Germany - Ray Technologies, a Laserworld company, has introduced their new RTI PIKO RGB 20 with a high precision diode module as a substitution for the OPSL green laser source. This change in technology for the green colour spectrum became possible due to new diode arrays that have been developed by RTI’s R&D in Valley, Germany. The homogenous beam profile of the PIKO RGB 20 even fits small 4mm scanner mirrors, which results in high scanner performance, as the inertia of the scanners is kept very low. The CT-6210H scanners can do 60kpps @ 8° and still do 35kpps at their maximum scan angle of 80°. Besides the small beam diameter, the RTI PIKO RGB 20 maintains a very low divergence of <1.0mrad, so the small beam diameter is not negatively impacting the divergence at all. The RTI PIKO RGB 20 laser systems are especially designed and tailored for high profession
New Zealand - The Fo Guang Shan North Island temple and community centre has undergone a complete refit of its audio systems by integration specialists, AV Expression, with new systems based around Community Professional loudspeakers. Fo Guang Shan North Island is a large temple and community centre of the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist movement. The largest Buddhist temple in the country, it is located in the city of Auckland, famous for its yachts, and known as the City of Sails. The temple and complex were built over seven years and opened in late 2007. The design of the Temple is adapted from the palatial design of the Tang Dynasty. With the original PA system deemed no longer fit for purpose, AV Expression was appointed to design and install new audio systems for both the temple and outdoor areas. The design was carried out in collaboration with Hills, Community’s distr
China - Driver Terry Grant recently repeated his Jaguar SUV F-PACE loop-the-loop stunt on a 19m ramp. This time, the setting was located on the famous sea front - the Bund in Shanghai. Grant’s first time performing this hazardous act was in Frankfurt, Germany, where he broke the Guinness World Record back in 2015. Both times, production company Imagination highlighted the event with SGM G-Spot moving heads, ensuring that the impressive spectacle was highlighted in a worthy and festive manner. Project manager Alex Qian from Imagination says: “The Chinese market is being flooded with cheap lighting fixtures. However, we wanted nothing less than the best of the best that could display the luxury car brand Jaguar the way it deserved to be. After a test of the G-Spot, there was no doubt: Delivering the strongest colours and being IP65-rated, the G-Spot was the optimum
UK - How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying was recently revived at London’s Wilton’s Music Hall and White Light supplied the equipment. How to Succeed tells the story of J. Pierrepont Finch who rises from lowly window washer to high-powered executive. The show is directed by Benji Sperring with a lighting design by the award-winning Nic Farman. Nic comments: “What’s great about working with Benji in particular is that he really allows me to make lighting become an integral part of the story telling. It was about creating caricature through the lighting and being brave with the design as we wanted to put our stamp on the show and make it appeal to a modern audience without losing the 60s era that the show is set in. “Similarly, Mike Lees, the set and costume designer, created a beautiful perspective set and furnished the ‘office’ w
Estonia - Robe DL7S Profile LED moving lights and PARFect 100 LED PARs have been specified and installed at the Estonian National Concert Hall (Eesti Kontsert), located in the heart of Tallinn and home to the Estonian National Orchestra (ENO). The impressive Neoclassical building is shared between the Estonian National Opera and the Ballet Theatre Estonia. The Concert Hall is run by the Eesti Foundation, together with five other high profile concert hall venues – in the Estonian cities of Tartu, Parnu and Jõhvi - and St Petersburg, Russia. The new lights were delivered by Tallinn based sales and installation company E&S, and were part of a much-needed technical upgrade that replace the previous lighting scheme which was fully ‘conventional’. “We don’t just do concerts” explained Eesti Foundation director Jüri Leiten, “Although they are very im
UK - Artistic Licence will be exhibiting at PLASA Focus Leeds next week (Stand N-B31). This year, the company is promoting two major areas of development – the Superhero Splitters, and the launch of its next generation ethernet gateway products, starting with artLynx quad. Artistic Licence has upgraded its popular DIN rail splitters, Rail-Split RDM II and Rail-Split extreme, to superhero status, by endowing them with special powers to withstand mains electrocution. Both products are now fitted with electrical protection on the input, loop and output connections. This enables them to survive electrocution by all international mains voltages, including UK 3-phase (that is, up to 415 VAC continuous connection). The connections are designed to be self-healing, so the product lives on to fight another day. Additionally, Rail-Split extreme now features surge protec
UK - PLASA Focus Leeds opens its doors next week, 9-10 May at Royal Armouries, hosting a wealth of product launches and the latest UK debuts. A range of innovative technology will be showcased including Cadac’s CDC seven - the newest addition to its CDC series digital console line; Martin Audio’s Wavefront Precision Series - a new generation of multi-purpose line arrays, Shure’s Axient Digital Wireless System; Robe’s LEDBeam 150; d&b audiotechnik’s 24S and 24S-D and 21S-SUB point source installation loudspeakers, not to mention Philips Vari-Lite’s new VL6000 Beam mid-air effects fixture; Nexo’s extraordinary GEO M10 mid-size line array; RCF’s HDL 6-A new mini line array and Chauvet’s Maverick MK3 Wash.
