UK / Italy - UK manufacturer Zero 88 will be launching its latest lighting console, the Diablo, at the forthcoming SIB show in Rimini. The Diablo is a new, cost-effective and flexible lighting controller suitable for controlling moving lights and generics. It is one of the easiest lighting controllers to program and operate and is aimed at users wanting a small, powerful console, say the company. Unlike many small controllers, it is not simply for club or DJ use: the Diablo can be used in a range of venues from small theatres, to schools, TV or clubs.
"During the ongoing development of the Frog range we had lots of feedback from users wanting the intuitive philosophy and ease of use of the Frogs, but in a simpler and smaller package," explains Zero's Graham Eales. "The Diablo is a powerful little desk, which will bring sophisticated moving light control to a host
USA - Super Vision International Inc, a leading manufacturer of fibre optic and LED lighting, has announced that is has filed a law suit in the Federal District Court in Orlando, Florida, seeking past due royalties and damages in excess of $10.5 million against Color Kinetics Inc of Boston, Massachusetts, for past and current infringement violations of U.S. Patent #4,963,687 on 'Variable Color Lighting System'.
The patent, developed by inventor Richard Belliveau, provides for broad coverage in its claims for patent in the use of networked, centrally-controlled, addressable colour changing lighting systems incorporating pulse width modulation and variable digital control circuitry which can vary the intensity of individual lamp elements to generate unlimited colours.
Color Kinetics was notified by the patent owner on several occasions in the past that the owner believed that C
UK - Entec Lighting supplied The Australian Pink Floyd Show with the lighting rig for their sold-out performance at Cardiff Arena last weekend - a precursor to their first four-week US arena tour, to be followed by another two months in the UK and Europe.
The Australian Pink Floyd Show is among the best known and most successful tribute bands in the world. David Gilmour, Pink Floyd's guitarist, is a fan of the band and has seen the show three times. In November, he joined thousands of Pink Floyd fans at the Royal Albert Hall for a show described as "Truly embracing the Floyd legacy".
This year the band step up their live performance schedule and stature with new lighting and sound production. Lighting designer Dave Hill was brought in to work with long-standing LD Steve Ellerington, and to come up with a new visual picture for the bigger venues. The new lighting rig
USA - Industry veterans Gary Mass and Nick Freed have teamed up with Gear-Source president Marcel Fairbairn to form a new venture - Rental-Source - modeled in part after Fairbairn's successful web-based business, Gear Source. Rental-Source will serve today's production needs with a 'single source' method of locating production equipment of all types.
With backgrounds in manufacturing and production, managing partners Gary Mass and Nick Freed will head efforts to solve the many man-hours spent sourcing equipment for production purposes. Working in tune with an extensive worldwide vendor base and an easy-to-use web design for locating the most cost-effective, and logistically suitable rental equipment, Rental-Source promises to ease the ever-growing process of completing a production.
"Over the past 10 years or so, we've noticed an incredible incline in the need for product
South Korea - MA Lighting has announced the sale of the 500th full-sized grandMA console. The desk, serial number 500, was purchased by Seoul-based Hansam System Co Ltd, MA Lighting's distributor in Korea. Introduced to the market in 1999, the grandMA enables the precise and powerful control of extensive light shows, including LEDs and video sequences.
In recent years, MA Lighting has developed a complete grandMA product family, with more than 1,200 of these lighting systems currently in use worldwide. The product range also includes the grandMA light, the grandMA ultra-light and the grandMA replay unit, as well as the additional software tools grandMA offline, grandMA remote control and grandMA 3D. The grandMA family is a flexible, open system that offers a new control philosophy for lighting designers and operators, say MA Lighting.
USA - Event production company massAV has appointed Stephen Santomenna as director of production. In his new position he will lead massAV's growth in large event staging, live events and production. Santomenna has over 20 years' experience in the industry, having worked on Broadway and staged events on five continents. Prior to massAV, Santomenna served as an executive producer and director of technical services for Preston Productions, facilitating the management of events for EMC, API, IBM and PTC-User. His background also includes various positions with Image Engineering, Trinity Repertory Company and as a contract designer, technician and project manager.
