UK / World - In December 2010 the wax figure of one of the world's most flamboyant and individual performers - Lady Gaga - simultaneously took to the stage at eight Madam Tussauds attractions around the world.

In London, Madame Tussauds' show services manager, Simon Morris, augmented the press launch lighting with the latest Philips Selecon LED lighting fixture - the PL1.

Morris's brief was to achieve high energy, live music atmosphere that would excite the media without compromising the press photographers' ability to capture clear shots of the Lady Gaga figure. "My brief for the main lighting state was to emulate a photographic studio shoot," says Morris. "Our biggest challenge was achieving the same colour temperature as studio flash lighting, while conveying a theatrical and suitably dramatic style.

"The PL1 certainly delivered on its promise. Its ful

Denmark - With twice the lumen output and 10 times the intensity of the Stagebar 54, Martin Professional's Stagebar 2 LED pixel bar and wash luminaire features a new and advanced lens design that provides a narrower, more concentrated field of light for better beam control and greater light intensity for overall improved floodlighting capability. A choice of lens options, which includes an opalescent diffuser lens for scenic on-camera looks, provides designers with beam angle flexibility.

Overall responsiveness of the Stagebar 2 has been improved for more reactive dimming, colour fades and visual content response like pixel mapping. Additionally, fan noise from the automatic heat management system has been reduced for the benefit of TV studios and other noise-sensitive environments.

Useful for displaying imagery and video or for floodlighting surfaces and stages, the Stagebar

Finland - Lighting designers Martin Kuhn (GER), Per Sundin (SWE), Tülay Schakir (FIN) and Mikki Kunttu (FIN) created lighting installations for the third Season of Light event in Helsinki between New Year and 9 January. In comparison to 2010 the event expanded this year and installations were created on new sites.

Mikki Kunttu once again relied on two grandMA2 light - one in Tracking-Backup-Mode - and one MA NPU (Network Processing Unit) for the necesary processing power. His project was called Grace. Kunttu explained,"Grace originated from a religious or spiritual point of view. After creating two works on the Helsinki Cathedral in previous years, I wanted to make a piece that completely supports the universal message of the church. We tend to look at this building and appreciate its architecture, but this time I wanted to bring the heart of the churc

UK - The Black Light Open Day, Scotland's biggest lighting, sound, AV and stage technology show will open its doors on 18 and 19 March in Edinburgh. It has over 40 confirmed exhibitors and will showcase a wide range of products from leading manufacturers.

"This is the only event of its kind in Scotland," says Black Light's head of company development, Phil Haldane. "Our annual open days have always been really popular and this year's will be the biggest and best yet. It will be a great opportunity to see the latest developments in the industry and will save people in Scotland the trouble of going down to the London shows."

The event, which will run from 10am until 4.30pm on each day, is designed to be of real value to anyone working in the theatre, events or architectural sectors. Over the two days visitors will be able to talk to manufacturers and get a ha

UK - The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) is recruiting for creative, production, operational and IT staff for the Opening and Closing ceremonies of the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.

Last summer, LOCOG announced the appointment of Danny Boyle as artistic director of the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony, and a team of executive producers led by Steven Daldry to oversee the Olympic and Paralympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies in 2012.

Now roles within the London 2012 Ceremonies Team working at Three Mills Studios in East London are being advertised on the London 2012 website.

Creative roles include producer of the Olympic Opening Ceremony, head of audio visual, head of costume, head of casting and design studio manager. Applications must be made by 23 February 2011 for these roles.

Bill Morris, LOCOG directo

Finland - The third Season Of Light event in Helsinki recently wrapped up to great critical acclaim, with W-DMX playing an integral part of one of the major installations. The event, organized by the City of Helsinki, was held from 31 December to 9 January and showcased lighting designers Martin Kuhn of Germany, Per Sundin of Sweden, and Tulay Schakir and Mikki Kunttu of Finland, who each created lighting installations for some of the main buildings around the city, which included the Esplandi Park Senate Square, Union Street, Kaisaniemi Park, Sanoma House, and Parliament House.

The City Of Helsinki considers Season Of Light to be one of their major annual events with this year seeing over 50.000 spectators walk along the light path from the Senate Square to the Parliament House during its 10 day showcase. The project was covered by CNN International news as well a

USA - Wybron's new Mobile Light Lab will continue its Visuality 2011 Tour in March with events in Northern California, Oregon and Washington.

