Lighting

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Germany / The Netherlands - Spotrental supplied 14 Gladiator IV spot lights for the extravagant opening ceremony of the 2006 football World Cup in Germany, which started in Munich's Allianz Arena.

Triple World Cup winner Pele carried the trophy onto the pitch with German supermodel Claudia Schiffer at his side, followed by 150 former World Cup winners, as the hosts put on a spectacular show.

Spotrental is the world's largest dedicated followspot light rental specialists, servicing events all over Europe from their Dutch facility. They have a comprehensive range of state of the art spotlights to suit every application in live events and broadcast.

Spotrental's policy of vigilant maintenance and testing underpins the reliability of these lights when lighting events like the ten-minute opening of the World Cup, says the company. Viewed by a live audience of 100,000 and 150milli

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Greece - The 2006 Eurovision Song Contest, held in the O.A.K.A. hall in Athens, was an outstanding event once again. German company Procon supplied the lighting system, which included about 500 moving lights as well as a number of Barco video and Schnickschnack LED systems. The video and LED systems were built into motorized movable staircases on the stage. In total, 44 DMX lines were used, divided into four lighting worlds: moving lights, LED, white light and video/media server.

The complete lighting control was via MA Lighting's grandMA system - four grandMA full-size and a grandMA light, plus backup and 22 NSPs (network signal processors). A fibre-optic network with four HP switches was installed to maximise the stability of the lighting control technology network, say MA Lighting.

The complex control network was realized by two years of cooperation between mo² Design GmbH

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USA - BSR E1.18, Standard for the selection, installation, and use of single-conductor portable power feeder cable systems for use at less than 601 volts nominal for the distribution of electrical energy in the entertainment and live-event industries, offers guidance on the selection, installation, and safe use of single-conductor portable power feeder cable systems used in the entertainment and live-event industries as power distribution systems, and is available for review until 28 August 2006. The draft standard and its supporting materials are available at http://www.esta.org/tsp/documents/public_review_docs.php

In addition to being asked to review the document to see if it offers adequate advice, reviewers are asked to look for protected intellectual property in the draft standard. ESTA does n

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UK - The smash-hit Broadway musical AvenueQ - a tale of the every-day life of people, puppets and monsters living in an outer borough of New York, which won the Tony Awards for Best New Musical, Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score in 2004 - has now opened at the newly-renamed Noel Coward Theatre in London's West End. Lit by Howell Binkley - winner of this year's Best Lighting for a Musical Tony Award for his work on Jersey Boys on Broadway - AvenueQ is the first show in London to use Robert Juliat's new Super Korrigan followspot.

White Light, the exclusive UK distributor for Robert Juliat, supplied three Super Korrigans to the show's lighting supplier, PRG. Faced with the need to have three centre spots to ensure even coverage of the show's puppets and puppeteers, the show's creative team needed spots that were compact and quiet enough to mount in

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Australia - Music and drama are acknowledged as areas of excellence at The Geelong College in Victoria, which recently opened a new $8million music and performing arts centre. The impetus for the project was the generosity of Jill Humble, who provided approximately $2 million to the school for use in the centre, in memory of her late husband, the renowned musician, Keith Humble.

The Keith Humble Centre for Music and the Performing Arts features a 250-seat music auditorium, incorporating an historic Wurlitzer pipe organ, a versatile 'black box' drama theatre, a three-level foyer, a music technology laboratory, recording and editing booths, a bio box, green room, music library, rock studio, multiple classrooms and music practice rooms, drama rehearsal studios, staff, offices and much more.

McGlashan Everist were the architects for the project, with Rob Mitchell of RTM Internatio

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UK - Over 80,000 rock fans descended on London's Hyde Park last weekend, to witness the biggest ever Foo Fighters concert. Lighting Designer Nathan Wilson has worked with the band for many years, and his rig this time included over 100 moving lights and 80 PixelLine 1044s. The battens were used to outline the trussing and frame the video screens helping give the rig an overall shape.

Wilson says: "I chose the PixelLines because I like the fact that they are an LED fixture that you really can't see the LEDs - only the final effect which is great."

Neg Earth supplied all the lighting including the Catalyst and PixelMad control system.

(Lee Baldock)

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Denmark - Responding to the recent surge in laser popularity, Martin Professional has come up with a new and "hassle-free" laser - the Martin RGB Laser 1.6 - a Class 4 white light laser with balanced cool white which comes in an extremely compact housing.

