Lighting

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The HSL Group was another first timer: currently supplying lighting to some major UK theatre tours including Blood Brothers, Joseph & His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Jesus Christ Superstar, HSL is also servicing other major events including Holland Park Opera Festival plus providing equipment to TV studios across the UK. HSL has now streamlined into three divisions: HSL Rental, HSL Rigging and HSL Sales and Distributions.

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ETC has always had a busy, but not large, stand at ABTT and this year Mark White decided the company needed a bigger area to demonstrate its wares - which meant a move into one of the show's quieter halls. The main attraction was ETC's Congo lighting control console; we are told that field project manager Jeremy Roberts was so busy doing demonstrations that he hardly had a break during the entire two days. ETC reported that visitors to the stand were delighted with a glass of Pimm's No.1, mixed by ETC project manager Iain Quinn.

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City Theatrical showed examples of its range of accessories for Color Kinetics' LED-based lighting fixtures, including its ColorBlaze, ColorBlast, ColorBurst and ColorCast units. City Theatrical's additions are designed to offer consultants and designers greater choice in control and dispersion of the fixtures. The latest addition is the PDS-750-TR touring power supply, a rugged unit which provides power and DMX control capability for Color Kinetics luminaires (12 ColorBlast 12 or 24 ColorBlast 6 luminaires, for example). The PDS-750-TR is provided with various standard mounting options.

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White Light made two announcements - firstly its appointment as a Prolyte distributor and secondly as exclusive Arri Theatre Lighting distributor in the UK. Products on show included the Arri Studio Theatre 1k and 2k fresnels, while moving lights included the new tungsten Alpha Wash Halo washlight from Clay Paky. Also highlighted were followspots from Robert Juliat, DMX distribution products from ELC, colour scrollers from Rainbow and smoke and haze machines from Look Solutions.

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UK - Lighting for seven of the eight arenas - plus the comedy tent - of the UK's largest clubber's festival, Godskitchen Global Gathering, was supplied by Leeds-based Zig Zag Lighting as the completely sold out event at Long Marston Airfield increased to two days for the first time.

When it came to the enormous Godskitchen tent, Zig Zag's Neil Hunt wanted to install the highest impact lighting possible and also to try out Robe's ColorSpot and ColorWash 1200 ATs for the first time.

The rig comprised seventy-six ColorSpot 1200E ATs and 24 ColorWashes hung all over the stage and tent on an intricate trussing network, secured into the tent by 70 points - the work of Harry Box from Concert Lights. The fixtures were used for both stage and dance floor lighting and were the main wow factor of the arena.

Lighting was programmed and operated by Matt Holden-Jones who ran lighting for

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UK - PixelDrive - Radical Lighting and James Thomas's innovative software for controlling LED devices - made a creative leap forward at Godskitchen Global Gathering last weekend, where it was used for the first time to take control of the colour mix function of 100 moving lights in the Godskitchen arena. This, say James Thomas, is the next step in the increasingly converging worlds of lighting and video visuals.

The system - two PixelDrive computers - was installed and programmed by Simon Carter of Radical Lighting. One was running on a laptop and one on a desktop, with both triggered by the Avolites Diamond 4 lighting console operated by Matt Holden-Jones and Paddy Sollitt. One PixelDrive was used to run video sources into the moving lights and one to run them into the 34 James Thomas PixelLine fixtures - a mix of the 1044 and the new PixelLine 110 ec - used in the show.

Ligh

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USA - New York-based lighting rental and production company, Pegasus Productions, has made a major investment in the new Alpha range of automated fixtures from Clay Paky.Pegasus Productions purchased Clay Paky's Alpha Spot HPE and immediately put 12 of them to work. A New Jersey Fourth of July wedding reception held in a tent for over 1,000 people, was the site of the Alpha Spots' début for Pegasus. Lighting designer Faith Yildiz ran the event, using a Wholehog II for control of the lighting and video elements. "It was really a pleasure to work with the Alphas," remarks Yildiz. "We really didn't have any time to play with the fixtures prior to this gig, so we had some questions at the back of our minds as to how they would perform. But the Alphas are very bright and lit up whole tent nicely. I was very happy with how they performed."

As well as dealing with

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Australia - The Rock Eisteddfod Challenge has once again hit the roads of Australia with Paul Collison using his tried and tested formula of Martin MACs and Pulsar ChromaBanks. Control was from an MA Lighting GrandMA.

