
Exhibit
R&V 1000W Beamlight
The Beamlight is a simple optical system creating a beautiful light: a crown-silvered lamp sits within a reflector which gathers the light and sends it forwards as an almost parallel beam with a precise yet hard to define edge.
Lighting designers have used them for years to re-create shafts of sunlight. But many have also turned to them as followspot quite distinct from the normal shart-edged 'showbiz' spot, instead creating a magical finger of light to hightlight a perfomers that is both powerful yet almost indiscernible. The original production of Les Misérables, lit by David Hersey, was an example of this technique.
This is a 1kW Reiche & Vogel Beamlight used as a followspot at the National Theatre. It is fitted with concentric spill rings, as always found on this type of fixture, but also a manually operated mechanical shutter. That meant that levels could be set and fades controlled either by dimming the lamp, or by closing the douser, which allowed a fade without a shift in colour temperature.