UNITED KINGDOM – Lighting specialists Point Source Productions Ltd provide everything from simple dry hire to a full event service offering audio, staging and AV as complementary product lines when required. From single items of equipment hire, through to delivering systems for corporate occasions and large scale full production events, Point Source aims to satisfy the requirements of its very diverse client base.
When the time came to refresh and expand their lighting stock, managing director Stephen Capel turned to Ambersphere Solutions: “When the decision was made to expand our catalogue, we decided to invest in Clay Paky luminaires due to the broader range of features than found on comparable products from other manufacturers. We feel that this choice has a double benefit to us as a company that provides equipment to such a wide variety of events. Their versatility makes them a really cost effective investment as they spend very little time sitting in the warehouse and secondly, clients have confidence in the brand – they know they are getting a very high quality bit of kit. There are always customers who aspire to have more than their budget allows but we find that the flexibility of the Clay Pakys makes them such a valuable item that if equipment has to be cut from the final specification, other items get cut first. Clients see them as a central ingredient to their lighting requirements.”
Having prior knowledge of Clay Paky quality from stocking the Mini Scan HPE in the past, Capel choose to invest in both Alpha Spot HPE 700s and A.leda K10s at the end of 2012. As he comments, they immediately had an opportunity to show their value, “The K10s really came into their own on the ‘Christmas: the Musical’ event. It was a venue with no suitable power outlet and very little rigging capacity. A tungsten look was required and the K10s provided this brilliantly using little power and presenting very little issues in respect of hanging and weight.”
Designer Paul Green is in full agreement about the K10’s and has this to add about the Alpha Spot HPE 700s, “When approaching the design for Christmas: the Musical I needed a profile lantern that would fit a very tight brief. I needed something low power to be run from one ring main but that had the punch to give the musical element of the show a real lift. I also needed a unit that was relatively quiet as they were going to be rigged very close to the audience – in most cases less than 3 metres away. The Clay Paky Alpha Spot HPE 700s completely fitted this brief and also delivered more. The optics were fantastic, allowing me to create dynamic effects using a combination of gobos and the prism. The zoom on the unit was also a major selling point for me. On a large stage I was able to create a full stage gobo with only six units but, at the same time, could then also close them down to almost pin-spot an actor. Brilliant.”
Capel is fulsome in his endorsement of the both the service and the equipment provided by Ambersphere, “Ambersphere are the UK office for, now three, prestige European companies: Clay Paky, MA Lighting and Robert Juliat. They deliver high quality service to complement the high quality brands that they sell. This was made very clear to us with their support on our MA products and this has also been seamlessly applied to our Clay Paky purchases. I’m in no doubt that when we increase our Robert Juliat range of followspots this level of commitment to individualised quality customer service will continue.”