Set & Light: Summer 2017 (Issue 121)

Set & Light

www.stld.org.uk

Issue 121: Summer 2017

from the Society of Television Lighting and Design

INSIDE: SHOWLIGHT – SPECIAL REPORT | HOCKNEY AT THE TATE | CHROMA-Q SHOWCASE STLD_121 pp1_??.indd 1

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editorial

We celebrate Showlight in this issue, with some excellent articles written by our members, starting on page 5. Our new training scheme has got off to a brilliant start, thanks to committee member Iain Davidson. Find out how the first course went on page 23. We will keep you informed of future courses.

All visit invitations and membership notices go out electronically now, so if we don’t have your email address, you won’t be getting invitations. Contact Chris Harris, our Membership Secretary, at members@stld.co.uk to ensure you don’t miss out.

Full committee contact details are on page 59.

The next issue of the magazine will be out in November 2017. The deadlines are 20 October for advertising and 27 October for editorial, which includes Sponsor news. Contact editor@stld.org.uk for a full media pack.

A note about IR35 regulations

The committee has received a request from a member with regards to how Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs are applying the IR35 regulations to contractors and freelance staff. We will always keep an eye on outside influences that might affect members, and seek guidance on their behalf, but in this instance the committee felt that as each person had a different employment situation, this could not be dealt with by the STLD, which concentrates on the craft side of lighting and design.

To find out more about the issue, visit www.contractorcalculator.co.uk/taylor_review_recommendations_ir35_535710_news. aspx or, for the full paper, https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/627671/good-worktaylor-review-modern-working-practices-rg.pdf

Emma Thorpe Editor

contents

5

Showlight: Introduction

23

Information: STLD training course

6

Showlight: Martin Kempton

25

Sponsor focus: Chroma-Q showcase

11

Showlight: Frieder Weiss

29

Information: industry news

12

Showlight: Roger Simonez

30

Information: KOI awards

15

Showlight: Al Gurdon

32

Sponsor news

16

Showlight: David Duffy

52

Sponsors’ directory

18

STLD visit: Hockney at Tate Britain

59

Committee contact details

y Set & Light is the journal of the Society of Television Lighting and Design and is published three times a year. ISSN 2055-1185 Editor: Emma Thorpe Email: editor@stld.org.uk Web: www.stld.org.uk Production Editor: Joanne Horne Sponsor news: Emma Thorpe Email: sponsornews@stld.org.uk Advertising: Emma Thorpe Email: adverts@stld.org.uk Cover photo: Bronze head of Igor Mitoraj in Boboli Gardens, Florence, by John O’Brien

Printed by: Gemini Print Deadlines for the next issue: Editorial: 27 October 2017 Advertising: 20 October 2017 Advertising is accepted only from sponsor members of the Society

© Society of Television Lighting and Design 2016 Set & Light | Summer 2017

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Showlight 2017 STLD members report from this year’s event in Florence

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Showlight 2017 is over and it’s time to reflect on the eclectic mix of papers presented. There was a rich selection to digest, from puppet theatre to the Olympics, situation comedy to a candlelit theatre. The technical papers on a new light source looks promising, especially, I believe, in follow spots. Interactive video demonstrated some interesting visual images with modern dance. It did not fail to illuminate our imagination.

The location in the heart of Florence, a city of culture, art and history, never failed to impress. Special thanks must go to the many Sponsors, who place their trust and financial resources to support the students and the conference. We had a warm welcome wherever we went: the hospitality at the STLD student meal, Sponsors dinner and the final formal dinner in the botanic park, complete with wandering singers in Venetian masks, was superb. This was only my second Showlight but contacts made at the show can be fruitful. Director Roger Simonez met one of his future Directors of Photography at the Munich show and together they worked on last year’s Knight of Illumination Drama winner Death in Paradise. I look forward to seeing many of the students from Showlight 2017 in future productions.

John O’Brien

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Lighting the multicamera sitcom Words & photos: Martin Kempton Martin has kindly agreed to adapt his Showlight presentation for ‘Set & Light’ and so, for your reading pleasure, here it is.

Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you the multicamera situation comedy: a strange beast indeed. A curious hybrid of television and theatre that began in the 1950s in the United States with shows like I Love Lucy and in the UK with Hancock’s Half Hour. There have been many over the years that have become some of the most loved and most popular shows on British television, such as Fawlty Towers, Dad’s Army and Only Fools and Horses.

In the UK, the multicamera sitcom, recorded in front of a studio audience with five or six cameras, is not as common as it used to be, but the ones that are made are still very popular with audiences. They have in recent years partly been replaced with single-camera comedies. The Office, arguably, began this trend – it was a spoof documentary, so the lighting had to look totally realistic. Other single-camera comedies followed – for example, Outnumbered was shot on location in a house and the lighting had to be as realistic as possible. So, maybe because the fashion has changed, it seems that producers now always expect the same level of realism of sets and lighting in studio sitcoms.

But what is a sitcom? Is it supposed to be accepted as reality, in the same way as TV drama – or should we treat it as a form of televised theatre? Should the lighting be realistic or should it simply illuminate the actors brightly, so we see all the comedy clearly, with no distractions? After all, this is traditionally the way comedy has been lit in the theatre.

Fawlty Towers was arguably the funniest British sitcom ever, but its lighting was simply flat and bright. Friends was possibly the most successful American sitcom, but the lighting was seldom moody or dramatic and, I would respectfully suggest, there was no apparent attempt to give natural direction to the light and it was often impossible to tell the difference between day and night until you saw the window. However, does any of this matter?

It is worth mentioning, though, that lighting sitcoms in a naturalistic style is not exactly new. There have been plenty over the years where the LD did take the lighting very seriously and produced some beautiful pictures.

Now let’s have a little bit of history. Almost all feature films and TV dramas used to be lit with hard light. That’s light that produces a hard, crisp shadow although, of course, you already knew that. This was because black and white film and video needed to be lit with plenty of contrast in order to separate foreground from background – and directors of photography and lighting directors developed a style that was often beautiful but not remotely realistic. It frequently did not attempt to simulate a source of light – from a window or practical lamp – but instead was driven by stylised theatrical techniques and classic portraiture lighting. I’ll admit there were some exceptions to this, obviously.

Then colour film and, a few years later, colour TV came 6

along, but most DoPs and LDs simply carried on lighting in the same style. I would suggest that the interiors on colour movies in the 1960s and 1970s sometimes looked artificial and studio-bound. The same arguably applied to many multicamera TV dramas in the 1970s and 1980s.

Then films began to be shot on location, using more sensitive film stock, using naturally soft light. This had to cut with scenes shot on a sound stage, so softlight was used there, too. It was soon realised how much more natural this looked and how much more flattering to faces it was. TV lighting directors eventually caught up with this trend.

As many of us will know, softlight is much more difficult to control than hard light.You can use flags or eggcrates but it is much easier to shape a beam on a Fresnel with a barndoor. So for this and a number of other reasons, it took time to become adopted in the film industry and even longer on TV. However, it was well worth the effort as it looks natural and is perfect for flattering portraiture. Let’s face it, every portrait photographer uses a huge diffuser or reflector on his or her flash unit.

I started lighting sitcoms in the mid-1990s and have always used softlight but, before then, I was console op on a few sitcoms where the LD used hard light – for example,Yes Prime Minister. The lighting was not realistic but nevertheless it was beautifully done – and not one person has ever said that it would have been a much funnier and cleverer comedy if only it had been lit more like a location.

The lighting of multicamera sitcoms has had a pretty bad press occasionally in years gone by. I think this was partly due to the use of old-fashioned hard light. However, it will always be much more difficult to light for several cameras all in use at the same time while shooting from completely different directions.

I have occasionally lit for single camera and mostly found it much easier! When lighting an over-shoulder two-shot you can place a nice softlight on the floor upstage of the camera as a keylight and control its spill with flags; you can position another light to one side out of shot as a kicker or backlight; you can light the background with another lamp or two, placed just where you want them. However, introduce a second camera shooting the other person at the same time, and another with a frontal wide shot, and most of your rig will be in shot! Also, the lighting balance from one direction might look great, with contrast and depth, but from the other direction it will look flat and boring. That’s where the compromises begin and you have to come up with some clever tricks to hide lights or disguise the direction they are actually coming from.

