Entec up the trends at London Fashion Week
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Entec supplied lighting to four shows and sound to three at the recent London Fashion Week event, for designers Julien MacDonald, Paul Smith, Jonathan Saunders and Giles Deacon.

Three of these were for Inca Productions, who’s director Charlotte Clark – also the executive producer of all their shows – says, “Good lighting and sound are almost as important as the clothes. They can definitely make or break a show”.

She adds, “Working with Entec for the last two years has been brilliant, and they are an essential element of our team. They sort out all the technical and logistical issues, source the right equipment often at short notice and always on budget, and supply really excellent crew who are a joy to work with on site. Essentially this gives us all the flexibility and freedom we need to push the creative envelopes further.”

Supplying all four shows really did test Entec’s logistical and organisational skills - ensuring that the right gear and crew were in the right places at the right times – all within a highly pressured timescale.

Giles Deacon, Victoria House

Working for Inca Productions, this was by far the most galvanising site for the Entec crew – on the fifth floor of a Grade 1 listed office block in Bloomsbury Square, central London.

It was also a very adventurous lighting design by Simon Tutchener - a regular creative contributor at London Fashion Week’s live events.

With just under 9ft of ceiling height, Entec’s seven lighting crew, led by Andy Keightley, rigged a 30 metre long by 15 metre wide span of trussing over the top of the runway, with a central spine down the centre, which was bridged with scaffolding. Onto this was attached two 96 ft runs of Kino Flo fluorescents, with additional units on the floor and 12 Source Four profiles front lighting the end of the catwalk.

Making a feature of the trussing gave the whole space a subtle, futuristic, industrial vibe, whilst the Kino Flos – used out of their normal context - introduced a sense of filmic abstraction, reinforcing Deacon’s collection, which was all about structure and form.

To ensure the trussing looked its best, the Entec crew spent two days painstakingly polishing it and removing any blemishes.

A large quantity of 20 ft scaff pipes had to be carefully bubble wrapped before being carried up the stairs in an overnight get in session. The Slick lite-beam trussing was moved upstairs via multiple trips in a small goods lift.

Sound for this show comprised a small Crest mixing desk with Tascam CD players, d&b E3 speakers along the catwalk and Qsubs, all powered by d&b D12 amplifiers. The engineers were Barry Bartlett and Rob Maynard.

Paul Smith, Royal Horticultural Society’s Lindley Hall

Outback supplied all trussing and rigging for production company DSA in this location, and Entec lighting supplied 120 Source Four profiles and 10 V*L 3000 Spots. Control was via an Avolites Pearl 2004.

Simon Tutchener was the LD, with Simon Honnor crew chief’ing for Entec, and Liz Berry working as lighting director for Tutchener while has was off-site running other shows in his prolific schedule!

Julien MacDonald, Freemason’s Hall

This, the first of Entec’s four LFW shows, was a follow spot show, designed by Tutchener, for which Entec supplied six Pani 1200s and two Robert Juliat Ivanhoe 2.5s, plus 8 spot operators and 2 lighting techs. This was also crew Chiefed by Andy Keightley.

Entec also supplied and rigged a complex trussing structure for one of the spot towers that was in the middle of the raked seating, within the very ornate main space of the Masonic temple .. and everything had to be in and out in a day.

This show was also produced by Inca. Everyone worked very hard to produce a real rock ‘n’ roll atmosphere without excessive glare, giving the photographers enough leeway to get the shots they needed.

Jonathan Saunders, Old Truman Brewery

Entec again worked for Inca Productions and lighting design by Thierry Dreyfuss. Entec Lighting supplied Source Four PARs and profiles, a selection of 1K fresnels and an Avolites Pearl for control in the Old Truman Brewery’s T1 room featuring a 30 metre long catwalk. The show was completely based around light – which effectively was ‘the set’. Clarke describes the result as “Absolutely stunning – creative and technical teams amalgamated to maximise the show’s creative value in a very simple way”.

The lighting crew of three was led by crew chief Andy Mountain.

Entec Sound supplied a Mackie desk, Tascam CD players, d&b Q7, Q10 and E3 speakers plus QSUBS, all driven by D12 amps. The show was engineered by Owen McAuley and Jason Barton … and the same audio team and kit which had transferred across London from the Freemason’s Hall after servicing the Julien MacDonald show.