Lighting

Tungsten Wash Shoot-Out at the ROH

Details: 14 March 2016

White Light brought together leading manufacturers of tungsten washlightsfor a comparison at the Royal Opera House's Linbury Theatre. Chris Henry reports . . .

UK - It was all guns blazing down at the Opera House, as manufacturers pitched their wares against each other in the tungsten wash shoot-out that the theatre world had long been waiting for. As the lights were fired up, the atmosphere on the battlefield was surprisingly relaxed as competitors called a truce for the test, paving the way for an open and frank discussion.

Hosted by lighting supplier White Light, and organised in conjunction with the Royal Opera House, a steady stream of invited lighting designers, production electricians and venue technicians passed through the ROH's Linbury Theatre to cast a critical eye, and ear to the proceedings.

So what was in the firing line? Well, in alphabetical order, Clay Paky'

Lightfactor

Details: 14 March 2016

Lightfactor's main focus was on the Synthesis Spot 700 from Italian manufacturer SGM. Features include onboard wireless DMX as standard and protection against rogue power supplies up to 380V. Using a 700W HTI lamp, available in colour temperatures of 7200°K or 5600°K, other features include: automatic hot restrike, colour mixing, linear dimming and automatic electronic pan-tilt unlock.

From LDR, Lightfactor had the Xpress range of scrollers along with a new Xpress power distribution system designed to feed a single Xpress colour scroller. Also from LDR, the new Canto followspot.

LightProcessor's Paradim and Dimension dimming ranges, available as installation or touring versions, were also shown.

Leisuretec Distribution

Details: 14 March 2016

Underlining the potential they see in the products, Leisuretec Distribution was focusing its presence entirely on the new BlueBeam and BlueDome systems, from GDS (Global Design Solutions), for whom Leisuretec acts as UK distibutor.

First previewed in L&SI back in December 2005, these innovative products are designed for use in technical backstage or FOH interior and exterior areas. BlueBeam offers a spot source and BlueDome a flood. Both are IP67 rated, produce little heat and are capable of dimming via an integral 0-10V dimmer, and large numbers can be daisy-chained together if required.

Also showing were accessories for the fixtures - a push-on cowl (for the Beam or Dome fixture) and an eyelid (for the Dome).

Robbie tours with Martin Pro

Details: 14 March 2016

Worldwide - PRG Europe has supplied a large package of Mac 2000 Washes and Atomic strobes with Atomic Color scrollers for British pop star Robbie Williams' 2006 Close Encounters stadium world tour. In rehearsals since early May, the tour kicked off in mid-June and runs through the end of the year.

Lighting designer is Al Gurdon (Brit Awards, MTV Europe Awards, Classical Brit Awards, Nobel Peace Prize Concert) who has been lighting top television programs and events for the past 18 years, as well as DVD shoots for some of the top performers in the industry like U2, Phil Collins, Sting, and many more. Yet this is Gurdon's first concert tour design.

"I was excited to have the opportunity to design the lighting for Robbie's tour," he says. "The brief has been evolving in a fairly organic way for over a year or so. The choice of fixtures was predicated on the

Cascade underlines Art & Culture

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - The spectacular Alnwick Garden Cascade, at Alnwick Castle in Northumberland, was the backdrop for a lighting event by lighting designer Simon Corder, commissioned to coincide with the recent World Summit on Arts & Culture, and funded by One NorthEast.

"The premise of Cascade," says Corder, "is that a local jazz duo had been booked to play a set following dinner . . . and find themselves playing in the midst of the spectacular Alnwick Garden Cascade."

The audience was invited to follow the bemused pair as they walked through the garden; an element of performance art was introduced as a waiter, accompanied by umbrella-bearers, clambered through the cascade to deliver a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale to the musicians.

White Light supplied the lighting services and the theatrical lighting installation, overseen by project manager Jack Thompson. The instal

White Light

Details: 14 March 2016

White Light was proudly showing the new Robert Juliat Lucy followspot, that had only touched down in the country two days before. Lucy is a short-throw version of the Korrigan, whose new successor the Super Korrigan, was also on show. The Super Korrigan 1200W HMI followspot offers a 25-30% increase in light output over the original Korrigan, say White Light.

White Light is also UK distributor for Wireless Solutions' DMX system, which was on display, as was LDDE's SpectraConnecT5 four-colour fluorescent flood units. ELC's range of DMX signal distribution tools was also on stand.

