This year’s presentation a triumph for teamwork, says GLP UK’s Simon Barrett

In temporarily converting German Light Products’ ‘GLP’ acronym to ‘German Light Picturehouse’ for the duration of this month’s three-day PLASA Show in London, GLP UK’s Simon Barrett attributes the event’s success to a massive team effort – both from in house, and with the outsourced contractors.

Notably, he credits Kerry Tymms, who had come up with the idea of a vintage cinema, even down to authentic ticket stubs, as the backdrop to showcase the new innovative JDC2 IP hybrid as it sets out on its journey. This was in recognition of the massive upgrade path the fixture has taken from its predecessor, the JDC1, which provided the bedrock for the JDC concept.

In again occupying their prime stand location directly inside the main entrance hall, it was very much a case of mission accomplished. “Since coming out of the pandemic, this year’s show has been the busiest, and most diverse year from a visitor perspective,” says Barrett. “We have seen more international people than normal, which wasn’t the case a few years ago, and more lighting designers than we would normally expect to see.

He was determined that the sole focus would be on the JDC2 IP. “It was the fixture’s first big outing and we wanted to show it as being a powerful and innovative fixture,” he says. “I think often in a trade show scenario, lighting products can get lost on a plinth so we wanted to put JDC2 in a real-world environment and make it look interesting.

“In particular, we wanted to show it could be a replacement for the JDC1. Lighting teams will use it as a DMX-controlled fixture, and then every so often during an event the core content can flow out over it from the video team – and it’s that versatility that we wanted to demonstrate.”

To develop Tymms’ idea, GLP brought in a content creator and a graphics specialist, and used the resulting cinema tickets as invitations, sent out to customers in advance. This was handled by content and graphics specialists Sophie Pierce, of Brightwell Creative, and Alex Harvey-Brown, of Savannah Media. They then turned to Quantum Creative’s Joe Lott and Andrew Bruce. “Joe was the programmer for the video – he took the content and skilfully blended the JDC2s into the lighting desk,” says Barrett. “We also used project manager Josh Palmer to install everything this year, which made a lot of sense.”

The three-minute movie ran continuously, every 15 minutes. It set out the timeline of the company over its 30-year evolution, starting with founder Udo Künzler in the early days, before picking out key moments along the way, culminating in the JDC2 IP.

This highly sophisticated presentation was appreciated by some notably high-profile LDs. “The work that went in to make it happen was considerable, and I’m blessed to have such a wonderful team to come up with such interesting ideas,” Barrett comments. From the UK, this comprised Kerry Tymms, Paul Fielder, Nigel Bennett, Mandy Tyrrell, Greg Westwood, Matthew Powell and Simon himself, as well as Kasper Gissel from GLP HQ. The latter was joined by Manuel Paulus, who brought over from Germany GLP’s ‘next big thing’ for a special behind-closed-doors VIP preview event set up at nearby Riverside Studios. “It was extremely well received and guests were genuinely excited,” notes Barrett.

Reflecting generally on the show, he says he is confident that the company had achieved what it had set out to do. “The concert production community is now a lot more aware of the many capabilities and nuances of the JDC2 IP than previously,” he concludes, “and we know it’s already starting to appear on riders.”