Paul came up with the idea of five curved snake like trusses hung under a mother truss along with a split front truss to allow the followspots a clear shot at the stage, all running off four data streams from the GrandMA with 3D visualization.

Along with 11 MAC 2000 Wash, four MAC 2000 Performance, 16 MAC 600 washlights and 16 Pulsar ChromaBanks, Paul used 15 MAC 2000 Profiles each housing the new Patrick Woodroffe Gobo Collection.

"I knew the gobos were on their way so I asked Vince Haddad from Show Technology to rush me through a set so we could use them for the Canberra show," said Paul. "The gobos are awesome! It's like using a completely dif

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India - Avolites' sales director Steve Warren and business development manager Koy Neminathan recently staged a two-day open workshop in Mumbai, India, alongside their distributor Jagmag Electric, run by the charismatic Atul Sonpal. The workshop featured advanced training on existing Avolites products, including the Pearl 2004 - the most popular and widely used professional lighting console in India. The Avolites sales team also took the opportunity of introducing the latest products to the Indian market - the Diamond 4 console range and the eDMX wireless data transmission system.

The workshop follows on from a similar, more basic training event staged four years ago by Avolites and Jagmag, also in Mumbai. "The take up was phenomenal," says Steve Warren - with over 110 people attending over the two days: "They all wanted to learn more. Many were Avo owners and use

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USA - Innovate Show Controls (ISC) has released its latest version of the BlueLite X1's downloadable software. Version 1.2 now supports up to 16 DMX universes (8,192 channels) and includes full compatibility with LewLight's Capture 3.0, one of the world's premier CAD and visualization programs for lighting designers. Existing BlueLite X1 users may add additional universes to their standard four universe (2,048 channel) systems in four-universe increments. As with the original X1, there are no restrictions on channel usage or fixture counts.

Version 1.2's support for Capture 3.0 is via LewLight's CITP protocol. This allows Capture to be run on the same Windows 2000/XP machine as the BlueLite X1, or on two separate machines connected via a LAN. In addition to basic DMX data exchange, version 1.2 supports more advanced CITP options. This allows features like Capture's auto focus of

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UK - White Light has been the equipment supplier of choice for two opera festivals this summer - or, in the case of one of the festivals, for the second half of each evening, since the theatrical lighting only really took over as the long summer evenings finally faded to dusk!

In Hampshire, Nothington Grange provides the home to Grange Park Opera, performed in a 540-seat horseshoe auditorium built within the listed out-house of the Grange. Lighting designer Chris Davey returned for his fourth season as resident LD, this year designing Maria Stuarda, Don Giovanni and South Pacific. As he notes: "each season the designs get bigger, pushing the stage and its possibilities to the limit. The operas rotate performances so virtually every day there is a complete set and lighting turnaround; my task was to light each piece on its own terms yet provide a design and rig

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UK - Pearce Hire has been supplying lighting and power services to the Cambridge Folk Festival for 18 years this year. In 2005 artists included Mercury Award nominees KT Tunstall and Seth Lakeman as well as long established favourites The Proclaimers and Idlewild.

The festival has stayed on its original site at the Cherry Hinton Hall Grounds, since it's inception by Ken Woollard in 1964. Whilst the organizers have striven to maintain the relaxed atmosphere for festival goers, behind the scenes of the festival site has changed beyond all recognition.

Pearce Hire supplied all the power requirements for the festival, which has increased immensely over the years, catering for this unusual site where most of the electricity comes from a mains substation, which was upgraded from a 300A to 500A in 1995 to cope with the growing demands in all areas.

This year Pearce Hire supplied a

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Russia - Nearly 100 Robe Show Lighting fixture of various types have been installed in the Crystal Casino in Moscow as part of a massive technology upgrade. Crystal's owners emphasize a high quality guest 'experience' and presenting a visually stimulating environment is key to this.

Crystal, one of the largest gambling establishments in Eastern Europe with three restaurants, several bars, a nightclub and dancefloor, needed a boost to its lighting system. The new installation was designed by Sasha "Eagle" Vasilyev - the club's chief LD - and Slava Savin, LD and desk programmer/operator, and undertaken by Moscow-based Light Sound. Contractor (LSC), one of Russia's leading installers.

