Lighting

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Japan - The Japanese Automobile Manufacturers Association held their 39th Tokyo Motor Show - Passenger Cars & Motorcycles - at the Makuhari Messe complex in Makuhari, Chiba City from 21 October to 6 November 2005.

The theme of this year's show was "Driving Tomorrow! - from Tokyo" with over 1.5m visitors taking in the sights and sounds of the industry's most advanced technologies and designs.

Motor shows mean prodigious amounts of lighting, and the Tokyo Motor Show, with its 40,000sq.m of space, was no exception. Countless numbers of lighting fixtures were incorporated into exhibits from more than 200 companies, including 264 Martin products for exhibits by Toyota, Mazda, Mitsubishi Motors, Volkswagen, and others.

At the Toyota exhibit MAC 2000 Performances were painted silver-white to match the ceiling, truss, and walls while Alien O2 color changers were pai

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USA - After conducting 200 extensive surveys during PLASA and LDI, Wybron and Acromatics now begin the second phase of market development research on the performance lighting industry. The ongoing research program will consist of monthly online questionnaires, with access to surveys being as close as the nearest computer. The monthly surveys will cover a variety of subjects including industry hot topics and product usage habits, with results to be shared with the industry.

The first phase of research, sponsored by Wybron, was accomplished at PLASA2005 in London and ETS-LDI in Orlando. Executed by New York-based Acromatics, it involved a combination of one-on-one interviews and computer questionnaires. "The idea of the monthly online surveys was a result of the overwhelming response we got from the respondents in London and Orlando," says marketing guru Stuart Agres, wh

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UK - Lighting designer Ian Turner and his company, Southampton-based GLS supplied 24 Robe ColorSpot 1200 AT fixtures for Irish folk punksters The Pogues' recent UK arena tour. Turner has designed lighting for the band since their reformation in 2001. The hugely popular 2005 Christmas shows saw a re-release of their massive hit, "Fairytale of New York", with all royalties split between homeless charities and the Justice For Kirsty Campaign.

He chose the Robe fixtures for this tour - the first time he's used them on a full tour - as his main moving lights initially because of their "incredible brightness". He needed a moving light that would hold its own amidst the 200 Par cans and 24 Molefays on the rig, which was designed as a contemporary take on that classic rock 'n' roll pub-band-on-a-big-stage look. The 24 fixtures were distributed all across the three-tr

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UK - Two Gloucester DJ's, Jason Ayers and Steve Blake, have got their hands on a landmark Stroud venue, and lovingly restored it from near dilapidation over an 18-month period. Having secured Stroud's first late night licence back in 1969 the venue became The Marshall Rooms (hosting bands like U2 among others). But its recent history has been chequered and it eventually closed down.

When they were ready to convert it into the 425-capacity Riga, they contacted Contract Audio Visual (CAV) for their technology infrastructure. CAV's sales manager, Howard Williams, says: "They loved the power of the NEXO Alpha Touring System, in particular the heavy bass, and opted for that on a contract rental basis."

But power comes at a price, and being in a residential area the operators needed one hundred tonnes of concrete to provide the necessary sound reinforcement after CAV had c

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UK - Pharos has announced the appointment of Liz Cecil as senior product manager to oversee the new and expanding Pharos Architectural Control range. Liz says she is delighted to be part of this dynamic, talented team and commented: "I'm thrilled by this opportunity to be involved in Pharos. It is an inspired product range that really fills a need and there are more innovations to come. The future looks very exciting."

After several years in production lighting, Liz spent six years with ETC, initially as European training coordinator, and then three years at headquarters in Wisconsin, where she was marketing product manager for Entertainment Controls.

Pharos' commercial director Chris Hunt said: "We are delighted to have Liz on board. Her experience of marketing and training for control products is a perfect fit. She's the ideal person to represent Pharos to our

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UK - Artistic Licence (UK) Ltd announce Peter Loosemore as the latest member of an expanding sales team. With additional staff resources in place and new, larger premises up and running, Artistic Licence is guaranteeing it meets the increasing demand for its products and services.

AL's move to its new combined factory/office space, which incorporates product demo area and showrooms, gets 2006 off to a flying start. With its renewed commitment to increasing output and offering faster response and shipping times, AL continues its planned expansion to encompass both product supply and solutions-based project engineering.

To complement AL's improved delivery of products and services, Peter's presence on the sales team will ensure that front-end client services get the full attention they deserve too. Peter is a well-known and respected figure in the sound and lighting equipment su

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UK - Building on the successful collaboration between Martin Architectural and Philips Lighting, ARC 06 will provide the platform to showcase the lighting solutions offered by both companies. Martin Architectural and Philips say the companies will feature dynamic solutions in the areas of interior and exterior architectural lighting as well as in the growing sector of health and wellbeing. "As the demand for more creative solutions grows, Martin Architectural and Philips are ideally placed to offer a wide range of programmable lighting possibilities including exciting colour changing capabilities," the companies say.

