Pharos - Leaderboard - May 2024

Lighting

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Russia - Soviet and Russian pop singer, songwriter and producer, Philip Kirkorov, is using fixtures from PR Lighting to support his latest 60-date Eastern European DruGoy tour, designed to promote his new album.

Five time winner of the World Music Awards and with eight Ovation awards under his belt, Russia's most popular singer has been given a grandioise stage set - including huge screens, 3D-graphics, fireworks, computer and animated effects - and a dynamic lightshow designed by Boris Volkov.

FE Belimlight, the PR Lighting distributor for Belarus, was selected to provide the equipment for this tour, with the main fixtures including quantities of PR Lighting's XL 1500 Wash and XL 1500 Spots.

"With many dancers performing at the different stage levels, the XL 1500 Wash was the perfect choice to provide sufficient lighting to highlight the acts, while the XL 1500

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USA - ANSI E1.35 - 2007, Standard for Lens Quality Measurements for Pattern Projecting Luminaires Intended for Entertainment Use, is being revised to increase the accuracy of the measurement procedure while still keeping it simple. The draft of the revised standard is available for free download and comment through 8 October at http://tsp.plasa.org/tsp/documents/public_review_docs.php.

E1.35 describes a method that uses a projected gobo image for measuring stage and studio luminaire lens quality, with particular emphasis on quantifying contrast and perceived image quality (sharpness). It also offers a way for presenting these results on a datasheet in a format that is readily understood by a typical end-user. It's a simple way of saying, "This lens is sharper than that lens."

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Placebo are using 90 Robe Robin 300 LEDWash fixtures in custom touring frames for their current European festival tour, specified by lighting designer Jvan Morandi.

Morandi is well known for his fresh and innovative visual concepts and has worked for Placebo since their MEDS album in 2006. Each time they go on the road he brings something new and interesting to the visual equation.

This is the first time that he has specified Robe moving lights for one of his touring rigs, which are being supplied by PRG EML Productions.

The main idea behind Placebo's touring 'specials package' is that it is exceptionally quick and easy to install in festival situations 'underneath' the house rig at each event.

The LEDWash 300s are fitted into five rolling touring-frames specially fabricated by PRG EML Productions. Inside each frame they are rigged in a 6 x 3 format, with 18 lu

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MilTec (UK) Ltd. will once again be in their prime position in the front row at the PLASA show where they will be joined by UK and Ireland distributor MT Pro Ltd on stand 1-F1 in the main hall. There will be several new products on show in both the lighting and audio sections, featuring LED lighting, lightweight amplification and professional speakers. This will be in addition to existing products such as LED pars, mixers and signal processing.

On the lighting front, there will be moving heads, LED pars and battens, all featuring up-to -date technology with 150W white and 8W quadcolour LEDS to give powerful beams, crisp gobo projection and bright, even colour washes.

Of particular interest will be the EPW range of multi-function moving heads. These units use a white LED for the spot beam in place of a lamp. They also have tricolour LEDS positioned at the front end to give the wash be

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Australia - Joseph Mercurio, lecturer in performance technology at the Victorian College of the Arts, is on a mission to ensure that his students have access to the latest in lighting technology and has invested in a Jands Vista console.

"Part of my purpose here is to teach people how to learn and Vista offers a very different way of approaching lighting control," began Mercurio. "With most consoles you type in numbers on a keyboard but Vista has a totally different mentality with which younger people are familiar. They are used to a visual, touch screen, interactive method. Older people have learnt to be digital natives but our students were born and raised this way. You don't need to know numbers; you're talking holistically around the design and getting lights to work.

"Vista offers a totally different paradigm and breaks new ground. It certainly shows t

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UK - Leading European designed LED brand Pixled will show its new F-10 i/o tile product at PLASA 2012.

This latest innovation from Pixled is an 'all-round' 10.4 mm pitch screen surface, populated with three in one SMD chips that can be used indoors or outdoors, or be rigged horizontally - and covered - to become a dynamic dance-floor and under-floor stage effect.

The standard F-10 i/o tile is fully indoor use ready. It is a mesh surface and therefore transparent, and excellent for creative indoor work including scenic elements as well as for IMAG displays. The tile dimensions are 50 x 50 cm, each of which is super lightweight at only 7 Kg! (28 Kg/sqm)

For outdoor use, Pixled offers optional "clickable in/outdoor shaders" which are quickly fitted onto the mesh tiles and include blank panels to 'close' the modules and increase the contrast.

