Lighting

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USA - American DJ has launched its latest water simulation effect, the H2O 250 - a brighter, 250W version of the original H2O with upgraded features, and at a lower price. Like its predecessor, the H2O 250 is designed as a background mood effect for lounges and intimate club areas. It's also ideal for creating a spacey, psychedelic atmosphere at retro '60s and '70s parties, say the company.

The new fixture includes a higher-output 250W halogen lamp and an improved optical system which the company says enhances brightness and colour saturation. The H2O 250 has also been given a number of other upgrades, designed to make life easier for mobile DJs. It's equipped with a new electronic transformer, making it more lightweight, while the case now features protective plastic end moulds, which safeguard against nicks and dents during transit. A larger cooling fan has also been added, al

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USA - Slipknot - one of the most visually theatrical and bizarre speed metal acts today - used Robe Colour Spot 1200 ATs to great effect on their Subliminal Verses tour as specified by lighting designer Jason Cain.

It was the first time that Cain has used Robe fixtures - but it certainly won't be the last he asserts, stating that next time he intends to use lots more Robe's on the rig! Gemini Stage Lighting of Dallas, Texas Lighting supplied equipment for the recently concluded two month US tour.

Cain used the ColorSpot 1200s for stunning beam and colour effects. "I like the brightness, strobe rate, pan/tilt and the gobo selection" says Cain, noting that you get the standard range of gobos plus ten additionals - all of which are inventive and different. He also likes the colour mixing properties and reckons that the 1200s are far brighter than similar comparab

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UK - Strand Lighting's new EC21 Dimmers and its OneLight range of Daylight luminaires were recognized in the Best Lighting Product Category at the ABTT Dinner in London on Wednesday 15 June. Strand Lighting had chosen the ABTT show for the UK launch of the new EC21 series dimmer racks which have been developed in response to feedback from customers and consultants on the entire dimmer range. A first for EC21 is the ability to have up to 96 Sinewave dimmers in a single rack simplifying the implementation of full or partial Sinewave dimming solutions.

The new racks allow users to freely mix and match dimmers of any type (both Sinewave and conventional) within one rack to meet the needs of any installation. EC21 Dimmers are available with a wide range of circuit breaker and filter choke options.

The OneLight range of luminaires which include a 575W Par and Fresnel were recognized

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France - Since 1889, the Moulin Rouge has played host to some of the world's most famous and spectacular shows. Immortalized by Tolouse-Lautrec and used as an inspirational backdrop in literature and cinema, this international star factory has been graced by stars of the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Liza Minnelli, Frank Sinatra, Elton John, Edith Piaf and many more. The Moulin Rouge's two sell-out shows, every night of the year, feature traditional costumes of sequins, rhinestones and goose feathers, fantastical stage sets, original music and of course beautiful women recruited from all over the world after a rigorous selection process.

Féerie was launched to celebrate the new millennium and narrates the Moulin Rouge's fascinating history. With 1,000 costumes, 100 artists, six ponies and five pythons, this new show features circus acts and traditional choreography, as well

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USA - Look Solutions' high performance Unique hazers were used extensively for the filming of War of the Worlds, the latest Steven Spielberg film, which opens 29 June. The Uniques were used to create a hazy atmosphere in the sci-fi feature, based on the classic H.G. Wells novel. "The Unique's high output and fine controllability made it the obvious choice for this customer," said Doug Weber, president of Theatre Effects, the Cincinnati-based company that supplied the machines. "In fact, its excellent reliability record, combined with its price, compact size, and the fact that it's water-based, has made the Unique pretty much the only hazer we sell nowadays."

The film stars Tom Cruise and is a modern-day version of the classic story, set in New England and truer to the original novel. It's said to have required 500 effects shots, more than any other Spi

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USA - Coldplay's video for its latest single, Speed of Sound features Versa TUBE units from Element Labs. In an unprecedented application, nearly the entire video shoot was done with LED lights from a total of 700 Versa TUBEs. Filmed on a massive sound stage, the video features a delicate, half-crescent back wall composed of 640 Versa TUBEs placed on approximately 6" centres. Since the TUBEs were used without diffusion sleeves and the surrounding structure is quite minimal, the lights appear to be suspended in mid-air.

