USA - Acuity Brands is introducing the newest Pathway Connectivity DMX-over-Ethernet product, the Pathport Quattro. This product provides real-time, interoperability solutions between sophisticated lighting control systems. A compact, four-port node, the Pathport Quattro product runs on Power-over-Ethernet, making it suitable for truss, desktop or wall mount installation, as well as 19" rack mounting. Recently acquired by the company, Pathway designs and manufactures electronics that enable lighting control systems to communicate with intelligent lighting fixtures and power devices, even when those products utilize different communications protocols.
Like other members of the Pathway Pathport family, the Quattro supports all standard DMX-over-Ethernet protocols, including E1.31 streaming ACN, Strand Shownet, Art-Net and Pathport Protocol. It also provides an E1.20 Remote De
USA - Italian lighting manufacturer LDR will celebrate the sale of its 1000th Canto followspot in the US market next week at the annual LDI tradeshow.
LDR introduced the Canto followspot to the US market thorough Ballantyne Strong in 2006. Five years on, and 1000 units later, the Canto followspot has set a new standard in the medium-throw followspot professional market, says the company.
"A special thanks goes to Paul Rabinovitz and John Luhrs from Ballantyne Strong and to all of the Strong team that has contributed to reaching this milestone " says LDR's co-founder Fabiano Besio. "With all the positive feedback from the US market, we are inspired to continue with further improvements to the existing models and to study new ideas for us to provide to our valuable customers new solution for their future lighting challenges."
USA - At AES in New York, Outline highlighted the GTO-DF, the newest member of the GTO (Grand Touring Outline) Series of line array speakers. First introduced at PLASA 2011, the GTO-DF is designed to provide exceptionally high-quality sound to the first several rows of the audience at an event, filling the sonic gap often experienced by event attendees who are seated near the stage.
"The GTO-DF rounds out the performance coverage of the highly regarded GTO line array speaker systems," says Tom Bensen, senior vice president and managing director of Outline North America. "In the past, the front several rows of the audience could be slightly off axis to the main FOH arrays, leading to an audible reduction in coverage, especially in the critical high-end frequencies that are responsible for intelligibility.
"The GTO-DF, with its bottom-mounted constant directi
USA - Following the popularity of ETC's iRFR application for Apple's iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, ETC has developed a similar application for Android devices - the aRFR. The aRFR offers the same functionality as the iRFR and at the same price.
The app allows users to turn any mobile device into a touchscreen-based remote controller for Eos- and Congo-family control desks, Eos and Ion Remote Processor Units (RPUs) and the Congo Light Server.
Any user can download the programme without factory hardware. Security controls provided in the app prevent unauthorised access to lighting control systems.
Like the iRFR, there are two versions of the aRFR: one that supports Light Relief (UK) and one that supports Behind the Scenes (US and Canada/The ESTA Foundation). Both organisations provide aid for entertainment-technology workers faced with difficulties like medical emergencies. All
USA - At AES 2011 in New York, Renkus-Heinz unveiled two major enhancements to its family of digital beam steering loudspeaker products.
The IC8R-II is "a major evolutionary update" to the Iconyx range, introducing significant performance improvement over its predecessor, the IC8R, combining a new Triple Tweeter High Frequency Array Coax with the equally new RHAON [Renkus-Heinz Audio Operations Network] v1.8 beam steering module.
The new Triple Tweeter design creates a continuous, close spaced high frequency line source that pushes the onset of gradient lobes out past 10Khz, while the new RHAON v1.8 beam steering module offers a host of new features to make setting up and commissioning Iconyx arrays faster and more consistent than ever, says the company.
Senior vice president, Ralph Heinz, comments, "This new Triple Tweeter configuration represents the pinnacl
USA - At LDI this month, Robert Juliat will be showing the 85W Aledin 330LF LED Wash fresnel, a complement to the company's award-winning Aledin 630SX LED Profile Framing Spot. "The popularity of the Aledin wash has grown quickly as good reports spread about TV studios, exhibition halls and theaters taking advantage of its many qualities," says Robert Juliat's Fred Lindauer.
"Customer feedback finds the Aledin wash to be a very powerful LED product which produces an even beam over a spread range of 17 - 96 degrees (field angle), and since it uses a true Fresnel lens, the beam can be efficiently masked with traditional barn doors. The dimming is very smooth with no 'stepping,' its strobe feature is useful for concert lighting and the choice of 3500K or 5800K color temperatures lend itself well to exhibition work. The result is a very versatile fixture that's provin
USA - In just the few weeks since PLASA, CAST has prepared two new demonstrations to be seen for the first time during LDI this monbth. Visitors will witness the 3D Cue Paths available in BlackTrax 3D, as well as a Beta version of wysiwyg R28.
