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If you have been to a theater production or a concert by your favorite music artist, you have probably seen lighting fixtures by Electronic Theatre Controls (ETC), and that lighting was likely controlled by one of ETC's high-tech lighting consoles. They are considered a global standard in venue and entertainment lighting, and every one of Disney's parks around the world uses their gear.

ETC's West Coast office in Burbank, CA, has an interesting history. It was a Coca-Cola bottling facility, and a fabric design and distribution center. There are even rumors that it was once a shop for aeronautical component fabrication. The building houses a unique and interesting melding of historic overhead bowed-wood structures contrasted with sleek, modern wood-and-stainless-steel finishes in an Atomic Age, Mid-Century Modern style. In the 1990's, the interior was redesigned by architect Frank Israel, a mentee of Frank Ghery, who designed such marvels as the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Museum of Pop Culture, Fondation Louis Vuitton, and several Guggenheim museums.

In celebration of the company's 50th anniversary last year, ETC's Burbank office got a facelift. Regional Manager and Lighting Designer Jay McGregor contacted PureEdge Lighting to help replace the conference room and office fluorescent lighting with modern LED fixtures.

McGregor explains, "The Burbank facility was outfitted with dated fluorescent fixtures which needed to be replaced. ETC recently developed a centralized LED driver platform for our Navis color-changing downlighting system. This driver platform, named F-Drive, is controlled via DMX or streaming ACN. The 19" rack-mounted driver array allows us to bring the low-voltage wiring through millwork or from the ceiling space back to an electrical closet or an equipment rack. The drivers operate in a controlled, accessible environment for monitoring and service. F-Drive will not only control ETC's downlights, but it can also drive third-party constant voltage or constant current PWM dimmable fixtures. This ability brought me to PureEdge. I was looking for something that was a little edgy, a bit of a different look, something that would contrast with the existing architecture, fixtures that could work natively with F-Drive. We acquired the patented Lazer Line and Nova fixtures and fed them via 24vdc Class 2 wiring back to our F-Drive array. Now, all lighting is 100% DC in the conference room and the offices. Every fixture and segment is individually tunable, color and intensity."

Lazer Line 1/2" wide aluminum tape is a Direct and/or Indirect LED Lighting System that provides general illumination in architectural applications. The turnbuckles can be mounted wall-to-wall, ceiling-to-floor, or ceiling-to-wall. The 4" round turnbuckles allow Lazer Line to be positioned 0-90° relative to the mounting surface, creating a 3-dimensional appearance that is as functional as it is visually interesting. It mounts to a standard 4" square junction box with a round plaster ring and has a painted canopy to blend into the wall for a seamless look. For compact shipment and storage, Lazer Line coils like a retractable tape measure. When uncoiled, Lazer Line becomes a 0.6" wide channel that spans opposing surfaces. The channel is easily cut in the field. For longer runs, the user could feed power from both ends.

McGregor continues, "Our conference room has a relatively large skylight well that I wanted to treat with a color accent of some sort, without obscuring anything. I pictured an inverted chandelier, for lack of another term, which evolved into a series of light beams climbing up the skylight well. The glass of the skylight above also reflects the color-changing uplight. The reflection essentially doubles the number of Lazer beams visible from below; it's very cool. The Lazer Line segments are each controllable via ETC control systems, affording the ability to accomplish static looks and dynamic color-changing shows in the skylight.

The two 30' Lazer Line spans in the conference room are broken into four segments: downlight at 3500K, and variable color temperature up, 15' front, and 15' rear. This enables us to turn off the front halves of the fixtures nearest the screen during presentations, while the skylight downlight segments provide front light for anyone at the table. Every single Lazer segment is individually controllable up and down, fixed color, variable color, and color changing. The fixtures married with our system are very flexible and solved an odd problem. Lazer Line was an excellent and elegant way to provide a flexible solution for the space."

For the offices, ETC chose PureEdge's Nova Suspension Up and Down End Feed. Nova is a linear LED fixture that offers both direct and indirect light in a clean, contemporary style with an architectural aesthetic. The Nova Up/ Down Linear Suspension is available in various increments from 12" to 240". The Downlight has a Diffused White lens with a 100-degree beam spread, and the uplight has a 135-degree Batwing Optic for optimal coverage and visual comfort. There are several metal finishes available, and multiple color temperatures ranging from 2400K to 4000K, including two Warm Dim options of 2700K (27D) or 3000K (30D) that dim down to 2000K. There is also an optional black or white louver for additional glare control.

McGregor concludes, "In the offices, the original fixtures were large, awkward, and bulky. Their scale was oppressive, and I wanted something diminutive that would tie in with the stainless steel and brushed accents. We needed to have something that was sleek and somewhat similar in dimension to the mullions around the doors and windows. Nova worked perfectly. The whole project turned out very well. PureEdge's drawings were great, the interactions with the people at the factory were great. Overall, it was a very positive experience, and we are very pleased with the results."