UK - The Association of Lighting Design (ALD) Awards for Excellence 2020 will launch imminently, “to offer an exciting, additional focus for students”, says the organisation. The awards enable young designers to showcase their talents, bringing their work to the attention of experienced production professionals and the industry as a whole. Awards are presented to those who demonstrate strong lighting or video designs or skills in production electrics. Categories include The Michael Northen Award for lighting design, The Fred Foster Award for Production Electrics (sponsored by ETC) and the Blue-I Media Award for Video design. Johanna Town, chair of the ALD, comments: “The ALD Awards for Excellence provides an important platform for students on which they can hone their abilities to communicate their chosen medium. To be able to sell ideas and passions for a
South Africa - Ayrton has announced Bespoke Entertainment Solutions as its new exclusive distributor for South Africa with immediate effect. Based in Randburg, Johannesburg, Bespoke will distribute the full range of Ayrton products across the installation and rental markets, with a core focus on key products that best suit the South African market. “Having recently taken on several installations and new technical personnel on a full-time basis, the door was opened to us for other opportunities, including becoming the distributor for Ayrton in South Africa,” comments Bespoke Entertainment Solutions’ technical director, Suren Lutchman. “With my experience mainly in sales, support and design of intelligent lighting solutions for the entertainment industry, I have always wanted to offer this service as well. Because the market within South Africa is very competit
World - An app designed to serve as a pocketable all-in-one toolbox for the events industry has been released. Toolbox, developed by UK lighting, rigging and previsualisation services company ETS, combines over 20 virtual tools, converters and guides in a single app. Designed to make it easier for lighting, audio, and video technicians to get on with their daily tasks, Toolbox includes DMX, power, weight/length and currency converters; vehicle, wiring and knot guides; information for over 2,600 pieces of equipment; filter and gobo libraries; beam and patch calculators; a decibel meter, and more. The app is currently only available for iOS devices through the App Store (£9.99 for a lifetime licence) but ETS is working on an Android version, to be released by September.
UK/France - Showlight 2021, scheduled to take place May 2021 in Fontainebleau, France, has been postponed until further notice due to the on-going COVID-19 pandemic. First held in 1981 at London’s Barbican Centre and usually taking place every four years, the enduringly popular lighting event is renowned for its industry-leading programme of papers presented by the great and good of the lighting industry, along with its often unique setting and many networking opportunities. A statement from Showlight reads: “This has been an extremely difficult decision, which has been made in view of both the immediate effects and anticipated recovery period that will be needed by companies and individuals across the industry in the coming months. “The state of the lighting industry, the probable extension of restrictions on gatherings and the effect that this is having on the
USA - Serving people in a time of crisis is nothing new for Kaiser Permanente. The giant not-for-profit healthcare consortium began life in 1933, during the Great Depression, when a young physician, Sidney R. Garfield, opened a 12-bed hospital in the middle of California’s Mojave Desert to care for itinerant workers at the Colorado River Aqueduct. Although much larger today (it has over 12m members), the nationally renowned institution remains deeply rooted in its community, as evidenced by its all-out effort to provide care during the current pandemic. Kaiser Permanente’s gratitude to the dedicated healthcare professionals who make this extraordinary level of service possible is plain to see on many of its Los Angeles area facilities. There on the exterior walls, in bold and colourful light is a declaration thanking the ‘Health Care Heroes’ who are leading the
USA - ESTA reports that two standards have been revised, and are being offered for public review. BSR E1.6 - 1 - 202x, Powered Rigging Systems has been revised to correct errata in section 6.6, which addresses design factors for certain system elements. The public review only covers the revisions made in that section, and no comments regarding other sections are being solicited at this time. BSR E1.39 - 202x, Entertainment Technology - Selection and Use of Personal Fall Arrest Systems on Portable Structures Used in the Entertainment Industry, is a revision of ANSI E1.39-2015, which is being updated for consistency with current industry practice and technologies. This standard establishes minimum requirements for the selection and use of personal fall arrest systems (PFAS) on portable structures in the entertainment industry. In addition, the standard esta
