USA / India / Nigeria - Sussex-based LM Productions report a string of recent international projects. Firstly, continuing its 'Live It, Love It' campaign, the Hong Kong Tourism Board contracted LM Productions LLP for their first StratoFantasia event in the USA. The event took place in San Francisco over two days with the main focal point of the multimedia show being LM Productions 50ft (15m) diameter StratoSphere, with a new internal blackout dome, which allows the StratoSphere to be used as a venue with internal projection during the day. This is made possible by the blackout dome being inflated inside the StratoSphere, thus providing a cover from the light outside. The event contained elements of live performances from musicians and dancers as well as full dome video and laser effects inside the StratoSphere. There was a steady stream of people viewing the shows, which started every 30 minutes throughout the two days. The show was a big success and a perfect promotion for the re launch of Hong Kong Tourism, and these promotions will continue worldwide throughout 2004.
At the end of September, LM Productions' new 60ft (18m) StratoSphere was used in India for the first time for the Axe Dimension Dome Party. This was an MTV-sponsored dance event, where the StratoSphere was used as an unusual dance venue, with up to 300 people inside at any one time. The show was held at Elephanta Island off the coast of Bombay; with no ambient lighting on the island the StratoSphere was the only light source, and lit up the surrounding area. Inside the sphere was a large stage for t
UK - Rounding off artistic director Nicholas Hytner's first year in charge of Britain's Royal National Theatre is His Dark Materials, a two-part adaptation of Philip Pullman's acclaimed trilogy of books. Opening at the National's Olivier Theatre just after Christmas to glowing reviews, and already sold out, His Dark Materials proved a challenge to all involved with it - including DHA Lighting's Wyatt Enever.
Enever was brought by the show's lighting designer Paule Constable and the National's lighting staff to help realize the large-format projections required as part of the set design. The aim was to use abstract images created by the show's set designer, Giles Cadle, and video projection designer, Thomas Gray of The Gray Circle, to dress the curved black BP screen used as a cyclorama. The difficulty was that, unlike previous shows that Enever has been involved with in the Olivier, including Anything Goes and Love's Labour's Lost, the projectors could not be positioned behind the cyc because of space limitations.
Enever explained: "Instead, they were to be rigged on an overhead lighting bridge, so my first task was to work out the number, exact positioning and lens requirements of the projectors. This led us to use three Pani BP4 Compact projectors with slide changers, with the stage-right projector covering the stage-left section of the screen and the stage-left projector the stage-right side in order to achieve the throw required to fill the whole cyc."
Enever then had to calculate the complex pre-distortions required to
UK - Metropolis AV & FX recently completed a major technical refurbishment at the Sports Café in London's Haymarket. The two-storey venue features five bars, dining areas and booths with personal mini plasma screens, where customers can enjoy a multi-media blend of sports action, food and drink. The project follows on from Metropolis' design and supply of the complete lighting, sound and AV system to the latest Sports Café in Manchester, and their long-term servicing of the maintenance contract at the flagship London operation.
Upstairs, Metropolis replaced all the old TVs with Panasonic TX28 and TX32 widescreen televisions, installing a total of 33, plus one of the new Generation 6 Panasonic TH42 PW6 plasma screens - one of the first in the UK. Two new Sanyo PLC SL15 video projectors were also installed - again some of the first in the country - fitted with protective POAP smoke housings to extend longevity. The PLC SL15 was chosen for the extended lamp life of 3500 hours. Metropolis also fitted an additional six Bose Panaray speakers to the existing audio set up, and re-calibrated the system to spread the sound more evenly around the area.
Downstairs, the Metropolis team re-cabled the entire building through the existing MF (sealed plasterboard) ceiling, using broadcast quality PSF1/3 video cable and oxygen-free speaker cables. This was specified for cleaner, distortion-free signal paths. The existing RF cabled network for the video was stripped out and replaced with a full composite video system. This is distributed throughout the building via 10 video distr
USA/Germany - At the NAIAS international motor show in Detroit at the beginning of January 2004, XL Video of Germany, acting for the first time in its capacity of general contractor to DaimlerChrysler, supplied all the video equipment for the Mercedes-Benz stand. The motor show ran from the 4 - 19 January.
