Energy Trust offers cash incentives to commercial, municipal and institutional businesses throughout that state that upgrade dated equipment to energy-efficient technology. To qualify for the incentives, one requirement is that a new lighting installation must result in at least a 25% energy saving.
The Concert Hall's aging battens were demanding an increasingly high level of maintenance. Appropriate light bulbs are no longer being manufactured, and the cost of upkeep kept mounting, so they were replaced with Vivid-R luminaires.
House electrician Justin Dunlap says: "I would predict that we'll see an 85-95% consumption drop in power usage from the on stage fixtures, not counting the front of house lighting. Seladors have also taken over the PAR rig work, so all the areas that were previously PAR lit are now also lit with Selador."
The theatre has 288 control channels dedicated to the Selador system. "I like the idea of having so many colours possible without having to have more fixtures," adds Dunlap. "I basically built a grid on stage and can block it out for different lighting looks. I can use Selador as a wash for one big colour on stage, or I can pull them apart and light a violin as blue, white, amber, etc."
While the Selador luminaires were initially intended to replace only battens, they have since taken over much more of the lighting work on stage. "The secondary lens set was a big feature," says Dunlap, "because the Seladors can be used in so many ways. The variability of functions with Selador fixtures is well thought out."
The lighting staff can also put the Vivid-R luminaires to work off the stage. Dunlap says, "The Seladors let you do more for architecture than a lot of other stage fixtures would allow you to do."
In addition to the Selador Classic Vivid-R units, the Concert Hall has a full ETC lighting system that was originally designed by Theatre Projects, which includes an Obsession II lighting control console, five Sensor+ dimmer racks, SmartSwitch relays, an Emergency Lighting Transfer System (ELTS2), Unison architectural control systems for the front of house and backstage lighting, hundreds of Source Four spotlights, and 60 Source Four PAR luminaires.
(Jim Evans)
