Lighting

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UK - Deep Purple recently completed the UK leg of their world tour with support from guitar legend Peter Frampton and UK metal band, Thunder. ML Executives supplied audio equipment for the UK tour, while PRG supplied the lighting.

Engineering for Deep Purple was Doug Hall, long-time FOH engineer for Iron Maiden: "I first used this system on Iron Maiden's Brave New World tour about four years ago. I'd tried out different options, but the KF760 gave me everything I needed in terms of pressure, headroom and sonic quality. Being horn-loaded, it's more sensitive than competitive systems, and the slightly narrower dispersion means you can fly the boxes closer to each other without interference. Above all, I love the potency and clarity of the sound from such a small box. It has all the throw you need and I've never run out of headroom or felt I was overdriving the system. With De

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USA - Many readers in the UK will have seen a traditional Christmas show this year: a local church or school's Nativity perhaps, or a traditional pantomime: if you did, compare that production with this: a Christmas tale, told Texas-style . . .

Produced by Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, The Dallas Christmas Festival redefines Christmas Spectacular: with 13 performances over two weeks in December, more than 70,000 people attend this three-hour pageant each year. The 7,000-seat worship centre is transformed into a theatre, complete with lavish proscenium; a 15,000sq.ft, 150ft wide stage, multiple flying, travelling and automated drops and over 1,000 lighting fixtures. The show includes a live 70-piece orchestra, a cast of 500 and a 100-strong crew, plus seven angels (probably real ones) that fly 70ft over the crowd, pyro, horse-drawn sleighs, chariots, live animals, S

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UK - New Year's Eve 2004 saw the British Airways London Eye become the focal point for a spectacular light and fireworks display for 150,000 Londoners on Westminster Bridge and the Embankment - plus a nationwide television audience.

Although tempered by news of the Asian Tsunami - a two-minute silence was held before the display and certain elements of the projection and light show were removed - the overall reaction from audience and press was that London had got this New Year's Eve event absolutely right. Jack Morton Worldwide (JMW) designed and produced the entertainment and managed the logistics for the event. JMW project director Jeremy Garbett and his team worked for months in advance to co-ordinate and accommodate the various council and public safety concerns.

Fireworks were obviously the major element of the show and French designer Christophe Berthonneau and his team from

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UK - "The festival has really changed focus in the last three years with the arrival of the new artistic director Susanna Eastburn," said Tim Garbutt of TG Events. "Different composers - in essence, the festival now concentrates on music composers; before, it was more on musical theatre."

Huddersfield Contemporary Music festival (HCMF) is "the ninth largest festival of its type in the world," says Garbutt, "and it attracts people from all over the world." As you might imagine, this is neither the most popular nor accessible form of music, but it does attract musicians and composers of the highest calibre.

From a presentation point of view, this is challenging stuff, and while lighting demands tend to the minimal, audio is a complex matter, to say the least. TG Events looks after all aspects of production for the festival, contracting loc

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UK - A curious amalgam, MPH '04 is The Motor Show with Top Gear attitude; but then with presenters Tiff Needell, Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond it would be (sharp intake of breath, adopt voice of God) 'like a B52 parking in your driveway'.

This was just the second year of the show at Earls Court, and already it's growing; PMI and Simon Aldridge appear to have brought a new and burgeoning marriage of live and static presentation into the exhibition world, a marriage that will surely have others looking frantically for an eligible partner.

Steve Sinclair has been part of the presentation team for the past two events and describes the differences between this and conventional car expo: "Some content elements appear familiar, there's a gallery of 90 or so vehicles, sponsored by HR Owens, but these aren't ordinary cars; we're talking testosterone motoring Ferraris and Mas

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UK - "The festival has really changed focus in the last three years with the arrival of the new artistic director Susanna Eastburn," said Tim Garbutt of TG Events. "Different composers - in essence, the festival now concentrates on music composers; before, it was more on musical theatre."Huddersfield Contemporary Music festival (HCMF) is "the ninth largest festival of its type in the world," says Garbutt, "and it attracts people from all over the world." As you might imagine, this is neither the most popular nor accessible form of music, but it does attract musicians and composers of the highest calibre.

From a presentation point of view, this is challenging stuff, and while lighting demands tend to the minimal, audio is a complex matter, to say the least. TG Events looks after all aspects of production for the festival, contracting local

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UK - The Brighton Centre is not the ideal venue to see a solo artist's performance! Despite this and the fact that Gabs' voice was showing obvious signs of strain towards the end of the gig (it was the final date on a long tour) she was enthusiastically received and her performance was confident and polished.

