HMI & Tungsten Lights

Here is how this works in practice. We source HMI and tungsten fixtures — large HMI pars and fresnels, daylight units, tungsten fresnels and open-face lamps. These have from the deep gear-rental market concentrated in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The work happens where major rental houses carry today's lighting inventory with the ballasts, headcable and globes to match. Our team scales each package to the shooting environment, whether that is balancing daylight on an interior or punching big HMI sources into an exterior.

Here is the short of it. Productions in the UAE light across purpose-built Dubai Studio City sound stages and twofour54 facilities in Abu Dhabi as well as exteriors such as the Dubai Marina, Yas Island and the dunes of the Liwa Desert. Because Dubai is one of the world's great logistics hubs, extra heads, spare globes or ballasts can be flown in fast and on set within a day.

We prep, test and globe-check each fixture before it reaches the lighting department.

Here is the breakdown. HMI and tungsten fixtures enter the UAE under ATA Carnets and short-term-admission procedures cleared by Dubai Customs and the federal authorities, arriving through Dubai Global Airport (DXB) and Abu Dhabi Global Airport (AUH). Our team prepares the carnet records that keeps clearance fast. The UAE's extreme hot desert climate is a constant in lighting work. These have summer temperatures of 45-50°C with high coastal humidity from June to September add to the heat load of tungsten and HMI heads, so we plan ventilation, safe rigging and crew rotation, and steady desert wind calls for heavily ballasted stands.

Mains power is 230V/50Hz. Remote desert locations such as the Liwa run on power packs, so we size ballast loads against ready supply. Fine sand demands frequent cleaning of fixture vents and lenses. The prime production season runs October to April. Lighting hire counts as qualifying spend toward Abu Dhabi's twofour54 rebates of up to 35%, with VAT at just 5%.