Cliff Dounting, UK General manager, CHAUVET Professional says: "We are especially excited to showcase the new Maverick MK3 Wash at PLASA Focus Leeds
Belgium - As part of Bright Brussels Festival, ACTLD (ACT Lighting Design) contributed with a very innovative art installation as a total immersion of light, sound and mist. Lighting-wise, the spectacle totally comprised by SGM LED fixtures. Mounted on a specially constructed trussing, forming a symmetrical matrix (35mx35m), 64 G-Spot moving heads played the leading role, strongly supported by Q-7 RGBW and Q-7 W flood/blind/strobes as well as P-5 and P-2 wash lights. Koert Vermeulen, principal designer at ACTLD chose to explore the urban space of their hometown and offered a brand new experience to the public in a highly unusual location; a 70 x 80 meter construction site. Senior lighting designer and console operator, Luc De Climmer, explained: “Minimalism, geometry and reflection are some of the words that can describe this installation, playing with the industri
UK - Considered by many to be one of the biggest Broadway musicals of all time, 42nd Street has now arrived in London where it has received rave reviews from audiences and critics alike. Starring Grammy Award winner Sheena Easton, this all singing, high-kicking spectacle is currently playing at Theatre Royal Drury Lane – London’s biggest stage. WL was called upon the provide the lights on this production. 42nd Street tells the story of young Peggy Sawyer who is fresh off the bus from small-town America and just another face in the chorus line on Broadway’s newest show. Yet when the leading lady gets injured, Peggy might just have the shot at stardom which she’s always dreamed off. The lighting design is by Olivier Award winner Peter Mumford. He comments: “Despite its iconic status, I have never lit nor indeed seen 42nd Street before. I’d say
Ireland - EPIC, The Irish Emigration Museum is Dublin’s newest museum, dedicated to one of the pivotal facets of Irish history: that of Irish emigration. In the appropriate location, the museum is situated in Dublin’s Docklands on the Custom House Quay, the departure point for many of Ireland’s emigrants in the 19th Century. Within the museum are twenty themed interactive galleries that take visitors on a journey through Irish history and, through interactive and immersive technology, connects all those who claim Irish connections and heritage with powerful experience. Amongst the myriad of rooms dedicated to the global influence of the Irish culture through migration is a space entitled Science & Innovation. Within this gallery, visitors are familiarised with those of Irish descent who have been key in the development of scientific and technology progress. As an i
USA - Heralded for its acoustics, which are said to rival those of La Scala in Milan, the Hungarian State Opera House has hosted many of the greatest artists from the orchestral and operatic worlds. Gustave Mahler called this building home as the opera’s director, as did Otto Klemperer. At no time in this Budapest landmark’s history, though, did it ever ring with sounds quite like those created in Rocktopia, a wildly original mash up of classical and classic rock music. After making its global debut last year at the opera house in a PBS broadcast, Rocktopia is now bringing its far-ranging musical mix to the US with a tour of mid-sized venues. Supporting this eclectic concert is a lightshow created by Michael Stiller of upLight. Stiller’s design remains true to the flavour of that PBS special, while still being portable and road friendly, thanks to some he
Italy - Amodio and Luzzati’s renowned production of ballet classic The Nutcracker made its debut at Teatro Comunale in Modena in November 2016, before touring to other key Italian cities for 10 weeks. It was produced by Daniele Cipriani Entertainment and lit by Marco Policastro using Robe DL4S Profiles and the new Spiider LED wash beams. This production – which had been originally staged by the company AterBalletto in the 1980s and 1990s – was again choreographed by Amedeo Amodio (then AterBalletto’s director) and featured eye-catching set designs by Oscar-nominated Italian designer, painter, animator and illustrator, Emanuele Luzzati. It was also acclaimed for its highly imaginative shadow work which featured prominently in this show. This was devised for the original production by the artists of the Teatro Gioco Vita. “Nothing has essentially
Europe - Philips Lighting has announced that VL6000 Beam and VL4000 BeamWash fixtures from its Philips Vari-Lite rock and roll lighting product line have been selected by production designer LeRoy Bennett and lighting designer Cory FitzGerald to add punch to Bruno Mars' 24K Magic world tour. "We chose the Philips Vari-Lite VL6000 Beam because there isn't a light out there like it," said Bennett. "It's a very raw Philips Platinum lamp, which delivers this really cool, large column of light. It's a texture that doesn't exist anywhere else, which makes the fixture really special. It's almost like having the old Vari-Lite VL4 on steroids! Not only that, the big, retro-style aperture fits in with the whole nineties feel of the show and keeps everything clean, bold and strong - the type of look that comes out well on a phone camera. Like a lot of young artists now, it's really imp