However, Gabrielle's vocal range is very dynamic, as FOH engineer Chris 'Privet' Hedge explained while he talked me through the system design for the PA: "New for me are the two units of KT Helix - the 9340 digital EQ and 9344 digital slave EQ. The 9340 is on Gabs' vocal - her style sometimes means her voice can be soft and difficult to get out: once I knew what I was dealing with I put a few things in line. This includes a DBX162s compressor putting a really soft squeeze on her voice, and a feedback buster - the Sabine FBX 1200. I then use the Helix to tidy up beyond

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UK - The Brighton Centre is not the ideal venue to see a solo artist's performance! Despite this and the fact that Gabs' voice was showing obvious signs of strain towards the end of the gig (it was the final date on a long tour) she was enthusiastically received and her performance was confident and polished.

However, Gabrielle's vocal range is very dynamic, as FOH engineer Chris 'Privet' Hedge explained while he talked me through the system design for the PA: "New for me are the two units of KT Helix - the 9340 digital EQ and 9344 digital slave EQ. The 9340 is on Gabs' vocal - her style sometimes means her voice can be soft and difficult to get out: once I knew what I was dealing with I put a few things in line. This includes a DBX162s compressor putting a really soft squeeze on her voice, and a feedback buster - the Sabine FBX 1200. I then use the Helix to tidy up beyond

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UK - Scotty Moore - guitar player and manager for Elvis Presley performed with some of the World's most prestigious musicians at the Abbey Road studios, including Bill Wyman, Dave Gilmour and Eric Clapton. Utopium Lighting lit the televised show using 14 x X-Spot Extremes, 12 x Studio PC Beam, 6 x Lycian Follow Spots, 84 x Par 64, 140m of truss and 28 x hoists.

At the Deutsche Bank Christmas Event on the South Bank with Bjorn Again performing was lit by Lestyn Thomas. Utopium utilized 24 of its brand new Chroma Spheres, which are part of the company's continued investment in LED lighting.

Tommy Hillfiger launch its new clothing range at the Bentley Garage in Berkley Square. Lit by Chris Bushell and Utopium for Outer Sanctum, part of the brief was not to mark the £145k cars in the two hours the technicians had to get in and fit up!

Other TV work included a Christmas special

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USA - Theatrical Lighting Systems one of the largest entertainment lighting and service providers in the United States, announced a new, exclusive financing arrangement with Austin, Texas-based FX Financial. The arrangement will provide monthly payment financing for a wide variety of TLS customers, from theatres and arenas to churches and production companies. Both companies will jointly market the new program.

The leading provider of equipment financing for the entertainment and house-of-worship industries, FX Financial recently became a part of the Commercial and Industrial division of USXL, an independent leasing company based in Parsippany, New Jersey. With world-class financial backing, USXL originates leasing transactions through its select network of dealers and vendors in all 50 states.

"Through our new relationship with FX Financial and USXL, we can now leverage

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UK - LSI Sales & Distribution has announced the formation of a UK national distributor network for its ADB range of controls, dimming and luminaires. "This is a major step forward for both LSI and ADB in the UK," says LSI's UK sales manager Andy Trevett. "We now have a consolidated network of distributors throughout the UK, from Scotland to the West Country, all of whom are industry professionals and who will operate as a team to promote and support our products. It will give fresh impetus to our current sales strategy as well as providing local technical support for our customers. This is just the beginning," added Trevett, "To date our distributor network comprises nine companies with further agreements to be concluded over the coming months, including companies based in Ireland."

Those Industry professionals which are part of the LSI-ADB Distrib

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The Netherlands - Sidekick is a universal executor board for lighting control from ELC Lighting, featuring 10 executor faders and 30 executor switches, all freely assignable to a requested function, show or scene. Users can also capture and store scenes directly from the DMX input. Sidekick links to any PC-based DMX software or any console thanks to its numerous ports, including DMX-in, DMX-out, USB, PS-2, MIDI and RS-232.

Sidekick is an ideal faderboard for PC-based light controllers like Sunlite, DaslighT, DMXCreator, grandMA on PC, Cybercontrol, VisualDMX, Hog PC - and any lighting desk such as a Leprecon LX or the grandma, say ELC.

