Lighting

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In association with the launch of Stardraw.net, the first web-based CAD system, Stardraw has announced the introduction of bronze, silver and gold partner programmes. These offer different ways for anyone who is interested in, or whose customers may be interested in, online design and documentation systems to earn from or implement Stardraw.net applications.

The first tier is the bronze package, also known as the Affiliate programme. The programme, which is free to join and open to everyone, allows Affiliates to earn a 5% commission from all online purchases at www.stardraw.com that result from a click-through from their site. The silver package is the Stardraw.net Partner programme. Like the Affiliate programme, this is also free to implement, the difference being that rather than offering a simple link back to Stardraw.com, the Partner programme allows you to run the Stardraw.net app

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Leading Milan production facility, Cinevideostudio, has purchased 20 Coemar iWash and iSpot 575s, to be located in two of its five studios. Run by Paolo Baraldi, the studio conducts 90% of its work for MTV Italy, who share the complex in Milan - although they also enjoy close co-operation with RAI, the state-owned broadcaster.

Cinevideostudio was established in Mantua, near Verona, back in 1983, and moved to Milan in 1997 where the collaboration with MTV Italy began. Today it employs around 80 people, and boasts a complete post-production suite - with editing and transfer facilities dedicated to Quantel and Avid - as well as transmission studios among its facilities.

Cinevideostudio’s E studio, featuring the lighting of Coemar, was used recently for a concert with international artists Robbie Williams, Alanis Morissette, REM and Oasis, for the Italian MTV Live, which is shot i

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Northampton-based event and display lighting specialists Mushroom Event Services Limited has launched a new website, which includes the first downloadable PDF format of both their sales and hire catalogues. The new site has been designed to make selection of products and services both quick and easy, with the sales and hire catalogues downloadable in PDF format at the click of a mouse.

Mushroom spokesman Paul Butler explains: "For many years we've produced a paper-based hire and sales catalogue and although this has been extremely successful for us, we wanted to move our service forward and make sure that we are instantly accessible for our clients and potential clients. The new site has been designed in such a way that every product and service is instantly available to view for anyone with internet access."

Mushroom offer an extensive range of lighting sales and rental se

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The latest addition to TMB’s LA sales department is Barbara Barnum, who has previously worked as a service technician at High End Systems and Gemini Stage Lighting, a pyrotechnician at Pyrotex and a lighting designer/CAD operator at Intelecon. TMB tell us Barnum is into snorkeling, dirt biking, kayaking, hiking, climbing, rollerblading, rock collecting and Sponge Bob Square Pants, and is the owner of a 130 horsepower Aprilia Tuono-R motorcycle.

It was just this balance of technical experience, intelligence and bravado that TMB was looking for: lured by TMB’s culture of ‘Fun is Profitable’, Barbara made the move from Dallas to Los Angeles. She has quickly become TMB LA’s resident expert on moving lights, controllers, CAD and image manipulation systems such as Catalyst and RADLite.

Tommy Stephenson, TMB’s sales manager, comments: "The consensus

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Emmy-award winning developer Rick Hutton has assembled a highly experienced team to launch a new company - InLight Gobos - which will be based in Dallas, Texas. The team has a combined 37 years invested in producing gobos for the entertainment production industry and will offer high quality glass gobos, both catalogue and custom artwork, in black and white/greyscale or full colour.

The technology to produce the gobos is licensed from Beacon AB in Sweden, which utilizes a photolithographic process on ultra-thin zero expansion glass. This glass is the thinnest stack available, producing a full colour image that is only 1.5mm thick, allowing the optical system to focus on all four layers simultaneously.

Backing the technology will be a highly experienced team. President Rick Hutton has spent more than 20 years in the entertainment lighting and laser industries: he has authored severa

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Raleigh, North Carolina, has a new top of the line events centre and nightspot ‘Oasis’. Previously a run down Steakhouse, it has been transformed into a corporate events center during the day and a top of the line Nightclub in the evening. Local movie theater owner and head of Ambassador Entertainment, Bill Peebles, who takes a direct and hands on approach to the facilities, specified a state of the art lighting & sound system for the main room of his new venture.

