The festival, which runs until 14 September, is a celebration of international performance design from the world of theatre, opera and dance, running alongside which is Scenofest, bringing together live events, including performances, master-classes and hands on workshops.
Presentations will include ETC's technical director Adam Bennette and Steve Terry, ETC's vice president of R&D, who will be chairing a technical discussion on how to set up LED in a lighting rig. Bennette explains: "LED fixtures use power in a quite different way to tungsten - if the rig is set up in the way it would be for tungsten, it can cause all sorts of power issues. So we talked about what the problems are, and how to work around them, then talked about how to mix old and new sources without causing fireworks!
"We expect some great audience participation - with a some really challenging questions."
World Stage Design 2013 is hosted by the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama (RWCMD) and uses venues throughout the college as well as spaces in and around Cardiff city centre.
Project leader Sean Crowley, RWCMD's director of drama, says, "The event only takes place every four years, so it was a real coup to bring World Stage Design to the UK. We are able to bring in leading professionals from so many different countries to share their work, skills and experiences in a brand new space, designed especially for this event and built by a team of volunteers from sustainable materials."
Early in the week, ETC trainer Jürgen Nase also gave presentations on colour and the use of LED, discussing how different fixtures work in practice, and how tungsten, HID and LED can be mixed to get the results.
(Jim Evans)