As at the IAA motor show in Frankfurt where the Mercedes-Benz booth featured an 1800sqm (12 x 150m) circular facade composed of 47,000 MiPIX intelligent LED pixel blocks from Barco, the Detroit presentation was supported by media equipment from XL Video employing the same SMD LED technology. At the NAIAS, the 'media façade' theme was carried a stage further. The architecture for the booth was the work of KTP, whilst Atelier Markgraph handled the planning and communication. Integrated into the ring facade - used for the playback of intelligent lighting effects - two convex video walls comprising 11m x 6m (W x H) Barco Ilite 10 video tiles.
On the main stage and at the press conference, a high-resolution modular display composed of 13m x 7m (W x H) Barco ILite 6 LED tiles was a key feature of the presentation. XL Video also installed a large number of plasma and LCD screens at the booth, networking them with a media control system that permitted content to be sourced from DVD or HD players.
Meanwhile the video equipment on the Toyota, Nissan, Infinity, Honda, Chrysler, Accura and Porsche stands at the NAIAS show in Detroit was supplied by XL Video's US subsidiary, XL Video Inc.
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
UK - Video has become an important adjunct to the virtuoso musicianship of veteran American band Dream Theater, who stretch rock to its outer limits. Formed 18 years ago by students at the renowned Berklee College Of Music, and presently midway through a world tour, the band had been introduced to CT Screenco by lighting designer Benoit Richards. The video specialists then constructed an elaborate rig to take Dream Theater through the British leg (mostly theatre venues) and onto the world stage.
Two 3m x 2m Barco D10 displays (in 4:3 aspect ratio) are configured either side of a central, letterbox-style 6m x 2m screen, set behind the vast drum kit. Three Minicams are positioned on stage - two picking up the drum kit and the third focused on the revolving keyboard. All other stage activity is captured from the front-of-house camera, fitted with a 33:1 lens. However, the video sources are far from confined to live camera action, and CT Screenco had to deploy an 8x8 Extron matrix to route the band's video art, with two Doremi V1D hard disks storing 70Gb of material, which is mixed through a Panasonic MX50.
The entire show is programmed on CT's new Medialon Display Controller with the several hundred cues triggered from a Wholehog II lighting desk. "This is a groundbreaking tour as far as video goes," states CT Screenco's Dave Crump. "The screens are deliberately low-tech, but the delivery method, whilst highly complex, is extremely cost-effective. The matrix not only allows us to control three different screen images, all routed through one processor,
UK - Mission Pro has appointed True Colours as a distributor for the UK audio-visual market. True Colours, based in Yateley, Hampshire, is one of the UK's leading technical trade distributors with an excellent track record in supplying technical support and products to audio-visual re-sellers.
The company has recently moved from Aldershot to its new premises in Yateley, which will give them the facility of a dedicated room for training and demonstration of the full range of Mission Pro products, say Mission Pro.
David Raymen for True Colours commented: "We were very impressed by Mission Pro's products which offer a superb range of solutions for the AV market, with high intelligibility and even coverage in both good and difficult acoustic environments. They have invested heavily in design and tooling so the installation products are easy to fit and merge visually better than typical 'box loudspeakers' so commonly used. They also have an exceptional solution for portable sound with the new TecSonic, which offers a complete audio package in a briefcase."
Mission Pro's director of sales and marketing, Steve Jordan adds: "What set True Colours apart for us is their commitment to technical support, meaning the customer buys a service, not just a product."
(Lee Baldock)
USA - Lighthouse high-resolution LED screens have been selected by Urban Display Network LLC (UDN) for a huge project to install wirelessly networked electronic billboards at the street-level entrances to Manhattan's subway stations. UDN, a Las Vegas-based company, is partnering with US media giant Clear Channel Outdoor on the project. The system rollout has already begun, with 20 sites operational by 1 December. Clear Channel, which holds a street-level advertising contract with the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), plans to extend its new screen network throughout the island's subway system to around 80 screens during the first quarter of 2004.
MTA and Clear Channel had originally experimented with plasma screens for the sites, which are at eye-level on top of the railings surrounding the steps leading down to platform level. But the wide variations in ambient light levels and other physical factors led them, through UDN, to look at LED technology. Says Williams: "Plasma did not reach the accepted levels of brightness in daylight hours, so we looked at a number of different manufacturers' LED screens, including Lighthouse, whose products I was familiar with as VP of Ad Art. Having looked at their latest screens I visited the factory in China. Seeing how well put together the screens are, and the attention to detail of the engineers, the decision to go forward with the Lighthouse product was an easy one."
