USA - Once again suburban Chicago was aglow with the holiday spirit as Illumination: The Lights at The Morton Arboretum opened for its annual run, 21 November to 3 January. Visitors to The Arboretum followed a magical one-mile paved path lined by trees that shone with LEDs and responded to touch and sound. Clay Paky Sharpys and new Clay Paky Mythos fixtures - the first in the U.S. - housed in Igloo domes provided innovative lighting effects for the one-of-a-kind holiday display.
The Morton Arboretum was founded in 1922 by Morton Salt magnate Joy Morton whose father inaugurated Arbor Day in the U.S. The annual Illumination event features stunning lighting effects along a one-mile outdoor path through the trees and offers opportunities for visitors to interact with the
USA - Usher kicked off his current The UR Experience tour in November with Elation Professional's award-winning Sniper multi-effect light used extensively throughout the show as a key accent element including laser simulation. The Sniper, Elation's new beam, scanner and laser simulator in one, and a PLASA Innovation Award winner, has been used on a growing number of shows and special events since its launch last October, both in the U.S. and abroad.
Working from upstage automated ladders, one of the reasons lighting designer and show director Eric Wade says he turned to the high-energy hybrid effect was for its intensity and brightness when compared to the overall rig. Powered by the new 132W Philips MSD Platinum 2R lamp, the Sniper delivers 45,010 lux @ 16.4' (5m), enough to hold its weight among bigger lights.
Associate LD Eric Marchwinski and assistant LD Jason Winfree both
The Netherlands - King Willem Alexander of the Netherlands has opened a prestigious new cultural and historical institution at The Netherlands' former Soesterberg air base. The National Military Museum (NMM) is the largest of its kind in Europe and displays the significance of The Netherlands' armed forces in the past, present and future, with an array of Philips Selecon luminaires lighting the majority of the exhibits.
Amsterdam-based agency Rapenburg Plaza was in charge of the lighting design, AV and control systems for the entire Museum, choosing 42 x Philips Selecon PLcyc1, 12 x PLprofile1 RGBW and 269 x PLfresnel1 RGBW luminaires for key lighting in six of the museum's themed halls.
"The concept for the space is that each of the halls are interactive and follow a storyline," says lighting designer and Rapenburg Plaza partner Pelle Herfst. "We selected Selec
USA - The Fred Bramlage Coliseum, commonly referred to as 'The Octagon of Doom', is a 12,528-seat multi-purpose arena that is home to the men's and women's basketball teams for Kansas State University.
University officials recently decided it was time to upgrade the eight-sided building with new sound and video systems that are in line with state of the art technology. System design company Wrightson, Johnson, Haddon & Williams (WJHW) specified a new sound reinforcement system that features EAW QX Series loudspeakers. Promedia UltraSound, located in Martinez, California handled the installation.
"The existing system was an old, large-format, horn-based, scoreboard cluster that had long outlived its usefulness," explains Mark Graham, WJHW. "The goal was to increase the fan experience with higher quality audio and an upgraded center-hung scoreboard and video prese
Germany - Prolight + Sound is set to provide the stage for J&C Joel to unveil a number of exciting new developments and products this April.
J&C Joel, one of the world's leading manufacturers of flame retardant fabrics and flooring for the entertainment and event industries, will also be celebrating its rich textile heritage at the Frankfurt show.
The British company has achieved global reach through an international network of offices and has been providing bespoke theatre curtains, drapes, canvasses, backdrops and stage engineering services for stage shows, events and exhibitions for more than 35 years.
As well as showcasing a number of new products and fabrics, which have been kept a closely guarded secret, the J&C Joel team will be launching its latest catalogue alongside a fresh new look for its website which will feature a number of technical enhancements to help custo
USA - PRG has announced the passing of Board Member and award-winning theatrical producer, Joseph P. Harris. As a producer and general manager, Mr. Harris had been associated with over 200 Broadway productions. He died peacefully at home in Greenwich, CT on Wednesday 11 February at the age of 87.
