PRODUCT FEATURE
The Followspot for the Future
Nick Mobsby reports on Robert Juliat’s new Lancelot Modular Followspot
The father and son team of Jean-Charles and François Juliat with one of the first
Lancelot units ready for shipment.
When lighting professionals look back to
September 2006 I suggest that there will be
one product that will be remembered distinctly.
This month sees the launch of a new plug-andplay light source that will revolutionise long
throw lighting. The item concerned is the latest
development from one of the world’s leading
manufacturers of followspots, namely Robert
Juliat. Their new Lancelot is a phenomenal
piece of lighting equipment; the attention
to operator detail, the ability to mix and
match from a wide range of accessories, the
projection capabilities and finally the slightly
longer term ability to link this to external
control equipment and remotely control it
make it unequal in its field.
In the middle of a very hot July I was
privileged, along with Entertainment
Technology editor John Offord, to visit the
Juliat factory in the sleepy French town of
Fresnoy-en-Thelle, some 30 minutes away
from Paris. It seemed to me that in the year
the Somme was being remembered, in the
middle of a series of French fields lighting
history was being made. The Wikipedia
encyclopaedia confirms: “In most of the
French prose romances and works, Lancelot is
characterised as the greatest and most trusted
The author explores the easy-to-use controls with François Juliat.
Entertainment Technology & PLSN Europe 6
of Arthur’s knights, and plays a part in many
of Arthur’s victories”. Robert Juliat clearly
believe that Lancelot will bring the company
even greater success than they have been
experiencing over recent years.
I have to express more than a normal interest
as followspots have always been a great
fascination to me – the optics, the engineering
and the operation. So much so, that later this
year Entertainment Technology Press has
allowed me to further indulge this fascination
by publishing my Followspot Handbook, due
to be published this coming autumn.
So back to the real star, Lancelot. Talking
with the father and son management team
of Jean-Charles and François Juliat was
fascinating. Out came the photo albums
revealing the working heritage that ‘RJ’ has
become famous for, Jean-Charles confirming
that at the age of 19 he operated a followspot
at the famous Paris carbaret club – the FoliesBergere. These experiences remained with
Jean-Charles to an extent that when he took
over the business from his father Robert in
1975 followspots began to emerge that have
claimed many firsts in this field. From their
first carbon arc units in the 1940s, JeanCharles developed Pixie, in 1976, which was
the first 575 watt HMI followspot in the world.
From these humble beginnings great things
have developed.
We are all very familiar with the current
range of Super Korrigan, Cyrano, Ivanhoe
and Aramis – all famous names just like
Lancelot. Male names are used for long throw
versions and female names for the shorter
throw versions such as Alex and Lucy. Many
thousands of followspots have left the factory
since these early days to most corners of the
earth. Over 40 distributors across the world
now provide access to RJ products resulting
in many major events being illuminated with
their wide range of products also including
profilrs, PCs, Fresnels, digital dimmers and
shutters. In the UK White Light look after
their complete range of products.
Realising that followspots are not only used
to light performers but that the world of long
throw projection was becoming an opportunity
they wished to explore, serious development
work began. The RJ team set out to build the
most powerful effects projector that is also
the brightest followspot currently available.
In both applications the Lancelot had to be
suitable for use at major large scale indoor
and outdoor venues.
They started with a very powerful highly
efficient source of the light, namely a 4000
watt 360,000 lumen HTI lamp producing 90
lumens/watt drawing 40 Amps, HTI being
selected because of the output spectrum, hot
re-strike capability, colour temperature of
6300º Kelvin, operational life of the lamp
and the compact size of the source. To ensure
long throw capabilities RJ set about designing
a new condenser optic system to ensure that
the maximum amount of light can be collected
and then transmitted through the long throw
At over 100 metres the spot is still visible in lunchtime daylight.
narrow angle, zoom 1.5 to 5º optical system.
The resulting compact lamphouse is easily
removable, complete with the lamp heatsink.
Indeed, accessibility is a major part of the
Lancelot system; it is probably the easiest
followspot to maintain that I have ever seen.
Some 14 ventilation fans are used through the
fixture to cool colour, lamp and operational
surfaces however, the resulting unit is very
quiet in operation. In fact, the cooling system
was developed by one of the RJ engineers
who used to work in the automotive industry.
It is a true work of art, deserving of a credit
to the design team.
Realising that Lancelot has to operate
on different voltages around the world the
lightweight electronic ballast will operate
from 190 to 265 volts on 50 to 60 Hz. This
ballast provides a lamp hour meter, and hot
restrike and electronic dimming down to 50%
light level.
What is truly unique is their modular
approach to the Lancelot housing design. RJ
has produced a system that allows one unit
to be used for many applications, making it
ideal for rental companies and end users alike.
Up to five interchangeable and removable
modules can be inserted; these include gobo
changer frost and colour correction, up to
six fan cooled boomerang operated colour
magazines or conventional frames can be
The prototype gobo module.
inserted. Lancelot is not small. The overall
length of the unit is over 2 metres with a width
of over 600mm; the unit weights 125kg, with
the lightweight ballast adding a further 28kg
and the special stand another 9kg.
Attention to detail is part of the RJ trademark
and Lancelot excels here with items such as a
balancing counterweight fitted to the underside
of the housing. Balance is essential in long
throw followspotting and is easily achieved
on Lancelot with remarkably fine adjustments
easily possible at many different tilt angles.
Juliat have spent a great deal of effort to
make this it stable and very easy to use. The
operator detailing on control elements like
the mechanical dimmer shutter, whose rotary
control allows the four shutter blades to be
smoothly controlled, zoom focus controls that
self-lock and a completely new four-blade
module for colour, dimming, frost and colour
correction that is completely progressive in
its action. Playing with the potential colour
combinations that can be created confirmed
to me that this new blade will be a hit with
lighting designers.
But this is just the beginning, Lacelot is an
evolutionary process and during our visit we
were shown prototypes of what is to come
later in 2007. Juliat have harnessed the Canbus
protocol to control internally a wide range of
these options including gobo changer, an iris
cassette, motorised zoom, a moving mirror, a
strobe and the special four blade module that
allows true colour mixing. Lancelot will be
controllable from any DMX lighting console
ensuring that for those larger shows, where
multiple followspots need to work together,
this is simplicity itself. Unfortunately I am not
allowed to say too much, but what I saw was
very clever – and more importantly it even
worked at the prototype stage!
So from a corner of a foreign field comes
history in the making. Lancelot is being
shipped now, so make sure you take a look at
the forthcoming PLASA show on the stand
of White Light.
www.robertjuliat.fr
www.whitelight.ltd.uk
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