Very frequently, I am touting the highest high-tech lighting products on the market. This month, I would like to fully embrace the lowest low-tech lighting control device I have ever seen. The Hula Skirt is such a simple, yet cool and useful, device that I cannot believe no one has devised one before now. Scenario: You are designing or programming the lighting for a trade show exhibit in a convention center. You have a great rig with a complement of all of the best and brightest lighting devices known to man, and yet you are fighting a losing battle with your evil nemesis, the high bay house lights. For anyone who has been fortunate enough to live through the process of lighting a trade show in a convention center, this will have special meaning to you.
Obviously, the simple answer is to turn off all of the venue lights; however, this is not as easy to achieve as it sounds. First off, the lights directly over any given booth may or may not be circuited in such a way to allow convenient control without having an effect on other booths around you. Also, any light you are allowed to turn off will also be accompanied by exorbitant fees from the venue for labor and equipment charges. Then, the house lights located over the aisles are considered “no man’s land” and cannot be extinguished, regardless of the problems the spill of this unwanted light is causing your presentation.
The solution to these problems is the Hula Skirt ™, from Shadow Management L.L.C. The Hula Skirt is a colorable, configurable and containable lighting shroud specially designed to control the output of all high bay-style lighting fixtures. It consists of upper and lower octagonal aluminum frames that support snap-on side drape panels. The upper frame attaches via standard lighting safety cables to the top of the pendant of the house light. The lower frame attaches to the upper frame via the drape snaps and four safety cables. The lower frame can be utilized as a large format gel frame, thus allowing you to color the output of the light.
In a scenario where it is desirable to eliminate the output of the house light, the lower frame supports a light stop fabric panel that allows you to “bag” the light. The side drapes and the light stop panel are manufactured from an inherently flameproof fabric, the same material used in the uniforms of fire fighters. Since the fabric is inherently flameproof, it never needs to be re-treated with flame proofing, even if laundered. In the scenario where an aisle light is the problem, you can simply attach a single side panel on the upper frame, thus shrouding one side and blocking the light in only one direction. The only way to do this in the past was utilizing large quantities of black wrap, and then praying that your makeshift shroud did not end up in a heap on the ground on opening day of the show.
The Hula Skirt includes all parts and weighs only 12 pounds. It carries a list price of $650.00. For more information on the Hula Skirt, visit www.shadowmanagement.net.
Nook Schoenfeld is a freelance lighting professional. E-mail him at nschoenfeld@plsn.com.
