Lighting

Details
USA - Entertainment Design magazine presented its annual EDDY Awards for outstanding contributions in the field of entertainment design and technology at a special 'Salute to New York Theatre' ceremony held on Friday 27 June at the John Jay College Theatre in New York. The Awards were presented in conjunction with the Broadway Lighting Master classes and the first Broadway Sound Master Classes.

The 2003 winners were set designer John Lee Beatty, projection designer Elaine McCarthy, sound designer Dan Moses Schreier, production electrician Mike LoBue, noted director Mary Zimmerman's design team (Dan Ostling, Mara Blumenfeld, T.J. Gerckens), and Theatre Projects Consultants.

Winning lighting products included City Theatrical's WDS Wireless Dimming System, Entertainment Technology's IPS Intelligent Raceway, Electronic Theatre Controls' Emphasis control system, Martin Professional

Details
Czech Republic - The 10th Prague Quadrennial - the international showcase for scenography and theatre architecture - came to a close at the Výstavišt? Exhibition Grounds in Prague on June 29. The exhibition, which first took place in 1967 and now runs every four years, represents the best ideas in the fields of scenography and theatre architecture. This year, a record-breaking 50 countries participated in the exhibition, which, over its 16 day-run, attracted nearly 20,000 visitors.

Running alongside were a series of professional conferences and meetings, including the FIRT International Theatre Conference, Transteatral international meeting of students of theatre studies, and that of the OISTAT International Organization of Scenographers, Theatre Architects and Technicians.

The exhibition itself showcased two unique projects - 'The Heart of PQ - a Cardiac Arrest to the Conve

Details
UK - Stardraw.com has announced a new productivity enhancement as part of their Feature per Month update service. Using a current design as a source document, Convert Environment automatically creates new layouts in other environments within Stardraw's design and documentation packages.

Stardraw marketing director Rob Robinson explains: "Stardraw has always used different environments to allow you to present your system documentation in the most appropriate format. For example, engineering layouts are best produced in the Block Schematic environment, while sales presentations benefit from the Pictorial Schematic and Rack Layout environments.

Stardraw has long had a 'Convert to Rack' function which analyzes all the data in your Block Schematic, selects those elements that are rack-mountable and then puts that information into the Rack Layout environment. July's feature, t

Details
USA - Lycian Stage Lighting has appointed Steve Lerman as director of sales and marketing. Lerman will be responsible for distributor relations, as well as advertising, marketing and promotions and will also be involved in trade show decisions. He comes to Lycian from the wireless telecommunications industry where he spent the last 12 years, most of it spent in developing dealer distribution for Arch Wireless and satellite voice and data provider GlobalstarUSA.

Lerman brings a wealth of distributor development to the industry and also has background in advertising, having run an advertising company in the 1980s. He will be located at Lycian Stage Lighting's office and production facility in Sugar Loaf, NY.

(Lee Baldock)

Details
UAE - 1 May 2003 saw the opening of Clay Paky UAE, the new branch in the United Arab Emirates founded by the well-known Italian manufacturer of professional lighting. Clay Paky has gained a good reputation over many years in the flourishing Emirates market, and decided to open its own branch there in order to provide more presence and support as it acquires an ever-greater market share. The new branch manager, Egor Popowsky, has extensive experience in professional, architectural and entertainment lighting.

Clay Paky UAE is based in Dubai and has a showroom for presenting its systems 'live', as well as making demonstrations and immediate comparisons with all the various technologies available. Clay Paky UAE is also setting up a selected network of business partners to develop projects all over the country in professional fields such as the theatre, TV, concerts, live events, dan

Details
USA - Bandit Lites recently worked with production manager and lighting designer Hadden Hippsley on the second annual Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. The three-day festival featured artists such as Widespread Panic, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, James Brown, The Dead and the Allman Brothers.

Bandit provided all the lighting for the festival with Hippsley making use of: 20 MAC 2000s and 14 MAC 600s on a five-truss rig, over the main stage. Other equipment on the rig included 27 six-lamp bars, four eight-lites and 12 ETC Source Fours. The rig was hung with 26 3E DN motors. The shows were controlled with Wholehog II and a Wholehog II wing. Michael Strickland, Bandit Lites CEO said: "The organization of this event is simply exceptional, even the logistics of working with saturated ground did not pose a major problem."

