USA - Wireless Solution Sweden played part in one of the most widely watched televised sporting events in the world - Super Bowl XLV. The technology was used to light the exterior entrances of the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, where the event was held on 6 February.

The hosting venue, Cowboys Stadium, built less than two years ago, is the largest domed stadium in the world with a capacity of 110,000 (including standing room). The actual attendance on Super Bowl Sunday was 103,219.

Syncrolite was contracted by Sports Graphics to light the NFL Super Bowl graphics that were attached to the outside of the Stadium. Dall Brown was the lighting designer and he included the four stadium support trusses in his design.The east end of the stadium was coloured in blue and the west end was coloured in red. Three Syncrolite SLX 7K with W-DMX OEM installed were used per truss as t

Hong Kong - A Lighthouse screen is a feature of the outside of the new Dior store, at the No. 1 Peking Road shopping centre in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, which had a grand opening on Friday 28th January.

With a wide array of famous brand and designer clothing stores, there is considerable competition to attract the attention of customers. The Lighthouse screen will showcase the couturier's latest advertisements and fashion collections.

"We are very pleased that some of the world's leading fashion houses are recognising the positive benefits that investing in our groundbreaking LED screens bring," says Lighthouse general manager Peter Chan "Obviously, the designs need to be portrayed as accurately as possible, but the screens also need to be bright and eye-catching, to attract attention in a busy retail environment.

"All of these requirements are achieved w

UK - Impact Production Services (IPS) recently supplied, installed and operated a lighting package that included Martin MAC 101 LED moving heads for the European premiere of the Justin Bieber film Never Say Never at the O2 Arena in London. The event took place on 16 February with journalists, fans and other guests in attendance to catch a glimpse of the Canadian pop sensation.

IPS supplied equipment for the main entrance area to the O2, in which Bieber appeared on a balcony, as well as lighting for the façade of the Cineworld Cinema, where the film showing took place. Martin MAC 101's were positioned by the Cinema entrance, with rapid movements and colour changes used to form waves of light on a drape cloth to emphasize the glitzy feel of the event. The MAC 101s were also used to create a searchlight effect onto the drape as 1800 guests walked into the Cinema.

Lighting

Germany - At ProLight+Sound, Mackie will launch two new mid-format analogue consoles, each featuring dual internal FX processors, dedicated compression and 4-track recording via USB - the 24-channel 2404-VLZ3 and 32-channel 3204-VLZ3.

"VLZ is synonymous with high-headroom and low-noise," remarked John Boudreau, Music Gear Group VP, Loud Technologies. "We are psyched to bring VLZ3 performance to mixers with higher channel count and real-world live sound tools like effects processing, channel compression and USB connectivity."

The Mackie 2404-VLZ3 and 3204-VLZ3 feature low-noise, high-headroom XDR2 mic channels (20 and 28, respectively) and two dedicated channels for stereo inputs. Inline compression is available on each of the four subgroups and on four select channels. Dual 32-bit RMFX effects processors offer 16 useable presets, including tap delay. The in

Sondheim Honoured - Stephen Sondheim is to receive the Special Award at the Laurence Olivier Awards later this month. The honour is being presented in recognition of his contribution to London theatre, organisers have said. Previous recipients of the award include Sir Alec Guinness, Dame Judi Dench, Sam Mendes and Sir Peter Hall. Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton are to host this year's ceremony which takes place on 13 March at London's Theatre Royal Drury Lane. The Musical Love Never Dies has seven nominations.

Music Licensing - New Conservative peer and former ITV chairman Michael Grade used his maiden speech in the House of Lords to back Tim Clement-Jones' Live Music Bill, claiming the 2003 Licensing Act which it seeks to amend is a "bad law" that denies up and coming music talent the chance to develop their skills.

The Live Music Bill had its second

Czech Republic - The City Club in Rožnov is one of the most popular night destinations in Moravia . Most recently, the time came to upgrade the environmental lighting in the club area.

Independent owner, Pavel Ze? was so pleased with the service and support that he's received from Robe lighting in the past that he asked their sister company, Anolis, via Czech sales manager Petr Kolma?ka, to come up with an interesting, eye-catching eco friendly lighting scheme that would transform the general atmospherics in the club area.

Says Kolma?ka, "It was a great honour to be asked to present ideas as Mr Zed has a high regard for production values, and wants nothing but the best for his venue to keep it as the 'must go' destination in the area."

