, it was when the student designers got to use the PL Series LED luminaires in an actual performance that the real test would come. Built on the proven Philips Entertainment LED technology, this was a test that the new fixtures passed not only based on their colors, but their power as well.
Militello continued: "When Forman & Associates said they were going to show us an LED ellipsoidal, I wasn't necessarily sceptical but I was a little unsure about how it would perform in a real theatrical environment. When I saw the PL Series in action I was very happy about what they could do and now that we have them in the theatre the students are really getting a lot out of them. At Cal Arts we have three main theatres and a few other alternative spaces so our lighting gear gets a considerable amount of use. When we are doing several productions at the same time we have to have a sort of lottery to see which productions get to use the PL Series fixtures because everybody wants them in their designs and they work great."
Militello concluded: "When you bring in new technologies the students are always a bit sceptical until they get their hands on them and start working with them, but I believe we
