Lighting

Details
UK - AV rental specialist Blitz created a week-long son et lumière event in the atmospheric setting of Oxford's Oriel College. The show, entitled '1326 And All That', was a specially commissioned narrative of the college's history and featured a dramatic 100ft by 50ft projection onto the façade of Oriel's Front Quadrangle, combined with theatrical lighting effects, narrative voiceover and a cast of characters from the college's past.

Blitz project managed all technical aspects of the 45-minute show, using E//T//C UK to create scroll artwork with historical material from the college's archives. Projection onto the towers, turrets and arched windows of the 360-year old buildings was via two 6k PIGI projectors, each fitted with double rotating scrollers. To achieve the correct projection angle the projectors had to be manoeuvred into a room at the top of a narrow stone spiral sta

Details
UK - Gobo specialist, Projected Image, has announced the release of its latest catalogue and a new range of metal gobos, now available in an extensive collection of 'standard designs'. The company has expanded its gobo manufacturing facilities to produce metal gobos in-house, in addition to the glass gobos the company already manufactures.

The new catalogue was well received during its preview at PLASA where PI shared a stand with sister company Projected Image Digital, illustrating how gobo projection and digital images can work in tandem. The new catalogue also carries additional helpful information-based sections, including an introduction to Projected Image gobos and information on the basic understanding of metal and glass gobos.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

Details
South Africa - A full lighting rig and ground support front-of-house truss system was supplied by M.J. Lighting to Rapid Blue, for South Africa's first series of The Weakest Link, which was shot at the Gallagher Estate auditorium during August 2003. M.J. Lighting's brief was to recreate the distinct visual feel of the original BBC programme.

The company's Francois van der Merwe oversaw the installation and reprogramming of the show on a dummy rig set up in the M.J. Lighting premises a week before the load-in to the Gallagher studio. A variety of fixtures was used on set, including six High End Systems Studio Colors, 13 High End Studio Spots, 11 Martin MAC 2000s, 11 custom-made Zip Strips, 2k Fresnel units, 5k softlights and eight 1k spots or 'Pups'. ETC Source Fours were used as key lights on each contestant, as well as on the quizmaster, Fiona Coyne. M.J.'s back-up Wholehog 2 w

Details
Denmark - Atomic Colors is a specially designed head that fits onto the front of Martin Professional's Atomic 3000 DMX. It allows for projection of up to ten brightly coloured strobe and blinder effects. The Atomic Colors comes with one string containing 10 colours plus clear. There are three optional strings - each with 10 colours plus clear - and the possibility of customized colour strings.

Easily attached with quiet running operation, Atomic Colors is a plug and play fixture, directly controllable via DMX 512-USITT controllers and to be used in combination with The Detonator - the primary DMX controller to the Atomic 3000). It is cable-connected to the Atomic 3000 DMX with an external power supply: MPU 02 / MPU 08.

The Atomic 3000 DMX is a high-impact strobe with 3000W of energy and dimmable from 0-100%. Flash duration is controllable and for ultimate flexibility and varie

Details
South Africa - Melrose Arch, nestled in the north-eastern suburbs of Johannesburg, South Africa, is pretty much self-contained. You could quite conceivably live and work here without ever having to venture outside its walls.

Like most small towns, it has a town square around which are clustered restaurants and boulevard cafés. And like all self-respecting town squares, a tower presides benignly over the activities. Melrose Arch management wanted to make more of this key feature of the area. Ideally, something was needed that would be noticeable and memorable, but subtle. The solution was programmable automated colour-changing lighting to give the building 'life' and character.

While casting around for a company who could meet their needs, architect Graham Wilson of Osmond Lange, the company responsible for the entire Melrose Arch project, came across Bruce Schwartz and Electr

Details
UK / Canada - A.C. Lighting has been appointed as the exclusive distributor of MDG products in the UK. The Montreal-based company has been producing leading fog and haze generators for the entertainment market since 1980.

MDG will benefit from A.C. Lighting's profile as a key distributor of lighting, audio and associated products and be joining an already impressive array of brands stocked by the company. As well as carrying MDG's full range of fog, haze, low fog generators, accessories and spare parts, the deal will also see A.C. Lighting's team of experienced service professionals provide a full technical training and back-up service.

Jonathan Walters, northern sales director for A.C. Lighting, commented: "We are delighted that MDG have appointed A.C. Lighting as exclusive UK distributor. We have been working extremely hard to promote the MDG range of products over t

Details
Europe - ADlite Productions and sister company Adlib Audio from Liverpool have supplied the sound, lighting and set to the current Fun Lovin' Criminals European tour. LD Stuart Gray has been working with the band for the last 14 months, during which time they have used ADLite and Adlib to supply all their technical production requirements. Fun Lovin' Criminals have been gigging constantly since last summer, but for their own tour they approached Gray for lighting design. As their name suggests, the band are renowned for their enjoyment of life and music and came up with the idea of having a real onstage bar as a set piece.

