Lighting

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UK - The Association of British Theatre Technicians Theatre Awards 2016 took place on Wednesday evening (22 June), after the first day of the ABTT Theatre Show at Alexandra Palace, London.

An experienced jury of working practitioners and industry peers considered entries for the ABTT Awards. Both previously submitted nominations and items brought to their attention on the day, which satisfied the entry criteria were reviewed.

Commenting on the event, ABTT CEO Robin Townley said, "The Awards ceremony, held in the Petrus Bertschinger Studio (PBS), was again a great opportunity for exhibitors and visitors to gather and celebrate good technology and excellent technical practice. It was also very good to be able to welcome the Association of Lighting Designers' for the presentation of their Bursaries.

"There was a great atmosphere in the PBS which clearly conveyed the congr

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France - Belonging to Ayrton's new 'RS' product line, AlienPix-RS is a conceptual, multi-rotational fixture that combines a multiplicity of effects within a single luminaire. Inspired by fixtures from the '70s and '80s, AlienPix-RS is a reinterpretation which uses modern technology, optics and LED sources to "create revolutionary new volumetric 3D effects".

AlienPix-RS is formed of five spot heads surrounding a central disk, each of which contains a tight, 3.5° RGBW LED emitter. Each emitter has a centre-beam luminous intensity of over 180 candelas per lumen and can be controlled individually. The five surrounding spot heads can each tilt continuously as the main saucer with central emitter pans, tilts and rotates in any direction. Powerful tri-phase stepper motors allow fast, accurate and silent positioning. In total AlienPix-RS can simultaneously perform up to eight mult

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UK - Event lighting designer John McGuinness of Just Lite Productions chose a carefully tuned mix of Avolites products; Sapphire Touch, Tiger Touch II and Fader Wing, Quartz, Ai Infinity media server and ART2000 48" Dimmer racks, to control his erising show design for legendary dance event Cream Tours at Belfast's T13 warehouse.

Event promoter Notorious Parties welcomed the return of the event with its cast of DJing elite including; dance music giant John O'Callaghan, Bryan Kearney, Will Atkinson, STANDERWICK, Agnelli and Nelson and Anthony Probyn.

McGuinness, who put his Avolites Sapphire Touch console, featuring Titan Version 9, to work says, "The great thing about the Sapphire Touch is it's very simple and fast to programme and I can achieve the looks I want in seconds. I am a huge fan of the Key Frame Shapes feature - it adds another dimension to what I can create, tur

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Germany - Full service production company satis&fy provided the entertainment technology and decorative atmosphere for the 2016 Duftstars Awards in Berlin, the German perfume industry's premier accolade, and used their new stock of Elation Professional Platinum FLX hybrid moving heads on the event.

The Fragrance Foundation of Germany announced the winners of the awards at a presentation ceremony held on 12 May at Kraftwerk Berlin. Held under the motto 'The Power of Fragrance!' and actually one of the top galas in the German-speaking world, personalities from German TV, film, business, politics and the media walked the purple carpet with a dinner and after-show party music by Culcha Candela.

satis&fy equipped the awards ceremony as technical service provider for event company Vaterblut GmbH. On the ground floor, satis&fy rolled out 1,000sq.m of purple carpet and set up a 12

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USA - High End Systems' Hog Factor 2016 competition is open for enrolment to all qualifying college and university students, and Phase One of the contest will close on 30 June 2016.

All information, rules and most importantly the programming package can be obtained by going to www.highend.com/hogfactor. Just as in the inaugural 2015 competition, all students are able to take part by downloading Hog 4 PC and the special Light Converse show file by registering at the above link, and there is no charge for participation.

Following Phase 1 of the competition, three teams will be whisked away to the Live Finals, slated to be held on Friday, 21 October at 5pm on the High End Systems booth at LDI in Las Vegas. The finalists will compete to win a $20,000 scholarship and Hog 4 for their University as well as each a HedgeHog 4X for themselves.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - When American Idiot hit the Broadway stage in 2010, theatregoers were treated to more than just the punk-rock sounds of Green Day's rock opera; they experienced the visual impact that lighting can bring to storytelling. When Pace University staged American Idiot in 2016, lighting designer Zach Blane took an approach with his lighting rig that - like punk rock - broke the rules.