Nightly onstage entertainment includes a variety of singers and bands. The club also has its own permanent cabaret/musical show once or twice a week, and the dancefloor is in use five days

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UK - Artistic Licence will be launching Rail-Patch at PLASA this year.

The product is a simple connection device for DIN Rail installations. It is available with either male or female five pin XLR connectors and is used to provide cable entry into the installation equipment without the need to make up special cables.

The product has an XLR mounted on one edge and a three pin screw terminal on the other. Custom variants can also be produced. The product line is available throughout the world via a growing number of progressive dealers, a list of which is available from Artistic Licences web site, where visitors can also order on-line and download technical data and user guides.

Jump-Start can be seen at PLASA 2005 on Stand G12.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

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Italy / UK - Clay Paky will show a number of new products at this year's PLASA Show, including the Alpha Spot HPE 1200, the Alpha Spot 700, the Alpha Wash TH and the CP Color 400 SH.

Alpha Spot HPE 1200 is the flagship luminaire of the company's Alpha range and boasts a high performance optical unit and features a 1200W discharge lamp. With a large, newly designed effects section, colour mixing CMY and linear zoom from 10°- 40°, Alpha Spot HPE 1200 is the most silent luminaire in the range, say the company. Other features include linear CTO, seven-color wheel, a graphic system with 20 gobos plus animation disc, two rotating gobo wheels - each with six bi-directional, indexable and easily interchangeable decorative glass and dichroic gobos, selectable 'Gobo shake' function and morphing effect.

The Alpha Spot 700 is a 700 W effects projector featuring linear zoom from 15° - 4

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China - The City of Tianjin recently commissioned Beijing-based Teon Scenik to produce a light and laser display in the city's Galaxy Park as a permanent tourist attraction. LED was chosen as the lighting technology and TIR systems was commissioned as the provider, while Hong Kong-based Ptarmigan Consulting was appointed to design, install and commission the control system.

Ptarmigan contracted Artistic Licence to provide a Colour-Tramp control system along with a range of DMX512 and Art-Net distribution products. Simon Fraser of Ptarmigan comments: "I selected Colour-Tramp because of its graphics based LED control interface and its ease of programming and automated operation. The main control room is remote from the tower, so the use of Art-Net ethernet significantly reduced the length of expensive DMX512 cabling. The Art-Net ethernet was converted back to DMX512 locally a

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UK - Award-winning LD Michael Lingard is using PixelPAR 90 fixtures on the current long-running Ministry of Mayhem series, produced by Foundation Productions, recorded at Maidstone Studios in Kent and broadcast live on ITV1 on Saturday mornings.

The original set design was by Patrick Docherty who suggested using high brushed metal walls. Lingard then came up with the idea of lit panels to break up the walls; their basic visual aim was to make it bright, colourful and exciting with a high tech feel.

Pixels were not originally on the job, but the steely greyness of the set was proving a bit stark, so some textural treatment was needed to brighten it up and Lingard says he also wanted to be able to change the look and feel of the space for different sections of the show. "The PixelPAR 90s bring a new dimension to the space," he says. "They have really brough

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Italy / UK - The iSpot S is a new version of the moving head projector. Flicker-free and self-stabilising, iSpot S is suitable for a range of specialist and conventional applications, but its improved low noise design makes it ideal for TV studios. Features include 12 rotating gobos and a powerful luminous output, articulated movement (pan 530°, tilt 270°), 16-bit beam positioning, DMX512 standard and bidirectional (with DR 1) communication protocol, full range dimming, synchronized or random strobe effect, zap strobe effect and black-out.

Colour is provided from a CMY colour mixing system; a colour wheel with five fixed colours plus white rainbow/multi-colour/slide effects, synchronized black-out and colour change, and proportional CTO. Its easily interchangeable gobos, on two overlapping wheels of six gobos each plus open, provide a wide range of images. Also available are t

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UK - Lighting Effects Distribution Ltd is home to one of the most comprehensive LED and effects portfolios in the industry. Operating from its base in Ashford, Kent, the company is the exclusive distributor for Ayrton, Alkalite, Antari Smoke Effects, Hungaroflash, Coemar and Marveon LED, while other distributed brands include MoodLight, James Thomas Pixelline, Solar LED, Geni Lighting, a range of self-branded LED products and control equipment.