So, what is the basic process? Firstly, I read the script. This will establish the style and even the period. For instance, Ben Elton’s comedy Upstart Crow (UC) is set in Shakespeare’s time and, in my head, had to look rather different from Lee Mack’s flat in Not Going Out (NGO). Incidentally, NGO had loads of practical light fittings round all the sets, much to the sparks

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Martin Kempton

Picture: John OB’rien

crew’s consternation. However, on UC, an electrician turned up on the first day, PAT tester in hand, and was absolutely delighted to discover that every single practical was a candle.

Then I examine the production designer’s drawings and models as early as possible and in consultation with the director, sometimes suggesting that a window here or there would be helpful to create a useful direction for the source of light. (Incidentally, beware windows on the upstage wall! In night scenes they will reflect every floor light you are using, as well as all the cameras and booms.)

I also keep an eye on any proposed ceiling pieces – designers do love ceilings, even when there is not the remotest chance of ever seeing them on camera. Part of my job is to give the impression that the light in a room is coming from the window, and if there is a ceiling piece extending two or three metres in front of it, I can’t place a lamp above or anywhere near the window.

Usually, the next step is to see a rehearsal in the rehearsal room, where all the sets are marked out on the floor with coloured tape. I’ll make a note of every move the actors make and where the cameras will be positioned so I can make sure they are covered for every angle. I’ll also note where the booms are likely to be so I don’t create a shadow.

Of course, it’s the boom that causes the shadow, not the light, but if I were to place every light where I thought it ought to be and ignore how the sound will be picked up, it would be a very tedious, slow, stressful day for everyone trying to work out how to shoot the scene without shadows all over everything. So, yes, I do make compromises. Lots of them, all the time.

The next step is to draw the plot (pictured above). We call the large sheet of paper with all the lights marked on it ‘the lighting plot.’ I know that in other fields of lighting this would be called a diagram or lighting plan but there we are; sorry to be awkward. Also, as you can see, I still live in the Stone Age and, despite being reasonably computer literate, I prefer to draw my plots using paper and pencil. There is something about being able to see the whole plan on my tabletop that helps me when I’m making hundreds of decisions about the placing of all the luminaires involved. (That’s the first and last time I shall be using that particular L-word.)

Continued overleaf Set & Light | Summer 2017

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Image 3: Miranda studio

Image 2: LX plot detail From previous page Image 4: Miranda top rig

Image 5: UC theatre top rig Image 6: floor light

Image 2: This is part of the plot showing just one set.You can see each of the various lights marked on it and any colour filters involved. The angle of each light is also indicated, but not its height. That will be done during the finelight.

Image 3: Every TV studio is different. Some have lights that are hung on motorised bars – anything from one to three metres long and up to two metres apart. This is Studio 8 at the BBC’s Television Centre: a superbly designed and wellequipped studio that was in constant use by programme makers. Unfortunately, it was demolished in 2013 when the BBC was being run by some people who had never been involved in making television programmes in studios themselves and thought there was no longer a need for such things. There is now a very serious shortage of studios in the UK. Image 4: Here’s the rig over one of the sets. Most of these lights are dual sources or ‘twisters’, as they are sometimes called. They may not be ideal but they did come free with the studio.Yes, one or two hard lights in play but these were used sparingly as backlights just to give a little kick.

Image 5: Other studios have monopoles or ‘telescopes’ that run along tracks in the grid. These tracks are usually about 60–80cm apart, but in some studios they are much closer together than that – just a few centimetres apart. Each individual monopole can be raised or lowered to a chosen height, which means that in a monopole studio you can position every light almost exactly where it needs to be. In a studio with bars there have to be many compromises, so, as far as I am concerned, monopoles are definitely best!

