The Royal Albert Hall is a landmark in Victorian architecture which is shaped like a Roman amphitheatre and seats up to 6,000 people. Since its opening in 1871, it has played host to over 150,000 events to become one of the world’s most famous entertainment venues.
This Hall stages a multitude of different events, such as plays, classical and rock concerts, sporting events (including the famous boxing matches), fashion shows and conferences. The Royal Albert Hall’s Philharmonic Orchestra is officially based here, where it plans and organizes prestigious performances with international artists.
The Royal Albert Hall recently chose Clay Paky’s Stage Profile Plus SV to modernize its lighting system, buying 10 models. As Mark Jones, the Hall’s Senior Technical Show Manager, explains: “For a theatre with a history like ours, we needed to find exactly the right products for its setting. When we realized we needed to develop our lighting system, we did some extensive research into all the lighting companies around. We chose Clay Paky’s Stage Profile Plus SV because it seemed designed for our needs. To start with, it is incredibly silent: anyone working in theatre knows how important operating silence is, and what’s more, the theatre’s acoustics tend to amplify the minimum sound”.
This, of course, was not the only thing to consider. The theatre required products that could adapt perfectly to a variety of performances. “We noticed immediately that Stage Profile Plus SV is virtually a universal product: it’s not only an excellent effects projector, which features an endless range of colours, but also a sophisticated beam shaper with an exclusive profile system, which we used to create “forms of light” on stage, such as doors, windows and spatial designs skilfully created on computer. Profile Plus also features a zoom that focuses perfectly at any distance, which obviously varies from one performance to another. It also features a linear zoom and high quality, powerful and precise optics, which distinguish it from any other moving body projector on the market”.
Stage Profile Plus SVs were supplied to the Royal Albert Hall by Pulsar Light of Cambridge, Clay Paky’s UK distributor through A.C. Lighting. They added to the other 10 Clay Paky Stage Zoom 1200s already installed in the theatre. Enrico Caironi, Clay Paky’s Sales Director, also points out that “Plus” has been used successfully in the world’s most important theatres and events, where it is universally acclaimed for exclusive features.