Lighting

Details
UK - When ETC introduced its iRFR (Radio Focus Remote for iPhone and iPod Touch) four months ago, Luke Delwiche from ETC Tech Services in London suggested that the profits be shared between Light Relief and its US equivalent, Behind the Scenes.

At PLASA09, Luke was delighted to present a cheque for £1,800 to Light Relief trustee Lesley Harmer. In thanking Luke for the money, Lesley said: "This is an incredible amount of money to raise in just four months. We thank Luke and everyone at ETC for their generosity, and for a brilliant idea which will continue to raise money for this worthwhile cause year after year."

When users purchase the iRFR application from the iTunes store, they designate the charity of their choice. The Light Relief or Behind the Scenes logo then appears as the iRFR start screen. ETC software engineer Chris Mizerak developed the application w

Details
UK - A group of bikers connected to entertainment on a long fun-ride raising money for good causes, the idea for The First Night Riders (motto Out of the Wings and into the Wind) came out of the tyre tracks of America's Long Reach Long Riders. The initial event for the First Night Riders, in 2010, will raise money for The Theatrical Guild, one of the UK's longest serving theatrical charities which offers support to those working backstage and front of house.

Launched at PLASA 09 by a galaxy of stars, including Brian Conley and Liz Robertson, both currently starring in Hairspray, Issy van Randwyck (of Fascinating Aida), Fiona Mollison and director Edward Hall, the event has already enlisted the following riders (subject to work commitments): Richard Bullimore, Steve Colley, Neil Collins, David Edelstein, George Ellerington, Ric Green, Darrell Hewitt, Simon Le Bon, S

Details
UK - Exhibiting this week at the PLASA09 exhibition at Earls Court, London, Australia-based LSC Lighting Systems made the official launch of its latest lighting control package - a powerful PC/MAC based lighting control package named Clarity. The Clarity concept was well received by visitors to PLASA09. "It's been really good," said LSC's Pete Floyd, adding, "In fact, I would say it's the best PLASA show we've done."

LSC believes that Clarity, which was a nominee in this year's PLASA Awards for Innovation, will excite even the most experienced user. It offers a powerful feature set and offers seamless integrated control of intelligent lights, LED pixel mapping and Media servers "the likes of which has not been seen before", the company says.

Paul Collison, the lighting/technical consultant for the Beijing Olympics, said of Clarity: "Clarity h

Details
South Africa - Gearhouse South Africa supplied all technical production - including, sound, lighting, power and structures - plus audience seating for the hugely popular 2009 South African Tattoo, staged at Montecasino, Johannesburg.

The extravaganza featured over 600 local and international performers, blending the traditional Tattoo spectacle of massed pipe bands and Highland dancers with a distinctly African flavour. It was the second year that Gearhouse has been involved in the event, working for producers MC Squared. SABC2 also supported the show and recorded it for future broadcast.

This year the show's production and lighting designer Tim Dunn wanted a fresh, vibrant, contemporary feel, and so chose to light the 'Parade Ground' performance area solely with moving lights and LED fixtures.

Sound was designed by Gearhouse Audio's Dave Tudor and mixed by Pierre Slabbert.

Details
Australia - 13 September 2009 saw Lightmoves celebrate 20 years of operation. Starting off as a theatrical lighting company, Lightmoves has expanded into architectural feature lighting, lighting control and home automation across various sectors of the entertainment, architectural and electrical industries.

Managing director Braham Ciddor is a little surprised at the company's longevity: "When we started out, we really didn't know where we were headed and we certainly couldn't have predicted where we are now. Starting out trying to fill a niche in the entertainment industry, the business quickly expanded when we saw the emergence of lighting control technology and our partnership with Dynalite has seen the company and the markets we work in expand dramatically."

Braham's business partner, and Lightmoves technical director Andrew Sherar, has seen firsthand how much te

Details
UK / China - Launched at this month's PLASA Show in London, PR Lighting's XPar 348 is an IP66 rated outdoor LED par can, in a compact modular design. By combining 48 x 3W LEDs in an RGBW colour mixing system the XPar 348 is suitable for "all indoor and outdoor applications".

Aside from the pre-programmed CTO whites and HSV colour mixing, additional features include pre-programmed and user-programmable macros, master/slave operation and three operating modes. Dimmer is 0-100% (manually adjustable) and strobe 1-20 fps - with a linearly-adjustable colour temperature of 3200K-10000K.