Image 6: I should mention that whenever I can, I do light from the floor, not just from above. This helps to give the show a more cinematic look: in any case, light from head height or even from the floor is often much more interesting and flattering to faces than light from above. Of course, having five or six cameras moving round the set does limit where I can place these lights but I do fit them in wherever I can. Sometimes they are moved by an electrician during a scene when a camera has to track left or right. You need

8

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Martin Kempton

Image 7: floor chimney

Image 8: UC top rig

a good console op to know when to invisibly fade the lamp out and a good sparks crew who can log all the positions in rehearsal, mark up the floor and keep up accurately during the recording.

Image 7: Here’s a fixture that I often use for upward-going light (something I really like): an 800W open-faced ARRI light with a strip Chimera attached. This can be placed beneath the lenses of the cameras without limiting their movement too much.

Image 8: Most studios have a pretty basic range of lights that come with the studio or none at all. Much of the rig, therefore, has to be hired in – especially for a sitcom, where it will almost all be lit with various shapes and sizes of softlight. Many of these softlights are very old but they still do the job superbly. The depth and shape of the eggcrate on these lights is crucial. It is the eggcrate that keeps the light from spilling on to the set and enables control of the direction of the light on to the actors, while still producing soft, realistic shadows. I sometimes double up eggcrates to give greater control. Fortunately, on some lights this is easily done, although I don’t know whether this is by the manufacturer’s design or a happy accident. Note how each of these softlights has been chosen for its size, power and the angle of the beam that its eggcrate produces.

This is a whole subject on its own but I still use tungsten almost entirely to light my sitcoms. I love the way its colour

Image 9: Kinoflos

cools and warms as you fade it up or down and it always looks natural. I have occasionally used an LED panel or two, but matching their colour to the rest of the rig was very difficult. I have, however, used Kinoflos in various situations for many years. Image 9: These are fluorescent fixtures, typically with tubes 4ft long, and come in singles, pairs or as a four-way unit. I find that these produce a very realistic simulation of daylight tucked each side of windows. This photo shows a typical method for lighting windows: 5K softlights with 202 half-CT blue for natural daylight and 5K fresnels with 206 quarter-orange for sunlight. The Kinoflos fill in the light each side of the windows, giving a natural look on set.

So, the plot will be sent to the studio and the electricians will rig the lights as indicated. Then the set will be built (please God!) exactly on the position indicated on the designer’s plan.

If it is off its marks, it can have disastrous consequences for me as moving the lights that are already rigged might be very difficult, especially in a studio with lighting bars. Then, often at the same time as the props crew are dressing the set, I work round the studio with the gaffer and we set the height and angle of each individual light. This process can take anything up to five or six hours for a typical sitcom.

The following day we see everything on camera for the first time. I like to give my console op a great deal of freedom in building the lighting states. I like them to be part of the creative process – he or she will have worked with me many times before so will know what I do and don’t like. I let them Continued overleaf Set & Light | Summer 2017

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select the lights relevant to that scene and choose a level for each one. We don’t ever use a light meter, by the way, but make our judgement from looking at the monitor. Then I start chipping in with comments such as ‘let’s have a bit more light from the window’ or ‘that wall’s a bit bright’ or ‘can we get any more on the chap in the doorway?’.

Incidentally, in some scenes it is quite normal to have more than one lighting state. For example, if the scene begins with a couple sitting on a sofa, you don’t want the background to be bright and distracting. However, they might then get up and answer the front door. This would involve a completely different lighting balance. The background near the door is kept deliberately dark while the action is around the sofa but when the actors move to the door, the balance changes. The console op will cross-fade between cues as the actors are moving, all completely invisible to the viewer, of course. It’s amazing how much difference you can have in lighting balances in various parts of a scene, with none of the changes apparent to the viewer. Also, individual lights are often manually ridden up or down during a scene depending on the action. Being a console op on a sitcom can be a very busy day.

And so we come to the use of colour. For many years, colour TV was lit in plain white light – indeed, it was considered technically wrong to stray from a defined range of colour temperatures as it would affect the look of faces and costumes. I come from a generation of LDs where we tore up this particular rule book, much to the consternation of our more senior colleagues! There’s not time to go into this in depth now but in my view the real world is full of coloured light – arguably, there is no such thing as white – so in my sitcoms, some scenes will be lit in warm light, some in cool, others mixing warm and cool light. For example, pubs and bars in my sitcoms usually have a mix of cool light from the windows and warm light from the interior. I have dedicated my life to researching the illumination of bars, pubs and restaurants and, I can assure you, this is how they are in real life. In fact, I think in most daylight scenes, by cooling the light from windows and having warmer light from inside the room, the whole thing looks more realistic and pleasing to the eye.

