Adrian Turpin CV

Adrian Turpin has spent many years working in the realms of broadcast, theatre and live events and has gained a wealth of experience in these fields, both technically and creatively. He has designed, directed and operated a wide variety of styles of theatrical and television lighting along with the associated roles of technical co-ordinator and vision engineer.

Adrian also offers a wide range of professional photographic services having a similar degree of experience shooting commercial photography and portrait photography as well as creating fine art gallery prints with a considerable archive of material shot in countries around the world.

2006 - present:

Adrian currently runs ATLD Ltd, Adrian Turpin Lighting Design, offering freelance lighting and video design services and vision engineering services for the entertainment and broadcast business, lighting design consultancy services for the architectural market and photographic services for the commercial and private market. Please see the lighting design section of this site and the photographic section for further details.

1993 - 2006:

Adrian worked for the BBC in Glasgow as a Lighting Vision Supervisor / Lighting Designer. Much time was spent in latter years designing and programming with moving light rigs for a whole variety of different programmes, both studio and OB, using a WholeHog II console and also working as a Lighting Director designing and operating on a variety of drama style location productions, both single and multi-camera.

Adrian was the first to use VariLite VL5's in a television studio in Scotland in the summer of 1993 which was particulalrly challenging at the time as there was no dedicated moving light desk to control them! In 2003 he introduced the Catalyst Media Server to the BBC in Glasgow which is a means of dynamically manipulating multi layered video images directly from the lighting desk and making those images an integral part of the lighting design. He has used Catalyst on various productions for which he produced, designed and edited a lot of custom material. Bands such as El Presidente, Kubb and Athlete have benefited from this service.

All sorts of projects have been worked on over the years from sitcoms, music programmes, drama, religious programmes, kids stuff, comedy, quiz and game shows - you name it, he's done it.

When working as an LVS, responsibilities were for the lighting balance and picture quality of the material generated in the studio... in practice close working with the Lighting Director and Production team were standard to design and implement the requirements for a particular production.
When working as an LD responsibility was for the lighting design, style and quality of the pictures produced during a production.

In between working on the bigger productions, Adrian had responsibility for the technical co-ordination, lighting and vision control of news and current affairs type programmes such as 'Reporting Scotland' and 'Newsnight Scotland'.

1987 - 1993:

Joined the BBC in October 1987 as a trainee Vision Engineer. Qualified in BBC ETSI Television Training in 1988. Worked as a Vision Engineer / Vision Operator and on many occasions as an acting LVS in TV studios and OBs covering a wide range of programmes. Theatre work continued during this time, designing and running many shows at the Mitchell Theatre in Glasgow.

1982 - 1987:

Started out doing lighting and sound for local theatre productions. Very quickly graduated to designing and operating on musicals, plays, fashion shows and other productions. Started shooting 35mm stills on a variety of subjects and spent much time developing and printing material in the dark room. Photographic work continued throughout his career at the BBC taking much from the experience gained in the world of television and theatre.