Previsualisation at the National Theatre

Lars Wernlund - Sep 15, 2025

The National Theatre in London have just built themselves a new visualisation studio that combines both lighting and automation control for their preproduction process. It is equipped with ETC Eos and TAIT epiQ consoles, linked to Capture using sACN and PSN. This allows them to previsualise lighting and moving scenery at the same time.

Andrew Grant, Lighting Control Manager at the National Theatre, oversees the lighting programming and control infrastructure of no less than 24 new shows across three theatres every year. He is assisted in the visualisation operation by freelancer Florian Baeumler of Brighter Lights who, in collaboration with the internal Drawing and Draughting Department, provides the visualisation studio with fully functioning Capture drawings.

The team has already previsualised several shows combining lighting and automation in the studio, with the latest play in the Olivier theatre currently being worked on (Bacchae, opening in mid-September). The automation is preprogrammed in a similar fashion to the lighting, meaning that the automation cues are exported from the TAIT controller in the studio and transferred to the controller in the theatre. After the preprogrammed automation devices have been relinked to those in the theatre, the show is ready for technical rehearsals. Lighting Designer Oliver Fenwick and Lead Lighting Programmer Nadene Wheatley, were also able to plot through the show ahead of transferring with automation changes happening in real time and with high precision.

The production schedule is tight, with only one week of technical rehearsals, before preview performances commence. As a result, the team relies heavily on the accuracy of Capture. Thanks to LiDAR scans provided by Preevue, the location of all equipment in the Capture model is correct. However time is still required in each theatre for calibration, the process of ensuring that the Capture model also correctly reflects the orientation of each fixture.

The new fixture correction tools in Capture 2025 are proving valuable to the team, especially the ones related to zoom response. Even so, Andrew is keen to point out that finding fixtures that perform to specification, and dependably, remains a challenge and source of frustration.

The National Theatre had to scale back its operations in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, with its traditional repertory schedule being paused. From 2027 it will return to repertory for a special project starring actor Paul Mescal in the Lyttelton Theatre, meaning that a larger portion of the rig in each theatre will no doubt become fixed again and with additional equipment added on a production by production basis.