Top Hat of the Morning to You!

So you think you know everything about top hats but you are wrong or so I learned this morning. Believe it or not there is an extensive history of their development and implantation over time. It all began in 1930s with the invention of the top hat as one of the lighting accessories. In the 1980s the current owner of City Theatrical, Garry, who was working on Broadway began to cut apart the full top hats that were in use. As he made the modifications to the top hats he became to the “go to guy” for manipulating the beam spill. This drew more attention to the light that was not being designed. Each designer was then forced into deciding wither or not to deal with this extra light. Garry ended up opening a small modification shop in his garage which has grown into a huge international company. City Theatrical has been doing more a large portion of their work on custom applications and modifications for now than 25 years. Standard top hats all focus on the 45degree cut off theory. This theory states that the perfect ratio between the amount of housing that covers the lamp (preventing the observers to see into it) and the amount of light that is cut out of the beam. This theory means that the 6 ¼ diameter top hat has a 6 ¼ height. The height equals the aperture. The current types of top hats in addition to the full standard are concentric circles, cross quadrant, half hats, and egg crate. Concentric circles, cross quadrant tend to be less efficient than other types and they are primary used when it is going to be in a visible location, part of their appeal is visual. The coolest application, I think, of the egg crate in a custom application is their use in Le Reve at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas. The egg crate top hat has been reshaped to form into the shape of bubble covering the moving lights to prevent the audience from being disturbed by the light so close to the audience.