Gray developed three onstage scenic bars with fully working optics and drink mixing facilities. He utilized existing set elements from the ADlite warehouse, and created others with the help of Scenex from the Midlands, who made the bar fronts and mirrors. Them

Details
UK - Artistic Licence has recently completed a major new architectural installation in the City of London, involving the installation of 550 colour change fixtures in a new public plaza in Finsbury Avenue Square. The project, which is probably the largest of its type in the world, presented numerous technical hurdles and required some ingenious application of technology. The entire system was custom designed, manufactured and installed by Artistic Licence.

The biggest challenge was also the most obvious: each fixture needs a method of setting the DMX512 start address, and with fixtures embedded in the ground, there was nowhere to put an access panel for the conventional DIP switches. Even if there had been room, putting an access panel on a waterproof fixture designed to last for a decade is perhaps asking for trouble. Artistic's solution was to implement the latest development

Details
Europe/USA - Lighting designer Andi Watson pulled out all the stops for Radiohead's Hail to the Thief tour. The look was achieved in part with the use a 'wall' of 72 James Thomas Engineering Pixeline LED battens. Watson started the European leg of the tour earlier this year with 48 of the fixtures and was so pleased with their look and performance that he specified another 24 for the North American leg of the tour. The design contains 48 x 4ft Thomas Pixeline 1044, high brightness LED battens, installed end-to-end in 24 x 8ft strip vertical towers and spaced at 3ft intervals across the back of the stage.

The LED battens are controlled by a new and soon-to-be-released Beta version of the Catalyst software, which now includes control of LED lighting fixtures amongst a host of other new features. The LED fixtures are used for around a third of Radiohead's set to achieve a variety

Details
Ushio has introduced upgraded versions of its popular HPL+ halogen lamp, designed in close cooperation with ETC for their Source Four. In the new HPL+ ceramic, again developed in close cooperation with ETC, the common metallic heatsink is replaced by a ceramic one, preventing leak-currents from the current-leading pins to the heatsink in surroundings with increased humidity. The HPL+ ceramic is recognizable by its white coloured heat sink.

The lamps are available in power ratings ranging from 375W, through the popular 575W to 750W. All worldwide common voltage ratings are available. Standard-life and long-life versions satisfy the need for either high brightness or extended life.

Following this announcement, Ushio has also added the HPL 750W long-life version to its popular HPL+ halogen range. The lamp with a rated life of 1500 hrs comes in either 230V or 240V (item description: HPL2

Details
UK - Style In The City have opened their latest Babushka Bar - on the prime location site of the former Buddha Lounge in Manchester's Printworks. The £500,000 vodka bar development places a high priority on music, therefore installer Tarsin Ltd has once again fitted a Nexo sound system as the core of a technology package masterminded by Peter Dyer.

Dyer's company has enjoyed a long association with Style in the City - and in addition to Babushka, has included other Style brands, such as Bed and Nylon in its work portfolio. The company adopted a Nexo/Crown model as their preferred sound system when they were building the Bed Bar in Smithfield nearly two years ago, they have raised the stakes at Babushka, Manchester - having been asked to upspec the Nexo/Crown system.

"It was obvious they were serious about their sound," remembers Dyer, "and with a growing emphas

Details
Italy - Notti di Luce (Night Lights), the brainchild of the Bergamo Chamber of Commerce and staged in collaboration with lighting manufacturer Clay Paky and other Bergamo-based corporations in the entertainment and communication field, has become an eagerly awaited annual event. The project aims to encourage community use of the town and its facilities, and the enhancement of its squares, monuments and ancient architecture.

Light plays a central role across all three evenings of the event and the lighting system was supplied exclusively by Clay Paky. The light project was the creation of Renato Neri from Xenon with technical and artistic support by Andrea Mantovani. Xenon was also responsible for organizing and outfitting the stage.

The lighting system included 10 Stage Profile Plus SVs for front lighting, the general lighting and projection of shapes onto the Court House; 20

Details
UK - MJK Productions staged a spectacular production for the Mastercard MOBO (Music Of Black Origin) Awards 2003 at London's Royal Albert Hall on 25 September. The awards were dominated by 50 Cent, who picked up the honours for Best Hip Hop Act, Best Album and Best Single, while Justin Timberlake won Best R&B Act and Big Brovaz scored Best Newcomer.