With simple plug-and-play operations, hundreds of pre-installed effects, and a cooling system that eliminates the need for expensive and bulky water cooling, the RGB Laser 1.6 is all about performance made easy. Take it on the road, decorate and revitalize outdoor structures and buildings for events and promotions, or utilize its unique effect in permanent installations, the RGB Laser 1.6 is as versatile as it is powerful.

Slightly larger than an average DVD player, yet able to take the knocks and blows of touring without misaligning, the RGBL 1.6 is capable of extremely deep saturated colours - especially an intens

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Russia - Staged at the Olimpiysky Sports Center in the Russian capital, the National Television Awards in Popular Music was attended by more than 20,000 people, and saw G-LEC provide 157 PhantomFrames to display the video images that served as a visual backdrop to the circular set.

Having designed the set to move up and down, the production company looked for the lightest and brightest LED system available, and chose G-LEC's lightweight, flexible and easily assembled PhantomFrame. The modular PhantomFrame system is capable of providing pixel by pixel rendering of full-speed video display signals, ensuring that the images, from a Catalyst media server and fed to the bank of LED frames via seven PC racks, were fast and smooth. In addition to the Awards, the audience was treated to performances from a host of Russian pop stars, including the once-controversial duo Tatu.

This was

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America / Europe - Touring in support of her 2005 album, Confessions on a Dancefloor, Madonna's 2006 tour is an all out disco spectacular that sees the Material Girl dancing her way across North America and Europe through the summer.

Perhaps this summer's hottest concert ticket, this is Madonna's second tour in a row in which lighting designer Roy Bennett has turned to a Martin lighting package. PRG's Las Vegas office has supplied 47 MAC 700 Profiles, 31 MAC 2000 Washes, 82 Atomic strobes with Atomic Colors and other automateds for the tour.

"Some of what we did this year was based on what was done on the previous tour but we expanded on that," Roy explains. "We have a combination of MAC 700 Profiles, MAC 2000 Washes and other automated lights both in the rig and on the floor, all over really, doing a lot such as the soft good washes over and around the

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USA - Bandit continued their long relationship with the CMA Music Festival in 2006. Under the direction of noted designer Mike Swinford the Bandit team delivered another television show to be aired July 24th on ABC. Martina McBride, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Brooks and Dunn, Keith Urban, Wynonna, Montgomery Gentry, Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, LeAnn Rimes, Sugarland, Clint Black, Ronnie Milsap, Sarah Evans, Pat Green, Dierks Bentley and Trisha Yearwood are but a few of the many artists that will appear on the spectacular.

Swinford specified a tremendous variety of fixtures including VL 3000s, VL 500s, Martin MAC 2000s, MAC 600s, and a host of other equipment. The show was controlled by two Grand MA and two Grand MA Lite consoles. Board operators were Mark Butts and Ken Hutson and Monica Rose was the gaffer. The production manager for the CMA was Chuck Young, a veteran of many ye

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UK - At a informal on 6 July, Sean Albuquerque (Chair, RIBA South East) awarded Nicolas Chisholm (headmaster of the Yehudi Menuhin School) and ABTT member Mark Foley (principal of architectural practice Burrell Foley Fischer LLP), a RIBA Award lead plaque for Foley's design of the The Menuhin Hall situated within the school at Stoke D'Abernon, Surrey - a winner in the RIBA Awards 2006 - South East category.

Described by the judges as "magic in maple", the full award citation reads: "This building has been delivered on an exceptionally tight budget but is none the poorer for that. Set in the green belt and within earshot of the M25, the hall is conspicuously located in a prominent position on a site that slopes gently away from the loose collection of school buildings strung along the skyline.

"The Hall is the building. Externally, it is simple, econo

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USA - City Theatrical has added two new staff members in two newly-created staff positions. Ken Bruns has joined the company as a salesperson, concentrating on outside sales and increasing CTI's contact with designers, consultants, distributors, production electricians, theatres and other end-users. Prior to joining CTI, Bruns - who holds a BFA degree from Ithaca College - was an account executive at PRG in North Bergen, New Jersey.

Ben Merrick has also joined CTI as new product development manager. Merrick has worked at the Hartford Stage Company, and is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama. His role at the company will be to help ensure a steady stream of new products for City Theatrical customers.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Pixi-Flex consists of individual pixels moulded onto a cable. Each pixel is individually controlled and can display over 16 million colours. Three standard versions are available: 16 pixels with a nominal pitch of 250mm, 16 pixels with a 500mm pitch and 32 pixels with a 125mm pitch. Special variants of these can be manufactured for custom projects.