The tiles are IP65 rated

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Belgium - Martin Professional has recently added Kris Van Hullebusch in the position of test and support engineer at its lighting controller development centre in Belgium, providing global support, training and service.

Van Hullebusch comes to Martin with an extensive background in live event production, lighting and media server programming and controller maintenance. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Electronics from Karel de Grote University College in Antwerp, Belgium.

With the success and growing popularity of the Martin M1, M2GO and other lighting controllers in the M-Series range, Martin has also launched a new, dedicated 24-hour controller support hotline to "offer its fast-growing user base a convenient point of contact and peace of mind around the world".

The new hotline is routed to carefully selected controller experts worldwide to help users and programm

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Belgium - Pan European AV solutions provider AED Rent has announced it now has a stock of more than 2,500 Clay Paky fixtures.

AED Rent, which has headquarters in Willebroek, Belgium but also has offices in the Netherlands, France, Germany and the UK, now offers in excess of 566 Clay Paky Sharpys for rent, and nearly 2000 other Clay Paky fixtures, including AlphaSpot 1200 HPE, AlphaWash 1200, AlphaSpot 800 QWO, and AlphaProfile 1500.

"Two years ago we received a request from one of our major customers for high-performance profile fixtures. Following this we organised a shootout to make sure we would know what was available on the market," says Steven Mansvelt, light department manager at AED Rent.

"The Clay Paky Alpha Profile 1500 was a really interesting fixture for us, comparing value for money, so we ordered our first batch and that was the start of a fast g

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UK - On the eve of PLASA 2012, PLASA has announced a new home and dateline for the PLASA Show in 2013. The UK's only international event for entertainment and installation technology will take place at ExCeL London from 6-9 October 2013.

"After 21 years at Earls Court & Olympia, the time is now right for the PLASA Show to leave its current home," said PLASA CEO Matthew Griffiths. "We have hugely ambitious plans for the future of the event, and the state-of-the-art facilities at ExCeL support this vision. ExCeL is a cutting-edge, purpose-built exhibition venue with the infrastructure to attract international markets; the world-class facilities are the perfect match for PLASA's planned investment in content and growth, and an exciting prospect for our technology markets worldwide."

The move represents a major opportunity for the PLASA Show to expand its inter

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UK - Edinburgh Festival has seen Philips Selecon join forces with power monitoring company, Energeno, and one of the biggest venue producers on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe - C venues - to examine the positive impact LED lighting can have on power consumption in a fringe venue running 24/7.

Philips Selecon is working in collaboration with C venues' production manager Richard Williamson and artistic director (and international lighting designer) Hartley Kemp, to incorporate Selecon LED luminaires into existing lighting rigs at C venues newest hub venue, C nova, the largest pop-up venue on the Fringe.

"Our priority is to deliver a lighting system that allows C venues' users total creative flexibility and expression, yet is as low-energy as possible," says Grant Bales-Smith, sales manager for Strand Selecon Europe. "On this occasion we've supplied 18 Acclaim LED F

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UK - This is certainly a product launch that will make people look twice: the new Soundcraft Si Performer range of mixers boasts integrated DMX functionality - thereby adding to the already impressive and powerful audio feature-set the existence of lighting control options . . .

Building on the successful Si Compact range, to which it bears a likeness, this is a feature-packed audio console, boasting almost twice as much DSP power and increased functionality, with an input capacity of 80 inputs to mix on all models. The built-in I/O does not disappoint - the Si Performer 2 has 24 mic and eight line inputs, and the Si Performer 3 has 32 mic and eight line inputs, plus the four FX return channels. Plus there are two option card slots for I/O expansion via any of the Soundcraft stageboxes and option cards from the ViSi Connect range, giving the possibility of patching up to 80 inpu

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UK - The Jands Vista range once again proved its flexibility and power when lighting designer and programmer Steve Heywood chose to put Vista consoles, running the next generation Vista v2 software, in control at two recent UK music festivals.

For Meadowlands 2012, a diverse and vibrant event staged at Glynde Place in the picturesque village of Glynde in East Sussex, Heywood and Dan Williams, the lighting designer for the event's main stage, shared operating duties on a Vista T2.

An eclectic line-up included acclaimed LTJ Bukem, who closed the festival with an entrancing four hour DJ set, as well as Lamb, Fink, Speech Debelle, Portico Quartet and many others.

With the usual limited programming available for a festival rig, which included moving lights, conventionals and the latest LED fixtures, Heywood and Williams needed to be able to work extremely fast and "bu

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USA - The Dave Matthews Band is back on the road this summer with a North American tour preceding the release of their album, Away From The World, due out in September. Accompanying the band are two grandMA2 full-size, one grandMA2 light, two MA NSP (Network Signal Processor) and two MA NPU (Network Processing Unit).

