5 minute read
NO MORE LIGHTBULBS
Playing around with acronyms can make for an amusing pastime. During my drive along the M4 to visit the MBS Equipment Co’s European headquarters at Colnbrook, near the confluence of the M25 and Heathrow Airport, wordplays like ‘meeting bright sparks’, ’mindblowing stuff’ and ‘millions & billions spent’ kept going through my busy skull.
By Ron Prince
My motorway brainstorms, however, turned out to have more than a grain of truth to them, as I am ushered into to the company’s vast warehouse floor, by marketing director Ian Sherborn (erstwhile designer of Cinematography World Magazine’s first three editions), who has armed me with a welcoming cup of tea.
Entering the depot reminds me of the moment I first entered Terminal 5 at Heathrow, as in “Wow, that’s a mightily big space”. A pair of binoculars would not go amiss to see what’s happening at the either end of the mammoth 80,000sq/ft facility, which has a width of more that 24 loading bays.
MBSE UK, as it should be correctly titled, and run by Darren Smith, MBS Group CEO Europe & APAC Darren Smith, “is home to one of the UK’s newest inventories of lighting equipment, designed specifically for use in the entertainment production industry,” I am informed by amiable guru Steve Howard, director of technical services Europe & APAC. Howard cheerfully boasts he can bore people to death about the company’s vast stash of energy-efficient, lowenergy and LED products – many of which have been exclusively created by the company’s in-house thinktank-come-technical-development team, MBSi (the ‘I’ stands for ‘Innovations’).
These homegrown creations include MBSE’s Aquabat, the fully-submersible (IP68-rated), modular, full-colour LED strip lighting system, developed in collaboration with UK gaffer David Smith. When ganged together, these can be easily rigged to create softboxes with an almost infinite choice of size and shape, amongst other applications. Another is the company’s LEDtrix, a portable package of compact, controllable, five-colour, flicker-free LED panels, that come in multiple sizes and feature magnetic mounting and snap-on diffusion options, also developed through consultation with gaffers.
“We pride ourselves on forging strong working relationships with production crews,” says Howard. “It’s these relationships that allow gaffers and desk ops to comfortably approach us with technical challenges or to develop ideas, straight from the set, which go beyond the realms of what is available from what we have onthe-shelf already.”
The provision of low-energy lighting, customdesigned control and network connectivity systems now represents multiple tens of millions of invested dollars by the MBS Group as a whole. MBSE reckons it is able to achieve relative power savings of 92% on saturated lighting rigs – a mind-boggling statistic. Indeed, MBSE was a founding member of the BAFTA-led Albert initiative, as a supplier that supports an environmentallysustainable future for the TV industry.
“During filming on a recent Lucasfilm production, MBSE provided over 1,400 individual LED lamp heads,” says Howard. “Being able to supply these products in such quantities considerably lowered both the overall power consumption and environmental impact of the production.”
If further proof were necessary, the specification for a current tentpole movie called for 600 traditional
MBSE IN NUMBERS:
• Has the hardware to generate over 1.85million DMX control channels
• Enough practical LED driver systems to generate over 56,000 LED channels
• Almost 3.25million feet of mains cables
• Over 1million feet of data cables
• In excess of 5,000 mains distribution units
• More than 14,000 low-energy LED fixtures spacelight units, with a power requirement of 2.8Megawatts. Following advice and camera tests with MBSE, the production replaced the request with the latest fullcolour LED fixtures, straight from stock, which reduced the overall power requirement relatively to just 240kW. the specific application of these is being kept a most beloved secret for the time being.
There seems to be a fair amount of equipment racked and ready-to-go in the warehouse – encompassing many beautiful sources from recognised lighting brands such as ARRI, Creamsource and Ayrton, along with all manner of HMIs, Dinos and Wendy lights and other traditional sources, right down to LED ribbons and miniature wireless LED drivers. If you want Tungsten illumination there’s a bountiful supply.
However, the kit that resides here and at MBSE’s well-known Pinewood base, represents just 10% of the overall inventory. The rest of the kit, along with vehicles and drivers, is out on jobs around the UK, Europe and beyond. Hence, a major part of MBSE being a customer-friendly lighting supplier, with a clear focus on service, is being a slick logistics operation – where kit comes back, gets tested, repaired and recycled for the next project with no mad b*ll*ck scramble. Howard says the company can test up to 400 separate LED fixtures a day.
And with multiple bases strategically located at production hubs in Ireland, Germany and Hungary, MBSE is well-placed to provide local support to productions throughout Europe.
Recent UK based productions supported by MBSE include: The Marvels (DP Sean Bobbitt BSC, gaffer David Smith); Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny (DP Phedon Papamichael ASC GSC, gaffer David Sinfield); Marvel Studios Secret Invasion (DP Remi Adefarasin BSC, gaffer Ian Barwick ICLS); Mission: Impossible, Dead Reckoning Part One (DP Fraser Taggart, gaffer Martin Smith ICLS); Ant Man And The Wasp: Quantumania (DP Bill Pope BSC, gaffer Jamie Mills); and The Little Mermaid (DP Dion Beebe ACS ASC, gaffer David Smith).
Joining the tour is Toby Dare, formerly operations director at MBSE, and now its head of sustainability and risk – which by way of swift explanation means he’s overseeing the future carbon neutral development of the company (his well-meaning mantra for that is “No More Lightbulbs”), plus the welfare of staff and visitors. This is, after all, an industrial site where people are working with electricity and often very heavy goods, so health and safety are extremely important.
“It’s early days as we set out on the path towards being a carbon neutral company, but legislative
However, it’s certainly not all about big features. Low-budget independents, music videos and commercials are all catered for too, and if you are making a short, you could do worse than give them a call and see what you can blague!
MBSE is also at the heart of providing the panels and infrastructure for multiple virtual set installations around the UK, as per those used on The Mandalorian (DP Greig Fraser ACS ASC, gaffer Jeff Webster ICLS) – although compliance is only going to get tighter, and our customers’ expectations surrounding sustainability are only going to grow. So we must seek to fulfil these different ambitions,” says Dare.
What Dare’s title doesn’t elucidate is his significant additional role in also making sure that MBS takes diversity and inclusion seriously as an employer.
“MBSE is proud to partner with organisations such as ScreenSkills to address the skills gap in the industry, and with Netflix on the Bring To Light Trainee Programme,” Dare explains. “That programme was created to offer a unique opportunity to join the industry, where trainees are selected from the local community, with those from under-represented communities being particularly encouraged to apply.
Indeed, training and support for communitybased projects have become a key factor in the way MBSE operates.
“We also work with several other local groups, such as the MAMA Youth Project, to support and encourage the entry of young people from disadvantaged circumstances to the industry. This support has included the direct employment of trainees through these incredibly worthwhile and valuable schemes.”
I depart after two and a half hours of what has been a genuinely enlightening tour, from a team who are passionate about what they do. I’m clutching a swagbag stuffed with MBS-branded merch - pens, waterbottle, note book and T-shirts.
Now, if you let us know how many times MBS and wordplays around that acronym appear in this article (some obvious, others not so obvious), I am sure there’s a tour and a mixed bag o’swag (hint) for you too. Give it a go!
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