UK - Details of the programme of 11 RIBA CPD seminars to take place during the ARC 05 exhibition have been finalized. All seminars taking place during the exhibition (14-15 February, Business Design Centre, Islington, London) will be RIBA-approved CPD and will all be related to lighting topics for architects. There are a number of lighting-related CPD seminars available, ranging from office and retail lighting to LEDs and lighting control. A seminar theatre seating approximately 60 people will be built on the exhibition floor and will be promoted by Mondiale Publishing as well as specifically targeted at RIBA member architects.
Joni Tyler, head of CPD, commented: "RIBA is pleased to be working with Mondiale Publishing on this event. We are delighted to be able to highlight the many excellent lighting CPD seminars from our member companies and to be able to bring their technologically innovative work to a wider audience."
The programme will run as follows. On day one, 14 February: 12pm - Lighting Effects in Architecture by Ian Streeter, Deltalight UK; 1pm - Lighting the Exteriors and Interiors of Historic Buildings by Mark Sutton Vane, IALD; 2pm - Visual Ergonomics by David Francis, Fagerhult Lighting Ltd; 3pm - Defining Light by Tad Trylski, ERCO Lighting Ltd; 4pm - Architectural Lighting Controls by Simon Hill, Leax Lighting Controls.
On day , 15 February: 11am - Lighting for Retail Therapy by Dominic Meyrick, Hoare Lea Lighting; 12pm - Better Light for a Better Light by Ian Stanton, iGuzzini UK; 1pm - 'I'm a VIP - get me out of here' (lighting to
UK - This year the ever-popular Barco Showcase event was held at two locations North and South of the country. The first was at The Three Mills Studios in London and the second held at the Magna Science Museum in Rotherham, Yorkshire. LSI visited the Three Mills Studios, which proved to be an ideal location for showing the huge range of Barco products.
(Jane Cockburn)
UK - Customers of intelligent lighting controls group iLight are being assured that business remains very much as usual following the company's acquisition by Polaron plc in September. The company says that the new ownership means the group remains intact, while benefiting from the increased resources arising from being part of Polaron's control systems division. iLight group's products will continue to be marketed as before, while new products will benefit from the expanded R&D team. "Customers need have no worries about the future of the iLight brand," said John Thorne, UK sales manager at iLight. "We're still the same iLight that customers know and love, but with the advantage of greater financial and technical backing."
The focus of the enlarged group will be on developing the brands and the business, with the aim of becoming the largest lighting controls company in Europe. As well as Europe and the UK, the expanded company has a strong presence in the Middle East and Australasia. Over the last three years, iLight products have built up a reputation for innovation, practicality and value for money. Customers can expect additions soon to both the Zen and iCAN lighting control ranges, the company reports.
(Lee Baldock)
UK - It's been a busy inaugural season for new lighting design company, timroutledge.co.uk. To finish the year before Christmas, LD Tim Routledge recently finished two very different design projects: starting in Battersea Park's famous party venue structure, Routledge created rigs for two music stages for the testimonial of the England Rugby team's illustrious captain, Martin Johnson. On the anniversary of the historic win in last year's Rugby World Cup, this major event was produced in association with Next with all proceeds going to Johnson's nominated charities. Routledge was contracted to produce the lighting for both stages by DW Associates. Two stages were required to cope with the large number of acts, headlined by Lionel Richie.
Hawthorn Theatrical supplied the equipment required to work alongside Routledge's regular lighting team headed up by Andy Hopkins. "I chose Hawthorn based on their enthusiasm for the project and their ability to supply a ground-supported marquee-shaped truss to fit over the main stage. This gave me full maximum height available at all times."
The rig comprised a large number of Martin MAC fixtures from across the range, Dominator searchlights and a plethora of generic fixtures all controlled by MA Lighting's flexible lighting controller, the GrandMA.
The GrandMA was also the main control used on the next project, with Routledge moving to work onboard the Queen Mary 2. Working for Stage Electrics and Belinda King Presents, his brief was to light the main dance show on the liner following a full cast change. With only
Look Solutions was exhibiting at LDI for the first time under its own name and not through a distributor. Nathan Kahn, sales for the newly-opened Look Solutions USA, reported that he had so far had a very positive response from show visitors and that many of them were surprised to know that at least 50% of the Broadway shows today use Look's foggers and hazers.
ShowCAD's Mick Martin demo'd the latest developments for the company's Artist lighting and show control package - now fully WYSIWYG-enabled. Capable of controlling over 32,000 DMX channels as well as offering full multimedia and timecode support, Artist is a powerful and flexible system. The latest tricks in the pipeline include an impressive matrix facility which allows the simple creation of all kinds of effects and chases in banks of full-colour lighting fixtures - highly effective on any scale.
Wybron reports good business across the board - in particular with its popular Nexera dichroic colour changing fixtures (profile and wash versions, both now available with a CDM source), which are currently taking the College market by storm in America. Feedback from users has been very positive, the company says, in that increasing numbers of college venues are taking Nexera fixtures for evaluation - and not sending them back! Other news from Wybron is the company's appointment as the US distributor for Lighting Innovations' Super Beam 1200. This fixture, says Lighting Innovations, boasts near 100% light efficiency due to the parabolic and spheric double reflector optics and the use of Phillips' 80V, 1200W tungsten Halogen bulb.