As Blane's design required getting a wide range of colours from his rig, his choice of units was critical. "I selected an assortment of ETC [Source Four LED] Lustr [Series] 1s and Lustr [Series] 2s, because I definitely needed endless colour options, plus it is a rock show, so I knew there was going to be a lot of haze, meaning I needed something that would look great in the air and great on the floor. Also, the director [Leslie McDonel] wanted the entire rig to be able to strobe. Th

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USA - Some buildings seem destined to become obsolete before their concrete has even dried. Such was the case with the Austin Downtown Post Office, an ungainly grey and white structure built in 1996 and closed only two decades later. Derided by a local scribe as an "urban disaster", the luckless building on Block 51 never delivered much mail, but for three nights earlier this year, it did deliver a lot of eye-popping visual excitement, thanks in part to a collection of ÉPIX Strip 2.0 RGB linear fixtures from Chauvet Professional.

Bryan Azar of ILIOS Lighting Design used 300 ÉPIX Strip 2.0 units with domes to create a stunning impression inside the abandoned building for Samsung Galaxy Life Fest during SXSW 2016. Most of the 1m strips were mounted on the ceiling to form a chevron pattern over the dance floor. The remaining strips were used to created lines and bor

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France - Fineline supplied lighting for two venues - Main Stage and Club XX - at the six day 2016 Snowboxx Festival staged in the spectacular French Alpine ski resort of Avoriaz. The event now in its fourth year, is a week of activities culminating in three days of music in an intimate 4000 capacity boutique festival for lovers of snow sports, dance music and great vibes.

It was the first year that Fineline has been involved as a technical supplier. Stu England designed the rigs for both areas, which were based on being flexible to give all the artists as many options as possible for their sets to look individual and interesting, delivering excellent 'bang-for-buck'.

The Main Stage was outdoors on the slopes and comprised a 12m roof system beneath which Stu and the Fineline crew sub-hung four finger trusses running upstage / downstage.

With limited space and weight loa

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Italy - Leading Slovenian lighting designer Crt Birsa specified 87 x Robe moving lights including Pointes, MMX Spots and MMX WashBeams for a special fifth anniversary concert by Croatian superstars 2CELLOs, staged at the beautifully atmospheric Verona Arena in Italy.

The cello duo of Luka

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UK - GLS Lighting in Southampton, UK, part of the HSL Group family, has made a significant investment in over 200 new fixtures from leading manufacturer German Lighting Products (GLP), adding to its already extensive hire inventory in the South.

The new equipment will be based at and available from GLS's facility - conveniently around one hour from the M25 London ring - and will also be available from all the HSL Equipment Banks across the UK and Ireland - currently Blackburn, Belfast and Dublin - in addition to Southampton.

"The large investment is a direct result of increased trading during the first half of the year, and a strong order book taking us through into 2017," states GLS's Ian Turner.

The new GLP stock will be added to the existing ranges of Robe, Martin, Vari*lite, SGM and Chauvet, adding to cutting edge technologies that now include Robe's BMFL and DL4 r

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Stayin' Alive - Coldplay gave Glastonbury's grand finale with a little help from the Bee Gees. Barry Gibb joined the band for two Bee Gee covers - To Love Somebody and what Chris Martin called "the greatest song of all time", Stayin' Alive. Gibb was meant to play Glastonbury's "legend" slot this year, but pulled out when a family member fell ill. The Bee Gee tribute came towards the end of a set that defied the pouring rain. "This is our favourite place in the world!" declared Chris Martin.

Judgement Day - Led Zeppelin did not copy the opening chords of Stairway to Heaven from the US band Spirit, a US jury has found. It said the riff Led Zeppelin was accused of taking from Spirit's 1967 song Taurus "was not intrinsically similar" to Stairway's opening. Jimmy Page and Robert Plant said they were grateful to "put to rest questions about

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UK - Avolites' Titan v10 software is now available to download for free onto all consoles from the Tiger Touch Pro (inclusive) onwards. Some older consoles may be compatible with v10 if an upgrade kit is fitted; if you are unsure please contact Avolites.

Titan v10 is the result of a year of research and development by a dedicated team of Avolites developers, enhancing the best loved features of Titan v9 and introducing a wealth of new ones. Many of the new features have been created in response to user and industry feedback.