BlackTrax 3D is a fully operational, fully integrated, fully realtime tracking system. Using a new proprietary LED-IR Beacon, which is worn or otherwise attached to an object or person, BlackTrax 3D uses special static motion capture cameras to accurately pinpoint and track the movements of the tagged object or person (or multiple objects or people) anywhere in the defined 3D space and then instantly stream dynamic positional data at over 150 frames per second to external devices like lighting, automation, media servers, and for the first time in the world, spatial audio.
CAST will demonstrate BlackTrax and its proprietary 3D Cue Paths f
France - Medialon has released Manager KIOSK, billed as "the ultimate kiosk application generator for Media Control for interactive kiosk applications in Museum kiosks, Theme Park interactive attractions, and more".
Manager KIOSK is the solution when link to other controls and link to external world is needed without the burden of doing C++ or Flash programming.
This new special edition of Medialon Manager, Medialon's awarded Windows-based powerful audiovisual control software, benefits from Medialon Manager's control programming environment, its graphical user interface and its easy programming tools which make kiosk programming easier and more powerful than ever.
With Manager KIOSK, it is easy to build user interfaces with buttons, sliders, text displays, gauges, lists, and text entry fields as well as embedded media or video playback without being a C++ or Adobe
USA - City Theatrical is launching a wide range of new products at LDI 2011 in Orlando this month, including the US debut of SHoW DMX Neo and SHoW DMX SHoW Baby. These two products are the latest innovations in City Theatrical's 10 years of wireless DMX development and manufacturing.
SHoW DMX Neo has advanced Ethernet gateway functions including dual Ethernet ports and accepts multiple show protocols such as sACN, Art-Net, and KiNet.
SHoW DMX Neo includes a RDM controller provided with the Transceiver which allows anyone to monitor RDM devices from their laptop during the show, perform all radio setup functions, and to check RDM responder functions such as Receiver signal strength, battery voltage on SHoW DMX Dimmers, change DMX addresses, and any other RDM functions that are supported by any manufacturer's equipment on the system.
Australia / China - A new addition has been made to the Illumination Physics Bar Pro range of linear direct view LED products. Developed and implemented for the façade of the Landmark China Resources Building in Hong Kong, the unique rectangular shape of Illumination Physics' Bar Pro Rectilinear has been developed to suit applications where the physical appearance of the LED Bar must conform to a more planar appearance:
"The semi-square profile suits certain architectural applications better than a round profile LED BAR," says the company. "The unique linear end cap design means that there is no change in profile as one Bar Pro Rectilinear is butted up to the next. This is because the bonding surface of the end cap is inside the profile of the Bar Pro Rectilinear and the transition from one section of Bar Pro Rectilinear to the next is perfectly smooth."
USA - A.C. Lighting Inc.'s booth at the 2011 LDI show, Orlando will be showcasing the latest technology innovations from Chroma-Q, Jands Vista and LedGo - all of which are distributed in North America by the reseller.
The new Chroma-Q Color Force Compact will be officially launched at this year's show. Utilizing core LED technology from the popular Color Force range, the Compact provides a powerful 1,700 lumens of output in a slim, compact profile - making it suitable for lighting areas while occupying a very small footprint.
By incorporating the same LEDs as the 12", 48" and 72" fixtures, the Compact works in harmony with the popular Color Force range; providing the deep cold blues, red hot lava looks and super soft pastels that designers love.
Another Chroma-Q innovation on show is the recently launched Studio Force White LED range, which has been designed s
USA - Entertainment lighting specialist White Light returns to exhibiting at LDI in Orlando this year, after a several years absence from the show floor. The reason for the return - new products from i-Pix and Core Lighting, both companies are members of the White Light Family of manufacturers distributed by White Light.
On the White Light booth, i-Pix will be showing their new LED Beamlight, which surprised and delighted many on its first appearance at the PLASA Show in London in September. The fixture offers a new, low-energy alternative to the classic ACL effect, and is described by i-Pix as being "unlike any other LED fixture you have ever seen". The compact fixture is available with RGBW, RGBA, daylight white, UV and other light engines, creating a focusable beam that can be adjusted from+/-35degrees, with the highlight a tight 5 degree beam.