The screen model chosen is the latest LVP0620 (6mm pixel pitch, 2000 Nits brightness) that employs Lighthouse's M4 technology and
USA - Between 29 January and 1 February 2004, the new Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles will host an exciting collaboration between the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the internationally acclaimed Théàtre de Complicité. Entitled Strange Poetry: Berlioz and the Chemistry of Dreams, the piece has been created as a collaboration between Complicité and the orchestra following an invitation to Complicité from the orchestra's music director, Esa-Pekka Salonen. The show is based around the orchestra's performance of two of Berlioz's works, Lélio and the Symphonie Fantastique.
As in their acclaimed show The Elephant Vanishes, the Complicité team have opted to incorporate video projection into the new show, working with Canadian video designer Francis Laporte, perhaps best known for his work with Cirque du Soleil on their shows Dralion and Varekai. It was Laporte's collaborator, video programmer Luc Lavergne, who suggested that the Hippotizer digital media server might make the ideal video playback tool for the project. As a result, Green Hippo, the Hippotizer's creator, and Scene Change, its distributor, were invited to show Hippotizer to the Complicité team, who were very impressed: "We showed it to Simon McBurney, Complicité's artistic director, Nick Schwartz-Hall, their production manager, and others, and they all loved it," recalls Green Hippo's Sean Westgate.
"What excited them most was Hippotizer's ability to change things on the fly - 'I want that, over there, in green' -
UK - It was a royal extravaganza dampened by blustery, rainy weather as Queen Elizabeth II christened the world's largest ocean liner on Thursday 8 January in Southampton. In front of 2,000 invited guests, she launched the £500 million Queen Mary 2 - the first liner for transatlantic and worldwide routes to enter service since the QE2 in 1969.
Although the Queen was protected from the strong winds and downpours by a temporary structure, hundreds of Southampton residents, barred from the dockside by tight security around the Ship, braved the elements to watch the ceremony on large screens in the nearby park. Weather conditions were fierce and health and safety regulations prevented the rigging of the stage and other equipment until the eleventh hour when the winds finally calmed. Despite the weather, the afternoon was a colourful, lively spectacle thanks to an array of imaginative graphics from the G-LEC custom graphic library, which were shown on the G-LEC Curtain.
Facilitated and organized by Fourth Phase London, the event marked the first use of the G-LEC Curtain in the UK after extensive use on large-scale concerts and events on the continent and the US. Flown at the back of the stage, it provided a creative backdrop for performances from Fame Academy runner-up Alistair Griffin and new girl band, Clear.
The G-LEC Curtain can be used for both indoor and outdoor performances and proves its worth in windy weather conditions, where traditional LED screens could blow over. Made up of a series of tubes, each separated by a 6cm gap, the G-LEC Curtain offer
UK - The smash-hit musical from last Christmas, Trevor Nunn's Royal National Theatre production of Anything Goes, has now transferred to the West End - and DHA Lighting has again been involved with making lighting designer David Hersey's vision for the show a reality.
At the National, DHA's Wyatt Enever and Steve Larkins carried out the careful pre-distortion of the images projected onto the show's cyclorama. The projection - particularly the scrolling image of New York as the ship on which the show is set leaves dock - proved so successful that it was expanded for the West End production.
However, the changes required the DHA team to produce newly pre-distorted images to suit the different shape of cyclorama and projector positions at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane - one of London's largest stages, but here filled with John Gunter's recreation of an Atlantic liner. Gunter's design was adapted from the National by wrapping the cyclorama around three sides of the set. Hersey therefore chose to locate two large-format projectors upstage, giving a back-projected up-centre image that carried around to the sides of the cyclorama as far as possible.
The projectors chosen were E/T/C PIGI 6kW units fitted with film scrollers and with Wybron CXI colour-mixing scrollers to allow the colour of images to be altered on the fly. Both projectors were mounted on a platform installed half-way up the back wall of the stage. The film scrolls contained revised versions of images created for the National (New York by night, New York by day, a sunrise), and new images created f
UK - Swedish rock star Robert Wells was in concert at the Royal Albert Hall recently with his Rhapsody in Rock show. The show was a lavish affair with a full symphony orchestra, an a capella group, dance troupe and even a trapeze artist!
