NEW YORK — Production Resource Group’s new Best Boy 4000 Spot luminaire is making its Broadway debut on the Tony-nominated revival of Evita as part of a broader package of gear provided by PRG. LD Neil Austin said he chose the Best Boy for its brightness, low power draw and much lower noise as compared to other spot fixtures. Evita is playing at the Marquis Theatre.
More details from PRG (http://www.prg.com):
NEW YORK —For the Tony-nominated revival of Evita on Broadway, Production Resource Group, L.L.C., (PRG) provided the lighting package including its new proprietary Best Boy 4000 Spot Luminaire. A high output, low power automated light with a truly complete feature set, the PRG Best Boy is making its Broadway debut in this production. Designed to be energy efficient, the unit delivers more than 20,000 lumens, but draws only 5-amps at 208-volts, far more efficient than competing lights which draw up to 12-amps at 208-volts.
LD Neil Austin chose the Best Boy after carefully evaluating it against other spot fixtures. “The advantages were its brightness, the lower power draw, and the much lower noise,” said Austin. “There’s always noise with automated lights—it’s one of those things that I really pay attention to closely. A low noise level is important to me and the Best Boys are quiet compared to other discharge fixtures.”
Color and dimming were also features that the lighting team liked about the Best Boy. Lighting Programmer Rob Halliday noted, “The color mixing, which is much more even than any other moving lights, was a real bonus. The color system in the Best Boy really allowed us to get everything that we wanted. Also, the Best Boy’s dimmer is worth remarking on, as it is better than in any other moving light. Pretty much everything about the light is good.”
Austin was particularly pleased with the unit’s even color. “Up until the Best Boys, there wasn’t a CMY moving light profile that did color well enough for me,” he explained. “Previously you always got a little more color at one edge and less at the other edge; somewhere in there was the color that you wanted, but it wasn’t fully across the beam. Then you dimmed those other moving lights and it was even more of a color disaster. That is not a problem in the Best Boy. The optics are amazing; the field is nice and even.”
Even though it is designed as a profile, Austin also uses it as a wash light, saving on the overall fixtures required for the show. “When I design a musical rig, one of the earliest versions of it will be an arc wash and an arc spot on bar ends and at center. Then what always happens is that I look at the design and realize I can’t afford the real estate or the budget for that many units. I have found that by using the third position of the frost in the Best Boy, you can make a nice, soft-edge wash light. Suddenly, I have got a spot and a wash, all in one light.”
The revival of Evita is currently playing at the Marquis Theatre in New York City.
