production news

White Light In The West End - And Around The World

White Light has enjoyed a busy start to 2010 in the world of theatre, the market in which the company first established itself.

Joining the company's West End roster of shows in January were productions including Jerusalem, transferring from the Royal Court Theatre to the Apollo and lit by Mimi Jordan Sherin, The Little Dog Laughed at the Garrick, lit by Jon Clark, and Six Degrees of Separation at the Old Vic, lit by Jason Taylor. The long-awaited sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, Love Never Dies, is also currently previewing at the Adelphi with White Light supplying Paule Constable's complex design; the show is due to open on March 9th. December was also a busy period for new shows, with the openings of The Misanthrope at the Comedy, lit by Peter Mumford, and the RSC's Twelfth Night at the Duke of York's, lit by Tim Mitchell.

These new shows join the many others that have chosen White Light as their lighting supplier, these include the plays An Inspector Calls, lit by Rick Fisher, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, lit by Mark Henderson, The 39 Steps, lit by Ian Scott, War Horse, lit by Paule Constable, and The Woman in Black, lit by Kevin Sleep, and the musicals Billy Elliot, lit by Rick Fisher, Chicago (Ken Billington), Dirty Dancing (Tim Mitchell), Grease (Mark Henderson), Les Misérables (David Hersey), Peter Pan at the o2 (Mark Henderson) and Sister Act (Natasha Katz).

White Light's equipment can also be found on tours around the UK and, indeed, around the world, the company having continued its association with the current Eddie Izzard tour by supplying a large rig of EvenLED LED cyc lighting panels to the US leg of the show, supplying the lighting to a touring production of Grease in South Africa, and supplying the new touring production of Les Misérables, which opened in Cardiff before Christmas and which is now in Norwich .

White Light offers a full spectrum of lighting services - including lighting hire, sales, installation, service, training and more - not just to theatre, but to every area of the performing arts and entertainment industries, recent projects including everything from the European tour of Australian rock band Wolfmother to the new external lighting scheme at London's Natural History Museum.

www.whitelight.ltd.uk

Community Loudspeakers Announce the Olympics Loud and Clear

As all eyes have been focused on this year's Winter Olympics in Vancouver, many visitors to the Games were listening to the announcements, commentaries and entertainment through Community loudspeakers.

"As a premium provider of large scale, all-weather, voice communication and entertainment systems, we have had a long association with the Winter Olympics", commented John Wiggins, Community's Vice President of Business Development. "In Turin 2006, Community loudspeakers were installed in three of the major venues and this year Canadian contractors have installed many more with a longer term community benefit view being taken by venues; not just those hosting events but also by the numerous practice venues".

The Speed Skating Oval in Richmond, a suburb of Vancouver, is the first Olympic venue to use Community's compact ENTASYS three-way, full-range, weather-resistant column line-array loudspeaker system. The ENTASYS is used in various areas to support the Olympic portable system, in areas where wide coverage and tight vertical dispersion are needed for spectator coverage in difficult acoustic environments.

The Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports facility includes a hockey arena and various practice facilities. Here the installations include the Community R.5 full-range, all-weather systems for high intelligibility and well-controlled audience coverage.

One of the superb new venues of the 2010 Winter Games is The Trout Lake Ice Rink. Trout Lake is home of figure skating training sessions and after the Winter Games the rink will be used for Community recreation. This venue uses powerful Community iBOX iHP1596 two-way loudspeakers for full-range entertainment and high intelligibility speech, providing the rink with a true multi-purpose system.

The Vancouver Olympic Centre/Vancouver Paralympic Centre at Hillcrest Park is one of the signature venues of the 2010 Winter Games and the home of competition curling events. After 2010, the venue will be converted to a legacy community facility for the residents of Vancouver, boasting a new community centre, ice rink, curling club, library, preschool, field house and offices with a permanent system incorporating Community R1, Cloud6 and Cloud12 loudspeakers.

Another training rink is the Killarney Community Centre. Currently used for short track speed skating it will be converted after the Olympics for community recreation use. The installation at Killarny again uses powerful Community iBOX IHP1596 loudspeakers for multi-purpose use.

Other official Olympic sites to use Community loudspeakers are the Richmond O Zone and the West Vancouver Spirit Square Community Centre. For 17 days, the Richmond O Zone becomes an official celebration site of the 2010 Winter Games and a key destination for an authentic Olympic Games experience. Covering over 60 acres in the heart of Richmond City Centre the site will feature mammoth ice art, massive high-definition screens, outdoor ice skating, entertainment from the region and around the world, art, athletes, exhibits, food and fireworks. The Richmond O Zone sound systems were designed with Community R1, R.5 and R2 loudspeakers to provide the coverage, sound levels and excitement expected of an Olympic site of this stature. The West Vancouver Spirit Square also provides visitors a facility to watch the Games with a CTV Broadcast on big screens in a heated and covered Atrium, and an Olympic experience of events and entertainment. A combination of Community iBOX iHP1200 Series and Cloud12 loudspeakers provide the quality and level of audio for the enthusiastic Olympic fans.

Danley Genesis Horns Rival the Roar of Jets at Singapore Airshow

Against the bone-quaking roar of F-16 fighter jets, Danley's Genesis Horns (GH-60s) not only provided adequate volume and coverage at the recent Singapore Airshow on February 2-6, they did so with clarity that was closer to that of studio reference monitors than to the tinny barking of typical high-volume public address systems.

Noted Gerard Rodriquez, managing director, Expo AV-Insync Pte. Ltd., the A/V company that handled the show: "The system worked well at all levels, whether you were on the ground or at the commentary towers which were located six stories above the crowds. The sound was unbelievably amazing. For instance, if you walked away from the speaker towers with your back facing them, you could actually feel as though you had a pair of studio monitors by your side. The sound quality was crisp, and the sound levels and clarity were almost equal no matter where you stood between the towers. In fact, we were asked to pull them back a bit as members of the press located in a building some one hundred meters away were rocking a little harder than they needed to.

Danley's Genesis Horn incorporates three pending patents - The Synergy Horn, Paraline, and Shaded Amplitude Lens. The box houses a total of 18 drivers utilising 21 horizontal 20° downward vanes that provide even front-to-back coverage (line array performance) from a single point source.

Due to the Shaded Amplitude Lens, the GH-60 has 16 dB of gain on the furthest listener's axis and all 45° of the vertical coverage is useable. "This technology made possible by the Synergy Horn has lead the way to the demise of line array," concluded Mike Hedden, president of Danley Sound Labs.

Another Massive Tour for XL Video

XL Video continues its long term touring relationship with UK experimental music production phenomenon and trip hop collective Massive Attack, supplying customised Barco O-Lite screen modules and a d3 visual control system for the current tour.

The band kicked off 2010 with the release of their much anticipated fifth studio album, Heligoland and continued with their amazing and constantly evolving live show designed by United Visual Artists (UVA).

