The current building was opened in 1998 and the majority of the lighting stock is now 16 years old. Wallace freely admits that, despite sustaining a rigorous maintenance programme, it was time to explore the newer, more advanced fixtures now on the market. The time had come for an update. "Our budget for lighting is only part of a huge upgrade of facilities and technical improvements.
"We're upgrading our flying system, converting the house lights to LEDs, replacing the dimmer racks, modernising our network as well as providing a more comfortable auditorium for our audiences with new carpets and seating. None of this would have been possible without the funding support from several supporters of Sadler's Wells and in particular with regard to the lighting, The Wolfson Foundation."
So why Robert Juliat fixtures? "For our fresnel stock, we originally had a number of Strand Alto 2k PCs and Robert Juliat 1.2k 310s," continues Wallace. "The RJs have been great with only one unit breaking in 16 years and we've retained these. We house a lot of European dance companies; they always ask for Robert Juliat or ADB and we were finding that no one really wanted to use the Altos anymore. We opted to purchase some more Robert Juliat 1.2k 310s and some 2.5k 329s so we now have just Robert Juliat both on the main stage and in our Lilian Baylis Studio space."
Alongside the fresnel order was a purchase of new profiles. With so many models on the market and with so many new innovations since Sadler's original investment in 1998, this was a harder call to make. "With this in mind, we did a shootout with all the leading zoom profiles," explains Wallace. "The 600s shone (literally!) the brightest. The shuttering on the units is the best I've seen, they are the easiest to use, they have the best focus on them, plus you also have the additional options of locking the shutters off and also adding further shutters if needed."
Ambersphere Solutions are the UK's exclusive supplier of Robert Juliat fixtures and it was Matt Cowles of Technical Sales who facilitated the demonstrations of kit. "Matt was key to our decision to re-invest in R J profiles both during the shootout and in discussions afterwards. Knowing we have their constant service and support after sales definitely played a part in our final decision."
(Jim Evans)