The product can be surface mounted using the integral 3mm thread, or simply push fit into a suitable hole in the set, wall or fabric. Pixi-Flex is perfect for creating pixilated walls of light, similar to video walls. The big difference is that Pixi-Flex can flow around contours and make three-dimensional shapes.

Pixi-Flex uses a new "point-source" RGB LED that creates both a bright white light output and, with their consistent colour mixing ability, provides an enhanced colour palette with a superior range of pastel

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UK - LED lighting specialist and manufacturer i-Vision has expanded and moved to bigger premises in Cwmbran, South Wales. The new facility - the former Matsushita Corporation building - includes an automated assembly production line for i-Vision's Lumos range of interior and exterior LED luminaries plus 12,000sq.ft of warehousing and offices.

The building has been completely gutted, refurbished and customised by the i-Vision team to meet their growing needs, which had completely outstripped the capacity of the previous premises in Chepstow, particularly the manufacturing aspect. I-Vision can also now capitalise on keeping as much of the process as possible in house.

The new address is:
Lakeside House
Lakeside
Cwmbran
NP44 3XS
Telephone: 01633 482500.

All Emails and the web address remain the same.

As an energy conscious company, i-Vision has undertaken all i

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USA / Hong Kong / UK - Genlyte Group, parent company of a number of professional lighting brands including Vari-Lite, has announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire the US and Hong Kong-based operations of Strand Lighting - and certain assets of Strand Lighting Ltd in the UK, as part of a restructuring being undertaken by Strand.

According to Genlyte's announcement, approximately 80 Strand US employees located in Los Angeles and 22 employees in Hong Kong will join the Genlyte organization. The UK operation is in the hands of administrators KPMG, under Jane Moriarty and Blair Nimmo. KPMG has confirmed to LSI Online that 60 reduncancies have been made in the UK, and it is not thought that anyone from the UK operation is being retained by Genlyte.

In 2005, the Strand business segments included in the transaction reported sales of approximately $31 million. The transact

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Turkey / Sweden - Wybron dealer, Stockholm-based Spectra Stage & Event Technologies, completed a massive permanent lighting installation on the Garantibank Headquarters in Istanbul on 21June, bringing Wybron colour to the skies. The 400-foot-tall structure (120 meters) was the last of eight bank buildings in Turkey for which Istanbul-based The Partners commissioned Spectra to complete the lighting design.

Lighting Designer Per Sundin wanted the façade of the building to stand out, but had to keep Mother Nature in mind. The Spectra team fit 28 Wybron outdoor model Large Format Aquaram colour changers onto Philips ArenaVision MVF 403 1800W HID floodlighting luminaires to drench the front stone walls of the bank in beautiful shades of blue and aqua. In addition to the benefit of delivering exact gel colours, the Aquaram is built to withstand the elements. The control switch panels

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UK - In line with its continuing expansion program, Kelco UK Limited has recently appointed Graham Barron as its new sales manager. Barron brings over 20 years of experience in the lighting industry.

Part of Barron's responsibility will be the ongoing development and sales of Kelco's 'Sensory Engineering' concept - a holistic approach to lighting, sound and aroma installations which the company says is already impacting on the leisure segment.

Kelco's MD David Kelland said: ''In order to move our company forward we felt it necessary to recruit a seasoned sales professional from within our industry. Of those we interviewed, Graham was the candidate who immediately grasped the immense power of Sensory Engineering."

''The technical sector of the leisure and entertainment business is constantly evolving and always searching for innovative, cutting-edge concepts. Sensory Eng

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USA - If you are tired of waiting for your fog to rise, American DJ provides a solution with the Jet Stream Fogger, a new fixture that shoots a high output of smoke straight up in the air like a volcano.

Similar to a pyro-type effect, this high-flying fogger creates a thick cloud of fog that settles naturally from the ceiling down onto the floor. It marks a major advance over other fog machines that disperse bottom-heavy fog too low to properly fill a venue.

"The Jet Stream Fogger gets your fog up off the ground and into the air where it belongs," said Scott Davies, general manager of the American DJ group of companies. "Complete floor-to-ceiling fog coverage is more realistic-looking and dramatic than fog that just lingers at your feet all night. It makes all of your lighting effects, especially ceiling-mounted centerpiece fixtures, look bigger and better."

