Lighting

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14 March 2016

"Our Open Day brings together all the latest AV, sound, lighting and stage technology under one roof," says Black Light's head of company development, Phil Haldane. "We're inviting everyone to come along and help us celebrate 30 years in the business."

Black Light has already got over 30 of the biggest names in the industry confirmed. That means that the 2013 Open Day will be the most exciting yet, says the company. It will be a great chance for everyone to come and see the hottest new equipment in action, quiz the experts and, of course, meet friends and colleagues.

The Open Day will take place on 15 March. As in previous years, the event will feature a wide range of exhibitor stands at which visitors will be able to talk to ma

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14 March 2016

Located in the Dallas Arts District, the first phase of the venue opened in September 2012 and includes a 750-seat multi-purpose proscenium theatre, public lobby, and support space.

GDS was asked by Texas Scenic Company (TSC) to supply a zoned, DMX-controlled, working light system to be used across the stage galleries, auditorium catwalks and followspot booth to allow technicians access to technical areas under dark performance conditions without drawing audience attention.

Working in conjunction with Schuler Shook Theatre Planners, TSC installed GDS' award winnin

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14 March 2016

Saturating the monument in Albania's national colour of deep red are Exterior 430s from Martin Professional's award-winning Exterior 400 range of outdoor LED luminaires. Eight Exterior 430s, supplied by local Martin distributor Prosound Audio and Light, are used to uplight the eagle.

Lighting aspects of the monument were also handled by Albi Cifligu who turned to the Exterior 430 after a recommendation by Prosound sales manager Kliton Gjika.

"The only lighting fixture that can turn black metal red is the Exterior 430 so I sugges

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14 March 2016

The concert - an intimate affair compared to Muse's usual stadium-headlining shows - saw them tone down their show to fit the theatre surroundings. Before the gig bass player Chris Wolstenholme told BBC's Newsbeat, "You don't want to be spending all the money on pyramids and flashing lights - that's money that could be going to charity."

Awards News - Opera magazine is to have its first annual international awards, presented at a ceremony in London on 22 April. The Operas, the brainchild of th

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14 March 2016

The rig houses only Vari-Lite moving lights: forty-four VL2500 Spots, twenty-two VL2500 Washes and five VL3500 Spots whilst conventional lighting consists of over 200 ETC Source Four fixtures. It's a fairly straight forward rig that was, according to Hamilton, expertly prepped at PRG, easily hung and there were very few problems to overcome.

"The overhead trusses go spot, wash, spot, wash, spot, wash and the ladders are all VL2500 Spots," explained Hamilton. "It's a great rig because you can put anything you need where you need it, plus it

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14 March 2016

Lighting designer Declan Randall is harnessing the diverse colour palette and rapid colour changing abilities of the PLCyc fixtures to dramatically enhance the shifting ambience during the production at Guildford's Holy Trinity Church.

"I'm treating the ceiling of church as the cyclorama, up-lighting the roof and using the PLCycs to throw shadows of scenic elements and the cast up onto the roof," says Randall. "The show varies from intense colour to more natural, gentle, skin tones and the PLCycs offer us speedy colour changes and an amazing palette to work with. What's great about the PLCyc LED luminaires is that they deliver both the natural and unnatural colours

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14 March 2016

Located in the heart of London's East End and home to the 770 seat Great Hall, the theatre's transformation included a lighting and audio solution supplied and installed by specialist integrators Stage Electrics.

"Queen Mary, University of London is delighted with our newly refurbished venue and we're now getting a huge amount of interest from external hirers and promoters who are discovering this hidden gem in east Lo

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14 March 2016

Gaskell, of Pinnacle Productions, combined the razor sharp beams of the Clay Paky Sharpys, supplied by rental operation Colour Sound Experiment, with laser bounce mirrors to deliver a three dimensional prism of super bright almost architectural effects around the band. This worked as part of a layered lighting concept that combined evocative video, moody washes and striking effects during the dynamic, content rich show. The result was a dramatically striking, 3D world of light and images that worked as one with Orbital's music but at the same time also reached out and engaged the li

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14 March 2016

Jeffrey Goes commented, "The grandMA2 offered the best solution in networking and stability for this outdoor event. Especially in bad weather conditions it proofed to be a solid, stable control system. This was essential. Furthermore it offered us a perfect back-up solution as well as great network possibilities."

