Lighting Designers Team Up for Save Tungsten Campaign

An international group of entertainment lighting designers have banded together to preserve the production of tungsten light bulbs. The initiative, sponsored by the UK-based Association of Lighting Designers, has lined up an impressive list of supporters.

The concern among designers is that major manufacturers are reducing production of various types of tungsten lamps and are no longer investing in tungsten products. A letter being sent to ALD members and others, to be circulated among their colleagues, says, "This is not a campaign against any particular other sources, such as LED or discharge, but merely an attempt to preserve a particularly beautiful species that seems under threat. Of course, we all want more efficient and less carbon-producing sources ... but to consider the gradual extinction of tungsten sources is something that makes myself and many other theatre-based LDs weep."

The list of lamps to be saved includes the ETC Source Four/Ushio HPL range; MR16 range; PAR 64, 56, and 36 lamps; Svoboda and DLCs; Beamlights; T11, T14, T17, T18, T19, T24, T25, T26, T27, T28, and T29s; GE M38 and M40s; 575W HPL; and K class linear floods.

The plan is to issue a draft statement and also plan meetings with manufacturers to press the case. Among those who have already pledged support are, in the UK, Richard Pilbrow, Duram Marenghi, Paule Constable, Patrick Woodroffe, Neil Austin, Rick Fisher, Mark Henderson, Howard Harrison, Andrew Silverman, Andrew Bridge, Johanna Town, Francis Reid, Paul Pyant, David Hersey, and Hugh Vanstone. In the US, supporters include Jennifer Tipton, Donald Holder, Kenneth Posner, Ken Billington, Howell Binkley, Brian MacDevitt, Steve Shelley, M.L. Geiger, Jules Fisher, Seth Jackson, Robert Wierzel, Kevin Adams, Christina Giannelli, and Jane Cox. Others include, from Australia, Nigel Levings and Nick Schlieper; from Canada, Alan Brodie and Joshua Hind; and from France, Jean Kalman and Christophe Forey.

Lighting designers wishing to register their support can do so by sending a message to savetungsten@ald.org.uk. Further discussion and updates can be found at the link below.