USA - LumenRadio will later this week showcase SuperNova 2.0 and other new developments at the LDI show in Orlando. The entire LumenRadio CRMX wireless DMX, RDM, and DALI product line-up will also be on display in distributor TMB's LDI village.
SuperNova 2.0 had its debut at the recent PLASA show in London and garnered intense interest from a steady stream of visitors. SuperNova's RDM capabilities have been extended to wired networks and now offer unified connectivity and user-interface for systems that utilize a combination of wired and wireless DMX/RDM signal distribution.
"We have received tons of positive feedback on the changes we made for SuperNova 2.0. The ability to monitor and interact with the DMX flow through the whole system has transformed the product from a configuration utility to a full-fledged tool for system setup, control, testing, and fault finding; so
USA - At LDI this week, Christie is launching the YK50 dual-arm moving yoke and projector system, and Christie AutoStack 2.0, a camera-based, software-driven solution used to automatically align and blend images in multi-projector arrays.
Designed to stimulate the senses and simulate a concert stage, the Christie booth also features the rest of the Christie Nitro Solutions family (Christie YK100 and Christie YK200), the North American debut of Christie J Series - the next generation of Christie's Xenon 3-chip DLP projector platform, and the multiple award-winning Christie MicroTiles. Two Christie Spyder X20 video processors are driving all content displayed on the stand.
The Christie YK50 is a small, dual-arm projector yoke. Designed for use with the Christie LX700 or Christie LHD700 projector, the Christie YK50 is suitable for moving projection applications in houses of worsh
USA - PLASA has announced the winners of the 2011 Members' Choice Awards presented on Saturday, October 27th at the LDI and PLASA awards ceremony. The awards recognised newly released, outstanding entertainment technology products. Voting on these awards was open to all employees of PLASA member companies who attended the LDI show. The 2011 winners are:
Gadget Category
Apollo Design Technology's Wrenchmate 2:
An adjustable wrench with a closed-end wrench built into the handle with three different sizes to provide easy access to the common sizes found on lighting fixture clamps.
Equipment Category
LightConverse 3D Show Platform Version 52:
Integrates and visualizes multiple show-related disciplines including lighting, video, laser, pyrotechnics, and moving objects. New features include 3D Object Tracking capabilities and the ability to realistically visual
UK - The new Chroma-Q Color Force Compact is a powerful creative lighting tool that works in harmony with the popular Color Force range. The Compact is billed as a cost-effective workhorse, suitable for a wide range of applications. Utilising core LED technology from the Color Force range, the fixture provides 1700 lumens in a cost-effective, slim, compact profile while maintaining color compatibility with the rest of the range.
Despite measuring only 235mm / 9.25" in length, the Color Force Compact produces a powerful 1700 lumens output - making it suitable for lighting areas with a very small footprint.
Up to five fixtures can be daisy-chained from each 15-way Compact PSU output, eliminating the need to home-run a cable from each fixture back to the PSU. In addition, up to four fixtures per output can be daisy-chained on a Chroma-Q Color Block PSU (PSU-05B, PSU530).
UK - Cooper Controls has announced the launch of Version 7.0 ZerOS software for the Zero 88 Leap Frog 48, Leap Frog 96, Frog 2 and ORB Series consoles.
ZerOS 7.0 is the most substantial update to the ZerOS software platform to date, incorporating over 30 new features including: a completely redesigned look and style for an enhanced, clearer user interface; Colour Filter lookup - match your moving lights to any Lee, Rosco or Apollo filter using on-screen palette keys or syntax; A new 'Fixture Levels' window to provide instant view and modification of tracking data for the entire cue stack.
"The launch of ZerOS 7.0 is a testament to the investment Cooper has made in Zero 88 over the last four years. During this time our software capability has been growing and growing, and the launch of ZerOS 7.0 is the latest addition to this powerful platform" commented Peter Kirkup,
UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies' lighting division will showcase the latest film, television and broadcast products from its key distributed brands at the BVE North show, Manchester Central 16-17 November.
Chroma-Q's Color Force and Studio Force LED battens and fixtures will be highlighted - specifically the new Studio Force LED range - which has been designed for TV, film, studio and touring applications as well as exhibitions, corporate events and theatre shows.
Studio Force is available in 12" (300mm), 48" (1.2m) and 72" (1.8m) versions, and the range features a choice of 6,100K CCT, daylight white (Studio Force D) and 3,000K - 6,100K CCT, variable white (Studio Force V) models - between them providing an extreme output ranging from 5,300 up to 28,000 lumens.
