Lighting

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UK - The National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh has recently opened a permanent exhibition of letters and historical items from one of the most important literary archives, the John Murray Archive.

Lighting designer Nich Smith was brought in to design a lighting scheme which would form both an exciting interactive experience for the visitor whilst fulfilling the conservation requirements demanded by the sensitive exhibits.

The result was a series of 'Character Showcases', each of which contain significant props and archive materials pertinent to the individual author. The showcases are left intentionally dim until activated by a visitor using interactive touch screens to fade lights up on the appropriate object. This has the dual effect of restricting light exposure of the manuscripts, and engaging the visitor with the case contents.

The showcase lighting is a mixture of

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UK - Essential Lighting has announced that Loz Wilcox has joined their System team, further increasing the project management support that the company offers to lighting and set designers.

Loz joins Essential from PRG Europe where he gained experience supporting such projects as The Lion King, Jersey Boys and Wicked in London's West End, product launches for prestigious clients such as Audi, Lexus and Rolls Royce and special events including the Nobel Peace Prize concerts.

Loz grew up with both parents involved in the entertainment industry and began his professional career aged 16 in his local theatre. Prior to returning to London, Loz travelled the world in the position of production manager for P&O Cruises, looking after the lighting design aboard their cruise liners; all of which earned him a wealth of experience that he brings to the team at Essential.

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Germany - On the recently concluded Tod oder Lebendig Rebirth Tour 2008 by rapper Kool Savas, GLP impression luminaires were used during 13 concerts in the German-speaking countries. The Berlin-based artist had engaged Gunnar Loose, whose references include Revolverheld and Bushido, to provide a lighting design in which 24 of the LED moving heads from German Light Products (GLP) played key roles.

"The impression combines high light output with very low power consumption, which is of great importance on tours with very variable lighting sets," Loose explained. "The lightness of these compact moving heads was of crucial importance on this tour, since all the lighting equipment had to be packed into a single trailer attached to the tour bus; with 24 conventional washlights that would have been unthinkable."

Loose mounted the moving heads in a 6 x 4 matr

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UK - The HSL Group will be in attendance for the fourth consecutive year. In the last 12 months, HSL has supplied numerous festivals and events including O2 Wireless Festival, Leeds, Rockness, The Full Ponty, Creamfields, Bestival, Knowsley Park, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Uganda (CHOGM), the World Scout Jamboree, the 2007 Festival of Scouting, the Premier League All Stars Football tournament, Opera Holland Park and the War Child Benefit show at Brixton Academy.

Artists on tour have been Snow Patrol, Keane, Human League, Brand New, Jarvis Cocker, Massive Attack, The Klaxons, Lily Allen, and the Super Furry Animals.

This year's shows and events have included supplying lighting for The People's Opening' Extravaganza to launch Liverpool's European Capital of Culture year, ,I>Dream On, the launch of theatre producer Bill Kenwright's new boyband, Roisi

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USA / Belgium - In the entertainment technology industry's latest high-profile acquisition, Barco has announced that it has bought High End Systems Inc, the well-known manufacturer of automated luminaires, digital lighting and lighting controls, for a total value of USD 55 million. "With the merging of two strong industry players, this acquisition reinforces Barco's leadership position in the fast converging video and lighting segments," say Barco.

Based in Austin, Texas, High End Systems employs 156 people and is a profitable company with USD 44m sales in 2007. The total value of the transaction is USD 55m, which implies an EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, amortisation) multiple of around eight on the past 12 months. The impact on 2008 EPS (earnings per share) is estimated to be about neutral due to the required IFRS (International Financial R

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UK - Erstwhile Chairman of PLASA, Diane Grant, has teamed up with Artistic Licence as part of an ongoing business development plan to maximise the potential of its product sales, says the company.

"Artistic Licence has a strong footing in the international projects market, and an equally strong presence for its products within mainland Europe," explains Artistic Licence managing director, Wayne Howell. "Within the UK, however, it is viewed primarily as the provider of solutions to a specific set of, mainly DMX orientated, problems.

"Many people do not realise the full extent of our product range, which includes LED fixtures and component parts for OEM, in addition to the well known Art-Net Ethernet products such as Net-Lynx and Data-Lynx. Our intention therefore is to spread the remit of our product range across a wider market, increasing its profile to inc

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UK - A.C. Lighting reports that its stand at the ABTT show will highlight a selection of the exclusive products and services available from the supplier's dedicated Lighting, Rigging, Audio and Video sales divisions, and sister Special Projects company.

