Can you identify these architectural ellipsoidals?
- Thread startergafftapegreenia
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GreyWyvern
Well-Known Member
If there are, I don't think they are allowed to come out of the hole, lest it be known.
@BillConnerFASTC hinted about that in post#26, but I don't think so. The fixture in question looks nothing like either Ariel Davis' PARliter nor William Little's Z-Lite, the only two attempts at a "PAR Leko" of which I'm aware.
My EC Parellipsphere has an eyebolt on top just behind the gate. The Strand 22xx series had an integral attachment point near the side yoke bolts. Numerous Mole and other film/TV fixtures have had one since the 1950s.
BillConnerFASTC
Well-Known Member
All I can find about the lighting design are some references to Leni Schwendinger Light Projects LTD and LSI. LSI was not beyond making a custom fixture in that era, and if there are a lot of them, quite possible LSI or a similar manufacturer designed and made these. They did (do still I suppose) make some framing profiles so not to far afield. Just guessing, but I'm pretty sure I haven't seen a fixture like this anywhere else.
Well, I've seen similar fixtures in Denver and Atlanta, do you suppose they were involved with both projects?
Silicon_Knight
Active Member
Great, thanks everyone for your input!
BillConnerFASTC
Well-Known Member
No idea.
I still think Kliegl. I'll see if I can find Joel Rubin's email and ask him, he might know if they were Kliegl. Wikipedia says they ceased operation in 1996 - so not impossible and they could do custom sheet metal.
Especially on large scale projects, something can be spec'd and delivered years before the actual install. I'm sure you know all about that.
BillConnerFASTC
Well-Known Member
If DIA opened in 1995 (I should remember - I changed at Stapleton going west and DIA returning east) and it was at least 2 years late opening, these could have shipped in 92 or even 91.
Looks like a knockoff of a Kliegl front end with a PAR64 rear - similar to the Ariel Davis parlighter - perhaps an attempt to bypass a design patent?
Way back when the community theater I worked at in college was still in a converted indoor swimming pool, the main lighting for the stage was a single batten with an "X-ray" borderlight on the bottom and a pipe above for PC spots (the old Kliegl 4" square boxes"). Occasionally we might want to hang something that would stick out to the side so it could be aimed straight down, but the entire pipe had a tendency to rotate (not threaded pipe but strap iron clamps around the pipe. So I came up with a "torque brace" to limit rotation using the c-clamp/arm assembly from a very old 6" PC spot found in the attic. (these spots did not have a U shaped yoke but a single side mount.
A disco ball is a good example of the need for safety chain. Torque from turning the motor on and off lots of times can cause lots of stress on the mounting hardware. Ceiling fan fixtures suffer from a similar problem if the speed is high enough to rock the entire fan, but I've never seen one with any safety devices ( speaking of safety - ceiling fans in a room with an 8' ceiling can seriously injure anyone sticking their arm or anything else up anywhere near the rotating fan).
Vibration can also loosen bolts over longer periods of time, especially in fixed architectual installations where there may be motors or ambient stuff like jet wash/prop blast.
BillConnerFASTC
Well-Known Member
Pipe stiffeners. Altman has one in their catalog. Here's an interesting link describing it: http://www.ia470.com/primer/load-in.htm Side arms, booms, bumpers, pipe stiffeners - all that junk. They seemed more necessary and common when battens were hung on hemp. I don't know if the hemp termination at the batten presented less rotation resistance than a trim chain or clamp, but probably. I guess in these times it should be called pipe viagra, on the shelf next to pipe condoms I suppose.
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the boxy looking things could be old style PC (planoconvex ) units. Seems a local community theatre I work in has a few similar ones. And the lekos look like Times Square.
@BillConnerFASTC I read the link and was especially interested in the yummie FOH lights described as: "Bacony Fronts are hung immediately off the front rail of the balcony rail." Making me salivate.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
Marc Wright
New Member
They look like 8 inch Kliegls, with step lenses. I worked with those type of units a lifetime ago. The cutoff, straight back was part of the ventilation of the unit. These units used 2k lamps. My guess is the gel frame held some kind of UV or heat diffusion.
As to the big box units, I guess those are Olivettes with some kind of orange crate type frame on the front. While Olivettes had no lenses, you could put an orange crate frame on the front with a kind of template. It would be a very soft edged pattern.
Given these lights are in a public space, they must be lighting some display--a garden like foliage display?
The beam projector is huge, but given the height at which it's hung, it would be a tight pinpoint light. Freaking bright, but effective.
These are definitely old school, even for the mid 1990s.
As to the big box units, I guess those are Olivettes with some kind of orange crate type frame on the front. While Olivettes had no lenses, you could put an orange crate frame on the front with a kind of template. It would be a very soft edged pattern.
Given these lights are in a public space, they must be lighting some display--a garden like foliage display?
The beam projector is huge, but given the height at which it's hung, it would be a tight pinpoint light. Freaking bright, but effective.
These are definitely old school, even for the mid 1990s.
ihitwithstix
Member
Well...... it is DIA. They have all kinds of weird "art in public places" displays. It is slightly possible (some may say probable) that it's just some "artist's" idea of a sculpture. Just postulating a theory.
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