Lighting

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World - An impressive array of Clay Paky moving heads are currently at the core of the lighting for Cirque Du Soleil's latest touring show Dralion, designed by award-winning Canadian LD Luc Lafortune.

Lafortune worked alongside show director Josh Mowczko to specify numerous Clay Paky fixtures, including the Alpha Wash 700, Alpha Wash Halo 1200, Alpha Wash 1200, Alpha Spot HPE 1200, Alpha Profile 1200 and Alpha Spot HPE 1500, with the fixtures delivering a range of beautifully absorbing textures, reliability and ultimate flexibility.

"This show was probably one of the first ever Cirque du Soleil productions with a specific storyline, which became the catalyst for many of the subsequent design choices," explains Lafortune. "The four main characters represent the four elements, which are reflected through colour so it originally made sense for the lighting t

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UK / USA - PLASA's month-long elections to determine positions on its European and North American Regional Boards, together with its central Governing Body, concluded at midnight on Wednesday 19 November. Companies and individuals from PLASA's worldwide membership voted in the elections, which were conducted via a secure online poll.

There were four positions available on the European Regional Board. Ed Pagett of Panalux was elected for a second term as Chairman, Peter James of Shure Distribution as representative to PLASA's Distributor members and Malcolm Burlow of Highlite was voted as the Dealer/Retailer representative. Robert Kronman joins the Board as the new Individual representative.

Four positions were also up for election on the North American Regional Board with Todd Spencer of PSAV elected as Vice-Chairman, Tracey Cosgrove of Rosco Laboratories as Secretary, Orestes

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UK - The London-based design studio Immersive had a hand in creating Christmas joy this year. They 'switched on' the Christmas lights for the northern town of Wigan in a rather extraordinary way. The stunt involved some 500sq.m of panels holding more than 8m LED lights plus loads of Christmas decorations. The show was filmed for the Tesco Christmas advert, which went viral on social media soon after first airing.

The advert debuted during the season finale of Downton Abbey. Thousands of viewers across Britain saw it marking the end of a weekend of television packed with the Christmas adverts from major retailers, including John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, Argos and Asda.

The Christmas advert is the most talked about commercial advert in the UK. John Munro, CEO of Immersive, comments: "During a visit to the US, I experienced the whirlwind around Super Bowl adverts . . .

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UK - The red carpet moments at the MTV EMA Awards have grown into an occasion in their own right, demanding the kind of production values usually discovered once inside the show itself. This year's event at Glasgow took the red carpet celebrations to yet another level.

Lighting specialists for the film, television and entertainment sectors, Panalux, chose to invest in the new Magic Blades from Ayrton especially for this event. Panalux gaffer for the MTV event was Mark Gardiner who explains why: "I was first made aware of the Magic Blades when I was sent a web-link to a stunningly programmed video clip of them in action on the Ayrton web site...the effects were fantastic, very original. I then saw them a few days later exhibited at PLASA London and wasn't disappointed so we placed an order."

For lighting designer, Stuart Pring, this was his first encounter with the Bl

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USA - At LDI in Las Vegas, Martin Professional introduced the MAC Aura XB wash light, M-Touch lighting console, and RUSH Gobo Projector 1.

"It's an exciting time for us with so many products launched recently and so many new to be launched today at LDI in Las Vegas," said Peter Skytte, head of product management, Martin Professional. "We're bringing a variety of new products to the market across our entire product range, including controllers, atmospheric effects, LED video, lighting and Rush by Martin."

Incorporating many new features first introduced in Martin's MAC Quantum Wash, the MAC Aura XB combines a compact design and low weight with a new colour mixing system and an optimized lens design for tighter beams and more even washes The Aura XB uses a super bright, single lens wash with fully premixed colour to provide beautiful and robust colour washes.

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North America - The recent partnership with industry expert Paul Rabinovitz has resulted in another strong alliance for Parasol Systems, this one with long time industry leader High End Systems.

At LDI, High End Systems showcased its latest developments with an eye-catching 40ft by 40ft booth. The STAR600 system was hung dead centre of their set-up and loaded with six Shapeshifter C2 and four SolaSpot Pro 1500 luminaries.

