lightSORBER velvets: The deepest black for stage drapes and theatre curtains

lightSORBER: The modern hybrid motor for various “light fuels”

The basic colour of your stage drapes corresponds figuratively to an engine and your light to the fuel of your colour perception.

To work perfectly, motor and fuel must go together.

This applies particularly to curtains on stages, as black is a special “load case” for the human eye. In recent years, light has changed significantly due to LED technology. Some black surfaces don’t work well and seem light, silvery, greyish, creased – at least not as black as they used to.

The TÜCHLER lightSORBER velvets are hybrid motors for black:  They take the blue-heavy spectral properties of LED lights and the red-heavy spectrum of classical tungsten light sources into account. They appear black, even if different light sources are used simultaneously.

A combustion engine requires fossil fuel, an electric motor requires electricity to function. Only a hybrid motor can handle both.

In short: TÜCHLER lightSORBER velvets produce the most colour neutral black for all lighting types on the market.

TÜCHLER measures at the following light temperatures.

TÜCHLER measures at the following light temperatures.

The perceived colour can be produced by the surface structure and also through chemical dyes. Usually, a random combination of both is the case.

For the first time, the lightSORBER velvet development team has specifically developed textile constructions that absorb a particularly large amount of energy, due to their surface structure.  Additionally, new colour combinations have been developed that absorb a maximum amount of energy across the entire spectrum of visible light.

The result is the unique strong hybrid effect of the lightSORBER velvets and the deepest black on velvet.

Black velvet “light“: 450g/m2 for the deepest black

Up to now, the following rule applied: The higher the weight per unit, the blacker the velvet.

The development of TÜCHLER’s lightSORBER velvet shows that the structure of the velvet surface is a decisive factor for light absorption.

The weight is only the result and not the reason for a high colour depth. The velvet with the deepest black is TÜCHLER’s lightSORBER velvet DD25 with practical and light 450g/m².

Therefore, velvet weight doesn’t play a decisive role in regard to the depth of black.

However, there are other reasons why stages like using heavy velvets. In particular, these include heavy drapery for moving curtains or acoustic requirements.

Therefore, we also offer lightSORBER as a velvet weighing 600g/m² D18, with only a slightly lower black colour depth.

Technical details:

Colour temperature and the light spectrum or not the same thing!

If a convex lens captures a yellow and a blue beam of light, it produces white light. Two colours, that produce white light together, form complementary colours. Even a mixture of red, green and blue light produces white light.

The spectral distribution of light from spotlights with the same colour temperature can differ noticeably. These are referred to as metameric light sources. Metameric light can have a continuous spectrum like a lightbulb or be reduced to a narrow spectral band like an energy saving lamp or a flat screen monitor.

TIPP: Light colours under 4700 Kelvin produce the perception of deeper black.

Even through the spectral distribution of light from spotlights with the same colour temperature can differ, practice shows that black is perceived as deeper at colour temperatures below 4700K. Thanks to their special woven structure and the employment of special dyes and dyeing processes, TÜCHLER lightSORBER velvets are more light-absorbent across the entire visible light spectrum than any other textile known to us. Nevertheless, in most cases your perception of black will be deeper if the light temperature is below 4700 Kelvin.