Sometimes colour can be used just for effect. I once lit a scene set in a brothel and gave it a red backlight. I’ve no idea why; I’ve never been in a brothel (you’ll have to take my word for that) but in my head that seemed right. One other little touch I was quite pleased with in that set was that we deliberately left one or two bulbs missing from the practical fittings. That did bother my sparks crew but I told them not to worry.

Most lighting problems on the day are related to booms and shadows, to be honest. The booms will constantly be dipping in to pick up the person speaking in close shots and then flying out for the wide shots. Scenes set beneath a ceiling piece are very difficult indeed. Normally I light from upstage, where it not only makes the actors look good, the boom shadows fall downstage out of shot. If you have to light from downstage then boom shadows will fall all over the set and 10

Set & Light | Summer 2017

actors. And no: radiomics are hardly ever seen as an option.

Incidentally, in the United States, booms are always kept out of the widest shot, they never dip in. When I worked on a series in the UK for an American producer she was going mental as she kept seeing booms flying in and out on all the monitors, restricting what shots she could use in the edit – “What the hell’s going on? Every shot has a boom in it! We have Sennheisers in the US. Don’t you guys have Sennheisers?”

The scenes are rehearsed during the day and then performed in story order in front of an audience of about 300 in the evening. Usually, each scene is recorded twice, with maybe a few pickups to cover mistakes by actors or technical issues. It can typically take from 7.30pm to 10pm or longer to record a half-hour show.

Sometimes, despite all the problems and restrictions of this very odd form of TV, I do produce some pictures I’m quite proud of. I recently lit a production called Upstart Crow: a sitcom about Shakespeare’s life starring David Mitchell. It gave me plenty of opportunities to experiment – and occasionally I got lucky. We had some very high sets, others with headers and ceilings, and six cameras shooting from every possible angle, but sometimes I was able to get somewhere close to how I would have lit it as a single-camera drama.

I have been fortunate enough to work on all kinds of television: drama, music, gameshows, chat shows... but the form of TV I still find the most difficult, and the most rewarding on the odd occasion I get it right, is the oldfashioned studio sitcom. Long may it continue!

ITV Sport Studio I UEFA Euro 2016, Photo by Chris Hollier, Courtesy of ITV Sport

From previous page

Martin Kempton

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Frieder Weiss

Interactive video projection and tracking Words & photos: John O’Brien Frieder Weiss is based in Berlin and trained as an electronics engineer, together with being a musician. He became interested in interactive media in 1992 after working in industry in a quality-control role, which then utilised video cameras.

He experimented with video using his Synthesiser and Windows 3.1: an operating system that, he remarked, was not always stable! Early examples included a dancer throwing shapes, which triggered percussive sounds. Now we are used to our gestures operating our tablets and smartphones but it was not appreciated by the audience of that time.

After a period of trying to use electroencephalography waves to produce 3D sculptures with mixed success, he has moved on to transforming physical actions into light. Ten years later, Freider places great score in the Gartner Hype Cycle: a graph that indicates the initial enthusiasm, which peaks, the trough of disillusionment, followed by the awakening to follow through to a productive use. Experience, I feel, that allows you to develop the technology.

Now to how Frieder produces his unique shows. He uses an infra-red (IR) sensitive camera with an IR light source, the resulting video output going through Frieder’s bespoke software – Kalypso – to process the video. The subjects are placed in front of a display screen that can be vertical, horizontal or swivel able – the system works best if the subject is close to the surface. A TV video camera can then view the performer, while an IR camera along the same axis produces a video output, which can be manipulated via the software to produce the motion effects. Particles, swirls, whorls and many more can then be fed to the display.

A picture is worth a thousand of my words, so take a look at https://youtu.be/C4He543_a80 or download with the QR code below. The effect is similar to video feedback but with much more creative control over the effects.

