LDI2013: Can LED Replace Tungsten?

 

Q&A with Bobby Harrell, product marketing manager for Philips Strand Lighting, as well as a USA 829 lighting designer and IATSE programmer. Harrell will be teaching a course at LDI2013 titled “Can LED Replace Tungsten,” with four half-day sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday, November 19 & 20 (morning or afternoon). LED sources will be shown side by side with other sources to compare and contrast. Live Design chats a bit with Harrell about his course:

Live Design: What is happening in LED products for entertainment lighting these days?

Bobby Harrell: LED development is continuing at a very fast pace.  The color rendering, output and quality is continuing to improve.

BIRDSONG lit with LEDs

LD: What will this class cover in terms of teaching designers, specifiers, and technicians about using LEDs?

BH: How to identify the right quality LEDs for your given job. It’s not always about high performance LED, sometimes it's about cost or color or brightness or maybe longevity. There are a lot of low-cost LED solutions out there. This class will make sure that everyone understands how to evaluate LED fixture properties to categorize the evaluated fixture for everyone's need. Remember...you usually get what you pay for.

LD: Where have the largest installations been to date?

BH: There are large LED installations everywhere. Houses of worship, casinos, museums, architectural, concert tours, industrials, other live events, and more. While the quality of LED is changing quickly with every generation of fixtures, it is a different technology. The class discusses those differences between LED, incandescent and arc sources to help everyone maximize the technology. I find LEDs good for certain applications; even superior to incandescent. However, that doesn't mean that incandescent isn't the right choice for other applications.

LEDs light a production of MACBETH

LD: what fixtures and other gear will be featured in the class?

BH: The class will have incandescent, arc sourced, and multiple manufacturers’ LEDs for a wide range of comparison.

LD:  what is the most exciting part of this training?

BH: Everyone will learn how LEDs are engineered as well as get hands-on access to cutting edge technology.

Register by October 18 for this essential LED training at LDI2013 (choose one half-day session,  L16, L17, L18, or L19 in the LDInstitute) and enjoy early-bird prices!

 

 

More about the photos:

 

For the Philips Museum: A selection of Philips Selecon and Showline luminaires are lighting the new Philips Museum in Eindhoven on the historic site where Philips produced the first incandescent lamp in 1891. Lighting designer George Ashley-Cound of Light Fantastic specified Philips Selecon PLFresnel1, PLProfile1, PLProfile4, and Accent Beamshapers, plus Showline SL BAND 300, Showline SL STRIP 400, and Showline SL BAR 520 luminaires for the museum project. The exhibition, which was opened to the public by Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands, charts the Philips evolution from a small incandescent lamp manufacturer into a large and prestigious international group of companies. Since opening in April the museum has welcomed more than 10,000 visitors.

 

For Birdsong: LD Alex Wardle has used Philips Selecon PLCyc LED luminaires as part of his minimalist lighting rig for the well-received touring production of Birdsong to deliver an evocative backdrop, symbolically conveying time, place, feeling and atmosphere with his clever application of color, transition and intensity. Wardle explains, "Because this play shifts so quickly between locations and time periods, we need to help the audience understand where we are. We made an early design decision to include a cyclorama in the set design, and I knew we would have to light it well. The colors balance well with the rest of the rig and just like the rest of the PL range, the dimming is perfectly smooth."


For Macbeth: The PLCyc LED luminaire is facilitating a fiercely felt mood and atmosphere for The Guildford Shakespeare Company's production of Macbeth where lighting designer Declan Randall is harnessing the diverse color palette and rapid color changing abilities of the PLCyc fixtures to dramatically enhance the shifting ambiance during the production at the magnificent Holy Trinity Church. Said Randall, "The show varies from intense color to more natural, gentle, skin tones and the PLCyc's offer us speedy color changes and an amazing palette to work with. What's great about the PLCyc LED luminaires is that they deliver both the natural and unnatural colors with equal effect. One fixture is solving a lot!"