Lighting

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14 March 2016

The high-profile three day musical extravaganza staged in Ebrington Square, Derry-Londonderry, Northern Ireland, kicked off the UK festival season in style.

The lighting equipment for this stage was supplied by the HSL Group incorporating PSI who provided all rigging and support. The two companies have recently merged offering even more comprehensive rental operations throughout the UK and Ireland.

The 1xtra / In New Music We Trust stage was located inside The Venue, a 5000 capacity multi-purpose temporary structure erected for Derry's 2013 year as European Capital of Culture. The house lighting rig in here also contai

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14 March 2016

Thompson - who was presented with a Knight of Illumination Award in the category of Concert Touring and Events for his work with The Script in 2011 - has praised the impact the Sharpys can have in a lighting design.

The Script show, which has been designed to reflect the name of the Tour - '#3', features a huge video backdrop with three parallel video fingers that reach out into the audience, both along the floor and overhead. Although Thompson uses the Sharpy's sparingly he has worked them into his design seamlessly, using them to deliver high impact, audience-embracing effects. Where they are used each look exploits the sharp parallel beam acting to punctuate the music and the v

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14 March 2016

Attracting lighting, sound and video professionals from Latin America and the US, AES Brazil Expo registered a 10% growth in visitor numbers. AES Brazil president Armando Baldassarra stated, "More and more international launches are happening in Brazil which continues to raise the profile of AES."

On the stand, the new Robin Pointe and MiniMe fixtures were shown in Brazil for the first time, making a big impact on visitors who wanted to see them in action and asked for personalised demonstrations continually throughout the show.

Newart CEO Francisco Pinheiro commented,

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14 March 2016

The MAC Viper Wash and MAC Viper Wash DX with internal framing are full-range wash luminaires capable of performing at the high level you would expect from a professional wash light. Both luminaires feature the same compact form, impressive speed, superior light quality and beautiful colours of the MAC Viper Family and use the same 1000 W HID source.

The Wash DX version houses a unique internal framing system that enables designers to shape and control light projection onto stages, performers, scenery, scrims or any set element with great precision. The internal framing system makes it a highly capable, automated substitute for a conventional daylight Fresnel fixture.

At 33 000 lumens of output, both the Viper Wash and Viper Wash DX are brighter than

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14 March 2016

Palmer brings to Martin a wealth of knowledge and industry experience, having worked as VP of Sales for High End Systems, regional sales manager for Barco and most recently as VP of sales for LED Source. His roots in the industry stretch back to 1985 when he founded Core Systems, and he has amassed an abundance of key contacts since.

Brian Friborg, president of Martin US, commented,"Grif's hiring is a real coup for us. His deep roots and distinguished experience in the industry will be invaluable in developing new contacts and strengthening existing relationships with rental customers and LD's across the country."

Palmer, who will be working out of Martin US's Florida hea

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14 March 2016

The enhanced distribution network will provide sales and support of White Light exclusive products to dealers in the UK, with some products available throughout Europe and worldwide. The new structure allows UK dealer access to products from 13 exclusive lighting, rigging, and effects manufacturers including ADB Lighting Technologies, Altman, ArKaos Pro, CORE Lighting, Chromlech, Galaxia Electronics, Interactive Technologies, James Thomas Engineering, JB Lighting, Look Solutions, LSC Lighting, Rainbow Colour Changers, and Wireless Solution.

White Light Sales Director, Peter Threadgold explained the company's focus on these essential brands, paired with expanded services.

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14 March 2016

It was the first year that CSE has been involved in the event, where they were working for producers, The Red Lodge Agency.

Three main areas needed technical production - the conference sessions in the hotel's Monarch Suite; a gala dinner and awards ceremony in the Palace Suite and then the after-show in the Kings Suite.

Colour Sound's project manager Fletch created a production lighting and visuals design for all three rooms and led a team of 11 technicians and engineers who worked closely on site with Rhys Sion from Red Lodge.

"The main challenges were the scale of the event and a short timescale - as is often the case," explains Fletch. "H

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14 March 2016

Nearly 400 visitors embraced the mediaeval town for the three days to enjoy a lively mix of presentations by industry professionals working in all areas of lighting and visuals plus networking opportunities as well as getting a taste of life in and around Cesky Krumlov.

