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The Vari-Lite VL2600 PROFILE fixtures formed the flexible backbone of a high-powered, concert-style lighting rig for a glittering corporate entertainment show – the BGL Ball.
The show was staged for more than 1,000 staff and guests of BGL Group, whose brands include an insurance price comparison service advertised by cute African mammals. The entertainment featured a circus-style cabaret, an awards event and live music, all demanding the highest production values.
Hawk Audio Visual delivered the technical package, drawing on Pearce Hire to provide a flexible, concert-style stage lighting solution. Pearce Hire’s John Huson, as lighting designer for the event, chose to use 32 of the company’s new VL2600 PROFILE fixtures as his main tool for the job.
“My fixtures needed to be flexible as they had to perform as effects lights and stage lights at the same time,” says Huson. “The biggest help in this is the VL2600’s wide zoom range. It can easily and effectively go from a pencil beam to a wash light, once you zoom out and drop the frost filter in. I would usually choose a mix of spot and wash fixtures, but here I knew I could do both jobs with the VL2600s.”
Huson positioned most of the VL2600 PROFILEs across two opposing, arced arrays above stage, with another 10 placed on the stage itself. “The main thing that hits you is the brightness,” says Huson. “Then there’s the light quality, and the excellent optics you would expect from Vari-Lite. Also, I think the gobo selection and color mixing are great.”
Huson also praises the benefits of the class-leading LED technology, “Aside from the power consumption advantages over discharge sources, one of the biggest advantages is the consistency in output. Even a new batch of discharge fixtures would have a noticeable difference in output and color temperature between them, which would get worse as the lamps aged.”
“LED sources have definitely come of age,” says Huson.
