Walnut Street Theatre Upgrades its Lighting System with PROLIGHTS

	"We needed something very robust that punches through with very saturated colors, while allowing us to mix soft pastels and maintain a tungsten feel," DeMascolo says.

Philadelphia's Walnut Street Theatre is one of the most historic venues in American theatre. Founded in 1808, it is the longest continually operating theatre in the English-speaking world and hosts a diverse program of productions each season, welcoming more than 200,000 audience members every year.

The theatre recently upgraded part of its lighting system with 18 PROLIGHTS EclProfile CT+HP fixtures, supplied by A.C. Americas, the company's official distributor for North America.

As part of the upgrade, production technical supervisor Matthew DeMascolo led the replacement of the theatre's previous LED profile fixtures, which had reached the limits of their performance after more than a decade of use. The EclProfile CT+HP units were selected to deliver higher output, improved color rendering and greater flexibility for theatrical productions. "I've never had much interaction with PROLIGHTS gear," explains DeMascolo, "but once I was introduced to this product, I knew it would be the perfect fit and never looked back.

"We needed something very robust that punches through with very saturated colors, while allowing us to mix soft pastels and maintain a tungsten feel," he says. "Dimming of the source is one of the most important parts of any theatrical LED unit, and the CT+HP did not disappoint." The fixtures also integrate seamlessly with the theatre's ETC console system.

The creative potential of the new fixtures was demonstrated during the theatre's production of Million Dollar Quartet, where lighting designer Ryan O'Gara, of O'Gara Design Group, was among the first to use the new system.

"The units were very bright, had a great dimming curve, and I was able to mix a great assortment of colors to meet the show's needs," he says. "I can't wait to use these again, and can only say good things about the fixture."

Since then, the EclProfile CT+HP fixtures have also been used in additional productions at the theatre, including A Christmas Story, where they proved equally effective in delivering strong color looks for large musical numbers while also supporting more natural interior scenes.

"The way this fixture is designed, the color option modes, the color mixes, the way it fades and operates, provides a much broader spectrum of light and color rendering than any previous fixture we've had," DeMascolo adds. "The audience may not understand the technical details, but it deepens their emotional connection to the performance."