Other features include16 pre-set programmes (speed adjustable) and?16 user programmes (speed adjustable). Power automatically turns off when the LED temperature is too high.

Control is via DMX512, with 3 pin interface - seven channels in short mode, 11 channels in standard mode and 15 chan

Details
India - Following the success of his revolutionary design and installation in matter, the super club located in London's O2 Arena, Dave Parry is now returning to India to set up a sister company, Most Technical India, with his two new business partners: ex-Avolites and event organiser Isa Sapin and Indian entrepreneur and promoter Arjun Bahl.

With a reputation for visionary ideas and ground-breaking innovations, Most Technical India will be providing a unique design and specification service for the emerging Indian market. Most Technical has already designed some of the best nightclubs in the world such as Fabric and Matter in London, and Elevate in Delhi.

The current projects are in Mumbai with the soon-to-be-opened Comedy Store and in Hyderabad, South India, where Most Technical India is currently designing a nightclub in one of the boutique hotels owned by Apeejay Surrendra

Details
UK - Stage Electrics recently supported the Ellen MacArthur Trust Skandia Round Britain voyage which began in May. The yacht Scarlet Oyster set sail from Cowes on the Isle of Wight with five young people in recovery from cancer or leukaemia on board for the first leg of the sail. After 17 legs, 85 young people, and four and a half months later in September, Scarlet Oyster returned to Cowes, having completed a momentous journey around Britain's waters, whilst inspiring many young people both in and out of treatment.

At each port of call throughout the voyage, including Falmouth, the record breaking yachtswoman presented to a packed audience stories of her voyages and experiences, and raised awareness of the importance of the Ellen MacArthur Trust. The ticket sales from these presentations went towards the trust's fundraising.

At the National Maritime Museum in Fal

Details
UK - At a glittering ceremony in Glasgow, Edinburgh-based Northern Light won the accolade of Best Technical Services Company at the Scottish Event Awards 2009. The company had made it through to a shortlist of three to win the award.

The ceremony was attended by the leading players of the Scottish events industry and took place on 11 September in Glasgow's Hilton Hotel. The event, now in its second year, is designed to promote, reward and celebrate the growing events industry in Scotland. The Event Awards brings together all areas of the industry, from event managers, to organisers, venues, suppliers and in-house teams.

Lois Ferguson, marketing manager at Northern Light, said: "We are chuffed to bits with this award. Our event production service has only been in place for a few years, so receiving this accolade from a panel of UK event industry judges - and against much m

Details
UK - Lighting, dimming and controls manufacturer ETC is celebrating after winning an Innovation Award for the Selador LED range of fixtures at PLASA09.

The award judges congratulated the ETC Selador fixtures for "taking a significant step towards the ultimate goal of energy efficient incandescent replacement lighting." They continued by pointing out that "ETC has developed this LED fixture with a colour output that gets close to the spectral curve of traditional incandescent source, thereby making LED technology a step closer to wider use in theatres and similar applications."

Outside of the awards, the PLASA show was, says ETC's promotions and advertising manager for Europe, Rosi Marx, a complete success, with product specialists giving demonstrations throughout the four days. "Although visitor numbers seemed to be down, in general we had a very busy

Details
UK - Hawthorn is delighted to have been an event partner for the second year running to the prestigious Clay Paky 'Knight of Illumination Awards' held on Sunday 13 September to coincide with the PLASA show in London.

The awards, dedicated to professional lighting designers, recognised lighting designs achieved in the fields of television, rock and theatre and were attended by the great and the good of the industry.

Hawthorn supplied all of the rigging, video screens and Martin Audio line array sound system to the event. The set showcased Hawthorn's 6mm indoor LED screen as the central display on stage, along with twin screen projection using Christie HD 10k projectors which provided an amazing clarity of video display to the audience.

"Hawthorn is proud to be associated with such a significant industry event and send their congratulations to all of the 2009 winners,&quo

Details
UK / Italy - At PLASA09 in London last week, Spotlight presented the new MidiLED, a compact 80W RGBW spot fixture with Zoom from 12° to 50°. This new high efficiency and density LED product allows the creation of both infinite colour combinations for theatre and concerts, and the projection of white light with a selection of colour temperatures from 2900°K to over 6000°K, for photographic, film and television use.

