UK - The Mayor of London's New Year 2012 celebrations started with a bang thanks to a spectacular pyrotechnic and light show produced by creative events experts, Jack Morton Worldwide. As in previous years, this show featured VariLite VL3500WashFX fixtures in each of the capsules on the London Eye, together with Syncrolite and Clay Paky Alpha Beam fixtures.
Technical event specialists Stage Electrics who have successfully been supplying all the lighting for this landmark event for 10 years proposed the use of Zero Wire CRMX product from Cooper Controls to lighting designer Durham Marenghi as the solution to enable wireless control of each of the 32 pods fitted to the London Eye. Zero Wire CRMX was first launched at PLASA in 2011 and features the CRMX wireless DMX technology designed by LumenRadio.
Stage Electrics approached Cooper Controls together with LumenRadio at PLASA to perform a site field trial and prove the technology needed to feed DMX data to the pods during the event. The site is a particular challenge because of the short load-in time and lack of access for maintenance and feedback once the show is running, so the Zero Wire CRMX units were perfect to provide hassle free installation and single button configuration.
Stage Electrics' head of technical & hire, Adrian Searle, commented, "It was great to be able to put in the Cooper Controls system this year - in previous years we've needed wireless specialists on site to ensure the configuration was correct, but with the CRMX system, it was just a case of powering up and the system was ready to go."
Following field trials on site, Stage Electrics purchased 38 Zero Wire CRMX units (with upgraded 5dB antennas) for rental stock, adding to the already sizable rental inventory of these units available across Europe. The units were immediately shipped to site for the London Eye New Year's Celebrations and put to use transmitting four universes of DMX data to the 32 VL3500WashFX fixtures.
Cooper Controls' product manager, Peter Kirkup, added , "This show is testament to the power and flexibility of our ZeroWire CRMX product line, and I am really pleased to see Stage Electrics making an investment into these products for their general rental stock."
