PRODUCT FOCUS: LEDS
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While the more unpredictable fortunes of the theatre world in recent years have meant it can be challenging to know when and how to invest in new kit, the D&B Solutions companies sound an overwhelmingly upbeat tone about the future of LED in live event applications. But there is one caveat and it’s an important one: the risk that, although LED itself is a power-efficient and sustainability-orientated technology, the broader environmental implications of a product’s development and deployment are not always taken into account. “Yes, with LED you are reducing your power consumption and your electricity cost is lower,” says Haynes. “But it’s a bit like an electric car in that you have to make sure it’s not just ‘greenwashing’. [It’s not justifiable] if you’re providing a fixture that might have gone around the world three times to be made and involves lots of lithium mined out of the ground that needs to be recycled or reused at the end of the product’s life, which might only be 18 months if it was bought for a specific show.” McCrea adds: “As companies that put sustainability and ESG at the heart of the business and how we operate, it’s essential that we track all of the metrics regarding environmental impact.” In short, the global sustainability context surrounding LED screens and lighting cannot be overlooked. Encouragingly, there is now “a lot of pressure to reduce power consumption in environments including festivals and fixed installations, as part of hitting those sustainability targets,” continues Haynes, adding that “we’re also seeing a push for enhanced ruggedisation and reliability, as well as getting the weights down so it’s easy to deploy larger areas of screen more cost-effectively, including in terms of transportation.” VERSATILE & EFFICIENT Creating lighting that is ‘versatile and efficient’, including in terms of workflow and ‘space/weight concerns’, also figures prominently in the list of priorities for remote-controlled LED lighting specialist Astera. For instance, in February, the company announced the launch of Projection Lens for its Pluto Fresnel battery-powered, wirelessly-operated LED-based light, allowing it to convert quickly into a Profile Spotlight with a range of 16° to 36°. This development builds upon the existing applications of the Pluto Fresnel, which harnesses the benefits of LED to deliver a lighting style – suitable for applications in events, film and TV – that Astera says could only be achieved previously with ‘cumbersome and expensive tungstens’. Sebastian Bückle, chief sales officer at Astera, says that the company has two general markets – event and stages, and film and broadcast – but indicates that there has been more crossover among customers since the dawning of the live streaming era. “During Covid-19, a lot of live event companies decided to get into the film and broadcast market; they had all this equipment and the live events
couldn’t happen,” he says. “So they were streaming themselves, or the live event rental companies were helping to stream more shows and other formats.” In which context, an increased requirement for versatility – as well as considerations such as colour quality and accuracy – is not hard to understand. As a vendor specialising in battery- powered lighting, power efficiency has always been an overarching priority. But more generally, Bückle believes this is becoming an industry-wide expectation in line with “the trend of reporting CO2 emissions and knowing the resources being used for producing lights and distributing them around the world. I think governments and companies will become more strict about that and want to know how products are shipped and so on. I see a big shift in consciousness when it comes to sustainability.” It’s a resoundingly positive note to end this overview of a sector whose creativity and responsiveness to constantly evolving customer needs continues to be formidable.
Governments and companies will become more strict about knowing how products are being shipped. I see a shift in consciousness for sustainability”
Astera joined up with Zeal to put on a festive show, Neverland Illuminova, in Wellington Country Park, UK
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