Lighting

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Slovakia - Robe moving lights took centre stage for a special edition of Velky Hrac, (The Big Player) one of Slovakia's top rated TV programmers, with lighting supplied by Q-99. The programme saw six contestants including a Slovak celebrity taking part in the nail-biting general knowledge quiz.

Lighting designer was Martin Kubanka, one of the country's highest profile TV lighting designer and also LD for the last four series' of the popular programme for the independent TV channel JOJ.

Velky Hrac (known as PokerFace in the UK where it was created and presented by Ant & Dec) is based on the bluffing aspect of poker games and was recorded at Koliba Studios in Bratislava with a live audience. The series is licenced by UK-based Freemantle.

Kubanka explains that the terms of the licence contained certain lighting references which had to be followed. He took t

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Germany - Modular in structure, the new DMXPWM/RGB DMX decoder from VLM GmbH offers over 500 addressable channels and can control up to 99 operating devices for LEDs.

With the new DMXPWM/RGB DMX decoder, VLM has expanded its range of DMX-controlled RGB solutions. No longer limited to 3-digit addresses like its predecessors but freely addressable, the new decoder is capable of controlling up to 99 operating devices using up to 511 addressable channels, the previous limit having been 93. This opens the door to a wide range of uses, covering virtually all DMX-controlled RGB applications.

The DMXPWM/RGB converts signals based on the DMX 512/2000 protocol into PWM (pulse width modulation) signals that can be interpreted and processed by VLM's own DLDC(C)/RGB/SLX colour control system, which was designed for use by all professional lighting designers and is especially suitable for t

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USA - Two grandMA consoles and two grandMA lights are used in the production Love, a co-production of Cirque du Soleil and Apple Corps Ltd. celebrating the musical legacy of The Beatles. Lighting designer Yves Aucoin, assisted by Karl Gaudreau and Robert Brassard, employed an extensive number of moving lights and LEDs to light the stage, with lifts going up and down, and foggers to camouflage the lifts.

Love features HD video projections with 100-foot digital, moving images and a panoramic surround sound system. The grandMA's control an array of equipment for the show, including 28 Green Hippo Hippotizer media servers which permit eight different layers of HD images on a curved, translucent screen, a lighting rig featuring more than 200 Vari*Lite spots and washes, 200 Color Kinetics LED fixtures and 22 MDG foggers.

During the production period, Aucoin assisted by

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Europe - Lighting designer Leggy (Jonathan Armstrong) used a Kinesys motion control system to great effect for the recent Basement Jaxx tour. It was the first time he's used Kinesys and he enthused, "I love it," adding that he will use the system again at the first opportunity.

He designed four upstage/downstage 'claw' trusses as the key architectural elements of the lighting rig, and these moved constantly during the show into different positions, adding depth and dynamics to the overhead stage rig.

Each claw truss - two at 40ft long and two at 38ft - was suspended by five motors - two static Lodestar hoists downstage and three Kinesys vari-speed Liftkets on the upstage hinges, which moved them in and out via a Kinesys Vector control system.

Hung on the claws was the majority of Legg's lighting rig - including five High End Studio Command 1200 fixtures, four X-Spo

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UK - Entec Lighting is supplying all equipment and crew to Renegade Productions and LD Nick Gray for an installation at the Entice corporate event venue in Canary Wharf.

The three-roomed tented venue - with a capacity up to 3000 - is being run by catering and hospitality specialists Dish. It's hosting a series of parties and events throughout the run up to the festive season, aimed at attracting locally based Canary Wharf companies keen on capitalising on the convenience of having corporate festivities on their doorstep.

Renegade is supplying the creative lighting design by Gray, plus co-ordinating supply of all the technical infrastructure and hardware including lighting, sound, video, staging, set and power. Sculptivate are looking after all the set, scenic and dressing elements, with a design by Andy Cobb.

When it came to sourcing the lighting gear, Renegade came to Entec

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USA - Color Kinetics has announced the signing of a global licensing agreement with Neo-Neon International Ltd. Neo-Neon will be granted access to Color Kinetics' complete patent portfolio, allowing the continuing development and sale of its LED lighting products worldwide.

Neo-Neon is a China-based, 25-year established manufacturer of decorative and entertainment lighting products that include a growing number of LED-based offerings. Through the agreement, Neo-Neon will be able to offer its customers the capabilities of digital intelligence as protected by Color Kinetics' patents. The license will apply to sales of numerous Neo-Neon products in all markets covered by Color Kinetics' patent portfolio.

