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Year
2002
Lighting Designer
Giles Wragg
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When Timothy Schwan, the CEO of real estate chain Di Jones, saw the use of projected imagery to promote stores overseas he knew he wanted a similar effect for his own stores. On his return to Australia Show Technology and Avsound Productions worked with Timothy to develop an appropriate solution and consequently he purchased five Clay Paky V.I.P.300 projectors. These have been permanently installed into the five Sydney metropolitan branches of Di Jones – two at Double Bay, Woollahra, Mosman, and Balmain.

“The biggest hurdle we had to overcome was the fact that most of the shops were old buildings and we couldn’t fit the light outside,” said Giles Wragg, Avsound’s project manager. “Consequently we knew we needed to use a light with a mirror that could bend a beam of light out of the building onto the footpath. Obviously we thought of the Clay Paky V.I.P.300 straight away as it’s such a versatile fixture.
“The interchangeable mirrors and lenses are very useful. Some fixtures had to be mounted higher than others but we could always produce the same size image at each of the premises. Timothy wanted the image to be a metre wide.”
Another excellent feature of the Clay Paky V.I.P.300 is the new lamp that offers a 3000 hour life minimising maintenance and down time.
“The 300 watt lamp is also very bright,” added Giles. “Some of the fixtures are on before dusk and the image is still very clear. It is the only fixture on the market able to produce a visible image at that time. There’s also quite a lot of ambient light around the stores especially as their window displays have to be lit brightly. Unless you’ve got a bright, sharp image it really isn’t going to make the impact that you need to attract customers.”

Giles reports great feedback from the five installations and Avsound have already had other real estate agents contact them regarding similar projects.
“Even when I was focusing one of the lights I had enquiries from two different people walking past!” he added. “It’s been a very successful project. The fixtures have been in place and running for three months now with no problems and they’re all on the original lamps. They switch on every night at 5pm shutting down either at midnight or the next morning, depending on the branch.”
Timothy Schwan was adamant that the projection should look high class with a neat, smart static image. He did not want the image to move as he felt that was rather crass.
“He knows what he wants and is very particular,” said Giles. “He has been very pleased with the end result in each store.”

“The projection has evoked the most amazing response from people,” said Jennifer Aaron, Group General Manager at Di Jones. “People are mesmerised by the effect. It’s an absolutely brilliant and meaningful form of advertising. It’s innovative technology for marketing in a unique way and you can’t graffiti on it!”
The gobos were manufactured by Lighting By Design in Queensland.