USA - Professional camera and lighting rental companies have come together to collaborate in creating guidance documents for safely resuming rentals to the film/television/commercial production community in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The task group was assembled by the Production Equipment Rental Group (part of entertainment trade association ESTA). The objective is to provide a unified set of industry-wide guidelines that address health and safety challenges related to the rental of production equipment and ensure that any risks to production companies, studios, and customers are minimised. The task group is working with other industry groups to ensure that PERG’s recommendations address client needs and concerns and harmonize with safety protocols developed by the studios and others, while also adhering to the recommendations of the CDC, OSHA, and state and
France - Mass Hysteria shook the port city of Nantes two years ago, when they performed a show for the 10th anniversary of the Elvish. The metal icons selected this show for their 8 April 8 stream. Throwing fuel on the flames of Mass Hysteria’s sound was a relentless Romain Dronne designed lightshow powered by a ChamSys MagicQ MQ80 with an Extra Wing. Part of the Chirac Design team, Dronne turned up the brightness of his rig at key points throughout the show, transforming the relatively tight confines of Club Le Ferraileur into a ball of light. The close-in setting of the club made the show well-suited for streaming, since many fans would be watching on mobile phones with their relatively small screens. However, beyond this “technical” consideration, the size of the venue also reinforced the close relationship that the band has with their fans according t
USA - Dance Studio Vol. 1 is the latest addition to the nightlife scene in Chicago’s River North neighbourhood. Filling the ceiling above its dance floor are 470 ADJ mirror balls, both static and kinetic, that mix with Elation Professional DARTZ 360 and Fuze Wash Z120 moving heads for a lightshow with a difference. The new nightclub and event space, a renovation of a previous club that closed in early 2019, is a 350-capacity venue that hosts live music, DJs and other entertainment. Chicago-based AV design and integration company Craft Lighting was tasked with designing, installing and commissioning the space and came up with an immersive and nostalgic yet distinctly modern concept that goes beyond the nightclub’s second-floor dance area to include the outer alley, hallway, and stairwell. Noah Craft, owner and lead designer at Craft Lighting, explains the Elation fi
Europe - Spanish AV equipment manufacturer Equipson has appointed Netherlands-based Tau Audio Solutions as its audio distributor in Benelux, with responsibility for its entire range of Work Pro products. For more than 20 years, TAU Audio Solutions has been a wholesaler and distributor of audio and communications systems. The company handles a variety of commercial and professional audio products including induction/hearing loops, microphone systems, voice alarm systems, rack and accessories. As well as selling products, Tau also provides advice and training to customers from its extensive showroom facilities in Groningen. As Equipson's Benelux distributor, Tau will be responsible for handling the company's entire range of Work Pro audio products which include loudspeakers, amplifiers, mixers, microphones and control systems, as well as an extensive range of audio acce
USA - Apollo Design Technology, the manufacturer of gobos, colour filters and lights, has announced the appointments of Connor Digan and Aaron Prins to sister company, AVID Labs. Connor Digan is named a project manager for AVID. Digan graduated from Bishop Dwenger High School in Fort Wayne, and Purdue University in West Lafayette with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering Technology. Joel Nichols, chief innovation officer for Apollo Design and AVID, shares, "It has been great to bring on Connor. He has done a great job of ramping up, leading the AVID team and taking project management to the next level." Aaron Prins now serves as mechanical engineer for AVID. Aaron graduated from Rose-Hulman with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 2019 with a concentration in Aerospace. Aaron did an internship at Precision Aerospace Corp last summer. "We’re excited to have A
Europe - MA Lighting has highlighted its free educational web tools as it aims to help its users cope with the downtime during the coronavirus crisis “in the best possible way”. MA Tips videos provide new grandMA3 knowledge every week. MA Lighting‘s own free of cost E-learning platform is a powerful tool when entering the world of MA training. The grandMA3 software is the soul of the grandMA3 platform and is designed to accommodate the current and future needs of lighting control. Users can download and test it for free. For those who wish to connect with fellow MA users, the MA Forum is the place where they can ask questions about grandMA3 and dot2 and exchange views with other users about all kinds of MA topics. MA has compiled a list of its free resources here:
UK - Television and event lighting company JLLighting worked alongside Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to provide ‘the biggest #Clapforourcarers thank you yet’. Using 40,000 watts of projections, JLL projected messages of thanks across the Children's Hospital and West wing façade, this thanks also extends to the teams at OUH and Oxford University working on multiple trials for COVID-19 vaccines.
