One Thought Out Of Three Hundred

Rob is delighted to be part of theatre maker Russell Lucas’ 300 Thoughts for Theatremakers on-line series of discussions - which can be found here.

The full range of talks take in every aspect of theatre making, each conversation with a fascinating person - quite the company to be amongst!

Rob’s talk was about lighting in a world after both Brexit and Covid. In many ways, it continued, updated and expanded on the session Russell organised and Rob led about the effect the EU’s lighting regulations would have on smaller theatres back in 2018. Here Rob talked about the final version of the EU lighting regulations and how entertainment lighting had won many of the concessions it required - but how many of those concessions are likely to be rendered irrelevant as manufacturers discontinue specialist theatre light bulbs through lack of demand. He also talks about how the work on this regulation had fuelled a discussion about a need for an organisation representing every part of the entertainment industry in discussions with Government - something that had was ultimately not put into practice, but which would have been invaluable in the Covid emergency.

Rob and Russell’s conversation can he found here: [link]

A trailer for the whole series can be found here: [link]

Why Does My Console Do That (- find out on January 19th!)

Rob is delighted to have been asked back online by Martin Professional - this time on Tuesday January 19th, with a presentation that combines his loves of both the very latest lighting technology - and the generations of lighting technology that led up to it.

Entitled Why Does My Console Do That?, the talk also has a subtitle - the sometimes unexpected histories of functions we take for granted - and why some have gone missing along the way - that explains a bit more about the content. Rob’s aim is to take key functions we take for granted on current lighting consoles - ‘record’, or ‘track’, or ‘preheat’ - and trace their history back through generations of lighting controls to see just where they came from, and why they were put there in the first place. Sometimes that will track back to lighting control before computers. Sometimes even further back, to lighting control before electricity!

As well as looking at key functions that we still have, Rob will also touch upon some very useful functionality that has somehow got lost along the way - and will wonder aloud whether some of it could usefully make a comeback.

The variety of hats Rob wears provides the background to what should be a fun look back at lighting history rather than a dry history lesson. As a lighting designer and programmer he’s often been the first to use the latest technology on shows. But he also charts lighting history in his monthly Classic Gear column in LSi magazine, and was one of the creators of the UK’s Backstage Heritage Collection which aims to document entertainment technology online and preserve it in real life.

The talk takes places on Tuesday, January 19th at 5pm UK Time / 11am US Central Time. You can book online now: [link].

Details of the many other online sessions being offered by Martin and Harman can be found here:
[link].

Sitting In The Co-Pilot’s Chair - Available Online Now

Rob’s on-line presentation for Martin Professional, Sitting In The Co-Pilot’s Chair, looking at the work of the Lighting Programmer and their relationship with the Lighting Designer, is available to view on-line now for those who missed it live.

The presentation seems to have been enjoyed by those who watched it, many sticking around to ask interesting questions at the end…

Rob is now working on a follow-up presentation, which will appear sometime in January. Stay tuned for more information.

Sitting In The Co-Pilot’s Chair: [link]
Other Upcoming Martin Webinars: [link]

Appearing Online - October 21st

Rob will be appearing on-line as part of Martin Professional’s Learning Sessions series of on-line talks on Wednesday, October 21st.

Rob’s talk is entitled Sitting In The Co-Pilot’s Chair, and explores the relationship between the Lighting Programmer and the Lighting Designer. As he explains, “the lighting programmer’s job is to translate a designer’s vision into the practicalities of console and lots. It is a relationship that is intimate, thrilling and unique - involving the programmer almost getting inside the designer’s head to understand their aim, while at the same time occupying a seat perfectly placed to watch the creation of unique live entertainment events.”

Rob’s work on both sides of this partnership, as lighting programmer for shows such as Les Misérables, Billy Elliot, Miss Saigon, lighting designer for shows such as Giudizio Universale, and sometimes, as on Tree of Codes, filling both roles, gives him a unique perspective on this unique relationship.

The session takes place on Wednesday October 21st at 11am (US Central Time) / 5pm (UK time). You can sign up via the Martin/Harman website: [link].

Rob’s talk is just one of a great series of events organised by Martin. Details all of the events can be found here: [link].

Long-Range Socially Distanced Lighting

Rob was supposed to have spent some of this summer in Tokyo, working on the return of the Japanese production of Billy Elliot, returning for a season after its 2017 debut in the country.