ELC Lighting, based in Gemert in the Netherlands and headed up by Joost van Eenbergen, has been manufacturing DMX tools for six years, and has enjoyed worldwide success with products such as the well-known dmxLAN system.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK / USA - Software provider Stardraw.com announced its most significant US expansion to date, with the establishment of a West Coast office in partnership with US distribution specialists, North American Pro Audio (NAPA). The move follows an extraordinary year for Stardraw, which has necessitated the provision of additional resources to serve and develop the US market. The partnership with NAPA, operating as Stardraw.com USA, will look after all Stardraw's customers within the US, Canada and Puerto Rico, and manage resellers and reps in the territory with effect from 1 January 2005.

In addition to handling all sales and front-line technical support, Stardraw.com USA will offer a comprehensive schedule of user training seminars across the US for 2005. Furthermore, support through Stardraw's toll-free number has now been expanded to operate between the hours of 9am Eastern to 6pm

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UK / USA - Software providers Stardraw.com has announced that support for Global Caché's GC-100 series of network adaptors has been incorporated into their new application, Stardraw Control. Global Caché, based in Southern Oregon, is dedicated to producing low-cost, state-of-the-art products to enable technology in the home environment. The award-winning GC-100 Network Adaptor provides the means for PC-based control, automation and management software to access, control and deliver services in a networked home to diverse and previously unconnected devices and appliances.

Stardraw Control is exactly that - a software-based application designed expressly to control systems that contain diverse products. It generates standalone, customized control programs that can manage and monitor any type of addressable equipment from any manufacturer using any protocol over any communicatio

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USA - One of the first inter-manufacturer RDM systems was seen at LDI in Las Vegas late last year, when British control manufacturer Artistic Licence provided German company G-LEC's stand with its architectural control system Colour-Tramp, controlling the new G-LEC LightFrame transparent LED display. After a lengthy development period led by ESTA, RDM (Remote Device Management), is now so far advanced that it is possible for equipment from different manufacturers to successfully communicate with each other. "This is a major step forward for lighting control. Our customers can now see the power of RDM and the benefits they will receive," said Wayne Howell, managing director of Artistic Licence.

RDM has been developed to meet demands to control increasingly large and complex devices. "The DMX512 standard was really only developed with controlling dimmers in mind,&q

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USA - American DJ's new Gobo Scope is an effect designed to bring psychedelic '60s and '70s looks to club environments, projecting kaleidoscopic patterns onto walls, floors and ceilings. The Gobo Scope utilizes 17 colour/gobo combinations to create sharp, symmetrical images in stand-alone mode, while an audio-sensitive setting provides further effect options. Two convenient FX knobs allow users to control the unit's rotation speed and audio-sensitivity level on the fly.

Although retro-inspired, the Gobo Scope comes equipped with a high-output 250W lamp and can be operated continuously all night with no duty cycle, thanks to a large cooling fan. "The Gobo Scope is a great effect for DJs and clubs who want a little something different in their lighting arsenals," says Scott Davies, general manager of the American DJ Group of Companies. "It's the perfect effect for

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USA - The recent production of Peeru Gunto at the University of Colorado in Boulder displayed a magical array of Kabuki-style surprises, lit with Wybron Nexera lighting. A variation of Peer Gynt, by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, this production is based on Japanese themes.

The play was adapted and directed by Dr. Cecilia J. Pang, known for the critically acclaimed Alice in Wonderland - Or Not! Pang, who studied the Kabuki style of theatre in Japan, introduces cultural themes in the form of vibrant costumes and colourful scenery representing locales from Japan to the American Wild West. The superhuman-sized, spectacularly lavish style of Japanese Kabuki theatre required imaginative stage lighting. Robert J. Shannon, senior instructor and lighting supervisor at CU's Department of Theatre & Dance, explains his choice of Wybron Nexeras to compliment the ri

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Germany - German distributor Lightpower has expanded its Major product range to include pre-wired lighting bars for fixed wire lighting installations. The bars are available as part of a standard product range or can be custom-made up to a length of 4m.

With an emphasis on safety, the bars allow for the user to replace a lamp by easily disconnecting the luminaire from the mains voltage. Additionally, all Major lighting bars are fitted with lamp failure indicators to enable a defective lamp to be located with ease.

Major lighting bars are produced in rectangle and round end versions with either an aluminium or powder-coated black finish. Various mains output sockets are available, and the bars are compatible with 2" couplers, double C-hooks and truss clamps as well as with most types of European cable connectors.

(Barry Howse)

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UK - A wide range of LED lighting products from the catalogue of Lighting Effects Distribution has been supplied and installed by TMC, the main sound and lighting contractors for Cosmos Leisure's new Rififi Club in Stalybridge. Fronted by the experienced Caroline Madden, the converted 1930s Palace Cinema opened its doors in early December following an extensive refit and reconfiguration of the space.