As the exclusive UK distributor for the Chroma-Q, Jands and Spotlight brands, A.C.'s lighting area will feature recent additions to each range. The Chroma-Q LED range includes the new Color Punch compact IP65 fixture, providing super bright results for both indoor and temporary outdoor applications, and the Color Split fixture with dual side by side RGBA LED cells. The Jands range includes the revolutionary Vista lighting console with graphic based user interface and the FPX/WMX portable/wall mounted, professional touring quality 12x2.4kW channel dimmers. The Spotlight range includes the Cyclorama Domino RGBA LED floodlight with

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UK - Over the last 12 months KAVE Theatre Services has increased the Avolites products it holds within the Hire/Events departments.

Ben Jenkins, event manager at KAVE, says: "KAVE Theatre Services has established itself as a key player in the outdoor events environment and the Avolites products we now stock have assisted to ensure we deliver top quality results, with the reliability our customers rightly expect.

"Last year we worked with the band The Feeling and the Avolites products allowed us to achieve great results throughout the show. Customers are already requesting the Art 2000T4 dimmers and the Pearl Expert lighting desk for the Edinburgh Festival which we are delighted to supply. There is no doubt that the Avolites dimmers and desks were a great investment as they have proved to be very popular with customers and our engineers alike."

(Jim Evans)

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USA - Lighting professionals weighed in on Wybron products during a day of focus groups 4 June in New York City. Electricians, designers and other experts critiqued Wybron lighting equipment and offered input on how product designs could be improved. The feedback went straight to Wybron engineers.

"The thing that really got me excited was how fast everyone just plain got the new products, and the great ideas they all had for improvements," says president Keny Whitright.

Tom Ferguson, shop foreman and rental operations manager for Hudson Sound and Light, says he appreciates companies asking for input on their products. "If you're going to shove it down somebody's throat, there's going to be some resentment," Ferguson says.

The event previewed some of Wybron's new products as well as changes to its Infogate software, which uses two-way communication protoco

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Austria - The MEET/BTT trade conference takes place every two years and is hosted by OETHG and DTHG, the professional theatre and TV associations for Germany and Austria. This year the event was in Bregenz, Austria and featured an extensive schedule of conferences and seminars.

Together with RTC, Zero 88's distributor for Austria, Zero 88 showed the Frog 2, Leap Frog 48/96 and Jester series as well as the new Master Touch Screen for the Chilli dimmers. Zero 88's powerful 3D visualisation software Light Converse, which played a big role within the lighting design contest, had a lot of very positive feedback during the show, says the company.

A highlight of the event was the lighting design contest. This was the first time a lighting design competition had been arranged at the show and was accomplished in co-operation with the OETHG, DTHG and RTC.

Applications for the competit

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Germany - Following tarmLED 4x4's successful deployment at numerous productions this year, it was most recently the highlight of an event staged by Mercedes-Benz in Stuttgart. The system was installed horizontally above the heads of the 400 invited attendees and thus emulated an innovative LED-ceiling. At the finale of an approximately two-minute laser performance, the Mercedes star appeared in breathtaking brightness on the auditorium's 'LED-sky'.

Thanks to tarmLED 4x4's lightweight construction and daisy-chain cabling from module to module using just a single, combined, power and data line, the total weight of the approximately 50sq.m LED-surface, including all power supplies and processors, could be reduced to around 600 kg, which was an essential factor in arranging such a production, due to the limited load-bearing capacities of the existing suspension points. Data transmis

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UK - Bandit Lites recently donated lighting for the fourth annual Pinnacle Business Awards, hosted by the Knoxville Chamber and presented by Regions Bank. Over 650 business people attended the 2008 event, which took place at the KnoxvilleConvention Centre.

Building on the success of the past three galas, this year's awards ceremony featured a reception, a silent auction, followed by dinner and an awards presentation - emceed by John Becker.The Pinnacle Business Awards Gala is an occasion to honor both the nominees and award winners, all of which are outstanding representatives of the greater Knoxville business community.

To light the event, lighting designer, Will Twork, primarily chose to use Martin MAC 2000s, 600s, 500s and ETC Source Fours. Lighting was controlled by a Whole Hog II.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - Elation Professional's Opti RGB has switched to using higher-grade Neutrik 3-pin Data Connectors for DMX In/Out, improving the connection durability especially, when used by rental /production companies.

