This year, the Grafton County, New Hampshire tradition of hosting the Annual School Musical at the Newfound Regional High School got an upgrade with some help from CHAUVET Professional.
The new LED lighting system features CHAUVET Professional fixtures supplied by DNR Laboratories of Watertown, Connecticut.
Paul Ciotti, who was recently appointed technology coordinator for the Newfound Area School District, was the point person in coordinating the project.
“Our theater is important, not just to the school, but to the entire community, so it deserves a good lighting system,” he said. “At 30 years old, Newfound Regional High School is still one of the newest schools in the district, but the time had come to upgrade its theater. I worked closely with DNR Laboratories in the past when I was in Connecticut, so I contacted them about the audio, video and lighting components of this project.”
The theater’s previous lighting system was “antiquated and unreliable,” according to Ciotti. As a result, the school board approved a plan for a new upgrade to a LED stage lighting system that includes 50 Ovation E-910FC color mixing ellipsoidal fixtures, six Ovation C-640FC cyclorama washes, 40 COLORado Batten 72 battens, and 20 COLORdash Par-Quad 18 RBGA par style lights.
“Our goal was to make it easier and safer for our students to use the theatrical lighting system,” said Ciotti. “We also wanted to give them access to current LED technology so they could develop a skillset that would be useful to them once they graduated. On a more tangible level, we wanted to reduce the heat generated by the existing fixtures while increasing the energy efficiency. We also needed to brighten up the place drastically. One of my first tasks with the school system when I arrived was to jumpstart an auditorium improvement project at our high school that had been placed on hold before I got there.”
Another part of the upgrade included a new 30-foot mid-stage truss in the theater, which was used to fly in most of the Ovation E-910FC ellipsoidal fixtures (40 units) and all four of the Rogue R1 Spot fixtures. The fixtures complement each other, as the Ovation units excel as top light, while the Rogue Spots serve as traditional spot lights.
“Our new system’s design capabilities create a range of possibilities for our theater department,” said Ciotti. “Aside from being more practical, our new system is also a lot more versatile from a creative standpoint.”
