First ever
Illuminated Trail takes visitors on a mile-long journey of magic and light.
White Light’s inventory of SGM P-5
IP65-rated LED wash lights was recently pressed into service to help illuminate
the famous Kew Gardens.
For the 2013-2014 holiday season,
production management company Culture Creative teamed up with the lighting
specialists to help re-imagine part of London’s Kew Gardens, a World Heritage
Site, for a special night-time trail. The Illuminated Trail took visitors on a
mile-long adventure, with lighting and production elements uncovering hidden
spaces and revealing new looks for the Garden’s mainstay structures.
Overseeing the project was Culture Creative
Director Zoë Bottrell who worked with Lighting Designer Phil Supple of Light
Refreshment to bring Kew to life. The project continues a long relationship
between the companies, with White Light supplying several Culture Creative
projects over the past eight years including illuminated trails and outdoor
site specific work across the UK from Kent to Glasgow.
Breathtaking nature-based project
For this project — Culture Creative’s
biggest nature-based project to date — White Light supplied 24 tonnes of
lighting equipment, 900m of rigging bars, more than 26km of cable, and more
than 300 ways of dimming, as well as production support, to get the show up and
keep it running. Staged deliveries from White Light’s base in Wimbledon brought
more than 650 fixtures to site including cutting-edge LED technology in the
shape of more than 40 of the new SGM P-5 LEDs, under the control of Avolites
Pearl consoles, while hazers provided atmospheric effects on the trail.
At Kew’s Palm House, Phil Supple created a
vivid four minute light show to serve as the trail’s finale, using all the P-5
wash lights to bring the trail’s largest structure to life. The powerful RGBW
units pack a real punch, with 44 individual LEDs producing more than 23,000
lumens per unit. The fixtures offered Supple a bright, low-power lighting
solution for the project, providing countless colour options and
interchangeable lenses for added flexibility.
High demand for SGM fixtures
The SGM fixtures are a recent addition to
White Light’s hire stock and are already in high demand for concert touring,
live events and installation clients. Stated White Light Hire Director Dave
Isherwood, “We’ve had designers looking for punchy, compact LED wash units for
a while, both for use indoors and outdoors, and the feature set on the P-5,
including compatibility with Wireless Solution’s wireless DMX, fits perfectly
into our existing inventory. They were a logical choice for this project at Kew
Gardens.”?Culture Creative Director Zoë Bottrell describes the unique nature of
the Kew Illuminated Trail: “This project has been the longest and most
challenging trail we have undertaken in terms of length of trail, complexity of
infrastructure and length of run, with 27 shows.
“Working with White Light and the team is
always a pleasure and they are an integral part of the success of how our site
specific work can be delivered. We have always had exceptional service and 2013
was no different — from warehouse prep to site services everyone has been
great.”?As for tackling the project’s inher-ent challenges, Dave Isherwood
says, “It was a lot of fun. We love working on Culture Creative projects,
especially where we can do something that has never been done before – like the
Kew Gardens Trail.” He continued, “Two of the biggest challenges were the large
amount of equipment across an expansive space and the outdoor conditions. We
were able to overcome these by carefully planning logistics and providing flexible
support for Phil [Supple] and his team. The end result was fantastic and we are
proud to have been a part of it!”
