Shining A Light On The Staiths Gateshead

On the 24^th March 2016, we were keeping our fingers crossed for the weather to hold out as we planned to shine a light on the Staiths Gateshead.

The Staiths, a giant wooden structure on the Gateshead side of the River, has helped carve the North East’s industrial past by facilitating the exportation of coal to the rest of country and far beyond. As the coal industry fell into decline towards the end of the 20^th century, this structure of wood declined also and with it part of the North East’s history.

Armed with 7 AW80 Watt Projectors, fitted with our catalogue glass gobos, a generator, a backup battery and lots of wire we headed down the Staiths.

The great thing about using Gobos for this kind of project is reliability and how easy it is to set up.  So arriving before the sun goes down, we set up the projectors on the giant imposing structure, it was simple and effective taking us around 20 minutes.

Each summer a group of volunteers “friends of the Staiths” help organise a series of events to bring footfall to the monument.  Our Director Roger Scott who lives on the Staiths estate, which faces the structure, came up with the idea to light it using Gobos.

The AW80 Watt projectors were set up along a section of the Staiths pointing up towards the structure to create depth and texture in the struts.

In the projectors, we used a selection of our catalogue gobos (as below) to create the effect and a selection of different filters mounted onto the lenses to change the colours, and to add drama and mood.

Labyrinth - 13022

The successful run was not only an unofficial celebration for the Staiths summer opening but in leads up nicely for more examples and displays we are planning so keep an eye out for more to come!