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Alphas in the Sunbelt

Temple, Arizona-based Sunbelt Scenic Studios have taken delivery of 14 of Clay Paky’s new Alpha Spot HPE and Alpha Wash fixtures.

Concentrating mostly on corporate productions, Sunbelt Scenic Studios added the new Clay Paky fixtures to their lighting rental inventory based on trust – trust in the Clay Paky brand and trust in the people behind the brand in the US. “I have enjoyed the Clay Paky 1200 Zooms for many years now,” said David Renshaw, lighting rental manger for Sunbelt. “PJ Turpin, the General Manager of Clay Paky America, and I also go way back - I trust him. When PJ told me he had these new units, and that I could rely on them, I knew that I could. I normally do not buy the first round of any new moving light.”

Renshaw immediately committed his new Alpha Spot HPE and Wash fixtures to a number of large-and small-scale industrial productions. The feedback he received from both his in-house lighting designers as well as freelance L.D.s and programmers confirmed Renshaw’s belief that he had made a good choice. “One of the things that immediately impressed me was my freelancers commenting on how quiet and fast the new Alphas were. We do mostly corporate shows, and it is always a concern having a bunch of moving lights on the show and hearing them "hum" in general not to mention amplified by the audio mics.

“The effects wheel is wonderful,” commented Renshaw after having lit several corporate shows himself with the Alpha Spot HPE. “I am also very impressed with the lumens output that Clay Paky have managed to get from 575 lamp technology. That was initially a concern of mine.” In addition to the brightness of the Alpha Spot HPE and Wash fixtures, Renshaw was also impressed with how easy they were to work with when not powered up.

“A big selling point for me is the menu access without powering the unit up,” comments Renshaw. “What a home run! In terms of rigging fixtures, it is one of the best things I’ve seen in ages, hands down. As for its performance, I really like how quite the fixture is and how fast the fixture moves when you’re using them in a bally-hoo for example. I’m also very happy with how much smaller and lighter they are compared to other fixtures. I definitely see adding more Alpha Spot HPE and Wash fixtures to my inventory to complement my existing rental stock in the future.”

“The Alpha Range is spearheading what we see as a radical shake-up of the moving light market in the US,” says Clay Paky America’s CEO, PJ Turpin. “We have a 575 watt range of fixtures that have greater lumens output than 700 watt fixtures and in fact are strong against many 1200 watt units, and the Alpha’s have feature sets usually reserved for fixtures costing several thousand dollars more. We have the staff and inventory in place to support the product, and the fixtures are being used on major shows all over the world. The recent ETS - LDI show was a great success for us, and of course it did not hurt that I could point out the five major Las Vegas shows that all use Clay Paky fixtures, with more on they way. As Sunbelt have discovered, the Alpha range is a great range of moving lights that has no equal out there in the market.”

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Alphas in the Sunbelt

2nd December 2004

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