Pharos 20th anniversary podcast series scales up

As part of its 20th anniversary celebrations, Pharos Architectural Controls has released a new set of podcast episodes focusing on some of the projects that have been able to scale up – either in size or in the complexity of programming, thanks to Pharos.

The ‘20 Years of Pharos’ campaign is spotlighting ten lighting professionals and ten projects that have shaped the success of the company over the last two decades.

Renowned lighting professionals Nick Abel from LS Group in New Zealand, and Peter van Nuland from GVA Lighting in Canada both feature in this part of the campaign to chat through their careers and how working with Pharos has enabled them to bring both large and intricate projects to life.

The podcasts provide another deep dive into the ways in which Pharos technologies – and the teams behind the gear – work collaboratively to produce landmark projects and meet a wide range of complex objectives.

Nick Abel – LS Group

The green shoots of Nick’s career in lighting started at school – helping out on productions and fostering an interest in performance technology: His chosen subject to study at college. “In my first year of studying, I got involved with a touring rock n roll company in Auckland and they gave me a job when I finished my diploma. That led me into the world of real digital lighting as a profession, where I was exposed to Whole Hog and the Hog 2. I later became involved with the service side of things, which opened up a new world of building technologies, such as power and data articulation systems, which allowed me to move into the world of projects.

As this world began to expand, I moved into larger infrastructure projects, particularly with the increased demand for colour-change systems in architectural settings. There weren’t a lot of people that knew how to control those systems but of course, having the performance background meant that we had worked with DMX since the 80s, so that allowed me to help to tie these two worlds together with the right types of controls. Pharos – who also transitioned across from the theatre and performance space to create an architectural lighting control system – were the logical choice for us as we moved from one sector to another. The products gave us incredible control over fixtures, with the flexibility of the controls we were used to in the performance world.

The first project where we were able to utilise Pharos in New Zealand was for a project inside Christchurch Airport who had installed fittings around the perimeter of the building and wanted them to display various patterns and effects. The initial control system wasn’t performing as expected so we were approached to help. The opportunity to use Pharos after speaking with the client about what they needed came up and after contacting the team in the UK, I was put in touch with Tony who takes care of the Asia Pacific region. He came and met with me a week later and we were able to work out the best fittings to complete the project effectively.

It was the start of a great relationship with Pharos that has been going strong for well over a decade now, with one key driver for us to continue to use Pharos, being their unique ability to scale up or down the control requirements for a multitude of different jobs, from small hospitality venues to thousands of pixels wrapped around a huge building. We’re moving from using half a dozen to hundreds of thousands of channels, integrated into projects but the platform allows us to service both ends of the spectrum to a high level.

Creating cool dynamic patterns, in-built triggers and the ability to access a knowledgeable and flexible team to create custom scripting on the platform, makes Pharos the product of choice on a wide range of projects. I guess you could call it the Swiss army knife of lighting controllers.

As we are continuing to work on large architectural projects and smaller theatre projects, the Pharos Cloud has been a huge hit with our clients here in New Zealand, who can dive into the platform to manage that control as they wish. As we look ahead to what’s in store for LS Group over the next few years, I think more clients will want this level of service and interaction with their lighting systems, so it’s going to remain pivotal to have the help and support from Pharos to continue to scale up to meet these complex and evolving expectations.”

Peter van Nuland – GVA Lighting

Peter joined GVA Lighting straight from school in 2005 where he began his career as a Lighting Technician, working on the LED side of the business. “Back then”, Peter explains, “that was just one desk, but as the LED business exploded, my role evolved into Production Management, leading a team of around 20 LED-focused technicians. We then realised that we needed a lighting applications team that is the link between engineering and sales to take our products and put them together as a system for lighting designers and architects on projects. During the next period, I took on a few more areas of focus that culminated in my current role as Director of Projects and Customer Success.”

Peter explains how his role consists of leading three departments that cover new projects requests, helping to put together technical layouts, programming, rendering, coding, quoting and taking that from plan to execution, from order received right through to the after-project care through project management.

“In 2012, we needed a new controls solution and came into contact with Pharos, and I am so happy that we did. I received two days of training and also bought a system for myself, which I still use in my home today. Our working relationship with Pharos has been ongoing and they are our go-to controls provider in our projects. The system provides so many options: If it’s not in the box, we can script it ourselves, which is excellent.

One specific example is Roundabout Sijana in Pula, Croatia, which required a lot of custom scripting to create the unique colour change lighting and fog effects. We had to overcome a few challenges with this project but the level of support we received from Pharos when we were on site and in a bind, really did make all the difference.

I specifically recall making a call to the support line in the middle of the night to explain our issue, and was told I’d have a solution in the morning. Sure enough, I had an email first thing, with the correct course of action which enabled us to complete the job. That level of support that we are getting from Pharos is a benchmark for where we want to be for our clients.”

Pharos and GVA collaborate on projects large and small, and with the more intricate jobs that GVA has taken on, they required a deeper level of understanding of the Pharos technology in order to provide the level of solutions that clients needed. Michael Grosse from Pharos explained: “Peter reached out to me and asked if we could lay on a training course focused on scripting and intricate integration that they found themselves needing more and more. It’s not a regular request but we laid on four sessions to provide that level of experience and training on the Pharos technology that is really helping their clients to level up.”

Armed with the capabilities to script, programme and utilise Pharos technology to its greatest potential, Peter ponders on what the future has in store for GVA and his team: “We are always innovating new technologies to better our products for lighting designers and architects and we are always looking for ways to help project owners to light their projects. It’s how we came up with our Infinity system and with Color Stream just being released, we are capable to light huge run lengths of up to 600m, with a single control point. This wouldn’t be possible without Infinity and Color Stream as a combined solution. On top of that, we need a control system to support it and Pharos is doing just that – particularly with the speed of delivery. Our products can reach up to 200 frames per second and the control systems are catching up to enable those speeds to increase in line with our products’ capacities.

From a technical viewpoint, these are things that we will be looking for in the future – to push the market to a better and faster system for customers and clients alike.”

Watch the podcast interviews here:

Nick Abel: https://youtu.be/exyn4umnvEk

Peter van Nuland: https://youtu.be/ulXOhIxju4w

Photography credit: Danijel Bartolić.