Production designer Mike Keeling of Project X and director Mark Romanek put together this singular look."The idea here is having the band on this raw stage and everything is done in silhouette with lighting and key lighting," Keeling explains. "Once we embarked on it, Mark and I just decided to do the entire video in LED lighting. That w

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UK - Following the recent news of Telectra's ABTT Award for its Ice*lighting LED effect, Telectra Ltd has announced a further success, having picked up the innovation prize at the Oxfordshire Business Awards 2005 with its award winning LED diffusion systems - Bead*light Technologies (patents pending).

Fierce competition was provided by the other finalists across diverse fields of advanced science, biosciences technology experts, Oxford Genome Sciences, and RM plc (Research Machines plc), the specialist educational information and communication technology company, adding to the illustrious nature of the award. The award was sponsored by Marks & Clerk, the patent and trade mark attorneys and The Oxford Times.

Sales and marketing director of Telectra, Alan Oliver, was jubilant with the result. "This crowned off a great week for all of us at Telectra. Two days earlier, we wer

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USA - In May, TMB shipped the 100th ProPower Rack Panel Distribution (RPD) System. The system was sold to Ed & Ted's Excellent Lighting, Inc. in support of an intensive summer of concert and corporate events, commencing with the Eminem North American Tour.

TMB's ProPower RPD features a comprehensive range of cULus Listed panels. Included are virtually every type of connector, voltage range, or special purpose power distro device used in the live event and entertainment industries. Over 150 panels are available, with more being added regularly. Panels and their positioning in the rack are selected by the user and the RPD system is built exactly as specified. RPD rack systems are normally shipped within ten days, completely ready to use. In addition to Power Distribution panels, an entire family of panels has been engineered using the ETC SmartPack dimmer modules and ProPlex Data

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USA - Elation Professional has introduced the Vision Scan 575, a 575W DMX professional scanner designed for big concert halls, arenas, stage tours and major theatrical productions.

Equipped with a powerful 575W Philips lamp and a high-output luminous-parabolic dichroic reflector optical system, the Vision Scan 575 offers users three beam angle positions - 18°, 20° or 22° - with bright output at each setting. For example, at 18° the output is an impressive 12470 lux.

A moving mirror fixture, the Vision Scan 575 is capable of quick movement and beams can sweep across a wide area, with movement of 170° pan and 80° tilt. It's equipped with an iris, and a frost filter plus it features two independent gobo wheels. The first wheel takes three lithographic, one glass and three metal rotating/indexing gobos, and the second holds seven static metal gobos. Gobos can be overlaid to

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UK - ETC has always had a busy, but not large, stand at ABTT and this year Mark White, manager for UK and Ireland, decided the company needed a bigger area to demonstrate its wares. This meant a move into what has traditionally been one of the show's quieter halls, but ETC's presence soon drew the crowds say the company.

The main attraction was ETC's Congo lighting control console - field project manager Jeremy Roberts was so busy doing demonstrations that he hardly had a break during the entire two days. Other products drawing attention were the Source Four Revolution, SmartBar, SmartFade and SmartPack Wallmount with SmartLink and wall stations. However, ETC also said that visitors to the stand were equally delighted with a very British glass of Pimm's No.1, mixed by ETC project manager Iain Quinn.

(Lee Baldock)

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USA - Robe moving lights have been specified and installed at several clubs and venues in Kenny's Alley at the landmark 'Underground Atlanta' retail and entertainment complex. Lighting, sound and AV design and production company, Active Production & Design, undertook all the installations. The entire complex includes over 100 retail stores, restaurants and nightclubs and the entertainment district, Kenny's Alley.

Active Production has worked with owners The Masquerade Corporation for over 10 years, helping with many club designs, consultations and installation projects. This specific undertaking was the largest to date for the client - involving five venues. The Masquerade Corporation asked the company to come up with a series of creative technical solutions and cutting edge designs to suit the five very different venue environments.

When it came to picking lighting fixtures,

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UK - Lite Alternative has installed a full WYSIWYG design suite in its premises to complement the company's lighting design and production services. Having used WYSIWYG to create over 40 different shows during the past four-years, company hire director Jon Greaves recently decided to upgrade the lighting team's software licenses to the WYSIWYG Perform suite so that they could benefit from the new-to-2005 unlimited DMX channels version to pre-cue outputs from any console.

Featuring advanced CAD tools, 3D rendering and comprehensive paperwork and pre-cueing. LD Paul Normandale is currently using WYSIWYG Perform to create new show designs for Keane, The White Stripes, Sigur Ros and Beck. He commented: "I use WYSIWYG to establish the basic building blocks of my lighting designs and get clients' feedback from the renderings. With the upgrade to Perform unlimited I can now see ex

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UK - Stardraw.com recently announced that it has incorporated support for WebBrick technology from UK-based home automation products and solutions company O2M8 into its award-winning application, Stardraw Control.

