Ben Hunt at the Empire Theatres, with the newly delivered Robert Juliat Dalis lights (photo: Kris Stewart)
Australia - When Ben Hunt, head of lighting at the Empire Theatres, Toowoomba, in Queensland first fired up their new Robert Juliat Dalis LED cyclorama lights, his first impression was “finally we’ve found something up to the task”.
“It’s no secret that to light a cyclorama with conventional asymmetrical floods is going to require some serious power along with its consumable lamps and colour filters – especially when you’re lighting a 14m by 9m cloth,” commented Ben. “That task had been dealt with by sixteen, four cell Selecon Aurora cyc floods and you could hear the power meter groan every time we flicked the switch on!”
Ben added that the theatre had been looking at the LED cyclorama light market intently for the last few years waiting for the right product to pop up that would allow them to light their cyclorama with a quality light, but also give them ultimate flexibility on how and where they use them in the precinct across their venues.
“We wanted something that could light a cyclorama one day, light a three-act ballet with multiple scenic cloths the next and finish off the week in another room theming a corporate function; something that would require a special unit to achieve.”
Ben and his team decided to test all possible product contenders onsite so they could properly evaluate them in different usage scenarios and spacing options.
According to Ben, the Dalis 860 cyclorama light was the only unit on test at the time of the shootout that could tick every box, a true standout. Consequently, the theatre purchased 20 Dalis 860 cyc lights along with clamps cases and cables to suit. The units are configured in ten top cyc and ten ground row as default but can be reduced to eight and eight to allow for other units to be used elsewhere on the precinct.
(Jim Evans)

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