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Revolutions at the Opéra Garnier
Pascal Boulanger, lighting chief at Paris's Ope´ra Garnier, is, like many theatre technicians, a man with an increasing number of jobs to do and fewer people to help him. Successive pieces of employment legislation have seriously affected the French lighting industry; chief among them are restrictions on night working and a 35-hour working week. So Boulanger decided that quiet, reliable and accurate moving lights were the solution - and was impressed when ETC's French distributor Avab Transtechnik introduced him to the ETC Source Four Revolution.
"We did a number of on site tests for things which aren't in the technical specs," explains Boulanger, "such as the noise of a movement or change of gobo, or the reset time of the unit." As an opera house, noise is a vital issue and, he says, he has even had occasions when the conductor has asked for the house ventilation systems to be switched off to avoid disturbing the performance. The Revolution was designed from the ground up with theatre use in mind - quiet, accurate and reliable, but with the power of the unique Source Four HPL lamp: its 77V, 750W light source rivals 2kW lamps from other manufacturers, while avoiding issues such as heat excess and space constraints.
Boulanger had enough budget available to purchase 14 Revolutions at once, but because the fixture's accessories are modular, he was able to postpone additions such as shutters, gobo wheels and irises until they are needed for a specific production.
The ETC Source Four Revolution features an exclusive QuietDrive motor control for amazing low noise performance, while the two module bays accept any two of the four optional beam-control modules - all of which insert without tools or any kind of disassembly. The modules are ‘plug and play' and need no patching or internal configuration changes to the fixture.
"We were delighted that Opéra Garnier has decided to invest in the Revolution after doing on site comparisons and shoot-outs," says ETC's fixtures product manager Tom Littrell. "The French market has strong traditions and we are proud that they chose Revolutions after evaluating their options. Hopefully this is just the beginning of a strong relationship with the Opéra Garnier and the many lighting designers who work there."
In picture: Opéra Garnier in Paris has invested in ETC Source Four.Revolutions
photo: flickr.com/noviceromano
1st December 2009
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