"We believe that demand for LED-based lighting products will continue to increase as the technology progresses and becomes even more competitive with traditional light sourc

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USA - Lamp Lite's small MR RGB 12V and MR RGB E27 LED lamps, distributed by the American DJ Group of Cos, can simply be plugged directly into venues' existing electrical setups.The MR RGB 12V and MR RGB E27 are low-priced, high-power LED lamps that promise "tremendous brightness and cutting-edge RGB colour mixing". The lamps have their own wireless controller, the WR LED.

In most cases, the MR RGB 12V and MR RGB E27 can be used with existing fixtures. Since the lamps don't require the user to run cable or DMX, bar and restaurant owners won't have to make costly electrical wiring changes to integrate them into their venue - they can simply install them in, say, an ordinary track lighting setup. Even the mounting hardware is user-friendly: The E27 model attaches to a standard medium screw base E27 socket from 90-240v power, while the 12V model attaches with an ordinary b

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Belgium - ADB Lighting has announced the appointment of Koto Lighting, based in Tokyo, as a distribution, sales and installation partner for the Japanese market.

The signing, which follows an agreement reached at the 2006 PLASA show in London, brings together ADB's growing product line-up and the expertise and resources of Koto Lighting, a subsidiary of Koto Electric Co., a major supplier to the professional lighting market in Japan.

The Koto Group has grown from its origins as a light bulb specialist with interests in manufacturing, distribution and sales of lighting products throughout Japan. It will handle the ADB Lighting product range, from the award-winning WARP zoom profile spotlight range to the MENTOR and PHOENIX control desks.

ADB's products have already enjoyed considerable success in Japan, with the NIETHAMMER range of profile spotlights installed in major Japane

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Russia - Rental Capital, one of Moscow's biggest lighting rental companies, has invested in 16 Robe ColorSpot 1200 ATs and 24 ColorWash 1200 ATs, complete with flight-casing, plus Weather Shields for use on outdoor projects.

The company supplies all the major Russian TV channels including ORT, NTV, RUSSIA and many others, and is also engaged in staging concerts, festivals and other events nationwide and throughout the CIS.

Rental Capital was founded in 2000, and now employs eighty staff. The company purchased the Robe kit to compliment its existing generic and moving light ranges.

The sales deal was completed through local distributor Sofitlight, following intense negotiations by director Arcady Chakhidjanov, with support from Robe HQ in the Czech Republic, International sales manager Harry von den Stemmen and Boris Krylov from Robe's Russian office.

Krylov comments, "

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Qatar - For the $190 million opening ceremony of the 15th Asian Games in the Khalifa Stadium, Doha, four grandMA full-size, four grandMA light and 22 NSPs for the 44 DMX universes were employed by lighting designers Fabrice Kebour and Andrew Doig and associate designer Steve Shipman.

Forty-five nations competed during fourteen days to win gold, silver and bronze medals. Network and Console Technician Paul Collison and programmers Jim Beagley, Romain Labat, Roger Ray and Maran Persoons did their very best to give the competitions a good start. They divided the grandMA system into four sessions: Alpha Spots and Conventionals; VL3000 spots, Cameleon Lyre and TP6 projectors; Searchlights; Mac 2K Washes. Each grandMA console had an identical console as a backup which was also used for pre-programming.

The Element Labs LED video-screen that towered over Khalifa Stadium was 165 metre

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UK - A.C. Lighting's Northern UK sales manager, Adam Beaumont, has been named Manfrotto Lighting Support Product Manager of the Year 2006.

The award recognises the sales and promotional achievements of the most active dealer for each Manfrotto division and was announced at the company's recent product managers annual meeting in Venice.

The annual meeting is a key opportunity for Manfrotto to meet face to face with its dealers to exchange feedback, review sales performance and market trends, and announce new products coming next year.

Vitec Photographic Div. regional sales manager (E.ME.A.I.) Fabio Prada, who presented the award, says: "Adam has proved to be particularly dedicated to the Manfrotto & Avenger brands and really got behind the launch of some of their key new products this year, such as the Avenger CrossPole, providing a level of dealer promotional support in

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Egypt - Egyptian telecom company Orascom marked their 50 millionth subscriber with a celebration at the Pyramids in Giza recently. Guests were housed in a large tent overlooking the site and were entertained by an international cabaret headlined by the Pussy Cat Dolls. Italian production company K events were originally tasked to provide a light and fireworks extravaganza as a highlight to the evening but a combination of a very short lead time and delays in the granting of the necessary permissions saw the firework element removed and British lighting designer Durham Marenghi from Lumitect appointed as art director for the event.