"We're thrilled that Titan v10 is now available for our users - we believe the new software will have a hugely positive impact on the lives of lighting designers, improving workflow and facilitating even more creativity and amazing results," says Avolites' sales director, Koy Neminathan. "Titan v10 will make our range of industry leading consoles even

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UK - A long-standing tradition in Cambridge, May Ball Week, which this year ran from 13 June, marks the end of the academic year for the University of Cambridge. With each of the colleges hosting their own celebration, the lavish formal affairs see the students celebrate in style. Providing full technical production for two of the balls, Trinity College and St John's College, Hawthorn was on hand to make sure this year's celebrations were more spectacular than ever before.

Celebrating its 150th year anniversary, expectations for The First and Third Trinity Boat Club May Ball were high, with attendees not being left disappointed. Hawthorn provided lighting, sound, staging, rigging and power distribution for the all-night event which saw revellers partying until dawn.

A big change for the Trinity Ball this year involved moving the main stage onto the South Paddock and puttin

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Italy - The 2016 On Stage Awards for best live music were presented during a ceremony held on 18 March, which was broadcast on Rai 2 and Italian Radio 2. The hosts of the Tim Music On Stage Awards 2016 were Nicola Savino and singer Malika Ayane was the presenter..

Viewers and listeners voted on the Internet for the best Italian and international leading artists who performed in major concerts, tours and festivals held in Italy during the year. Their votes were combined with the decision of a jury of experts.

The spectacular live event was illuminated with Clay Paky lights on a rig set up by lighting designer Giovanni Pinna. The rig featured 62 Mythos units, 32 Sharpys and eight Alpha Beam 700s.

"The Mythos units are really very versatile. I used them as the main fixtures on the lighting rig to illuminate both the audience and the stage. They were the most used lights:

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USA - For the first 36 years of its existence, the Wichita Riverfest was held in May. Then in 2011, after rain put a damper on successive festivals, the event's organizers figured that moving it to June might change their luck. How right they were. Attendance has risen steadily since the rescheduling, ultimately breaking a record this year when a crowd of 450,000 visitors turned out for the nine-day celebration -- not a bad draw, considering that Wichita's population is 390,000.

A key attraction at the festival was the main concert stage, which featured 29 different bands performing under the light of an Erich Meitzner-designed rig that featured a collection of Rogue fixtures from Chauvet Professional, supplied by Parr Sound and Lighting of Great Bend, KS.

Meitzner positioned four Rogue R2 Beams on mid stage truss and four additional units on upstage truss. He also flew ei

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UK - Every summer, Garsington Opera offers a programme of innovative operatic work. Beginning life at Garsington Manor in 1989, it has run annually ever since, moving to the Wormsley Estate in 2011 which is its current home. The 2016 season features four productions from some of the most renowned composers of all-time and White Light has been called upon to provide the lighting equipment for the tenth year running.

Running from 3 June - 17 July, this year's season includes Eugene Onegin, L'Italiana In Algeri, Idomeneo and The Creation. The senior production electrician on the show is Sam Floyd on behalf of Floyd Technical Services.

"My role on the season is to work alongside the lighting designer and make their vision a reality," says Floyd. "This year was slightly different in the respect that we had three designers: Malcolm Rippeth, Giuseppe d

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UK - Aurora Lighting Hire once again headed for Worthy Farm in support of lighting director Oli Richards and gaffer Sam Madden as broadcast partners during the BBC's extensive coverage of Glastonbury 2016.

Covering a number of broadcast areas throughout the festival, the Aurora team were on site taking care of the BBC live studio and link interviews, so flexibility and portability have been high on the lighting list.

In the main studio area, LD Oli Richards chose Mole Richardson Mole Fay's to add some tungsten warmth along with an array of tungsten festoon that helped complete the festival friendly look. For a little more power, colour and versatility Martin Rush PARs were also included in the installation. Aurora also supplied LED ribbon which was been woven into the set design for a bit of extra magic.

To meet the need for portability and ease of use, Bi-Colour Lite

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UK - Young Technicians - a new learning programme for young people at Lighthouse, Poole's centre for the arts - has been hailed as a "great success and a valuable experience that has improved participants' chances of working in the industry".

The course is part of the innovative Young Programmers scheme at the heart of Lighthouse's learning and participation strategy that over the next four years aims to develop the next generation of talented arts practitioners.

The first intake recently completed a six-month pilot, making use of the existing workforce at Lighthouse to gain creative, hands-on learning experiences.

"It was a unique and fulfilling experience that you don't get in many other places," said one Young Technician. Another added: "The best part was the freedom and opportunity to put what we had been learning into practice, it allowed us to test ourselves and

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Australia - Lexair Entertainment has announced Renaat De Wilde has now officially joined the company in the newly created role of sales and marketing director.

