Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club has been at the heart of London’s live music scene since 1959, welcoming artists from Miles Davis to Amy Winehouse on its stage. The club’s newly refurbished first-floor room, Upstairs at Ronnie’s, marks a significant new chapter in that story. Transformed from a low-ceiling bar with floor-level performances into a properly appointed stage complete with a grand piano, raised ceiling, full acoustic treatment, and a new PA and lighting rig, the space is designed to mirror the atmosphere of the historic main club in a more intimate setting. At the heart of the new lighting installation is GLP’s X5 Series.
Charlie Dale has worked at Ronnie Scott’s for 15 years, progressing from technician to technical manager. Throughout that time, he has consistently pushed for the club’s lighting to match the quality of the music on stage, overseeing the significant upgrade to the downstairs main club rig in 2018 and establishing a model of dedicated lighting technicians at every performance. When the club decided to refurbish the upstairs room, Dale was asked to design the new lighting rig. The installation was carried out by Steve Myers Ltd, who handled the full design, build, and wiring of the lighting infrastructure while also supplying all fixtures. This single-supplier approach kept the project streamlined from start to finish.
The brief Dale set for the rig was demanding. Given the low trim height and the breadth of the program, which spans near-acoustic solo classical concerts through to high-energy funk and soul performances, fixtures needed to be compact, operate as quietly as possible, and deliver high-quality color and accurate skin tones at potentially very low output levels. At the same time, the rig needed to be capable of dynamic movement and varied looks for more energetic shows. “The combination of small, quiet, great color at low output, and movement capabilities is not an easy thing to find,” says Dale.
Eight impression X5 Compacts form the core of the moving-light rig. Each fixture houses seven 40 W RGBL LEDs delivering up to 3,980 lumens across a 3.6° to 66° zoom range, with 540° pan and 236° tilt, and GLP’s iQ.Gamut color calibration system ensuring accurate, consistent color reproduction, including reliable skin tones. The X5 Compact’s pixel-mapping capability allows the rig to generate varied looks without relying solely on movement too. Critically, GLP developed bespoke fan modifications for the Ronnie Scott’s installation, reducing the X5 Compact’s operating noise below the standard specification. This was a unique step taken to ensure that the fixtures would cause zero intrusion during the club’s quieter, more intimate shows.
Six X5 Atoms provide compact, static wash coverage above the stage. Outputting up to 430 lumens from a single 40 W RGBL LED head and zooming from 3.5° to 32°, the Atom’s external PSU design keeps the head unit itself exceptionally small and light. This is a significant advantage given the room’s low trim height.
Six X5 Dot Washes are specified to complete the GLP rig. The smallest member of the X5 Series, comparable in size to a standard MR16 Birdie, the Dot Wash delivers up to 550 lumens from a single 40 W RGBL LED with a manual twist-zoom ranging from 16° to 68°, making it well-suited to close-proximity positions where the visual footprint of the fixture itself matters.
A key reason for specifying across the X5 range was color consistency. “Keeping everything in the X5 range meant that color matching between fixtures is very easy,” says Dale. “The X5 Atoms and the X5 Dots are compact and silent, meaning they don’t disturb our intimate shows and are visually unobtrusive above the stage. The X5 Compacts, once GLP had made some custom fan modifications for us, gave us the best combination of small fixtures that are quiet. And with the pixel mapping ability, they allow us to have dynamic lighting and different looks without having to rely solely on movement.”
GLP’s involvement extended well beyond product supply. Key account manager Paul Fielder worked closely with Dale throughout, from initial fixture recommendations through to providing demo stock for trialing on live shows before final specification. The custom fan modifications to the X5 Compacts, developed and tested by GLP specifically for this installation, were designed to meet the venue’s noise tolerances without compromising the fixture’s output or performance. “Special thanks must go to Paul Fielder, who is responsible for getting it all ready for us in time for our opening,” says Dale.
Upstairs at Ronnie’s opened on February 4, 2026, with a performance from Vula Malinga and her band, with Nao as a special guest. Dale describes the night as going “spectacularly well,” with the rig delivering exactly the combination of warm color, precise skin tones, and compact visual presence that the brief had called for. The space now runs a regular program spanning two main shows each evening, late-night performances on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, a vocal jazz jam every Wednesday, and Sunday afternoon concerts.
The X5 Series rig has proven well-equipped to serve that kind of breadth. “From all sides, we get nothing but compliments about how the shows sound and look, from both on and off stage, and from musicians and customers who have been coming to the club for years,” says Dale. “The club knows that the most important aspect of the night is the live show, so they invested in the best equipment they can to reproduce and highlight the talent of the musicians on stage.”
Photo credits: Monika S Jakubowska and James Wood