USA - 12 High End Systems ColorCommands are enhancing the weekly worship message at the Fellowship of the Woodlands in Woodlands, Texas. ColorCommand is a dichroic colour-mixing Par/washlight fixture that offers complete freedom from gels and colour scrollers.
Dave Marks, the media minister, LD, technical director and set designer, says the ColorCommands are a big asset to the 4,400 capacity venue. "We have 300 dimmers, but mostly I use the 12 ColorCommands. They are awesome. I absolutely can't imagine doing what we do without them," Marks says.
It's "divine intervention," Marks claims, that plays a role in their successfully executed set designs, which vary each week to enforce the message from the minister. The four-person production team making it happen includes Marks and a carpenter, audio director and video director. "The ColorCommands save a hug
Australia - Coemar DeSisti Australia Pty has announced the availability of the new FX range of LED fixtures designed exclusively for small clubs and DJs. The units bring all the advantages of LED technology - including low maintenance, low heat and low power consumption - to the club effects marketplace. AquaDot, the first in the range, produces the popular ripple water-type effect. The second fixture, ZagDot, produces a darting beam of light that moves constantly across a pyramid of mirrors, and features a built-in microphone for sound to light operation. Finally, MoonDot creates an RGB effect and features a built-in microphone for sound to light beam and pattern movement.
UK - Selecon's recent series of one-day technical lighting workshops were well received by industry professionals who attended them. They were hosted by technician and lighting designer Mikey Harkins, who has a wealth of experience using Selecon equipment in theatres and on tours. The workshops provided the opportunity for professional lighting designers and theatre technicians to acquire first-hand practical knowledge of the latest luminaires and accessories in Selecon's extensive product range.
Free to all theatre technicians and lighting designers, around 30 industry professionals attended each of the workshops. In total, six workshops were held in venues across the UK, from RADA in London to the Gateway Theatre in Edinburgh, taking in the Northcott Theatre, Exeter, the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff, the Contact Theatre, Manchester and the Gilmore Centre at Glasgow University. &
UK - When the hit musical Jerry Springer: The Opera transferred to the West End, it marked another first for the close working relationship between The Moving Light Company and Vari-Lite (now a division of the Genlyte Thomas Group) - the West End debut of Vari-Lite's new VL3000 range.
In re-designing the show for the Cambridge Theatre, lighting designer Rick Fisher was looking for a moving spotlight that packed a considerable degree of punch and could be used to create a wide range of effects. With its 1200W HMI lamp, 10-60° zoom range, colour mixing and three wheels of rotating and indexing gobos, the VL3000 Spot luminaire proved ideal. Vari-Lite were able to get the 17 units to The Moving Light Company in time for the production; Fisher's design also called for 14 VL2000 Wash fixtures, three VL1000TS luminaires and three VL5 units which The Moving Light Company were ab
UK - A new morning TV show, OK!TV, made in conjunction with OK magazine and presented by Ronan Keating and Gail Porter, made its debut on ITV 1 on 16 January. Running in place of This Morning for the duration of half-term week, the producers knew that the audience would differ, with children and students tuning in as well as their usual viewers, and so the 'look' of the set had to reflect this difference.
Arts director Anthony Cartlidge explained: "We really wanted to make the viewers realize that although they were tuning in to the same channel and the same time slot, OK!TV is very different from This Morning. We have a 'bar' area where presenters and guests can sit and chat casually, a soft seating area, a performance space and a fashion runway which is built using LiteStructures ChromaDeck."
USA - James Thomas Engineering has appointed Blaine Engle as its Pixel-Range sales manager. Mike Garl, president of James Thomas Engineering said: "With the Pixel-Range now really taking off, we needed someone solely dedicated to expanding the sales, distribution and marketing of the product line."
Engle has 17 years experience in the professional entertainment lighting industry, dealing with lighting designers, architects, specifiers and consultants. Blaine joins James Thomas after two years as U.S. and Canadian sales manager at Hubbell Entertainment.
