The triple light engine PL3s have been installed specifically for the Broadway production of Shrek, which premiered at the Musical Theatre on 8t October 2011. These were complemented by a number of Vari-lite VLX LED fixtures (the moving head version) for LD Peter Kuchta's recreation of Hugh Vanstone's original lighting design.
Kuchta used the PL3s and the VLXs for a number of effects as he explains, "The fixtures were used as the sidelight and overhead washes. I'm in love with these fixtures; they are now replacing standard halogen luminaries. It is so easy to incorporate the fixtures into the show rig, just by using the gel codes. The VLX output is more impressive than we expected, based on the technical data. More importantly, the light output of the more saturated colors is excellent."
Head of Technical for the Musical Theatre, Dariusz Kruszyniak, adds, "The PL3 delivers clean, colour balanced whites for stage, television and film production along with a plethora of stunning colours, both saturated and subtle. This makes them ideal for the variety of entertainment genres we host at our venue. In addition we expect the long life of the LED engines to reduce our maintenance costs quite dramatically. Combined with the energy savings they deliver we feel it won't be long before we see real economic benefits of ownership."
Micha? Fr?ckowiak, trade director for TEATR continues, "The Musical Theatre, Gdynia has a varied programme. The flexibility of the PL3 and VLX luminaires combined with the low energy consumption is very welcome. The motorised beam control will help to speed up focus sessions as will the added convenience of remote control from the console. In addition the three 'white' presets (Warm White, Cool White, Daylight) means that they can easily integrate the fixtures into their existing rig and colour match them to existing light sources."
Michael Goldberg sales and marketing director for Philips (EMEA) said of the installation: "This is the first and biggest installation of the fixtures in Europe and we are delighted that LED fixtures are being used as everyday workhorses in the lighting rig rather than specials. This marks a real transition in the use of LED fixtures in theatre lighting design today."
(Jim Evans)