The equipment was specified by the band's longtime lighting designer Fenton Williams and supplied by Theatrical Media Services Inc. (TMS) of Omaha, Nebraska.

Williams, who is also the overall visual designer for the tour, acts as co-lighting operator for the shows running one grandMA2 full-size while Aaron Stinebrink from TMS runs the second desk. "Fenton is very active and likes to augment on the fly during the show," says TMS's Pete Franks who serves as system crew chief on the road. "That's why there are two consoles always operating front

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UK - The Summer Series at Somerset House has established itself as one of London's must-see music festivals. With an eclectic programme to support, in-house lighting designer, Petter Skramstad decided that Clay Paky Alpha 700 HPEs would make the ideal backbone for his super-flexible rig.

This summer the venue hosted a diverse line up that included: comedian Tim Minchin, neo-soul queen Jill Scott, pop-dubstepper Katy B, Paloma Faith and indie lads The Enemy.

With such a varied programme Skramstad had his work cut out: "Key decision maker for me was brightness, plenty of functions, lightweight, and totally reliable," he explains. "The Clay Paky 700 HPEs were a godsend. They are the smallest 700W spotlight available, and weigh just 22 kilos, which means I can get enough fixtures into the rig to satisfy everyone without going over the weight loading limits. This ens

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Italy - D.T.S. recently strengthened and integrated its logistics chain by expanding its production facilities, and reinforced its plants by purchasing a series of new hi-tech numerical control machines, including a computer controlled 5 KW laser cutter, and a thermoplastic polymers 3D printing machine.

D.T.S.' current streamlined production cycle and its extensive automation have been fully employed in the production of one of its most innovative products, the high-power compact moving head Jack.

D.T.S. has just issued a video clip titled The Art of Manufacturing, to illustrate this new phase of development. This can be viewed at www.dts-lighting.com/Company

(Jim Evans)

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USA - Calvary Chapel, a non-denominational church in Broomfield, CO., offers contemporary style worship and music every Sunday for their devoted congregation. Pastor Richie Furay, a past member of the nationally recognised bands - Poco and Buffalo Springfield, has made music a big part of the church's ministry, with a modern professional band performing exceptional music to enhance the worship experience. Until recently, the sanctuary stage lighting was not all it might be.

With one bar of four 100 Watt and two 75 Watt incandescent can lights to illuminate the stage, it was time to update the lighting and renew the atmosphere to harmonize with the excitement, which was happening on stage every Sunday. The decision was made to install 12 Cygnus 100 Watt LED Colour Wash luminaires, completely replacing the outdated incandescent system. The Cygnus fixtures were hung to light the st

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Europe - Bruce Springsteen is a rock star that loves to play live. For his lighting designer Jeff Ravitz, keeping the visual excitement real can be quite a challenge. Although Springsteen has sold more than 120m albums worldwide, he is notorious for his unofficially extended concerts and it is Ravitz's job to stay one step ahead of his, sometimes unpredictable, programme.

For example, just this summer an over run in Hyde Park, London saw Springsteen unceremoniously switched off. This however did not deter him from concluding his 2012 European leg in Helsinki in true Springsteen style playing a personal record-breaking four hours and six minutes. Such capricious behaviour means Ravitz has to be quick thinking, focused and have a lighting design and system that offers maximum flexibility, power, and of course subtlety.

Forming the backbone of his lighting rig is a battalion of P

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France - Hugh Masekela (South Africa), Manu Dibango (Camerun), Roberto Fonseca (Cuba), Sly & Robbie (Jamaica) were among the international acts appearing at Fiest'a Sète 2012.

The 16th edition of the festival featured seven evenings of music in the fascinating setting of the Théâtre de la Mer, an amphitheatre with a breathtaking panorama of the Mediterranean right behind the stage.

Fiest'a Sète stage was lit with the new Jack and NRG 1201 high-power compact moving heads by D.T.S., provided by ESL. Lighting designer was Sebastien Serra.

(Jim Evans)

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On The Fringe - Ticket sales for the Edinburgh Fringe are down by about 1%. It is thought the London Olympics - which clashed with the first nine days of the Fringe - was a major factor in the fall in sales. The Fringe remains the world's largest arts festival, with 2,695 shows performed in 279 venues.