UK - In a collective action on 19 April, over 50 lighting and laser companies joined UK lighting rental company Clearsound Productions to shine lights in the sky, united by the hashtag #ourshininglight. The campaign was initiated a few weeks ago when Clearsound’s Steven Haynes and Dan Ridd fired up eight Robe MegaPointes on the roof of their warehouse in Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire, and got the town - and their social media feeds - buzzing. The duo were in turn inspired by the weekly national Thursday night Clap for Carers action taking place across the UK. That first installation had such a great reaction that two weeks later, Steven and Dan deployed two MegaPointes each in five locations - the gardens of Clearsound employees - around Shipston shooting beams all around the town again in support of essential workers. For this latest #ourshininglight
UK - Acting & Theatre Production students at London’s prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) rigged a dynamic scene change using an Electro Kabuki drop in a recent performance of Oscar’s Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest. The play calls for a scene change between Act 1, based in the Piccadilly rooms of character Algernon Moncrief and Act 2, set in the garden of the Manor House in Woolton belonging to character Jack Worthing (aka. Earnest). In this lively and engaging production, the creative team came up with a novel idea to mark the transition. With Electro Kabuki dropper modules rigged to the grid high above the production in a cargo net configuration, several hundred flower heads were dropped to the stage, bang on cue with accompanying sound effects, as the actor playing Miss Prism took her seat at the garden table. Marked by appreci
UK - Music Support has launched weekly online support group meetings to allow the music industry’s 12 Step recovery community to continue to connect during the Covid-19 lockdown. Meetings will take place every Monday 18:00-19:00 GMT from 27 April to 28 September 2020. Available to any music industry peers throughout the summer, Music Support will provide a confidential and non-judgemental space for people to share and encourage one another on the journey of recovery. Music Support Services Officer, Joanne Croxford, states: “It might be that someone is in need of a secure virtual space to share their experiences, while others may want to take part in these meetings simply by listening in and feeling accepted and connected during isolation. Music Support will offer strength and hope as we all na
UK - When Projects Department Ltd won the contract to create two live studios and two breaking news spots for the Financial Times TV studio in London, Doughty Engineering was quickly brought on board to supply a range of broadcast kit. Peter Daffarn, managing director, Projects Department Ltd explains: "The client briefed us to create the studios and news spots for presenting live news bulletins at short notice and for occasional use and, with Doughty being our go-to company for hoists and grids, we knew they'd be fundamental to the project from the start." Building a bulletin studio meant that Projects Department Ltd had a smaller than usual space to work with, therefore the design and build needed to be imaginative. The studios were required to be integrated into a working office space and, with a number of high-profile guests visiting, the client wanted it to be aes
UK - Satore Studio has appointed Zillah Watson as Director of Content and Executive Producer. She will lead Satore’s development of virtual production and experiential content, as the company enters an ambitious new phase of growth. Watson was Commissioning Editor for Virtual Reality at the BBC and headed up the BBC’s VR studio. She was executive producer of a number of award-winning VR experiences and led a project to push VR out to over 170 public libraries around the UK, resulting in the most comprehensive VR audience research in the UK to date. Satore Studio combines design and technology to bring bold, beautiful concepts to life, delivering truly memorable virtual experiences from runways, stages and sets to audiences worldwide. The studio is led by creative director Tupac Martir. Discussing Watson’s appointment, Martir said: “I am incredibly excite
