Coe-tech Ltd. has supplied no less than 53 Studio Due Mini City and 24 Coemar Panorama Cyc 1800s to Light & Sound Design in Birmingham for immediate general hire and for use on LSD's own major architectural projects. The first of these will be for the Rugby World Cup Semi-Finals at Twickenham followed by the Final itself at the new Cardiff Millennium Stadium.
New Zealand-based luminaire manufacturer Selecon has released the latest CD-ROM version of its product catalogue. The CD-ROM includes full details of the company's architectural and entertainment fixtures, as a well as a virtual test lab which allows the user to try the fixtures, a lux calculator, DXF files to download, cut sheets ready to print out and details of the company's distribution network.
The three original venues of the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) in Brisbane, have undergone an extensive lighting overhaul. The 2,000-seat Lyric Theatre, the 2000-seat Concert Hall and the 320-seat Cremorne Theatre opened in 1985 and, together with the 850-seat Optus Playhouse, now form the largest installation of ETC lighting and control systems in Australia. The Cremorne uses one of two Express 250 consoles purchased for QPAC's two new rehearsal studios, but will inherit an Obsession II from the Lyric when it is replaced by an Obsession II 1500. The Concert Hall uses two Express 72/144 desks, while the 850-seat Optus Playhouse boasts an Obsession II 1500 channel desk with full tracking back-up, as well as the largest installation of ETC Source Fours in Australia, with 457 Source Fours and 20 Source Four Pars.
Pulsar have announced that the range of training seminars on offer for the year 2000 has been extended, in a continuation of their Training for Excellence programme. The training will encompass all aspects of Masterpiece operating and programming and technical services for the Clay Paky product range. Pulsar will also offer a series of open days which can be tailor made to suit the requirements of colleges, installation companies and corporate users.
Rosco has announced that it can now supply custom metal gobo designs in any size up to A, inclusive of tooling and the first gobo, for around 40% less than was previously possible. The development has been enabled by Rosco's investment in a purpose-built manufacturing facility.
Mark Hayes, formerly with Cronshaw Warren, has joined the Coe-tech Group as operations manager. He will be responsible for managing all of the service departments for the Group's products, and instrumental in overseeing the installation of a new computerised system that will enable the Coe-tech Group to implement New Service Procedures ready for the new millennium. The company are also looking towards opening a new Northern Service Centre and will be starting an out-of-hours Service Help Line in addition to a technical support web site.
Installation of some 250 Selecon luminaires has begun at the Tallinn City Theatre in Estonia bringing to life the performance venues in this complex of fifteenth-century buildings which house eight different stages. The Hell Stage, opened in November 1997 and acknowledged as the most unusual stage in the Tallinn City Theatre, was the first performance site to benefit from the choice of Selecon fittings. Originally planned as an understage, this vast irregular-shaped hall lies six metres underground, hence the name. Aboveground, is the Heaven Stage which is due to open in December.
Roscolab Ltd has announced a restructuring of its European Sales and Marketing divisions. The changes include the development of its specialist sales team, the launch of a new Customer Service Department and expansion of the Marketing Department. Gordon Tomkins, who has extensive sales and account management experience, has been promoted to sales manager for the UK & Scandinavia and a new Customer Service Department has also been developed, headed by Kirsten Smith. Another newcomer to Rosco is Duncan Smith, who joins Joanna Shapley and Denise Piguet in the marketing department as marketing projects manager.