As a backdrop to this visual extravaganza, Massteknik UK staged a 45sq.m Unitek V9 LED screen system - one of the largest screens ever used in the Royal Albert Hall. Behind the scenes, an Electrosonic Vector image processor was in control, driving the mixture of live video, graphics and Catalyst images, which were created by Massteknik's Swedish division. The show was produced by Robert Wells AB of Sweden, and the technical production was jointly achieved by Massteknik's UK and Swedish operations.
(Lee Baldock)
Germany - Telecommunications giant T-Mobile has installed one of the world's highest resolution LED video screens for the video-conferencing hub of its headquarters in Bonn, Germany. The huge Lighthouse LVP0630 (6mm pixel pitch, 3000 Nits brightness) screen is free-standing at the end of a large (100m by 30m) video-conferencing room, which features advanced AV facilities and an integrated sound system by Pro Video Broadcast und Konferenztechnik GmbH Berlin and Arge Medientechnik of Germany.
The screen was originally specified at 13 by 13 panels in size, but has since been expanded to 16 by 13 panels, for a 16:9 wide screen aspect ratio. The combination of the 51.9sq.m (559sq.ft) screen size and the 6mm pixel pitch gives a screen resolution totalling 1536 pixels (H) by 936 pixels (V). Control is via four Lighthouse LIP-KX processors, running a DVI input fed by an Electrosonic Vector unit.
The screen itself is the robust S frame structure (fixed install version) of the LVP0630 screen, which provides reliable performance coupled with simple maintenance access from the back. The LVP0630 has a horizontal viewing angle of 140°, a vertical viewing angle of 90° and each intelligent module contains 96 x 72 pixels in a 4:3 aspect ratio. It incorporates Lighthouse's proprietary fourth generation M4 Uniformity Control that has been developed to ensure that the colour and brightness of every LED pixel is well balanced. M4 technology allows for screen uniformity to an exceptional level, and is achieved by measuring the brightness for each LED at the production stage in the f
Switzerland - At the forthcoming Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) exhibition in Geneva (3-5 February), AV systems specialist Electrosonic is showcasing new processing and media networks display solutions for use in command and control, and corporate communications applications.
The company's 'Visionetwork' is a new range of command and control technologies already in use in IT, utility and process control applications. The first product to be introduced is VN-2400, a network display processor that combines RGB, video and network application sources onto a videowall at low cost. Also being demonstrated will be VN-Commander, an easy-to-use graphical user interface; and the newly launched VN-Glimpse hardware agent, which is an RGB streaming encoder via ethernet.
Electrosonic Director advances the state of play of AV/IT integration by integrating audio, RGB, video, touch-panel control and viewing of network documents into a single box. Use of web technologies allows control and display interfaces to be reconfigured without needing to learn a proprietary programming language.
New to the Electrosonic range of video servers is the 'HD Frend' - an MPEG-based network appliance which provides an ideal solution for digital signage, training, education, and other applications in which high-performance 16 x 9 video is required.
(Lee Baldock)
UK - When media event group Ten Alps Events wanted to realize their ambition of illuminating some of London's most iconic buildings, they turned to projection specialist E/T/C UK to provide the technical expertise.
The event was conceived by Bob Geldof, a co-founder of Ten Alps Events, and was designed to introduce some magic and a sense of visual anticipation to the capital throughout December. 'Brightening Up London' was a project that Geldof had been keen to produce since 1999 and finally found the perfect sponsor in Orange, who grasped the potential synergy that this style of media campaign could bring to its own brand.
Ten Alps Events had been in touch with the owners of over 30 buildings over the past two years and when the project received the green light the first challenge was to create the shortlist of buildings that would be included. Those chosen included Tate Britain, The National Gallery, the Queen's House in Greenwich, St Mary le Strand (see cover), The Imperial War Museum, the National Theatre, 10 Trinity Square and the Royal Exchange. The project was launched by Geldof on 2 December at Wellington Arch, with switch-ons taking place throughout the month.