A grandMA ultra-light runs the lighting at Oasis and is controlling 10 Martin Wizards & 8 Martin Mini Mac Spots along with an assortment of dimmers and practicals. Bill programmed the bulk of the nightclub himself, over a 3 day period, under the supervision of A.C.T Lighting's Mike Falconer. Bill chose the grandMA after an extensive period of research, looking at a number of larger nightclubs and their control sys

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GLP of Karlsbad has introduced a new and particularly quiet Washlight for stage and show applications: the YPOC Color 250. This very bright luminaire is equipped with a 250W MSD/HSD lamp with an indicative lamp life of 2,000 hours at a colour temperature of 7,800°K. The DMX512-controlled unit comes with a variety of pre-programmed pulse and random strobe effects.

A parabolic mirror optic ensures that the GLP Washlight’s beam is homogeneous. The Fresnel lens (150mm in diameter) can be adjusted manually at the head of the luminaire, allowing you to vary the beam angle between 8 - 22 degrees. The YPOC Color comes with a CMY colour mixing unit in combination with nine dichroic colours (plus white) and two colour correction filters (5,600°K + 3,300°K) on an additional colour wheel. Further features include a rainbow effect, a frost filter and a beam shaping effect, continuously adj

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"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." So is the wisdom of "The Little Prince," teaching the adults what is essential in the beloved childhood fable by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. His tale comes to life this holiday season at The State Theatre in Austin, Texas. And products from locally-based lighting manufacturer High End Systems ensure that what is essential is made visible to the eye.

Well-known Broadway lighting designer Richard Winkler (Evita & Fame - The Musical Tour) is using High End Systems' Catalyst system for the first time. He's also specified a High End rig with eight Studio Spot 575 and four Studio Color 575 automated luminaires, controlled by a Flying Pig Systems Hog 500 console.

"Catalyst is a new tool that will help revolutionize the industry - it will take us to the next l

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Professional service provider Ernst & Young greeted its newest graduate recruits with a day-long team-building event at East London's Three Mills Island Studios in November. Some 450 Ernst & Young employees, including 300 graduate trainees and their mentors, attended the day, which was spent in team-building exercises and preparing contributions to an evening of song, mime and acting.

Providing lighting for the evening's entertainment was Fourth Phase London, to the specification of lighting designer Paul Cook. "Improvisation was very much the order of the day for the trainees," said Cook, "so lighting their performances was challenging - we never knew quite what to expect!" The rig that Fourth Phase supplied included dimming, control and luminaires plus effects such as a smoke machine, a cracked oil machine and star cloths for maximum flexibility. "We had to b

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Germany-based laser specialist LOBO has reinforced its position as the unchallenged leader at this year's International Laser Display Association (ILDA) Awards Ceremony in Walt Disney World. The yearly ILDA Awards are awarded among competing companies within the umbrella organization of the laser show industry. This year, once again, LOBO received most of the prizes. Although the company only joined the ILDA eight years ago, it has already been awarded a record-breaking 57 ILDA Awards.

Art director Alexander Hennig says: "In most companies laser shows are produced by just one or two persons. In the LOBO Studios the workflow and the logistics of a show are more like a movie production, from musicians, illustrators, digitizers and 3D-animators to beam show programmers .... It took, for example, 18 persons over a period of more than two months, to implement the graphics show ‘7

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UK - The glamorous Ballroom at London's Hilton Hotel in Park Lane was the venue for the Irish Youth Foundation's annual ball on November 30. Supporters of the charity, including some high-profile figures such as Mick McCarthy, ex-Republic of Ireland football team manager, and a number of ex-Irish international rugby players attended the evening and in addition to the ball, were treated to an auction, jugglers, Irish dancing and the Coldstream Guards.

A Fourth Phase team of Mark Dennington, Steve Russell, Gareth Wharrier and Pete Barber was commissioned by production agency, Vivace, to manage the lighting for the event. Mary O'Hagan of Vivace, said: "The Fourth Phase team did a great job! It was a very labour intensive project, but the service that they provided was second to none and the lighting really helped to create an extra special atmosphere for what is one of the org

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UK - Lighting designer Durham Marenghi has been invited to undertake the lighting design of We Will Rock You, the hit West End musical at the Dominion Theatre produced by Queen and written by Ben Elton. Marenghi will be building on the original design by renowned LD Willie Williams and the lighting will be updated during early 2003. He is also currently working with Mark Fisher on a new design for We Will Rock You in Australia, and subsequent productions worldwide.

Meanwhile, Marenghi has also been employed by the Taj Mahal Hotel, Mumbai as live show director for a multimedia event to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the hotel. Working with lighting, lasers, waterscreens, live performance, fireworks, video and large format projection the show aspires to "a scale and magnitude not seen in India before" and takes place on 17 January.

