The Lyttelton installation was included in the first part of an ongoing electrical upgrade, and provides power to the stage floor circuits above. A total of 108 channels of 2.5kW sine wave dimmers and 36 channels of 5kW sine wave dimmers have now been installed. According to Technical Marketing’s Andy Collier: "The reason everyone is becoming so excited about IES' 'sine wave' technology is that it represents the first genuine and practical solution to challenge the prevalent ‘phase control’ dimmers that have held sway for the last 40 years. We have all had to live with the by-products of that approach, particularly the big issues of unwanted noise and harmonic distortion. Now, with audiences and venue management more critical of noise pollution and new legislation pending to tackle harmonics, Matrix offers a timely solution to both these long-standing concerns."
IES has also recently installed Matrix dimmers in Spain, Germany, Holland and Liechtenstein. The UK’s first order for a hundred IES isine PowerModule 5kW distributed dimmers has been received recently to equip each individual hoist within a broadcast TV studio.
(Lee Baldock)