For many years, video - both text and image - content has played a major role in Massive Attack's shows, and in reinforcing the power, politics and emotion of their music and messages. They have always used the medium in off-beat and inventive ways that unapologetically engage their fans in cerebral and imaginative challenges.

XL Video's Des Fallon is the account handler, and also has a long history with the band and production manager Dave Lawrence. He says: "Massive Attack shows are always a real pleasure to work on - never predictable, always interesting, and forever pushing the psychological boundaries of what can be achieved with video in a highly focussed and intelligent fashion."

Massive Attack were one of the prime movers behind the development of UVA's highly versatile d3 PC-based media server and control system - of which XL was the first UK company to invest. It was 2003 when Massive Attack first went out with a show devised by UVA, and d3's first precursor, Mosquito, was developed to run the visuals. It used a pixel mapping system which was unique at the time.

The d3 on the current tour is programmed and operated by Icarus Wilson-Wright, who has worked with Massive Attack for several years, and is also a musician.

The d3 is far more than just a media server. It offers a complete 3D Visualising environment and runs on a timeline, stacking layers of looks and events vertically, making it very similar to video editing software in operation, therefore perfect for running timed events. It has many unique features, some of which have been modified to allow the Massive Attack show to run as needed. It's a "complex system that is capable of producing great simplicity," explains Wilson Wright, in particular referring to its ability to incorporate last minute changes to the show content.

This happens on a daily basis. Central to the show and to specific songs are updates to reflect location, language, international and local news headlines, etc.

There are three different modes of change regularly required to organically adapt the Massive show's video content.

The first is tweaking of the visuals for a new or different arrangement of a song. When this happens, Wilson-Wright will receive an MP3 file from FOH sound engineer Dave Bracey, drop it into the d3 library, associate it with the track and then "quantise" it - which effectively places the bars in order. From there, it can be edited to suit the new format.

The second is the updating of text to make it relevant to the location. Text continues to play a powerful and meaningful role in the structure of Massive Attack's live performance. The songs ‘Inertia Creeps' and ‘Safe from Harm' both involve up-to-the-minute text information related to the news and opinions of the day, which is also translated into different languages and alphabets. Once the text file is imported to the d3, the words can then be manipulated and arranged so the scrolling suits the rhythm and mood of the song.

This has potential for enormous reaction, especially when travelling in non-English speaking countries, where the news headlines and local stories appear onscreen in the local language. It allows the core elements of the show to have a full impact anywhere, and the flexibility of d3 also allows them to completed bi-lingual translations for regions where more than one language is spoken!

The third circumstance for which the new show needs to be integrated - often at the last moment - is when guest artists are invited to contribute - the band are very keen on this type of dynamic collaboration. Recently at a show in Paris, French guerrilla photographer/activist JR was invited to participate, and turned up in the late afternoon with RAW files of his most recent portraits. Wilson-Wright took them into the d3, converted to bitmapped files, animated them and then inserted them into the timeline for ‘Teardrop' - all in a seamless and straightforward exercise.

"Editing on the fly in this way is incredibly easy with the d3," he confirms.

d3 is also used to take control of some of the lights - designed and operated by Robin Haddow - for certain songs, merging both lighting and video cues. The d3 is timecode operated, using a programme change MIDI note to select the track and the BPM info to start and run it - received from an Akai MPC machine onstage.

Massive Attack's screen consists of 15 customised frames, specially engineered for touring by XL Video, all containing Barco O-Lite 510 LED blocks making a 15 metre wide by 3 metre high back wall. These bolt together very quickly to form the upstage surface. Lighting is also positioned behind this, to take advantage of the screen's transparency and to blast through it for additional high-power effects, either when it's on or off.

The O-Lite is controlled by 23 Barco controllers run in "custom" mode - for a very bright and highly flexible system which is processed by a D320 Lite DVI input card.

The Massive Attack tour has just finished in Mexico, then goes to Australia and New Zealand.

photos: Louise Stickland

www.xlvideo.tv

Clay Paky Lights Dance Premier League

Dance Premier League just wrapped up its first season, attracting a huge following in India and beyond. This new reality show produced by Cineyug for Sony Entertainment Television featured a unique format, where for the first time on Indian Television, dance teams selected through All India Auditions from each zone of India competed with their eight-person group dance skills. The show ran for 11 weeks with the Grand Finale broadcast on December 22.

The six teams represented the five regions of India, plus a team for non-resident Indians (NRIs). The teams were Uttar Ke Puttar (North), Western Yodhas, Eastern Tigers, Central Surmas, Southern Sizzlers and the NRI team Desi-Pardesi.

Every team featured a distinct character along with a unique logo, brand ambassador, choreographer, official supporter, cheerleaders, slogan, and even merchandise. The teams were challenged to embody the spirit of their zone and showcase their competitive spirit to emerge as India's top zone. The series attracted some of the region's top dancers, choreographers and even Bollywood actors as judges.

Lighting designer Atul Sonpal designed the show-stopping setup for the series using a powerful collection of Clay Paky Alpha series fixtures. The stage was configured in a dramatic tilted ring over the stage, canopied with the 19 Clay Paky Alpha Beam 700 fixtures directly over the stage, along with 18 Alpha Spot HPE 1200 to create gobos on the floor and set pieces, and 11 Alpha Wash 1200 to light the dome. The dramatic effects can be seen in Uttar Ke Puttar's own Dinesh Mudiyar Dance Performance "Love Me Love Me Baby!" on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GemMkVsqLiA&feature=SeriesPlayList&p=68789BACA58F20FE

All lighting design, equipment and installation was supplied by Jagmag Electric Co. from Mumbai, India. Atul Sonpal commented: "We're very proud to supply Clay Paky fixtures to prestigious, high-profile events such as Dance Premier League. They looked stunning on television and proved to be extremely reliable. Jagmag has almost 100 Alpha fixtures and they always do a tremendous job."

Just as in Premier league in football, the teams competed in matches with wins, losses and points to determine who would continue on to the semi-finals and finals. Each zonal team played against every other zone. Each match featured a solo, a duo and a group round. The tally of all three rounds decided the winner. The scoring was similar to cricket runs, for example, "duck", "single", "boundary", "sixer", etc. The winning team received two points. At the end of each match, awards were also given just like cricket - "Man of the match", "most sixes", etc. After the first round of matches, the top four teams went on to the semifinals and then the top two competed in the finals.

Sony promoted the show heavily, with the idea to drive regional loyalty, as in sports tournaments. The communication was focused on creating regional pride and portraying the show as a sports battlefield.

At final broadcast, the Western Yodhas, who fought hard to make it to the top, were pronounced the winners and awarded with prize money and a trophy. Sony plans to run a second season in 2010.

www.claypaky.it.

 

 

 

 

 

Robe for Parklife

Robe moving lights once again took centre stage at one of Australia's biggest annual music events, when Parklife 09 officially signalled the start of the summer dance festival season.

