Types of lighting
fixture
Within the groups of "wash" and "spot" light, there are other, more
specific types of fixtures.
- Profile
These fixtures feature a compound lens which allows the designer to place
obstructions within the image path which are then projected. These
obstructions could be "gobos" or shutters. A profile is a spot light, but
allows for precise focusing.
- Fresnel
A Fresnel is a type of wash light and is named as such due to the Fresnel
lens it features as the final
optical device within the chain.
Traditionally theatre and stage lighting has been of the "generic" type.
These are lights which are focussed, geled, and then simply dimmed to give
the effect the designer wants. In recent years the emergence of moving
lights (or automated lights) has had a substantial impact of theatre and
stage lighting.
A typical moving light allows the designer to control the position, color,
shape, and strobing of the light beam created. This can be used for
exciting effects for the entertainment or dancefloor use. Moving lights
are also often used instead of having a large number of "generic" lights.
This is because one moving light can do the work of several generics.
In the UK the nomenclature is slightly different from North America. This
article primarily uses the North American terminology. Although there is
some adoption of the former naming conventions it has been normal to
categorise lanterns by their lens type, so that what in the US is known as
a spotlight is known as a Profile or
a Fresnel/PC
(Pebble/Plano/Prism Convex) in the UK. A Spotlight in the UK often refers
to a Followspot. The following
definitions are from a North American point of view. UK naming conventions
are used in most of the world, in
fact most North American theatres will also use the UK terms except when
talking in a more general sense (i.e. get a spotlight to focus on that set
piece, or 'flood this area').
In Australia and many other places, the lamps inside
a theatrical fixture are referred to asbubbles. In
North American English, a bubble refers to the protrusion that occurs when
one's body (or other oily substance) contacts the lamp. Heat will cause
the portion of the lamp which has oil on it to expand when it is on
creating the bubble, and causing the lamp to explode. That is why one
should never directly touch the glass portion of a lamp. Cleaning with rubbing
alcohol will remove the oil.