UK - GES has announced the appointment of Mike Phillipson as managing director of its Blitz|GES event production business with immediate effect. Phillipson will be part of the GES EMEA executive team, reporting to Jason Popp, EVP of international at GES. Phillipson is the former CEO of the creative communications agency group, Cogent Elliott and started his career working at global creative agencies Saatchi and Saatchi, Lowe and then JWT, before moving client-side to head up the marketing for the award-winning 24-hour bank, First Direct. With the addition of Phillipson, industry veteran Paul Hutton, who has been with the business since 1989 and previously served as managing director of Blitz|GES, is taking on a new role. Hutton will now focus on agency partner relationships which are key to the business and its customers. Popp commented, “I am delighted that Mi
UK - On stand N-E02 at PLASA Focus Leeds 2017, will be the award-winning Color Force II, Inspire and Space Force creative LED lighting solutions, as well as the new Color One 100X LED PAR. The latest Chroma-Q products share the same innovative, proprietary technologies, including fully homogenised beam output with no unsightly colour-mixing shadows, extremely smooth, uniform washing and theatrical grade dimming. Chroma-Q fixtures are convection cooled for quiet operation or fan cooled with selectable modes, for near quiet operation. All of these high output products feature Chroma-Q's premium build quality and calibrated light engines for superior unit-to-unit consistency. The new, multi award-winning Color Force II batten range utilises homogenised optics to provide a superior RGBA colour blend of high quality saturates and pastels – and a purer white – with no un
USA - The Boardwalk, a new development in a 90-acre multi-use commercial complex in Granite Park, Plano, Texas has added 29,000sq.ft of restaurant, patio, and office space, with dramatic decorative lighting featuring nearly 1,000ft of FloppyFlex LED neon. “FloppyFlex is a winner in our book; it’s extremely bright, versatile, and reliable,” says Jeff Mabray of Hossley Lighting. “We’re using the large dome, 4000 Kelvin white, with four distinct programs on an automated timeclock. The looks include center-out sweeps and streams, black-on-white effects, and more, all auto-selected randomly. The FloppyFlex was easy to install and is performing well.” Mabray continues, “This project was new construction with the lighting designed from the outset, making installation a little easier than with most retrofits. The terrific design is by Erin Moody of Studio e Light
UK - LED screen, drapes and special FX specialist S+H Technical Support supplied a full Pea-light starcloth wrap as specified by designer Patrick Doherty for the new Bigheads TV series, a Primal Media production for ITV, recorded in the George Lucas 2 studio at Elstree in Hertfordshire, UK. The show, presented by Jason Manford, follows in the footsteps of popular series Its A Knock Out, a slightly bonkers comedy games show first broadcast in 1966 which ran until the 1990s, and legendary puppet show, Spitting Image, known for its razor sharp wit and political satire. Patrick wanted a neat and interesting finish to the studio, so decided on the more modern application of a vintage starcloth effect. S+H “were brilliant” he comments. The Devon based company has supplied soft goods including starcloths, pea-light drapes and special FX for many
USA - Ultra is long established as a leading electronic music festival. The production that backs the performances is just as impressive with three of the festival’s classic stages - the Carl Cox Megastructure, Main Stage and Worldwide/Midpark Stage - hosting Elation lighting fixtures this year. The 2017 edition of the spring equinox music celebration ran from 24-26 March with over 165,000 revellers making their way to Bayfront Park in Miami. Both the popular Carl Cox Megastructure and Worldwide/Midpark Stage Stage featured Elation gear with production design by SJ Lighting and structure and production by AG Production Services. SJ Lighting owner Steve Lieberman created the lighting design for a festival which, now in its 19th year, seemingly ran like a well-oiled machine. “In my 18-year history of working on Ultra and 10+ years as LD for the Carl Cox Megastructu
