"For our new double production of the operas L'Heure Espagnole and Gianni Schicchi, the American lighting designer Mimi Jordan Sherin asked for a number of scrollers in our FOH positions," explains Royal Opera House lighting manager Simon Bennison. "Unfortunately for the Opera House and auditorium conditions this was not really possible - but it left us with a sizeable FOH lighting issue to solve - we needed a powerful and silent colour mixing solution for a tungsten unit."
Subsequent research by the ROH's Michael Scott and Paul Hornsby led them to the SeaChanger Colour Engine. "White Light supplied a demo unit which impressed us all enough for us to order eight SeaChangers, the first in the UK."
The SeaChanger colour engine is a dichroic colour-mixing system designed to be fitted to ETC's Source Four profile spots; the self-contained unit attaches to the front of the Source Four's lamphousing, and any Source Four lenstube is then fitted to the SeaChanger.
The ROH's SeaChangers are used in 26° 750W Source Fours, providing a six-point front wash onto the frontcloth and downstage portal of the set.
(Jim Evans)