With the upgraded Neutrik connectors, lighting operators can be assured there will always be a strong, seamless flow of DMX data from their controller into the Opti RGB, and out from the fixture to other daisy-chained units, said Eric Loader, director of sales for Elation Professional. This will eliminate the possibility of breakage from heavy use, or of weak or interrupted DMX signals from the older XLR connectors, which can sometimes cause spotty performance.

"We wanted to improve the Opti RGB's control connectivity, and we felt the best way to do this was to switch to Neutrik connectors, which are really tops in the market with their exceptional quality and relia

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USA - ETC has released major new software for its Congo and Congo jr lighting control desks: Congo v5. The new software introduces a new effects package, new graphics and handling, as well as better editing tools, more functions and accessories. Congo users at theatres, TV studios and other entertainment venues worldwide will find a whole package of new solutions for their multimedia lighting rigs, suggests the company.

Congo v5 rethinks the management of lighting effects for theatre and live events, making them as easy to control as a dimmer with a scroller. Using all the tools available for device control, Congo v5 functions create many new effects. The new Chase effect provides a simple editor for creating intensity effects without using up presets and sequences. The new Dynamic effect uses the existing dynamics concept and brings them into the new Effect Playback world.

ET

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UK - London's Tower Hamlets is known as one of the city's less well off areas. Yet one of its schools, Morpeth in the Bethnal Green district, has done particularly well, with a £13.5m grant from the local authority which has led to a complete rebuilding programme. As part of that programme, the school has a new performing arts block, including a theatre which doubles as a school assembly hall, and three drama studios.

Morpeth, which specialises in arts and music, has recently invested in an ETC Congo jr and two SmartFade lighting control desks, as well as SmartPack dimming. Chris Bocking at Redbridge Drama Centre, who was brought in as a consultant for the installation, explains: "We recommend ETC control desks because they are very sophisticated yet user friendly. One of the problems which all schools face is that staff leave and there might be no-one else trained to

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China - The National Centre for the Performing Arts, formerly known as the National Grand Theater, Beijing, was recently equipped with MA Lighting technology. The Centre, an ellipsoid dome of titanium and glass surrounded by an artificial lake, seats 6,500 people in three halls and is 200,000m² in size. It was designed by French architect Paul Andreu.

Four grandMA full-size and one grandMA ultra-light are used to control three major performance halls: the Opera House for operas, ballet, and dances (seats 2,416) the Concert Hall (seats 2,017) and the Theatre, for plays (1,040 seats). All grandMA consoles are connected via MA-Net which is based on fibre optical. Besides other fixtures the National Centre for the Performing Arts has got 200 moving lights installed.

ACE - Advanced Communication Equipment provided the lighting equipment. Lighting design was a joint effort by NGT,

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USA - The presentation of the International Dance Music Awards (IDMA) is one of the highlights of the annual Winter Music Conference (WMC) in Florida. The awards single out for recognition the movers, shakers, clubs, and systems setting the pace in the international DJ and dance stakes. Dynacord: was nominated for an IDMA in the 'Best Sound System' category but, with the nominated Pacha club in New York and IDMA-winning Space Miami both boasting Dynacord alpha installations, it topped the Best Club category.

Infinite Audio Systems won the 'Best Sound Installation' category; and the founder and CEO of the Miami-based installation company, Lord Toussaint said, "It is an award that perhaps represents the level at which we are installing nationally, and soon internationally. We are designing and integrating more than audio systems. We are installing 'revenue generating equipmen

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USA - Nexxus Lighting has become an Energy Star Partner. Energy Star is a joint programme of the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Department of Energy that helps consumers save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices.

"Based on this new partnership, Nexxus will be testing its new Array Lighting LED lamps to achieve Energy Star certification," stated Zdenko Grajcar, chief technology officer for Nexxus Lighting. "This partnership enforces Nexxus Lighting's commitment and initiatives to increase energy savings for our customers and protect the global environment.

"The guidelines for Energy Star Certification as it relates to solid state lighting (SSL) have been established and by utilising our patent pending Selective Heat Sink (SHS) technology we feel we will not only meet the standards, but exceed them.&

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Ireland - Westlife's Croke Park Stadium show in Dublin was enjoyed by a sold-out live audience of 85,000, with Bandit Lites supplying all onstage lighting.