Blaine explained: "James Thomas Engineering has a great reputation for manufacturing quality, affordable products and exceptional customer service. I am very excited to be part of the JTE team, and look forward to working with everyone in servicing the growing entertainment and architectural LED markets. The Pixel
UK- Many familiar faces from the lighting industry attended the Theatre Museum in Covent Garden on 10 February, for the opening of an exhibition which celebrates the life and work of the late Michael Northen. Known to many as the first lighting designer of British theatre, Northen lit over 300 productions during a distinguished career that spanned six decades. In addition to being a prolific lighting designer, he was the first LD to gain a printed credit for lighting designer in a programme.
Speakers at the event included Mark Jonathan, well-known lighting designer and manager, who represented members of The Association of Lighting Designers (ALD) - an organization Northen founded with Joe Davis and later became chairman and then president of in 1995. Also speaking was Robert Camac - Michael Northen's long-term partner whom he was with from1948 until his death in 2001, and Giles
UK - Lighting designer Dave Ross recently asked west London-based Entec Lighting to supply him with a small, high-impact lighting rig, for a UK gig by hot New York band, Scissor Sisters. The show, at London's Scala, launched the band's first album and followed up their disco reworking of Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb.
Scissor Sisters are tipped for greatness in 2004, and Ross caught their eye with his work for Royksopp and by his impressive dance music CV. Wanting to capitalize on Scissor Sisters' onstage energy, and having to contend with limited stage room, no additional crew and a difficult get-in, he chose 10 James Thomas Pixelline fixtures and a PixelDrive PC-based control system as the core of the rig.
Entec supplied this, plus six Martin MAC 250s, a Wholehog II lighting console and two mirror balls - the latter specified by the band. The system - apart from the mirror
USA - "Dark, quiet and dramatic" could be the tag line to Sting's 2004 Sacred Love tour. Another description might be "theatrical", although this is extremely high-techtheatricality. Three enormous video screens dominate the stage, complemented by moving trusses and drapery for days. Part of his much larger world tour, which shifts to arenas in the summer, this current leg is touring theatres around the US.
Lighting
Lighting designer Stan Crocker went for a highly flexible mix of powerful fixtures and short moving trusses. "I gave up lighting instruments to get the ChainMaster Vario-Lift motors in the budget," recalls Crocker, "and I don't regret it!" His rig consists of four Coemar SuperCycs, 33 Martin MAC 2000 Profiles, 32 MAC 2000 Wash fixtures and 11 MAC 300s - all run from a Martin Maxxyz console, programmed and operated by l
UK - In a bold move likely to impact on the region for years to come, the management of Cheltenham Racecourse has decided to go 'all out' in their development programme with the construction of a flagship new 4,000-capacity entertainment venue - The Centaur at Cheltenham.
The Centaur is a multi-purpose indoor venue, and ranks as one of the most modern and flexible entertainment centres in the South West of England. The response to initial marketing of the arena has been quite remarkable, and the bookings diary is already looking extremely busy for the next 24 months.
This purpose-built auditorium can accommodate 2,200 people seated and 4,000 standing. The state-of-the-art LiteDeck staging system from LiteStructures forms the basis for a variety of function layouts, ranging from sporting events and concerts, to conferences and exhibitions.
UK - Age-Sex-Location is a comical but philosophical work by Marcus Markou and Richard Redman, about how emerging technology allows us to explore the age-old issues of identity, fear, dreams and the illusion of reality.
Premiering at Hammersmith Riverside, Age-Sex-Location is aimed at a young audience who might not necessarily be attracted to conventional theatre productions. Writer Marcus Markou decided he always wanted projection to be a fundamental element of the production; it seemed an obvious theatrical mechanism for a story set in cyberspace.
Video and lighting designer, Sven Ortel and video co-designer Dick Straker (both of Mesmer Productions) came onboard via director Pip Pickering, and all worked closely with Markou to define the design of the performance space. Straker and Ortel asked XL Video to supply the video kit, with hardware co-ordination handled by XL proje
UK - ELP recently installed a temporary theatre grid into The Royal Festival Hall (RFH) which the company says will significantly improve rigging efficiency for touring theatre productions.
Although normally a concert platform, with no proscenium arch or flying grid, the RFH does host traditional theatre, including recent productions of The Nutcracker and Swan Lake by Russia's Stanislavski Ballet. Typically, rigging contractors are brought in to transform the hall into a working proscenium arch theatre, with a flying grid and track system for moving scenery and lighting during performances.