Various fact-finding and sightseeing visits were an integral part of the conference itinerary, allowing delegates to see some of the local commerce and business activities first hand.

This included a tour of the city's famous Baroque Theatre complete with original wooden and rope stage machinery, and other specially arranged visits encompassed pencil and cosmetics factories and a graphite mine.The visit programme also took in the Mestske Theatre,

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14 March 2016

Unless production volumes are very high, the cost of developing a custom lightbar is prohibitive for most applications. Instead, designers often use several standard square or rectangular units in combination. However, this approach gives rise to high materials and assembly costs, and the finished product has unsightly dark lines where the arrays join.

Using the same approach as it adopts in its ProfiLED Backlight range of LCD backlights, which employ LED edge-lighting and an acrylic lightguide to achieve uniform, consistent illumination, OMC can now offer alternatives to lightbars in a vast range of colours. Devices can vary from 2mm to 7mm in height and can be produced in a huge range of bespoke shape

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14 March 2016

It is a free course and will provide an essential introduction to the new Family of HOG4 Consoles for all Lighting Professionals. It will be held at the AED Distribution UK Facility in High Wycombe. Those that are interested should contact Sarah Van Havere at sarah.van.havere@aeddistribution.be.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

This release also brings the software in line with the recently released LX range of consoles so that features are common across the software and hardware platforms. The latest software also includes virtual consoles enabling users to operate their software as a virtual LX300, LX600 or LX900.

The software for Mac or PC can be downloaded and tried for free at LSC's website www.lsclighting.com.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

The production lighting designer is Manfred Ollie Olma, one of Germany's best known LDs.

His company, mo2 design GmbH, is also based in Köln, and has executive lighting designer & director of photography David Kreileman taking care of the week-to-week running of the show's lighting. He's working alongside mo2 project managers Sebastian Kirsch and Matthias Allhoff.

They are using 40 x Robe ColorSpot 2500E AT fixtures and 70 x ColorWash 2500E ATs, together with a large generic and white light rig including some 270 x 1K fresnels hung around the side walls for a special tungsten 'starlight' effect.

An important aspect of the lighting is to make the coupl

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14 March 2016

Set up by brothers Paul and Preston Hoffman in 2005, Pulse Lighting were asked to light the Californian-based 'fusion' band in their own right for the first time. "The management knew we had experience of the venue, and in running concert lights for broadcast," said Preston.

The day of the event - 20 April 20- was also significant since it is the day when counter-culturists celebrate the love of cannabis, as Preston explains. "With cannabis legalised in the state in 2013, the 4/20 show was historic for everyone involved in that c

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14 March 2016

The new tour, which began in Columbus on 4 April and will wrap in Scandinavia in October, marks the first for the band since 2009's sold-out Unleashed tour. This year is also the 35th anniversary of their Rumours album, one of the most successful in recording history.

Lighting designer Paul 'Arlo' Guthrie of Minneapolis-based Toss Film + Design is Fleetwood Mac's long-time lighting designer. "I have to cater to four different personalities (Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks) and bring them together as one team," he explains. "For this show we have four big LCD panels and 32 Sharpy Washes on curved lighting pipes, some of them on the floor, some on the rigs and some

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14 March 2016

Star of the console area will be Eos Titanium (aka Ti), which takes its place as the company's flagship Eos line desk, with new Eos v2.0 software featuring Magic Sheets installed. Eos Ti incorporates new hardware and features that make designing and programming even easier.

Over in the fixtures area of the stand will be the Source Four LED, which comes in a range of models, depending on its intended use, from the powerhouse full colour Lustr+ to the white light specialists Tungsten, Daylight and the new Studio HD version. Staff will be available to show them to visitors, and explaining how they can fit into a mixed rig with conventional fixtures.

Another new addition to the range, and available for a special preview at ABTT, is the Source Four LED Cyc, wh

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14 March 2016

Four MA VPU plus (Video Processing Unit) together with a grandMA2 replay unit and two grandMA2 light consoles were used for lighting and video control.

MedienReich - Gesellschaft für professionelle Eventtechnik mbH was responsible for the technical realisation of the event. Holger Turban worked as lighting technician and programmer, while Chris Pauli worked as video technician and programmer and created the video content.