Martin Professional

Details: 14 March 2016

The latest products on display at the Martin Professional stand included the brand-new Mac 700 Wash, the new Maxxyz PC, the complete Mac 250 range and Maxedia Media Server. The Mac TW1 tungsten washlight, was launched at the show at a private showing. (See July-August L&SI.)

The TW1 has a twin lens zoom that offers a variable range of between 19°- 40°. The fixture can be used with external or internal dimming systems and a mechanical shutter allows for dimming without variation in colour temperature, and a strobing effect. Provision for turning off the cooling fans is made via DMX control. Lamp replacement is simple with a single-ended quarter-twist lamp, and its modular design has maintenance in mind. An auto-sensing switch-mode power supply ensures global compatibility. A range of accessories is also available, such as barndoors, gel frames, or top hats.

Beadlight

Details: 14 March 2016

Beadlight were experiencing a busy show. Managing director Pat Wisby explained that they had expected their ice*lighting product to appeal to the rental market, but they were pleased to be seeing more and more demand for the install market.

Goboland

Details: 14 March 2016

Belgian gobo specialist Goboland, months after setting up its London branch, was enjoying a successful show, and receiving a good response to its recently reorganised, easy to follow, 'logical' gobo numbering system - which sees a straightforward glass/steel, series, design number and size coding in the order number. The gobos are also now individually packed with their own barcodes for easy stocktaking. The company's growing catalogue of designs includes over 500 steel patterns and over 200 glass patterns, with custom designs are also available. Goboland gobos are now being stocked by White Light, the company reports.

Clay Paky on Broadway

Details: 14 March 2016

USA - Clay Paky's Alpha Wash Halo has been extensively used on the Broadway production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Woman in White. The Halo, a 1,000W (3,200°K) halogen washlight fixture, was specifically designed for use in theatre and television, and The Woman in White marks its Broadway début. The original London production of was lit by UK-based lighting designer, Paul Pyant, and Pyant's associate LD, David Howe, was tasked with recreating Pyant's design in The Marquis Theatre, New York.

"We needed a bright, colour mixing, tungsten-source washlight with a great range of subtle pastel and tonal colours that was consistent across all units," explains Howe. "As the show's scenery is entirely projected, a fixture with a wide focus range was essential to prevent any unwanted light spill. For this reason, the automatic top hat on the Alpha W

Color Kinetics appoints John Daly

Details: 14 March 2016

USA - Color Kinetics Inc has announced the appointment of John Daly as vice-president of OEM Sales. Daly will oversee the company's worldwide OEM sales and support activities, including the identification and closure of new partnerships intended to increase the use of Color Kinetics' technology across diverse markets.

Daly brings more than 17 years of lighting industry sales and management experience to Color Kinetics, including specific expertise in OEM sales. He most recently served as president and general manager of the 68-year-old Rig-A-Lite division of AZZ Inc, an electrical equipment manufacturer. He previously held sales and OEM management positions at Venture Lighting, GE Lighting and Philips Lighting.

"We are confident in the technologies, expertise and IP that differentiate our OEM value proposition, which many partners have already embraced to bring unique pro

Bandit on All the Roadrunning tour

Details: 14 March 2016

Europe / USA - Bandit Lites supplied lighting, rigging and crew for the UK, European and US legs of Mark Knopfler's and Emmylou Harris' All the Roadrunning tour.

The tour promotes the collaborative album of the same name from the Dire Straits front-man and 11-time Grammy award-winner, Emmylou Harris. The pair have been compiling duets for seven years.

Lighting designer Simon Tutchener was asked to produce a simple look for the stage - with no video production onboard - the visual scenography was all down to lighting - and he in turn again asked Lester Cobrin at Bandit to help realise his design.

The design was based on using two very elegant eight metre diameter A-type interlocking circular trusses - which Bandit had custom fabricated. Tutchener wanted an architectural feel to the stage that defined the space. The circles symbolised the fusion of two of the greatest l

Frog 2 visits the British Motor Show

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Zero 88's Frog 2 took control as Lotus Cars unveiled their latest models at the British Motor Show last week.

The lighting rig was designed by Mark Powell of Bandit Lites, and consisted of 40 Martin moving heads, including Mac 600s, Mac 2000 Profiles, and Mac 2000 Washes, providing ambient lighting, logo projection and car specials.

The fixtures were all controlled from the Frog 2 using real-time triggers for cues. This allowed for turning on of the rig each morning, running the show throughout the day and dowsing the lamps at the end of the day. The timecode triggers enabled stand staff to simply power up the stand each morning with the Frog 2 then taking control.

