By Richard Cadena
In the early 1990s, automated lighting really started gaining a foothold outside of the concert touring industry. It added a dynamic element to TV shows, sporting events, and eventually theatre. But there were times when the fan and motor generated enough noise to be picked up by some microphones, and some audio engineers were not happy about it. On the set of Saturday Night Live, the audio crew built simple acrylic baffles to reflect the fan noise away from their microphones, and that worked well enough that the fixtures were allowed to stay on the set. At that time, it had never occurred to most people in the industry that fan noise could be loud enough to be an issue, having only seen moving lights used in very loud concerts.
The key to gaining more widespread acceptance of automated lighting, not only in TV and motion picture sets, but also in theatre, was to reduce the noise they produce. High End Systems has been working on that problem ever since. It wasn’t too long after that when the company built a special housing with sound-absorbing foam on the inside and offered them on Studio fixtures, and also as an accessory that could be used to modify existing fixtures.
Read the full review at: Lighting & Sound International https://bit.ly/3rlqDB5
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