26/01/2024
Luci della Ribalta - The DNA of Followspots

Luci della Ribalta - The DNA of Followspots

In a sector as niche as that of the Professional Entertainment market, dedicating oneself solely to the world of light – and particularly to the production of specific products – means investing years in research and development. This is done with the sole purpose of creating products capable of excelling amidst the multitude of offerings found within the global market. No mistakes are allowed, and that's why only a few companies can boast of a history spanning multiple decades.

Luci della Ribalta was born in 1987, and their first followspot - Canto 250 MSD - saw the light a year later in 1988, when the fledgling company courageously presented their inaugural followspot to the world at one of the most important international trade shows of the time - the SIB in Rimini.

"The company had just been born and we were still organising production and offices. However, we were confident in the product we had conceived and built, deciding with great entrepreneurial spirit to introduce ourselves to the public at the SIB in Rimini”, recounts Lisa Papi - Managing Director.

Canto, an immediate success!

Canto 250 MSD was the first, glorious ancestor of the Canto series, retired in 2023 after 25 years of honorable service and excellent sales results. Canto achieved its success through innovative optics and a compact, aesthetically pleasing form-factor for the standards of the time. Above all, the fixture perfectly met the needs of the technical world, learning from years of experience in the industry.

"In a short time, despite the regular difficulties encountered by a newly established company, it became clear to us that followspots were a product we were quite good at. So, naturally, we continued in that direction…" Lisa continues.

In the fifteen months following the presentation of the first Canto product, LDR focused on intense design activity, and the Canto range expanded to include four new models - three discharge lamps (575, 700 and 1200MSR) and one halogen - Canto 1200TH. This was to be followed in 2001 with the release of the Canto 2000TH.

LDR followspots land in the USA!

LDR's story reaches a turning point in the early 2000s, when the company - through strategies and collaborations with leading distributors in the market - initiated the conquest of the American and Australian markets in 2001. This was achieved by building products capable of operating at 120V and 250V, before moving onto 100V to cater to the Japanese market.

Technology advances, with the workhorse Canto’s electromagnetic ballasts soon beginning to gauge on the heavy side. In 2008, the fixtures were joined by the new Canto FF: 700, 1200, 1500 and 2000 MSR, which - besides being much lighter and therefore ideal for touring and rental - used the then-new Philips Fast Fit technology. This innovative lamp holder allowed for even more efficient discharge lamps to be used. The Canto family was by now a well-known fixture within the industry - with dozens of variants and special colors available - making LDR a benchmark for followspots worldwide.

"While never losing focus on other products such as fresnels, plano-convex lenses, profiles, spots and diffusers – an almost physiological call caused our company to focus on the followspot. This was undertaken with a continuity and commitment that few in the industry have maintained over the years.
I can certainly say that today, LDR is a true reference point for the entire international market." says Lisa Papi.

LED revolution with the ASTRO series

One of the epochal changes in the professional lighting world has certainly been the arrival of LEDs, which, for better or worse, have forever changed the lighting sector and consequently the way companies design and produce professional lighting fixtures.

2013 saw a first for LDR’s production lines, with the introduction of an LED profile spotlight. This was a precursor to what would soon become one of the company's most successful and best-selling lines – the Astro. Since then, passing through several developments and transformations, the Astro series has come to boast over ten models (100, 250, 250HP and 600), with over twenty versions. Standing out amongst these is Astro 600, a product that quickly went on to become LDR’s bestseller. Astro 600 6000K is one of the latest additions and, thanks to a powerful LED source, is capable of producing a surprisingly pure-white beam of light with an extremely flat field. Furthermore, a double condenser optical system with variable zoom from 8° to 16° and a uniform dimming curve further contribute to exceptional levels of performance. Just this year, the product line has been enriched with the 3200K warm-light variant - the only LED followspot capable of generating this color temperature - the Tropical model, particularly suitable for humid environments and Astro 600 LH-Left-Handed an unique model for left-handed operators where all controls, zoom, stirrup and colour changer, are positioned on the left-hand side of the unit.

The TANGO series: a followspot for long distances!

Step forward to 2018, and with ever-increasing demands for a long-throw range, LDR presents the new Tango discharge followspot range. The lineup includes three models in five versions: Tango 1200 and 1500MSR in the 230V and 120V version, and Tango 2000 MSR, an innovative multifrequency model (180V/260V) for distances of over 100m. With this latest product line, LDR can undoubtedly be considered to offer one of the richest and most versatile catalogues in the entire followspot market.

The story doesn’t end here however, because it’s worth noting that almost all of LDR’s products marketed over the years are still available on the market - further confirming the quality and innovative nature of the company’s fixtures.

"I would like to point out that, apart from the small Canto 250, none of our followspots have been retired!" emphasizes Lisa. "All the models developed in over 25 years of activity are still available, and today there are thousands of LDR followspots scattered across the world. These fixtures continue to operate and can still be effectively repaired, although a need for this is a rare occurrence. Our biggest satisfaction is being able to hear directly from the mouths of our users, who visit our trade show booths to tell us how pleased they are with our followspots and, above all, with the service that accompanies them”.

The near future holds an incredibly busy schedule for Luci Della Ribalta, both in terms of participating in trade events around the world and for the study and realisation of new projects and fixtures. It should also be noted that this article has been exclusively dedicated to the world of followspots, but this does not detract from the fact that the company proactively continues its research and development of other fixtures for the theater and installation worlds…

"Apparently, we like followspots, and we are good at them, so we will continue to make them with higher and higher levels of performance and using the best technologies available on the market. We never, ever, compromise on quality - a quality that our customers demand and expect from us. In fact, eyes should be kept peeled, because something new will be arriving very soon indeed..." concludes Lisa Papi.

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