Not for the first time, one of the UK’s leading theatre LDs, Neil Austin, has provided the inspiration for a new breakthrough GLP theatre light.
For many years, theatre and architectural lighting designers have sought a perfect LED replacement for the classic miniature MR16 ‘Birdie’ spotlight, which has proved so popular as a footlight solution and concealed stage set fixture down the years.
While credible attempts have been made, there have always been flaws and shortcomings. However, Austin believes that all technical parameters have now been met and are manifested in the new GLP X5 Dot.
He has deployed 14 of the X5 Dot Wash field test fixtures — two concealed in each of seven footlight shells — on London’s latest West End hit, Paddington the Musical, which has garnered five-star reviews. So confident are vendors White Light that the light will revolutionize theatre lighting design that WL Technical Director, Dave Isherwood, unhesitatingly committed to the purchase.
Following their successful collaboration on Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in 2016, which gave birth to new, ground-breaking fixtures that helped achieve the illusions of that show, Austin and GLP USA Director, Mark Ravenhill, first started discussing the possibility of a small, low cost, yet powerful unit that would be an exact replacement for the Birdie back in 2018.
But it has taken a seven-year gestation period — “perfecting everything that we needed until the technology caught up,” according to Ravenhill. This included incorporating the renowned X5 color mixing, with its red, green, blue and lime elements that calibrates exactly to every other X5 Series fixture, inbuilt zoom, full range smooth dimming and a fan-free convection cooled-IP65 housing—all of which match the Birdie form factor precisely. The X5 Dot will even take MR16 accessory items on the front as well, such as barndoors.
Ravenhill remarked, “We worked with these IP65-rated prototypes, running at around 15 watts, offering perfect color mixing and an integral zoom lens that shifts from 16° to 43° without changing the unit’s length, designed to meet Neil’s requirements. They are bright, precise, and ideal behind the footlight shells.”
While Neil Austin admits to often having turned to alternative solutions in the meantime, there have always been compromises. They were “deeply unsatisfactory”, he admits. But when Paddington came along, with the idea of having footlight shells front filling along the downstage edge, he immediately reconnected with Mark Ravenhill, and the momentum suddenly shifted. “I knew the fixture needed to be a single pixel, and I knew the source needed to be the impression X5,” Austin insisted. Why X5? “The chip was beautiful … great on faces, great on all skin tones and has a beautiful, homogenized beam —with no chromatic aberration.
“Aside from the light output, they also were used as a glow in scenes in between, so that someone in a Paddington suit, with limited vision, could absolutely identify where the front edge of the stage was.”
Further discussions ensued with his core team, production electrician Martin Chisnall, programmer Jack Ryan, and GLP engineers, covering a range of issues from power output to DMX (the solution was 24 V supply, with power and DMX running through a single connector). “Manual zoom and focus was essential, as it’s a unit you would be putting into props and behind difficult pieces of scenery,” the LD continued. “So was convection cooling as we didn’t want fans on lighting at the front of the stage.” He also noted the soft-edged pools of light the X5 Dot Wash is capable of creating.
“Finally, you are often putting these things in at the last minute, so it also needed a tiny connector when you’re drilling a small hole through the stage!” GLP were receptive to all these requirements as well as incorporating its X5-signature advanced iQ.Gamut color mixing algorithm and perfect dimming curve.
Since Neil Austin also uses 57 impression X5 Washes and 26 impression X5 1000 Bars in production, the scenography benefits from a perfectly matched, uniform color calibration.
GLP have subsequently supercharged the fixture, which makes its production debut at this month’s ISE Exhibition in Barcelona, by adding an innovative Twist-Zoom mechanism, giving 16° to 43° — a massive overall aperture range.
Predicting the future of the unit, Neil Austin says, “I can see it being used by so many [designers], since it’s beautiful enough to sit on the front edge of the stage in its own right. But as well as stage lighting, it’s also perfect for architectural roles both internal and external. It’s the perfect small unit.”
In conclusion, he said, “There are few companies in the industry who would agree to develop a new item for a small production run like this, but we just have this history of doing small scale projects with GLP. Mark is always willing to take the chance where it pushes GLP in a new direction … and is prepared to listen to a crazy lighting designer!”
Photo Credit: Johan Persson
