iDrive® centralised LED drivers took centre stage at the recent Shakespeare Live! Show, which was broadcast live by the BBC from the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in Stratford-upon-Avon to celebrate the life of William Shakespeare on the 400th anniversary of his death.

The RSC required the highest quality LED dimming and colour control for this prestigious event, which was watched by tens of millions of viewers worldwide. The iDrive® Thor 36, the world’s highest power (2kW) 36 channel, constant voltage LED driver, provided the perfect driver solution to power the theatre’s colour and white LED lighting illuminating the stage and steps, as well as the moving truck, which featured in the show.

UK Sales Manager, Russell Joseph, commented: “One distinct advantage of the Thor 36 to the RSC is that the drivers are so easy to install and dismantle, making it ideal for the lighting of this one-off live performance. In addition, the Thor 36’s ability to power the LEDs from a remote location meant the stage design was not compromised in any way”.

The iDrive® Thor 36 is an ideal solution for stage, TV and theatre events, offering the best quality dimming curves with very low ripple effects. The RSC required unprecedented accuracy for dimming throughout the show and the Thor 36’s specialised dimming engine enabled the RSC to achieve up to 16-bit dimming resolution across all channels.

Perhaps even more importantly, the RSC could be confident that the TV cameras would not pick-up any flicker from the LEDs, as the iDrive® Thor 36 is camera-compatible. All LEDs flicker, but the iDrive® Thor LED drivers eliminate detectable flicker by operating at 65,000 Hz, which is hundreds of times higher than the frequency at which most other constant voltage LED drivers operate.

Nina Archenhold, Marketing Executive, commented: “IST Ltd was absolutely delighted to be involved with this exceptionally high profile project. The lighting team at the RSC have been absolutely fantastic to work with and we look forward to working with them on future projects”.

It is not the first time that the iDrive® Thor 36 has been specified for a high profile project, however. Other prestigious iDrive® Thor 36 installations include the Dubai Opera House, the SS Rotterdam, the Tropen Museum in Amsterdam, as well as an iconic cinema in Leicester Square.

The flicker-free qualities of the Thor 36 means it is ideally suited to TV & film studios, theatres, hospitals and healthcare, offices, tunnels and industrial units.

The iDrive® Thor 36 comes with a wide range of embedded dimming protocols, including DMX, RDM, DALI, DSI, Art-Net, sACN and is totally future-proof with embedded Ethernet as standard, allowing the Thor 36 to be fully integrated within the Internet of Things.

The Thor 36 combines dimming controller, power supply and LED driver in a 1U integrated unit, with the capacity to drive up to 36 LED channels at any one time, thereby dramatically reducing the complexity and associated labour costs of wiring numerous fixtures to the mains and a power supply, whilst simultaneously reducing the potential for wiring errors.

For more information about the iDrive® Thor 36 and other LED drivers within IST’s market-leading centralised LED driver range, please contact sales@iDriveLED.com.