The Entertainment Laser Association (ELA) has begun a major programme of research and development on the safety of audience scanning techniques. The work will cost around £15,000 to complete of which half will come from the Health and Safety Executive who are co-funding the programme. It will be managed and co-ordinated by Paul Tozer of Lasermet who will work in conjunction with other companies from the ELA and will report to Steve Walker, the HSE project manager. The project is the first research work ever undertaken by the UK laser display industry, on the laser display industry and at the behest of the laser display industry. The research will cover Measurement of typical emission levels; Examination of the regularity of laser pulse hits in audience members; Accurate measurement of typical beam divergences out of scanning systems and Evaluation of maximum scanning speeds and scan
ETC's Australian distributor, Jands Electronics, has announced that the Queensland Art Gallery has replaced its total architectural lighting control system with ETC's new Unison system, controlling 26 racks of HP6 wall-mount dimmers. The system was sold through the Production Shop, and installed by O'Donnell Griffin. Lighting levels are critical in the gallery, especially where photographs and works on paper are concerned, as levels above 50 lux can be damaging. The new Unison system ensures that lighting levels meet the correct conservation standards in all the Gallery's exhibition spaces. The control rack houses a central processor with battery back-up memory for storage, and a floppy disk drive. The rack provides network connection to wall stations, PCs for on-line control, and other Unison racks with output via a single DMX512 data system. A DMX512 input is also provided with powerfu
London-based Lighting Technology Projects were the specialist lighting supplier and installer for the Olympic Spirit Sports Museum, a recently-opened themed attraction in Munich, Germany. The attraction has a dedicated area for each of 33 Olympic sports. A distributed DMX control network was installed, with the dimmers for each area located within the sport experience zone. The majority of the zones also included complex audio-visual displays that interfaced with the lighting.A GrandMaster Flash PC-based system from Artistic Licence was selected for control, as it enables each zone to be treated as an individual light show, while also allowing overall control when required, such as special events, for example. Specially-manufactured three-circuit lighting track recessed into 48mm diameter tubes were used around all of the zones to allow flexibility in the positioning of the luminaires fo
Richard Martin Lighting (RML) has recently added a further 48 Clay Paky Stage Zoom 1200s to its hire stock, taking the total Stage Zoom stock to 60. The company's inventory also includes Clay Paky's Golden Scans, Mini Scans and a variety of Stage Line 300s. RML now hold over 300 Clay Paky fixtures - the largest stock of Clay Paky moving lights in the UK.The Stage Zooms are currently starring on Later With Jools Holland, Top of the Pops, Star for a Night, Casting Couch and Des O'Connor Tonight.
Graham Thomas has now joined Artistic Licence as sales director based at the company's new regional office in Leeds. As the former European product manager for Color Kinetics while at Lighting Technology, he has an intimate knowledge of the new LED-based products developed by Artistic Licence.
The European Music Awards were recorded on the evening of 11th November in Dublin.The lighting for the show was designed by the man who has become Mr music TV, particularly for the special gala event, Alex Gurdon. His rig comprised Icons, Studio Colours, Pars Lycian spots, Source 4 profiles and Terra Strobes, sourced from Light & Sound Design.
As part of its ramp up of European Operations, High End Systems has announced the following appointments: Grif Palmer, vice-president of sales, has now assumed additional responsibilities for High End's European Operations and London office. David Catterall, former sales and marketing manager of Flying Pig Systems Ltd will now be responsible for both High End Systems and Flying Pig products throughout Europe, whilst David March, former operations manager for Vari-Lite UK, has been named European operations manager and will also be based in London. Claas Ernst, former business development manager for Eastern Europe, has been appointed regional sales manager for Central Europe and continues to be based in Munich, Germany.High End is now looking in the greater London area for offices to house both Flying Pig Systems and High End Systems personnel, as well as future training and demonstratio
Rosco has produced a lighting Master Class video which offers both inspiration and practical information for lighting practitioners in the theatre, film, TV or architectural fields.The Designing with Gobos Master Class video is hosted by Tony Award-winninglighting designer Neil Peter Jampolis and provides designers with a range of creative ideas.
Clay Paky and Pulsar co-sponsored the first ever Ministry Magazine Anual Awards, hosted at the Brixton Academy in London in early November. Presented by Richard Blackwood, along with Boy George, Melanie Sykes, Tim Vincent and special guests, the event attracted 2,500 clubbers and music fans. Lighitng naturally played its part, with 12 Clay Paky Stage Scans at the front of the rig providing most of the action – colour washes and gobo effects - during the ceremony, as well as for live performances by ATB and Hybrid. The show was programmed by LD Tony Fagin, and the equipment was supplied by The Spot Co.
