Live
theatre is heavily dependent of reliable lighting, and very concerned about costs. With today's lighting innovations such as solar, LED, CFL and HID fixtures and bulbs, it's possible for theatres to upgrade their lighting to save money and provide greater creativity and flexibility for their productions.
Lighting, Sound and Video Costs for Theatres
The issues of lighting,
sound and video involve fewer raw
materials than sets and costuming, but require management of and storage space for a capital
inventory of related technology. But as
technology for performance evolves and expands the energy resources
necessary to produce at a professional
level increase and/or shift. Sound and video have experienced large
advances in technology in recent years
that have increased energy efficiency of devices used while also seeing
prices drop. But, they have also increased in fidelity and
controllability in such a way as to create a larger demand for a larger
variety of
devices. This leaves the question of the overall impact these advances
have had on energy consumption for
these areas of design. However, the essential technology for lighting
has remained unchanged since the
invention of the electric light.
Theatrical Luminaries
Large steps have been made in efficiency and efficacy of theatrical luminaries, but all other electrical
devices pale in comparison to the overall demand that the electrical loads of theatrical lighting. Quite some
noise can be made with a few Meyer Sound wide coverage loudspeakers, each having a peak load of 2.55kw
(Meyer).
Using methodology from the EPA and Solar Buzz, an online solar
technology resource, one can convert the power consumption of this show
into a number of equivalents. To produce the power to be able to
provide the capacity for this show one would need to spend
$1,347,527.40 for a solar array based on the national average of the
price per watt of existing commercially available technology.
Running with all lighting intensities at full this design would
create 10.88 metric tons of CO2 over the ten performance run of the
show. This is equivalent to the yearly emissions of two passenger cars,
the yearly
energy consumption of an American home, 25.29 barrels of gasoline and
would require nine acres of pine to
offset. Simply using the conventional electrically grid costs $2,739.79
per hour and requires an HVAC system
to compensate for a thermal gain of 877,849.80 btu/hour.
Strides have been made to increase both efficiency and efficacy
of theatrical lighting. The largest leap in both occurred in 1992 when
Electronic Theater Controls (ETC) introduced the Source Four.
The Source Four not only included features that made huge steps in the usability of theatrical
luminaries, it also introduction new reflector and lamp technology. Due to filament design and the integration
into more efficient aluminized (now dichroic) reflectors, the High Performance Lamp or HPL is able to produce
the same luminous flux, or perceived power of light, as most 1kw lighting instruments with only 575w (ETC).
Future strides, within the same product line included the introduction of a 375w lamp and continued
improvements of reflector and optic technology. But, as far as these strides advance the state of the art, each
lamp is still an incandescent source and is still losing 90% of the energy consumed to heat, as opposed to the
30% -40% of fluorescents.
- The Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007,
has mandated phasing out the sale of incandescent lamps by 2014 (United
States).
- Australia has passed a similar ban to phase out incandescents by 2010
- Ireland plans to by 2009
- Both Brazil and Venezuela both started to phase out incandescents in 2005 without an outright ban.
- California has proposed beating the United States deadline by
having banned incandescent sales by 2012 (Kurtzman 1), but even before
these bans began, California enacted Title 24 in 1978, most recently
updating the standard in 2005, which requires high efficiency lighting
in all new construction.
While homes, offices, and retail space will see noticeable
differences with this legislation, fields requiring specialized
lighting devices will be relatively unchanged. Tom Littrell of ETC
remarks, "Most of the energy stuff - ASHRAE, California's Title 24,
etc. exempts "portable" lighting, i.e. stage fixtures that you re-hang
every now and then, from the watt-per-squarefoot guidelines that govern
the rest of the buildings.
Fluorescent, Compact Fluorescent (CFL), High Intensity
Discharge (HID), Light Emitting Diode (LED)
Fluorescent, Compact Fluorescent (CFL), High Intensity
Discharge (HID), Light Emitting Diode (LED) and more are all viable for
a number of applications. Many of these technologies have been
incorporated into instrumentation for theatrical applications as well,
but there are a number of hurdles that prevent lighting suppliers and
theaters from
changing.
Control is the largest issue. Theatrical applications primarily use large banks of high capacity resistance
dimmers coupled with computerized control consoles using the DMX 512 standard to provide designers with
extensive control over luminaries in a light plot.
- Fluorescents and HID lamps require ballasts to be used with the
alternating current (AC) that our electrical grid is based upon and
this change in resistance in the dimmers damages both the ballasts and
the lamps.
- Dimmable fluorescent technology is fairly new and uses
specialized ballasts and require two separate powered connections, one
for power and the other for dimming control.
- HID lamps are themselves not dimmable, but fixtures have
been designed to use them with a mechanic douser that reduces the about
of luminous flux that escapes the instrument.
- LED lights are photon-emitted semiconductors and AC power
causes them to flicker since they only allow electricity to flow in one
direction. They also require voltage to be dropped from the standard
120v American standard and must be dimmed through specialized magnetic
ballasts. To provide control for these newer technologies would mean
not only replacing lamps and luminaries but also the electrical
infrastructure of a theater, costing tens of thousands of dollars.