The Wybron Mobile Light Lab will first head to Fresno, Calif, where it will host events at Michael Garrison Associates and Live Light Inc. on 14 and 15 March respectively. It will then head to Musson Theatrical in Santa Clara, Calif, for a 16 March event and Holzmueller Productions in San Francisco, for a 17 March event. It will wrap up the week on 18 March at Sacramento Theatrical.

The Mobile Light Lab will then head north to Oregon and Washington. Its first event of the second week will be hosted by Bud's Lites, a Molalla, Ore., dealer that will hold a 21 March event at Chemeketa Community College in Salem, Ore. Then it's off to Portland, Ore., for a 22 March event at Stagecraft Portland, and Seattle, Wash., for a 23 March event at Hol

UK - Richard Martin Lighting supported St. Edmunds School's latest endeavour in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital Charity, by donating a moving light package.

The idea was to re create the family favourite BBC show Strictly Come Dancing for which RML is lighting supplier. RML donated MAC 700's and Alpha Wash 300's to the charity event held in Canterbury. The MAC 700's include the animation wheel, often required for optimum lighting effects within a television studio.

Lighting designer Oz Andrews of ZeeLight said, "Thank you so much and the RML team who provided us with MAC 700's and Alpha Wash 300's for Strictly St Edmunds 2011. We raised an impressive figure for Great Ormond Street Charity thanks to the support of so many. The night was a huge success and looked stunning."

(Jim Evans)

Spain - Ben-Ri, Spanish manufacturer of the LT-Light brand, has added on-board wireless capabilities to the entire range of new Piccolo lightboards. The LT-Light Piccolo series with an integrated CRMX transmitter from LumenRadio will be introduced to the domestic market at the upcoming AFIAL trade show in Madrid. The full international launch of the new Piccolo products with on-board CRMX will happen at Prolight+Sound 2011 in Frankfurt later this spring. The Piccolo family of consoles is sold under the Leviton brand in North-America and the CRMX wireless option will shortly be available there as well.

"When we were given the opportunity to test the wireless CRMX products from LumenRadio we immediately recognized that it represented a paradigm shift in wireless lighting control," says Bernardo Benito Rico, president of Ben-Ri Electronica. "Not only does CRMX provid

USA - Custom-designed Lighthouse LED video screens introduce a new fixture on the Los Angeles skyline - Motor Village, Chrysler's Dealership of the Future. Motor Village is a prototype, multi-floor, multi-brand dealership rising just blocks from the Los Angeles Convention Centre, the Staples Centre arena and the L.A. Live sports and entertainment district in downtown Los Angeles.

Built to the architect's specifications, with AV and design consulting by Anthony James Partners, three curved LED video screens rise from the focal point of the dealership - a five-story glass tower -and reach out to the I-110, a downtown freeway carrying over 350,000 drivers past the dealership each day. Each screen is nearly 5.18m wide and 3.05m high, with curvature matching that of the unique building.

"The project was a chance to work with a top-notch design team and one of the world'

USA - Now Elation Professional has introduced an indoor LED video panel that can "move like no other". The EPV762 MH is a high-resolution 7.62mm pitch moving head video panel that can rotate just like a moving yoke light fixture, panning a full 540° and tilting up to 265°.

The EPV762 MH's sweeping motion gives video displays maximum exposure at shows and events, since the screen is viewable from all sides and every angle. Equipped with 4,096 tri-color (red, green, blue) SMD LEDs and featuring 2,000-nit brightness, this versatile screen will create eye-popping high-res videos, graphics, text messages, special effects, or any other images you wish to display - and 'broadcast' them around the room with its smooth pan/tilt motion, says the company.

Part of the company's new Elation Pro Video Series, the EPV762 MH panel was developed to give stage, lighting and ev

USA - GLP German Light Products Inc, based in Sun Valley, California has issued a statement in order to clarify its position regarding its status as an authorised distributor of Global Truss products.

The company says: "GLP Inc is indeed a fully authorized and stocking distributor, of the entire Global Truss range of products manufactured by the Global Truss Corporation. A letter of appointment confirming our appointment can be viewed at our website at www.germanlightproducts.com. GLP Inc. takes its position in the market very seriously and believes in high ethical values. GLP Inc. is not only fully authorized as a distributor, but is also fully insured and fully legal in its activities. "

George Lee, CEO of Global Truss Corporation reinforced: "We are extremely happy to bring GLP US on board as a new distributor in the USA. The business model that they have est

New Zealand - PixelRange has announced the first sale of the PixelPar into New Zealand. Wellington-based MJF Lighting no sooner received the 24 units into its hire inventory than the PixelPars were out on their first lighting assignment.