Lotus launched two new models at the show, the Europa S and the Elise S. The Frog 2 was programmed using multiple cue stacks. Different stacks were used to control different areas of the stand. One sta

The Madrix website is re-launched

Details: 14 March 2016

Germany - Company inoage has re-launched the Madrix website, bringing togetherdescriptions and technical specifications for the Windows software for the creation of lighting scenes and show operations, for matrix controlling.

Madrix supports DMX interfaces with outstanding DMX capabilities, and includes an installation CD-ROM, a software protection dongle and English and German user guides. Madrix features an easy matrix control, Music2Light (real-time audio analysis, 60 DMX - universes (30720 DMX channels), two effect pipelines for live performances and 100 storage places with layer technology.

The new website address is www.madrix.de.

(Chris Henry)

Martin and Maxxyz PC on Mogwai tour

Details: 14 March 2016

Worldwide - Mogwai are a Scottish band formed in 1995; they have just completed a 10 date tour of the UK and are now heading out to Australia.

Lighting designer Nick Jevons, of Electric Fly, has been using a Maxxyz PC with a wing to control the lighting for the whole tour. His son, Jake Jevons who now works for Bandit Lites was working with him in the UK.

The lights being used for the UK leg of the tour were Mac 300s, Mac 500s, Atomic 3000 Strobes, which were hung from four upstage ground based 12" truss in a Y formation. The lighting was supplied by Bandit Lites.

It is the first time Jevons has toured without using a lighting desk and as far as he's aware it was the first time that this setup has toured. He says: "I found the system portable, creative and flexible without losing any of the capabilities of a lighting desk, and my job was made more convenient by the

ELC miniStores for Dino Jaws

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - White Light, the exclusive UK distributor for the range of DMX networking and control equipment from ELC, has supplied eight ELC miniStores to the new Dino Jaws travelling exhibition from the Natural History Museum.

Designed by exhibition designers Ralph Appelbaum Associates (RAA), the lighting for Dino Jaws has been designed by leading architectural and exhibition lighting consultants dha design. "Dino Jaws features eight automated dinosaurs and an interactive display area called the LAB. The aesthetic requirement was to light each dinosaur, but not to make a light show so dazzling it distracted from them," explains Flick Ansell of dha design. "The brief was subtle changing landscapes and, importantly, to make shadow play on the different coloured backdrop between each dinosaur."

"There was also a practical brief that each display area could, in

Robe: new Club Range products

Details: 14 March 2016

Czech Republic - Robe Show Lighting has introduced three new products in its Club Series - the ClubSpot 300CT, the ClubWash 300CT and the Euphoria effects projector. The fixtures include the features and functionality in true Robe style, and are engineered to withstand the tough environment of clubs and bars as well as restaurants and venues of all types, say the company.

ClubSpot 300CT is based on Robe's popular Spot 250XT and comes complete with 250W discharge lamp, remotely controlled motorized focus and standard beam apertures of 15 degrees - with options on 12° and 18° lenses. The colour wheel offers 11 dichroic filters, and the gobo wheel offers six interchangeable and indexable rotating gobos plus open. The unit's multi-colour glass gobos are made from high temperature borofloat glass.

The optics feature a high luminous-efficiency parabolic mirror and double con

Hawthorn on the Ram Katha Festival

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Having worked on similar events in Leicester over the last eighteen years, Hawthorns secured the opportunity from the Jalaram Charitable Trust, Leicester, to provide the power, sound, video and lighting systems for this year's special festival.

With the visit of the religious leader, Morari Bapu, the organisers changed the festival to a more corporate style format including the erection of an enclosed Arena TFT structure 95 metres long, 50 metres wide and 16 metres in height to the apex, accommodating 8000 people.

In order to power the whole site, two pairs of generators were used, one of which was a one megawatt set, which provided all the power to the catering facilities, lighting, sound and the all important air conditioning, given the recent temperatures.

To illuminate the Arena TFT structure and stage both decoratively and safely, over 250KW of lighting was used.

John Wright joins Stage Electrics

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Stage Electrics have announced that John Wright has joined their Service Team as a specialist field engineer.

Steve Chappell, Stage Electrics' service manager says: "John has an enormous amount of knowledge and experience, he has been working for Strand for over 40 years and will be invaluable in helping Stage Electrics to continue to support their customers. He is very experienced in system integration, networking and power electronics."

