Back to NewsAnolis Lights It In Red
The five – the O2 Guildhall and the Mayflower Theatre both in Southampton, Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire, Knebworth House in Hertfordshire and Somerset House in The Strand, central London – all feature permanent Anolis lighting schemes to illuminate their facades and intricate architectural details. Althorp House, home to the Spencer family situated in rural Northamptonshire also showed their support by lighting in red on the evening.
O2 Guildhall Southampton
Opened in 1937, the main concert / show venue in this building is now managed by the Academy Music Group and it is – normally – one of the most popular live music showcases on the UK theatre / town hall touring circuit.
That part of the building is currently closed under the lockdown, however, the exterior façade is still shining bright … lit with Anolis ArcSource 96 integrals and ArcPad 94s, which were turned a rich ruby red for #LightItInRed.
The Anolis lighting was supplied via Sera Technologies who won a tender issued by Southampton City Council to supply the project.
Mayflower Theatre, Southampton
The front façade of the grade II listed 2,300 capacity Mayflower Theatre built in 1928 is illuminated with three Anolis Divine 160 RGBW fixtures and 10 x ArcSource Outdoor 24MC RGBWs which stylishly highlight its distinctive deco style frontage.
The theatre is on a busy artery in the city, and the Anolis lighting scheme replaced previous older exterior lighting with a better looking, more sustainable and cost-efficient contemporary alternative.
Three Divine 160 units were specified to evenly wash the whole façade, with 10 ArcSource Outdoor 24MC fixtures for precision up-lighting of the columns and side towers.
All these fixtures have some shuttering to minimise light spill, with barn doors used on the Divine units and top hats placed on the ArcSource Outdoor 24MCs.
Knebworth House
This is a brand-new Anolis installation that was only completed in June!
Four high powered Anolis Divine 160 RGBWs and an ArcSource Outdoor 48MC RGBW illuminate the magnificent front and one side façades of this English country house which was transformed into its current Tudor Gothic structure between 1843-45 by Henry Edward Kendall Jr.
An additional ArcSource Outdoor 48MC Integral unit lights the refurbished tower. All the fixtures are positioned at ground level washing across the gravel driveway.
Anolis met the Knebworth team after being referred by Historic Houses England to discuss their needs in replacing existing perimeter sodium floodlights with an RGBW LED alternative.
Knebworth is a landmark venue not just as a heritage building, but for the numerous events hosted there in the past as well as their ambitious future plans, where colour changing lights will help provide a stunning backdrop.
As well as providing coloured effects, the lights assist security around the house.
Althorp House
The front facade of the magnificent stately home of Althorp House - home to the Spencer family for the last 500 years was illuminated in striking scarlet showing support for the campaign. Lord Charles Spencer - a keen patron of the Northampton Royal & Derngate Theatre - himself signaled support for the action.
Lord Spencer commented "Althorp has held many live events and I'm also proud to be patron of the Royal & Derngate Theatre in Northampton so I was more than happy to show my solidarity with the live events and performance industries in the UK by allowing Althorp to be lit in red. I passionately believe in what #LightItInRed wanted to highlight."
Waddesdon Manor
Waddesdon is a French Renaissance-style château set in the heart of Buckinghamshire. Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild built the Manor in the 1870s to entertain fashionable guests and display his collection of art treasures.
The Anolis lighting installation has been in place since 2015 and highlights the exceptional architectural details of the Manor, designed by French architect Gabriel-Hippolyte Destailleur in the style of the chateaux of the Loire Valley.
The lighting scheme bathes the Manor and surrounding landscape in colour and also assists in producing custom son-et-lumiéres for special occasions like Christmas.
Somerset House
Another prime historical site lit in red for the occasion was Somerset House in London where a large Anolis installation comprising over 150 fixtures was designed by Patrick Woodroffe … and installed back in 2009 – again showing impressive durability.
This has been transforming the evening ambience of the Edmond J Safra Fountain Court – the hub of the spectacular neoclassical building – with a classic warm white illumination on the facades as the signature colour. Patrick’s design introduced – for the first time at this location – the potential of bathing the buildings in a rich medley of colours, adding a theatrical dimension for corporate and themed events.
The #LightItInRed campaign trended in Twitter’s top 3 on the night on July 6th 2020 and saw over 670 buildings, monuments, landmarks and structures all over the UK illuminated in “Emergency Red” to highlight the vast challenges facing the live events, music and performing arts sectors.
The action was organised – in under a week – by Steven Haynes from Clearsound Productions and Phillip Berryman from The Backstage Theatre Jobs Forum and was a massive success.
Ends.
Date of issue: 27th July 2020.
For more press info. on Robe lighting and Anolis please contact Louise Stickland on +44 1865 202679/+44 7831 329888, Email ‘louise@loosplat.com’ or Twitter @loosplat. For more product and general info, check www.robe.cz or www.anolis.eu or call + 420 571 751 510.
Photos courtesy: Waddesdon Manor, Knebworth House, Mayflower Theatre, 02 Southampton - Michael Palmer Photography.