USA - On Tuesday evening, Verge Aero, the leader in high performance drone light shows, delivered a unique aerial tribute to medical staff and essential workers on the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic. The display of gratitude took place opposite the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and The Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania as part of the global #LightItBlue and local #PhillyShinesBlue campaigns, not far from Verge Aero’s Pennovation Works offices at the University of Pennsylvania. The aerial light show was launched from Philadelphia’s Franklin Field football stadium, adjacent to the hospital complex. 140 extremely bright drones configured themselves into giant images up to 400ft above the ground, making themselves visible throughout the University of Pennsylvania campus and medical centre as well as far away across the Schuylkill River in downtow
USA - NanoLumens has announced a series of product upgrades to their outdoor Performance Series line of LED displays. The upgrades to the Performance Series bring customers’ creative freedoms with the outdoor product more in line with what they’d enjoy designing a NanoLumens indoor product, says the company. Announced upgrades include the addition of two new pixel pitches, at 3.1mm and 3.9mm, to complement the product line’s broad existing range of pitches, which currently extends from 3.1mm to 10.0mm. Another major change to the product line is the shift from using steel cabinets to smaller cast cabinets that measure 500mm by 500mm. These smaller cast cabinets grant greater design freedom with regard to display size and shape while allowing seamless alignment for the new smaller pixel pitches. The new cabinets also improve the display’s heat dissipation
Belgium - Looking for an alternative venue to the norm, a young couple in West Flanders held their wedding reception at Transfo Zweegem, a former power plant that was built in 1911. With its matrix of crisscrossing steel girders and beams, boilers, tanks and generator housings, the venue’s long narrow main hall resonates with echoes of a distant industrial past. Accenting the evocative power of this setting, while complementing it with a stylish 21st century touch, was a vividly coloured lighting arrangement by Présence that featured over 40 Chauvet Professional fixtures supplied by Solico Events & Expo Technics. The warm amber, and purple-blue light form these fixtures endowed the room with an inviting sense of intimacy without detracting from the stark, intense effect of its industrial nature. “We definitely liked the industrial atmosphere,” said Isabel D
USA - Following the success of ADJ’s first run of Stay Connected educational live video broadcasts, the company has announced that more have been planned. Covering a wide variety of lighting-related topics, and including panel sessions with industry leaders, the next wave of broadcasts will take place twice each week throughout May and into June. Each new instalment of Stay Connected will have a particular focus and provide an opportunity for lighting and event professionals to upskill from the safety and comfort of their own homes or offices. Some will take a deep dive into a specific piece of software or technology, while others will cover a more general topic. All the sessions are designed “to teach, equip and inspire”. Broadcast via Facebook Live, the videos will also feature interactive elements allowing viewers to ask questions directly to the
Europe - During these challenging times, Christie continues to support its partners and customers in many ways, including the provision of online courses through Christie University, many of which are open to anyone with an interest in the technology, and free. “Need to sharpen your understanding of processing with products such as Spyder, or hone your skills in content management or switching and distribution with products like Pandoras Box and Terra SDVoE technology? Sign up for one of our webinars for Pandoras Box or Christie Terra and Christie Spyder,” says Christie.
USA - Australian alternative dance trio Rüfüs Du Sol,have been steadily building their reputation over the past decade. Masterminding the lighting on their tours since 2014 - respectively in support of the albums Atlas, Bloom, Solace, and now Live From Joshua Tree - has been Matthew Smith from Melbourne-based Colourblind. As part of the Solace album tour, the band had appeared at CRSSD Festival in San Diego’s Waterfront Park at the beginning of March. “We redesigned the show to give it new life for the second half of the album cycle, deciding to replace the 24 GLP impression X4 Bar 20’s with more [GLP] JDC1’s,” explained Colourblind director, Matthew Smith, who was responsible for carrying out the redesign. In fact the production is now using 38 of the JDC1’s in total, run in SPix mode 3 (68-channels) - seven upstage beh
