Lighting

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Worldwide - Critics enthuse that Dave Gahan of veteran British electro-pop band Depeche Mode has never sounded or looked better. Touring for the first time in four years, the band are showcasing their new acclaimed album 'Playing The Angel' mixed together with classic hits from their vast back catalogue.

Artistic director Anton Corbijn, visual director Blue Leech and lighting designer Paul Normandale created the visual concept to reflect an 80s space feel and the lighting was carefully selected to complement the tradition of a band with a history of visual spectacular as well as musical presentation.

One of the key elements to both the set and lighting design is the custom-built futuristic looking stage facia and synthesiser stations. Perforated with small holes they house a total of 59 James Thomas Engineering's PixelPup LED fixtures. Paul Normandale explains: "I wanted

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Australia / Belgium - Show Technology, Australia's leading importer and distributor of intelligent lighting solutions, has been appointed exclusive Australian distributor of Arkaos DMX Media Server software VJ 3.5.

Belgium-based Arkaos is a world-leading provider of technology for live visual performances. Since 1996, Arkaos has developed visual synthesizers that trigger and manipulate graphic content that can be displayed on large screens at events, concerts, clubs or wherever visual information is required. When it comes to media manipulation software, Arkaos is one of Europe's leading names in clubs and rental companies.

"Video is becoming integrated with lighting and lighting control at a rapid rate and it is important that we provide appropriate solutions for our customers' needs" says Show Technology managing director, Emmanuel Ziino. "Our team is dedicate

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UK - A few places are still available on the Pyrotechnics Safety Training course, hosted by the Association of Stage Pyrotechnicians, in January 2006. The first course takes place at Warwick's Bridge House Theatre on 5 January: to book contact Richard Cooper on 01926 776475 or email rjc@warwickschool.org (For more info see www.stsg.org.uk).

The second and third courses take place at London's Central School of Speech and Drama on 12 and 13 January: to book contact Jacky on 020 7722 8183 or email enquiries@cssd.ac.uk.

Further details are available from the Association of Stage Pyrotechnicians: see web address below.

(Lee Baldock)

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Germany - The first Zero 88 Frog 2 console sold to Germany has just completed a tour throughout North and East with energy supplier EWE AG. EWE AG is one of the leading regional energy service companies in Germany providing a comprehensive range of services including electricity, gas, water, telecommunications and IT to customers in the north and east of the country.

To mark their 75th anniversary EWE AG staged an impressive six-month, five-city interactive touring exhibition where customers learned about both the history and the future of the company. The exhibition consisted of a huge marquee (over 1,000sq.m of floor space) that included a wide variety of exhibits informing visitors about the company's services. The event included an audiovisual exhibit with capacity for 300 visitors that featured a massive 360° video projection with surround sound.

The lighting system requ

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UK - As part of the regeneration of the Tower Hamlets region, Kidderminster-based PLM Illumination provided the Tom Thumb Underpass with a colour-changing LED system. Part of a public art initiative, which included hand painted murals, ten bespoke high power RGB in-ground projectors were used as well as a custom made colour changing power supply and control system.

The marine grade stainless steel RGB colour canons contain nine high power LED lamps. The entire underpass is illuminated with a spectacular sequence of colour changing wall washes. This project paves the way for future redevelopment initiatives utilising high tech, low energy, low maintenance lighting products.

(Lee Baldock)

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Italy - Robe Show Lighting moving lights are being used as the key lighting element of the long-running Italian touring production of Reverie, performed by the Beijing Acrobatic Troupe of China. The show - a highly choreographed, magical mix of martial arts, dance, theatre and acrobatics - celebrates over 3,600 years of Chinese acrobatic skills and tradition.

Part of Reverie's success has been its energetic and entertaining presentation, in which lighting plays a vital role. The props and backdrops are simple but effective, and the costumes are colourful and complex. The whole visual aesthetic and creative texturing of the show is designed around colouration and illumination of the performers and what they are wearing. It's also important for the performers to be able to see clearly what they are doing, as millimetre precision is needed to co-ordinate their gravity

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UK - Compulite's Vector lighting control system is currently being used on the three major Saturday night TV productions in the UK - X-Factor, Strictly Come Dancing and the new national lottery show Millionaire Manor.

