London, UK based lighting rental company Colour Sound Experiment (CSE) continues to build its contract rental business, designing and supplying lighting and rigging for the newly opened "Electric" live music venue in Brixton, south London - a place with an illustrious history, arguably best known as the legendary Fridge, and before then, The Roxy.
CSE's contract rental packages are proving a highly cost effective and flexible option for busy venue operators, and come complete with quick and excellent technical support and backup.
Electric is only one of a number of current projects for CSE, which also includes The Box in Soho, four venues in Brighton and the Ice Bar in London.
The installation was project managed for CSE by Fletch who designed the rig in conjunction with Cy Kelly from Electric. The creative and practical concept maximises the available space, offering a system versatile enough to cater for a variety of entertainment, from full on club nights to a selection of live music encompassing a dynamic mix of genres.
The venue has a traditional theatre style stage with a standing auditorium downstairs and a first floor balcony adding more standing room.
Two small trusses have been installed over the stage, together with a main front truss in the auditorium plus a box truss further back over the dancefloor area, which is on motors. To maximise the budget, the design also allows for lighting fixtures to be removed from the box truss and added to the over-stage lighting rig when more lights are needed for bands - and vice-versa The over-stage and front trusses are accessible via manual chain hoists.
The moving lights are currently 10 each of Robe's ColorSpot and ColorWash 575E ATs - chosen for their robustness and durability as well as appropriate size for the space, five bars of 6 PARs, four Martin Atomic strobes and six 4-lite linear Moles.
For control, an Avolites Pearl 2004 console was spec'd - operated by a number of house engineers - together with a 72-way Avolites FD dimmer, arguably one of the most solid and stable pieces of rock 'n' roll touring equipment ever built in the history of the industry! CSE also designed and built a custom power distro for the venue for all the hard power requirements.
"Electric is an excellent venue with a brilliant atmosphere. It was great for CSE to be involved from the beginning of the re-fit, and we could design and supply a lighting rig that offers plenty of options to meet Electric's club nights, live bands and corporate events”.
Thinking Out The Box
CSE also continues its long term contract rental to exclusive nightspot The Box in Soho, famed for its 'risqué' cabarets, burlesque shows, trail of A-listers and carefully selected super-rich clientele. It's modelled on the hugely successful venture of the same name in New York.
CSE supplied a lighting rig to The Box owner Simon Hammerstein's original specification, incorporating a main room with stage, a smaller second space, The Green Room also with a performance stage, plus tasteful architectural lighting throughout.
"Simon knew exactly what he wanted, and so we effectively translated it," explains Fletch. The requirement was that lighting should enhance the ambience and be diverse enough to cater for high profile stage shows, private performances/parties and corporate events.
Trussing is not used as there is limited headroom over the stage, so lights are rigged on a myriad of internally-wired-bars which are hung as discreetly as possible - with some recessed in the ceiling - throughout the space.
The moving lights in the main room are nine Robe ColorSpot 700E ATs, two GLP Impression LED wash lights and three GLP Impression Zooms. These are joined by eleven LED battens and two Pixel Line1044s to illuminate the audience. Seven i-Pix Satellite LED 'bricks' are dotted around above the stage, together with seven Source Four profiles, two Sunstrip DMX actives and two Atomic strobes.
A Hog 3 is used for control and the dimmers are a mix of existing house ones plus some additional installation dimmers supplied by CSE.
In the second room, CSE has supplied a single PixelLine and an Atomic strobe, three i-Pix Satellites and two LED battens and a Source Four profile, plus a Pulsar Masterpiece for control. There is also a quantity of architectural lighting highlighting the room.
For the VIP room, 12 x 600mm Pulsar ChromaStrips uplift the walls and another ten are used for highlighting the various corridors and passages connecting the different areas together.
About 50 metres of LED tape is also utilised for down lighting the entrance and main stairway of the venue, with other areas grazed by low profile Tricolor LED spots, all effectively enabling whole areas to be transformed with blocks of colour. These architectural elements are controlled by the Hog 3 in the main room so Evan (the house lighting operator) can control the look, feel and vibe of the entire venue.
Says Fletch, “It is always good to work with clients who have creative vision. It makes it even more rewarding in being able to deliver their projects”.
For more information on Colour Sound Experiment, please call Louise Stickland on +44 7831 329888/+44 1865 202679 or Email [email protected] To contact Colour Sound direct, please call +44 208 965 9119.