Contemporary powerful digital platform -- Dialogue between stage technology and art

Mr. Ma Limin, general manager of Guangzhou shiquande Lighting Co., Ltd. and chief executive officer of China Office of Quande Lighting Co., Ltd.

[Abstract]

The digitization of mechanical stage, the progress of electric light source, the innovation of lamps and lanterns, the development of dimming technology, especially the progress of digital network system, endow the vitality of new stage visual art expression, make the performance form and performance effect of stage lighting art dream for thousands of years into reality, and let the audience feel the light, shadow and color picture composed of three-dimensional space of stage. At the same time, make more people engaged in stage design, research and production realize that it is urgent to understand the development status of performance equipment industry and control modern stage digital technology.

Like the director, the choreographer and the lighting engineer are one of the most important people responsible for the performance. They show the key information in their works, create the form, feeling and impact of the performance, and use concise images or decorations to enlighten the visual, auditory and Inspiration of directors and audiences.

Performance art is a kind of visual art and auditory art which integrates time and space modeling. It is expressed by light and shadow, shape, color, music and other elements. The creation of any category on the stage is for the ultimate embodiment of the complete artistic effect of the performance: that is, the Creator lets the audience see, hear and feel what is happening and going on on on the stage.

In the vast world of auditory art and visual art, digital technology undoubtedly brings the inspiration and thinking of artists to a new era. For example, the rapid and simple music synthesis realized by digital audio technology leads to the emergence of high fidelity sound. Surround sound, laser record, wireless microphone, laser disc, MIDI equipment, computer music, VCD, DVD and so on emerge in endlessly. Some are only effective supplements to traditional art, while others are new effects. Digital technology has brought artists into a huge space where the imagination of sound art can be exerted infinitely.

The stage is also more "digital". The digitization of mechanical stage, the progress of electric light source, the innovation of lamps and lanterns, and the development of dimming technology, especially the progress of digital network system, endow the new stage visual art expression vitality, make the stage lighting art form and performance effect dream of thousands of years become reality, let the audience feel the three-dimensional space composition of the stage Light, shadow and color. At the same time, make more people engaged in stage design, research and production realize that it is urgent to understand the development status of performance equipment industry and control modern stage digital technology.

1、 The promotion of design concept and design means

Stage lighting system is a system engineering, which is a combination of optics, electronics, mechanical technology and computer technology. An excellent lighting system design not only embodies the rigorous combination of many disciplines, but also contains the inspiration of artistic creation.

1. Content: including main lighting system, auxiliary lighting system, including auditorium lighting and work lights, blue and white light control system for performance. Lighting location map, control system diagram, loop distribution diagram, lamp junction box diagram, lighting system flow chart, power cable system diagram, power supply, signal trunking trend diagram, network distribution diagram, etc.

2. Basis: architectural drawings, planning requirements, owners' wishes, demands, function orientation, project introduction, capital budget, response of original design scheme, basic function, potential and modernization requirements, such as "8 in 4 hours" The lighting scheme of various plays, technical terms, technical standards, regulations and agreements at home and abroad, various performance forms and styles, repertoire arrangement rules and traditional habits, design experience and various equipment characteristics of modern domestic and foreign performing venues of similar scale.

3. Objectives:

(1) On demand allocation: sufficient node reservation;

(2) Control security: real time monitoring, full tracking backup;

(3) Look forward to the protocol: meet the requirements of DMX and be compatible with ACN;

(4) Audience lighting and stage lighting including color changer are controlled on the same stage, which enhances the consistency of lighting control and creates a dense

Thick space artistic atmosphere, produce better lighting scene effect;

(5) Multi point, multi person control, wired and wireless remote control, online and offline editing, convenient for lighting engineer on-site lighting and effect editing;

(6) Control circuit design: including the exchange of dimming circuit and through circuit, which greatly improves the flexibility of the system and greatly meets the lighting designer's creative desire;