The ability to accurately represent color is measured by the color-rending index (CRI). Incandescent
light has a CRI of 100, and reproduces all visible color accurately across the spectrum. Alternatives are able to
match this benchmark, the best of these technologies having CRI in the low 90s, while an HID lamp like a low
pressure sodium lamp may be nearly zero.
Many LED fixtures are touted for their ability to produce most
any color through color mixing of red, green and blue diodes,
occasionally packaged with whites diodes. While this does produce color
accurately when reflected off a surface, this light has wide gaps in
the spectrum created by the severe spikes in each LED's color.
But benchmarks aside, the most concrete barrier is cost. Most non-profit theaters maintain an inventory
of lighting instrumentation. The price from B&H Photo for a Source Four is about $325. ETC manufactures an
HID version of this lamp that uses a specialized ballast and lists for $750, also from B&H Photo.
The costs of building new inventories of lighting instruments
without industry standard resistance dimmer racks are huge when dealing
with hundreds of fixtures. The cost difference for instrumentation
alone based on these published prices is nearly $100,000 without
purchasing the necessary dousers form dimming or considering the costs
of electrical and control infrastructure. Any theater that already has
an inventory would be even harder pressed to expend the additional
amount while also give their existing inventory over to obsolescence.
Many well
established theaters have already invested in changing over their
inventories to Source Four instruments in the
last decade and would find a change over of this scale especially hard.
The success of the Source Four is due to the fact that it puts more light on stage with
less power and less heat gain. LEDs were embraced because they offered accurate color mixing, have
extremely long lamp lives and draw a fraction of the power of conventional incandescent instruments while
producing negligible heat. The benefit is not just on the electric expense for lighting, but also reducing the
burden on resource hungry climate control. Though new efficient, power-saving lighting technology does result
in environmental benefits, the bottom line has always been the primary concern.
Platinum LEED doesn't necessarily mean energy efficient operations
Portland Center Stage recently completed a new theater for themselves that received Platinum LEED
certification. This is a stunning achievement for PCS, but even with a "green" building, they are trying to figure out
how to make their productions "greener". They have made big steps in maximizing their resourcefulness in
scenic and costume design, based partially on their sustainable goals, but also on the necessity of fiscal
efficiency in being a non-profit theater. They are an all Source Four house as well.
How can we increase ecological sustainability without jeopardizing organizational sustainability?
Demand exists for improvement, but no changes will be undertaken without the ability to justify the expense.
Theatrical operations players and providers
Phillips recently purchased Genlyte, a collection of theatrical lighting companies including major control and
dimming powerhouse Strand Lighting, the creators of moving lights Varilite, and LED revolutionaries Color
Kinetics. The largest manufacturer of energy efficient compact fluorescents is now horizontally integrated into
all of theatrical lighting.
Mike Lawler, writer of the ecoTheater blog and long time theatrical designer/technician,
points out that most people working in theater have a college degree and many have master's degrees. If
sustainability and the efficiency of resources is integrated in all fields of high education for theater those next
generation of theater artists being pushed to be innovative in aesthetics and storytelling could be doing so with
maximization of available resources in mind.
Expanding the budgeting process for production beyond raw
materials to include intangible resources lighting energy could not only push lighting designers to make better
choices, but allow them to do so with the intention of shifting freed up funds to newer technologies and
expanding their visual vocabulary.
Theaters Working on Sustainability Improvements
- The California Institute of the Arts School of Theater has begun
to integrate sustainability instruction into its curriculum and in
coordination with facilities has been working to develop new strategies
for more sustainable production.
- Mo'oelo Performing Arts in San Diego has started building a
new model for a small non-profit theater company and has been rewarded
with a partnership with LORT heavy the La Jolla Playhouse.
- New York Theater Workshop is set to break ground on a new LEED certified shop this summer.
- Actor Gideon Banner has been working to fund his Green Theater Initiative in New York City;
- Sharon Swingle has created thegreentheater.org as a
discussion board for ideas on how to make theaters more ecologically
sustainable in Northern California.
- The Electric Lodge in Venice, California, a largely solar
powered facility has grown two local Los Angles Theater heroes, Joel
Shapiro and Justin Yoffe, a cultural supervisor for the city of Santa
Monica. They have developed a one-page standard called the Arts Earth
Partnership (AEP) for small to mid-sized performing arts companies to
build eco-friendly practices in their operations and offices.
- In coordination with Miranda Wright, a second year grad
student at the California Institute of the Arts and the Law Firm for
Non Profits, I have started to create a venture called the Center for
Sustainable Practice in the Arts.
A number of other projects and groups are in the works or just emerging
and rally around not an idea of strict environmentalism but a combined
ecological, organizational, economical
model of sustainability.
SOURCE: Digested version of "The Ecological Sustainability of Theatrical Lighting"
by Ian Garrett
MFA3 Lighting Design & Producing Student, California Institute of the Arts
Presented at the "Constructed Light, Constructed Meaning" Visual Culture Graduate Student Conference
April 12, 2008, St. Louis University
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