FAQ

Q: Does UVLD light only large shows?

A: ULVD’s lighting designers handle everything from the smallest trade show booths to enormous live stadium shows, from plays in small theaters to the lighting of the outsides of buildings. UVLD’s designers have an enormous range of experience with all sizes and types of events. Although UVLD’s reputation is built on large corporate meetings and live televised events, 70% of UVLD’s work is performed in low-ceiling ballrooms. UVLD prides itself on its superior quality lighting design, regardless of the venue.

Q: How do the various design partners distinguish themselves within UVLD?

A: At UVLD, in order eschew both a client’s and a designer’s tendency to pigeonhole, we maintain an active policy of professional growth by ensuring that each design partner is exposed to as many different types of shows and events as possible. At the same time, we recognize that each partner does offer a unique skill set, and because there are events that are best handled by certain designers. UVLD has internalized a process to match each client with the designer or team of designers that is right for its show (although, in keeping with its client-centered focus, UVLD will always work to accommodate a client’s specific designer request).

Q: Why do so many lighting designers working in the corporate theatre field have a traditional theatre background?

A: Theatre work is at once difficult and artistically rewarding. An acute lack of budget on most theatrical productions tends to hone highly innovative problem-solving skills as well as the ability to work under challenging circumstances. For these reasons, almost all designers consider theatre a rite of passage and the ultimate industry proving ground.

Q: What equipment does UVLD use on shows and events?

A: UVLD prides itself as an “honest broker” with no ties to manufacturers or rental companies which means that our lighting designers use only the equipment that is best suited to the job at hand. At the same time, keeping abreast of the latest technologies and trends in lighting design is highly important to each of UVLD’s designers, and they regularly use this knowhow to customize lighting fixtures uniquely suited for the projects they are working on. Collectively, UVLD’s designers believe in using new technologies that break ground visually to help “wow” both the audience and client while, at the same time, balancing the “wow factor” with responsible use of untested equipment to ensure that the client is not “cut” on the “cutting edge” of that technology.

Q: Why do UVLD’s designers, on the whole, operate their own consoles?

A: UVLD has the utmost respect for a client’s budget and recognizes that having a separate programmer for each job can create an untenable budgetary strain. Because the expense of a programmer can reduce the budgetary allocation for onstage lighting (which is where UVLD believes the financial focus should remain), UVLD has addressed this challenge by having designers operate their own consoles.