Understandably, he is not there - but the production is moving ahead, having loaded in to the theatre this week, with technical rehearsals getting underway now.

However both Rob and lighting designer Rick Fisher are helping out with some ‘socially distanced’ lighting - distanced by 6000 miles!

Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, it had been agreed to make some changes to update the lighting rig, with VL2600 LED fixtures replacing some of the previous TW1 and Revolution fixtures. Though the Japanese lighting team were familiar with the show having worked on the 2017 production, to give them the best possible start with the new lights Rob set up a mini-rig of the old lights next to the new lights in London. This allowed him to match the look of the new (in terms of colour, beam, edge and position) to the look of the old. At the same time, he created a virtual model of the rig in the Augment3D visualiser that is now built into the Eos-family consoles the show uses. The showfile was then transferred across to Tokyo, ready to go.

There is now a running communication between the Japanese lighting team led by Yuta Watanabe, via the wonderful interpreter Sonoko Ishii, swapping information, ideas, pictures, suggestions and reminders that it’s time to be done for the day and to adjourn for socially distanced drinks.

This remote lighting is alongside the remote work involved in getting the rest of the production on, which has seen rehearsals in Tokyo led by a director via Zoom from England and a choreographer via Zoom from Australia.

Billy Elliot opens in Tokyo at the end of September, playing a season there before moving to Osaka.

A Little Research Project

One advantage of lockdown has been time to get caught up on long-standing ‘background’ projects. For Rob that has meant the chance to complete the power study of Les Mis that he’s been carrying out gently in the background since the start of the year.

The project started with a question: how much power are we actually saving by moving our lighting to LED? This came partly out of the Save Stage Lighting campaign of a few years ago, trying to persuade the EU that while we wanted to keep the magic of tungsten light available to us we weren’t stuck on old technology and were actively moving to more efficient sources. And partly just out of curiosity: intuitively we know newer rigs are using less power than older ones, but exactly how much? We know that a new LED light uses less power than an equivalent tungsten light, but we also know it’s less bright, so we run it at a higher level. In show use, it doesn’t use as much less power as you’d think from just reading the label…

Fortunately Rob already had a tool in place to analyse this - the PowerTrack function in his FocusTrack show documentation software. What was harder to find was one show lit using older (tungsten, arc) equipment, then re-lit by the same designer to look the same using newer (LED) equipment. But a conversation with lighting designer Paule Constable suggested the new production of Les Misérables might provide such a case study, the rig having evolved over the years with, in the new London production, all of the tungsten lighting fixtures replaced with LED.

The Les Mis team were able to supply all of the data for three versions of the show. The result is an in-depth look at three versions of the show’s rig, with detailed comparisons of the moment-by-moment power use and then the overall energy use. The end result confirms we are now using less power than before. The surprise: not as much less as we might have hoped!

The article can be found in the current issue of LSi: [link]

ALD Academy Boot Camp

Rob is delighted to have been asked to be part of the A.LD Boot Camp, being organised by lighting designer Tim Deiling for the Association of Lighting Designers.

This week long intensive course, being run over Zoom, aims to cover all the skills necessary to support a lighting designer on a variety of projects, as an associate LD or assistant LD. The course is aimed at students, recent graduates and any young designers looking to increase their capabilities.

Tim has put together a panel of lighting professionals willing and able to share their knowledge. As well as Rob, speakers will include lighting designers Ken Billington and Hugh Vanstone, associates Rob Casey and Tim Reed, associate and programmer Andy Voller, associate and author of The Assistant Lighting Designer’s Toolkit Anne E. McMills, the National Theatre’s Head of Lighting Programming Dan Murfin, and John McKernon, the creator of Lightwright.

The course runs from July 20th to 25th, and is open to all - visit the website to register.

ALD Academy Boot Camp: [link]

Backstage Online - ABTT Theatre Show

In an alternate reality, the annual ABTT Theatre Show would have been taking place today and tomorrow (June 10th and 11th).

In this reality, the show has moved on-line, with a series of Webinars covering a full range of backstage subjects.

Rob will be part of the Association of Lighting Designers panel on the Future of Lighting, looking at the changes and challenges involved in using LED technology, this morning, June 10th, from 10am.

See you there?

ABTT Panels: [link]