LONDON – The Ashwin Street Christmas Street Party was part of a $1.13 million London Development Agency-funded project to revitalize parts of London's Dalston area. It was also a showcase for a theatrical lighting design. Organized by project architects MUF and J&L Gibbons, the event brought together local youth, community, performing arts, visual arts and creative industry organizations to create a snapshot of how the presently run-down area could be.
Arcola Theatre provided 18 PixelRange Micro Es and eight 50w birdies for the architectural lighting of the Colourworks and Print House buildings designed by Haberdashery London.
"The Micros were perfect for this event and produced the desired effect with ease," said Arcola Theatre's David Salter. The event required a small unit that was easy to transport and discrete to install. The Micros benefit from an integrated power supply, silent operation and very low 31-watt power consumption. Their yoke doubles as a stand for floor mounting reducing the need for floor stands – and their ability to operate independently means they can be "thrown in" easily without the need to run DMX or set up a lighting desk."
The Micros were mounted near the windows to illuminate the ceilings and windows of the rooms using their built in yoke/stands and powered from 13amp wall sockets. The installation needed to be unobtrusive as the offices were in use during the rigging and initial part of the event. LEDs were also placed on window ledges inside the stairwells.
Due to the temporary nature of the installation and the short setup time, it was impractical to link and control the units using DMX. Instead the Micros were used in standalone mode and colour picked manually. Selected units were also placed into colour-changing mode to produce a subtle "chase" effect.
Building on the success of the party, more outdoor events are planned for the summer 2010 Create Festival after the improvement works are completed and the new Dalston Square station is completed.
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