Lighting

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South Africa - FX Unlimited is a busy lighting rental and production facility based in Cape Town, and also a prolific user of Avolites control.

FX unlimited bought its first Avolites console back in 1993 explains founder Alan Muller, who has worked with the brand ever since. The inventory includes Pearls and Sapphires, and they have just taken delivery of their first of the new Tiger consoles. The company also has a stock of FD and ART 2K dimmers.

FX Unlimited shows tend to be very moving light orientated - they own Robe, Clay Paky and Martin fixtures.

They took the opportunity to purchase the new Avolites Pearl Tiger from Avolites' south African distributor DWR Distribution, FX Unlimited feels that the Pearl Tiger is an ideal console for smaller conferences with simple set ups of up to 20 moving lights.

FX Unlimited is also the in-house technical supplier for the Cape Tow

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UK - At last year's PLASA Show, Martin Hawthorn, MD of Hawthorn Theatrical, became transfixed by the new Impression LED heads on the stand of German Light Products (represented in the UK by LED-Lites). Before the end of the show he had confirmed his first order for 18 of the GLP heads, and in so doing was among the first customers in the UK to purchase these high-powered eco-friendly lights for rental stock.

By the time this year's ABTT Show came along the company had ordered a further 36 fixtures - divided equally between the RGB versions and Cold White/Amber.

The RGB version contains 90 Luxeon K2 LEDs giving it a high light yield capacity, with 30 each of the RGB colour LEDs able to create the entire colour spectrum. The White/Amber Impression contains 60 cold white LED's and 30 amber, to allow continuous colour temperature adjustment, down to 3200°K.

The fixtures offe

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Good News - The Association of British Theatre Technicians reports that the 30th anniversary ABTT Theatre Show staged in London's Royal Horticultural Halls last week was considered another triumph. Year on year the Show has expanded from both exhibitor and visitor perspectives. With over 100 participating companies, the organisers say that, despite the current uncertain economic climate, the visitor numbers were maintained and were slightly up on 2007.

Company News - 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 segmen

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UK - Lighting designer Martin Dudley used Robe ColorSpot 700E AT moving lights at the core of his lighting rig for The Guillemots most recent UK tour, for which his company, Reading based Martin's Lights, purchased new units from Robe UK.

Dudley has worked with the band for two years, and this was his fourth full tour. The tours and lighting rigs have steadily grown in size and stature mirroring the band's popularity.

At the start of this tour, management said they wanted to see plenty of red (and black) onstage. And they wanted it darker, weirder and edgier than the previous production tour a year ago, which was poppier and lighter in tone.

He was using just six ColorSpot 700E ATs, but these give him more than enough creative scope and range to light the full set without repetition, producing a vast array of different looks, textures and ambiences.

For the London show at

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Brazil - Last month, Lighting Latin America conducted its third training and product presentation for operators and programmers in Sao Paulo. "It was the most successful event we held in Brazil. The training was attended by some 70 people from Brazil as well as Argentina and Colombia," reports Daniel Ridano, technical manager and project coordinator of MA Lighting Latin America.

On the first day the whole range of MA Lighting products was introduced, with the focus on the grandMA range especially grandMA full-size, grandMA light and grandMA ultra-light. Additionally, the software grandMA onPC and grandMA 3D as well as MA Lighting's media server grandMA video together with the Schnick-Schnack-Systems LED-Paneel C100 were demonstrated.

On the second day the MA Training - Level Basic was held. This is aimed at programmers and operators of moving and conventional lights.

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UK - Bandit Lites is again working with Leeds-based Production North and continuing its fruitful relationship, this time with Girls Aloud on their UK arena tour.

The production is headed by Iain Whitehead, lighting has been designed by Peter Barnes, with programming, operation and direction on tour by Tellson James.

The lightshow is big, bold and bright to match the primarily up-tempo set. Barnes conceived the design and briefed James with ideas on some of the songs, also allowing him latitude to make a creative contribution to the programming, which was done over four days in Sheffield Arena.

The back truss features four vertical legs, all of which flank three onstage video screens. The two centre legs are 6m high and the outer two are 4m. Rigged on and inside this structure are 11 Martin Professional MAC 2K Washes and 8 MAC 2K Profile moving lights.

In front of that are

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UK - London-based Haymarket Media Group is taking steps to increase energy efficiency, and has appointed Greenled Light to further reduce its carbon footprint through sustainable LED lighting.