OptiLED showed its Designer Dimmable Series, offering lighting intensity control in a unit with outer dimensions identical to an ordinary halogen MR16. The Dimmable offers full performance at 12V DC or AC and dimming capability from 10V down to a 3V candle glow. The series offers a new snap-on ring mounting for the diffusers and can be used in most indoor and weather-protected outdoor fixtures and applications, including theatres and cinemas, amusement parks, architectural features, landscape accents, retail, museums and hospitality, say the company. OptiLED has supplied its lighting fixtures to a number of recent US installations and projects, including the International Spy Museum in Washington DC, Club Nero at Caesar's in Lake Tahoe, the New Hampshire Capital Centre for the Arts and the Houston Ballet.
Strand Lighting introduced the new OneLight Par and oneLight Fresnel. Both are 575W MSR daylight luminaires, with integrated ballasts, for quick set-up applications. Also new was the 2.8.5 console software for Strand 300 and 500 series desks. Key features include extended luminaire attributes to support Catalyst units and a new TrackBack command, among other things. Strand also released new software for its wireless PDA-based remotes. On the architectural side, the new Accent DMX control sations are designed for use with all Strand digital dimmers. Each station can support up to 48 dimmers with two, four, or eight presets. Stations can be linked together to form systemswith up to eight stations in eight rooms. Finally, Strand showed its SST sinewave dimmer module, which provide true silent lamp operation and less than 1% harmonic distortion.
Philips showed the MSR Gold, a double-ended lamp with 'Golden' lamp caps, designed for stage use. The gold-plated caps allow higher cap temperatures (up to 400° C), reducing lamp and lamp-holder damage. The Golden lamp also features the patented Philips P3 pinch protection, allowing pinch temperatures of up to 500°C. The MSA SA/DE Gold is already available in 400W and 1,200W, and 700W will be out soon.
Pathway premiered the new RDM Repeater, an opto-splitter that features one input and eight outputs. The output ports are individually configurable for RDM enabled or disabled, and DMX speed, and are available with connectors on the front or rear. Also new, the new Vivetro Translucence Fader is a DMX-controllable unit for use with Electronic Privacy Glass. The Vivetro fades single or multiple panes of up to 32sq.ft, is rack-mountable and features smooth, 16-bit fade resolution.
Robe Show Lighting showed a vastly expanded product line, beginning with the DigitalSpot 2600DT. Robe goes digital with this moving head units, whose features include two digital gobo layers with a selection of up to 255 videos and images per layer. Also shown were the ColorWash 575AT and Color Wash 120E AT moving-head wash units, the ColorMix 575AT and ColorMix 550AT static colour-changing fixtures, and a line of club units: the ClubSpot 250CT, the ClubWash 250CT, the ClubScan 250CT and 150CT and the Fusion and Funky effects projectors. The company also showed the Fog 1500FT fogger, the Faze 1000FT fazer, and the Haze 400FT haze machine.
Italian manufacturer LDR was on the stand of its US distributor, Strong Entertainment Lighting. New from LDR is the Canto 250HR followspot - based on the new ceramic lamp from Philips. The ST250HR lamp offers all the benefits of ceramic technology for applications that until now have been the preserve of halogen lamps, say Philips. Features include a well-defined beam, a large side-handle to control movement and a double microswitch interlock for safe bulb replacement - while the fan-free cooling system makes it ideal for environments requiring a bit of hush. The Canto range now offers a choice of six lamps in the same housing.
Le Maitre's Versa Fan is a flexible mounting DMX addressable fan that is dimmer based and features a ratchet based positive locking system. The company was also showing its EZ Kleen product for foggers, which increases the life of the machines, as well as the lightweight, portable, hand-held Quick Shot Confetti launcher, which will launch confetti up to 50ft.
Martin Professional had, as usual, plenty of products to show. The Maxedia digital media composer is the company's entry in the imaging sweepstakes. The units's integrated DMX control provides full control of both lighting and video elements. Also on the control side, the Maxxyz Playback Wing made its US debut. Among the company's new networking products, the Ether2DMX allows users to increase the number of Maxxyz DMX universes and/or easily place DMX universes remotely on any TCP/IP Ethernet network, while the Ethernet Switch expands the networking and operable distance parameters of the Maxxyz console. In addition, Martin's ShowDesigner previsualization program now comes in Gold and Silver versions: the former is the full program while the latter is a streamlined edition. A number of club units were on show, including the Wizard Extreme and Ego X4 effects units and the SCX500 scanner. There were four new entries in the Mania line of club units: the Mania EF2 moonflower effect, the EF3 mid-air effect, the DC3 deco effect, and the PR1 promotional projector. Also on hand was the Magnum 1500 fogger and the MCSwitch, a plug-and-play unit that lets you power up and down six fixtures such as lights, fog machines or mirrorballs, with the option of daisy-chaining up to 24 units through four power boxes.