X-Factor goes out live every Saturday night from Fountain Studios in Wembley. Lighting director Dave Davey, moving light operators Bill Peachment and Russell Grubiak chose Compulite Vector Blue and Vector Green consoles to control not only the moving lights, but also the LED fixtures and video content plus some of the house dimmers (also from Compulite). Peachment says: "X-Factor is a big live show with over 500 cues on my console alone. The Vector has taken everything we have thrown at it and been a joy to use throughout the show."

Strictly Come Dancing, presented by Bruce Forsyth, and co-hosted by Tess Daly, goes out live o

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UK - Digital media solutions specialists Projected Image Digital threw open their gates in West London, for two open days. These were designed to illustrate the range of both digital output and control products offered by the company. Of special interest was a selection of new developments including Element Labs' Versa PIXEL, and the DL2 moving projector head, and Catalyst V4media server from High End Systems.

PID targeted a selection of existing and potential new clients for the strictly invite-only event that attracted a good mix of attendees including concert LDs, theatre designers and architectural lighting designers. In addition to the above mentioned products, PID also had Carallon's Pharos DMX architectural lighting controller on-hand, which was of interest to the installation visitors.

PID ensured that all the assorted technologies had an expert on-hand to demonstrate

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UK / USA - Following the UK launch of its new Congo lighting control console at PLASA 2005 and subsequent introduction to the US market at LDI last month, ETC has registered some 550 requests for Congo Offline Editor, which allows anyone to take the board for a test drive - by trying out the software on their own PC. Such intense interest in the free download is backed by sales and orders, both of which are growing rapidly. Congo has been selling extremely well in Europe, but now sales in the States are rapidly gaining on them, says the company.

One of the most recent installations in North America is the Holland Performing Arts Centre, a new state-of-the-art complex in Nebraska. "I had my choice of any lighting console for the Holland," says production manager Buck Weyerman, who had read about Congo's heritage before the board was available to American markets. He was

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UK - As part of the build up to the Olympic games in 2012, PLM Illumination has been getting involved with developments in alignment with regeneration projects and development initiatives across the country. These include recent developments in Regents Parks' multi-million pound redevelopment project to update sports facilities. The state-of-the-art building, called 'The Hub', includes fully equipped changing facilities, including ones for referees and people with disabilities, spaces for alternative forms of exercise as well as a café with panoramic views of the park. 'The Hub' opened summer 2005 and is set to bring accessible sports facilities for a wide range of people.

The pathway surrounding 'The Hub' contains bespoke LED, in-ground fittings designed and manufactured by PLM Illumination. The low energy, zero maintenance lighting is a proprietary PLM fitting, manufact

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Australia - Melbourne's Grand Hyatt, one of the city's most prestigious entertainment and accommodation venues, has recently undergone six months of extensive renovations to the Level 8 Banquet floor.

Lighting designer Mike Huggins, from Light Directions in Hong Kong, previously designed the lighting for Melbourne's Park Hyatt. His concepts for lighting control relied heavily on a total integration of all kinetic light sources and functional lighting, but with a simple front end. This was no easy task when the system was required to perform a range of tasks, including local or global control, complex room joining, plus control over a mixture of incandescent, metal halide, fluorescent and LED light sources.

Lightmoves of Melbourne was invited to offer specification for a control system that could achieve these objectives, within the tight budget constraints. During the developm

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Italy - When Mazda was looking to host a landmark pan-European event for its European dealers to showcase four 'hero' vehicles, it decided to go to the Superstudio Più in Milan. Over three days, Mazda 'Mirai' - which in Japanese means 'Future' - played host to 3,725 delegates from 35 countries. Design and communication company Imagination commissioned PRG Europe to help them make everything look just right.

Project manager for PRG Europe John McEvoy explained: "There were five areas to light: the main auditorium - the Mirai Theatre - where a live show took place each day; the Mirai Gallery; a daylight room; a smoking room with bars and DJ; and the outside area, also with bars which needed to be lit. In the evening, with the help of lighting from PRG, the Mirai Theatre was transformed into a magnificent dining hall for a four-course dinner, followed by a performance by Hea

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UK - Lighting designer Nick Jevons used 85 Chroma-Q Color Blocks in his set design for Radio 1's The Chart Show Live concert at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire on 27 November. The special event for Radio 1 ticket winners was hosted by various DJs from the station and featured mini set performances by McFly, Charlotte Church, The Pussycat Dolls, Hard-Fi and Sean Paul. The concert was also broadcast live straight after Radio 1's Sunday UK Chart Show rundown.