A visual highlight of this year's PLASA show will be the new Ayrton DreamPanel (50cm x 50cm) modular video-tile, designed for screen-floor applications, which will be built into a concept floor display on the side of the stand, fed from a media server. Lighting Effects Distribution will also give a first UK showing to Antari's new versatile, mid-level series of smoke machines, the Z Series.

The company also operates a projects division

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New Zealand - In an effort to help students and teachers get the most out of their theatrical endeavours and assist in the development of their abilities to understand and produce great stage lighting, Selecon is producing a series of six wall posters on Lighting the Stage under the project name Switched On.

The first two posters - The Light Fantastic and Getting an Angle on Lighting - have been distributed throughout the UK, New Zealand and Australia this year by participating Selecon dealers. The theme of each Switched On poster is fully supported with an on-line resource containing in-depth explanations and a series of exercises designed to help understand exactly what theatre lighting is, what it does and how you can achieve different looks and moods.

With an emphasis on approach and technique rather than product, the posters and web support con

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UK - An Avolites Diamond 4 console was the control hub for a lighting and visual extravaganza in the Godskitchen Arena at Global Gathering 2005. Avolites consoles - mainly Pearl 2004s - were also in action on the other five arenas and in the Comedy Tent, all lit by Leeds-based Zig Zag Lighting.

This was the first time Zig Zag boss Neil Hunt has used a Diamond 4. "It was an ideal opportunity to put it properly though its paces and to get first hand feedback from my top programmers and operators," he comments. "We needed a desk with large capacity that was reliable, versatile and had Ethernet capability for the PixelDrive. The D4 was the solution - it has all the power and precision to do exactly what we needed."

The Godskitchen Arena rig was designed by Hunt and the D4 Vision was programmed and operated by Matt Holden-Jones, who ran lighting for most of the

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USA - For the sixth consecutive year, ETC has selected a group of high-achieving students which the company will sponsor to attend the LDI tradeshow in Orlando, Florida. This year, for the first time, the group includes a student from the UK.

The students, all enrolled in college study for 2005 in specialities related to lighting design, theatre or entertainment technology, applied for the sponsorship awards earlier this year. Tae-Hyun Kim, a student at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, was researching information on the Source Four Revolution when he saw ETC's call for applications. With an attitude of 'nothing ventured, nothing gained,' he seized the opportunity and proved he had the background to be a great ETC sponsorship choice. Working towards a 2006 MFA in advanced stage and screen practice (lighting design), Tae-Hyun will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to LDI, w

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UK - Lighting Partners Ltd - owners of the usedlighting.co.uk website - report an exponential growth in used equipment sales.

From humble beginnings running out of a garage in South London, company owners Iain Dennis and David Morgan turned a hobby selling bits and bobs on ebay into one of the fastest growing lighting sales companies in the industry. The partners say that they frequently ship used equipment to clients across the world, including sales to Norway, the UAE, the Czech Republic and Australia.

Earlier this year, they took on a 1,500sq.ft warehouse which they have already outgrown - a further 1000sq.ft will be taken on in September. Two new members of staff have been appointed in the last three months and a further is currently being recruited. Additionally, Lighting Partners has launched a sister website, stagelighting.co.uk specializing in "keenly priced new e

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UK / Belgium - S+H Technical Support Ltd has been appointed as exclusive distributor for ShowLED starcloths in the UK. S+H joins internationally renowned distributors including Rose Brand in the US, Gerriets in Germany, ShowTex in Benelux and Coemar De Sisti in Australia.

"The experience of S+H in the events market and their starcloth production capacity and expertise, will surely enhance ShowLED's presence at UK theatres, concerts and corporate events. Add this experience to an excellent service on both sales and rental and understand why confidence in a successful venture in the UK is so high!" says ShowLED's Kenny Janssens.

The official partnership will be launched at the ShowLED/S+H joint stand at PLASA 2005 in London next month. Not only will the partnership be launched, but both companies will be introducing the ShowLED Chameleon to the entertainment sector, at

  1. Avolites on The South Bank
  2. Color Fusion from America DJ
  3. Northern Sound & Light appoints Cleary
  4. New software demo from 5 Star
  5. Martin Professional appointments
  6. More new products from A.C. Lighting
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