C venues is one of the largest of the Fringe's venue producers and C aquila its latest venue. Like many of the Fringe venues, C aquila is a 'made' space so operated off very limited power supplies. Two theatre spaces, a box office, catering and bar facilities had to run off only one 63A single phase.
A team, consisting of head of hire and events for Northern Light Nick Read, artistic director and lighting designer Hartley Kemp, journalist Sara Rushton-Read and C venues production manager, Richard Williamson, approached the design for lighting the spaces with a special purpose in mind - to run the entire venue from low energy sources which would in no way restrict the creative or practical aspects of the productions - up to 12 each day - which ran for the three weeks of the festival.
The equipment lists evolved from 'shopping trips' to PLASA Focus, Leeds and ABTT London, where the team picked out the best LED and low powered tungsten units currently on offer in the industry. In addition to low power usage, each unit had to be robust and quick and easy to install, de-rig and programme.
"The Robert Juliat Aledin absolutely fitted the bill," says Nick Read, "and is special in that it is an 85W LED source within a standard profile body."
Two Aledin 11°/26° units were installed on the front-of-house balcony where they were used on every show. Its low wattage means that up to 15 units can be run from a single domestic power outlet.
The high daily turnaround of shows means the venue technicians have only 15 minutes between shows to re-focus, re-colour and plot. Under these conditions the user-friendliness as well as the performance of the Aledin were put to the test.
"Aledin has a good flat field, which is unusual for a LED source," says Read. "The coolness of the gate meant we could put our fingers inside the unit to adjust the gobos quickly and the gobo projection quality was excellent. Colour filter can be put inside the unit so is cut smaller than standard profiles, using less gel, and does not burn out or need replacing. It also has a good dimming curve so dimming was very nice.
"We felt it was very straight forward and easy to set up so were pleased with both the time saving and the performance it offered. All in all we concluded it was a very interesting unit."
The Aledin LED profile, which is available in warm or cool white, and also as a retrofit kit from the standard Robert Juliat 600 Series and Quincy profiles, has been nominated for the PLASA Innovation Awards, the results of which will be announced at the show on Monday 13 September.
(Jim Evans)