Tens of thousands of revellers gave it large in five cities, with a massive line up featuring more music than ever before - including main acts like Empire of the Sun, Tiga, MSTRKRAFT, La Roux and Autokratz, along with local supporting DJs such as Art vs. Science.

Clifton Productions supplied moving lights for the Melbourne event with stage designs by Fuzzy Events and Parklife's national lighting designer, Davyd Williams. This massive production was managed by local production manager Adam Gibson in conjunction with national producer, Josh Chapman. Over 90 Robe fixtures were utilised across four stages, with Parklife featuring its trademark Earth, Wind, Fire & Water themed arenas and stages.

The Water Stage hosted big names like Empire of the Sun, La Roux, Kaskade and Chardy. Twelve Robe ColorWash 700E ATs, 20 Robe ColorSpot 700E ATs and two Robe Fog 1500 FT smoke machines were rigged on truss verticals, front and mid stage trusses.

All fixtures were driven by a grandMA console. Lighting designs for Empire of the Sun were created by LD Hugh Toranto, and for the rest of the festival the rig was operated by Matt Hansen from MPH.

The Air Stage was the second largest stage where the line-up included MSTRKRFT, Crystal Castles, Tiga and Autokratz. Lighting was operated by LD Justin Ogge (aka 'netball skirt') for the whole of the festival and LD Jack Davies for "Crystal Castles" designed the stage layout. The Robe rig was hung on wave shaped trusses with verticals, consisting of a total of 14 Robe ColorSpot 700E ATs, four Robe ColorWash 2500E ATs and Robe Fog 1500 FT smoke machines, along with a selection of LED fixtures and panels. All lightsources were controlled with another grandMA.

System technician Matt Downs from Clifton Productions, says: "Parklife Melbourne was again sold out as we knew it would be. The Robe's performance throughout the event was ‘faultless' and everyone was happy with how reliable the fixtures are, even when used relentlessly for hours on end in an extremely tough operating environment!".

www.robe.cz

 

Clarity on Carols

Australian lighting director/operator Sam Walters selected LSC Clarity as his main lighting controller for the IGA Lord Mayors Christmas Carols held at the Brisbane Riverstage in December.

Walters commented: "I chose the new LSC Clarity system due to the efficiency in the way it handles moving lights and LED programming. This was my first real outing with Clarity and although the software is extremely powerful, I didn't find it complicated at all. Actually I would have only looked at the manual three to four times during the whole programming session."

Christmas Carols events, held each year in Australia's major cities during the summer month of December, are generally performed on outdoor stages. The events are televised nationally and attract large audiences, both at the venue and at home. Brisbane's event attracted some of the cream of Australia's talent including Guy Sebastian, Marina Prior, James Morrison, Troy Cassar-Daley and Paulini.

Brisbane Concert Lighting was again the main equipment provider, supplying all control from LSC Lighting Systems, including Clarity (using 6 DMX universes) with two VX20 wings, five e24 Dimming Systems, five Delta Power Distros and three Delta DMX splitters. The LSC control equipment looked after 44 Martin moving lights, 32 LED Par 64s, 32 LED strips and over 72 Fresnels, Pars and profiles.

Walters continued: "Clarity's effects engine is extremely powerful and doesn't leave you wanting anything. The LED pixel mapping is a massive time saver and allowed us to achieve really complicated looks. The 32 LED strips were mounted behind perspex panels in the stairs. Being able to run video and JPEG images through the stairs was such a big hit and gave the cameras some really interesting backdrops. ‘Freesets' has changed the way I do palettes for moving lights. Being able to work with just one fixture creating all the colours you want and then being able to apply that colour to the entire rig of movers and LEDs was extremely impressive. Using scaled ‘Freesets' (eg; A rainbow from Red to Blue) through the LEDs down the stairs was a really fun way to get interesting colour textures in the set with minimal effort."

LSC Clarity was launched late last year to industry acclaim and has found enthusiast operators from the television, touring, events, education and worship market segments. The Clarity lighting range of products include the VX Series Programming and Playback wings, the QX range of USB-DMX convertors and of course the powerful Clarity Lighting and Media control software range. Its intuitive programming plus its phenomenal function list make it one of the most powerful, feature-rich PC based lighting control systems on the market today.

Walters said: "I have always been hesitant when it came to computer based lighting software but the VX20 wings do a great job of bridging the gap; you feel like you're driving a real console. Having the wings is a must when operating ‘on the fly' and is great for getting all the cues on faders and under your finger tips. LSC gave me great support in getting up and running and removed any fear I had about placing the software on such a high profile event. The software is extremely impressive and I look forward to seeing where it ends up in the future as development continues."

www.lsclighting.com.au

Robert Juliat Followspots Sail Further Into China

Robert Juliat's continuing success in China extends to Qingdao, the coastal city at the southern tip of China's Shandong Peninsula.

Site of the 2008 Olympic Games sailing events, and now the National Training Centre for Aquatic Sports, Qingdao holds an annual 10-day festival, Qingdao Sea Culture Festival, and is home to the Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center Grand Theater, a prestigious new venue which opened late summer 2009.

Four Robert Juliat Aramis 2500W HMI followspots have been installed in the Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center Grand Theater which, located inside the international marina, is the main venue for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of all major international events centred around sailing. The Grand Theatre also plays host to a growing number of international performances such as the recent Moulin Rouge - Passionate Europe by The Russian Song and Dance Troupe.

The theatre's inaugural show, Blue Imagination, premiered in August 2009 with a lighting design by Mr Sha Xiaolan, Lighting Designer of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, on which he also favoured Robert Juliat's Lancelot and Cyrano followspots.

"A large multi-purpose venue such as the Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center Grand Theater is expected to adapt to a wide repertoire of events," explains Robert Juliat's Jamie Boey. "The Robert Juliat Aramis followspots have a narrow beam angle which suits the long throw distances and zoom optics that can be adapted to suit each application. The Aramis can be depended upon to provide the incoming lighting designers with reliable and versatile performance, every time."

In picture: stage view into the auditorium with four Robert Juliat Aramis followspots on the back wall, Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center Grand Theater.

www.robertjuliat.com

Martin Creates Legendary Look for Fifth East Asian Games

On December 5, 2009, the Opening Ceremony of the fifth East Asian Games was held at - and in - Hong Kong's world-renowned Victoria Harbour. The ceremony was unique in many respects and diverged from traditional opening ceremonies held at other international sporting games.

Lu Jiankang, General Manager of Beijing Olympic Large-scale Cultural and Sports Activities Ltd., was responsible for the production, an innovative concept that used Victoria Harbor as a grand stage and the skyline of Hong Kong as a spectacular background.

Jiankang used nearly 300 Martin Professional automated luminaires to create stunning maritime lighting scenes. The lighting package included 206 MAC 2000 Wash XBs, 48 MAC 2000 Profiles, 40 MAC 2000 Washes, the largest number of automated lights ever used in an outdoor performance in Hong Kong. Most of the Martin lights were located on boats or barges out in the Harbor with some positioned on shore.