Joe Zamore, application and integration specialist for Martin Architectural, demonstrated the fabulous Lightpipe, a wonderfully simple concept which combines holographic film and a polycarbonate tube to create a light carrier that can go to considerable lengths before light outpu
City Theatrical had a variety of products on hand, including their WDS OEM Wireless DMX receiver, which can be built into any DMX device to provide wireless connectivity. The PDS-750 CB Touring Power Supply is for use with Color Kinetics fixtures, and features seven types of user configurable fade and chase routines. The WDS-equipped AutoYoke can convert a standard ETC Source Four unit into a spotlight; there are a variety of accessories also available.
Along with the newly-revised DMX Coffee Pot, Mark II, Doug Fleenor Design was also showing the Remote Addressing Device (RAD). The RAD gives users status information on their fixtures, and can be used to set DMX addresses. The LED300 Power Supply features six 4-pin XLR outputs to power up to six Color Kinetics Color Blast 12-style fixtures. The LED300 Power Supply also features numerous built-in effects, and can be used without a console.
UK - When the Wales Millennium Centre (WMC) opened on 26 November it became one of Europe's most vibrant arts developments to date. After 30 months of construction, the £104.2m venue will be home to seven leading Welsh cultural organizations, staging musicals, opera, ballet and dance day and night.
The 33,000sq.m building occupies a key site in Cardiff Bay's 'Inner Harbour'. Daylight floods the building, as 15cm thick glass open the foyers to views both outward and inward, and at night the lights of the foyer will be seen from afar. The striking building inscription is a poem composed by leading Welsh poet and writer Gwyneth Lewis and reads, 'Creating truth like glass from inspiration's furnace, in these stones horizons sing.'
ETC has been involved with WMC almost from the beginning of the project, having delivered a truckload of equipment as far back as the summer of 2003 for installation by Stage Electrics to a design by theatre consultant Carr and Angier. Jonathan Porter Goff, projects manager at Stage Electrics, said: "It's been good to have ETC's support in getting the detail right on this project. The networking was across so many different types of lighting control systems. We specified Sensor dimming as we knew that it was the right product for the job."
The Lyric Theatre, the main auditorium with 1,900 seats, boasts an ETC Emphasis system with dual processor, nine ETC Sensor racks which include a bespoke non dim panel and an ETC Unison system controlling the house lighting. The WMC will also provide the Welsh National Opera (WNO) with a p
Making its LDI debut was Lamina Ceramics, maker of LED sources of unusually high brightness. The company has earned a lot of media attention, including a story in The New York Times, and a very favorable quote from lighting designer Jules Fisher. The company's ultra-high lumen RGB light engine is, they say, 10 times brighter than any previously demonstrated and generates light in any of more than 16,000,000 colours, including white.
PRG, having merged with VLPS, got to show the latter company's Virtuoso EX1 media server, with features that include real-time rendering, keystone correction, three interactive 3-D objects, two separate background layers, positional camera, ambient and directional light source, crossfading of all elements, colour-mixing, object mapping of textures, videos or still images, the ability to interact with cues, and high-resolution (16-bit) control of most parameters. The product uses the first 218 channels of a DMX-512 universe.
Lycian showed the prototype of their 3k-xenon short-throw spotlight that features three dichroic slots, a left/right top/bottom chopping shutter and side mounted gobo slots. For long-throw applications, the 1294 SuperArc 4k features a nichrome/steel iris/zoom lens system and achieves 5,000 foot-candles at 100 feet.
Apollo Design showed the new Smart Color line of colour changers. The three models feature quiet operation, a dual speed single fan, variable scroll speed, and a self-tensioning gel string. Apollo premiered three new gel colours - Putting Green, Margarita Green and Green Diffusion, as well as 90 new gobo patterns, 45 of which are glass.
Osram introduced its new Ostar compact high-powered LED offering more than 120 lumens output and measuring 3cm x 1cm. Ostar's RGB lightsource consists of one red, one blue and two green thin-film chips, a ceramic carrier for interconnection andthermal management, and supporting electronics for over-voltage and over-heating protection. Also shown was the QXL 750.77 Quick eXchange lamp, which offers1500 hour lamp life, utilizes eXtreme Seal Technology and is designed for use in theatres, studios and architectural applications. The SharXS 200 HTI, a double-ended metal halide lamp, also uses eXtreme Seal technology, delivers exceptional brightness, and can withstand increased thermal stress. The new Osram SFc10-4 is a pre-focused socket that can be wired for either end and is designed to work with all of the lamps in the SharXS series. The Osram Planon flat lamp technology was also displayed, and is now available in 10.4" to 21.3" and 32" panel diagonals.
New from Robert Juliat is the Espion 2, a hand-held, battery-powered DMX analyzer with features including a DMX cable tester, DMX input receiving, DMX output sending (memories/macros), level catpure (memory recording), DMX input analyzer and reformer, moving light test facilities (library), and USB connector. Linked to a computer through the USB interace, Espion allows you to check all parameters plus DMX stream, in real time, on your computer screen.