However, ELP's MD Ronan Willson, AutoCAD specialist Tim Williamson and project manager Toby Dare came up with a unique approach which eliminated most of the problems encountered by previous systems.
A Supertruss structure, interlaced with a series of aluminium 'I' beams, increased the he
UK - Continuity was the key to this year's BRITs, with the familiar and experienced production teams brought in once again by producer Mick Kluczynski of MJK Productions to create what was perhaps the slickest BRITs show to date. Presented by Cat Deeley, the show included performances from Black Eyed Peas, The Darkness (who stole the show with three awards) and 50 Cent, as well as a duet of the Cure's 'Lovecats' from newcomer Katie Melua and jazz sex-thimble Jamie Cullum.
Sound
The hugely experienced Derrick Zieba was brought in again by MJK to design and co-ordinate the sound system. Also returning to the fray, Britannia Row Productions provided the sound and co-designed the system with Zieba, this year fielding an EV X-line speaker system. Zieba has been an enthusiastic user of Yamaha mixing desks for many years and was one of the first designers to make the transiti
Italy - Proel S.p.A. export department has recently been expanded with the arrival of Stephen Smith as technical sales support for the Sound Reinforcement and Lighting product divisions. UK born but living in Italy for the past seven years, Steve has a degree in Psychology at BSc level. In Italy he has gained a wide range of experience working with P.A. and lighting rental companies, participating in several European and World tours as well as many local live and television productions.
His jobs have included collaborations with: MTV Italia 'Supersonic'- (a live program which has hosted important international artists such as REM, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Mana, Alanis Morrissette and The Cranberries) and numerous other festivals.
His work has mainly involved mixing sound both on stage and FOH and as backline/ stage technician although he also has experience as a production elect
USA - Super Vision International, Inc. (NASDAQ: SUPVA) a world leading manufacturer of fiber optic and LED lighting products announced today that Ashby Trade Sign Supplies LTD has selected Super Vision as its exclusive supplier for LED sign lighting systems. Super Vision's FlexLEDs and #61652 product is an energy saving LED lighting system for channel letters. Acknowledged as the UK's foremost supplier of aluminum sign blanks, Ashby is noted for speed and flexibility of service and with a customer base of over 4,000 sign makers. Ashby is pioneering the introduction of LED (light emitting diodes) in the U.K. sign industry.
"While we have always been lead by the sign makers requirements, our research indicates that the advantages of LEDs, with 80 percent energy saving over neon, reduced installation and maintenance expenses will undoubtedly win over sign specifiers and retail
Denmark - On 16 March 2004 Seelite A/S and DPA SoundCo A/S signed a collaboration agreement and to simplify business procedures and the communication flow for customers and partners, DPA SoundCo will move their office to Seelite's administration building in Copenhagen on 1 April 2004. The agreement, will strengthen the two companies' position on the market resulting in a collaboration that makes it one of Scandinavia's largest suppliers of technical turnkey solutions for the event and entertainment industry, concerts and theatres, fairs and exhibitions, film and TV production and the corporate market.
"The fact that we share office is not to be interpreted as a merger between Seelite and DPA SoundCo. We remain two independent companies merely sharing office, skills and resources", says Sten Adlet Jensen, managing director of DPA SoundCo. He adds: "We have chosen e
UK - To mark the launch of Love Actually on DVD and video, Universal Pictures is the first to showcase the latest Elumin8 technology in its bus T-Side campaign across the capital. The result is a 1.8m illuminated red heart on each of 20 bus sides in London, that pulses as the bus travels across town.
In a campaign put together by MediaCom Outdoor and Impact, Viacom Outdoor's special projects team, the Love Actually buses form part of a wider campaign to promote the release of the hit movie. EMG, senior planner Ben Gordon and MediaCom Outdoor's Matt Styant, devised this highly innovative campaign to maximize high street presence for the client. The pulsating heart technology is made possible by a small electrical current through the drop stem of the T-Side.
The campaign, which was planned by Outdoor MediaCom and bought by Posterscope's innovation department, Hyper