Situated prominently on the mezzanine level, visitors to the adjoining stands M26 and M26a will have an ideal opportunity to see a whole host of interior and exterior lighting solutions, including LEDs, wash lighting, controls, track, and spot lighting to

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UK - Electric Fly lighting designer Nick Jevons used Martin Professional's Maxxyz and Maxedia to control the lighting for Radio 1's The Chart Show Live concert at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire just before Christmas. The special event for Radio 1 ticket winners was hosted by various DJs from the station and featured mini set performances by top-selling artists 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. All fixtures supplied by Bandit Lites UK, and included Chroma-Q Color Blocks, MAC 500 profile spots, MAC 600 washlights, Atomic Strobes as well as a Maxxyz console and Maxedia digital media server.

Jevons says: "It was fairly energetic evening, which I wanted to reflect in the lighting and set design, working with my business partner, set designer

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UK - Leading UK-based lighting designer Durham Marenghi specified Martin MAC 700 Profile spotlights for the first time for his recent Classical Spectacular shows, which played a series of UK area venues including the Royal Albert Hall and Manchester Evening News Arena.

Marenghi used 23 MAC 700s, eight of which were positioned on the floor, with the rest rigged on the striking above-stage trussing architecture. His new design for the shows was based on the core principals of "absolute synchronicity and sympathy" with the score, and also used over 80 other Martin fixtures including MAC 2K Washes, MAC 600 Washes, and MAC 300 Washes as truss toners. Marenghi comments that the MAC 700s "are incredibly bright. I specified them to be used for powerful profile type effects, which worked extremely well."

The biggest challenge in lighting a show of this nature

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UK - A.C. Lighting's Northern sales office has supplied over £70,000 worth of loose lighting and audio equipment to the newly fitted Carriageworks theatre in Leeds.

The Carriageworks houses two auditoria of 350 and 80 seats with state-of-the-art equipment, rehearsal and dressing rooms, and presents a vibrant mix of plays, musicals, film, community events, youth theatre and workshops. The venue is also the new home of the Leeds Civic Arts Guild, a group of amateur drama, opera and musical companies who will present an ongoing programme of performances.

Venue's technical coordinator, Peter Waddicor, awarded the contract to A.C.'s Northern sales office in Leeds due to the company's ability to provide a complete one-stop-shop solution and rapid response service to meet their needs.

Using the company's dedicated lighting and audio sales teams, large stockholding of entertai

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USA - Chauvet releases the Q-Series, a range of competitively priced yet advanced intelligent fixtures designed primarily for clubs and professional DJs.

"The Q-Series brings together cutting-edge features and the value, innovation and performance you have come to expect from Chauvet," said Chauvet product development manager Barry Abrams.

Featuring a consistent design and library of gobos and colors, Q-Series allows users to mix and match units across the line and still maintain a consistent look using a variety of fixtures and effects.

The initial product launch encompasses four moving yoke spot fixtures, one moving yoke wash fixture and four scanners. All nine feature a dimmer/shutter/strobe channel, speed control of pan and tilt, bi-directional color scroll, reset via DMX, quality built in programs, and very efficient fan cooling.

Presented in exclusive silve

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Belgium - Martin's Maxedia Digital Media Composer was used on one of Belgium's biggest televised musical events of 2005, the TMF Awards. Held at the Sportpaleis in Antwerp, the show's visual elements included a combination of lighting and video effects designed by independent Belgian LD Michiel Milbou.

Besides controlling 73 PixelLine LED fixtures, the Maxedia was used to pixel map 24 automated lights located inside set-cubes on stage. Through DMX merge-channels a seamless crossfade was done from the ArtNet input of the Maxedia to the video pixel mapping of the Maxedia output. A total of 11 DMX universes were pixel mapped on the Maxedia during the four-hour live broadcast event.

"The Maxedia gave me the opportunity to integrate the whole set in one 'picture', says Milbou. "I used a large high resolution LED wall and custom built Mipix elements, and together with the

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New from Color Kinetics was iColor Flex SL, a multi-purpose, LED-based strand of light that can generate video-based effects and accommodate expansive installations without the constraints of fixture size, shape, or space. Also new was ColorBlaze, for large-area scenery and wash lighting for theatres, TV studios, concerts, events, casinos and exhibits.

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Interactive Technologies showed the CueServer, a Web-enabled show playback processor. The product's console-like controls appear in your web browser - cue lists, stage views, playback faders, and event triggers. Another product, DMX-To-Go, provides wireless DMX links that are cost-effective, easy-to-use, small, and self-powered, the company says.

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Designed by Horizon Control, and seen on the Genlyte/Vari-Lite booth, the Marquee ILD lighting control console software V3.0 adds an effects editor. Besides allowing you to build your own effects onto any lighting attribute, the effects-editor feature includes pre-defined effects, such as ballyhoo, can-can, circle, rainbow, intensity wave, etc. Independent attribute timing gives programmers the ability to add unlimited cue dynamics on every attribute of every fixture in every cue.