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

Details
South Africa - Gearhouse South Africa's Durban branch comes into its own this July when it plays an integral part in the annual Mr Price Pro surfing contest. Held from 6-13 July, the main focus of the contest for the Durban public and holidaymakers who flock to the seaside town in winter are the two music concerts that take place on 11-12 July (Friday and Saturday).

As a supplier of presentation and event technical equipment in South Africa, Gearhouse SA has, for the past three years, provided the necessary equipment and technicians for the Mr Price Pro music concerts. However, 2003 sees the company - through its Durban branch - playing an integral role in conceptualizing and planning the event for client, Mr. Price. Additionally, Gearhouse SA has undertaken to provide the VIP area for the event. In a first for the company's Durban branch this takes the form of an elevated platf

Details
UK - Leading installer Hawthorn Theatrical was recently appointed by DB Capital Partners - owners of successful holiday concept Center Parcs UK - to supply a sophisticated integrated sound, lighting and video system to its recently refurbished Elveden Forest site. Due to re-open on 11 July 2003 following a multi-million pound rebuilding and development program, Elveden Forest will benefit from a considerable re-design and the addition of several new features and facilities which will make it Center Parcs' flagship site in the UK.

Hawthorn Theatrical was commissioned to supply a sophisticated AV system to Elveden Forest's new multi-purpose Sports Café, designed to be extremely flexible, interactive and, above all, simple to operate. The Sports Café contains a variety of sports facilities including table tennis, snooker and a swimming pool. It also hosts twice-weekly cabaret sho

Details
USA - City Theatrical, the New York-based manufacturer of entertainment lighting accessories, has announced that Brian Batease has joined the firm as head of manufacturing. Prior to joining CTI, Batease was general manager at Access Electronics in Gurnee, Illinois, and from 1997 to 2001 was vice-president of manufacturing at Electronic Theatre Controls in Middleton, Wisconsin.

CTI's President Gary Fails told PLASA Media: "This is a wonderful opportunity for City Theatrical to improve our manufacturing processes, lower our costs and strengthen our product development efforts. Brian has the experience needed to teach and guide our manufacturing staff and to help us grow. Following on from our acquisition of Matsuda-Dunn Design and the transition of Larry Dunn as our head of engineering, the addition of Brian Batease strengthens and solidifies our management team."

(

Details
UK - The Edinburgh Corn Exchange has installed Colorflow in its recently converted Conference and Banqueting Centre to give this multi-functional up-market suite maximum impact.An unusual conversion, the Edinburgh Corn Exchange has left behind its agricultural origins as a converted cattle market and corn exchange to become Edinburgh's premier conference and banqueting facility.

Bert DeMarco, director of Edinburgh Corn Exchange, commented: "I first saw Colorflow at Leisure Industry Week about three years ago and was then looking at it with a view to creating a feature of the concourse area that joined the old cattleman's restaurant with the corn exchange. I wanted to give the area some life. However, after further discussions with Atmospheric's sales team it was clear that the area was too bright for Colorflow to have the impact that we wanted."

However, DeMarco and

Details
UK - Stagetec, the Slough-based lighting and sound sales and installation specialist, has designed and installed two complete show lighting rigs for two different arenas at Ice Sheffield - the new £15.7million international sports venue.

Ice Sheffield's two Olympic-sized rinks will host world-class sporting events, ice shows and ice sports, as well as family fun and corporate entertainments. Stagetec's MD Andy Stone and Matt Miles managed the project for the two rinks, which both called for completely different lighting set-ups.

The Leisure Arena is utilized for everyday public use and for private bookings and corporate events. Lighting here follows more of a club theme, so to add colour and movement, 8 Martin Pro 918 scanners and 6 Martin Pro 400 colour wash fixtures were specified. These can be run on their own, or boosted with 48 PAR cans that supply a blast of incandesc

Details
UK - Why do car brakes squeal' How can we build skyscrapers so tall' How do text messages jump from phone to phone' These were just some of the questions schoolchildren across the UK were learning the answers to thanks to the BBC Tomorrow's World tour which hit the road last month.

The roadshow has been co-ordinated to tie in with the National Curriculum and aims to teach pupils about the science that surrounds them in everyday life. While they get the chance to do hands-on experiments, the centrepiece of this year's event is a dynamic theatre show - 'The Science of Urban Stuff - Think Energy, Get Some' which features actors, stunt riders and circus aerialists from The Generating Company.