LD Nick Jevons of production company Electric Fly Productions provided the set lighting design and visuals, with all fixtures supplied by Bandit Lites UK. To reflect the pace of the music event, Nick wanted his lighting design to have the sensory experience of a Waltzer fairground ride. To achieve this visual effect as a lighting rig, Nick used five upright truss pieces to support eight 20ft scaffold tubes hung off the in-hous

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UK - Rycote, the industry standard in windshield and shockmount manufacturing, has released five new accessories available immediately. Through UK distributor Sennheiser UK, all these accessories have been designed and developed from suggestions received from Rycote users.

Rycote director, Vivienne Dyer explains: "We listen to our distributors and customers and so we are confident that there is a ready market for these products. Each accessory is the result of feedback from end-users and our commitment has always been to provide the industry with the most effective systems possible." The new accessories are outlined below.

Hot Shoe Extension: This simple extension will allow camcorder users to fit multiple hot shoe attachments onto their equipment. Hot Shoe 3/8" Adaptor: To attach any fitting with a 3/8" thread to a camera hot shoe. Multimount v2: Availab

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UK - DiFuzion, the lighting division of Fuzion plc., will evoke memories of the golden era of discotheque lighting with the introduction of the versatile Centrepiece from Futurelight. Distributed exclusively in the UK by DiFuzion, the fixture provides a lot more versatility than its forebears of 20 years ago.

According to DiFuzion's Graham Barron, the Futurelight principle involves a number of scans generated from a bright central 1200W HMI lamp rather than the more restricting circle of mirrors operating on a single axis, which represented the first wave.

This multi-scanner is designed around six arms with moving mirrors. The gobo wheel contains six rotating, dichroic gobos (one glass effect and one open); a strobe effect with adjustable shutter speed (1-10 flashes/sec); DMX-controlled or stand-alone operation with master / slave-function; sound control via built-in microp

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Australia - One of the great Australian Christmas traditions is the Myer Christmas Windows and this year they are even more stunning than ever with Myer in Melbourne celebrating its 50th presentation within the Bourke Street window frontage for the 2005 season.

Stage One Promotions has been responsible for the design, fabrication and maintenance of these windows since 1994. Over the past 12 years, a customised system of control for lighting, sound and animatronics has been developed, specifically fulfilling the needs of an event, which operates daily for 18 hours for a gruelling eight-week season.

LSC dimmers drive the lights: 12 LSC Tour Series dimmer racks, racked in lots of four (i.e. 48 circuits), with supporting equipment held within each rack including data splitters, three-phase distribution, DMX addressed relay switching units and 24 low voltage dimmer circuits for dri

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UK - The Noise & Confusion 2005 concert, held at the Cardiff Millennium Stadium on Saturday 10 December was the biggest end of year music event in the UK, with performances from the Foo Fighters, Razorlight, The Coral, The Subways, Nick Armstrong and The Thieves, Yeti and headlining act Oasis. LM Productions LLP were contracted by LDP in Canada to supply three 40W ND Yag laser systems for the Foo Fighters' special performance at the Millennium Stadium. These high-powered laser systems produce a bright emerald green beam and are ideal for large stadium and outdoor events.

The lasers were used for four songs during the 75-minute set. The lasers were positioned stage left and right next to the large video screens and one at the back of centre stage projecting over the band towards the audience. The laser show consisted of a range of high impact beams and atmospheric effects and fla

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UK - £9m was earmarked for a development of the Student Union building at Brunel University in Uxbridge, including £1.7m to refurbish The Academy, a multipurpose entertainment venue. Working alongside main contractors, Overbury's, mechanical engineers TGA, architects Devereaux, and lighting consultant Hoare Lee, Peter Varey's PVAV successfully tendered for the sound and lighting contract.

Varey opted for a Martin Audio solution. "Given the variety of the entertainment - from Urban and Bhangra nights to comedy, cabaret and cheesey disco, Martin's Blackline range provided the flexibility I needed," said Varey.

The refit included a raised stage area, with DJ plug-in points and extra mic feeds. Varey re-orientated four Martin Audio new AQ215 (2 x 15) subs in the horizontal access, and recessed them under the stage to create additional rumble. The PA system wa

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UK - Screened just in time for Christmas, the spectacular show All Time Greatest Party Songs is the latest in the BBC's ongoing greatest songs series. The emphasis was on fun, showcasing some classic performances from artists both old and new.