Featuring many of the production team from the Mastercard BRIT awards, the MOBOs was directed for television by Julia Knowles and produced by Sharon Ali. MJK, for the eighth year since the event's début, were in charge of the live production and a team that included Britannia Row (audience sound), 021 (broadcast sound), VLPS (lighting), XL Video (video), Outback (rigging), Steel Monkey (set) and Eat Your Hearts Out (catering).

The show featured MJK's trademark five-minute changeovers between live performances, a substantial lighti

Details
South Africa - Big Brother Africa (BBA), the continent's first pan-African reality TV show, was a smashing success. Arguably the continent's most watched program throughout the summer, BBA was the first Big Brother of it's kind, incorporating 12 strangers from 12 different African cultures.

South African lighting and technical production company M.J. Lighting was awarded the contract by Effect 28 Creative Solutions to provide lighting and structure for the Big Brother Africa final, held outside the M-Net studios in Randburg, South Africa on the 6 September 2003. Francois van der Merwe, M.J.'s in-house lighting designer, utilized a host of automated luminaires on the show including eight MAC 2000 Profiles and 20 of M.J.'s newest fixtures, the Martin MAC 250 Entour, supplied through Martin's South African distributor, Electrosonic SA. One of two new versions of Martin's groundbrea

Details
North America - Alternative rockers Matchbox Twenty are hitting the North American concert tour once again with a string of tour dates running through to the end of the year. Despite having been on the road non-stop since April, with tour dates included an initial North American leg before heading to a sold-out arena tour of Australia and Europe, the quintet show no signs of slowing down.

Accompanying the band throughout the year has been a powerful lighting rig made up of Martin MAC 2000 and Atomic fixtures. The rig, designed by legendary LD Marc Brickman, is left in the capable hands of Ben Richards for the tour.

Lighting supplier Ed and Ted's Excellent Lighting of Oxnard, California supplied the Martin equipment for the North American legs, while in Australia, lighting was supplied by Bytecraft Entertainment through Martin Pro's distributor, Show Technology. Neg Earth took

Details
UK - In order to improve its service to customers, the company is restructuring, moving to new premises and changing its name. The moves come as the result of a partial management buyout, in which directors Diane Grant and Wyatt Enever have increased their stake in the company and key staff are being given the opportunity to become shareholders.

"David Hersey had the foresight to realize that if the DHA brand and reputation are to remain as strong as they are today, structural and strategic changes would be needed," says Diane Grant. "The three DHA directors are at different points in their lives: David is ready to reap some of his investment in DHA, Wyatt wants to concentrate on R&D - integrating photographic techniques into laser output on dichroic glass and digital imagery for Scene Change - and I want to steer the company through another phase of growth toward

Details
UK - Entec Sound & Light has supplied production lighting and audio equipment to the highly successful Skin 'Trashed' tour that has just completed its UK and European legs. Skin's FOH sound engineer Paul Ramsey and lighting designer Chris Oldfield have both enjoyed a good working relationship with Entec for some years, so they were the obvious choice as equipment supplier. Being essentially a club tour, the Skin production team, led by tour manager Andy Burnstein, toured their own consoles, specials and essentials, integrating them with the various house systems as they went.

Paul Ramsey has been working with Skin since 1996 and the Skunk Anansie days. He's a big d&b fan and says had he been able to take a full box system on this tour, that's what it would have been. However, they used the house stacks and racks at each venue, and took in their own DiGiCo D5 console, mics and ca

Details
UK - Fresh off the Justified and Stripped tour in the USA, Christina Aguilera is now taking Stripped on the road for her first major European tour. Aguilera puts on a very energetic show and the lighting design reflects that, taking on an almost cabaret-like atmosphere. The tone of the lighting constantly changes to match the mood, flowing from up-tempo dance numbers to sultry emotional songs as well Aguilera's famous ballads and torch songs. Having so many different styles of lighting for one show is a challenge that Lighting Designer Barry Halpin welcomed.

The stage was divided into areas which included props such as shadow boxes and a wall of fans. One of the biggest highlights is Aguilera's trademark 'X' - during the song 'Genie in a Bottle' she is rolled onto the stage strapped to the X, a la Hannibal Lector.