Renaat brings considerable experience to the role, and will be responsible for driving business growth and enhancing customer experience through marketing and sales activity across Australia and New Zealand including the Lexair regional dealer network.

Alex Mair, managing director of Lexair Entertainment, said, "We are extremely happy that Renaat has joined Lexair. I have worked closely with Renaat previously during his time at High End Systems, and I know his knowledge, skills and passion for the industry, people, brands and products will be invaluable and allow us to meet the increasing demands of our growing business."

Renaat has recently moved to Australia from Texas where he was most recently the VP of sale

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South Africa - Blond Productions was involved, for the third consecutive year, to supply the full technical for the televised competition Clash of the Choirs held at Global Access Studios in Johannesburg. Mauritz Neethling from Blond was responsible for the lighting design, having control via a grandMA2 light. He also used a MA VPU plus MK2 (Video Processing Unit).

Filmed for Mzansi Channel on DSTV, the competition saw seven celebrity choirmasters assemble amateur singers who went head to head at the Clash of the Choirs. The competition kicked off at the end of 2015, with the finales held in April 2016. This meant the entire rig - the set designed and created by Dream Sets - had to come down and be put up again.

"Dream Sets cleverly created an arena type set which really enhanced the visibility of the choir," said Neethling. "The competition had used the same

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South Africa - The Hanuman Chalisa is the most popular hymn chanted in praise of the Hindu deity Hanuman. Recited daily by Hindus throughout the world, the 40 verses of this devotional mantra are an immense source of energy, focus and vitality for both the body and mind. The power and vibrancy of this ancient ritual were reflected recently by a vividly coloured lighting design, created by Shaniel Laloo, using a collection of Rogue fixtures from Chauvet Professional.

Laloo of JYM Sound Lighting & Staging created his design for a Hanuman Chalisa celebration at the Hindu temple in Laudium, a centre of South Africa's large Indian population. "The Hanuman Chalisa is very important to the people at the temple," he said. "We wanted lighting that would support the ceremony and look good on video."

Using six Rogue R2 Wash moving RGBW LED fixtures and an equal number of Rogue R2 Spo

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Germany - Lighting designer Jerry Appelt recently teamed up once again with lighting director / programmer Marc Brunkhardt, as Hamburg-based dance group, Scooter embarked on their Can't Stop The Hardcore tour.

Visiting venues ranging from 5,000 to 12,000 capacity, the focal point of the stage and set design were five raked pods, loaded with lights and flown above the stage to form a scalable roof - and featuring many of the 65 GLP impression X4 L's (supplied as part of the overall lighting inventory by PRG Hamburg).

Each pod contained eight of the X4 L among the lighting in each of the pods, with another 14 on the front truss to fire into the audience.

The two lighting specialists have worked together frequently, and explaining the choice of fixtures, Marc Brunkhardt said, "As Scooter is a techno act which requires a powerful lighting set we were seeking a high output

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UK - Chauvet Professional UK has announced two new appointments to its UK sales team with the introduction of David Faulkes as the UK south territory manager for the Chauvet Professional & Iluminarc, and Simon Cox, UK south professional key accounts manager.

Faulkes joins the Chauvet Professional sales team with a robust foundation & knowledge in the entertainment lighting sector. Having worked in the industry for nearly 25 years, with companies such as Martin Professional and Miltec.

Simon Cox, previously UK south territory manager, has moved across to a new position covering UK key accounts with a greater focus on the television and theatre marketplace.

(Jim Evans)

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USA / UK - The success of GLP's impression X4 Bars was recognised for the second time in a month - by major industry bodies on both sides of the Atlantic.

Following its Live Design Award in New York earlier in the month the product picked up a similar 'Lighting Product of the Year' gong at the Association of British Theatre Technicians Awards 2016, which took place just over a week later during the ABTT Theatre Show at Alexandra Palace, London.

It was voted after an experienced jury of working practitioners and industry peers had considered entries for this year's ABTT Awards which were carefully reviewed on the day.

The GLP impression X4 Bar 20 LED Batten stood out to the judges, who remarked that "GLP's new Batten, with its innovative zoom feature and impressive light output, reinvents the light curtain."

GLP Inc president, Mark Ravenhill, commented, "We are deli

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  6. Chauvet adds elegance to Boston Emmys
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