Industry veteran Paul Sonnleitner has joined High End Systems as Director of Special Projects - East Coast, to be based in the new East Coast sales, support and training facility opening early next year in New York City. Sonnleitner is a well-respected lighting programmer who entered the lighting industry as a technician on the touring production of Sesame Street in the early 90s. In 1995 he moved to New York and debuted on Broadway working with Paul Gallo on Big, programming the Wholehog II. He has since worked on countless Broadway shows including Titanic, Civil War, Scarlet Pimpernel, and others. He also has gained significant exposure lighting mammoth corporate displays at events including Comdex and E3.
In another important announcement, automated lighting manufacturer High End Systems is introducing a major upgrade to the its Cyberlight automated luminaire, which they claim will double the light output of the unit. The enhanced fixture will be known as the Cyberlight Turbo, and benefits from improvements in short arc source technology and High End's expertise in optical design have yielded substantial improvements in several areas. Photonic output has been dramatically increased - Cyberlight Turbo offers up to 100% increased light output with no increase in power consumption. Additionally, a new twin achromatic lens system results in an improved focus quality.
High End Systems has launched a new automated luminaire - the Studio Beam - which adds a third type of automated light, the Pebble Convex automated fixture, to the designer's tool kit. The Pebble Convex (PC) optical train produces a unique quality of light, distinct from a fresnel wash or ellipsoidal spot. Variable soft-edge and extremely high output blending distribution, coupled with a large zoom range and intense beam shaping give the Studio Beam PC a unique niche in lighting design and application. Using a new short-arc lamp and a patented combination elliptical/spherical reflector and aspheric lens system, the Studio Beam PC produces output levels one would previously only expect from much larger units.With its wide zoom range, intense output and compact size, Studio Beam PC is ideal for soft-edge key and long-throw highlighting, as well as providing aerial effects. Other features i
Martin Professional luminaires have been making a big impact on the UK touring scene recently. Currently in the middle of a busy UK tour, Welsh band the Super Furry Animals are touring with a rig supplied by Prism Lighting. LD Nick Jevons spec'd 12 MAC 500s for the whole of the tour, along with six newly-acquired MAC 300 moving head luminaires for the closing dates, all controlled by an Avolites' Pearl desk.Rental company Eurolites supplied eight Martin MAC 500s for the recent UK tour by The Stranglers, and eight MAC 500s for Elkie Brooks, who tours through to April 2000 with lighting design by Ian Bintlift. Control for both the Stranglers and Elkie Brooks is again from an Avo' Pearl.
Boston-based digital lighting manufacturer Color Kinetics has served a cease and desist writ on UK company Artistic Licence. The order relates to Artistic's Colour-Fill LED technology which Color Kinetics believes is trade-dressed to look like its own line of digital colour-changing lights. The order, which is not related to patent infringement, was served on the first day of the LDI Show in Orlando.
Mike Lowe has confirmed that he is closing down Teatro srl after 12 years in the business. He has contacted all the company's distributors and is currently engaged in the process of selling off the company's stock at near cost price.The company was established in February 1987 when Bruno Dedoro of club lighting effects manufacturer Coemar was looking to develop a new range of products aimed specifically at theatre. Mike Lowe had recently resigned as managing director of Strand Lighting and so the two formed a partnership with Teatro taking up residence next door to the main Coemar HQ in Castel Goffredo. Over the years the company developed a complete range of professional theatre lighting, which began with the 1k Tratto and 2k Acuto and grew to embrace a full range of profiles, PCs, fresnels, floods, cyclorama, followspots, parlights, colour changers and accessories.
Vari-Lite unveiled its first-ever line of direct sales products at the recent LDI show in Orlando. The new products are the VL2400 series wash luminaire and the VL2201 spot luminaire, which will be available in the New Year. These products are aimed specifically at permanent installations, and focuses for the first time on entertainment venues - such as community arts venues, theatres, places of worship and theme parks - which were not served by the company's traditional rental-only operations.The VL2400 is based on the Emmy Award-winning VL5 family; the 2400 series will six configurations of the 2400 wash luminaire, each with either collimated beam or beam spreader options. Sources include 1200W and 1000W incandescent or 1200W and 625W arc versions. The compact and lightweight VL2201 meanwhile, is based on the VL6B spot luminaire, with 3:1 zoom optics, rotating gobos and a centre beam i
