"There were no quality 2kW HMI followspots available in New Zealand to match this event, with all previous shows of this scale and high production standards having relied on units out of Australia," says MJF's CEO, Michael Farrand. "It was time for a change."
Farrand had previous experience with Robert Juliat followspots on the AC/DC tour, which UK-based Neg Earth had supplied with 4kW RJ Lancelot followspots. "I had the opportunity to talk to the touring tech, and find out first hand just how reliable the RJ product was," Farrand says. "Feedback from actual users is always far more valuable than any pitch from a salesman or brochure, and my experience proved the RJ range of followspots actually deliver everything they purport to do, and more." It was with this in mind that MJF chose the RJ Merlin to fulfill the remit for REMT.
"The Merlins are beautifully engineered," Farrand continues. "The design has been thought about and the guys at Robert Juliat have obviously consulted thoroughly with the people who use the product. They've thought about everything: the balance of them, where the controls are located and how they go in and out of the roadcases. Every little detail has been thought about."
The four RJ Merlin followspots were positioned on the roof of the stadium, 26m above the field, in two purpose built huts that were craned up into position. The installation took a week to complete and included a life-sized replica of Edinburgh Castle as the backdrop to Paul Collison's lighting design.
Collison was very impressed by how the Merlin followspots performed. "The Merlins were amazing and an ideal fixture for the Military Tattoo," says Collison. "Their size meant they could be effectively used in a tight position on the roof above the field, and the way they cut through the arena wash to help us pick out individual talent was incredible. I've been a fan of RJ fittings for a long while, particularly their optics, but I was incredibly impressed with the output of the Merlins. They really made lighting the show a pleasure as we could rely on them to compete with hundreds of other fittings even though they (the Merlins) were throwing over 100m at times. To my knowledge, there is no competitor that comes close to the quallity of RJ."
Robert Juliat are as careful to design for the comfort of the operators as they are for the designers and technicians and were very happy to hear the feedback from head followspot operator, Katie-Jane Bowen. "There are many features on the Merlins that I found extremely useful," says Bowen. "One of my favourite features was the dimmer control position and the percentage reading on the display. This enabled me to be able to call my team to match the exact output with ease to balance our pickups perfectly without guesswork."
The Robert Juliat Merlin followspots were purchased by MJF Lighting from RJ distributor Show Technology. The MJF team for REMT consisted of head system tech/engineer, Blair McLaren, system tech, Shamus Jackson, head of lighting, Michael Farrand, and head followspot operator Katie-Jane Bowen, with lighting design by Paul Collison of Eleven Design, Australia.
(Jim Evans)
