User:Ludwig billiet

I started working on stage in 1984. It was the advent of the post-modern artists that now are the world famous ones. Jan Fabre, Radeis, Rosas etc. Since they avoided playing in the classic theatre environment, we always ended up somewhere in a location without the infrastructure and power for heavy stage lighting.

So the search for alternatives was inherent to my work as a LD and technician .

My first achievement was a perfect dimmable fluorescent system to be used for Cyclorama (flood) lighting and on rock stages we used it as an effect or for graphics (avant la lettre).

Next came using low voltage tungsten halogen, MR 16, now widely spread as PAR 16 and specialty projection lamps, from slide or film projectors.

After I moved to the big scene, together with the artists I started with, there was the time of the exponential increase in power, both in theatre and rock. (Lucinda Childs' “Available Light” and “L 'histoire terrible mais innachevée de Norodom Sihanouk” by Ariane Mnouchkine as the absolute top of the mountain, both well over 1 Mega Watt.

When I started in the Vlaamse Opera, at that time with Gerard Mortier, DMX arrived. And I implemented the first system based on DMX networking and distributed power in Europe, in order to prevent ending up with a dimmer room with 1200 dimmers and a 4 mega Watt power supply. At first I was heavy criticized for it, it would be vulnerable to failures etcetera... Today it is common practice.

As the head of R&D and marketing with Robert Juliat I reworked the older ideas around MR 16 Low voltage, resulting in the notorious “Brabo” system. Fluorescent also got a new life thanks to the Varintens electronics.

Then I focussed on system efficiency of luminaires. This resulted in the double condensor large aperture range of SX profiles. And the use of discharge lamps (MSR/HMI) for wich I created high resolution mechanical dimming (CAD900) Both SX and SNX are today very appreciated all over the world.

At ADB my first operation was the full implementation of Anti reflex coated optics, pushing up the output of profile spots around 30 %. Enabling using 1200 Watt instead of 2 Kw lamps. After we bought German manufacturer out of the bankruptcy of Avab ab, I took the ADB optics also to Niethammer, bringing them to the same performance and in the same time rationalizing the optical components needed so they became more affordable.

In 2000 my friend Roger Vandeplas of the Philips lab (discharge lamps) with who I participated in the development op the single ended MSR 1200 2500 4000 Watt lamps used in the Juliat SNX spots, sent me a package containing some pre-production samples of LUXEON I leds. With a small note, telling it needed current control at 350 mA and the request to play with it and let him know what I thought. The next day I sent him a short mail : “The age of fire light is over”.

2001 : Building a solar electricity power plant, testing traction batteries. Implementing the first high capacity LED's in Europe (Luxeon) First idea to build a DC network for lighting purposes ( solar cell = diode capturing light and transforming it to current, LED = diode transforming current to light). At that time we were an engineering division of a pioneer company of EV 's in Belgium, so the step towards DC became almost natural.

2009 : Experimental theatre project 'Always Eager to Know' in Oosterweels Church in collaboration with Alexander Nieuwenhuis. Running light and sound entirely on LVDC with 4 solar panels

2013 :  Working the concept Distributed capacity and energy storage. It's the backbone for an efficient and economical DC grid entirely fed by renewables.