Since the performance is so dependent on the movement of the artists and actors, producers Just Add Water called upon the expertise of Fourth Phase to provide an innovative lighting solution

Details
UK - Sound, light and audio-visual integration specialists, PA Installations Ltd (PAI), has promoted Carl Sergeant from project manager to customer support manager following the departure of Peter Troke, who has been called up for military duties in Iraq.

Troke, a Captain with the Royal Engineers TA, based in Swansea, will be spending eight or ninemonths in Southern Iraq, helping with civil infrastructure reconstruction. Paul Adams, managing director of PAI, commented: "Peter is a valuable member of our team, and has formed solid relationships with our customers. However, ensuring our customers continue to receive high levels of service and support, meant that we need to identify an individual who could hit the ground running in this pivotal position. We wish Peter all the best and look forward to his safe return during 2004."

Carl Sergeant will continue delivering a

Details
UK - After eight years with Zero 88, Tim Burt is leaving to launch his own web development business. As part of the move, his company, Muddyweb Ltd, will be managing the internet services of the iLight group, including the Zero 88 and iLight Ltd brands.

Graham Eales will be taking over the position of Zero 88 brand manager, having been managing the company's US, Asian and South African sales for the past five months. iLight group manager, Chris Fenwick, commented: "The new arrangement with Tim should prove beneficial to all. The iLight Group places high priority on e-business and wants to continue using the latest e-media tools for our business and communications. Tim's understanding of our industry, coupled with our ongoing commitment to providing the best tools for our customers and suppliers, will keep us ahead of the game."

(Ruth Rossington)

Details
UK - Building on critically acclaimed projects for Placebo and Simply Red, special projects and set wiring company, Specialz, has successfully completed its first job for Clear Channel. The unusual brief was to install various effects into the Harry Potter car (a 1960's Ford Anglia), which would then be used as a set piece for an event to support the release of the latest Harry Potter book at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

The range of effects supplied included remote-controlled moving headlamps running at 250W, hazard warning lights and a DMX smoke machine connected to the exhaust with its own PAR 36 key light. Because the car was suspended above the stage, all the equipment had to be self-contained and controllable from the ground. Solutions were found for all of the requirements and the overall effect was to give the powder blue 1968 Ford Anglia, a sense of life and persona

Details
UK - Power Gems has launched a new range of high frequency electronic ballasts for HMI, MSR and UV lamps. This patented technology offers many advantages over conventional square-wave ballasts, including fewer parts, an integrated ignitor and lower costs.

The 300kHz sine wave lamp drive system is particularly suitable for OEM build-in/build-on applications and provides a 'full power solution in one box', so users don't have to add-on special cooling, ignitors (cold and hot re-strike options) and line filtering to meet relevant standards. Convection-cooling can also often be used depending upon the application, thus eliminating noisy fans.

(Ruth Rossington)

Details
Canada - Top management changes at Montreal-based MDG Fog Generators see Martin Michaud, vice-president of sales and marketing, take over as president following the retirement of Marc Gringras. Michaud has been with the company for over 10 years, and is joined by two business partners, both of whom he has worked with for many years. Jacques Foisy, chief accountant of MDG for over 15 years, becomes vice-president of finance whilst Marcel Larivière, who has been involved with MDG for many years as a supplier, joins the company as vice-president of production. In addition to his role as president, Michaud will also retain his responsibilities for sales and marketing.

MDG has enjoyed steady growth over recent years, with recent projects including the Universal Studios 'Coin' project in Florida, and all the atmospheric effects for Céline Dion at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. As wel

Details
UK - TESA UK, a leading manufacturer of high quality self-adhesive tapes, has appointed the Le Mark Group as its 'entertainment technology specialist'. The appointment represents the long-term commitment of the giant German-owned company to develop products specifically for the entertainment industry.

The announcement concludes nearly 12 months of negotiations between the two companies and sees Le Mark become a 'focused distributor' for TESA. Le Mark's managing director, Stuart Gibbons, told PLASA Media: "This is very much a two-way partnership. It will enable Le Mark's design ability and award-winning flair to be developed further. It also ensures that Le Mark's clients have a direct channel to a multi-national manufacturer who recognizes that the entertainment industry is a growing sector which should be given special attention."

One of the first areas of collabora

Details
UK - A.C. Lighting's Projects Division has recently completed the technical design, supply and installation of a TV studio lighting system for a new digital auction channel, project managed by Peter Keiderling. The channel, Price-drop.tv, will launch this summer into almost 10 million homes and is the second auction channel to be launched by interactive TV retailer Sit-up, following the success of their Bid-up.tv channel.