(7) Stage lighting design: it emphasizes the rationality of the distribution layout of lighting system output terminals and the configuration of lamps and lanterns. The important thing is whether the distribution and quantity of lighting system output terminals (sockets) provided to users are reasonable; whether the number, performance index, illumination, color temperature and other technical parameters of lamps can meet the requirements of site size and function;

(8) Principles: reliability, applicability, foresight and economy;

4. Means: in addition to the traditional AutoCAD, Excel, Corel Draw, there is also a set of "WYSIWYG"

What you see is what you get. It can help the lighting engineer in the condition of no equipment and environment, according to the existing environment structure diagram and equipment list, use the computer virtual technology to combine the stage size and shape required for each performance on the computer, and then install the hanging, all kinds of lamps and lanterns, after matching, adding loops and colors, to achieve all the effects of the real performance. Its lighting system is more compatible with its lighting program, and thus makes the lighting system more specific and adjustable.

2、 Technical leap of mechanized stage

1. A relatively complete design and layout of stage machinery: including the setting and layout of on stage machinery and off stage machinery; on stage machinery includes scenery boom, lamp pole, single point crane, flight equipment, lighting bridge, false platform and other equipment as well as on stage machinery control room; under stage machinery includes lifting platform, lifting orchestra pit, turntable, vehicle platform, mobile platform and under stage machinery control room;

2. Numerical control technology realizes complex transformation and movement: from the original simple rotation replacement scenery to the modern multifarious push-pull, lifting, rotation, stack, tilt and flip. Transforming science and technology into a form of stage expression has become an indispensable stage vocabulary. Promote the stage lighting, sound and so on to create an amazing artistic effect. For example, the mechanical stage of Phoenix Square in Shenzhen's splendid Chinese folk custom village can be pushed, lifted, rotated, unfolded and matched with its modern lighting, sound, laser, fountain, waterfall and fire, which makes the audience marvel. He won the 2003 China Dance lighting Society Award.

3、 Transformation of traditional and intelligent lamps and lanterns

1. Cold beam imaging lamp: aluminum alloy die casting molding, high efficiency lens with coated optical glass lens, good light effect, stable color temperature, Because of its low thermal radiation, high illuminance, uniform spot and "clean" edge, it is more and more accepted by Oriental national lighting engineers. Some of them can adjust the edge of the spot, which is conducive to the whole stage lighting; 2. High efficiency and low noise lamps have become a new favorite, and some lamps also have prefabricated focal point design to facilitate light alignment. With the continuous improvement of coating process, the efficiency and service life of lamps and lanterns are improved. The spotlight and imaging lamp with mechanical rocker arm make it more convenient to light distribution and shorten the installation time; 3. The excellent energy-saving characteristics and long service life of LED have attracted the attention of dance designers. In addition to a large number of landscape lighting, most of them are used for stage background or contour decoration. Whether the power can be increased to provide stage lighting remains to be seen; 4. Computer lamps and lanterns: in the development history of performance lighting in recent 30 years, the invention of computer lamps has indeed made great changes in our performance stage. At present, there are mainly two kinds of lamp: shaking head lamp and scanning lamp. It creates stage effects such as stroboscopic, pattern and light column changes, which makes the change of stage color depend on color changer and even the increase of the number of lamps and lanterns into history. The new computer lamp also has the function of tracking light, which makes it possible to track the light in the position of backlight. Some computer lights can also be natural air-cooled, especially in concert halls or studios. Recently, some computer lamps also have imaging function. They use software to generate images in the computer or select data from the inventory. After synthesis, they are sent to the video projector for output. All the data such as patterns, images, pictures and animations can be generated by themselves or converted from other formats, thus eliminating the trouble of the time, cost and mapping shooting of the pattern negative film of the projection device in the past.