MJF Lighting purchased the lights - for use at corporate events, concerts, product launches and in theatre - without ever having seen them in action. MD Michael Farrand reports, "We wanted to move forward and invest in LED technology that would suit a touring environment. We believed James Thomas has a very good name for high quality products that would last and service our needs.

"We saw them advertised, checked out their website and compared the PixelPars against other fixtures on paper. Although it was a 'blind' buy, we had done our research and knew exactly what we were purchasing."

The PixelPars have been out on hire almo

Sweden - LumenRadio has announced the immediate release and availability of CRMX OEM modules in the 82 x 46 mm W-DMX form factor.

The new modules are form, fit, and function compatible with Wireless Solution's OEM cards and offer a convenient upgrade path to LumenRadio's award winning CRMX technology and a secure supply chain for legacy device designs while retaining W-DMX compatibility," says Hans Lau, LumenRadio's director of OEM development.

"We have repeatedly been approached by OEMs who tested our CRMX technology and found it vastly superior to their existing wireless DMX solutions. These OEMs were at the same time looking to secure a more reliable supply chain and better technical support. The obvious solution was to port our CRMX OEM products to the legacy W-DMX form factor; offering these OEMs a single source for CRMX technology and W-DMX protocol compatibili

Glastonbury 2011 - Coldplay have been confirmed as one of the three headliners at this year's Glastonbury Festival in Somerset. The band will play the main Pyramid Stage on Saturday 25 June. Organiser Michael Eavis said, "Coldplay have played such a major part in the festival over the last 10 years or so. This is the triumphant return of a band that everyone here feels part of. They're one of the greatest phenomena to grow from these fields." Coldplay last headlined Glastonbury in 2005 and also topped the bill in 2002, three years after first appearing at the festival. Beyonce has also been announced as a headliner and will perform on the Pyramid Stage on the last day of the event, Sunday 26 June.

Eurovision Latest - X Factor twins Jedward have become Ireland's next Eurovision entrants with the song Lipstick. The duo beat four other acts on RTE's Late

China - An ETC Eos lighting control desk played a lead role for Cologne Opera last year, as the company took two shows to China.

The company was due to perform Wagner's Ring Cycle in Shanghai to support the World Expo in the city, followed by a journey to Beijing to perform Don Giovanni. However, their house desk, a Transtechnik NTX, was needed in Cologne.

Andreas Frank, head of lighting at Cologne Opera, explains, "Although the show had been programmed for its performances in Cologne using our house desk, we would only have a few days from arriving in Shanghai until the first show. So we had to get a desk which could easily handle moving lights, and not have any difficulty importing the NTX show files.

"Our contacts at ETC in Germany put us in touch with Peter Younes, a freelance programmer and operator, who was very familiar with the Eos desk, and

USA - Freedom Tower, a historic 1925 landmark building in downtown Miami that serves as a memorial to Cuban immigration to the United States, recently received a dynamic nighttime transformation. The architecturally noteworthy tower, tucked amongst high rises and a major sporting venue, emerges from its surroundings in a dress of customisable colour and light provided by Martin Professional Exterior 400 luminaires.

The Exterior 400 Range - a powerful yet energy-efficient line of LED light fixtures for colored or white light projection - gives Miami Dade College the flexibility to bathe the building in any colour they choose. In recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October, for example, the building was bathed in pink - the official colour of breast cancer awareness - for the duration of the month.

Listed on the US National Register of Historic Places, Freedom Tower

UK - The First Night Riders - a group of motorbike riding, theatre professionals and their friends - will once more don their leathers and helmets to raise much needed funds for The Theatrical Guild (TTG). As 2010, the one-week motorcycle ride is scheduled to visit some of the UK's most exciting theatres, towns and cities. However for added excitement riders will this year visit the Isle of Man TT course and also Stratford Upon Avon, where they will have the privilege of seeing a new production of Macbeth at the regenerated Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

The 2011 ride will rev up and burn off from the National Theatre on 18 June and the event will climax on 25 June at Alexandra Palace.

Motorbike enthusiasts from the industry are invited to join in, feel the wind in their hair and raise money for TTG, either on a daily basis or for the whole engine-revving week. Information

UK - For The Chemical Brothers latest world tour, production designer Paul Normandale decided to think outside the box - literally. He says, "My job is to turn the band's performance into a truly three-dimensional show. I'd been sent a sample of G-LEC's Solaris+ and it gave us the idea of creating a three dimensional lighting rig."