During his experimentation, Freider has found that opera, modern dance and acrobats give the best results; ballet does not seem to be suitable. Frieder’s credits include Kylie’s video and Tristan & Isolde at the English National Opera. Pop videos, corporate displays, permanent exhibitions of performance arts, as well as many Australian dance shows, have used this technology. Renowned Lighting Designer Peter Mumford is involved in the staging of King Kong Live!, now to be transferred to Broadway in 2018. This involves a 1,000kg gorilla puppet with extensive video tracking, utilising IR, markers. We look forward to seeing this production in London.

k

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Roger Simonez

‘Where is the light source coming from?’

‘The same place as the music!’

Words: John O’Brien Photos: John O’Brien & Gabriel Hymen After stage school, Roger Simonez BSC (pictured left) decided to join stage lighting. He started as a camera trainee and then progressed to a Director of Photography (DoP).

In this role, he was awarded a Knights of Illumination Award for the film Antigone 34 in 2013. Directing was always a goal and one of the projects he was chosen to direct was the BBC One show Death in Paradise, filmed in Guadeloupe in the West Indies. The producer gave him a list of DoPs to choose from and he chose Sue Gibson (pictured below left), known to Roger from Showlight in Munich.

Sue arrived in the ‘down’ week of Death in Paradise and Roger had to have already chosen his locations. He sat down with Sue and the discussion they had for about the block was actually longer than the episodes. Roger had decided that instead of the usual way of starting with a wide shot and progressing to close-ups, he would start with close-ups. This would produce good, sound coverage; Makeup and Costume would be crisp; Continuity would be happy, and the actors’ performances would be fresh, too! The only problem would be for Lighting in keeping the style. Sue was happy to work with this and the resulting scenes shown at Showlight reflected this.

Roger said: “The DoP can only be as good as the Director allows them to be.” This was shown when Roger and Sue were filming a tricky night scene where a character had to fall from a hotel balcony, the problem being that no building on the island was over two stories high, hence the need to disguise the height and keep the dark night. When Roger was asked by Production :“Where is the light source coming from?” He said: “The same place as the music.”

The weather was an added difficulty; it could change five times before lunch – blistering heat, followed by high humidity and storms. In one ‘day for night’ scene there was no direct sun, which would have been ideal but it was shot on the edge of a hurricane, which meant the sky had to be replaced digitally in post-production. The DoP was given only two days for the grade, so Roger had to supervise the FX. The change of light at dusk and dawn in the West Indies can be rapid; during the day the sun was high and steep but just as the golden hour was coming to a close, the sun fell rapidly past the horizon. Roger and Sue always tried to show the transitions in their shots to maintain the realism.

Sue’s collaboration with Roger was to be their last: she passed away shortly after returning to the UK. Her work on Death in Paradise was recognised posthumously when the episode was awarded a Knights of Illumination Award for Drama in 2017.

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Grease Live! in LA Words: Mike Baker Photos: Al Gurdon “No pictures please” was the opening announcement from the chair of session one. Camera was swapped for pen and paper, but why? Might there be compromising pictures of celebs on the giant screen behind speaker Al Gurdon? Well, no. It was just the issue of permissions and copyright. (Thanks to Al for supplying his own pics – Editor.)

The show Grease Live! ran for three hours on Fox Network and was staged at Warner Bros. in LA. Al described the project as a hybrid of film, musical theatre and TV. The team was composed of all those disciplines and Al felt strongly that they had all benefited from working with each other. Al had watched live versions of The Sound of Music and Peter Pan but although they were polished and professional productions, he felt they lacked something. He also admitted to being puzzled by the ‘live’ genre. So the mission of this ambitious project was, in essence, to cover a kind of time travel for the audience from the 1950s to now.

Al intended that it would not be a lighting spectacular, neither would it be flashy. He went on to show us the opening shot: four minutes and 45 seconds on a single Steadicam! Al thought it blurred the distinction between reality and art as, in that time, it showed the whole goings-on behind the scenes, including costume, makeup, scenery, lighting and crews.