Shapeshifters C2's and SolaSpot Pro 1500 are the newest additions to the innovative range of luminaires designed by Richard Belliveau. Each offers "awesome power, incredible speed, and total flexibility". Each Shapeshifter has seven independently controlled modules housed in one moving fixture which basically means that these luminaires will provide a jaw-dropping visual impact to audiences everywhere. The SolaSpot Pro 1500 offers an overwhelming cr

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USA - Royal Philips Electronics chose LDI in Las Vegas to launch the new compact lamp systems MSD Platinum 14 R and 17 RA. With today's growing trend of integrating LED walls in stage lighting design, a new generation of lamps with more powerful beams is required to cut through the sea of homogenous light they provide - and add additional accents to the show, says the company. This is exactly what the new Platinum lamp systems from Philips are designed to do. The new lamp system MSD Platinum 14 R provides extreme brightness of 12,000 lumens at 280W with a colour rendering of 80. The lamp is successfully designed-in in the X3-Coupe from Jolly.

Also, the new compact and lightweight MSD Platinum 17 RA lamps offer exceptional brightness with a light output of more than 20,000 lumens at 350W, plus cool white light (7000 K) and a high colour rendering of 85. This makes them suitable f

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USA - Nemetschek Vectorworks has announced that the Spanish-language release of its Vectorworks 2015 software version will be available on 24 November. This release is part of a worldwide rollout that included other European-language releases earlier this month and continues into 2015 with additional localizations in Japanese and Chinese. The Vectorworks line of award-winning software products includes Designer, Architect, Landmark, Spotlight, Fundamentals and Renderworks.

The Vectorworks 2015 software contains more than 100 updates and new features in the areas of architecture, BIM, urban planning and entertainment design. In previous versions, the power of 64-bit was only available in the platform's photorealistic rendering engine, Renderworks, but has now been integrated throughout the entire Vectorworks 2015 product line, providing designers with the ability to handle larger

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South Africa - Having just completed the 2014 Let the Night In European Tour, South African band Prime Circle are looking forward to playing across home soil during December.

LD Vincent van Niekerk has been with the band for the past four and a half years and in July took ownership of an Avolites Tiger Touch 2.

"During my first three years I decided to work on as many different consoles as possible to learn as many as possible," explained Vincent. "But by doing that you can only imagine the complications when you arrive at a venue and you have to do a huge show off Light Jockey or DMX creator without a wing desk."

Since acquiring the Tiger Touch 2 Vincent says touring has become a breeze. "No matter what venue or what fixtures, the Tiger Touch 2 has all the personalities and all the versatility a touring desk needs. We've also started cueing all our

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Italy - Enigma is a spectacular stage-show and centrepiece at the new Cinecitta World visitor attraction in Rome - the first theme park dedicated to the rich world and history of Italian cinema - which has spawned numerous genius directors like Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, Franco Zeffirelli and many more.

Lighting for the 25 minute Enigma show - produced by FilmMaster and staged in a 1200 capacity venue right in the centre of the complex - has been designed by internationally renowned LD Giovanni Pinna who specified a fully Robe moving light rig.

"'Enigma" is a highly visual show," he explains, "It's designed to illustrate the boundaries and the scope of illusion - one of the essential vehicles of filmmaking and storytelling."

It's a mixed media performance set to especially composed music featuring dancers, mapped p

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UK - For this summer's Camden Roundhouse's Reverb festival, singer-songwriter Imogen Heap curated four days of events, which culminated in a headline show from Heap herself. As per the experimental theme of the festival, 12 Clay Paky A.leda B-EYE K20 fixtures were pixel-mapped for one of the first times in the UK, as part of Martir's innovative show design.

Lighting and control designer Tupac Martir specified the flexible Clay Paky fixtures, which were supplied by Richard Martin Lighting, as an integral element of the set.

"The set is based on the concept of molecules, which I wanted to mirror in the lighting design through gobos," explains Martir. "When considering which fixtures I could use to give me that kind of look, the B-EYE was an easy choice."

The theme of the show evoked the forming of a human being, with the sound of a heartbeat kicking things

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USA - At LDI, ETC revealed that the Eos Titanium (Ti and Gio consoles, as well as the RPU3 (Remote Processor Unit), have become more powerful. Their motherboards have been changed, which allows currently shipping products to output up to 32,768, without co-processing. Desks with the new motherboard have three display port outputs instead of DVI ports. Any older Ti, Gio and RPU3 products (with DVI connectors) can upgrade to a total of 16,384 outputs, and both hardware variants can upgrade in 1,024, 2,048 or 4,096 increments.

"The output upgrades are now even more affordable," explains ETC Eos Controls product manager Anne Valentino. "Users needing to increase their system capacity can upgrade through a lower-cost pricing structure. Anyone wanting to expand their output can contact an ETC dealer for more information."

