When Jussi Kaatrasalo, technical producer at the southern Finnish theatre of Kerava-Sali, first saw the new ETC Source Four LED Series 2 a few months ago, he was so impressed that not only did he want them for his theatre, he also wanted to tell his peers about it too.

“I was astonished at how powerful and versatile they can be,’ he says. “We’d been looking for new LED fixtures for the theatre for a while to upgrade our rig, and, with the launch of the Series 2, I realised we’d found a fixture which would be good enough for us to use.’

Kaatrasalo and Luke Delwiche, ETC field project coordinator for Northern Europe, decided to hold a workshop for lighting professionals in February, to which some 30 lighting designers, directors, operators and programmers visited Kerava-Sali, where Kaatrasalo and Delwiche were able to introduce their audience to the concept of lighting with LED. Tapio Jarvinen from local ETC distributor Studiotec assisted, taking care of a lot of the logistics and providing equipment such as consoles and power control.

Delwiche comments: “Despite Finland being home to some of the biggest tech giants – Nokia was born there – the lighting community tends to be fairly conservative. So rather than simply giving our audience a sales pitch, we wanted to talk about the fixtures and show them in action, in order for people to see that they’re right for their theatre or venue. Kuopio City Theatre’s technical manager, Juha Westman, presented a case study about the recent renovations at his venue, and I talked about how power control of LED fixtures works.’

In a separate session, Kaatrasalo discussed the use of LEDs for the new show at Kerava-Sali, Harmaat pantterit (Grey Panthers), produced by the Keski-Uusimaa Theatre (KUT), a performance which delegates were invited to at the end of the day. Janne Auvinen from Logomo also spoke about the new Logomo multi-purpose hall in south west Finland – and where other multi purpose venues have gone wrong.

Harmaat pantterit told the story of a rebellion in a nursing home, and is lit by a rig including ten ETC Source Four LED Series 2 Lustr fixtures. Lustr was designed to provide high quality bright, full colour light; the other fixtures in the Series 2 range are Tungsten HD and Daylight HD, which are designed to offer variable warm and cool white light, respectively.

At the beginning of the day, delegates were wondering how LEDs might work for them; by the end of the day, says Delwiche, “many were declaring themselves converts.’

As well as stage productions – including theatre shows, dance and concerts – the theatre of Kerava-Sali also hosts educational programmes, so visiting students are now able to get familiar with LED fixtures. “The teachers have been both interested and surprised,’ says Kaatrasalo. “The amount of light that we get from the fixtures is excellent, and dimming and colour also meet our expectations. The fixtures provide everything we need.’

Kaatrasalo concludes by pointing out that everyone at the theatre – actors and audiences – have been really happy with the new fixtures. One lighting professional, who saw the show after visiting the LED workshop, said that if he hadn’t already been told that some of the fixtures were LED, he’d never have realised.

You can watch a video of Kaatrasalo discussing his use of Source Four LED Series 2 on Harmaat pantterit .