{"data":{"news":{"items":[{"title":"Robert Juliat still shines in The House of Dancing Water, Macau","date":"2019-07-04 10:08:51","id":1671,"author":"","blurb":"","blurb_image_uid":"https://dxfpracgmlczp.cloudfront.net/2019/07/1562206241520_CamA_20190209_0987 Chris Luk Chris Luk Photography Limited sml.jpg","blurb_expanded_image_uid":null,"article":"\n\t\n\n\n

The House of Dancing Water is a USD250m, enthralling visual feast which has been seen by over 5 million people since its premiere in 2010. It is the largest and most spectacular water-based show in the world and, after more than 3000 performances, the longest running show on the Cotai Strip. The show takes place in the purpose-built, 2000-seat, 270° in-the-round, House of Dancing Water Theatre and is directed by the world-renowned and highly creative Franco Dragone. The story is focused around a huge 50m x 7m deep pool containing 3.7million gallons of water and involves 90 performers and over 200 international technicians who work their magic to create a scintillating show that dances with colour and light.

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The House of Dancing Water show’s lighting designer, award-winning Luc Lafortune, originally specified Robert Juliat Victor followspots and 14 RJ D’Artagnan profiles, all of which have worked hard for 8 years, playing ten shows a week in a highly unusual, moisture-filled environment, and been maintained by the lighting team led by Head of Lighting, Projections and Special Effects, Karl Jenkins.

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As part of the recent upgrade of the spectacular Franco Dragone show, The House of Dancing Water in Macau’s City of Dreams, Six Robert Juliat 600W LED Oz followspots were installed. The powerful, long-throw LED models were supplied with push-pull, 6-way colour changers and heavy-duty adjustable yokes in anticipation of the show’s extremely busy schedule.

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For the show’s upgrade, Jenkins had no doubt that the replacement followspots should also be from Robert Juliat. “Robert Juliat provides some of the most optically accurate luminaires in the world, and for this reason and their amazing longevity, they were chosen for the original build,” he explains. “There was no question that the replacement for the Victor followspots, after 8 years of excellent service, would be anything other than another RJ fixture. With the large push towards sustainable shows and LED technology across the board, the RJ Oz is the best fixture on the market by far for our needs and, with its release aligning precisely with a major upgrade of the show, it was a perfect candidate for the replacement.”

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Retaining the initial design intention of the show was important to the lighting team when considering the replacement, so a demo unit was provided by Pacific Lighting (HK) Ltd to allow them to make an accurate assessment: “The performance of the Oz when seen side by side the Victor exceeded our expectations and the light output was more than suitable for our needs,” confirmed Jenkins.

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Jenkins has extensive experience with Robert Juliat lanterns and followspots, having worked as Head of Lighting on many productions for Cirque du Soleil – where RJ equipment has played an enormous role - before heading up The House of Dancing Water. “Brightness, beam quality, robust engineering, reliability, ergonomics, power consumption…all of these were considerations that we took into account when making the decision,” he says, “but, for me, it was the power from the LED that ultimately won me over. After 10 years of experience with RJ products, the other features are a ‘given’!”

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Like their predecessors, the six RJ 600W LED Oz followspots are rigged evenly around 270° of the circular grid above the audience, and used to highlight the show’s main protagonists. “The production has an incredibly heavy and meticulous followspot design as is the case with many of Luc‘s designs,” states Jenkins. “For this reason, an elegant yet powerful LED fixture was required to achieve everything from the beautiful low-light character highlights to high-energy powerful punches of light.

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“In addition to this, from the operators’ point of view, Oz’s lack of ballast and the general heat reduction is also a great asset, and the electronic dimming in the LED fixtures is based on the same physicality of the existing dimming system, so makes for an incredibly simple transition for operators.

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“We are extremely happy with the new LED replacements and I would specify Robert Juliat again, especially the new LED range, without a doubt.”

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Karlsbad (Germany)
\nOn 12 January 2019, the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv began its year as one of the two European Capitals of Culture for 2019. The opening ceremony was again under the artistic direction of Sven Sören Beyer of phase7 performing.arts. For the third time, the Berlin artist collective took over the artistic design of the opening ceremony of a European Capital of Culture, and the opening show titled "WE ARE ALL COLORS" attracted over 50,000 viewers.
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\nThe central element of the show was a 30m-high media tower in the form of a regular octagon, which had been designed and built specifically for the event. Running in a north-south direction, a 100m catwalk linked to the tower. The 360-degree light show spanned across all five levels of the entire tower, 1,500 show participants performed on five levels. The spectacular performance combined traditional Bulgarian show acts with futuristic performances as well as state-of-the-art media technology and a dramatic light design conceived by Björn Hermann.
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\nAfter using GLP’s modular KNV LED system for the first time at the christening of the AIDAnova cruise ship in the summer of last year, Björn Hermann immediately realised that this solution could be deployed at this follow-up assignment in Plovdiv: "The tremendous brightness and special effects that can be realised with the KNV make the system unique, and without alternative. At the christening of AIDAnova, I knew immediately that we needed the KNV in Plovdiv as well.”
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\nLike the previous year, Oliver Schwendke and Michael Feldmann from GLP also supported phase7 performing.arts during the preliminary discussions for the KNV deployment in Plovdiv. Consequently, in Plovdiv, 100 GLP KNV Cubes were specified and installed in the scenic tower. Thanks to their IP54 rating, the use of the fixtures outdoors was no problem either. The tower contained numerous LED screens, with five-metre gaps between each. The KNV Cube not only bridged the gaps, but also allowed phase7 to run content via pixel mapping, and flash lighting cues ten times brighter than the adjacent LED walls.
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\n"The KNV Cubes are simply made for this project," enthuses Björn Hermann. "When I let the modules light up in white, half of the city was brightly lit! It was a real gigantic look!"
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\nAnd certainly the opening ceremony in Plovdiv will not have been the last project in which Hermann trusts he power and flexibility of GLP’s KNV. "The KNV system offers me 25 powerful individual LEDs, each extremely bright. In addition, there are the LED rings, with the result that 100 KNV looked like several hundred individual stroboscopes. I cannot produce that with any other lamp on the market. Quite apart from that, there is currently no other strobe with such performance that you can use it without hesitation outside." All in all, the successful show was produced entirely in the artistic language of phase7 performing.arts, which is uniquely dedicated to the fusion of technology and performance.
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