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UK In the last couple of years, Midlands-based Central Presentations Ltd (CPL) has gone from strength to strength, and its rapid expansion has meant they have had to rethink their whole business processes. Keeping tabs on its kit was paramount, and in this rental management solution inspHire played a key role.

Specialising in conference and live event production, as well as AV equipment hire and sales, CPL has seen massive growth recently. During this frenetic period, they were forced to consider all the facets of their business; from office and warehouse space to the modernisation of the old paperwork systems used to track and invoice its kit.

Increased investment in equipment meant the manual paperwork system began encountering problems - items were mislaid or left on site with no obvious way to trace them, as manual administration systems became time-consuming and laborious

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USA - The first annual VH1 Rock Honors TV special paid tribute to the music and influence of some of rock's legendary bands. The two-hour celebration of hard rock, taped at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, featured performances by honorees Kiss, Queen, Def Leppard and Judas Priest with tribute performances by Godsmack, Foo Fighters, The All-American Rejects and Paul Rodgers.

Responsible for lighting design were Roy Bennett and Stan Crocker who had Martin gear at their disposal including Mac 700 Profiles and Mac 2000 Profiles and Washes, as well as Martin U.S. distributed BigLite 4.5 Xenon lamp fixtures. Complementing the large Mac rig were a number of conventional luminaires. Digital effects also played a key visual design role and came courtesy of Martin's Maxedia Pro media server with control from the Martin Maxxyz with Wing. Lighting supply was by Upstaging

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UK - For the fifth year running, Entec Lighting is supplying CMP Entertainment with full lighting production, foyer area and VIP tent illuminations and crew for the month long 2006 Liverpool Summer Pops event.

The hugely successful 2006 Pops season features a lively megamix of international talent - from James Brown to Pops regulars The Australian Pink Floyd, from Westlife to Whitesnake, from New Order to Simply Red - and numerous others. There's something to sate virtually every flavour of popular music!

The event is again staged in its 4,500 capacity SIX pole Big Top, centrally located along the Dock Road.

As in previous years, the lighting was designed by Dave Hill. The rig maximises the available tent space and caters for a wide variety of band requirements and visiting LDs. For the get in, Entec supplied eight crew including Phil White and Leigh Yeomans, who are

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UK - The third meeting of PLASA's Manufacturers Forum takes place next week on the afternoon of Tuesday 18 July at the DTI Conference Centre in central London. First established 12 months ago, the Forum has proved a catalyst in bringing the concerns of manufacturers to the fore and is open to any member of PLASA who wishes to attend. Companies interested in joining the Association are also invited to attend as observers.

The guest speaker at next week's meeting is Steve Andrews from the DTI's Office of Science & Innovation who will update members on the RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances Regulations) Directive which passed into UK law on Saturday 1 July. The agenda will also address PLASA's recent lobbying activities and its appointment of a political & parliamentary consultancy, which led directly to the tabling of parliamentary questions on RoHS. Energy Minister

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UK - Lighting director Martyn Rourke used over 30 Robe moving lights in the main arena at the 2006 International Musical Eisteddfod in Llangollen. These and a large generic lighting rig were supplied by Blackburn based HSL and it was the first time moving light technology has featured at the Eisteddfod.

The opening ceremony included rousing performances by Welsh bass-baritone opera star Bryn Terfel and impresario pianist Llyr Williams, and was enjoyed by an audience of 6,500 and broadcast live on Welsh TV channel S4C, with highlights shown on BBC Wales. It was the second year that Rourke has been in the lighting hot seat. He worked closely with director Hefin Owen to a brief from independent producers Opus TV.

With this also being the 60th anniversary of the Eisteddfod, Rourke decided that the lighting production values needed upping, and this was the perf

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USA - Country music stars and husband and wife duo, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, have launched their Soul 2 Soul II tour, out across the US this summer.

Lighting designer is Roy Bennett who specified a large Mac rig that includes Mac 700 profiles, Mac 2000 profiles and Mac 2000 washes, more than 150 Mac units in all, supplied by Upstaging, Inc.

Country's hottest couple is playing in-the-round, a concert that lasts nearly three hours and features the two singers - who carry separate bands - performing on their own and together. The stage features a round central platform with four protruding wings. Above hangs the rig of automated and conventional luminaires. "There is a lot of gear on this show," Roy exclaims. "You could literally run across the top of the grid and it would be hard to fall through!

"But because the show is in-the-round the whole idea

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