Daan Oomen continued, "We had to deal with pretty harsh weather conditions. Also some lighting positions were only accessible by helicopter. Furthermore the venue had a quite unusual shape unusual shape and an extremely steep slope. Making a

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14 March 2016

In an exciting twist on 2012's R28 competition, the use of consoles WILL be allowed, due to popular demand among previous entrants. Of course, employment of the software's Cue List and Camera Path features is perfectly acceptable and encouraged - Members are simply challenged to create a two-minute video of a stunning wysiwyg design and upload it to the CAST Software Facebook page for appraisal, initially by CAST's hand-picked judging panel, and then by the public who can vote for their favourite video via Facebook.

CAST

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14 March 2016

The awards ceremony was presented by the Whatsonstage.com theatre news website at a lavish concert on Sunday night. The Whatsonstage.com Awards is the only major prize-giving celebration for theatre voted on by the theatre-going public. The Best Lighting Designer Award is sponsored by leading entertainment lighting supplier White Light.

Henderson secured the prize for his work on Sweeney Todd, which opened at the Chichester Festival Theatre and then transferred to London's Adelphi Theatre. Henderson's was not the only award presented to the show, which also won prizes for its leading performers (Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton), its director (Jonathan Kent), and for the show itself, which was named Best Musical Revival.

Henderson's fellow nominees in the category were Humphre

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14 March 2016

The MAC III Wash features a unique internal barndoor system (shutters) that enables designers to shape projection onto stages, performers, scenery, scrims, or any set element with great precision.

The MAC III Wash houses a 1:4 fully linear zoom that requires no lens changes plus the MAC III Wash maintains near full efficiency throughout the entire zoom range with no visible beam jump when zooming from tight to wide and no drop in lumens output.

At over 50,000 lumens

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14 March 2016

Heading up the action were plenty of electronic legends like The Chemical Brothers, M.I.A, Fedde Le Grand, Mark Ronson, Hot Chip, The Faders, Kimbra and many more.

Lighting equipment, together with lighting production designs for the event's three main stage areas, was supplied by Clifton Productions, one of Australia's highest profile rental operations ... and the one with the largest stock of Robe fixtures.

Stage One was based around M.I.A.'s spec and featured 22 Robe ColorSpot 2500E ATs, eight ColorWash 2500E ATs and 18 Robin 600 Beams. The set centrepiece was an extensive upstage video wall.

The second stage was custom designed to accommodate the Chemical Brot

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14 March 2016

The LB-100's were supplied by production company, Supporting Role, who specialise in the broadcast rental sector, after being impressed by a system demo organised by SGM Germany's co-MD Thorsten Sattler.

Florian Wieder has taken a highly creative approach with the lighting - hanging the LB-100's as a curtain, split into separate sections, and as 'bridges' across the studio (one of which serves as the portal bridge to the stage).

These are fed by moving images from three Coolux Pandoras Box media servers.

Each of the 1500 strings measures 0.85m and contains sev

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14 March 2016

The new Chroma-Q Studio Force Phosphor has been developed specifically for use in film, TV and broadcast studio environments. Utilising innovative LED technologies, the units provide an equivalent soft edge output to a fluorescent fixture - up to 7,000 lumens. There's a choice of standard daylight white (5,600K), variable white (3,200 - 5,600K) and new tungsten white (3,200K) colour temperature versions, with the variable version offering fine-tuning of the green and magenta tints and frequency for camera.

Other features include an extremely smooth uniform wash, extra soft beam, theatrical grade dimming, laboratory calibration to match Black Body Locus, a manual c

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14 March 2016

ECI Cultuurfabriek is a converted former chemical factory which was abandoned in the 1970s. After many years of discussion about the building's future, it was decided to refurbish it - replacing its missing roof and rebuilding the walls - and turn it into a space for the whole community to use. Incoming technical manager Maarten Janssen invested in 30 ETC Source Four Lustr+ and 22 ETC Selador Desire Lustr+ LED luminaires for its 244 seat theatre space, taking advantage of extra funding available for environmentally sustainable projects.

