Oslo theater upgrades to ETC lighting

Until recently, the lighting system at Oslo's Det Norske Teatret consisted of some 100 conventional and moving lights. But the theater produces both musicals and plays, and the noise level from the lighting rig often became an issue: they were forced to turn off movers and keep scroller use to a minimum. So when a lighting renewal was suggested, the managers decided to see what new technology was available. They already had Eos®-family control desks in each space, along with Sensor® dimming and ETC Net3™ networking, so they wanted to get the most out of the equipment they had invested in.

After having a shootout with various types of fixtures - both conventional and moving lights - they "fell in love with the ETC Source Four LED Lustr+ units" that had been brought along by ETC dealer Elektrik. Says resident lighting designer Torkel Skjærven: "The fan was no longer a problem, the size was comfortable, the color mix rich and the light output within our demands."

For the 738-seat main stage, Skjærven decided to replace the theater's 30 back- and side-lighting luminaires with Source Four LED™ Lustr+™ Zoom profiles, allowing, he says, "unlimited color possibilities from those angles."

All the fixed conventional fixtures at the front of house were left in place, but Skjærven decided he wanted to add a crosslight system overhead on stage. "Because we were searching for lights that matched our tungsten fixtures, our options were seriously reduced," he explains. "We recently switched to being repertory, which means there could be up to three separate performances a day."

The demands of differing sets and designs meant he added 18 ETC Source Four Revolution® automated zoom profiles, which were designed for quiet operation, giving the theater's lighting staff "a highly flexible solution of shuttering off walls, adding templates and colors or simply a nice high-side wash or special."

He also added a fixed-focus system of conventional tungsten Source Four® fixtures. "The main stage now can be quietly lit in a range of colors from any part of the performance area," he explains, "without having to turn off parts of the system to avoid disturbing a quiet scene."

For the second and third spaces, Skjærven added Source Four LED Lustr+ Zoom profiles in the side areas for crosslighting. "With the addition of close to 100 Source Four LED and 18 Revolution fixtures," concludes Skjærven, "not only is the lighting uniform, but it is also uniquely stable."