"Our lighting rig is working roughly 40 hours per week, 160 hours per month, or 1920 hours per year," says Abbott. "Generally we do a full swap of bulbs on automated fixtures every 600 hours, or approximately three or four times per year if the bulbs are all functioning perfectly, but if not, we replace them once or twice a month. And then once every two weeks, we also do a general four-hour maintenance work call to clean the insides of automated fixtures and perform the suggested manufacturer maintenance."
When the full production run for American Idiot began in April 2010 and Abbott and his team implemented their regular maintenance schedule, they began to notice that one particular set of lights would often go untouched.
Abbott continues, "With a normal wash fixture in a typical Broadway rig, you have to swap out a fixture once or twice a month for various issues, but it took us nine months to touch our first VLX Wash, because there is no bulb in it and the amount of heat generated is significantly less than other moving lights. They are hung 10 in a row on each side of the stage and we had to figure out how to take it down because it had been so long since we had to put them all up. Typical fixtures fade with a loss in output, but the VLX Wash fixtures look the same today as the first day we turned them on."
Now that American Idiot is entering its second year on Broadway, Abbott and his team are excited about the sustainability of their lighting rig and are confident that through their relationship with Hudson Sound and Light they will easily overcome any challenges that may come their way, but with the VLX Wash those challenges aren't a concern.
"We love working with Hudson Sound and Light. The whole staff is very helpful and quick to assist and solve any issues so we don't have to worry about what we might need and that's an important relationship to have."
(Jim Evans)