Pauli commented on his choice of the MA system, "The MA system convinced u

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14 March 2016

The successful TP speaker range has now been replaced by the Blakite range, consisting of three mid/tops and four subs. The new range is being built in the UK using high quality materials with custom drivers supplied by Fane.. The new range offers increased build quality, efficiency, power handling, frequency range and a marked improvement in sound quality, says the company.

On the lighting side, the Mini-Map LED screen will be the first MilTec lighting product to be made in the UK. The Mini-Map is a miniature LED screen with 36 tricolour pixels and in a break with convention is controlled via DMX512. It measures just 155mm square and is designed to be mounted individually or in clusters to provide stunning video and graph

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14 March 2016

More than 15,000 people turned up at the Autódromo La Guácima, where technical production company LuzArt provided a dynamic infrastructure. This included 18 of PR Lighting's super bright XR300 Beam, equipped with 300W Platinum 15R lamp and convex lens, and 36 compact XLED 336 LED moving heads. These were mounted on the backdrop truss, and on the ground, where they were used as floor FX.

LuzArt has been working with the Chinese manufacturer's products for the past three months and the company's owner, Francis Villalobos, confirmed that they were able to put up a compelling argument to the artist's production team for using the PR Lighting fixtures. "Although they weren't specified on the ri

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14 March 2016

Although SGM fixtures were also used throughout the EuroVillage, it was in the main action of the contest itself that these FX worked their magic, adding genuine dynamic for lighting designer, Fredrik Jonsson. Along with ESC's experienced technical director, Ola Melzig (working on his 11th Eurovision), he had first seen the impact of these LED solutions on the SGM stand at the PLASA Show in London and later at LDI 2012 in Las Vegas.

According to Melzig, "We fell head over heels in love with them and knew this was something we had to have."

Jonsson first evaluated the X-5 strobes during an X-Factor broadcast he had been involved with back in November 2012. "We rigged a few of them next to other strobes I had in

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14 March 2016

"We are very pleased to add ADB's considerable lighting experience to the White Light Distribution network," said Peter Threadgold, sales director at White Light. "We have seen ADB's commitment to quality and innovation over the years. This matches perfectly with our desire to deliver the best lighting solutions for our customers."

White Light will offer sales and support for ADB's extensive range of high perf

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14 March 2016

Ambersphere Solutions is the exclusive UK distributor for German lighting control manufacturer MA Lighting and Italian moving light manufacturer Clay Paky. "Robert Juliat offer a desirable range of theatrical lanterns and followspots which perfectly complement the existing Ambersphere product range," says Ambersphere managing director Glyn O'Donoghue. "Our Total-Support distribution model is ideally suited to Robert Juliat's exceptional product range."

Robert Juliat sales director Claus Spreyer comments, "Our products are based on optic

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14 March 2016

Speaking to The Independent, the BBC's head of music television Mark Cooper said the rock legends were "nervous about how much they should share". The Stones, he told the paper, were "stepping out of their comfort zone". He added: "At this point, I'm quite optimistic we'll get a sufficient amount of music." The BBC statement said: "We're confident that we'll be able to deliver fantastic coverage of this year's amazing Glastonbury line-up." The Rolling Sto

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14 March 2016

The band are rapidly commanding respect and building a fan base with their original sounds, and are hotly-tipped for great things since their An Awesome Wave debut album won the 2012 Mercury Music Prize.

Siyan was asked on board by production manager Mark Ward from Proper Productions, with whom they have enjoyed a long and successful working relationship.

Siyan's director Nick Valdez commented, "It's been hugely exciting for us! The band is critically acclaimed, and it's great to be working with someone of Vince's calibre and see him develop a really stylish show."

The rig supplied by Siyan was entirely floor based - and as per Foster's design, completely asymmetrical - forming the core of th

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14 March 2016

A sea of kinetic sculptures were hung throughout the entire arena roof, resembling interior design lamps which would raise, lower and change colour for the different performances. The sculptures were hung from custom winches designed by Tait Technologies with the majority hung over the audience and 14 placed directly over the main stage.

Two W-DMX BlackBox F-1 MKII units controlled 70 W-DMX Micro OEM Transceivers (with support of RDM), utilising three channels for an RGB LED located inside the fixtures and two channels for their speed and position. Although independently controllable, the sculptures as a whole were designed in unity, creating wave effects or lowering at the same time to give an intimate feel to the arena. Control came via gra