These enhancements are already reducing Haymarket's energy output. Replacing the lights with Greenled's Antares lamps and adding PIRs in the corridors, lavatories and recreation zones has reduced energy use in these areas by 90%, and will further reduce its footprint by 74 carbon tonnes per year, in addition to saving the company in excess of £100,000 in electricity costs over the next 10 years.

Overhauling the lighting system at Haymarket is in line with the company's objective to phase out high energy usage halogen bulbs. Haymarket's sustainability manager, Nathan McLean says, "We explored a number of lighting options and settled on Greenled LEDs because they provide the rig

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UK - London Light Production Services has invested in an ETC Eos and an ETC Ion lighting control desk through dealer TMB, to complement its range of lighting, dimming and rigging products.

London Light director David Buffham says: "We were looking for a replacement for our old desk, which was no longer supported, and took several potential replacements out for a trial. The Eos really stood out as being both quick and easy to use. When we're working on a show, we generally have very little time to plot, so aren't able to spend hours on site adjusting the lighting. We need the desk to be powerful, responsive and intuitive, and both Eos and Ion really fit that description.

"Reliability is important, and although we never had any disasters, our old desk couldn't do full tracking backup. Now, with the Remote Processor Unit (RPU) backup, we can be sure that, should the wor

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Australia - LSC has announced the release of Version 3 software for the maXim range of consoles. More than 30 bug fixes and enhancements have been made to improve the console's functionality and ease of use, says the company.

New features in the software include support for USB flash drives and MIDI and support for trackball control of pan and tilt control will be added soon. The console's fixture library size has been significantly increased by a factor of five to cater for the larger Fixture Templates found today and the number if fixtures it can now hold is up from 64 to 128 fixtures.

Also included in the new release is a complete rewrite of the console's memory and performance monitoring system. This, and over two months of testing, has resulted in the most stable software system to date. The latest software, for all sizes of maXim, can be downloaded from the LSC website.<

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UK - Barry Haywood has joined Monacor UK as Scotland/North of England sales manager. The move marks a reunion with Damon Crisp, Monacor UK's managing director, with whom he previously worked at Numark UK. Haywood spent five-and-a-half years with Numark - the same length of service which he had previously devoted to drum manufacturer, Pearl.

Joining Monacor UK from Peavey, Haywood said that the vast range of products represented in the company's catalogue provided a tremendous challenge in all market sectors - from MI retail to pro rental and install.The broad range of LED lighting was particularly exciting he said.

Commented Damon Crisp: "This move reinforces our willingness to compete in a professional marketplace; with Barry's experience we are confident we will be able to deliver a continually-improving service which is fully-supported."

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Lighting Technology Projects (LTP) has supplied and installed a low resolution video media wall, designed and specified by Speirs & Major Associates (SaMA) for the atrium of IPC Media's new London HQ. This is in the Blue Fin Building, part of the Bankside 1,2,3 development in Southwark.

Referred to SaMA by Architainment, the Philips SSL value-added reseller, LTP applied its specialist installation and engineering knowledge to fit the 9500 nodes of Color Kinetics RGB 'Flex SL' which makes up the 40m long by 3m high media wall.

SaMA worked with the building's architects, Allies & Morrison, to create a lighting concept for the space to make it an animated, vibrant and contemporary environment for the reception area.

SaMA came up with the concept of a low resolution LED media wall to act as the main illuminated feature within the space, spanning the entire length of the atr

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UK - With special half-price pre-registration now live on the PLASA08 website, organiser PLASA Events has revealed that the host of its first ever PLASA Masterclass will be Funktion One co-founder Tony Andrews - the winner of last year's inaugural Gottelier Award.

A highly regarded designer and manufacturer of high quality point source speaker systems, with numerous patents to his name, Andrews' landmark developments include the hugely successful Flashlight and Floodlight systems, and more recently the distinctive Funktion One Resolution Series.

Andrews headlines a growing programme of educational presentations at the show, which include a number of exciting new initiatives and partnerships. There will be a strong focus on industry technologies, with several sessions addressing existing and emerging audio, AV and lighting technologies and how to maximise their application in t

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UK - Opened in 1899, the Blackpool Tower's ballroom was home to the BBC's Come Dancing and the finals of Strictly Come Dancing for many years. Now theteam behind Clash!, a brand new dance show from the choreographers of Strictly Come Dancing are bringing dance back to the venue this June.