The "river stage" featured cruise ship parades and cultural performances coupled with lighting effects and fireworks displays. Jiankang, who worked on the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, commented that the East Asian Games broke the traditional practice of opening ceremonies in that it was located outdoors and not in a stadium. It also set several opening ceremony records including those for biggest background, largest stage, and largest audience.

Martin intelligent lights as well as lasers lit up Victoria Harbour as delegations from China, Korea, Japan, Macau, Mongolia, Taipei, Guam, Hong Kong and other countries and regions entered the harbour on nine colourful boats. Four interpretative performances followed (Hong Kong Fishing Boat Lights, Vibrate City, Blessing Hong Kong and The Convergence of Kowloon), which depicted the development of Hong Kong from a small fishing village to an international metropolis. Singers Alan Tam, Andy Lau, Joey Yung and Hacken Lee debuted on a shining stage followed by a special drum and dance performance and cruise ship parade. After the official opening of the Games, a spectacular fireworks display commenced over Victoria Harbour.

Japanese Pop Singer Aiko Tours with MAC 301 Wash

Since her debut in 1998, pop singer-songwriter Aiko has remained one of Japan's most popular artists. A million selling artist, her popularity has even seen her serve as the basis of a Japanese manga character.

From July to September 2009, Aiko toured live venues all over the country bringing with her a rig that included several MAC 301 Washes and MAC 500s. Her "Love Like Rock vol.4" tour represented the Japanese debut of the compact and versatile MAC 301 Wash, an LED moving head washlight with a powerfully fast zoom and 13 - 36° zoom range, including four fixtures on the ceiling truss, four downstage, and four more upstage for silhouette effects. Three dozen MAC 500s also served for cool narrow iris chases and colorful effects.

Lighting designers for the tour were Masa-aki Kamishima and Masahide Maeda who had this to say about the MAC 301 Wash.

"The MAC 301 Wash is very compact and bright. The response is good and fast, and its zooming function makes it very versatile," stated Masa-aki Kamishima. "I feel this is one of the best fixtures that have come out recently. Having LED as its light source, it can be placed close to performers, giving relief to the programmers who do not have to worry about heat. LED video is also now commonly used and in order to compete with that, fixtures like the MAC 301 Wash will become a standard I believe."

Masahide Maeda commented: "This time we are using them as regular wash lights, and by placing the fixtures at different places on stage, ceiling, foot, back foot, we were able to achieve various wash effects on the performers, instruments, trusses and back curtain, and used them also for crowd blinding. The MAC 301 Wash's brightness and wideness are very good and I did not feel as uneasy as I expected about the typical LED dots being visible. With the fixtures placed at back foot stage we had no heat or noise problems at all although they were very close to the instruments."

Aiko's songs are frequently featured on television dramas and commercials and she is well known for her interesting and funny M.C. talk during shows, which deeply connects her with the crowd. Once "Love Like Rock vol.4" was over, Aiko immediately carried on touring at halls nationwide with her "Love Like Pop vol.12" show. This tour also features MAC 301 Washes and is scheduled to end in February 2010.

Point Source Productions Helps Celebrate Australia Day

Point Source Productions' technical productions department was commissioned by Eclipse Presentations to provide a lighting system for the Australia Day celebrations at the Australian High Commission in London on 23 January this year.

The event involved a Thai-themed gala dinner created by the famed Australian Michelin star chef, David Thompson, of Nahm in Belgravia, and a cabaret of Australian artists including Philip Quast, Kirby Hughes and Sam Harrison to entertain the diners. The evening culminated in the presentation of the much-coveted Australia Day UK awards for Australian of the Year, Honorary Australian of the Year and Young Australian Achiever of the Year.

Point Source Productions provided lighting for the exterior and reception areas for the evening, in addition to lighting the Gala Dinner and cabaret.

Lighting designer, David Miller, working on behalf of Point Source Productions, used a simple uplighting effect to colour-wash the front of Australia House, picking out its architectural features, whilst employing a series of Chroma-Q Color-Punches to colour wash the ceilings in the reception areas and highlight the further points of architectural beauty inside.

Within the Gala Dining Room, Martin MAC 300s were used to colour-wash the room and an array of Martin MAC700s and MAC 550s used to create animated gobo washes across the ceiling. These Martin fixtures also provided a variety of lighting states to complement the cabaret acts and augment the conventional fixtures lighting the performance and presentation stages.

Finally, low voltage fixtures at floor level were used to highlight the spectacular flower arrangements and other set dressing throughout the venue.

Bradley Hill, project manager for Eclipse Presentations, was very happy with the finished result: "It was amazing to see the different effects that were created across the dining room to complement each song during the cabaret acts," he said.

Photos: Courtesy of Australian High Commission

www.pslx.co.uk

 

 

 

 

Robe Gives Great Performance for 2009 Brownlow Medal

The Brownlow Medal Count is the most prestigious annual award on the Australia sporting calendar. Staged at the Palladium Ballroom in Melbourne's Crown Casino complex, the 2009 Brownlow dinner was attended by over 1000 sporting celebrities and VIPs and broadcast live on Australia's Channel 7 TV.

Clifton Productions supplied a large array of equipment to this year's event including Robe moving lights and Anolis LED fixtures which were used on stage and throughout the venue.

The event's art director was by designer Mal Nichols of Mal Nichols and Associates. "The design elements had to be three dimensional to allow lighting and texturing to be a back drop to the talent," says Nichols. "So the lighting was required to be flexible and allow for subtle changes within the presentation incorporating the background."

In the Atrium of the Crown Casino 10 Robe REDWash 3?192s, eight Robe ColorWash 1200 ATs and four Robe ColorSpot 1200 ATs were used to highlight the general area and the guests as they strolled up the red carpet.

Lighting designer Rob Coia says: "This year's telecast was a great success for Channel 7 at the end of a huge year in AFL Broadcast. It was the first time that I had used the new Robe REDWash LED fixtures that Clifton Productions now have as part of their inventory. I was very impressed with the performance, I used the REDWashes to dress the walls and columns in the Atrium for the red carpet arrivals, to provide colour and shape for the background surfaces which appeared in most of the camera shots."

He continues saying that they worked "especially well" in the Atrium, adding that while they usually experienced difficulties getting the dark walls in this area to read on camera, this year it was the "best look so far", replete with rich and bright colours!

Richard Grenfell, who knows the Red Carpet space very well, programmed the lighting and created a great balance between people's faces and the walls. "The REDWashes have an incredible light output, as well as a vast array of colours, from full chroma saturation through to more subtle pastels," says Coia, concluding, "I found it a great tool for the task, particularly when available power is limited."

In the main Palladium room used for the dinner, Robe moving lights were used to create the ambient room looks, and for set and stage dressing. Forty-eight Robe ColorWash 700E ATs, 44 Robe ColorSpot 700E ATs, four Robe ColorSpot 1200 ATs along with another 18 REDWash 3?192 fixtures in total were utilised.

