Currently celebrating 170 years as a cultural institution, Irkutsk Academic Drama Theatre of N.P. Okhlopkov recently worked with Light Power Design (LPD) to upgrade its stage lighting to a state-of-the-art automated lighting system from Elation Professional with lighting control consoles from Obsidian Control Systems.
Irkutsk Academic Drama Theatre has a tradition of high technical excellence and the theatre constantly searches for a more modern means of communication with its audience. To that end, the possibilities inherent in visuals that are more dynamic were essential and provided the impetus for LPD to undertake a full modernization of the theatre’s lighting system.
LPD completed a full lighting and control design for the drama theatre encompassing nearly 200 Elation lighting fixtures – nearly all of them LED – with control from innovative Obsidian Control Systems lighting consoles.
Elation’s award-winning Artiste series of theatrical-grade LED moving heads makes up a key component of the new lighting system. Used as a key light as well as an effects fixture are some 74 Artiste Picasso™. A half dozen Artiste Monet™ luminaires move around the rig depending on the performance, used mostly as colorful key lighting but also for effects.
The new lighting system also includes Platinum Seven™ and Platinum 1200™ LED wash moving heads installed above the stage with Chorus Line 16™ pixel bar wash luminaires moving locations depending on the performance. Fuze Par Z175™ fixtures provide color wash from both sides of the stage while Colour 5 Profiles™ ellipsoidal spots work from both sides of the stage and balconies. Multi-functional Smarty Hybrid™ CMY color mixing moving heads, the only non-LED lighting fixture in the rig yet with highly efficient 6,000-hour lamp, and SixPar 300™ Par lights, round out the lighting package.
When time came to consider lighting control, the venue chose a pair of Obsidian Control Systems consoles, a full-scale Obsidian M6™ and a compact yet fully integrated Obsidian NX 2™.
With the venue being used for more than just traditional plays – concerts, musicals and theatre festivals for example – and many of the performances filmed, on-camera flicker was an issue that was taken into consideration. “Flickering can be a problem when LED fixtures and high-speed cameras work together but the Picasso has a variable refresh rate that can be set at whatever level is needed to eliminate that,” stated Morozov, head of LPD. “We were also happy to see that when set at higher refresh rates the dimming and color weren’t influenced negatively.”
Today, Academic Drama Theatre is one of Russia’s best in terms of technical equipment and stands as the first professional drama theatre in the country to be fully equipped with LED lighting from a single brand