He adds that the breadth of the Anolis range was a real help in being able to choose the appropriate fixtures for the right areas.

UK - Richard Martin Lighting has announced another new addition to the team. Colin Brooker has joined as RML's business development manager.

Brooker has been working in Canada for the past two years, although he has over 10 years of previous Industry experience. He says, "I have been working closely with RML for well over 10 years and I've seen the company grow to what it is today. I know their business, their markets and their customer base, and I'm hoping my experience will bring new opportunities and new direction for future expansion."

(Jim Evans)

UK - Valentines evening 2011 saw 24 members of WiSE (Women in Stage Entertainment), two GrandMA's and some Martin Professional TW1s get together and at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank.

Sarah Rushton-Read, co-founder of WiSE (Women in Stage Entertainment) says: "This was our first WiSE Monthly. WiSE members are hugely grateful for the support we received from technical manager for the Southbank Complex, Roger Hennigan, GrandMA's Philip Norfolk and Chris West and Martin Professional's Matthew Pittman, who provided a number of fixtures, a load of Pret Sandwiches and some delicious Pizza. We would also like to thank Coral Cooper for furnishing us with a flask of gin and a huge box of chocolates.

"We have wanted to get a regular networking and education group for WiSE members going for some time. The event is open to any member of WiSE (we now have over 350) intereste

UK - A.C Entertainment Technologies' lighting division continues its successful working relationship with UK lighting rental company Colour Sound Experiment, which includes the supply of GLP Impression 120 RZ Zoom LED moving lights.

As the exclusive UK and Ireland distributor for GLP products, AC-ET supplied 26 GLP Impression Zooms to the west London based Colour Sound. The fixtures have joined the 14 GLP Impression 90s already in their hire stock and are ready for a busy upcoming 2011 festival and touring season.

Colour Sound's MD and founder, Haydn Cruickshank explains that their original Impression 90s purchased 18 months ago were proving so incredibly popular and increasingly appearing on LD's spec sheets, that they needed more to keep pace with demand! This time they decided to invest in the 120 Zoom fixture, which is every bit as successful as the Impression 90s for them

UK - For the NME Awards, lighting designer Tim Routeledge created a dark, edgy and atmospheric look to the 02 Academy in Brixton. Richard Martin Lighting supported the main lighting suppliers, Lite-Alternative, by providing 12 units of Clay Paky Sharpy.

With an emphasis on live performance and winners including Muse, Arcade Fire, My Chemical Romance and Biffy Clyro it was a lively night.

"The Awards was an exciting opportunity for us to be involved in another sector of the entertainment lighting Industry; one that we look forward to working in more in the future," says Colin Brooker, business development manager.

(Jim Evans)

Ireland - Manchester-based DBN Lighting designed and supplied the lighting scheme plus all associated trussing and rigging equipment and crew rig for a gala dinner accommodating 900 people at Dublin's RDS.

DBN was working for creative communications agency WRG and the event was the National Field Sales conference for a leading international pharmaceutical company.

The lighting rig was designed and the event project managed for DBN by Andy Kennett. The main challenge was to devise a rigging system to suspend a 2.5m dot pitch grid consisting of over 200 Pulsar ChromaSpheres above the audience in addition to a large number of moving and generic lights, which brought the total roof loading to 15 tonnes.

The loading constraints were 350Kgs per point, and the timescale for the get in and technical build was very short.

Working alongside the venue's structural engineer and WRG te

The Netherlands - Since they first appeared last year, Elation Professional's Platinum Series moving heads have turned a lot of heads, thanks to their extreme brightness, combined with a tiny case size and small power draw typically associated with fixtures producing just a fraction of their output.

Now Elation is introducing its highest-output Platinum fixture yet. Designed for larger venues and productions, the new CMY colour-mixing Platinum Spot 15R Pro moving head blasts out brightness comparable to 700-watt and even 1,200-watt fixtures. Yet its compact case is only about one-third the size of a conventional 700-watt moving head (409 x 419 x 541mm), and it draws just one-quarter of the power.

This output-to-size/energy use ratio is the result of the new, more powerful 300W Philips MSD Platinum 15R lamp, which brings all the advantages of Platinum technology to concert/aren

USA - When American Idiot first loaded-in to the historic St. James Theatre in February 2010, little did head electrician Eric Abbott know that it would be the last time he would see his primary automated wash fixtures for a long time. While 20 VLX Wash luminaires, provided by Hudson Sound and Light, work as the backbone for the Tony Award-winning lighting design by Kevin Adams, it's their virtually maintenance-free operation that is further solidifying their value on Broadway by providing both high-performance and cost-savings.