"We are really happy that the REDWashes have been added to our stock and the feedback we are getting from clients is amazing!" comments Clifton's system tech Aaron Humber. It was vital that the Robes provided an even coverage across the large area as there were a plenty of wide camera shots during the broadcast.

The ‘RED' in the REDWash is short for Red Emitted Diodes, a unique LED lighting concept developed by Robe.

The Brownlow lighting was controlled by two grandMA full size consoles, operated by Alex Saad and Andy Edis. A third "house" grandMA was run by Andrew Killengray, hooked in to the 140 scanners used as table pin spots and all the house 'architectural' LED fixtures. It was a substantial system that proved to be extremely reliable.

As early as Round 20 in the vote count, Geelong's Gary Ablett Jnr had an unassailable lead and finally won the 2009 Brownlow Medal polling a total of 30 votes.

www.robe.cz

LSCs Clarity Goes Worldwide for Wolfmother

LSC's Clarity is the console of choice for lighting designer Dave Haus for the current Wolfmother "New Moon Rising" world tour.

Haus and his company Prodigy Lighting Design are based in Maryland USA. He is a lighting designer and programmer and owns a number of his own consoles. He came across Clarity last year whilst programming a live TV broadcast in Colorado, USA where Clarity was part of the house rig.

"I found it to be very intuitive and easy to program," comments Haus. "So much so that after the gig I immediately contacted the USA distributor Applied Electronics and purchased my very own VX20 Wing and software."

On arriving in Europe with the Wolfmother Tour, Clarity continued to be a real time saver for Haus when he was faced with combining their touring fixtures with the local house rigs. He went on to say: "Clarity's easy patching and powerful cloning functionality really works well - turning up at a different venue each night we'd have the rig patched and ready to go in no time at all. It is an extremely versatile and powerful console."

Wolfmother, now on the final leg of their world tour, are in Australia where they will be opening for the phenomenal AC/DC Black Ice World Tour.

LSC Clarity is feature-packed, and offers seamless integrated control of any type of light on a stage be they PAR cans, LEDs, moving fixtures, scrollers, LED matrix walls and even media servers.

www.lscclarity.com

The John Butler Trio Get Energy Efficient with Martin MAC 301 Wash

The John Butler Trio "One Way Road" tour, which has just finished touring Australia, was carbon neutral.

Emissions associated with the tour (such as electricity generated from the shows, air and road transportation, including touring party and freight) was calculated and a reinvestment made into renewable energy projects. This effectively balanced out the impact the "One Way Road" tour had on the climate and is a positive investment to assist the current situation of global warming.

People traveling to the concert by carbon transport even had the opportunity to purchase a Green ticket which incurred an extra cost of 50 cents - this money was also donated to renewable energy projects to help make this a truly carbon neutral tour.

The obvious path for lighting designer Dave Jackson was to use LED fixtures in the show and he opted for the new Martin MAC 301 LED moving head washlight. A total of sixteen MAC 301 Wash fixtures were in the rig: eight on the front truss and eight on the back truss.

"I was a little bit hesitant to use them but they proved to be quite good," remarked Jackson. "They have nice color saturation and are great as front truss profiles. I needed to design a rig that ran off one 32 amp and we did."

Twelve Martin MAC 250 Beams were also in the rig: six on the back truss and six on the floor. Added to that were eight Martin StageBar 54 LED fixtures to light the cyc and four Kupo 8 Liters.

"It was a fairly standard set up as John doesn't like a lot of movement or flashy stuff," added Jackson. "It's all about setting scenes and the MAC 301 fixtures were perfect for that as you get a really nice beam out of them that contrasts well with the narrow beams out of the MAC 250s."

In picture: the photos for this story were taken at Sydney's Enmore Theatre where the production was supplied by Entertainment Installations who acquire their Martin gear from Martin's Australian distributor Show Technology.

Hong Kong Repertory Theatre Presents Scrooge with a New Meyer Sound System

This winter, the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre performed 20 shows of Leslie Bricusse's Scrooge, a musical based on Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. Staged at the Hong Kong City Hall's 463-seat proscenium theatre, the presentation marked the christening of HKRep's new Meyer Sound system, which provided a pristine and dynamic soundscape to complete a remarkable live theatre experience.

"Space is very limited, so the speaker system has to be as small as possible, yet able to deliver exceptional sound pressure levels," says sound designer Yuen Cheuk-wa. "There are bangs, thunder, explosions, tornados, and low drones, which demand a lot of headroom and low-frequency extension."

Using Meyer Sound's MAPP Online Pro acoustical prediction program, Yuen designed a system featuring two UPA-2P, four UPJunior VariO, and six MM-4XP miniature loudspeakers, in addition to four UMS-1P subwoofers. A Galileo loudspeaker management system with Compass control software was used for system drive and processing.

Meyer Sound's Matrix3 audio show control allowed Yuen to create a sound design that immersed audiences in a haunting ambience for ghost Jacob Marley, and captivating gestural effects for the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come. Wild Tracks hard disk playback was used for all of the show's music multitracks, along with a CueMixer serving as a control surface for the sound effects operator.

"Scrooge covers a wide range of dynamics, from tender ballads to powerful thunder cracks," Yuen says. "The director wanted to make the show sound present and natural, without sounding excessively loud. Meyer loudspeakers have a consistent tonal quality necessary to create the highly accurate coverage patterns we needed. The seams between coverage of each cabinet are essentially unnoticeable. The UMS-1Ps spaced along the forestage sounded powerful but are not seen. Even the producer asked where the subs were when he came to the dress rehearsal!"

FOH mixing was handled by Kee ‘ah B' King-yin, audio engineer at HKRep, with show programming by Lee Hoi-fai. Cheung King-ching, student intern from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, provided assistance.

W-DMX at 11th Chinese National Games

Wireless Solution Sweden AB helped kick off the 11th Chinese National Games in a grand manner. One year after the hosting of the exceptional Beijing Olympic Games, the 11th National Games, billed as China's mini-Olympics, opened amid a splendid ceremony at Jinan Olympic Sports Center. Usually held every four years, it is the country's top national-level sports event.

The Opening was a brilliant combination of dazzling light, music and dance, fireworks, and cultural extravaganza. It was an especially monumental ceremony, as the country just celebrated its 60th birthday. The ceremony used 2500 lighting fixtures and a 20,000sqm video screen, which beats the 2004 Athens Olympic Games opening ceremony and comes close to the Beijing Olympic Games. Of the fixtures, 400 PB12A were installed with W-DMX receivers by Wireless Solution. Lighting was controlled by eight grandMA full-size and 40 MA NSPs. Lighting designer and chief programmer was Weng Chun Pu. Paul Collison, Dong Jiang, Zhang Wei were associate lighting designers. Beijing-Color and Shanghai SMG supplied the lighting equipment and Golden Sea supplied the W-DMX.