Stage Electrics supports Strand products including the 500 series control consoles; LD90; SLD; and EC21 dimmers by offering commissioning, servicing, and trouble shooting. Over the next few months Wright will receive training on other manufacturers including Zero88 and ETC.

Wright will be available to any dealer or installer who may require his help to support or maintain Strand lighting installations, enquiries should be dir

W-DMX at Dino Fantasy Park

Details: 14 March 2016

Thailand - W-DMX was recently used during a two-month tour with the Dino Fantasy Park World Tour 2006 in Thailand. The show thrilled visitors with life-sized dinosaur replicas and a special effects light show, provided by LDS Show of Bangkok. Although the set and props were imported from Japan, the lighting was locally contracted to LDS, with lighting design by Poon Limpapun and Sermsak Boonyhai. The team was faced with a large venue and hard-to-reach areas to light. Wireless Solution's S-1 Transmitter was used with 24 R-512 Receivers to control 24 Wybron Nexera Wash and Profile fixtures in these remote areas. Par cans and colour changers were used for general overhead lighting.

Subtle shades of green, orange and blue wash created the look and feel of changing sunlight patterns that helped tell the story. The audience entered the exhibit, surrounded by blue sky and soft daylight

Fogerty, Nelson and Bandit

Details: 14 March 2016

US - John Fogerty is back, loaded with the complete Credence catalogue after years oflegal maneuvers, and Fogerty and his band sing all the classics he penned back in the day. The show has been well received in Europe and the US shows promise to be the same with Willie Nelson signing on for most of the run.

Designer David Davidian has created a very moody environment for the classic Fogerty tunes. The approach is very traditional with a touch of automation. There are PAR cans, lekos, cyc lights, eight-lights and colour changers, Davidian also uses the Martin Mac 2000 spot and wash fixtures. Control is withboth a Whole Hog 2 and an Avo Sapphire 2000.

Bandit Lites works with Nelson every year at Farm Aid but this is the first project for Bandit with Fogerty.

(Chris Henry)

Lighting make-over for gas and steam plant

Details: 14 March 2016

Germany - Traditionally utilities are housed in functional buildings, often outside of town, away from the scrutinous eye of urban dwellers, but not always. Centrally located in the city of Leipzig is the gas and steam cogeneration plant, GuD Heizkraftwerk. Owners Leipziger Stadtwerke GmbH sought to integrate the building with the more aesthetic structures of Leipzig's architectural centre and thereby positively influence the city's night time image. Commercially, the company wanted to visually brand the cogeneration plant with the yellow and blue logo of Stadtwerke Leipzig. In November 2003 the company presented IPRO Leipzig with a draft and implementation plan that called for a unique night time lighting concept that could achieve these goals.

Lighting artist Jürgen Meier was subsequently contracted and worked with Armada Signs, the leading lighting promotion company in centr

Entec pumps up the volume at Guilfest

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Entec Sound & Light supplied audio and lighting production for three of the seven stages at Guilfest 2006 now in its 15th year. Guilfest is one of the most popular 'new wave' family festivals on the calendar.

It's the fifth year for Entec Lighting and the second year that Entec Sound have been involved at Guilfest. The departments provided sound and Lighting production services to the Radio 2 Main Stage and the Rock Sound Stage. The Lighting Department also installed a system into the Theatre Tent for the Howard Cragg's festival team to service.

Having taken delivery of their new d&b audiotechnik J-Series line array, Entec naturally used this for the main stage, where headliners included Embrace, A-Ha and Billy Idol. The system was designed by Stef Serpagli, and featured eight J8's and two J12 elements per side for the main arrays, neatly tucked in behind some elegant tri

Martin lights Israel's One Project

Details: 14 March 2016

Israel - Since appearing as Israel's entrant to the 1990 Eurovision Song Contest, Rita has established herself as one of Israel's most popular singers ever. She is currently performing in a series of spectacular shows called One staged in Tel-Aviv's Fair Grounds.

One is the largest multi-show production ever produced in Israel, an extravagant performance that showcases Rita's talents. The format of the show was taken from such shows as Cirque Du Soleil and Celine Dion's A New Day in Las Vegas. One features acrobats, high wire acts, fire, water, 70 dancers and a huge 30m x 7m black projection screen. The stage spans over 33m wide by 20m deep with a lighting rig that includes 50 Mac 700 Profiles, 60 Mac 600 washlights, 24 Mac 550 profile spots, eight Mac 2000 Performances and four Atomic 3000 strobes along with 350 dimmers and 42 scrollers. Several DF-5