et cetera...: ETC has spent decades refining the technology that goes into our lighting and rigging systems. While our roots are in theatre, our extensive product suite has grown to find a home in concert stadiums, convention centers, film studios, cruise ships, theme parks, office buildings, houses of worship, schools, and much more around the world.
4 comments:
This is a really interesting application of traditionally theatre exclusive technology. I understand that ETC has branched out to other industries but none of those explorations has been as drastic as this one. To be honest, I find it pretty funny that this application is the inverse situation from how a lot of theatre technologies started. A lot of them were poached from other industries and appropriated to fit what theaters needed. And now it has come full circle. Now other industries are now relying on technology firmly rooted in the theatre to help them reach their goal. It is terribly exciting, especially when considering that this particular instance is in an industry so respected and integral to humankind as horticulture. Based on the researcher’s findings, this may even lead to theatres being used more as community meeting spaces if combined somehow with community gardens. Additionally, from a purely business perspective, this is an extremely smart move by ETC to diversify their product usages.
The advancements in lighting technology that ETC has made are really cool, but I'm pretty surprised that they took a tangent towards gardening. In reading the article, I was expecting there to be some kind of "why" as to their motivation behind the project. It seems like they're just really excited about lights, and did this plant growing system as a fun experiment. I think it's cool that a non-agricultural lighting company can contribute to innovations in agricultural technology in that way.
It's also funny to me that they mention the capability of the system to be able to do spectra recording and scheduling. Light recording is something I've only ever heard of being used in live theater, so it's cool that they're expanding this capability into agricultural practices. I bet that being able to record a preset that ensures maximum growth would really help the ease of operations in that environment, and allow more people with less experience in lighting to work there.
This is honestly the very last thing I ever expected to see from ETC. I remember thinking that they were going out of their realm when they introduced their Prodigy Rigging System, but now lighting for gardens? Regardless, from the article this seems to be a very progressive initiative for ETC. I appreciate that ETC did not attempt to begin their own research from scratch and overstep the other organizations that have already been studying the effects of lighting on horticulture, instead they partnered up with “GLASE” to further their scope of research. As someone had mentioned, there doesn’t seem to be clear exigence on why ETC began this initiative other than wanting to expand their company. The amount of factors that play into implementing such a bold idea, especially for a proprietarily theatrical lighting company, are plentiful, but I think ETC has done well in working with other companies and identifying possible problems and working to fix them before they arrive. Specifically, accounting for the humidity in a greenhouse, and working to make their fixtures resistant to that, which they already have the technology to do.
This is quite the industry branch-out for ETC! As an industry, theatre is this unique conglomeration of many different fields of design and technology, with tech developments that are usually specific to our needs. However, it is very nice to see our creations be able to benefit society beyond our art. I never would have thought that the color of LED lights could affect how plants grow and even take root, especially in the way that we as designers usually use them. The precision in both color and intensity that we demand from LEDs for our art are perfect for both researchers and farmers that want to make the perfect lighting conditions for their plants, enabling an efficiency in growing that has been unseen until now. It’s extremely promising that this technology has only been in development for a couple of years and has had this much benefit, because who knows how far the technology will progress in the next decade.
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