Created by the Royal Shakespeare Company and manufactured by Total Structures, Lightlock is designed to open up new lighting and rigging possibilities by automatically damping the unwanted movement that occur when moving lights are rigged from short bars or trusses. Normally, the centrifugal forces caused by the moving light are transferred to the truss, which continues to oscillate long after the light has completed its movement so causing the light beam to sweep wildly around its target focus position.
Rigged between the light and the truss, Lightlock detects the movement and automatically damps it by moving a weighted mass in the opposite direction to the movement of the truss. Truss oscillations which would normally continue for twenty seconds or more, depending on how quickly the light was moved, are brought under control almost instantaneously.
By allowing even the largest of moving lights to be rigged on separate short flown bars, the RSC Lightlock opens up a whole range of new design possibilities, whether just letting individual lights to be flown in for maintenance, or allowing a separate height to be set for each fixture - and even varied during the show - as part of the production's scenic and lighting design. Lightlock is already on the road with Bon Jovi's The Circle tour, controlling the movement of both Syncrolite MX4 fixtures and moving video columns.
The RSC Lightlock was designed by the Royal Shakespeare Company's head of lighting, Vince Herbert, while working on possible lighting rig designs for the RSC's new Royal Shakespeare Theatre, currently under construction in Stratford-upon-Avon. Herbert was keen to be able to create individually flown clusters of lights, both to allow lighting angles to be varied during productions and to reduce the need for staff to work at height, with moving lights removing the need to get to the rig for focus and the flown modules allowing the rig to be maintained at ground level.
"We are delighted to be able to offer the RSC Lightlock to everyone working in lighting in the UK," comments White Light's technical director, Dave Isherwood. "We've watched Vince's idea evolve from the original concept over the last few years, to the very neat finished package built by Total Solutions. It is one of those products that is not needed on every show - but is the only solution available to those who need its special magic, and can even inspire people to go forward with designs that might have been rejected as impractical prior to Lightlock's creation."
The RSC Lightlock itself is a compact unit, resembling the top box of many moving lights at just 515mm x 429mm x 76mm; the unit weighs 14kg and draws a maximum of 150W, the power input switchable between 220V and 110V. It does not need a data feed.
(Jim Evans)
