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Fashionable Entec in Challenging Week

Entec Lighting rose to the challenge of supplying lighting kit and crew to five separate, high profile offsite shows at London Fashion Week. The shows were for style gurus Paul Smith, Giles Deacon, Julien Macdonald, the Fashion Fringe competition for emerging talent and Russian fashion house Kisa.

The venues varied greatly - from a glass walled debating chamber in City Hall (the Mayor's office) to Rochelle School in Whitechapel. Some were not normally used to stage shows, and all presented their own unique sets of logistical and practical idiosyncrasies.

Dealing with such challenges is an area in which the Entec team excels. Overall LFW lighting co-ordination and project management was by Adam Stevenson, and the two site teams were led by Andy Keightley (Smith, Deacon, Macdonald) and Simon Honnor and Tony Austin.

Entec worked for Inca Productions on the Macdonald, Deacon and Fashion Fringe events, for DSA Production Services on Paul Smith and for My Beautiful City on the Kisa show which was staged at the Orangery, Kensington Palace. Additionally, Entec Sound supplied rigs to the Giles Deacon and Julien Macdonald events.

For Paul Smith at the Royal Horticultural Halls, the show kicked off the week for Entec in the newly refurbished venue in Victoria. LD Simon Tutchener filled the vast void of the hall with 36 2.5k HMIs, rigged in three rows of six onto two trussing structures built by Outback - one at each end of the catwalk. One end had heavy ND filters applied to the lights, whilst at the other, the fixtures were run as bright as possible. This was to achieve the even light balance for photographers that Tutchener required along the full length the catwalk.

For Giles Deacon, at the Rochelle School, a Victorian schoolhouse in Whitechapel, close to Deacon’s studio, this extremely tight-for-space venue entailed some superlative lateral thinking from Tutchener and the Entec team. With absolutely no room for lights inside the building, Entec built a trussing structure outside along the lengthways wall, onto which were rigged 21 2.5kW HMIs. These were pointed through seven large arched windows onto a mirrored surface on the far side of the catwalk which was also mirrored. Light from the top row of fixtures was focused onto the mirror wall and bounced back onto the models lighting their far side, while light from the bottom row of HMIs lit their near side (directly in front of the audience who sat along one side between the wall and the catwalk). To cover the front of the catwalk, rigger Al Beechey created a stunningly subtle structure – painted white to match the theme of the show - from scaff pipe and acro props, which accommodated eight 1.2k HMIs.

Entec also supplied the 200 KV generator to power all of this plus some ancillary lighting, and some bad weather contingencies which luckily weren’t needed! Audio-wise, Entec Sound delivered a DJ set up - a Pioneer DJM600 mixer and a pair of DJ1000 CD dex - for Steve Mackie, who mixed the show live giving it a special extra Deaconesque edge. Speakers were eight white d&b E3s and three Q-SUBs, powered by d&b D12amps.

For Julien Macdonald, in The Grand Ballroom at Hilton Hotel Park Lane, the glamour, glitz and celebrities were out in force, again with lighting designed by the ubiquitous Simon Tutchener. It was a dramatic spotlight show, and closed 2006 London Fashion Week with a flourish, with the principal runway lighting sources being six Pani 1200 spotlights. Two were positioned at the rear end of the catwalk and four at the front, on two 4-legged ground supported platforms also supplied by Entec. Two flown mini-beam trusses flanked both sides of the 20 metre catwalk, loaded up with Fresnels for audience lighting and some ETC Source Four Zooms for various logo projections. Twelve floor-mounted VL2000 Spots, six a side, were used for ceiling washes and patterns, and to light a series of ostentatious glass chandeliers in the roof. Entec also supplied 10 carbon dioxide powered truss-mounted confetti cannons for the final walk up. Lighting was controlled by an Avolites Pearl, operated by Tutchener, who also called the spots, which produced some interesting effects reflected off the black glass catwalk.

Entec Sound supplied a playback sound system of six d&b Q7s with six Q-SUBs, all driven by D12 amps, with a Crest XR desk for control. This was looked after and run by Owen McAuley and co-ordinated back at base by Entec’s head of sound, Dick Hayes. Time was tight on this, with a morning get in for a 7 p.m. show.

The Fashion Fringe in City Hall (the Mayor's Office) had stunning river fronted views through floor to ceiling glass windows along one side of the room. lighting for this show was designed by Thierry Dreyfus – another Fashion Week veteran. He lit the show for daylight to match the natural light streaming in through the windows, with five 6kW MSR PARs and five 4kWw MSR PARs, all on floor stands. Tony Austin babysat Dreyfus, while Alan King looked after the practicalities and logistics of rigging and set up. The competition was judged by American designer Tom Ford and won by Gavin Douglas.

Kisa at The Orangery in Kensington Palace was, time-wise, the tightest event of the week for Entec – with a completely mental schedule involving a get-in at 5pm for an 8pm show! They They supplied a crew of eight who worked like greased-lighting along with the stage crew to make the deadline. Simon Honnor crew-chiefed and ran the desk to a specification by Chris Chesney, artistic director for Entec's client and production company, My Beautiful City.

The ornate room yielded a decent amount of headroom (approx. 6 metres) which Entec filled with a six-legged ground support system measuring 15 metres by 6 metres at 6 metres high. Lighting consisted of 20 bars of 6 PARs and four VL2000 Spots with custom gobos and an Avo Pearl for control.

Entec’s Adam Stevenson concludes: “It was certainly one of the most interesting and varied LFW’s for us. Apart from utilising a whole variety of our technical, logistical and communication skills, it demonstrated that tight teamwork, good planning and positive attitude are keys to a smooth operation.”

In picture: the Julien Macdonald show.

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Fashionable Entec in Challenging Week

2nd October 2006

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