The quoted lifetime of 50,000 hours for the LED light source also makes the MidiLED suited to architectural applications, say Spotlight. The single fixture has a modular structure and it can be assembled in line or arrays, depending on the need. Each single unit can be used in stand alone mode, with preset light shades or dynamic effects; alternatively it can be controlled via DMX, both to generate colour effects, and to select different colour temperat

Details
UK - Lighting designer Max Conwell of Naked Eye used a grandMA full-size and a grandMA2 light as backup to control lighting Morrissey's Tour of Refusal, which concluded with three sold-out shows at London's Brixton Academy.

The tour has been out since January, and Conwell has worked with the artist for the last five years. For the last year, he has exclusively been using MA Lighting's grandMA control platform for this and all his other work.

"I wanted a totally reliable console and operating system," he says commenting on his switch to MA. "It's a good all round moving light desk, does exactly 'what it says on the tin' and I am really confident about using it."

The starting point for his Tour of Refusal lighting design was the distinct backdrop, complete with a haunting giant snapshot of 1960's Italian actor, Walter Chiari. This was carefull

Details
UK - MGC Lamps has announced the appointment of David Jackson to the role of export sales director.

As export sales manager at MGC Lamps, Jackson has been instrumental in developing and growing the business and he will, within his new role, help formulate and implement strategies necessary to facilitate the continued growth and success of MGC Lamps, says the company.

Jackson says, "I am very pleased with the results that have been achieved at MGC Lamps over the last three years and am looking forward to the new challenges ahead."

(Jim Evans)

Details
France / UK - Robert Juliat, the French lantern and followspot manufacturer, reports a successful PLASA09 exhibition. The French manufacturer exhibited alongside UK distributor White Light at the exhibition at earls Court, London, last week.

"Although the turnout may have been lower than previous years - which is to be expected in the current climate," says sales director, Lionel Garraud, "we noticed a marked improvement in the quality of visitors who came to discuss serious projects. Several new dealers will be appointed as a result of meetings at PLASA.

"One interesting development is the increased demand for extra followspots we have received from rental companies. This seems to be a direct result of the global financial downturn. Consequently, we will be very busy fulfilling our customers' requirements between now and the end of the year, with Victor an

Details
UK - Robe's ROBIN 300 Plasma series fixtures won a PLASA Innovation Award at the four-day exhibition in Earls Court, London, last week.

Over 60 products were nominated and evaluated by a panel of independent judges, with eight receiving PLASA Awards for Innovation. These were presented by the Shadow Minister for Innovation, Universities & Skills, Adam Afriyie MP, on the second day of the exhibition.

The judges' comments on the ROBIN 300 Plasma series included: "The opportunity to deploy new technology in the form of the PLASMA lamp has led Robe to perform a ground-up rethink and redesign of the traditional moving light. The result is a fixture that impressed us with its quality of light, low power of operation and rich list of features."

Robe's MD Josef Valchar states: "We're absolutely delighted. This is a real recognition of the 15 years of constant R&D that

Details
UK - German lighting company GLP enjoyed one of its most successful trade shows ever at this year's PLASA 2009 show in London.

By the time they broke down the stand after four days' heavy trading, the company had sold more than 300 units of its newly launched Impression 120RZ (Zoom).

However, even more valuable than the sales was the quality time with customers and specifiers that the company enjoyed. GLP says that having the ability to meet and discuss in detail with their rental partners, lighting designers and other specifiers is a core part of the company's philosophy, and on this front PLASA proved to be "a massive success".

Along with the Impression 120RZ, two other new products were showcased; the Volkslicht, which is a compact Rebel LED moving head priced at budget-driven shows which don't want compromise, and the Meisterstuck, which is designed to meet lig

Details
Jordan - Distant Heat is an annual summer dance party that takes place in the desert of Wadi Rum in Jordan. The goal is to bring people together in an exquisite setting and help showcase Jordan as a peaceful destination. The all-night party hosts some of the world's top DJs playing to a dancing crowd of 2000 partygoers from all over the world until sunrise. The event continues the next day with beach and pool parties at the Red Sea resort town of Aqaba, 50 kilometers away.

The 2009 event featured Glen Morrison and DJ, Armin Van Buuren, backed with lighting supplied by TriTec AV. TriTec built the lighting rig for the party consisting of a free-standing truss structure installed in the middle a spectacular yet challenging desert backdrop.

TriTec covered the structure in a variety of Clay Paky fixtures including 30 Alpha Wash 575 fixtures, 24 Alpha Spot 1200 HPE, and 16 Al

Details
UK - Goboland reports a very positive response to this year's PLASA09, finding it both a profitable and enjoyable event.