4、 Progress of networked lighting control system

Mr. Xing Xin, director of the lighting Committee of China Academy of stage arts and senior lighting designer of National Theatre, said: "it is difficult to produce ideal artistic effect without programming stage lighting." Whether it is the "national top ten stage excellent engineering repertoire" once a year since 2003, or the only "Thirteen businessmen" in Guangdong Province this year, lighting design has to compile dozens to hundreds of "cues", while the British opera "Carmen" has more than 1000 "cues". The modern stage calls for digital technology. As early as the early 1990s, the digital network lighting control system has been developed in Europe and the United States, and has been rapidly promoted to the world, This network connection form can connect multiple computer lighting control stations into a local area network at any time. Each light console in the network system is a station, which can be operated independently. The main console and backup station and wireless remote control control form can be set arbitrarily according to the needs. It can also control the same performance or different performances at different control points at the same time It greatly improves the efficiency of the lighting system. This unprecedented technology fully connects the lighting control system, which is applied to various world-class theaters and places with high technical requirements.

The main advantages of networked lighting control system are as follows:

1. Network technology is in line with the development direction and requirements of digital technology, which is convenient to implement remote control and technical support, and provides a convenient technical means for the desktop design computer networking of lighting designers; 2. The main and backup dimmers in the network learn from each other and backup each other to realize complete tracking, Redundant backup to ensure that the lighting control of the performance is safe; 3. The lighting operators can know the instantaneous information and working state of the lighting system at any time through the network, in the light console display screen or PC computer, and timely monitor, intervene or correct the lighting of each loop; 4. PC computer, designer orientation, camera, remote controller can be set through the network node. It can realize point control, multi-point control, portable remote control or monitoring, convenient for remote or offline editing, and compatible with future lighting network protocol (ACN). This highly flexible lighting control system with international advanced level fully embodies the modern management concept and lighting operation mode of the International Grand Theatre, which greatly saves the time for installation and lighting, and brings revolutionary convenience to the sound and visual communication between the director and the lighting engineer at the scene during the program rehearsal; 5. The network system is stable and the programming is reasonable. In the case of unchanged hardware structure, the system can also be upgraded by using software to increase the prospective and compatibility of the system, so as to lay a good foundation for user management towards information superhighway.

5、 Technical breakthrough of network dimmer

In addition to safety and stability, the ideal state of the dimmer is to prevent the interference of the dimmer to other inductive electrical appliances in the power grid and other equipment on the stage.

1. In terms of application security: temperature sensitive intelligent cooling system, full load status report, line short circuit or zero drop protection and other technologies have been widely used. The latest dimming silicon cabinet can withstand a maximum short-circuit current of 100000 amperes. It can automatically analyze the harmonic of the power grid to adjust the optimal trigger angle position to ensure that the input voltage is within the range of 90-240v, and the output voltage error is less than In terms of anti-interference and anti-interference, the international highest value of anti-interference ability of magnetic ring is 635us / 230V, with trigger accuracy of 16 bits and 4000 level, which is more suitable for use in concert hall. At present, the most advanced dimming silicon cabinet is a sine wave dimmer with SST sine wave technology. Each output is 5kW. Not only the through / dimming circuits can be interchanged with each other, but also the sine wave / dimming circuits can be interchanged. It has no minimum load power limit and has automatic output protection. Not only a few millivolt LEDs can also be dimmable, it can perform very well when dealing with some nonlinear loads of water and charged sensors on the stage, The ideal management mode of dimmer in the lighting industry for decades has been realized, which not only prevents the pollution from the power grid, but also avoids the interference of its own working voltage on other electronic equipment on site, so as to achieve the state of high-precision dimming and large-scale management.

French famous writer Fu loubai said: "art is becoming more and more scientific, science is becoming more and more artistic. The two break up at the foot of the mountain, and one day, they will meet again at the top of the mountain.". In the 21st century, digital technology has brought us a profound revolution. It has completely changed everything people are used to. It also involves all aspects of our life, including stage art. It has created an inspiring and colorful world for us. In this day of reunion, science and art are no longer simply meeting, but have broader, deeper and more universal connotations, revealing what "has not been revealed" but "should be revealed" between them in the past.

If the creation of art is compared to a solid trunk, then the revolution of science and art caused by the rapid development of digital technology is to insert a pair of golden wings for the creation and thinking of artists. She will carry the glory of human civilization and fly freely in the vast sea of art.