"The W-DMX performed flawlessly as usual, even amidst thousands of spectators, cell phones, and broadcast equipment," said Jiang Wei Kai of Golden Sea. "We have invested heavily in the brand due to its reliable and stable performance in the past on many high-profile events in China such as the Beijing Olympics. We also build it directly into many products to make projects easier for lighting designers."

"China is one of the most exciting regions in the world for the lighting industry," says Niclas Arvidsson, CEO of Wireless Solution. "We dedicate a lot of our time and resources to this region of the world and it definitely pays off. We're very happy to see W-DMX in such high profile projects and we're always so pleased to have satisfied clients."

Look for W-DMX in upcoming events in China and beyond. The country is currently the number one purchaser of W-DMX PCB cards for OEM products. "This shows the fast-growing faith in our product and something we're very proud of," adds Arvidsson.

Lighting Industry Moves Fast to Help Haiti

Following the destruction of Haiti by a powerful earthquake and the desperate need for help in the region by survivors of the tragedy, Hollywood actor George Clooney speedily created the "Hope for Haiti Now" telethon, featuring the worlds biggest stars to be shown on every major TV Network in the U.S. without adverts for two hours on Friday night.

In order to have the show obtain the best acts possible it was necessary to host the show in New York, L.A. and London. With four days notice the show in London was conceived, designed and realised with the generous help of the production industries.

Tim Routledge, lighting and set designer for the event, was contacted by Dionne Orrom of Serpent Productions who was co-producing the event with Ned O'Hanlon on behalf of MTV. The show held at the Hospital Studios in Central London featured Coldplay, Beyonce, Jay-Z, Rhianna, Bono and the Edge from U2. "We had a design brief from the States so that the three shows tied together with some cohesion but apart from that we took the show and ran with it at full pace for four days to make it happen," said Routledge.

Tim approached four companies to assist with the show and all those contacted responded quickly and provided their total support. Panalux and Stage Electrics provided the lighting equipment required including a large number of oversized lightbulb pendants and Stagebars from Panalux amongst other equipment and Alpha Beam 700's and a large number of low voltage fittings from Stage Electrics.

John Wallace, live events operations manager at Stage Electrics commented: "We were only too pleased to be able to do our bit to help out on this event. Stage Electrics was able to respond at short notice along with other industry players to provide equipment and support to this important cause, we were glad to be part of the fundraising effort."

The set also featured five columns of high-res LED screen supplied and installed by Chris Ferranteat XL Video. The video content for the show was created in L.A. and sent over on the day of the show and was played back on MA Lighting's new VPU media server supplied and looked after by the company's own Philip Norfolk and Callum Howie who also kindly supplied other control ancillary equipment. The consoles for the show were donated by grandPA. "MA are always keen to help out clients with show support and we were eager to do everything we could to support the efforts of those in the Hope For Haiti Now campaign."

In order to get everything in to the studio in time and ready for the first band a number of crew were required and Tim approached PRG to assist with approaching crew as volunteers. PRG's Gordon Torrington rose to the challenge as Chief LX and rallied a large number of crew together for the mammoth day on site.

Routledge comments: "I can't thank everyone involved, everybody was extremely positive in wanting to help and with too many individuals to mention, they all know who they are and what a difference they have helped to make. The show looked amazing and really captured the spirit of the cause. All of the music on the night has been mixed live for download on itunes and to help raise the total please go online and buy some of these unique tracks."

Outline Butterflies in Vietnam

An Outline vertical line array comprising 32 Butterfly CDH 483 Hi-Packs, supported by 16 SubTech 218s, was chosen as the FOH system for ‘Happy New Year 2010', a concert for 35,000 people staged in the country's largest stadium - My Dinh National Stadium.in Hanoi.

Sponsored by the Maritime Bank and organised by Vietnam's VTV3 TV (also on the Web), the show attracted a vast audience thanks to performances by the country's best-known artists: My Tam, Lam Truong, Dam Vinh Hung and Hong Nhung. A wide range of music genres was reproduced including pop, dance, hip-hop and country.

Vietnam's Outline distributor, Fantasies Show Light of Hanoi, was also the rental company that had the task of providing and installing the Butterfly rig at My Dinh National Stadium.

The event's FOH engineer, Mr. Nguyen The Ngoc, commented: "Among the best-known high-end line arrays, I think the Butterfly is also one of the fastest and easiest to install; its prediction software is very accurate and provides further support. I always feel very secure with this object in my hands."

Control and power were courtesy of a Midas XL3 console, XTA processor and Outline T7 amplifiers.

Bearing in mind the number of concerts they have scheduled, Fantasies Show Light has just purchased 12 of Outline's new Mantas, with 120° dispersion, a VLA weighing just 24kg (52.9 pounds) mechanically compatible with the Butterfly, for front-fill applications, and able to push out 147 dB (peak SPL, 4 modules). The order also includes four Subtech 218 and ten DVS 15 (1x15" - 1x3") multi-purpose enclosures, as well as four T7 power amplifiers.

The Vietnamese company will supply the Outlinearrays to reinforce the sound at ‘Rockstorm 2010' later this month, the first of a series of nine mega-concerts for 2010.

The firm's owner, Mr. Dinh Viet Hung, stated: "VTV3 needed to ensure all-round coverage of an audience of 35,000 people, but with a loudspeaker system that was compact, due to television broadcast requirements. Fortunately, the technology incorporated in the Butterfly also manages to satisfy these aspects too, as well as those involving FOH engineers; the result is everybody is always happy. We are waiting for them to consign us the new Mantas, which are very light weight and will be used along with the Butterflies, specially in the concerts and the numerous average sized applications, for which we are called in increasingly frequently."

Japanese Pop Culture Comes Alive with Martin Professional

Anime Festival Asia 2009 (AFA09) is Singapore's most impressive festival targeting fans of Japanese animation and popular culture. AFA09, which took place at Singapore Suntec International Convention and Exhibition Centre from 21-22 November, included concerts by a power-packed list of Japan's top musical performers collectively themed as ‘I Love Anisong'.

Trio AV of Singapore supplied audio, visuals, trussing and lighting for the two-day event with a package that included Martin MAC 2000 Profiles, MAC TW1 Washes, MAC 2000 Washes and MAC 301 Washes with lighting control from a Martin Maxxyz Compact and two of the new MaxModules, MaxModule Submaster and MaxModule Button. Video clips for the wide projection screen were from a Martin Maxedia PRO media server.

Programming the Maxxyz Compact was Joel Tay who has worked with a number of different lighting desks but finds the Maxxyz to his liking. "After attending the software version 2.6 training conducted by Paul Pelletier, I decided to go for a change and try a different console," Tay comments. "I like Maxxyz, especially the new Patch functionality. It's easy to use, fast to program and has great possibilities. Together with the MaxModules, Maxxyz is definitely a powerful and versatile tool." Joel thanks Jeffrey Ong (Martin Singapore) for the invaluable support he provided.