Marenghi required dramatic floodlighting of the central pyramid and powerful aerial effects, so he approached Jack Calmes at Syncrolite in the USA, and 16 of the new 10kW dichroic searchlights and 12 8kW units were flown in from Dallas. The 10kW Syncro

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Russia - The historic Novosibirsk State Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet (NSATOB) is the biggest theatre complex in Russia, a whopping 62,245sq.m larger than the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. It is also now one of the most technologically advanced in the country, thanks to a recent £2.9m (€4.32m) government grant for renovation. From acoustics to lighting to general stage technology, the theatre is now completely digital. And, as part of the upgrade, NSATOB chose lighting systems by ETC.

The last time the 62-year-old theatre underwent renovation was in 1953 - after weathering a challenging early history. The original architectural design for the massive neoclassical complex was chosen at a competition in Paris in 1930. Construction began the following year, but was halted during WWII. During the war, the partially completed building was used to house famous works of art

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USA - New from the Q-Series, the Q-Wash LED is a DMX-512 programmable moving yoke fitted with eighteen 1-watt LEDs to deliver a wash with full RGB mixing capability.

Besides the obvious advantage of longevity, low power consumption and low heat emission afforded by the use of LEDs, the Q-Wash LED also offers the convenience of remote reset, vector speed control, and the functionality of full dimming and automatic pan and tilt correction. Users can program and store up to 100 steps for later recall without the need for a controller.

The Q-Wash LED comes equipped with standard lenses that create a 30-degree beam angle. Optional lenses are also available to create a wider, 45-degree beam angle.

Movement is extremely smooth and fast, within a range of 540 degrees of pan by 270 degrees of tilt. Pan and tilt are reversible. Users can access built in automated and sound-activated p

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Malta - A performance by Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli accompanied by the Maltese National Orchestra launched the new Malta Fairs & Convention Centre (MFCC) as a concert venue. The show was attended by 7,500 people including Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, and President Edward Fenech Adami.

The new 27,000 square metre MFCC venue is located on a purpose built site at the centre of the Island, with a large parking area and easy access from all directions. It's the largest performance/convention/exhibition space in the country and the only indoor venue offering full production facilities to accommodate medium to large concerts, tours and shows. It is intended to generate a whole new level of commercial fairs, concert, conference, corporate event and live music business in the county, attracting world class performers and leading destination management companies.

The structure is th

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UK - Blackburn-based HSL has purchased a 16-way Kinesys automation system, including 15 1-tonne Liftket vari-speed motors, converted to work with the Kinesys kit and Elevation 1+ hoist controllers, which went straight out on the Snow Patrol pre-Xmas UK arena tour.

Lighting designer Dave Sherwin wanted to move some of his trusses, while video director Blue Leach's design was based on having five differently shaped moving high resolution video screens (supplied by XL Video), so HSL decided it was the right time to buy a system.

"We'd been looking into this for some time," says HSL's technical director Howard Dean. "We explored the options and reckoned that it's the best automation system on the market, so it was really just a question of 'when?'."

Kinesys, complete with its proprietary PC-based Vector software, seemed to be the most flexible and user-friend

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UK - Status Quo have had more hit albums (33) in the British Albums Chart than any other band apart from The Rolling Stones. 2005 was the band's 40th year and they show their determination that they are not stopping yet, by launching into another UK & European tour in 2006.

They are currently near the end of the UK leg of Just Doin' It tour, playing to a mixture of theatres and arenas, which will then continue in July 2007.

Pat Marks, who has been lighting designer to Status Quo for the last 18 years says: "I'm usually given 'carte blanche' when designing Quo rigs, so I'm never given a brief, as such. However, I fancied going 'retro' this tour as I'd been dabbling with some high tech stuff over the last few years. I'd played around with loads of PixelLine and Pixel Pars last year and felt I was losing sight of the archetypal Quo rig i.e. big and brash!"

Mark

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UK - Le Mark Group has announced that Donna Wilson has been appointed for the new roll of export sales coordinator within the company.

Wilson's position has seen her move to Le Mark's Export office and tasked to give close support their international dealer network. "The position is a demanding one," says managing director Stuart Gibbons. "Donna has worked hard at all levels within the Company and has shown a true 'flair' for overseas development and export support."

Wilson starts 2007 with her first 'solo' trip to Scandinavia. Supplying both 'product support' and training with the Multitechnic team at the LLB exhibition (Lyd Lys & Bilde) in Oslo. From LLB, she flies to Sweden for further dealer product training before returning to the UK.