(Lee Baldock)

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Denmark - Martin Professional Inc's long-time head of marketing, AnnaLise Laundrup, is joining the company's International Exhibitions Department as of January, 2003. The move is designed to reinforce the company's activities at both US and international trade shows. AnnaLise joined Martin's then distributor Tracoman (which later became Martin's largest subsidiary, Martin Professional, Inc.) in April of 1996. She brings to the position nearly seven years of industry experience and a large network of industry connections, plus a broad knowledge of lighting industry exhibitions, having been actively involved in trade shows in both the US and abroad for years.

Martin's international exhibitions manager, Per Lundgaard, comments: "With the entertainment industry's continued growth and our architectural division's expanding activities, we constantly face new challenges in ensurin

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UK - Lightfactor has launched a new division - the Cut Colour Company. The new operation will act as a one-stop colour-call shop - for anything involving a colour call for the entertainment industry.

Filter from all the leading manufacturers - Lee, Rosco, GAM and Chris James are available from stock in both roll and sheet formats, alongside a range of gobos from DHA. Additionally, there's a full colour cutting service available for filter, which can either be cut to size or made up into scrolls as required.

Mandy Bullock-Williams who ran the filter room of Lighting Technology Group (LTG) will head up the new division. Her appointment coincides with two other ex-LTG people joining the Lightfactor team - Jeff Harwood and Bob Peach, consolidating the company's current period of expansion.

Lightfactor has been progressively moving into new products and services, and the formatio

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UK - Marking the opening of an exhibition of photography at Lincoln's Usher Gallery, a series of large format projections by Fourth Phase London created enormous interest in the city centre over the weekend of November 30.

Using Lincoln Cathedral and the Usher Gallery as the 'canvas', Fourth Phase was commissioned by photographer Phil Crow to manage the entire project, from researching suitable projection sites to the sourcing of the projection slides. Eight images from the exhibition were turned into slides by DHA Lighting, four colour and four mono, and brought to life using two Pani BP6 projectors. Lincoln Cathedral was the first venue and the nearby castle walls proved an ideal site for the BP6s, but with one minor drawback - a crane was necessary to get the projectors in place. Unperturbed, the Fourth Phase team of James Hall, Dominic Ayres and Steve Russell organized both

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UK - Strand Lighting has launched a quarterly Newsletter. First seen at the 2002 PLASA and LDI trade shows in paper form, the Newsletter is now available electronically, downloadable in PDF format from the newly re-designed Strand website.

Intended to keep readers up-to-date with Strand's latest projects around the world, while also providing information and guidance on the use of Strand equipment, the current issue of the Newsletter includes stories about Strand's close involvement with the new Esplanade Theatre on the Bay in Singapore, the Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts at the University of Southern California, the Telekom Headquarters building in Berlin, a number of projects in Salamanca in Spain, European City of Culture in 2002, and the new production of LesMisérables in Mexico City. Each newsletter also contains a Console Programming Tips section, of

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UK - It has been a hectic start to 2003 for leading lighting rental company White Light - with five new shows arriving in the West End and some old favourites going back out on the road in the first three weeks of the year.

The West End arrivals cover a wide range of styles: at the Arts Theatre is a new comedy from America, Triple Espresso, whilst at the Whitehall Theatre, the musical fun of Sing-along-a-ABBA has replaced the long-running Art, which used White Light equipment throughout its run. At the Old Vic, White Light is supplying the rig for Hartley TA Kemp's design for The Tempest - as with its initial run in Sheffield, the show is using automated lighting from The Moving Light Company.

Also combining conventional equipment from White Light and automated equipment from The Moving Light Company are Midnight's Children, the new RSC adaptation of the novel by Salman Rushdi

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UAE - The first installation of ETC's Obsession II lighting control console in the United Arab Emirates was completed in Emirates Media's Abu Dhabi TV when the studio upgraded its lighting equipment to prepare for the new game show Win Your Weight In Gold. An alternative take on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, the programme's top prize is determined by the individual contestant's weight!

The television station's technical team, supervised by Mohammad Refaie, head of Abu Dhabi TV's Lighting Unit, specified the technical requirements for the upgrade. "We needed a new console, capable of handling both conventional and moving lights," said Refaie. Oasis Enterprises, officially appointed ETC's regional distributor in October 2002, came up with the perfect solution to meet the brief, supplying and installing the 3000 channel Obsession II, together with ten Source Fours.