The Martin range of stand alone MaxModules allow for customization and the specific control demands of a show, effectively allowing users to design their own console. Five innovative modules are available to build a custom console or can be used with Maxxyz PC, Maxxyz or Maxxyz Compact.

Two Martin Maxedia PRO media servers were networked together to feed graphical content to three projectors for the AFA09 stage's wide screen. One Maxedia PRO was used for video content and the other for backup purposes. The Maxedia PRO was linked to the MaxModules to recall cues and transitions. It was also connected to the Maxxyz Compact to give the media server more controls and functionality. Maxedia programming was executed by Tan Eng Meng.

Performing at AFA09 and for the first time in Singapore and Southeast Asia was multi-talented J-Pop performer and popular TV personality Shoko Nagakawa (Shokotan), as well as acclaimed guitarist, singer/songwriter and JAM Project member Yoshiki Fukuyama. Returning to AFA by popular demand were Japan's ‘King of Anime Songs' Ichirou Mizuki, and Japanese singer May'n.

Robe Scores at AFL Grand Final Breakfast

The North Melbourne Grand Final Breakfast is a function organised by the North Melbourne Football Club on the morning of the AFL (Australian Football League) Grand Final - marking the traditional start of Australia's landmark sporting day.

In addition to being a major social highlight and an annual must-watch ritual for thousands of footy fans, it plays a huge role in the pre-match build up. The breakfast includes a Grand Auction, with all proceeds donated to the Starlight Children's Foundation.

Clifton Productions were employed to provide lighting and visuals for the 1500 guests, including a veritable who's who of Australian sport, politics and culture plus performances from some of the biggest acts in town.

Robe moving lights were employed to creatively light the event, with 28 Robe ColorSpot 1200 ATs and 24 Robe ColorWash 1200 ATs rigged above the triangular stage and utilised for room washing.

Hanging from a series of 'fingers' above the stage were six Robe ColorSpot 700E ATs, and together along with LED fixtures, these produced multi colour stage washes.

At the back of the stage, LED drapes and panels were installed, all driven by a Catalyst media server to produce funky graphics for each of the artist performances.

The lighting techs were Aaron Humber and Justin Ogge and the lighting designs were by Alex Saad and Don Collins.

Production manager Brad King from Cliftons says: "Everyone was extremely happy with the room visuals and overall effects for the AFL Breakfast. The event was a great success, and we were happy to be a part of it again."

www.robe.cz

LightFactory PC-based Control Creates Stunning Christmas Tree Features

The team at ArchiLX Cyprus completed a major Christmas installation for the brand new shopping centre MY MALL in Limassol Cyprus. They designed an extensive package of exterior and interior festive lighting effects including a unique tree of light using nearly 400 LED festoon fixtures from Glasson Electronics controlled exclusively by a 64 Universe LightFactory system and Ethernet to DMX boxes from Cooper Controls.
The LED tree was conceived and programmed by ArchiLX design director Ben M Rogers and comprises 19 strands of festoon harness each with 20 LED globes. Each LED globe offers full RGB mixing and is individually addressed using the Glasson handheld programmer. The Glasson DFS 3000 LED system transmits power and control over just 2 wires allowing the use of standard festoon harness. As Rogers remarks:"Te Glasson system is effortlessly simple in its installation and offers a dynamic and unique effect with minimal power requirements, in fact the complete LED tree installation consumes just over 800w of power making it a very energy efficient system." In addition to the low power usage the fact that the system runs at a low voltage with minimal heat and robust plastic casings also meant that the safety and practical needs of the installation where met.
The tree which runs for 12 hours a day whenever the mall is open was programmed with a fast moving range of colours and animations. This was achieved using LightFactory's matrix control system. Rogers continues: "I created a simple pixel matrix definition in LightFactory and then built a looping video of the colours and effects I wanted." Using the built in scheduler in LightFactory Rogers was also able to set times for the system to start and finish it's playback each day. "What we ended up with was a virtually zero maintenance system which fulfilled both the creative and technical needs of the install and received acclaim from shoppers and management alike."
Meanwhile, in New Zealand, LightFactory was utilized in the unique, interactive Telecom Tree. The Telecom Tree is a seven-storey high interactive light sculpture that transports children's wishes to the Santa Claus at the North Pole. The lighting system designed by David Eversfield and implemented by the team at opticshock uses LightFactory 1 Universe Ethernet boxes and Enntec Datagates to achieve the interactivity.

People who visit the tree at an inner city park in Auckland or on the waterfront in Wellington can use one of the phone booths around the base to ring Santa. The caller's voice modulates the brightness of lights, carrying the message out of the phone booth and up the tree. David uses a Datagate with a cascading Artnet merge to link several different interactive features into one DMX in for the GrandMA console and Hippotizer controlling the tree.

Good boys and girls keen to decorate their own tree for Santa can visit the Telecom Tree website www.telecomtree.co.nz to create their design.

The key interaction between the website and the grandMA/Hippotizer control software was made possible by LightFactory. The flexible scripting engine allowed David to send the designs directly from the website to the tree control software. Martin Searancke from LightFactory implemented a number of bespoke variable commands to help smooth the process.

www.coopercontrols.com

ArKaos Brings a Kaleidoscope of Colour to Tiësto Tour

The world's No 1 DJ, Tiësto, kicked off his new Kaleidoscope World Tour on September 24th 2009 with three sold-out nights at New York City's Hammerstein Ballroom, before continuing on a 18-month journey across five continents to deliver a total of over 200 shows.

The Kaleidoscope World Tour is produced by Unlimited Productions BV, a young company based in Tiësto's native Netherlands, with the visual content designed by Moment Factory, Montreal.

Unlimited Productions chose ArKaos MediaMaster as the show's media server because, as a DJ, Tiësto has no set list: every show is therefore different and may contain a number of new songs which he has never played before. MediaMaster proved to be the perfect solution as it can run pre-programmed content while still allowing live interaction with the music and the songs when needed.

Koen De Puysseleir, light and set designer for Unlimited Productions explains: "We had several challenges for this Kaleidoscope Tour; of course we needed a media server system that is 100% reliable and really interactive, but it also had to be compact enough in order for us to bring it with us on any commercial flight as the distances between most of the shows are too big for shipping equipment with trucks.

"The entire video control setup for the tour fits in my hand luggage in the plane. Not bad for two professional and reliable media servers plus controlling!"

Unlimited Productions installed ArKaos MediaMaster on two MacBook Pro laptops running Snow Leopard, then programmed the entire video show on a ChamSys MQ100 Pro and played it back at the venues through a ChamSys MagicQ PC system with an extra wing.

"Moment Factory requested that we use a system that could handle Alpha Channels, audio-generated content and support custom effects - which was another challenge fulfilled by MediaMaster!" Koen adds.