Mr. Harris was born in Manhattan on July 2, 1927 and moved to Queens during his childhood. He graduated from Forest Hills High School and was drafted into the Army. After returning home from serving as part of the occupation forces under General MacArthur in Japan, he started his theatrical career as the assistant general manager on Finian's Rainbow, in 1948, working alongside his father, the general manager, Charles Harris.
During his 54-year Broadway career, Mr. Harris crossed paths with many artists, including the legendary Bob Fosse, producing Fosse's Chicago and the
UK - Presteigne Broadcast Hire has appointed Neil Coles as its sales manager. A sales professional, he has a solid history in the studios and post production industries, so clearly understands the challenges and opportunities facing Presteigne's clients today.
Working for the past three years as a business development consultant, largely with clients in the broadcast and media sector, he has also driven sales at post house Prime Focus in London, fixed-rig specialist Roll to Record, and Pinewood Studios Group where he was primarily responsible for the light entertainment television studios at Teddington.
"Production companies and their facilities are under tremendous pressure at the moment," said Coles. "On one side they need to produce more content on ever-tighter budgets and with ever-increasing audience expectations. And on the other, there is a continuous str
UK - Illuminate Design worked with the E-luminate festival and Great St Mary's Church in Cambridge to provide lighting for the church as part of the week-long festival.
Lighting designer Malgosia Rozycka put together a complementary plan to light the 500-year-old church using a mix of warm and cold tones with the aim to bring out the different architectural features of the building. Ben Payne from Illuminate Design took Malgosia's design concepts for the festival and worked them into a scheme that was achievable for the week long period of the festival.
As one of the festival's key points was sustainability and energy efficiency, Payne chose 16 RGBW led fixtures as the main form of lighting - with a number of small GU10 and LED Tape fixtures to highlight the various building features. The total running power for the whole lighting project was no more than 75 watts.
The festi
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ETC Halcyon Silent
High End Systems Halcyon Silent builds on ETC’s legacy of fanless automated fixtures by incorporating features from the highly sought-after Halcyon family. Halcyon Silent perfectly balances silent operation with brilliant output of 18,400 lumens and high-impact features.
UK - Series 2 of the Endemol UK/Remarkable TV show Two Tribes, hosted by Richard Osman, is using projection from XL Video.
Working with production designer, Dominic Tolfts, and production manager, Jessica Enderby, XL Video's film & TV manager, Jeff Bailey specified one of XL's high brightness Barco HD20 projectors along with a Repro H projection screen to create the main question screen for the centre of the Two Tribes set.
The Barco unit provides sufficient output to ensure good visual clarity amongst the studio lighting, and Bailey once again selected a Repro H screen surface to avoid hotspots which can be picked up by broadcast cameras.
The question screen is central to Two Tribes, displaying questions asked by the presenter, Richard Osman, which discover what players have in common, and determine the teams for the game.
USA - Electrosonic has opened a new office in the San Francisco Bay Area, which will support Electrosonic clients in the region and serve as a resource for new business development. The Bay Area office is located in Livermore and features 3,000sq.ft of office and warehouse space.
"We are very excited to announce the opening of our new San Francisco Bay Area location," says Jim Bowie, president of the Electrosonic Group. "Over the last few years, Electrosonic has steadily increased the number of our Bay Area clients. This office will support them, keep pace with their evolving needs and help us grow in the region."
The Livermore location is a full-service office providing Bay Area businesses with complete solutions, including audio-visual design consulting, systems integration and operational support.
"Opening our office in the Bay Area allows us to k
USA - CMT's live Ultimate Kickoff Party launched the first College Football Playoffs with a glittering show, which also marked the US TV debut of Clay Paky's new Mythos fixtures, a highly-advanced hybrid light which serves as a 470-watt spotlight and an extraordinary beam light.