The band's 2008 show was designed and directed by William Baker, who also designed the set, with the lighting design created by Baz Halpin. On tour and for Croke Park, lighting was operated/directed by Dave Lee.The show was produced by Production North.

The design saw Halpin going very theatrical, with all the structures concealed, apart from a centre stage 'W' shaped truss. Lighting fixtures were all positioned on a series of angled trussing sections, some of which moved. This ensured the gaps were filled, and that light could be focussed from all angles right across the performance area for even and balanced coverage.

Upstage, there were six moving trusses, all suspended on two points each. Running on Bandit's own fully

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UK - An exhibitor at the very first ABTT Show in 1978, White Light returned to the thirtieth anniversary of this show last week.

A central feature of the stand was the EvenLED cyc-lighting system, already supplied by White Light to one major musical and "in demand from many more shows". A metre-square tile containing 16 super-wide-angle three-colour LEDs, each individually controllable, EvenLED is designed to be built into an array behind a BP screen; there it can evenly light a cyc at a throw as low as 25cm, creating an array of bright colours or - because each pixel is individually controllable - rainbows, clouds, graduations, colour wipes and more.

Also on stand were products from White Light (including the White Light Snow Machine and the VSFX Optical Effect System), plus products from the many companies for which White Light is the exclusive UK's distributor, in

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UK - Adlib Lighting supplied equipment and crew to the Wombats first full UK production tour which has just finished.

Lighting designer Ali Pike has worked for the Liverpool indie rockers since they were unsigned three years ago, and says: "Adlib have always looked after us, whether it's been a few specials for one offs and the previous tour, right up to the full rig and crew for this one - they are absolutely brilliant."

Pike's design starting point for the tour was based on some elements that have been used in their live visuals for some time. A lot of the initial concept ideas also came from the Backfire at the Disco promo video, which features a series of DJ and disco lighting effects.

Pike persuaded the band that they could reproduce some of these on tour using more robust and practical kit like PixelLines. The back truss was rigged with four bars of 6

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UK - Lighting design and rental company Blinding Light supplied lighting, AV and sound production for an event showcasing the high spec Nissan Finesse range. This was staged at the Hilton Metropole Hotel, at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham.

The Reading-based company was contacted by the German office of production company George P Johnson, after they received a call from Nissan. Blinding Light's Paddy Stacy took an outline brief late on Wednesday afternoon which was to create a car showroom environment in the Hotel's Kings Suite for a series of presentations the following Monday and Tuesday.

He prepared the quote, designed and drew the lighting plot and kit list and sent these to George P Johnson for approval. They loaded in at 2 a.m. on the Monday to be ready for the first show at 10 a.m.

Blinding Light supplied over 200m of trussing that was laid out on the fl

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UK - Garry Clulow has joined Massteknik as UK sales manager to focus on permanent installations of LED screens and systems.

The move into this area is new to Massteknik UK but has proven extremely successful for Massteknik Sweden utilising knowledge gained within the LED rental business over the past twenty five years, says the company.

Clulow's career in AV began with the Plasmascreen Company where he headed the sales team, moving on to managing the company. His move to Aviation Television and Communications supporting airshows worldwide saw other skill sets being required. His last position saw him working as business development manager for ADI.

Mike Bone who heads Massteknik UK says: "With us developing our business into this new and growing market sector Garry's knowledge and expertise makes him a valuable addition to the team."

(Jim Evans)

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UK - With the high profile of the Cardiff Bay development in Cardiff which includes the Welsh Assembly and the Wales Millennium Centre, a new multi-storey car park, owned by Knight Frank LLP needed to integrate with this dynamic area. To achieve this, the architect Scott Brownrigg and lighting designer Paul Traynor PLDA of Light Bureau developed the idea of six wave shape structures to be installed on the long facade of the new car park.

The steel and fabric structures were manufactured and installed by Base Structures with the intention of the three-dimensional wave shapes to link the car park with the original purpose of Cardiff Bay and its connection with the sea. Another visual link with the sea was the requirement for the night time appearance of the wave to be lit using a combination of blue and white lighting.

Particular consideration was taken by Light Bureau in the sp

  1. FX Unlimited takes first Tiger
  2. Hawthorn adds more Impressions
  3. The Week In Lighting & Sound
  4. Robe on the Guillemots
  5. MA Lighting training in Brazil
  6. Bandit lights Girls Aloud
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