In addition to specifying and installing the full overhead production lighting rig, the most challenging aspect of the brief from lighting designer David Atkinson was to provide a two-colour, cross-fading system that was small enough to fit behind the set, but powerful enough to provide a strong colour wash for the set's main branded light wall backdrop.

The light wall was constructed using 22 Anytronics Anycolour lightboxes controlled via a DMX distribution

Details
Portugal - O2 Lx is a highly-designed, new-build club in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon, owned by South African, John Blummenfeld.

Blummenfeld committed a million euros to convert the former restaurant and discotheque, with Philippe Starck furnishing and decor forming the centrepiece of the predominantly blue interior design. Around 20% of the budget was allocated to the sound, lighting and video system, which was specified and installed as a fully-integrated system by Lisbon-based Audium, who had worked with Blummenfeld on a previous installation, Rock City, back in 1994.

The 1000-capacity club trades on two levels - the ground floor space and an upper level mezzanine around the dance floor. While the ground floor is open to the general public, the upper floor operates as a kind of private club for VIPs, special guests and private parties.

Serving up a fare of mainly Hous

Details
Greece - A massive AV installation on board the Thomson Spirit cruise liner, owned by Lewis Cruise Lines of Greece, has just been completed. With 1,400 passengers, and a crew of 520, it is one of the largest ships operating out of Palma offering cruises around the Mediterranean.

Now 18 years old, the ship has recently undergone an extensive refurbishment, which has seen major changes across the entire ship, from cabins to kitchens through to entertainment systems. Thomson's consultants provided the specifications and a list of equipment to Live Business International (LBI) who were brought in to provide system design and schematics, installation, commissioning and ongoing maintenance. The LBI team, with Gerry Logue as technical project manager, thus either fitted from scratch, or refitted, 12 entertainment areas.

The Broadway (main show lounge) features a full theatre sound, l

Details
USA - Bandit Lites has introduced wireless computer capabilities to its world headquarters office in Knoxville, Tennessee. The size of the building (95,000sq.ft has necessitated wireless network capabilities to allow drawings, equipment lists and all other information to be accessed and updated from anywhere in the facility. This capability is due to the work of Bandit's computer resources department where director of that department, Jim Guinn, took less than one day to set up the service. "This allows our road crew to access the internet and the company network without us having to run network cables through out the warehouse," Guinn said.

Bandit Lites' vice-president, Richard Willis added: "This technology will help the road crew communicate more effectively when they are in the warehouse prepping a show." Bandit Lites believes the innovation will be an en

Details
UK - While millions queued for their copies of J.K. Rowling's latest addition to the Hogwarts adventure, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, 5,000 lucky children already knew they were in for the treat of their lives. Bloomsbury Publishing (plc) called upon Clear Channel Entertainments to stage a special event at London's Royal Albert Hall, an event which gifted these avid fans an opportunity to quiz Rowling herself.

No simple question and answer session, the confines of the Albert Hall were converted into a magical rendition of Hogwarts school, replete with flying ghosts, for a spectacular simultaneous webcast on the MSN network. Naturally, this called for the specialist talents of the UK's presentation industry; amidst a burgeoning production team can be found the names of Britannia Row Productions, Light&Sound Design, Creative Technology, Hand Held Audio, Unusu

Details
UK - Ian Holmes from 11:59 Productions has undertaken many esoteric lighting requests in his career, but the challenge of lighting the underbelly of Charing Cross railway bridge in London was one to relish. Eight Studio Due CityColor architectural luminaires and 10 of the smaller MiniCity fixtures were used to up-light the underneath of the bridge for the official gala opening of the new Golden Jubilee Bridges footbridges (previously known as Hungerford Bridge), identical halves of which flank the railway bridge.

Although these spans, designed by Lifschulz Davidson, have been open since last year, they were officially inaugurated and named at last week's VIP ceremony. 11:59 Productions was approached by Murray Goth, promoter for the opening event, who was liasing with the two councils - Westminster City from the north bank of the river, and Lambeth from the south. The brief was

  1. Rhodes Joins Hawthorn
  2. RAH home for Clay Paky Stage Profile Plus
  3. DHA's Gobo Rotators in Australia and New Zealand
  4. Pulsar ChromaBank 30% brighter - free upgrade
  5. Primary Colours for Robe UK
  6. High End offers quality, affordable colour changing
Page 564 of 1201

Latest Issue. . .