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Zero 88 had an excellent presence on the stand of US distributor ACT Lighting to show its range of lighting control products, including the Frog console which, incredibly, has now been on the market for five years. The company was showing the 10th version of the Frog's software, which now offers programming down to individual parameter level, as well as Tracking and Move on Dark features. Also on show was the V2.0 software for the more powerful Frog 2 console, and the new mid-level memory console, the Jester.

Also being demonstrated alongside Zero 88 was the Arkaos VJ software for DMX consoles. Aimed primarily at nightclub environments, Arkaos allows lighting operators to trigger visual media through the lighting control desk. The package offers simple and intuitive operation, say the company.

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Le Maitre showed the Radiance hazer, defined by greater output, onboard DMX, and an internal fan. Also shown was Le Torcia, a hand-held flame effect powered by butane, and the Power Fog 90 unit.

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Clay Paky America showed the new members of the Italian manufacturer's Alpha range: the Alpha Spot 700, Alpha Spot 1200 and Alpha Spot HPE 1200. The first features a 15-40° zoom, CMY colour-mixing, and 14 gobos, plus an animation disk. Alpha Spot 1200 is 1,200W effects projector with a 15-40° zoom, CMY colour-mixing, and 14 gobos plus animation disc. The HPE edition has 10-40° zoom, CMY colour-mixing, and a seven-colour wheel.

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Sweden - Lighting specialist Spectra supplied creative design and production management services, plus all lighting and AV equipment to the prestigious 2005 Nobel Prize Awards Banquet, staged at the Blue Hall of Stockholm's City Hall.

Sweden's highest profile event of the year was attended by the King, Queen and other members of the Royal Family, a host of Nobel Laureates, politicians, dignitaries and VVIPs - around 1,400 guests in all. The entire evening was broadcast live on Swedish National television's SVT1.

Spectra instigated several important technical firsts for the occasion, including stunning roof projections, created using the new Catalyst Version 4 digital media server. The event was also the European debut for Wybron's new Nexera tungsten colour-changing wash fixtures. Spectra also utilised SGM's latest Giotto Synthesis 700 moving lights, Barco R18s for the project

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Strong Entertainment Lighting's Jack Schmidt is now officially retired, but he's still very much in evidence in his consultancy role. The company showed a new followspot featuring an 850W DC (and thereforeflicker-free) metal halide Ushio lamp source, which Schmidt says produces an output equivalent to a 1600W Xenon. Latest developments to the Super Trouper include a new ammeter on the back of the unit which is compatible with either 220V/50Hz or 110V/60Hz operation, allowing the units to be toured between regions without switching meters.

Schmidt's successor, Jack Gallagher, was keen to reinforce the company's reputation as a leading innovator: on display was a list of the company's innovations in followspot technology dating back to the first carbon arc Super Trouper in 1948, and the first Xenon Super Trouper in 1971; it also mentions the Super Trouper being immortalised by pop legend

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Products at the Coemar booth included the Mini-Cyc, the Parlite LED, the iWash Halo, and the iSpot S.

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City Theatrical continued its line of power supplies for Color Kinetics LED fixtures. The PDS-750-TR provides power and DMX-control capability for the ColorBlast. Also, the AutoYoke is now available with WDS wireless DMX technology, say the company.

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Martin Professional's international stage, studio and event segment manager, Mark Ravenhill, had just settled into his new Florida home, following his move from Denmark, and was having an "absolutely great" show.He showed us the company's latest prototype moving head, the Mac TW1 ('Tungsten Wash') - its first incandescent fixture, following many requests, said Ravenhill. The idea, he explains, was to achieve "everything in one fixture": no small aim. It consists of a new, magnesium-bodied head on a Mac 2000 yoke sitting on a Mac 700 base, sensibly taking advantage of tried and tested components. It features a twin-lensed zoom system, an internal dimmer (various dimming curves are available), plus a connection for external dimming; it also includes full CMY colour mixing, very precise movement, a quarter-turn lamp access door and is 110/230V compatible. Its patented (a

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Seen earlier at PLASA, but hotly anticipated in the US was the return of Vari-Lite's VL5 in its updated guise as the VL500. There are four versions: the VL500 has the option of a 1,000W or 1,200W lamp and uses a conventional dimmer circuit for intensity control. The VL500D has a built-in IGBT dimmer but is otherwise identical to the standard VL500 - right down to the 12.5-to 20° beam angle. The VL500A is the arc-source version, with the option of either a 575W or 700W source. The VL500A is significantly narrower than its tungsten cousins, at 7.5 to 16.5°, and uses an external ballast. The VL500 80V uses an 80V/1,200W incandescent lamp, an external dimmer, and has a beam angle of 11-16.5°.
  1. Apollo Design Technology
  2. White Light Congratulates Olivier Award Nominees
  3. Pathway Connectivity
  4. A.C. Lighting
  5. Rosco
  6. Sunlite
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