Halpin said: "I watched the concert videos

Details
UK - Ford of Britain hired design and communications company Imagination to produce six themed exhibition stands at Mela 2003. Mela, a culture and lifestyle show celebrating all aspects of life enjoyed by Asian Communities, took place at Wembley Exhibition Centre from 10-12 October with over 30,000 visitors attending. The event was divided into seven main areas relating to Asian culture: Lifestyle, Health & Beauty, Fashion, Weddings, Food, Business & Entertainment. Imagination created six exhibition stands heavily influenced by each subject zone. Each exhibition stand showed a relevant Ford vehicle, which was designed and decorated with an Asian theme. One car even had a bespoke oversized 'bindi' designed by leading bindi designer Manjeet Bedi (founder of Jazzy Bindi) attached to the front of the car bonnet.

Ford was one of the main sponsors of Mela 2003 and the all-encompassing

Details
USA - After completing the recording of his new album in Paris in April, one of music's biggest names, Sting, and various band members relocated to Los Angeles where they filmed a performance DVD of the new material. Recorded at the historic Mayan Theatre in downtown LA from 13-15 May, lighting programmer Rob Smith called on the new Martin Maxxyz lighting console for the show.

For the Sting shoot, Maxxyz was used to operate a Stan Crocker-designed lighting rig that included both automated and conventional fixtures. In addition to an Emmy nominated lighting design for another Sting video shot in Tuscany, Stan has completed lighting designs for a myriad of other live music television projects including recent television specials for Willie Nelson, Mick Jagger, Tony Bennett and DVDs for KORN, Tori Amos and Rod Stewart. He recently completed tour designs for Beck and for Jane's Addi

Details
UK - Surrey-based Point Source Productions is continuing to promote up and coming lighting designers by supporting the Brit School for Performing Arts and Technology with its Autumn production, Pro Fusion which is being staged by Year 13 music students. The production is a fusion of all types of original music from ballads to rock, the diverse requirements of which have provided the designers with a challenge.

Point Source Productions, in conjunction with Martin Professional, has supplied the moving light rig which includes Martin's new MAC 550 moving head luminaire, launched last month at the PLASA Show. The lighting team, headed by Dan Saunders (moving light and set designer), had just five days to rig/plot the moving lights and AV, set and sound - all this around a hectic rehearsal schedule and every day college life. This is standing them in good stead for the reality

Details
USA - Martin Professional has announced two new appointments at its West Coast office in Simi Valley, California. Joining Martin Architectural as Western regional sales manager for the US market is Mike Case. Case's lighting background includes four years at Lithonia Lighting as Western regional manager for lighting controls and 13 years with Premier Lighting as vice-president of sales. He joins Martin Architectural from Pro Sound & Stage Lighting where he was also involved in sales.

Case told us: "I am happy to be a part of one of the industry's up and coming architectural lighting divisions and look forward to the challenges ahead. As a previous Martin dealer, I have first hand knowledge of Martin's product line and have been impressed with the rapid developments in the architectural range."

Martin's West Coast branch manager, Frank Montero, commented: "Bring

Details
UK - Robe UK has supplied its Wash 250 and MSZoom 250 XT moving lights, via Caterham-based Total Europhia, to the Sundial Theatre, located on the campus of Cirencester College, Gloucestershire. As well as being an active producing house for student productions of all types - including six major events a year - the theatre is also a receiving house for visiting commercial shows, tours and concerts, and is also available for private hire for parties and corporate events.

The theatre also serves as a hands-on training ground for students on the BTEC National Diploma in Technical Theatre and for the College's various A-level courses, which also encompass drama and technical production. All students touching any aspect of theatre production work in their courses train in the Sundial. They also have the opportunity to be part of the creative and technical teams running the various in

Details
Italy - Clay Paky provided sponsorship for the fourth annual Live Festival Show 2003, which kicked off in Castelfranco Veneto, and was followed by a tour taking in a further 12 locations around the Triveneto area, home to radio stations Radio Bella & Monella and Radio Birikina. On 13 September in Bassano del Grappa, the special guests were popular Italian band Pooh, who provided the grand finale of the 2003 Festival Show, with their only live performance this year.

Other shows featured artists such as Spagna, Scialpi, Yu Yu, Los Locos, Moony, La Finn, Andrea Mingardi, Roberto Angelini, Paolo Meneguzzi, Velvet - and even cycling champion Gilberto Simoni, winner of the 2003 Italian Tour (Giro d'Italia). Over 200,000 people were estimated to have attended over the 13 dates of the Festival Show 2003.

Lighting designer and owner of Xenon service, Renato Neri, in collaboration with

  1. MCL London helps Elsevier fuel the Hydrogen Debate
  2. High End Systems moves to new Austin location
  3. Stage Electrics leads the way with LED moving heads
  4. Jagmag seals major distribution deals at PALA
  5. Trafalgar Square Concert
  6. Mike Carr joins A.C.T Lighting Inc
Page 576 of 1201

Latest Issue. . .