The pièce de résistance, however, was the illumination of Buckingham Palace. "We were delighted that the Palace agreed to take part," enthused Geldof, "it provided us with the perfect culmination to the illuminations." The Palace was lit up on Christmas Eve, and remained on through Christmas Day and Boxing Day, whilst all the other sites were dark. The other sites then res
UK - Digital media server and content specialist Projected Image Digital has announced two new products from D-Tek Industries for which it has exclusive distribution rights - the D-Switch and the D-Switch Pro. Both products are designed to aid the growing creative convergence between visual production mediums such as lighting and video, and both were previewed at PLASA.
Projected Image Digital's David March comments: "We're excited to be working with D-Tek Industries and products that are at the forefront of visual production and creativity. The industry is currently moving very fast, and these are the first of a whole series of related products."
The D-Switch, a DMX-controlled 4:1 video switch unit, is the first in a series of new products from D-Tek, developed to give lighting designers the power and flexibility to control the video elements of their show. The D-Switch unit switches four synchronized (genlocked) video signals to a single video output via DMX512 lighting control protocol. Four video sources (e.g. video sources, DVDs, or cameras) can be switched between, and output to, a single video feed going to a video projector or LED wall. The switching is controlled by a DMX512 lighting console using only a single channel to select between the user's four video sources and blackout. The unit also features a manual selection mode and an automatic chase function. The second product is the D - Switch Pro - a DMX-controlled 4:4 video switch matrix unit, which allows the switching of four synchronized (genlocked) video signals to four video outputs via
UK - XL Video is supplying the controversial RNT/Out of Joint co-production of The Permanent Way with video hardware. The production's video elements have been co-ordinated by Dick Straker of Mesmer Productions, who devised the video system in conjunction with designer Bill Dudley, and XL Video's project manager Malcolm Mellows. The Permanent Way has just opened at the National's Cottesloe Theatre. The hard-hitting David Hare work highlights the post privatization mis-management of the railways in the wake of recent rail disasters like Paddington, Hatfield and Clapham.
Bill Dudley - with whom XL Video has also worked on Hitchcock Blonde and The Coast of Utopia - decided to use video as a scenic and narrative vehicle to denote times, locations, ideas and thoughts. Video provides a simple, practical and highly effective solution to deliver a number of messages plus settings like waiting rooms, offices, platforms, railway tracks, etc.
The projection surface is one large upstage canvas screen, and the projectors are two NEC XT5000s, chosen for their 5000 ANSI Lumens output, compact size and weight. These are flown on custom scenic railway gantry set pieces, which neatly positions the hardware in the correct front projection positions. Material is stored on and played back from DVD, and audio operator Richard Llewellyn manually cues the video system. The Permanent Way is directed by Max Stafford-Clark, with a lighting design by Johanna Town and sound design by Paul Arditti.
Out-of-Joint's production (managed by Phil Cameron), kicke
UK - Stagecraft has made a major investment in new hire equipment to enable organizations to use cutting-edge sound and lighting technology in their performances. The company has seen a significant increase in the demand for professional lighting, sound and staging equipment during 2003 and is currently working on installations in schools, event management for music and drama festivals, and on conferences in South Africa.
The Hire and Live Events department was recently responsible for the creative design and technical management of seven major events over three weeks. One of these included a 1920s themed event for a 60th birthday celebration. "Centred around the art deco period, this was a great event to work on," commented technical director Mike Naish. "Our team was involved from the very start of the planning stages. We designed the invitations, set, lighting and staging and organized the marquee, entertainment and table plans for the evening. Four members of our team were on site for the set build, with an extra six taking part on the night to control lighting and sound."
Event management and design is becoming big business for Stagecraft, which has resulted in greater need for hire equipment. The expansion of this department includes new Robert Juliat followspots, Selecon luminaires, Shure radio mics and a new range of Zero 88 lighting desks. Paul Harte, manager of the Hire Department, is delighted with the growth achieved since he joined Stagecraft in 2003. "It's important that we have consistency between each of the departments so
UK - At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Philips has launched its first full range of flat screen TVs to include NXT's patented SurfaceSound technology. The new Matchline range includes 32", 37" and 42" LCD and 50" plasma FlatTV models, all with built in NXT Distributed Mode Loudspeakers (DML). Disguised into the frame of the FlatTV models, the DML panels dispense with the need for speaker grilles and help Philips realise a design that matches consumers' increasingly high demand for products that blend in with designed environments.