Janssen explains why he chose the ETC fixtures: "I saw the LED demonstrations on ETC's YouTube video library. The fixtures have incredibly smooth fades, which I've never

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14 March 2016

"We were extremely pleased to see three of the manufacturers we represent receive these Awards," states CEO Lionel Garraud. "Robert Juliat, Chromlech and Darklight are prime examples of the innovative, well informed industry leaders we chose to deal with. We see this as confirmation that we made the right choices in the products we offer and could not have asked for more from our first exhibition as a new company."

Alterlite was established to provide the French architainment and retail markets with alternative lighting products of the highest quality. Its team has expanded rapidly over the firs

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14 March 2016

Squib has worked with the Band - whose lively mix of rocky electro pop has fed their hyperactive career trajectory - since 2010. They are a hard-working live act. Squib's first gig for them was at London's Heaven venue, mid-way through the cycle for their first studio album Tourist History, which segued almost immediately into Beacon.

He is a relative newcomer to using Robe fixtures, and it was the latest Robin series that caught his eye and encouraged him to look further at what the brand had to offer.

This was the first full production leg of the Beacon

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14 March 2016

"David was diagnosed with cancer 15 months ago and met the challenge of his illness with the same blend of determination and optimism that was his hallmark in business. Since stepping down as managing director of Stage Electrics he has devoted time to ensuring a secure future for his company and its employees," says the company. "His majority ownership passes to his family, however David has made sure Stage Electrics is in safe hands with strong management in place led by managing director Dan Aldridge and chairman Trevor Smallwood."

David founded Stage Electrics in Exeter in 1979 and built the company into the nationwide multi-discipline organisation it is today. Leading the company as managing direct

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14 March 2016

Lighting designer Sooner Routhier specified 44 Legend 412 fixtures placed in custom-made wood carts behind the singer and symmetrically on the left and right side of the stage. "We needed to make sure that the floor package we used was easily configurable to accommodate the many different stage sizes," Routhier said.

"It needed to expand and contract based on the various widths. Luckily, the lighting company - Special Event Services - had some custom-built carts that they modified in order to pack lots of lights into small spaces." These props allowed the tour to set up a floor package and tear it down in record time for festival and opening act situations. "

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14 March 2016

In a further indication that this year's show will be the best yet, organisers report a 30% increase in visitor registrations. New exhibitors joining the show this year include Autograph Sales, HD Pro Audio, Pearce Hire and Unusual Rigging, among others. A full list of exhibitors and details of the Professional Development Programme can be found on the PLASA Focus website.

Another exciting new development is the first ever PLASA Riggers' Forum for the North, which will take place on Tuesday 30 April. Building on the success of the PLASA Riggers' Forum in London in September, t

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14 March 2016

VH-1 and the NFL joined forces to celebrate the Super Bowl with Train headlining The Best Super Bowl Concert Ever on Friday night. CMT and the NFL partnered the following evening on a Crossroads special starring superstar country band Rascal Flatts and iconic rock band Journey. Both concerts were held at The Sugar Mill in New Orleans, which seats 4,000-5,000 fans.

Atomic Lighting of Lititz, Pennsylvania provided a pair of grandMA2 light with grandMA2 fader wing for the concert series. PEDG was the production design team collaborating. Bob Pederson was acting lighting designer on the broadcast truck.

The grandMA2 light was selected by programmer

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14 March 2016

Lighting designer Peter Barnes - dubbed the UK's 'guru of pop lighting' - specified 14 Sharpys rigged on the back truss on drop-bars and ten on the stairways, all mimicking the shapes of the LED screens on stage. A further ten Sharpys were positioned on a flown box truss just in front of the FOH position.

"The Sharpys were the only fixture I knew would give strong defined beams powerful enough to be visible against the intensity of the LED screen that made up the pyramid shaped fascia to the set and the backdrop," says Barnes. "They were also small enough to be placed on the stairs without being a hazard to the dancers."

HSL supplied the Clay Paky Sharpys and the tour was project managed for HSL by Mike Oates.

"The Clay Paky Sharpy is a real wor

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14 March 2016

Raj Kapoor worked closely with Little Big Town to design a stunning set that did the word justice. The design features the remains of a theatre, with tattered legs and borders hanging across the mid stage.

While the name of the tour and album inspired the set design, lighting designer Chris Shrom worked with production manager Chris Diener on the production details during Rascal Flatts' Changed tour that they wanted to bring to Little Big Town's show.