"Our lighting rig is working roughly 40 hours per week, 160 hours per month, or 1920 hours per year," says Abbott. "Generally we do a full swap of bulbs on automated fixtures every 600 hours, or approximately three or four times per year if the bulbs are all functioning perfectly, but if not, we replace them once or twice a month. A

USA - Lighting designer Demfis Fyssicopulos selected a grandMA full-size to control, lighting and video components in Prince's Welcome 2 America engagement in the New York metropolitan area.

Prince played two shows at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey then moved to Madison Square Garden for three performances before and after Christmas. The in-the-round stage was shaped like his unpronounceable name symbol - essentially three catwalks joined by a circle. His band played in the centre of the loop.

The entire stage was outlined by Nocturne V-9 LED screens, driven through a Control Freak Systems media server with audio and MIDI control, which were treated as lighting elements. Fyssicopulos used the grandMA to control the CFS VU meter function that feed the video cells outlining the stage so they could modulate to the music.

MIDI was also used as a triggering

UAE - Clay Paky was official lighting equipment supplier to MMS for the inauguration of Ferrari World, also known as the Ferrari Experience, the first Ferrari theme park in the world, built on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi.

The park was designed by Benoy Architects and is owned by Aldar Properties. It occupies a total area of 200,000 m2, with an indoor area of 100,000 m2. The main tower is 60m high and the whole building has an outer circumference of 2,200m. Facilities include a real race track, a theatre, various driving activities, several rides and attractions, multi-sensory video games and three thrilling races.

For the official opening, Filmaster Dubai was entrusted with the production of one of the most extraordinary shows ever seen in the Gulf region. The event was not only adorned with Clay Paky lights but there was also a spectacular firework display and a video

UAE - Eclipse Staging Services has just taken delivery of new Alpha Spot HPE 1500, increasing its Clay Paky 1500 Watt fixture inventory to 30 units. Chairman Mark Brown says the firm intends to double this stock again, to 60 units over the coming six months.

Egor Popowski, Clay Paky Middle East's representative said, "We have a lot of clients who have bought our 1200 Watt Alpha Spots, but Eclipse in Dubai is the first UAE company to have invested heavily in Alpha Spot 1500 HPE fixtures."

"Clay Paky 1500 Watt fixtures were chosen as they represent good value for money," said Darren Hodges, GM, Eclipse, which is based in Dubai's Al Quoz area. "Clay Paky have proven themselves in the region already with the 1200 Watt fixtures and Eclipse is finding that the industry is now demanding the 1500 Watt fixtures, which we believe to be the next generation of mov

South Africa - The Robe Robin Roadshow in South Africa was a tightly organised and well attended series of three events staged at the University of Johannesburg Theatre , Cape Town's Baxter Theatre and Durban's The Natal Playhouse Company, co-ordinated by Robe's Johannesburg based South African distributor, DWR. Over 60 people attended in Durban, over 160 in Johannesburg and another 80 plus in Cape Town,

Says DWR's Duncan Riley, "We expected a keen take up, but the actual turn out and the intensity of interest still took us by surprise. People stayed a long time at the demos, chatted to everyone on our team and also amongst themselves, while others who had to leave returned for more. "

Robe's MD Josef Valchar and sales director Harry von den Stemmen joined the DWR team of Duncan Riley, Nic Britz, Dave Whitehouse, Dan Riley and Nicolet Britz. Says Valchar, "South

UK - On Sunday 13 March 2011, the leading lights of London's theatre will gather to discover the winners of this year's Olivier Awards - and will do so under lighting supplied by White Light.

Presented annually by the Society of London Theatre, the Laurence Olivier Awards are presented to shows opening in the West End between 1 January and 31 December each year. This year, the awards are establishing a higher profile with a new website, a return to television - and a change of venue from a hotel ballroom to London's largest stage, the Theatre Royal Drury Lane.