Lighting designer Robert Stemson of Lightingised reveals that his task for the show is to add atmosphere to the historic venue and a "wow factor" to incorporate the new trends of Latin and Swing dance routines.

Stemson comments: "All my moving lights are Martin Macs - 3 Mac 550 and 2 Mac 600s all on vertical trusses, creating a backline to complement the star cloth, with the rest of the Mac 550s spread across the stage to create shape through the sky and across the dancefloor filled with low fog.

"The Mac 700s are providing my FOH cover, and w

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UK - The very first edition of the Knight of Illumination Awards was held on Wednesday 11 June 2008 in London. These awards are exclusively dedicated to lighting designers, as the result of an idea launched by Clay Paky and organised by the Italian company in collaboration with STLD and ALD.

The Awards were hosted by the ABTT Award Dinner 2008, the traditional gala of the ABTT show. Over 230 professionals attended the event at Church House, which was tastefully lit and coloured for the occasion by Clay Paky Alpha fixtures.

The awards were voted and assigned by a group of professionals, who also operate in the specific categories of the contest, selected and coordinated entirely by STLD and ALD, whose professional standards guaranteed the credibility and the reliability of the evaluations.

The evening was a success, as the head of ABTT, Simon Garrett confirms: " We were

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Brazil - Capital Inicial is a Brazilian post-punk band that has recorded seven highly successful albums and is one of the most popular bands in the country. During the celebration of the 48th birthday of Brazil's capital Brasilia, they played a special concert that was also recorded for a DVD release. Lighting design for the show was by Dave Hill. One grandMA full-size and one grandMA light as well as two MA NSPs provided the necessary performance for his design, that was seen live by nearly one million people.

Dave Hill also worked as programmer and operator whilst Cesio Lima was director of photography. Caio Berti provided the local coordination. The stage lighting equipment was provided by LPL from Sao Paulo. Marc Systems delivered the audience lights.

(Jim Evans)

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Russia - Robe moving lights have been installed into two separate areas of the Korston Hotel in Moscow - on the stage of Casino de Paris main gaming floor, and in the café Bonjour, the main private dining room in the complex.

The lighting concept for the Casino -previously a large concert hall - was completed by Sofitlight, who also supplied all the stage and effects lighting kit, architectural lighting, sound design and audio equipment.

On the main gaming floor stage, the biggest lighting challenge was to devise a special hanging system for the fixtures that didn't interrupt the sight lines of the spectacular roof - which is painted like a sky. The rigging was engineered by Sofitlight director Arkady Shahidzanov.

The 22 Robe fixtures in this massive room are 16 Robe ColorMix 250 ATs and six Scan 575 XTs. They are controlled by a Compulite Rave console, along with som

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UK - HSL supplied lighting production and crew to the Main and Clash Tent stages at the 2008 Rockness Festival, staged on the shores of Scotland's Loch Ness.

It was the second consecutive year that HSL has worked on the event, produced by Loudsound Events and production managed by Lee Charteris. HSL's crew chief Ian Stevens headed a strong team of Steven Abbiss (LD Main stage), Davey Sherwin (LD Clash stage), Rob Starksfield, Rick "Avo" Butler and Andy "Paris" Hilton. The production lighting design for both stages was created by HSL's Mike Oates, who also project managed.

The Main stage was a Serious Structures Solar Roof below which HSL sub-hung four trusses for lighting. This was headlined by Fatboy Slim on the Saturday and Razorlight on Sunday. All the moving lights on this stage were Robe ColorWash 700 and 1200E ATs and ColorSpot 700 and 1200E AT

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UK - PLASA Events Ltd, the organisers of the PLASA Show at Earls Court in London (7-10 Sept 2008) have announced the official launch of the 2008 PLASA Awards for Innovation, which this year will feature some significant enhancements - and also the 2008 Gottelier Award, which recognises the contribution of an outstanding individual to product development.

Innovation: PLASA goes for Gold
During consultation with the PLASA Awards for Innovation Judges after the 2007 PLASA Show, the judges expressed a desire to be able to more accurately reflect the levels of innovation seen in the products nominated for the Awards. Specifically, they were looking for a way to highlight those cases where a product truly delivered something strikingly new and innovative to the industry.

