Design · Rigging · Power · Crew
A lighting plot is only as good as the structure it hangs from and the power feeding it, and most of the trouble on a get-in comes from one of those two being assumed rather than calculated. We design the look, then check that the roof can take the point loads, that the distribution supports the rig at full intensity and that every cable run has somewhere legal to go. Our own crew hangs it, focuses it and operates it, and everything is tested before it leaves the warehouse.
About us
The company was started by two chief electricians who between them had spent twenty-five years on tours, in theatres and on film sets, and who were tired of arriving at venues with rigs that had been specified by someone who had never seen the room. Their founding rule was simple and has not changed: the person who designs the rig visits the venue, or at minimum reads the technical drawings properly, before anything is loaded onto a truck.
The stock is chosen to be reliable rather than fashionable. Fixtures are bought in quantity so that a matched set can be supplied and a spare of the same batch travels with every job, everything is bench-tested and burned in on return from hire, and anything with an intermittent fault is repaired or retired rather than sent out with a note. Our fault rate on site is the number we watch most closely, because a fixture that fails during a performance costs a client far more than the hire fee.
We work across theatre, live music, film and television, corporate events and architectural installations, and the mix keeps the crew sharp: television teaches discipline about colour and consistency, theatre teaches quiet and precision, touring teaches speed. Everyone here is a working technician rather than a salesperson, so the advice a client receives on the telephone comes from somebody who will also be in the venue at six in the morning.
Advantages
Six habits that keep our jobs off the list of stories technicians tell in bars.
Every rig is drawn with weights, point loads and bridle geometry worked out against the venue's rated capacities, and where a structure's rating is unknown we find out rather than assume. Historic theatres and temporary structures are where this matters most, since a grid built in 1890 was never designed for eighty moving lights. The calculation goes to the venue's technical manager in advance, which is increasingly a condition of being allowed in at all.
We calculate the real load at full intensity, including inrush, check it against the supply that actually exists rather than the one on an old drawing, and design distribution with the phases balanced. Generators are sized with headroom for the sound and video departments as well as our own. The alternative — finding out during the first full run that the building trips at seventy per cent — happens astonishingly often and is entirely avoidable.
Every fixture is powered, addressed, run through its functions and checked for colour consistency against its batch before it goes on the truck, and cables are tested rather than coiled and trusted. Prep takes a day that clients never see and saves the hours on site that they would certainly notice. Spares travel with every job as standard, because the fastest repair in the world is a replacement already in the van.
Jobs are handed over with plots, patch lists, cable schedules, weight and power calculations and a magic sheet, in formats the venue and any incoming crew can actually work from. Touring productions arriving after us can plug into what exists instead of rebuilding it, and a returning client next year gets a rig identical to the one that worked. Undocumented rigs are how knowledge disappears when one person changes job.
Riggers, electricians, programmers and operators who are employed or regular freelancers rather than assembled from an agency the day before, working with equipment they know and with each other. They arrive with the drawings and the spares, they work quietly in a theatre and quickly on a festival, and they clear the site properly. Most of our repeat business comes from production managers who noticed the difference on a single get-out.
A designer who specifies a rig thirty per cent above budget and waits to be negotiated down wastes everybody's week. We design to the figure we are given, show what an increase would actually buy if there is a case for one, and are straightforward about which elements deliver the most visible result per euro. Frequently the answer is fewer, better-placed fixtures and a day of programming rather than more equipment.
Services
Design and plots, equipment hire, rigging and power, film and television lighting, crew supply, and permanent installations.
Full design for theatre productions, concerts, dance, corporate presentations and installations, delivered as drawings, patch and cable schedules, weight and power calculations and a cue synopsis. We visit the venue or read its technical documentation properly before drawing, work to the budget stated at the outset, and are equally happy to realise another designer's plot faithfully rather than rewriting it in our own accent.
Moving heads, LED and tungsten fixtures, profiles, followspots, atmospheric effects, control desks, dimming, distribution, truss, motors and cable, hired as complete packages or as single items to other companies. Everything is prepped and tested before dispatch, matched sets come from the same batch for colour consistency, and spares are included as standard rather than as an optional line on the quotation.
Truss structures, ground support, motors, bridles and steel work designed with calculated loads and installed by qualified riggers, plus temporary power distribution from the incoming supply or generators, with balanced phases, protection and cable management planned so routes are safe and legal. We produce the paperwork venues and insurers now ask for, and we liaise directly with technical managers before arrival.
Location and studio lighting packages with gaffers and electricians, colour-accurate fixtures that behave predictably on camera and are free of flicker at high frame rates, plus grip equipment, stands, rigging for ceilings and windows, and silent generators for dialogue scenes. We work to a director of photography's requirements rather than imposing our own, and we understand that on a set the lighting department's job is to be invisible.
Riggers, electricians, followspot operators, board programmers and technicians supplied by the day or the run, with or without our equipment, for productions that have the kit but not the people. Programmers can pre-plot in a visualiser before the get-in so that time on stage is spent looking at real light rather than typing, which is usually the cheapest improvement available to a tight schedule.
Design and installation of lighting systems for theatres, cultural centres, schools, churches, restaurants and architectural features, specified for the people who will operate them rather than for a specialist. That means simple control, accessible fixtures, documented systems and training for local staff, followed by annual servicing, lamp and component replacement, and honest advice about when an upgrade is worth the disruption.
Contacts
Send the venue, the dates, the schedule and either a plot or a description of what the show needs to look like, along with your budget. We will come back with a design and a price rather than a rate card, and we will tell you honestly if the schedule you have set is not achievable in that room.
Dry hire enquiries from other companies are welcome and quoted the same day.