Arlette Gruss promises its audiences a spectacle like no other with a top of the range show that encompasses trapeze artists, clowns, magicians, motorbikes and animals. With a six-month tour that takes in the towns of Bordeaux, La Rochelle, Rouen, Arras, Lille, Boulogne, Dunkerque, Valenciennes, Thionville, Mulhouse, Strasbourg, Colmar, Reims and Troyes, lighting designer Arthur Oudin needed a followspot that was small and tough enough to tour and versatile enough to be controlled with pin-point accuracy, as well as deliver top notch performance.
"The ideal unit proved to be the Robert Juliat FLO with a DMX controlled dimmer, shutter," says Oudin. "The power of this small compact truss followspot is truly brilliant. The electronic ballast reduces the weight considerably and manages the power of the lamp accurately which was especially useful when lighting the jugglers, for example. It also makes it possible to dim the followspot without losing the beauty of the beam.
"In addition, the logic of retaining central control of the dimmer shutter from the console really redefines the work of the followspots. It ensures we keep all the advantages of 'traditional followspotting', yet lets me control the light intensity directly from the console, leaving the followspot operator to concentrate on focusing the spot and following the performers. And when we need a black out, everyone fades to black at the same time."
(Jim Evans)