ETC's Nomad and Nomad Puck mini controlle

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USA - Energy levels were pumped and spirits high on the Robe Lighting booth throughout the 2014 LDI Expo in Las Vegas which saw three days of constant activity, high quality visitors and high interest in all the new products, especially the new Bright Multi-Functional Luminaire (BMFL) - shown for the first time at a US trade show.

The elegant, stylish and super-cool all-white booth was designed to maximise space and provide a showcase for the power, colour and versatility of Robe's newest technologies, together with the architectural LED product ranges of sister brand Anolis, all working together with seamless synergy.

Says Bob Schacherl, CEO of Robe Lighting Inc, "This is definitely the best LDI in Robe's history based on the responses to product presentations and the number of new customers who came specifically to see BMFL, and to express their desire to start buying a

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UK - Bolton Wanderers F.C is enjoying the benefits of a new media suite following a makeover by sponsor, SPIE. The new look was recently revealed at club manager, Neil Lennon's first press conference. As a sponsor, SPIE's branding will be visible on the backdrop of manager interviews until 2017 and bespoke ads will appear in match programmes.

The refurbishment brings the quality of Bolton Wanderer's reception and media suite up to Premiership standards; the design was planned with the potential of league promotion in mind. The club's media suite is used for all pre-and post-match media activities including manager press conferences. Following the renovation the club also intends to hold pre-game media briefings in the facility.

During the re-fit, SPIE's Facilities Services division installed a new, energy-efficient lighting scheme in order to improve illumination quality, maki

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USA - Lollapalooza 2014 returned to Grant Park, Chicago this time with Clay Paky's A.leda B-EYE K20 innovative, LED-based moving lights helping the annual music festival to shine.

Lollapalooza was held 31 July - 2 August and headlined by Eminem, Outkast and Lorde with hundreds of other performers and bands on hand for the three-day celebration of alternative rock, heavy metal, punk rock and hip hop.

Lighting designer/lighting coordinator Seth Jackson did plots for Lollapalooza's four stages, working with the lighting designers who accompany the bands. "It's a three-month process going back and forth with the bands," he explains. "This year we had 10 B-EYEs on two of the stages, supplied by LD Systems, on the Lake Shore and Grove stages."

Lollapalooza marked Jackson's first time using B-EYEs. "I had seen a demo of the fixtures and was really excited

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USA - Lighting designer Chris Reade is back on the road with his Jands Vista T2, S1 and M1 consoles, controlling an even more technically ambitious rig for the latest tour by Platinum-selling singer-songwriter, Dierks Bentley.

After recently topping the US Billboard country airplay chart with his 12th No.1 single, Drunk On A Plane, Dierks Bentley and director Wes Edwards have just added the CMA (Country Music Award) Music Video of the Year Award to the song's other accolades.

The country artist's 2014 tour is called Riser, after the recent album of the same name. It kicked off in May in Charlotte, North Carolina, with sold-out shows in amphitheatres and arenas across the United States and Canada - concluding in December.

The tour further builds upon Chris's impressive lighting design and rig for Dierks Bentley on last year's Locked & ReLoaded Tour with M

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UK - In celebration of all things natural and nocturnal, nighttime visitors to Edinburgh's much-loved Royal Botanic Garden (RBGE) saw the familiar landscapes and buildings transformed by a magical light installation during November.

Designed by light artist Malcolm Innes, along with his colleague Euan Winton and supplied and installed by light solutions specialist Black Light the aptly named 'Night in the Garden' invited people to visit the gardens after dark to view and interact with an inspired display of light, art and nature.

The initiative was designed to bring a fresh sense of place and perspective to a familiar attraction and was two-and-a-half years in the making. It was made possible through the partnership of Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh Napier University, Unique Events, Event Scotland, via Homecoming Scotland 2014, and Black Light.

"This installation was

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UK - Edinburgh-based Black Light helped the world-famous Gleneagles Hotel revamp its flagship conference venue in time for the 2014 Ryder Cup.

The project involved the installation of power, data, sound and lighting systems in the hotel's Gleneagles Suite. This is Gleneagles' premier event space and the location of many high-profile meetings and functions.

"Our work was part of an overall refurbishment of the suite by designers Sedley Place," says Black Light's head of company development, Phil Haldane. "Our role was to help the designers create more flexible lighting and AV options for event organisers. We worked closely with the contractor, Stag Developments, and the main user, Catalyst Event Production Services to bring this project to fruition."

The specific project brief was to install lighting and speakers, along with data, power and dimming channel

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Russia - Founded by lead singer and only remaining original member Yuri Shevchuk in 1980, DDT is a popular Russian rock band named after the pesticide DDT, and is among the best known and most prolific Russian bands of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The band was recently back on the road again for its current Pellucid tour. Their lighting designer Andrejs Dubkovs (Lumen Art Division) used a grandMA2 full-size console and a MA NPU (Network Processing Unit).

