LONDON – Ruari Cormack, technical director of the Riverside Studios Trust, recently turned to Martin Professional's diminutive-yet-bright MAC 101 LED moving head luminaire as an alternative to conventional lighting fixtures. "As a venue, we are aware of the need to cut costs and using LED technology lets us replace banks of lights to give a variety of color palettes whilst using a fraction of the energy," Cormack said. "With our high turnover of productions, these units will give us greater flexibility to meet each show's demands."
Riverside Studios has a TV production studio, two theatres and a 200-seat independent cinema. It plays host to contemporary and international dramatic and dance performance, film, visual art exhibitions and television production. It also includes an art gallery and café bar & kitchen with a River Thames side terrace.
Riverside had the MAC 101s in place for a co-production with Tête à Tête Opera of the musical Salad Days, which runs through Feb. 9, positioning the units along each side of the traverse layout stage in Studio 2, a 400-seat black box performance studio. In addition to provided coverage for the full stage, some fixtures are positioned to pick up specific areas of action at each end of the central area.
"In future, we are likely to use them as pipe end and front wash lights for most events and general productions, and as featured backlight for music events," Cormack explains. "They are so versatile we could use them most places."
Small and light (3.7 kg), the MAC 101 LED moving head wash light promises a tight and bright beam, rapid movement and calibrated colors. It is small enough to fit inside a piece of truss and is designed to be easy to handle and rig.
Stage Electrics, with whom Riverside Studios has a longstanding relationship, supplied the Martin gear. "Mark Doubleday, the production LX Designer, has been impressed with the output of the unit and we are looking forward to using these over the next few years," Cormack said.
Cormack also credited Mark Doubleday, Adrian Searle and James Morris at Stage Electrics, and Mike Walker at Martin Professional, for helping provide the fixtures in a short time frame, "well ahead of the guideline delivery period."
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