The team behind the new staging include producer Julian Stoneman, production manager Lee Batty, designer Morgan Large and lighting designer Ben Cracknell. White Light is supplying Cracknell with a rig centred around 18 of Martin's dramatic MAC III spotlights, with their high light output, low running noise, spectacular z

Germany - LumenRadio's CRMX wireless system recently helped Berlin's Boulevard der Stars to put on a permanent and spectacular shine. The 350m long installation on Potsdamer Straße encourages visitors to engage with the stars and with each other in an interactive environment. The concept honours personalities who have made major contributions to German cinema in a setting inspired by four key elements from a movie premier; the red carpet, stars, cameras and lights.

German-American architects GRAFT and Berlin studio for media design ART+COM, the two entities that developed the overall concept, brought in local lighting designer Wolfgang Kunwald from Büro für Daten & Lichttechnik KG to commission a lighting system appropriate for the task.

"Digging up a large portion of the always busy Potsdamer Straße was not an option. A wireless system became the only practical solut

UK - The 2011 Olivier Awards - the leading awards for British theatre, opera and dance - were presented last night at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London.

Legally Blonde won three awards including best new musical, while the National Theatre's revival of Terence Rattigan's After the Dance collected four awards. Despite being nominated in seven categories, the Phantom sequel Love Never Dies was left empty-handed.

Best Lighting Design went to Neil Austin forThe White Guard at the NT Lyttelton. Also nominated this year were Mark Henderson for After the Dance at the NT Lyttelton; Hugh Vanstone for Deathtrap at the Noel Coward; and Paule Constable for Love Never Dies at the Adelphi. The Award for Best Sound Design went to Adam Cork for King Lear at the Donmar Warehouse. Also nominated were Gareth

Italy - More than 100,000 people crowded the square of Melpignano (LE) for the closing concert of the latest edition of Notte della Taranta Festival which comprised 13 concerts held in as many towns. An Axiom system and Proel lighting were there to support the artists on stage.

In 1998 the Union of Municipalities of Greek Salento and the Diego Carpitella Institute conceived a festival for Salento's traditional music, pizzica, to take place in several towns in the province of Lecce, the Greek Salento.

Their idea was to organize a large concert in the hellenophone area in which local folk music would mix ad mingle with other musical traditions, thus getting new life and experimenting a different way of composing contemporary music. Through the years that initial conception has evolved and earned its current national and international renown.

The team from GM Music, the

UK - To coincide with the performance of Verdi's opera Aida (11 March-15 April 2011), Founder College students from the National Skills Academy for Creative & Cultural have put their design, marketing and production skills to the test in the Royal Opera House's first ever Aida Design Challenge.

Students were challenged to produce entries in any of four design categories. The winners in each category (stage design, costume design, poster design and online educational content) will be judged by a team of specialists from the Royal Opera House. Winners will be announced following an afternoon performance of the opera in Covent Garden on Thursday 17 March 2011.

Students' work will be exhibited at the matinee performance of Aida, for which participating colleges have been given priority booking. The winning entrants in each category will be invited to spend a day at t

UK - In tune with developing technology, Artistic Licence Engineering has upgraded its successful Rail-Pipe technology to present Rail-Pipe HC, a six-channel, high current, constant voltage controller for passive LED fixtures.

Redesigned in response to customers' growing requirement for a more powerful LED controller, Rail-Pipe HC now runs at 20amps (@12V) split across six channels.

Rail-Pipe HC has two outputs, each with three channels for easy RGB connection which allows independent control over two sets of Artistic Licence Flexi-Strip.

The popularity of Flexi-Strip has been a key factor in the development of Rail-Pipe HC which can now control longer lengths of this innovative LED strip, says the company.

Rail-Pipe HC is DMX compatible and forms a mid-range partner to Artistic Licence Engineering's stand-alone Flexed-Up controller and its high-end Art-Net Ethernet contro

Classic Move - Organisers of the Classical Brits have dropped the word 'classical' from the title as part of a revamp. As part of a bid to attract a broader audience, the 12 May event will now be called the Classic Brits. The Royal Albert Hall show will feature performances by Katherine Jenkins, Il Divo and the cast of Les Miserables. Organisers said the name change "reflects the show's ambition to embrace a more diverse range of music genres including musical theatre". The two-hour ceremony will be hosted by Myleene Klass for the fourth consecutive year. The show, to be screened on ITV1, will also feature Russell Watson.

Olivier Awards - Legally Blonde star Sheridan Smith was named best musical actress at the Laurence Olivier Awards at the weekend. Her co-star Jill Halfpenny won best supporting role in a musical, while the show also won best new musical. In an

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