Most of the shows have a central 6x6m screen and four 2x6m side screens, filling the back of the stage, plus an additional 7x1m screen on the DJ booth. All cuts and mapping of the visuals were done within the content itself. One MacBook Pro, running MediaMaster, plays the content in its native resolution as one single image which is sized to the 6m-high screens through a Folsom ImagePRO scan converter.

The second MacBook Pro triggers visuals on the DJ booth, making extensive use of MediaMaster's built-in ability to scale and rotate visual layers, to add even more interactivity to the show.

"We've been pushing MediaMaster almost to its boundaries by running HD content on different layers while using ActionScript3 audio-generated content through a plug-in we wrote and some custom effects for use with the software's live camera input," continues Koen.

"Working with Alpha Channels and the impressive audio-generated content that reacts exactly with the music is a real improvement to our show. The real-time effects give some very dynamic and exciting new ways to play back live cameras on the screens."

"But most important, MediaMaster is rock stable; at this point we have done about 50 shows and it has never failed on us."

photo: Unlimited Productions BV

 

 

 

 

 

dBTechnologies DVA Tops World Chinese Entrepreneurs Summit

The Sixth World Chinese Entrepreneurs Summit in Macau was hosted at the Venetian Hotel Convention and Exhibition Center in October with 1300 delegates representing 35 countries. The summit was collectively organized by the World Chinese Entrepreneurs Alliance, the Macau Trade and Investment Promotion Bureau, China International Trade Promotion Committee and the Taiwan Business Association. The number of participants exceeded all previous years, being the largest gathering of delegates at this convention to date.

In order for all delegates to gain the messages brought by the speeches and presentations in a clear and precise way it was important that the audio system was of high quality. The dBTechnologies DVA Line Array system was provided and installed by Cyber Audio Engenharia. They recommended the Italian brand to the convention knowing that it was perfect for the job. CYBER bought their first DVA Line Array system more than a year ago from distributor Guangzhou Sharp Dragon Electronic Technology Ltd and have been so pleased that since then they have more than doubled their initial inventory. CYBER are one of the leading rental companies in Macau and are now a great supporter of powered speakers from dBTechnologies. Their top team of engineers commented: "The DVA system is so flexible, light and powerful, it is very suitable for rental as well as fixed install in a variety of main speech and music PA requirements."

CYBER installed two lines of eight, 16 self powered DVA T4 Line Array and six self-powered DVA S10 subwoofers with built in delay units in the banqueting suite where dinner and a reception were held. A further 16 DVA T4 cabinets in arrays of 4 x 4 plus supporting subwoofers served the convention meeting room. The DVA system being light, compact and ergonomically designed, fitted beautifully in to the lush surroundings of the Venetian banqueting and meeting facilities, while doing their job in a clear and powerful way with excellent wide coverage. The Chinese Entrepreneurs Summit lunch reception and meetings were reported as being an enormous success, not least of which for the quality of audio that the DVA system brought to the occasion.

The business requirement and appreciation of quality audio systems in general is developing quickly in South East Asia. People are now demanding not only powerful systems, but also excellent quality systems that provide an even and clear sound across the frequency spectrum with even coverage.

The general manager of Sharp Dragon, Shelly Xiao says of dBTechnologies: "The innovative designs and performance of dBTechnologies products are perfectly aligned with the needs and growth of audio excellence in this region." She went on to say: "The aim of Sharp Dragon is to introduce our customers to decades of advanced western knowledge in professional audio, while offering a service that will support our growing list of enlightened customers."

Green Day Put Martin MAC III Profile to the Test

Green Day is currently on their mammoth "21st Century Breakdown" world tour which started earlier this year and is scheduled to continue towards the end of 2010.

The band has just finished the Australian leg of the tour where they received amazing reviews for their professional, endurance-testing shows where anything goes. Never missing a beat and behaving in an expert manner are 37 Martin MAC III Profiles featured in the lighting rig.

"The MAC III's do a really good job for the throw distances that we have as some of them are very long," commented Kevin Cauley, lighting director for the tour. "Our upstage truss is trimmed at 42ft off the ground so there are some very long throws required.

"This is the first show that I've used the MAC III's on and I think they're great. The effects wheel is awesome. It's just a really good, heavy-duty light and the crew has had no real problems with them. We've found that the lamps in the MAC III's are lasting a good five-hundred hours longer than Martin suggested. We were quite impressed by that.

"The colours are great and I even like the stock gobos! How often do you like the stock gobo set? The lamp strobe function is very neat and a new tool to play with."

The rig has five fingers of truss as well as wing trusses to increase the breadth performance area and all contain MAC III Profiles.

The lighting designer for the show is Justin Collie of Artfag. The lighting intent was to try to retain the old-school punk feel but to bring it into the current times with ideas such as LED elements. In true Artfag manner, fixtures are joined together to create a whole new lighting fixture within themselves - in fact the most dominant fixture in the show is called the LED Fag Pod; two LED fixtures that sandwich a Martin Atomic 3000 strobe with Atomic Colors scroller. A total of thirty-nine of these gems are distributed throughout the rig.

"They're more of a visual element than casting actual illumination on the artists," said Kevin.

Bright Green Expo Features Element Labs Products at COP15 Summit

Element Labs products were chosen for the stunning centerpiece at the Bright Green Expo, the largest parallel event during the COP15 summit, last weekend. 170 companies from 19 countries came together in Copenhagen to show the world their cutting edge climate solutions. By exclusively using LEDs in their products for the sources of light, Element Labs offers the benefits of a green solution compared to other lighting options.

Kasper Lange was the genius behind the bold design which featured a cylindrical screen made with 310 panels of Element Labs Stealth, 4 meters high and 4 meters in diameter. This LED monument was surrounded by 90 rays, each 4 meters of aluminum pipe rigged and equipped with 4 HD Versa Tubes. [LITE]COM A/S, one of Denmark's leading TV rental companies, developed the content, which mixed Bright Green logos and company sponsorships with ambient video patterns, all on top of an interactive video globe. An additional 16 square meter Stealth screen continuously scrolled exhibitors' promotions. Content ran from a High End Systems Catalyst video server. Kristian Dreier, from [LITE]COM A/S, led project management, while Christian Olsson and Simon Pugsley, also from [LITE]COM A/S, were video technicians.

Claas Ernst, MD of EMEA for Element Labs, said: "It is perfect that for an event like Bright Green, which is completely focused on environmental excellence, Element Labs products were chosen. An extra bonus was the privilege to work with one of our long standing partners, [LITE]COM A/S, to make this happen."

"We are extremely happy with the reliability and quality of Element Labs products which is another critical factor that must be considered when doing high profile events such as these", said Kristian Dreier, project manager from [LITE]COM A/S. "Element Labs is our exclusive LED equipment supplier - their reliability and support is that good."

Providing green, Clean-tech solutions is a strategic imperative of Element Labs. Their new Cobra platform, launched earlier this year, is designed to offer customers a substantially lower power footprint. Expansion Capital Partners LLC, who led the recent round of financing for Element Labs, is also exclusively focused on investments in the Clean Technology segment.

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