Rio Grande Theatre goes LED with Chauvet
- Details
History repeated itself earlier this year, when the venue, which now hosts a diverse mix of theatrical productions, concerts and special film showings, took a technological step forward by replacing its old stage lighting with a new LED system that features a collection of Chauvet Professional fixtures supplied by Hubbard’s Music.
“This project involved replacing the existing conventional fixtures that Rio Grande was using,” said Will Sadler, project manager for Hubbard’s Music. “The theatre wanted a more flexible lighting system to handle the wide variety of shows it hosts. It also wanted to reduce the heat load in the space and bring down costs. This was not a straight one-to-one fixture trade. The venue’s mission has changed since it last installed a lighting system, so the new system had to represent a new approach to reflect the variety of new uses.”
The Hubbard’s Music team installed five Ovation E-160WW warm white ellipsoidals and an equal number of Ovation E-910FC RGBA-Lime colour mixing ellipsoidals for front lighting from the catwalk position. This gave the theatre an optimal balance between full colour and warm white stage lighting without the use of gels.
“This was the first time I’ve used the E-910FC,” said Sadler. “I am very pleased with the range of intense colours this fixture produces. It still amazes me that we don’t need to deal with gelling and focusing a bunch of extra fixtures just to get a four-color wash anymore. Anyone who has had to climb a catwalk ladder more than once will appreciate how much of a difference this makes. Our lighting designer decided on the OEZOOM 1530 lens tubes for the ellipsoidals to give them the most flexibility to go from theatrical productions to concerts.”
For down lighting, 20 COLORdash Par-Hex 12 wash lights were installed between the first and second electric. “This was a bit of a challenge, since space between the line sets was limited,” said Harvey. “The compact size and high output of the COLORdash made it work well here.”
On the third electric, six Ovation C-805FC static wash lights were positioned. To add extra colour to selected shows, the Rio Grande rig also includes six Ovation F-915FC Fresnel units, which are moved to different positions depending on production requirements. The motorized zoom and 30° - 85° field angle of this fixture greatly adds to the versatility of the new lighting system, according to Harvey.
(Jim Evans)