USA - Eric Clapton is performing a limited series of concerts in New York, Los Angeles, London and Tokyo. The concerts represent a return to the stage for Clapton, who announced his retirement from touring over one year ago. Providing an appropriately evocative look for the opening show at Madison Square Garden on 19 March was an engaging light and video design by the artist’s long-time designer Dave Maxwell. A collection of 39 Chauvet Professional Nexus panels played a key role in bringing Maxwell’s vision to life. Like all the gear in the MSG rig, the Nexus panels were supplied by Upstaging, Inc. Maxwell flew the RGB panels on winding curves of truss over a 56’ wide by 12’ tall letterbox formation of 10mm video wall. The Nexus panels anchored the look on stage and unified the seven sections of video wall for the live audience and cameras. “We position
Europe - Green Hippo has confirmed its appointment as an official Technical Event Supplier for the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. This year’s show, to be held in Kiev next month, will see Green Hippo’s video playback equipment help deliver the 62nd contest to a TV audience of more than 200m. Green Hippo, Digigobos / Beacon Gobo Group, FIX8 Group and Trust Rental will supply 16 Hippotizer Media Servers, bringing the Hippotizer line’s renowned technical qualities - think pace, power, reliability, and real-time ease of use – to the Kiev set. This year’s agreement builds on Green Hippo’s flawless performance at Eurovision 2016, where the company’s Hippotizer Boreal and Karst Media Servers helped propel the Stockholm spectacular to a record 204m viewers. James Roth, head of sales & marketing for Green Hippo says, “As technical event supplier, worki
Germany - Ayrton celebrated its 15th anniversary at Prolight + Sound with new products, new staff and a PIPA Award in the Light FX category for its MagicBurst graphic LED strobe fixture. “To be given the PIPA 2017 Light FX Award for MagicBurst is very satisfying and a nice industry recognition of the continuation of Ayrton’s ingenuity and originality in product design,” says Ayrton’s new global sales director, Michael Althaus. “It tops what has been an excellent show for Ayrton where we experienced a really fantastic reception of our new products by the many visitors who came to check them out and see them in action in our light show.” The company also announced an expansion in its staff prior to the show with the addition of Michael Althaus as global sales director, Christopher Agius Ferrante as CEO, Simon Gasch as regional sales manager and Chunyan Hou a
UK - Since 2013, an array of country music’s biggest stars have been visiting the UK and Ireland as part of C2C: Country to Country, a festival of country music devised by AEG (The O2) and SJM Concerts in collaboration with the Country Music Association. The show began at The O2 in London, and has since added shows in Glasgow and Dublin, as well as visiting Scandinavia in 2015 and 2016. Show and lighting designer, Mike Oates and his partner Ryan Hopkins have worked with the festival since it began. For the 2017 festival at The O2 they created a sophisticated design featuring shaped video screens, curved trusses, and a bright versatile lighting package. Mike comments: “The design comes together after a series of meetings with Ross Hanley from SJM Concerts. Ross has ideas of what they would like to include in the design and look of the event, and we then go away and
UK - Bigger, bolder and brighter than ever, Series 9 of the cult classic Robot Warsbrought together 40 teams of amateur robot enthusiasts all ready to battle it out on the arena floor. Supporting lighting designer Gurdip Mahal and gaffer James Tinsley, Aurora once again deployed an eclectic range of equipment to help illuminate some of the show’s most intensely fought battles to date. Filmed in front of a live studio audience at the production’s custom built Glasgow home, the lighting rig featured over 200 automated heads, including Martin MAC Aura, GLP X4 XL plus Clay Paky Mythos, synched to deliver the intense colour and movement, highlighting the action taking place in the ring whilst also providing vibrant washes throughout the arena. Aurora also supplied a healthy number of products from their growing inventory of LED solutions, in particular, a c
Germany - Robert Juliat was present in classic style in the Lightpower Village at Prolight+Sound 2017 as it presented a line-up of its tungsten and discharge followspots - Lancelot, Merlin, Cyrano, Victor and Roxie - which formed a beautiful backdrop to herald the arrival of Robert Juliat’s two new LED followspots, the powerful 600W Oz and Alice. Long- and short-throw models respectively, Oz and Alice feature an exclusive 600W cool white LED source and are the first professional LED followspots able to deliver a high output comparable with that of 1200W discharge followspots. The dynamic pair share the same high-quality functions and characteristics offered by the Robert Juliat classic Compact range. Their compact dimensions and silent operation are coupled with the benefits of no heat, smooth electronic dimming - locally or remotely via DMX – and no lamp-change fo