The building now houses a downstairs front bar, with all day trading, linked via a removable partition to the rear bar, which is available for private lets and trades alongside the upstairs nightclub. Ian Kirby's Lighting Effects Distribution have specified the effects and architectural lighting to all the main feature areas, using Coemar, Geni and proprietary LED-based fixtures. Six Solar M100b RGB LED units positioned on each side of the building, project columns of colour changi

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USA - 2005 promises to be a strong year for the cruise industry, which looks set to achieve record growth. Numerous new cruise ships are scheduled for launch in 2005, with further major projects slated for 2006 and 2007. This positive trend will translate into real business opportunities for UK specialists providing lighting, audio, AV and staging technologies.

Exploiting this development will be the forthcoming SeaTrade exhibition in Miami (March 15-17) - the largest gathering of cruise line owners, operators and suppliers in the world. One of the main features of the show will be the new 'PLASA at Sea' Pavilion - a showcase of all the latest innovations in entertainment and leisure-based technology. Confirmed exhibitors to date include Barbizon, Vari-Lite, Rose Brand, Rosco, Color Kinetics, Xilver, Martin Professional, Mavco, Teledimensions, Stage Technologies and Snow Master

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USA - Building on the success of its LD Assistant software, lighting design software developer Design & Drafting has announced it has licensed Pathport Ethernet data protocol from Pathway Connectivity. Rufus Warren, president of Design & Drafting, commented: "Adding Pathway Connectivity's Pathport protocol to our Autodesk OEM product LD Assistant gives users the ability to communicate to any device attached to the systems network". He continued: "By plugging a computer into the network via an Ethernet port, this allows the CAD program (LD Assistant or AutoCAD with LD Assistant) to communicate with and control any of the devices while monitoring the progress from a remote location from within the CAD program in real time."

Lighting designer David Mollner, president of DMLDC, said: "Working with moving light fixtures is a big part of our business and bein

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Canada - ESTA's Seminars & Training Committee has announced an intensive, one-day hands-on training workshop in Ontario entitled 'Programming Automated Lighting Fixtures On A Conventional Tracking Console (Strand Lighting 500 Series)'. The workshop is limited to 20 people (two people per console), and immediately follows USITT in Toronto, Canada, on Sunday, 20 March, 2005, from 9.00am - 5.00pm. The instructor for the course is Bobby Harrell, a lighting designer and programmer in opera, dance and theatre for over 15 years.

The workshop, presented in cooperation with Strand Lighting, will be held at Strand's facility in Mississauga, Ontario. Transportation will be provided to and from the Metro Toronto Convention Center. The workshop will cover such topics as patching, LTP versus HTP, tracking/nontracking, command line programming, programming fixture selections, cues, cue playba

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UK / Switzerland - Tower Productions' Oxford office recently packed their crampons and harnesses, poured over a lengthy carnet, filled a 45ft step-frame to the roof and set off for the Swiss resort of Klosters with a brief to light a party being held at the top cable-car station, the surrounding mountain-side and anything else of interest they could find.

Not having seen the site, the crew walked around with the client early in the morning before going back down the mountain to start tipping the truck - only to get to the top cable car station to find the first of 146 flightcases were already making their way up the mountain! Swiss efficiency was becoming apparent.

A battery of High End Studio Colors and Studio Spots were employed inside and out (in Condomes), Studio Due 2500W City Colors made mountain-lighting less of a challenge and blue 400W HQIs made light work of the

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UK - Russia came to London on 15 January 2005 when Trafalgar Square London hosted the Russian Winter Festival - a feast of music, theatre and street entertainment to mark the 'Old New Year' according to the old calendar of the Orthodox Church. The show opened with speeches from Russian and London dignitaries including Ken Livingstone, watched by an 18,000-plus audience.

Produced by Greenwich & Docklands Festivals, the eight-hour show embraced cultural song and dance from across Russia to mainstream rock and pop acts. The Alexandrov Military Choir performed with 75 members on stage, its first UK appearance since 1967.

John Radford, Technical Project Manger for Stage Electrics Production Services, worked closely with production manager Colin Nightingale to supply technical event production including provision of staging, lighting, sound, site distribution and LED screen and cam

  1. Bak Pak dimmers help light US church
  2. Robe turns the tables
  3. Mike Bell joins High End
  4. Maxxyz for Ani DiFranco
  5. Stagecraft announces FX package
  6. Ampco/Flashlight aid €112m Dutch tsunami shows
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