Royal Shakespeare Company launches RSC LightLock, an innovative lighting device at PLASA08
08 September 2008
The Royal Shakespeare Company, which is best known for producing the works of William Shakespeare in its home town of Stratford-upon-Avon has taken a stand at PLASA08 to launch RSC LightLock - a revolutionary new lighting device.
The RSC LightLock, has been conceived and developed by the RSC's Head of Lighting, Vince Herbert, for use in theatre, TV and film situations. Patrick Stewart, who is currently playing Claudius and the Ghost in the RSC's sell-out production of Hamlet at the Courtyard Theatre in Stratford, has provided the voice-over for a film demonstrating the RSC LightLock which can be seen on Stand G81.
The RSC LightLock is a stabilising device which allows moving or motorized luminaires to be rigged on very lightweight hanging or flown structures.
On coming up with the idea for the system, Vince said: 'When we started talking about the designs for the new Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon (currently undergoing a £112.8 million transformation), the Technical Project Co-ordinator asked me what I really wanted the lighting rig to look like, and I knew I wanted a modular lightweight truss system.
'However, I knew that if you put a moving light on a lightweight truss system it would swing. We did an experiment in the RSC's Courtyard Theatre to test this out and found that it swung more than I thought it would. I realised at that point that I would need to find or design something that would stop the swing. I first started to look for it as I assumed someone must have done this already. When I saw that they hadn't, I realised that it was up to me.
'In the name of research, I spent a lot of time on a swing in a park in Stratford-upon-Avon. The idea I had was that if you could start yourself swinging by moving your legs, you could stop yourself swinging by moving your legs in the other direction. Testing my theory on the swing must have looked crazy, but it worked. I then had to work on translating this to something that was mechanical and electronic. The theory is that to make something swing you have to put energy into it, so to stop it swinging you put the opposite amount of energy into it. It's a fairly simple exercise in Physics.'
Until now it has been impossible to hang moving lights onto trapezes, light-weight automated bars or pantographs because, when the lights are repositioned as part of cue sequences, there would always be a resulting unwanted oscillation in the structure.
The RSC LightLock has been developed to eliminate the problem, as well as to help with issues of health and safety. With this new system, there will be no climbing up to lights using ladders or cherry pickers. They will come down to us.
Each unit is equipped with onboard sensors to constantly monitor its movement. There is also the means of generating sufficient inertia to eliminate that movement.
In operation, the RSC LightLock has two states, passive and active. In its passive state, the LightLock continually monitors the structure on which it is rigged to ensure that it is absolutely still. When movement is detected, for example, because of the repositioning of a moving light, the LightLock becomes active and the movement of the structure is instantly stopped.
The RSC LightLock is able to be rigged directly onto any structure and to have a moving light attached directly to its chassis.
The RSC is hoping that its presence at PLASA08 will stimulate industry interest and wishes to make contact with lighting manufacturers who may be interested in collaborating with the RSC and producing the product under licence. The RSC has applied for patent protection for the invention both in the UK and internationally.
Further information
For more information please contact Nada Zakula in the RSC Press Office on 01789 412622 or 07831 766086 or nada.zakula@rsc.org.uk
Images of the RSC LightLock, Vince Herbert and Patrick Stewart are available on www.epo-online.com. You just need to register and download.
A Q&A with Vince Herbert is available to download.
7 September 2008