"2007 is set to be an exciting year for Le Mark," continued Gibbons. "Le Mark has always prided itself

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Denmark - Martin Professional has released application software Version 2.0 for both the Maxxyz and Maxxyz PC controllers. Martin has also released Maxxyz OS (Operating System) 2.0. Version 2.0 software adds a host of features and updates to the Maxxyz controller range and is available for download. The key features of Maxxyz Version 2.0 are outlined below.

A redesign of the Graphical User Interface (GUI) provides more flexible control including saveable GUI configurations, new window docking and 16 views per touchscreen. Martin's Maxxyz and Maxedia Media Composer now share the same User Interface, making programming and operation easy and logical between different Martin Professional controller products.

Cloning allows users to copy fixtures for expanded lighting systems or to replace fixtures within the showfile between different types. Clones show content like cues, presets

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USA/UK - Lighting designer Rich Locklin was called upon to light the 2006 Paul Simon tour, his first time working with America's seminal singer-songwriter. "Paul Simon is an American icon," says Locklin. "You don't go to one of his shows for the lighting; you go for the songs, so I wanted to complement the music in a tasteful way. I tried to program each song as a story. When you think of a particular Paul Simon song you just know what type of lighting goes with it."

Locklin spec'ed an all MAC 700 Profile rig with a handful of conventionals available for support. Lighting control is from a Martin Maxxyz. "I wanted to take out the latest fixture and learn a new console; it's been a good exercise."

Specifying a rig that is all spot fixtures is unique in the world of show touring. "A wash fixture, that's all it can do, but a profile can do so mu

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UK - If you use or work for a small business which you think is worthy of an award, then the organisers of the British Small Business Champions (BSBC) 2007 would like to hear from you. And, if the business you nominate is selected as a regional champion you will receive a bottle of champagne.

To let BSBC know about the business you think is great all you have to do is e-mail: bsbc@fsb.org.uk or write to BSBC 2007 PO Box 335, Lymington SO41 6WJ giving the name of the business, its address, a line or two about why you think it is outstanding, and your name and address. An entry form for British Small Businesses 2007 will then be sent to the business.

The business you nominate must not employ more than 50 people and have been trading for five years or more. Closing date for entries is 31 January 2007.

The annual British Small Busin

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UAE - Eid el Fitr marks the end of the 30-day fasting period of Ramadan and is a great celebration throughout the Muslim world. Celebrations take place all over Dubai and on the evening of Eid el Fitr it is common to get together with friends, families and loved ones for a huge feast.

Middle East Vari*Lite distributor Sultan Thomas, has been involved with the festivities for a number of years. And this year in collaboration with Music Plus Television, two shows were hosted in Dubai at the Madinat Jumeirah Arena Hall.

Lighting designer Amir Touma specified 20 VL3000 Spots and 20 VL3000 Washes to provide the dynamic core of the lighting, supported by an assortment of other fixtures all controlled by a Jands Vista. The stage concept was created by Resources Stage Technologies who provided the stage, sound and lighting.

Sultan Thomas states: "Vari*Lite fixtures are very muc

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USA - In a city known for great entertainment, The Pearl, the new theatre at Las Vegas' Palms Casino Resort, is destined to become an attraction in itself. Scheduled to open in the spring of 2007, the venue features innovative stage and seating designs and state-of-the art performance technology. PRG engineered the lighting, dimming and control systems and provided all the lighting fixtures for The Pearl and a nearby ballroom.

"When we set out to build the most advanced live performance space in Las Vegas, The Palms naturally turned to PRG, the world's leading entertainment technology company. Their expertise in theatrical lighting and rigging is apparent in The Pearl concert theatre," said H.C. Rowe, entertainment director at The Palms Casino Resort.

Flexibility was key in lighting The Pearl's stage, which will serve as a luxury showcase for top-flight events, rangi

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Spain - Stonex SA, MA Lighting's distributor in Spain, continued its workshop tour through Spain and held another successful workshop in Granada recently. 30 operators, lighting designers and associates from rental and theatre companies joined the training in the Centro de estudios escenicos de la junta de Andalucia. Miguel Angel Valera of Stonex used four grandMA full-size, one grandMA light, two grandMA ultra-light, three grandMA micro and grandMA video cosnoles to show the participants the extensive abilities of the grandMA system. In addition everyone had a laptop with grandMA onPC and grandMA 3D in use. "Everyone enjoyed the training. The grandMA has become very popular," Valera adds.

(Lee Baldock)

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