Stardraw Control generates standalone, customized control programs that can manage and monitor any type of addressable equipment from any manufacturer using any protocol over any communications infrastructure. This approach frees systems integrators from closed or proprietary architectures and applications, offering instead the ability to create a single application that can control many different products with as much or as little complexity as the end user needs.

O2M8 Ltd is a UK-based company creating innovative smart home products and solutions using standard technologies and open source software to reduce costs and drive growth in the smart home industry. WebBri

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Sweden - Over the last two months Wireless-DMX products from Wireless Solution Sweden AB have been involved in several high profile projects. These include Swedish Television for primetime programs, Royal Opera Houses in Sweden, England and Denmark plus Chinese W-DMX distributor Leifull installed W-DMX for Guangzhou television's 2000 channels of DMX. Infact over 600 units of W-DMX will be delivered before the end of the summer 2005.

To meet the demand of increasing market for both Architectural and Event lighting, Wireless Solution Sweden AB has hired a new European sales manager. Isac Alkstrand previously worked as an area manager in the medical business and has much experience in the field of international business, he will be taking care of all distributors in Europe.

W-DMX Black Box Mk2 is the second generation of transceivers for Wireless DMX 512, a small unit that can ha

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Germany - Opened on 7 May 2005, the MARTa Herford museum in Herford, Germany aims to provide new inspiration for art, design, architecture and business both in and around the region. The extraordinary building complex is over 8,000sq.m and houses a novel combination of a Museum, a Forum, a Centre and a Café. Zero 88 Chilli Pro Dimmers are used to control the all lighting throughout the complex, integrating with Zumtobel Staff luminaries, Luxmate control system, and Soundlight system accessories to provide a complete building management solution. The Zero 88 dimmers were chosen in part for their convection-cooled design, which eliminates fan noise, and for their reliability. The range of dimmer sizes, ability to control different loads and RCD protection were also key factors in their selection.

The Museum itself is in front of the complex and consists of a 22m high dome and fiv

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Italy - Studio Due's CS 1 line of projectors has been enhanced with two new options which allow more versatile use, say the company. Available in the halogen lamp version or the discharge lamp version, the new options are designed to produce a diffuse white light (with various beam/lens options). Unlike the company's motorized projectors created for high power stage use, this CS1 offers a range of white light, combined with noiseless operation, due to its innovative construction and the lack of cooling fans. The fixtures are especially suitable for exhibitions, theatres and museums and other environments requiring precise beam positioning.

For applications requiring colour, Studio Due has designed an external colour changer, in collaboration with another Italian lighting manufacturer, Luci Della Ribalta (LDR).

(Lee Baldock)

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USA - Genlyte Controls is now accepting reservations for the Level 1 Systems Technician Training Class, which is set to take place from 20-22 July 2005. The class is designed to introduce field service technicians to a variety of architectural and theatrical dimming and controls products from Entertainment Technology and Lightolier Controls, say Genlyte. It will cover basic programming and troubleshooting of Capio Plus, Intelligent Raceway, IPS Distributed Dimming Products, Vista DMX control, Horizon DMX interface and control, Marquee lighting control console, Pathport, System Networking, and LYTEmode Systems.

Skills necessary to participate include an ability to solder, read schematics, interpret shop and job drawings and program lighting consoles, as well as a basic working knowledge of DMX512 control wiring and computer networking. Attendees should also have basic computer sk

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UK - An Avolites Pearl 2004 console and Robe fixtures are at the heart of a new lighting installation at Villa Marina, the Isle of Man's leading live music and performance venue. Villa Marina opened last year after a £14 million refurbishment project. Its production facilities have been designed to offer cutting edge technology aimed at encouraging top international acts to play the Isle of Man, without the hassle and expense of bringing in their own production.

The initial phase of installed technical infrastructure at the venue involved the design and specification of a JBL VerTec line array audio system, ready for the grand opening last year. A year down the line, it was the turn of lighting to take centre stage.