"There may have been fewer visitors this year but the quality of the enquiries was high and were of great value to the company," says Goboland UK director, Vicky Fairall. "The new Credit Crunch custom gobo went down extremely well - people just love it since it has brought custom gobos within the budget constraints of our customers in these financially challenging times."

Credit Crunch custom gobos are an economical, uncoated alternative to the award-winning Goboland Black Steel gobos.

"People were also very excited by our new iPhone App which allows customers to access our Black Steel Gobo Catalogue - which now holds over 1,250 designs - on the move! It is the first free gobo App ever to be launched and our customers were even dow

Details
UK - Artistic Licence celebrated its 21st Anniversary at one of its busiest and most successful PLASA shows to date.

Creative director Wayne Howell's seminar on Artistic Licence Art-Net: The Benefits in Large Scale Installations & Applications saw standing-room only, with candidates being turned away at the door. Subjects covered included how to maximise Art-Net's capabilities, the integration of Art-Net into large scale applications and a discussion on broadcast and unicast.

The content catered for the wide variety of attendees which included specifiers, designers, end users, who agreed that the discussion clarified points of use and brought people up to speed on the history of control and what Art-Net II, the latest version of Art-Net, could offer. Transcripts and video clips of the seminar and the Q&A session which followed can be found on the Artistic Licence websit

Details
UK - The second edition of the Knight of Illumination Awards, staged to coincide with the PLASA Show in London, was a great success, attended by leading figures from the world of entertainment lighting. Organised by Italian manufacturer Clay Paky, in collaboration with the trade associations ALD and STLD, the Knights of Illumination are the only international awards designed to provide public recognition to the deserving work of lighting designers in the theatre, touring and television sectors.

The presentation ceremony took place at the Hotel Ibis, Earls Court, London on 13 September 2009. Clay Paky - with support from equipment suppliers Hawthorn Theatrical and Richard Martin Lighting - set up a professional lighting rig in the Suite, mainly using the new Clay Paky Alpha 700 Spot HPE, Wash and Beam lights.

Almost 350 industry professionals attended the event, including light

Details
UK - Manchester-based lighting rental company DBN Lighting has enjoyed a summer of being involved in some of the top arts events of the region, including Manchester International Festival, Music & Art on the Waterfront in Liverpool, and rounding off with the Salford Proms in the Park.

DBN supplied lighting, rigging and lighting design services to six major events at the MIF, following on from their very successful work with the first MIF in 2007. Jack Thompson, technical director of the festival said: "I try to use locally based companies for the Manchester International Festival and DBN were my first port of call for all lighting and power needs. They have an excellent range of top quality equipment and a highly skilled and efficient crew."

MIF 2009's opening event at the Velodrome featured a concert by Kraftwerk and Steve Reich, for whic

Details
Japan - Performances of Carmenwere staged recently at the Hyogo Performing Arts Centre, Tokyo Bunka Kaikan and at the Aichi Art Theatre in Nagoya. Fabrice Kebour realised the lighting design for the performance (directed by Jean-Louis Martinoty), using a grandMA full-size console and grandMA onPC as backup, plus two MA NSPs (Network Signal Processors).

"The theatre owned several lighting boards, and as I planned on using their moving light system extensively, I chose the grandMA." said Kebour.

Kebour explained his design: "The concept was quite minimalist - an area with big windows and a wall that would move into different positions creating different spaces. Part of the concept was also to give a clear colour identity to each act. It was important to feel the space, and to light the full volume of the stage which was quite big. I took advantage of all th

Details
UK - Sales, rental and production company London Light Production Services has announced the winners of its PLASA 09 competition to win a week's hire of an ETC Eos and Ion consoles.

At the show, visitors were encouraged to leave their details at London Light's stand and on the Wednesday afternoon, ETC regional sales manager for UK and Ireland, Mark White, drew the winners. Anton Prior, a technician from Salisbury City Hall, wins a week's hire of the Eos, while Ben Goodland, department tech from the Regis Centre, wins a week's hire of an Ion.

"This was our first PLASA show, and it was made possible by the organisers providing a new exhibitors area," says London Light's business development manager, Andy Vere, referring to PLASA's new initiative Small Business Pavilion. "We had a steady stream of visitors throughout the four days who were interested in finding out

  1. Philips is first entrant in Bright Lighting competition
  2. Stage Electrics' Welsh trade show returns
  3. Wybron's Mobile Showroom hits the road
  4. The Week in Lighting & Sound
  5. London Light announces console winners
  6. PSP continues investment
Page 820 of 1201

Latest Issue. . .