030 INTERVIEW


Pasquale Quadri took a long cold analysis of the market and in 2003 the Stage Line began its gradual metamorphosis into Alpha. The following year the company unveiled the first of its new series before an astonished lightshow audience at the PLASA Show in London. “The redesign of Stage Line was the turning point,” he said, having identified that the aluminium chassis construction was too bulky for modern purposes. “The market was asking for lightweight product and greater beam strength, so we moved into plastic moulding.” At the same time there was a radical change in electronics, involving the speed and complexity of FX. And so not for the first time, Paky started to address the optical features. The company’s products had always been notable for projection quality and uniformity, with an optical design based on the double condenser lens and slide projection technology (as characterised by the Golden Scan). But to achieve this uniformity it was necessary to sacrifice some of the light output. Stage Line was still using that concept, which Paky knew would need to change. Competitors were using another principle for additional beam strength based on the parabolic reflector to enhance the lighting output, and Clay Paky followed suit. They opened their account with 575 Watt Alpha Spot and Alpha Wash moving body projectors with unprecedented performance levels, featuring optics, zoom, colour system and unique special effects. But the biggest revolution was still to come. This arrived with the new fast fit short-arc lamps, which further optimised the efficiency of the light path. It enabled Clay Paky to conceive their 300, 700 and 1500 Alpha Beam Series as automated ACL’s to create parallel light beams. When the big-selling Alpha Beam 300 was launched in 2008 it was described by one LD as “the punchiest 300-watt moving light I’ve ever seen... a moving ACL on steroids!” In fact, when the Alpha Beam 300 scooped the PLASA Award that year, it was the first time a moving head had been accoladed for many years, as the judges felt that no further evolution had been possible in the world of moving light. “You can now get more light with a FastFit MSR 300 than you can from a 575, while the 700 outputs more than 1200,” says Paky. And to complete the range Clay Paky have also produced a series of 1500W profiles, spots and washes. Paky even gave his design team the seemingly impossible challenge of force fitting the 700W lamp and optics into a housing designed for the 300W!


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“The redesign of Stage Line was the turning point. The market was asking for lightweight product and greater beam strength, so we moved into plastic moulding.”


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