Roland Hemming, a highly-respected audio consultant and a regular on the PLASA Awards for Innovation j

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UK - London Light Production Services has invested in an ETC Eos and an ETC Ion lighting control desk through dealer TMB, to complement its range of lighting, dimming and rigging products.

London Light director David Buffham says: "We were looking for a replacement for our old desk, which was no longer supported, and took several potential replacements out for a trial. The Eos really stood out as being both quick and easy to use. When we're working on a show, we generally have very little time to plot, so aren't able to spend hours on site adjusting the lighting. We need the desk to be powerful, responsive and intuitive, and both Eos and Ion really fit that description.

"Reliability is important, and although we never had any disasters, our old desk couldn't do full tracking backup. Now, with the Remote Processor Unit (RPU) backup, we can be sure that, should the wor

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UK - Winning J&C Joel its third Hook Clamp award, the company's new JCJ Serge Tape attracted a lot of attention at this year's ABTT show. Fiona Blackett, marketing and Far East business manager, said: "Black wool serge is our biggest selling product and now most tears can be invisibly repaired with a matching strip of black serge instead of shiny gaffer tape. It is such a simple idea, but I am nevertheless surprised at just how genuinely interested people are - we've already had verbal orders from many technicians and theatrical dealers."

The tape that won Widget of the Year for J&C Joel was a prototype, but with a few minor changes to the packaging and branding the JCJ Serge Tape should be in production and ready for delivery by the end of July. Designed for use in Ideal theatres, touring shows, rental companies, film and TV studios and schools, this is one of those p

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UK - A.C. Lighting has supplied a state of the art LED TV lighting system for the dedicated set of the new Five News with Natasha Kaplinsky television show.

As part of five TV's plans to refresh and relaunch its pioneering news programme, which include recruiting high-profile news presenter Natasha Kaplinsky for the show, the broadcaster decided to rebrand the set with a completely new look.

Set designer Chris Webster produced the concept of backlit acrylic panels that could be lit to achieve a varied range of looks to suit the mood of a bulletin, whether based on a particular theme or time of day.

Sky News, producer of the show for five, has a policy of incorporating energy efficient lighting into its sets where technology provides a viable solution, so approached A.C. Lighting to supply an LED system which would also provide five with maximum creative opportunities

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Business News: Yamaha Corporation is making an offer to the founders of French loudspeaker manufacturer Nexo S.A. to acquire all of their shares of Nexo - bringing Yamaha's share holding to 74.9% of the share capital. Yamaha intends to seek to acquire 100% of the shares of Nexo through the launching of a tender offer process for the acquisition of the remaining shares.

Festival News: Organisers of festivals including Womad, Creamfields, Bestival, Electric Picnic and Big Chill have joined forces to take on their bigger rivals. They have agreed to work together to help make events better for fans, greener and more cost-effective. Bestival promoter Rob da Bank said it was important to "ride out the problems and make them better for the customer". Creamfields owner James Barton said it was a good idea because "smaller festivals are also often overlooked". He added: &quo

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UK - The Cornish town of Redruth has implemented an innovative lighting renovation plan - lighting the exteriors of its historical and architecturally significant buildings with LED lamps.

Sustainable lighting company Greenled, is rolling out the new lighting programme through the Redruth Economic Arts Partnership (REAP) who is coordinating the initiative to provide lighting throughout the town.

Greenled LEDs have a low carbon footprint and are beginning to achieve recognition as an alternative to toxic CFL bulbs owing to their very low energy usage. The exterior of each LED-lit building lit in Redruth will have a total energy usage of less than 100W. With a life span of up to eight years there is little maintenance required; a major factor in urban light design where a failed bulb can involve the high expense of a scaffolding rig or a maintenance contract.

The planned exter

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UK - Ministry of Sound realized long ago that lighting has a positive draw, and the more impressive the better. The famed club brand is continually improving their offer for their customers, while striving to look better than any other nightclub. So when Alex Barrand, technical manager at Ministry of Sound in London, decided it was time to invest in a new laser system that would give the venue even more 'wow' factor, he turned to Martin's RGB Laser 1.6.

"The Martin laser is one of the best units on the market," Barrand states. "I like the fact that it can run DMX, also from a laptop, and I like the small size of the unit."

Two Martin RGB 1.6 lasers are located on each side of the DJ booth in Ministry's infamous Box.

The RGB Laser 1.6 joins MoS London's existing Martin rig of MAC moving heads, Martin effect lights and Jem smoke machines. Martin Professiona

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