The

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UK - Funtime Installations has been sold in a management buy-out headed up by Mark Parker, former installations manager of the company. After six years at the helm of the company, Jonathan Reece--Farren has taken the difficult decision to step down. "It has been a very exciting time," says Reece-Farren, "with our company experiencing amazing growth and development over the last six years, as well as industry recognition with the usual BEDA Awards nominations, and accolades for our various club and bar installations.

"Recent months have been busy - we were commissioned to supply all the sound and lighting for the PLASA 25th anniversary celebrations, which was a real honour, as well as full production for the 2002/2003 Theme Awards." Other recent credits include sound and lighting for the BEDA Awards party, and the BEDA Chairman's lunch, supplied on behalf

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UK - The Sound Division Group has recently supplied and installed a comprehensive sound and lighting system to the American Community School in Egham in Surrey based on a Crown-driven Nexo audio system complete with Martin projectors and a Selecon lighting rig.

The school, which educates over 550 students between the ages of 3-18 who come from all over the world took the decision to move drama production into the main sports hall and invest in a proper theatre-style sound and lighting system. Once the decision was made and the specification agreed, the whole installation was turned around in just two weeks.

Sound Division supplied and installed a total of four Nexo PS-15 loudspeakers which were flown from the lighting truss, and two PS-10 stage monitors plus the requisite TD controllers. The system was driven by a Crown MA3600VZ and a Crown MT2400 power amplifier. In addition

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UK - XLFX, the UK-based pyrotechnic manufacturer, has appointed Graham Thomas as sales executive. Thomas will concentrate on export sales and business development. "It's a great opportunity for me to re-establish contact with many old friends in the industry," comments Thomas. "The response that XLFX received from the new products at both PLASA and LDI has been overwhelming, the quality of the engineering and simplicity of operation make the XLFX pyro system extremely innovative."

Martin Blake of XLFX added: "We are delighted to have someone of Graham's calibre onboard; he has a wealth of experience in global sales and can develop a really customer-friendly approach to making the XLFX product range easily available worldwide." The company's new pyro factory will be fully operational by the summer of this year and control equipment shipments will com

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Germany - MA Lighting has introduced Version 4 software for its complete grandMA product range, further increasing functionality, user-friendly programming and reliability. Key features of the new Version 4 are multi-user environment, comprehensive networking, pocket PC wireless remote, new grandMA 3D functionality, World Pool and more.

With the multi-user functionality, up to10 consoles can be linked together on a network to control one show. Each console can operate its own independent screens, command line and hard drive archive, allowing multiple operators to work simultaneously with no need to merge their single show files together afterwards. Any console, replay-unit or offline PC of the grandMA family can be utilized as a multi-user client - only the master console determines the DMX channel count.

Multi-user is ideally combined with the new world pool to filter the dis

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Italy - Coemar has extended its 10-year relationship with Gardaland - Europe's second largest theme park - in northern Italy. Having supplied intelligent lighting to this year's new feature, Fantasy Kingdom, Coemar has fabricated a customized outdoor Christmas lighting spectacular for their Prezzemolo festival. Both the great tree of Prezzemolo, based on a famous children's comic strip, and the new Fantasy on Ice - a musical fable entirely performed on ice - will be lit exclusively by Coemar fixtures.

The Christmas decorations for the Prezzemolo tree were specially developed by Coemar's Mauro Favalli, and the display consists of 400m of small Christmas lights, brought to life with four Antari snow machines (also distributed in Italy by Coemar). In the Ice Stadium, the ice rink is now lit with 16 Coemar iSpot 575s and several Panorama Cyc Power units - fitted with twin 575

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UK - Here's a rather unusual application for lighting more usually seen on a film set or in a TV studio. Land Rover and Jaguar, the two UK-based manufacturers, have opted for ARRI lighting for their respective vehicle safety component test facilities.

Both are part of Ford Motor Company's Premier Automotive Group, which allows them to work together on some purchasing activities. Land Rover, which tests components externally at its Gaydon site in the Midlands has just taken its first shipment of ARRI 2.5K Compacts, which it plans to follow up with ARRI 1.2Ks. One of the benefits of these lights in this respect is their lack of heat and the fact that they are flicker free.

(Ruth Rossington)

  1. A.C. Lighting (Canada) Ltd formed
  2. The 2003 Selecon Lighting Masterclass
  3. Glasgow Regional Meeting for ALD
  4. LEDs for display from OptiLED
  5. Gearhouse stages African Bollywood spectacular
  6. Olivier Award Nominations 2002
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