Rosco projectors help Ayr sparkle at Christmas
As part of overall plans for improving the centre of the Scottish town of Ayr, in 2006 South Ayrshire Council
commissioned Glasgow-based City Design to develop a long-term strategy for developing the annual Christmas
decorations in the town and surrounding areas.
"The strategy identified different streets and spaces in the town centre along with approaches to lighting
and other decorations that would be appropriate and interesting," says City Design’s Rolf Roscher,
who headed the project.
Rolf brought James Johnson of Get Made Design on board to develop concept visuals which would illustrate how
the new strategy would look and advise on technical issues of how it would be achieved.
When Rolf and James presented their plan in late October, the council was so impressed by the results that it
requested the first phase to be implemented immediately, allowing some of the new elements to be seen over the
Christmas 2006 period.
"We were keen to develop a more abstract theme, based on stars and snowflakes. However the council wanted a very
traditional approach," says James. "Five key buildings in the town centre had been identified which would
lend themselves very well to large scale projection of suitable fixed gobos. So I produced some gobo designs
which fulfilled the council’s brief, but with an abstract twist."
"When the council were shown the visuals, they requested that we implement that part of the scheme straight away."
Single gobos were to be projected on two buildings, two each on a further two corner buildings - one on each face
- and two on the front of the Bank of Scotland building. Thus, to fulfil the project, eight high brightness projectors
were required.
Rosco Derksen projectors proved the ideal solution: "With projectors, there is a big gap between the theatre and
large scale outside products," says James. "The scale of the projection wasn't particularly big for outside
projection, but it was significantly bigger than an indoor job. The Rosco Derksen projectors fitted our requirements
perfectly. In fact, they were the only ones that could do the job.
"In addition, there were issues with street lighting - the buildings are comparatively brightly lit at night and so
we needed a lot of light output. Again, the Derksen projectors were ideal."
With the plans only presented in October, it was a very tight timescale in which to get the projectors installed,
ready for Ayr's Christmas lights switch-on.
James produced the artwork for the gobos then, by using photographs taken of the buildings from the proposed projector
sites, distorted the images in order to ensure they looked correct once projected. The artwork was then sent to Rosco,
who cut the gobos themselves.
Edinburgh lighting specialist black light was brought in to supply and install the Derksen projectors. "There were
problems with light levels, particularly from the street lighting," says black light project manager Paul McGreal.
"But the Derksen projectors were fantastic, they were as bright as you like and the optics are perfect for this sort
of job.
"The projection of a Santa’s sleigh on to the Tam O’Shanter pub was particularly interesting," Paul
continues. "It has a thatched roof and we weren’t sure how it would look, but the Derksen projector optics
meant that the outline of the gobo was as crisp as it would be on a solid surface."
With power taken either from street furniture or local power points specifically installed for the town's festive
lighting, the five lit buildings received universal approval. "It was very well received," says Paul. "All the
projections were visually linked - from each one you could see the next and it was a very unusual and eye-catching
change from the usual municipal Christmas lights."
"South Ayrshire Council owns the projectors," adds James Johnson. "So our plan is for the decorations to be more
adventurous in future years. This is just the beginning."
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