In the interim period, explains Villa Marina's chief lighting technician Alex Davidson, they utilized a hired lighting rig. This gave them the ideal opportunity t

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Germany - When BMW launched the new 3-series at its flagship showrooms on Kurfürstendamm, Berlin's most exclusive shopping area, they wanted a store display that would stop passers-by in their tracks. Like all car showrooms, the windows are large and imposing, and BMW didn't want to block the showroom from the view of window shoppers, yet the display needed to be bright enough to create drama at night. The solution was the new PhantomFrame system from G LEC, with its transparency and high intensity LED pixels.

Each of the lightweight, 1m x 1m units of PhantomFrame supports 16 clear polycarbonate tubes, each housing 16 high intensity LED pixels spaced 60mm apart. The space between the tubes is just air, allowing the window shoppers in Kurfürstendamm to see the PhantomFrames as well as the full range of the new BMW 3 series in the showroom behind.

Lars Wolf, managing director

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Germany - Reinhold Trilling, director of lighting and set design for TV shopping channel QVC in Düsseldorf, found his visit to the ETC stand at Showtech 2005 very worthwhile: he won an ETC Source Four Revolution automated luminaire in a free draw.

Trilling said: "I would never have imagined that I'd win. This Revolution's going to get a real workout with us at QVC!" The two QVC studios broadcast live, 24 hours a day, year round, so flexibility and dependability - hallmarks of the Revolution - will be appreciated by QVC say ETC.

Opinion about this year's Showtech fair in Berlin has been unanimously positive. Show organizers reported a 4.8% rise in attendees this year, many of whom visited the ETC stand and saw the unified European product portfolio, which includes the ETC, Transtechnik, IES and Avab lighting brands.

Interest was particularly high in ETC's Congo lig

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USA - Science fiction becomes science reality this Autumn and Strong Entertainment Lighting will Power the Future. Strong's 10,000W Britelight Super 10 will be the energy source powering several competing space elevator climbers up a crane-suspended vertical ribbon. The Elevator: 2010 Climber Competition, being held in Mountain View, California from 30 September - 2 October, challenges teams from all over the world to design and build a space elevator climber prototype.

"With a 75-year heritage of success, we¹re looking to the future. We have been lighting NASA's Space Shuttle launch pad for more than five years and now we have the opportunity to light a new way to the stars," said Paul Rabinovitz, Strong vice president. "Because space elevators were once considered science fiction, Elevator:2010 is truly a revolutionary effort and we are excited to be the

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USA - Apollo Design Technology Inc has appointed Jeffrey Mateer as product development manager for all Apollo product lines. "I have known and respected Jeff for many years," said Apollo founder and president Joel Nichols. "His knowledge and abilities made him an ideal choice for this key position. His extensive experience in the industry, combined with his skills, will contribute significantly to Apollo's future product direction."

Mateer brings more than 20 years of industry experience to Apollo. His career has included general manager positions at Light & Sound Design, Nashville, and most recently, at Light Source Inc in Detroit. Mateer holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from California State University, Long Beach. He says: "I've enjoyed a long business relationship with Joel and his Apollo team and have always been impressed with their accomplishments.

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UK - In the space of just seven days, White Light exhibited at the ABTT Show in London, held a moving light shootout allowing lighting designers to make a real-world comparison of some of the latest automated fixtures, and then rounded things off by holding a Graduates Open Day at its Wimbledon headquarters.

Spread across two stands at ABTT this year, White Light showed items from its extensive hire and sales stocks, including theatre lanterns from Arri and trussing from Prolyte for which White Light has recently been made a distributor; these join products from Robert Juliat, Rainbow, Look Solutions and ELC which White Light already distributes in the UK. The company's award-winning Digital Festoon System was also on show.

The day after ABTT, White Light held a Moving Light Shootout at the Royal Opera House's Linbury Studio, where lighting designers had the opportunity to com

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USA - ETA Systems, a manufacturer of high quality power protection, distribution, and lighting control products for the audio/video industry, has announced that it has been acquired by Powervar Inc for an undisclosed amount. The company's products are sold to broadcasters, recording and production studios, theatres, auditoriums, churches, schools and live performing artists, through distributors, contractors and retail cutlets throughout the US, Europe, and Asia.

Powervar Inc is a privately held corporation based in Waukegan, Illinois, manufacturng high-end power quality solutions for mission critical applications in healthcare, manufacturing, and other industries. Its customers are manufacturers and resellers of high technology systems used in healthcare, digital printing, semiconductor manufacturing, retail POS, and other commercial applications. The company received a 2004 Fr

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  4. Pixel Power at Live 8
  5. New products from Selecon
  6. Le Maitre at War of the Worlds premiere
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