Tag Archive: Lighting Installations

1. White Light Appoints Chris Nicholls as Health & Safety Director

   27 July 2018 10:45 Leave a Comment

   As an organisation that works on projects of all sizes across the globe, White Light ensures that health and safety plays an integral part in its service delivery. In order to maintain the company’s focus on creating the safest working conditions for its employees, freelancers and clients, White Light has recently appointed Chris Nicholls as Health & Safety and Workforce Development Director.

   As a member of the RoSPA, CHASS and NICEIC, WL has always put health and safety at the forefront of its work. The company also offers its staff a range of training, such as BS7909 and Manual Handling. Chris’ role will see the company continue to place an emphasis on maintaining its high standard of health and safety as well as seek ways in which it can embrace any new legislation. Chris comments: “The point of health and safety is not to get in the way. If anything, when a task adheres to the correct health and safety policy, it is completed much more efficiently. As a company, it is our obligation to ensure every single person we employ, whether this is full-time, part-time or freelance, is given the correct training and made aware of the correct health and safety practice. We also want this to be accessible and spoken in a language that’s clear and understandable – without too many acronyms!”.

   Chris’ appointment came after the WL board decided that the issue of health and safety was so important that it required a permanent position. Chris explains: “As a company, we don’t want health and safety to simply be an add on. Instead we want to ensure it becomes an issue that people don’t have to labour over – it should simply be ingrained within them and an integral part of their role”.

   Chris first joined WL in 2007 and took over as Operations Director in 2011, during which time he oversaw the growth of the company’s successful apprentice scheme. However, it’s his experience prior to WL that he believes will be extremely helpful for his new role. He comments: “We could have brought someone in externally but this role felt like a natural progression for me personally. I have over 35 years’ experience working in the industry. This ranges from being a lighting designer, stage manager, company manager, production manager and production electrician. What this means is that I am aware of people’s individual tasks as I have experienced them first-hand”.

   Chris’ role will focus particularly on promoting, developing and enforcing health and safety within the company. He will also be making at least one site visit per week to the many projects WL is working on, as well as conduct internal audits to ensure all WL staff are complying to strict health and safety regulations. Chris adds: “It isn’t going to be me walking around holding a clipboard, discretely making notes in the corner. Rather, I’ll be there as a resource to help anyone who needs it and ensure we maintain our incredibly high standards.

   He concludes: “Ultimately, as we are growing all the time, we need to ensure that all of our team have a clear understanding of good health and safety practise; whether they’re rigging in the warehouse, delivering an event in Westminster Abbey or on-site in Russia for the World Cup broadcast. It’s about making sure that those who work for us not only adopt the friendly, knowledgeable and dependable attitudes that have been our staple for the past 45 years, but they also share our recognition of the importance of good health and safety practice”.

2. White Light Up On the Roof at Southbank Centre

   5 December 2017 14:31 Comments Off on White Light Up On the Roof at Southbank Centre

   Southbank Centre is a world-famous, multi-venue arts centre based in Central London. It’s a place where over 6.2 million people a year experience world-class art and culture that stimulates, inspires, educates and amazes. Southbank Centre’s Hayward Gallery recently commissioned renowned artist David Batchelor to create Sixty Minute Spectrum; an art installation which transforms the Hayward Gallery roof into a chromatic clock using dramatic colour. Having worked on numerous projects at Southbank Centre, White Light was approached to provide the technical solutions to make David’s design a reality.

   David comments: “I have worked with Ralph Rugoff, the Gallery’s Director, in the past and he wanted me to create something spectacular which would be a fitting way to celebrate the reopening of the Gallery. It had to be something extremely vivid that would draw people to the building”.

   To achieve this, David came up with the idea of a spectrum clock to showcase a range of colours over a certain period of time. He explains: “I wanted to use the gallery’s unique pyramid rooflights to move gradually though the entire visible chromatic spectrum every 60 minutes. Starting and ending the hour with a vivid red, I wanted solid colours to appear at different points throughout the cycle. In a city the size of London, there is so much competition visually in the sky at night. We needed something to truly stand out and solid colour is a great way to achieve this”.

   

   With David’s concept finalised, WL was approached to provide the technical solutions. The project was overseen by WL’s Systems Design Engineer Ian Davies and the on-site Installations Team was led by WL’s Engineering Manager Patrick Lockwood. Ian comments: “David’s chromatic spectrum had to be LED programmed in order for the colours to change consistently. He provided us with a diagram of how he envisaged the roof looking and we had to formulate a technical concept in order to achieve this”.

   WL worked on the two roofs of Galleries 4 and 5 at the Hayward. Ian explains: “We initially had a demo running on site for three months on one pyramid to ensure we were happy with the output. Once we realised this offered enough brightness, we began with the larger install”. WL then light up the perimeter of the Hayward Gallery roofs, by lighting  38 of the 66 individual pyramids. This, in turn, gave the appearance that the whole roof was lit up.

   The pyramids were fitted with 76 x RGB LED battens which were created specifically for this project by WL. To control the fittings, WL installed a new equipment rack in the Switch Room along with 2 X ISTL Thor 36 LED channel drivers to control the LED. Cabling was ran to the rooftop to feed the LED. The LED drivers were driven using a Pharos LPC2. All LED was driven in 16 bit mode to consistently deliver the various colours and ensure the fade transitions were as smooth as possible.

   

   Ian explains: “With David’s design being so specific and dependent on timings, we had to supply a technical set up that was completely reliable”.

   Following various site visits, the WL Installations Team spent two week on the rooftop to complete the technical install.

   David comments: “I am absolutely delighted with the support of WL in helping to bring my design to life. We have created something dramatically striking with Sixty Minute Spectrum and it hopefully provides an exciting countdown to when the building officially reopens in January 2018”.

   Photos courtesy of Southbank Centre.