Production designer/lighting designer Mike Swinford obtained 146 Mythos fixtures from Nashville-based Morris Light & Sound, which offers a large inventory of the new lights. As a spot, Mythos has an outstanding large beam and zoom optimized for focusing; as a beam light it remains parallel for its entire length even at great distances. Mythos is smooth, fast and very quiet with a completely redesigned indexed visual effects disc.
Swinford and Morris Light & Sound president and CEO David Haskell were introduced to Mythos when A.C.T Lighting vice president of sales and marketing Brian Dowd invited them t
UK - One of the oldest loudspeaker companies in the world, Tannoy is a brand that is synonymous with sound, their pre-war horn technology being such a part of everyday life that the phrase 'over the Tannoy' entered the Oxford English Dictionary to describe a public address system. After being at the forefront loudspeaker technology ever since, the company has produced a brand new product that takes that horn heritage into a whole new area of application.
The Tannoy THL-1 tunnel loudspeaker provides a robust, durable and highly cost-effective solution for Emergency Voice Alarm/Communication (EVAC) systems in the physically and acoustically hostile environment of road tunnels. In an application notorious for high ambient noise levels and excessive reverberation, the THL-1 transmits crisp, controlled and intelligible voice announcements throughout the space from a minimum nu
UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd.'s Video division has supplied the first Green Hippo AViary magpi video playback solution in the UK to Alton Towers Resort, to drive the visual and interactive displays in their popular CBeebies Land - one of the theme park's newest attractions.
Home to a range of themed rides and live entertainment, CBeebies Land is an immersive experience for children and young families. The five-acre site within Alton Towers Resort offers opportunities for kids to interact with some of their favourite characters and TV shows. In addition to rides, CBeebies Land includes play areas, live experiences and character appearances designed to inspire and educate.
Green Hippo's AViary Video Tools range was launched to much acclaim last year, and represents a new approach to realtime high-resolution video playback and control. Drawing upon the manufac
USA - The Krewe of Endymion Parade, started at City Park and Orleans Avenues in New Orleans, and from there took visitors on a journey that figuratively at least reached far beyond the confines of the Crescent City. Built around the theme Fantastic Voyages, the largest and most legendary of New Orleans' Mardi Gras parades, featured floats depicting 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Gulliver's Travels and other tales of transcendent journeys. Accenting it all, along with 2,650 masked revellers tossing beads to the crowds are video Panels from Chauvet Professional and Geyser RGB Foggers from its sister company Chauvet DJ.
"Chauvet products are a key part of our design," said Ray Ziegler of RZI Lighting (New Orleans), which does most of the lighting and special effects lighting for Endymion. "Being in New Orleans at Mardi Gras, the Endymion floats ha
UK - HSL supplied lighting equipment and crew to the current UK tour by X-Factor winner Sam Bailey, who followed up her 2013 win and subsequent Christmas number one with her chart topping Power of Love debut album in spring last year.
This was her first headline tour and it visited a selection of venues including theatres and concert halls, with an eye-catching lighting and set design by Andy Hurst.
Andy's aesthetic for the stage was based on classical theatrical / cabaret club looks with a contemporary twist.
A sumptuous red Austrian drape upstage was paired with matching truss borders and riser skirts, which provided a great setting for Bailey's lively stage presentation which blends pop, soul, cabaret and a bit of rock in an entertaining set full of crowd pleasers for her fans.
The lighting rig needed to be flexible and adaptable to fit into the variety of differ
USA / UK - Ashly Audio has announced the appointment of Sound Directions as its exclusive distributor in the United Kingdom. The Chessington, Surrey-based company will distribute Ashly's entire line of products, including Ashly's networked multi-channel amplifiers, Protea DSP-equipped amplifiers, and customizable user interfaces, such as Ashly's iPad app.