Dubkovs explained his preference for MA control solutions: "I've been working with many lighting boards and brand names, but for the last seven years we've been mainly using MA equipment. This is because MA products are very reliable and offer a handy and user-friendly environment. My favourite two things are the timecode function and the macro programming as well as being able to set up your own working e

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USA - Chauvet Professional has enjoyed many successful LDI shows, but the 2014 version set a new standard, not only for leads generated, but also for visitor enthusiasm, says the company. "It looks like we had more leads than ever," said Berenice Chauvet, vice president of Chauvet Professional. "I can't be completely positive without reviewing the results from past shows, but one thing I can say is that we've never seen so much enthusiasm for our new products."

Among the attention getters were two new trail-blazing fixtures from the Ovation line: the Ovation ED-190WW ellipsoidal and the Ovation FD-165WW Fresnel wash, both of which have the unique ability to work equally well on constant power dimming systems (as incandescent fixtures do) as well as DMX systems (as LED fixtures typically do).

This breakthrough technology allows end-users to add dimmable LED

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Germany - Lighting designer Björn Hermann created a spectacular light show at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate to launch a night of celebrations commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago. Choosing to use a mix of Clay Paky SuperSharpy and Mythos fixtures, Hermann delivered a high impact and emotive display that could be seen for miles around.

Washed in vibrant colours, the pillars and architecture of the Brandenburg Gate stood out against the night sky as intense beams of light emanated from varying heights and distances. Hermann was responsible for lighting the citizens' festival at the Brandenburg Gate, which included lighting the square behind, the illumination of the Brandenburg Gate and the light show for the performances plus the live broadcast on television.

"I was keen to ensure that the impact of the Brandenburg Gate was not obscured or upstaged by the lig

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South Africa - Technical production and equipment rental company Lucidity recently made their first lighting purchase comprising of an Avolites Tiger Touch, six Robe Pointes, six Robin 300 LEDWash fixtures, data and cabling. This augments their current stock of LEDForce 18 RGBW, Source 4 Profiles and PARcans.

"We've always focused more on AV and sound," says Paul Newman. "I'm a noise boy at heart not a lighting guy and so emphasis has always been on the audio and AV side, however it was time to finally invest in lighting and so we wanted a fixture that would be versatile in both the corporate and live event environment."

The Robin Pointes were put straight to work at the recent Oracle Partner Network Event at Vodaworld. "It has been interesting," says Paul. "We have had a lot of reaction from colleagues and competitors alike and they've all s

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The Netherlands - Wireless Solution Sweden AB and Dutch lighting manufacturer Creative Lighting Fixtures (CLF Europe BV) have announced the latest line of lighting fixtures offering W-DMX as standard or optional OEM installed.

The CLF Conan is an innovative concept by CLF. This spot has a remarkably fast and wide zoom (11°- 58°) and a high light output with a superb colour mixing. With 12 x 10W RGB+W LED, the Conan is the perfect fixture for theatre applications, TV shows and rental projects. With the optional W-DMX Module it creates a flexible and creative solution, making it possible to work without clumsy DMX cables.

Also available is the CLF Juno, a fixture for the indoor and outdoor corporate event market, television broadcasts and general rental applications. With adjustable head and a manual zoom range from 15-30 degrees, a bright 4 x 10W RGB+W LED and a lithium

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UK - Four African Heads of State were amongst a raft of distinguished speakers and VIP delegates attending the high profile 2014 Global African Investment Summit (TGAIS), with a keynote speech by First Secretary of State William Hague, at the Savoy Hotel in London. The two-day event was organised by dmg::events, with technical production delivered by Central Presentations Ltd (CPL).

CPL was working for the event organiser dmg::events alongside production company Live Communications. The west Midlands based technical specialist was brought on-board to provide set, lighting, video and audio design and equipment - including presentation management - for the two day conference complete with gala dinner on the first evening.

The main activities took place in the main Lancaster Ballroom at the Savoy, and the CPL team was project managed by Simon Haydon.

They designed and built a 1

  1. GLP X4 plays major role in 'Fall of the Wall' celebration
  2. Alt-J on tour with Fragment Nine Robe design
  3. L7-C LED fixture offers extra brightness
  4. grandMA2 joins Fall of the Wall celebrations in Berlin
  5. Chauvet Professional helps Hope church engage
  6. White Light gears up for PLASA Focus Glasgow
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