AC-ET carries one of the largest stocks of Manfrotto and Avenger stands and grip in Europe, an
USA - Elation Professional has introduced two new LED par cans - Opti RGBA and OPTI QA. The Opti RGBA is a compact yet powerful stage wash that produces "an infinite rainbow of eye-popping colours via its 36 1-watt LEDs: 10 Red, 10 Green, 10 Blue and six Amber. The Opti QA is the same case design but is powered by 18 x 5W RGBA LEDs that feature Elation's exclusive Quad-Color technology, combining red, green, blue and amber in one LED source.
Adding amber to the LED mix gives the colours a deeper, more zesty glow, making the Opti RGBA suitable choice for a wide variety of stage, theatrical, concert, video and display applications, where a warmer-toned wash is desired, says the company.
"We developed the Opti RGBA as an updated model to our popular Opti RGB with improvements for lighting pros who want the same great features but more colour range as well as power con i
UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET's rigging division, the exclusive UK distributor of Litec truss has announced the latest evolution of their most popular truss range QX30S.
The new version, named QX30AC, has been developed directly for A.C. Rigging in answer to requests from some of its most prolific customers and is a direct evolution of the most widely used truss from the manufacturer.
The primary feature of the new QX30AC is a change to the main chords of the truss, which now feature a 48.3mm outer dimension tube with a wall thickness of 3mm. Additionally, the diagonals have been changed to a 16mm x 2mm tube to keep weight down while maintaining maximum strength of the structure.
This change makes the truss even more useful as a key rental product. The thicker wall makes the truss more robust to knocks and bumps and the 48mm O.D. means the truss can be used wit
USA - At a well-attended dinner in the Peabody Orlando, which took place during the recent LDI 2011 show, Martin Audio's MLA (Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array) system was awarded the Parnelli Indispensable Technology 'IT' Award in the audio category.
Hosted by comics Flo and Eddie, a.k.a. Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, the 11th Annual Parnelli Awards Dinner honoured lifetime achievement award Winner Ed Wannebo, audio innovator Kenton Forsyth and Parnelli visionary Jim Fackert, along with 24 individuals, companies and products that made significant contributions to the growth and evolution of the live production industry in 2011.
Managing director Anthony Taylor and director of US operations Rob Hofkamp were on hand to accept the award for Martin Audio.
Taylor commented: "It was a real honour to be recognised by our peers in the industry and particularly with such a pres
USA - City Theatrical's SHoW DMX SHoW Baby won the Best Debuting Product in the Widget category at LDI 2011. Widgets are simple or inexpensive products that lighting users find indispensible in hanging their shows.
SHoW Baby is a wireless DMX transceiver, meaning it can be either a transmitter or a receiver. As the LDI judges pointed out in the awards ceremony, SHoW Baby has the easiest user's manual around. "For a Transmitter, plug DMX in, for a Receiver, don't."
SHoW Baby utilizes a clever DMX input jack that senses when a DMX cable from the lighting console is plugged in, and configures itself to be a Transmitter. Without sensing DMX in, it configures itself as a Receiver. There are no other user choices to make and SHoW Baby is entirely plug and play, with no buttons to push, settings to adjust, or menu options to choose.
UAE - Launching at IFSEC Arabia in November, Baldwin Boxall's new CARE2 range will be demonstrated to visitors at INTERSEC, Dubai (15-17January 2012).
CARE2 is an Emergency Voice Communication System which includes firefighter telephones, roaming telephones, disabled refuge points and disabled toilet alarms on one system. The new radial wired system is simple to install and operate.
Also on the stand will be the popular CallCare Assistance Call System and the well established VIGIL EVAS voice evacuation rack system.
Australia - LSC Lighting Systems in partnership with Open Clear have been busy finalising the development of a range of new powerful consoles that will "finally offer the market a real alternative for the world's most demanding productions".
Following the successful preview of the smallest console in the range - Clarity LX300 - at the PLASA 2011 show in London, LSC showed the other end of the spectrum with a preview of the flagship LX900 at the LDI show in Orlando, Florida.
The range features three Clarity models, the LX300, LX600 and LX900 all with touch screens, multiple programmers, unlimited undo/redo, Fader Ident for playback mode indication, media server integration, LED pixel mapping and innovative Rig Schematic patching, which allows importing of rig or venue images to overlay patched fixtures making your fixture selection quick and easy. In addition all fade