The new warehouse space, directly adjacent to White Light's existing building in Wimbledon, south-west London, gives White Light an additional 20,000sq.ft of working space, which will be used to accommodate the company's ever growing range of sales products, to provide additional pre-rig space for tours and other shows, and to create a demo area that will allow lighting designers to try out equipment in a decent sized space, or even to hang rigs for pre-lighting or rehearsal.
The Open Day marked the first public showing for the new building, which proved its worth by providing an 'out of the rain' area for product demonstrations from all of the manufacturers in the White Light family of products (ArKaos, Coemar, Core Lighting, Galaxia, i-Pix, JB Lighting, Leader Light, LSC, Look Solutions, Prism, Rainbow, Robert Juliat, RSC Lightlock, Tomcat and Wireless Solution) as well as from City Theatrical, Doughty, ETC, GE Lamps, Lee Filters, Le Maitre, Philips Entertainment Lighting, Rosco, Zero88 and many more.
Lighting for the day, including a spectacular giant mirrorball, was supplied by White Light, assisted by Blackout who provided rigging and drapery, and Creative Technology who provided projection and LED screens. Guests were fed, watered and, later in the afternoon, entertained by two sets from White Light 's in house band, Fanny & The Electrics. Throughout the day there were speeches from White Light's John Simpson and Bryan Raven, plus a rendition of Happy Birthday and birthday cake, supplied by Phillips Entertainment, to celebrate White Light's 40th anniversary.
"People started arriving almost before our 'opening time' of 2pm, and just kept coming all afternoon," says White Light's managing director, Bryan Raven. "It was great to see so many friends from every area of the industry - designers from the corporate, television and theatre worlds, people working in amateur dramatics, production managers, electricians - even the few competitors who snuk in! The food was great (and consumed in great quantities!), the band were superb and we think a good time was had by all."
(Jim Evans)