Lighting designer Roger Williams was asked to design the show and with a reasonable budget he wanted to try something new. He explains: "My thought for a backdrop was a soft LED cloth, but as there were none available in Europe; I had to think of something else. Video walls have been seen so many times and to cover an area of over 20 x 15ft - it would have left me little or no money for lights!"

And with the likes of both Heather Small and Jocelyn Brown belting out their hits, the show had to match such massive vocal talent. Williams continues: "So I decided to create a wall of PixelLine 1044s. I wanted it to be fai

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UK - Live brand experience specialists MMM produced a stylish show for the 2005 Hyundai National Dealers Conference at the Celtic Manor, Newport. The event introduced some corporate restructuring and the new UK manufacturing company, Hyundai Motors UK, which replaces the previous Hyundai importers, RAC PLC. It also showcased the new vehicles for 2006.

MMM's brief was to ensure the day's proceedings were highly motivational for the delegates. The conference was followed by dinner and entertainment led by a male voice choir, and comedian Dominic Holland.

MMM designed the set and supplied the necessary technical infrastructure including staging, sound, lighting and AV. They supplied all personnel and services needed to run the event from delegate registration to logistics and artist booking. MMM compiled the PowerPoint content material, graphics and various video stings and play-

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UK - After more than 20 years, Queen returned to the US to play two sold-out shows as a precursor to their 2006 US tour. 16 October saw the band at The Meadowlands arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey and on 22 October the band played one of the most celebrated outdoor venues in America, the Hollywood Bowl. Bandit Lites supplied the full lighting production and crew for both shows.

Queen hit the road earlier this year for one of 2005's most anticipated tours, a show for which lighting designer Barry 'Baz' Halpin received much praise, and for good reason. The Hollywood Bowl is an historic American venue, an 83-year-old landmark with a unique shape. Halpin explains his challenge: "The lighting system was built to fit the dimensions of the Bowl. We put the whole European show into the Bowl but our rig is big and square and the Hollywood Bowl is big and round, so we had to come

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UK - Le Maitre were asked to create the special effects for the UK premiere of the latest Hollywood blockbuster King Kong, at the Odeon cinema in Leicester Square.The crew of four Le Maitre technicians set up four Pyrotek Dragons, using eight heads, on the canopies on either side of the Odeon. The Dragons fired huge flames of up to 50ft into the air as the guests arrived and paraded down the red carpet, then continued to entertain the crowds throughout the three-hour screening of the film.

The crew also rigged a 70ft wide pyrotechnic waterfall from the parapet at the top of the building using 4oz Gerbs. The 30-second waterfall was fired on the arrival of star Jack Black and for the switch on of the illuminated sign 'KING KONG Eighth Wonder of the World'.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - For the last 77 years the BBC has been transmitting the annual Carols and Lessons service at Christmas from King's College, Cambridge. For millions of radio listeners, and now TV viewers, around the world it marks the 'official' beginning of the festive period. ELP have been providing location lighting, rigging and power for the TV broadcast of the service for a more modest five years, and in that time have helped lighting director Bernie Davis develop and refine his approach.

In previous years, lighting for the audience, organ, walls and ceiling had all been done from the narrow ledge over the choir stalls. However, a review of safety practices decided that it was not safe to work at height without a harness, and there was no way a harness could be attached to the ancient walls without disfiguring the chapel. So some 'sensitive' rigging was performed by the ELP team. Using

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Czech Republic / Canada - Quebec-based Intellimix has been appointed as Robe Show Lighting's new Canadian distributor. The deal was sealed in November at LDI 2005, Orlando, say Robe.

Intellimix, founded in 1996, were looking for a world class moving light brand to add to their portfolio, and so Robe was a natural choice. Robe has started becoming popular in the territory, particularly over the last year, the company reports.

Company president Stephen Kosters explained that Intellimix has become a leading player in the Canadian rental market because it has kept its eye on what is cutting edge technology, and also because of it's "customer first" approach that clearly separated them from the competition. Robe Show Lighting's MD Josef Valchar says: "It's great to have Intellimix onboard. I am confident they will do a great job for us."

(Lee Baldock)

  1. Ho Ho Xmas Drinks
  2. D.A.S. Audio on the Road
  3. ESTA: 'ACN' draft standard for review
  4. Waterfall upgrade from Elation
  5. CITC keeps the birds away
  6. High End Systems Europe
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