Kath Mainland, chief executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, said it was "in fantastic health", with more than 1.8 million tickets sold. She said there were also more than 800 free shows at which attendance could not be measured. However, it is only the second time in more than a decade that ticket sales have fallen from the previous year. Sales fell in 2008 due to the disastrous implementation of a new ticketing system. Mainland said, "The Fringe has shown its resilience in responding so positively to the unique challenges of 2012."

Viva La Vi

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UK - The Olympic Games in London may have come to an end, but the London 2012 Festival - also known as the Cultural Olympiad - continues to draw in crowds from across the UK. As part of that, the puppeteers responsible for War Horse created a stunning show at the Borough Halls in the south London Olympic borough of Greenwich - with production management by Illuminate Design.

Crow is based on a series of poems by the late poet laureate Ted Hughes, with the Handspring Puppet Company accompanying the telling of their stories through the medium of puppetry. Says Illuminate Design's co founder Ben Payne, "Handspring did such an amazing job on War Horse, that we all knew we had a lot to live up to. The poems can be quite dark, and so we wanted something suitably intimate."

Illuminate began by reversing the Borough Halls' traditional layout, with bleach

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UK - Philips Entertainment Group brand Selecon is launching a new range of professional LED luminaires at PLASA 2012, Earls Court (9-12th September). Selecon will join Philips Entertainment brands Vari-Lite, Strand Lighting and new range - Showline - in Hall 1, stand BV 1-F50 to showcase some of the latest developments in lighting and control technology.

Debuting at this year's show will be the Selecon PLFRESNEL-1 and the PLPROFILE-1. Both fixtures are designed to complement Philips Entertainment's existing range of LED luminaires - the Selecon PL3, PL1, PLCYC1 and the Vari-Lite VLX ranges. "Together, this comprehensive range of lighting tools will offer a higher level of creative expression to designers working in the theatre, small studio and display lighting sectors," says the company.

General manager for Selecon, Graham Eales comments: "The PLFRESNEL-1, whic

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UK - ETC's stand at PLASA 2012 is set to be better than ever before, with a range of new and updated products on demonstration

For the first time in the UK, the Layers of Light theatre space will offer a short presentation every hour.

ETC market manager Erik Larsen says, "We'll set up a series of coloured fabrics to show how colours can balance, 'pop' or appear dull by adjusting each of the different colours in an LED fixture. We'll then show how each of the company's different ranges of fixtures can work well either together or separately. ETC staff will demonstrate how LED can be mixed with conventional incandescent light sources, and how that works with a Sensor3 Power Control system.

"While we recognise that no single fixture is perfect for every kind of use, ETC's goal is to provide designers with tools that stand out on their own but also enhance the a

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USA - Israeli dupstep producer DJ Borgore recently debuted his 2012 tour at the Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas, mixing rhythms from inside a custom-made ice cream truck built of Chauvet Professional MVP 18 video panels. The Borgore Cream Machine made its big entrance at EDC entertaining enthusiastic crowds, and will go on tour again in the fall in cities throughout the U.S. The event was spiced up by pole dancers on picnic tables and big custom-made ice cream cones placed on stage that shot cream at the audience.

A concept of VJ Morgan Lavery, owner of Infinight Productions, the idea of the Borgore Cream Machine is to make Borgore look like he is driving inside an ice cream truck, equipped with real 30-inch rims that move and spun around on motors.

Forty-seven MVP 18 panels cover the main façade of the truck and 18 make up the rear screen behind the DJ booth, while two

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USA - Bring Elvis to life - That was the main video projection mission for Pete's Big TVs for the Elvis 35th anniversary concert, 16 August at the FedEx Forum in Memphis. The event was a fan favourite at the end of Elvis Week, a weeklong celebration of The King and on the 35th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death in 1977.

Pete's Big TVs has worked on many past Elvis in concert tours and anniversary shows - again with producer Stig Edgren Productions.

This year, Pete's Big TVs supplied 324 panels of the new digiLED MC7 high resolution video tiles to comprise all video screens in the show. The MC7 emit no radio frequency interference, making them a popular rental item in Pete's Big TVs' inventory.

The panels were split up into four screens. A screen over the stage displayed the show's EP 35 logo and IMAG. Of the three screens on the upstage, measuring 18ft tall,

  1. Atlanta church pixel maps with Chauvet
  2. Robe rocks on Wacken Bullhead Circus Stage
  3. Diversity for HSL
  4. PLASA 2012: Martin 25th anniversary celebrations
  5. PLASA 2012: ELC to expand Green-GO digital line
  6. PLASA 2012: Philips Selecon double launch
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