The high definition television units also feature Philips' Ambilight technology, an advanced lighting system that provides emotive environment lighting and enhanced picture quality, and PixelPlus 2 technology, which creates sharper, more detailed pictures with a greater impression of depth, say Philips.
Commenting on the launch, David Pearson, NXT's CEO said: "This launch, on the back of exciting announcements from KEF, Pioneer and NEC, provides further evidence of the wide take-up of NXT technology across a range of applications."
(Lee Baldock)
UK - Metropolis AV & FX has designed, manufactured and installed a spectacular new curved LED screen at the Rotunda entertainment and leisure complex in Kingston-on-Thames, Surrey. The 1m high by 12.9m wide 25mm pixel pitch screen is completely bespoke, and is among the first curved LED screens in the UK.
It was commissioned by property developer LMS, operator of the Rotunda, for use as an advertising space for the facilities and businesses operating within the venue - including restaurants, cinema, health and sports clubs - and a message board highlighting promotions and special offers. Metropolis's product manager was Nick Ford who oversaw the entire operation.
The screen is mounted 3.5m above ground on stainless steel cabinets, offering full weatherproofing and robust build quality. The screen is in action from early morning till last thing at night, when the Rotunda closes, showing a highly visible series of advertisements and messages.
The primary technical design challenge was in creating the cabinets that would run around the radius. The screen itself is composed from 200mm flat circuit boards, manufactured for Metropolis by Met 3, Metropolis's new speciality LED screen and lighting company. Each column of circuit board creates a facet of the curve, resulting in a very fluid looking curved shape. As well as the 6500 NIT intensity, Metropolis has designed several other neat features into the screen, including an automatic brightness control which allows it to adjust to the natural lighting conditions.
Metropolis developed their own PC-based control s
UK - A giant portrait LED screen supplied by CT Screenco enabled audiences on Eddie Izzard's Sexie tour to see a macro image of the performer as a giant stage backdrop. CT Screenco have worked with Izzard on a couple of one-off performances, including the comedy event We Know Where You Live - Live, which Eddie conceived and directed for Amnesty International.
The huge portrait screen proved so successful that the Amnesty live show producer and Eddie's tour manager and promoter, Mick Perrin, wanted to repeat the concept on the artist's Sexie world tour - and CT Screenco was tasked with creating a touring version of the one-off display that had been seen at Wembley.
This time, the 25mm LED display was designed to be scalable from 72sq.m down to 42sq.m at the smallest venues, and form the centrepiece of a five-screen display. The large portrait display was flanked by four screens fed by Catalyst, the DMX-controlled digital media server, playing in graphics - but the main CT Screenco display carried exclusively live camera work. "Eddie is very much in charge of his own artistic direction and the concept from the beginning was for a single i-mag portrait screen - effectively presenting a 'large' Eddie looking down on the small, real-life one," said CT Screenco sales director, Mike Walker. He added that in its largest configuration, the 25mm portrait screen weighed just 3.6 tonnes - the lightest on the market. "When you have a screen that size, the resolution is less important than weight."
Since weight loading from the venue
Belgium / USA - Belgium-based Barco recently announced the acquisition of Folsom Research Inc, based in Sacramento, California. Folsom, which employs 75 associates, is a profitable company with product lines covering solutions for image processing, image communication and image functionality and interactivity. In these dedicated markets Folsom has a 30% share in the USA and 17% worldwide. As Barco has only had 4% market share in these segments until now, it is clear that this acquisition means a fast leap forward for Barco in providing total solutions beyond displays-only functionalities.
By far the largest part of Folsom's sales are realized in the Events (Rental and Staging) market, which makes it an ideal match for Barco, as today Barco already dominates two segments of this market with its LED displays and its large venue projectors. The acquisition of Folsom offers Barco the opportunity to become an important player also in the segment of solutions beyond displays, thus enabling further growth in the Events market. This is fully in line with the strategic goal of enlarging Barco's presence in each of the markets it is active in.
