In 1976 the orchestra manager of the Welsh National Opera commissioned his brother to design an all-new illuminated music stand. The orchestra bought 50 of the stands and the RAT opera stand was born. This original music stand was designed and made by Andrew, who then formed a business with two friends, Rolf and Tom. They called the company R.A.T. Music Stands.
It became apparent that people in the theatre industry had taken to thinking of music stands in general as “ratstands”, just as many people think of vacuum cleaners as hoovers. In 2012 we acknowledged this fact by changing the name of the company to RATstands.
In 1989 the acoustic consultant for Birmingham’s new Symphony Hall contacted RATstands to say that they loved the Opera Stand but wanted something a little different. They didn’t like the base, the stem, or the tray! Consultation with the Symphony Orchestra’s members revealed that the requirements of a concert orchestra are different from those of an opera house, and so the Concert Stand was born. Today the Concert stand’s slender steel structure and elegantly formed wooden tray are the perfect match for any historic or modern concert hall. The wood tray can even be made to match that of the hall.
When the Opera stand was born, the conflicting requirements of a music stand light were literally impossible to resolve. Incandescent bulbs were large, fragile, diffuse, and yellow. So, at the turn of the millennium, long before LEDs became commonplace, RATstands were amongst the first to use the new technology, creating a light that for the first time gave musicians all the Lumen power they could wish for, in a housing that is slender and tough, and with razor sharp light cut off. Now in their fourth generation, they are available in low voltage, battery powered and mains dimmable versions, with colour temperature as well as intensity control across multiple zones by radio, fixed wire, or on-lamp controls. Quite simply, the best lights on the market.
