NEW YORK —New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (MMA) upgraded the lighting for its renovated American Wing courtyard. The upgrade included an ETC Ion lighting console used for control. The new lighting package was designed by Michael Nishball, principal, and Robert Young, associate, Theatre Projects Consultants (TPC), under contract to the architectural firm of Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates. High above the exhibit floor (some 60 feet), the truss-based lighting rig spans more than 100 feet along the edge of a third-story gallery. The previous system proved difficult to access and did not fit with the renovation scheme. TPC’s new lighting system design, with the ETC Ion, let the client specify the custom-designed fixtures they wanted and retains the existing dimming system, while solving the issues of accessibility and simplifying operations overall.
The Ion interacts with all of the lighting-system components and playback is operated from a remote wall-mounted preset station or the console itself. The Ion controls and positions the automated yokes, on which are mounted the custom light fixtures to achieve the desired focus.
Young specified the Ion partly for its compact size. “The small footprint was one reason. The Ion is very easy to store and bring out when needed,” he said. “But the main reason was to make things as simple as possible for the users. With its extensive fixture library, Ion already has a pre-programmed profile for just about any moving light or fixture you would want to use. Once you patch in the right fixture from the library, it is incredibly easy for users to focus the lights and create a cue or exhibit lighting look. For this job, it was the perfect fit. You don’t need to have someone on staff who has been programming a console professionally for years. A user can walk up and with relative ease get it to do what they want it to do.”
For more information, please visit www.etcconnect.com.
