ETC packs ColorSource PAR off to school

Staff and students at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (RCSSD) in London have become the first users in Europe of the award-winning ColorSource® PAR from ETC, when they used it for a show at the beginning of the year.

The school used the fixtures on their musical-theater production of Big City Dreams , performed by students on its MA Music Theatre course. The production ran over three days in Central's Webber Douglas Studio, a black-box studio-theater with fixed lighting catwalks that allow for flexibility, both in terms of design and staging.

Technical manager Phil Rowe says: "The show was set in traverse, and its devised nature required a broad color palette. But our fixtures' scrollers were coming to the end of their life, which gave us an opportunity to try some LED fixtures, ahead of the new building which is being planned, and which will be largely based on LED products."

Big City Dreams lighting designer and member of Central's Technical Support department Sam Smith says of the gear: "Photos from Big City Dreams demonstrate well the versatility of the lights. The key thing was the flexibility they offered to what would have otherwise been a fairly restrictive rig, and particularly given its size and the time we had to put it in."

Jeremy Roberts, ETC's associate regional manager for the UK and Irelands, adds: "The new ColorSource PAR fixtures are powerful, yet come with low heat output, low energy use and a low price point. With our investment in research and development, and commitment to ensuring that every light outputs the same quality light, we can ensure that even with a low budget, venues such as schools and community centers can still get a great standard of light."

The ColorSource PAR mixes the red, green and blue LEDs found in traditional low-budget fixtures, and adds a lime-green emitter and a little extra red, to obtain rich, natural, flattering light. The ColorSource PAR was awarded Product of the Year at the ABTT show in June, with the judges commenting that the luminaires provided an application for situations where quality color-changing LED optical fixtures might have previously been out of budget, but where increased sustainability and improved run costs are desired. They added that they were particularly impressed with the smooth dimming and high light output.

Photos © Patrick Baldwin