Stage Directions: The Department of Drama’s Production and Design Studio at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts will convert a performance space this summer to an LED rig. The transition will give students an opportunity to learn “the latest lighting design techniques on state-of-the-art LED equipment.” The “LED Project” will replace the majority of the lights in the department’s Shop Theater with LED fixtures, becoming the first theater space on campus to utilize LEDs as the primary source of stage light. The new LED equipment will include wash units, spot units, and moving heads. Students will participate in every stage of the LED Project—from evaluating fixtures and meeting with lighting manufacturers to using the fixtures in class and in their productions. The LED P&D Studio renovation was made possible by an anonymous gift to the NYU Tisch School, as well as matching funds from Tisch Dean Mary Schmidt Campbell.
7 comments:
LEDs are becoming a huge thing in theatre, because they look nice, are good for the environment, and have good control abilities. They are also popular in architectural lighting because of all of those and they are cool (temperature wise). The problems we have in theatre with them are that they are expensive and often large in size (see: http://www.etnow.com/images/general/news/large/69194394_6313.jpg). When theatres take the tame and space to make use of LEDs, it encourages producers to make better fixtures, and I think in the next 5 years they will become very very popular in theatre.
Ruben is right, anyone who is anyone is all in with LEDs. Our school has invested in 54 Source Four LEDs. Yale has had their hands in with such equipment as well. Something I think is interesting, and that I believe is a problem at our school is that people become too reliant on intelligent lighting for their designs. For example there are people who add moving lights and LEDs into shows that do not need all that equipment. By using ONLY LEDs in a single space as NYU has, their designers may have to be careful not to rely on technology for their theatrical designs. I also agree with Ruben when he says that many more theaters will be decking our their venues in the next 5 years.
I think Simone brings up an interesting point about people becoming too reliant on intelligent lights and LEDs and I definitely agree that I see it happen here. But when a space is only using LEDs I think it makes people see them less as extra flair and will use them more similarly to conventional fixtures. Source Four LEDs for example are basically the same as conventional Source Fours but with added versatility when it comes to color, which I realize is an oversimplified example. Why use a conventional fixture with say, a scroller, when you can use an LED unit that can color mix and fade between them more smoothly and quietly? The biggest issue with LEDs is the price, but the savings in energy costs and help from green initiatives should make up for the initial investment.
While i see the importance of trying to start to use LEDs in a theatre space due to their wide spread applications, I still have a strange feeling against using them. I still see LEDs as having a very specific light that really just can get close to natural light the same way incandescent bulbs can. I also still feel as though they are super stepy in a sense that they can't fade very smoothly. While I understand that theatrical fixtures ate aiming to dismiss both of these points, I feel as though I will always have a grudge against LEDs in a theatrical application, unless there is a very specific need as usual.
It's great that NYU is spending the money and taking time to create an all LED theatre space. Right now there is a huge LED movement everywhere from high school theatre to broadway. It's nice that the students at NYU will have the opportunity to work with a full LED rig but I don't see how thats practical. I know of very few theatre's(if any) that actually use nothing but LED fixtures. I think its more important that young designers learn how to effectively use the equipment alongside its incandescent brother. There is now way that incandescent fixtures are going away anytime soon so it only makes sense to teach students how to integrate fixtures to create one rig capable of doing many different things.
I mostly agree with others have to say when it comes to LED Fixtures. They are definitely useful, but if designers become too reliant on intelligent fixtures too soon, there will be a problem. There is no doubt in my mind that intelligent lighting is the way of the future, it's just that it will take time since the fixtures are currently really expensive. That being said, it will be a few years before LEDs really become common and until that time, I think it is better to teach with a phase in approach slowly allowing more use of LEDs and less traditional.
I think that switching entirely to LEDs is not a smart move. If the space is using only LEDs then the students designing for the space will get less experience with more commonly available incandescent fixtures. That being said I would love to be able to design in an all LED space. You would definitely save alot of money on color filters.
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