Studio Insights: Shining a Bright Light on Studio Design

Lighting isn’t a popular topic, but it means everything for creating quality productions. John Gebbie, New York Business Development Director, Barbizon Electric Company and Peter Provost, President and Director of Design, Provost Studio, spoke with Host Tyler Kern about this.

Lighting systems integration is infrastructure. “My role in the equation is to bring all those pieces and parts you need behind the scenes to make those lights work the way they need to work,” he said. Those pieces include power distribution, data distribution, structural support coupled with the control system, and lighting fixtures. Each element needs to be examined before the design.

Production teams can choose a design build, which is when the design team runs from the beginning through construction to the show. Or they can choose a design bid where there are separate design and construction teams. Many choose to bid after the design is done, but there must be time to bid the job and translate design details to the construction team. This is often forgotten in decision making of bid versus build.

Integrators offer “the smarts with the parts,” according to Gebbie. “You can go to a dot com, you can go to a large supply house, and you can buy a lot of these products, but you’re not getting any of the intelligence that comes with it.” Integrators mix and match brands for the best outcomes.

Design teams are finding other benefits of hiring integrators. “Part of the good thing about technology and the integration of all of these things is it is starting to allow a greater control of the end product,” Gebbie explained. Ultimately, bringing experts in early helps avoid mistakes and is beneficial in the long run.

Visit barbizon.com and provost-studio.com or subscribe to the Studio Insights podcast for more on this topic.