Stanislas Boivin-Champeaux founded Sound Directions in 1998. "From the very start, we've worked closely with our customers to demystify the vast array of technologies that are available in the installed A/V market," he said. "When it benefits our clients, we happily design and programme systems that work flawlessly under the pressures and challenges of the real world. We've seen countless systems designed by others that left end-users with a system that they did not understand and could not operate. We go the ext
Argentina - BALS - Buenos Aires Live Show - one of the best known rental and production companies in Argentina, specializing in sound and lighting for large shows, concerts, festivals and tours, recently purchased their first Robe Pointes.
The company was founded in 1992 and occupies a large warehouse space in the Caseros area of Buenos Aires city, with around 17 full time employees and around 40 regular freelance technicians and engineers.
BALS also works in other parts of Latin America, most notably Paraguay and Uruguay, and they service the technical requirements worldwide for acclaimed live art / performance troupe Fuerza Bruta. They supply around 200 shows / tours / projects a year and also look after some high profile installations including the busy Teatro Coliseo in Buenos Aires.
The fixtures were delivered by Robe's Argentinian distributor, TSD Group. The fact that
The Netherlands - Shure Distribution UK (SDUK) used ISE 2015 to focus on awareness of the importance of RF spectrum availability for all users of wireless microphones. Under the slogan 'Losing Your Voice', SDUK are aiming at the growing market of professional and semi-professional users of RF technology, from the conference audio and systems integrators at ISE to live performers and organisers of commercial and non-commercial events.
The goal is to better inform this wide range of users about the growing challenges to the unhindered use of wireless microphone systems as a result of continued UHF spectrum allocation to the mobile communications and data industries.
"Over the past few years, the user base for wireless microphone technology has expanded far beyond the professional touring, broadcast and theatrical industries, the programme making and special events sector, o
Hungary - The end of January saw Chromasound, DiGiCo's Hungarian distributor, invited to demonstrate the advantages of DiGiCo consoles at the MPRT - the Hungarian Professional Technical Event Company.
Founded at the beginning of 2014 and based in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, the MPRT was set up to help train and educate those working in the theatre, cinema, television, radio and concert touring industries.
Chromasound was invited to introduce DiGiCo consoles to its members during an eight week series of events, where it worked alongside eight different brands.
"We were delighted to accept the invitation," says Chromasound managing director Imre Makkay. "We took three DiGiCo consoles - an SD8, SD9 and SD11 - to the Fono Budai Zenehaz, a cultural centre in the heart of Budapest."
Imre, along with three of Chromasound's sound engineers, Barna Hidasi,
France - New Year's Eve 2014 saw the city of Paris put on a spectacle at the midnight countdown for the first time. Lighting designer Jeff Freeman employed Clay Paky SuperSharpys to illuminate the Arc de Triomphe for the festivities, as hundreds of thousands of revellers congregated in front of it or watched at home on television.
The Comité des Champs-Elysées commissioned the project as, according to culture official Bruno Juillard, the city's authorities are aware it doesn't usually join in with the likes of London's fireworks or New York's ball drop in Times Square. The display saw the monument spectacularly video-mapped, with Freeman using 18 of the super powerful Clay Paky fixtures, supplied by rental company Magnum, to complement the visuals.
"Our creative brief was clear - we had to support the video projection," explains Freeman. "The head
USA - Artistic Licence has confirmed TMB as its exclusive distributor in the USA for nanoScope, the pocket-sized tester for DMX512 and RDM.
Lightweight and battery powered with a translucent plastic casing, nanoScope features a built-in 5-pin XLR connector that enables it to be attached directly to the DMX512 cable. The device lights up in different colours to indicate its findings - this provides rapid, intuitive feedback that is hands-free and visible at a distance (handy for awkward positions such as plenum spaces or hanging off a truss).
Two modes of operation exist, selected by a recessed slide switch that also controls power on/off.
In Pixel Mode, nanoScope displays the first three DMX512 channels as an RGB mix, to provide confidence that the expected data is on the cable. This is particularly useful for commissioning DMX installations, as it can be used to track down