Normandale rigged an 8m diameter truss from which he hung 48 x 8m lengths of G-LEC Solaris+ to form a circle around the band - making both them and the lighting really stand out from the crowd. The 40mm diameter LED light 'balls' of Solaris+ provide 360° viewing, which means that the graphics are visible to the audience, no matter where they are seated. And the product is light enough that Normandale is able to fly it in periodically throughout the show to surround the band.

"I've never used the product before, but when I was sent

USA / UK - Richard Cadena, a respected lighting designer and entertainment technology media professional, has joined the PLASA staff. Richard will serve as the Technical Editor for Lighting&Sound America and Lighting&Sound International magazines, and, at Protocol magazine with sr. technical editor Karl Ruling. Additionally in the PLASA North American office, Richard will serve as assistant technical standards manager.

Richard will take over as Technical Editor of Lighting&Sound International magazine from James Eade, who has helped the PLASA Media team steer the technical content of L&SI for the past nine years. Lee Baldock, editor of L&SI since 2004, said: "James has made a huge contribution to the technical content of L&SI over the years, while still running his own successful business, e-Mech. I personally would like to thank him for all his help and guidance over that

The Netherlands - Elation Professional has introduced the Platinum Spot 5R Pro, an upgraded version of its Platinum Spot 5R DMX moving head.

Like the original, the new Platinum Spot 5R Pro features Philips MSD Platinum 5R Lamp Technology, an innovation that allows the creation of fixtures that are brighter and more powerful with superior light quality, yet are also faster, smaller, lighter weight, draw less energy and have longer-lasting lamps, says the company. But as its name suggests, the Platinum Spot 5R Pro also goes a step beyond to offer an expanded array of professional features and effects.

Among the new features on the Platinum Spot 5R Pro are a 16-bit CMY colour-mixing system, which allows users to concoct a palette of custom colours, and a Variable Zoom (4 to 1) with 11° to 42° beam angle. Additionally, the 'Pro' model is equipped with a built-in EWDMX Wire

China - The world's largest water-based permanent show, The House of Dancing Water, is located in a purpose-built, 2000-seat theatre centred around a 160ft diameter swimming pool within Macau's City of Dreams resort.

This latest spectacular from artistic director Franco Dragone was five years in the planning and two years in creation. Lighting designer, Luc Lafortune, who has worked for many years with Dragone, designed the complex lighting for The House of Dancing Water which includes fixtures from French lighting manufacturer, Robert Juliat.

Six Robert Juliat 1800W HMI Victor followspots and 18 Robert Juliat D'Artagnan HMI zoom profile fixtures were supplied to the show's lighting supplier, White Light, by Robert Juliat dealer, Pacific Lighting HK.

The theatre is a huge space to light with a large rig of moving lights, long throw distances from differing leve

USA - It was the 90th anniversary of the Miss America Pageant and a pair of grandMA2 light's made their debut at the show, which was telecast live on ABC from the Planet Hollywood casino-resort in Las Vegas. The pageant reunited lighting designer Allen Branton, who returned for the fourth time, and fellow lighting directors Kevin Lawson and Felix Peralta, who marked their third year and fourth year on the show respectively.

"Because of the way the pageant is structured, we had a little extra time with several days of the preliminary pageant," says Lawson. "Felix and I worked on the show for eight days splitting the lighting rig as programmers and using the grandMA2 light in multi-user-mode: Felix lit the set and I lit the people on stage and the audience."

Atomic Lighting provided the grandMA2 light and the lighting rig, which included Vari*Lite VL3500 spot

Germany / UK - Chauvet will be promoting a number of new luminaires at Prolight + Sound and will also confirm expansion of its year-old branch in the UK. This move will serve to reinforce their commitment to the European market by being able to ship products across the continent, says the company.

"This will allow for a quicker turnaround and access to more products with increased inventory," said Stéphane Gressier, international sales manager for Chauvet.

WELL, or Wireless Event LED Luminaire, is designed specifically to be a self-contained uplight for any event. Inside each WELL wash light are 12 3W tri-colour LEDS, similar to the 14 found in the COLORado 1-TRI Tour. It's powered by a 12-volt battery offering up to 12 hours of life to the fixture.

COLORado Range IP and COLORado Ridge IP are indoor/outdoor wash lights and feature RGBWA colour mixing. The us

Latest Issue. . .

Save
Cookies user preferences
We use cookies to ensure you to get the best experience on our website. If you decline the use of cookies, this website may not function as expected.
Accept all
Decline all
Analytics
Tools used to analyze the data to measure the effectiveness of a website and to understand how it works.
Google Analytics
Accept
Decline
Advertisement
If you accept, the ads on the page will be adapted to your preferences.
Google Ad
Accept
Decline