Since Folsom is also active in radar, presentation and simulation applications, this acquisition allows for fruitful synergies with other business units of Barco; at the same time this increases the total sales of Barco in North America, another of Barco's strategic goals, say the company.
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
UK - XL Video is supplying equipment to the award-winning Jerry Springer The Opera production, now enjoying a successful West End run at The Cambridge Theatre - so successful that the production has just extended its booking period by more than nine months, to 8 January 2005.
Video is a vital production element of the show, and equipment includes two of the new Catalyst V.3 digital media servers - specially purchased for the show along with a Jands Wholehog 500 DMX lighting desk. The show's video designer is Jon Driscoll with whom XL has also collaborated on Up For Grabs (starring Madonna) and the Madness musical Our House. XL's clients are JSTO Ltd for Blue Box Entertainment (Iain Gillie - production executive) and The Production Desk (Dan Watkins - production manager)
The XL equipment supplied also includes two flown NEC XT5000 DLP projectors, matrix routing, scan converters, all computer and video monitoring, USB hub switching, and over a kilometre of video control and power cabling needed for the install. To simulate the Jerry Springer studio set, nine Pioneer 40" plasma screens appear and re-appear during the production, flying in at high speed.
Jon Driscoll and his colleague Richard Overall oversaw the video installation, which was tailored to their requirements by XL's project manager Malcolm Mellows. The lengthy set up and tech rehearsal weeks saw several XL Video crew members working at The Cambridge, including John Edwards, John Shrimpton, Richie Jewell, Stuart Heaney and Matt Gourd.
This fully-staged production of JSTO wa
UK - Lighting designer Bryan Leitch and video designer Nick Whitehouse have created an innovative visual mix for Feeder's latest European tour, utilizing six RADlite digital media server systems - the most RADlites toured together to date. The RADlites were supplied by rental company Siyan - the first UK company to invest in this then new technology, back in 2001. Siyan now owns eight RADlites and Leitch and Whitehouse pioneered its use on the epic Coldplay tour that ended earlier this year.
The Coldplay tour was instrumental in boosting general interest in the technology: Whitehouse wanted to use RADlite again on Feeder, and was brimming with ideas about what could be achieved by running the video in this configuration. The Feeder show was heavily video-based - a medium they have always enthusiastically embraced. Whitehouse operated the RADlite servers using a Avolites Diamond 4 Elite, allowing video clips and camera feeds to be run in a similar fashion to moving lights. All other lighting onstage is run by Leitch using an Avolites Sapphire.
One RADlite, running PixelDrive software, was dedicated to controlling 18 James Thomas Pixelline 1044 battens. The Pixellines were used for the overhead stage washes - another touring first. The stage featured three different visual projection surfaces - an upstage 50ft by 10ft widescreen; a front gauze that was 'in' for the first song, and a large rear projection surface, created by opening and closing curtains. The whole stage aesthetic was 'draped and theatrical', concealing rather than revealing the equipment, and ther
France - Large format projection specialists E//T//C Audiovisuel supplied 16 PIGI 6kW DDRA Xenon projectors and two Pigi'S 700 projectors to the 2003 Fête des Lumières (Festival of Lights) from 5-8 December in Lyons. Equipment from Paris-based E//T//C, pioneers of large format scrolling projection equipment and techniques, was used in three sites across the city during its famous four-day lighting festival.
The popular Fête des Lumières - a rich fusion of light, colour and architecture - has been taking place for over 150 years, and this year's theme was 'Light in motion: dynamic light, interactive light'. Staged in Lyon's imposing central square, the Place des Terreaux, Skertzò (renowned for their work with light and projections) created the 'Zone d'ombres' (Theatre of shadows) show. This centrepiece show of the festival used 16 PIGI DDRA (automatic rotating double scroller) projectors and four live mime artists, performing to a specially composed soundtrack by Patrick Abrial.
The live performers were positioned on platforms in front of specific projectors, creating shadows and interacting with the projections being beamed onto the building fascias. Projections were aimed at three surfaces surrounding the Place des Terreaux. The main horizontal surface was the 120m long by 25m high building of the Musée des Beaux Arts, and the two side surfaces were 50m long by 25m high.
Many months of meticulous research went into compiling and designing the artwork by creators Hélène Richard and Jean-Michel Quesne, who as Skertzò are one of France's best known light