The production was set in three sound stages and also in the open air. Oh yes, and there were 44 cameras. The surprise for me, and I guess for many in the audience, was that it was pouring with rain on the exteriors.Yes, it was California but, on this one day, the West Coast sunshine had been replaced by a downpour and strong winds had ripped away a huge area of tarpaulin protecting the school stage from direct sunlight. Fortunately, the clouds held the sun out of shot. That’s live for you, folks.

It was certainly a huge logistical and technical challenge.

Trenches were dug under roads for the thousands of feet of fibre and cable involved in linking up the different stages on the huge Warner lot. In the lighting control room (which happened to be an umbrella shop!), there were four lighting desks that were all run in sync to give the necessary backup for the show.

As for the movement and co-ordination of artists and crew during the show, Al showed us a video clip illustrating what was happening out of shot, with actors, crew and cameras alike dashing everywhere. As he said, it certainly illustrated the sense of urgency that was endemic to a three-hour live show.

The key scene in the story is the car chase and this clearly presented challenges in what was to be a static situation.

Al explained how, with the help of stills, a video extract, careful design and lighting, the ‘old banger’ in the garage was transformed into ‘Greased Lightning’. Next he showed extracts revealing the transformation from two cars in a dingy garage to the heightened reality of a car chase where 14

Al at Showlight and, inset, with ‘Greased Lightning’

the cars couldn’t actually move! Not a challenge that many of us would relish, I suggest. Translucent walls, smoke and projection effects were used to great effect. The lighting, Al confirmed, was predominantly tungsten, lots of it, partly because it was, in his own words, ‘cheap’.

Al finished by showing us the ‘Summer Nights’ scene, with some nice theatrical lighting changes, and then went on to answer questions from delegates. The one question I should have asked but didn’t was: “What was the budget for the show?”!

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Al Gurdon

The opening shot, on a single Steadicam, lasted four minutes and 45 seconds

The car chase scene was a particular challenge

The production was set in three sound stages and in the open air Set & Light | Summer 2017

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Petrushka. Credit: Lynette Shanbury

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David Duffy

Playing with the edge of the light Words: Mike Baker David Duffy’s opening remarks on puppet lighting said it all: “Lots of top and side lighting.” He went on to elaborate somewhat: beam benders1, pin spots and hidden LEDs. The puppet shows take place in the Little Angel Theatre (LAT) in Islington, London, and have done so for some 50 years. It was converted from an old Victorian Temperance Hall in 1961 by a family of travelling puppeteers.

David’s body language and precise hand movements revealed the main points of his craft: working within a tight field of lighting so that the ‘stars’ are lit, but the puppeteers and strings are not. This has to be done in liaison with the puppeteers so they know they are safely out of light that would betray their involvement in the main event.

David also likes the use of high and saturated light, but always tightly controlled into narrow slices of light. He admitted to borrowing some ideas from TV lighting and showed us a striking image of a puppet being lit from LEDs in a chimney. He said he spends a lot of time on the stage with the puppeteers helping them to keep the puppets and their props in carefully delineated corridors of light, as he put it. David sometimes used the puppeteers as scenery by top lighting them in deep, saturated colours when he feels it appropriate for the feel of the production.

At this point he invited past Showlight Chairman Ian Dow to help manipulate ‘Michelangelo’ – a white puppet that normally requires three people to operate – into doing a bit of fancy footwork. Thus, he illustrated some of the problems of the craft. David said it was a collaborative art form, all working closely together to achieve the ‘magic’ of puppetry.

The best was yet to come as he showed us some extracts of one of his works: Petrushka by Stravinsky. He described the costumes that the puppeteers had to wear, which included beekeepers’ masks, black velvet pyjamas and gloves.

Warmth for the puppeteers was assured! There might be up to three people operating one puppet, David said it was possible to become known as a ‘foot person’ for life!

On another occasion, the entire puppet stage had to move 4m downstage towards the audience during the show to a critically positioned spot, where lighting of the action required commensurate accuracy of positioning to within 5cm (corridors of light) or the puppet might be in total darkness.

David has now moved into directing but I guess he still has considerable input into lighting as well. Form, shape, colour, corridors of light and detail were words that summed up his total involvement in this very precise genre of lighting.

In answer to a question from a delegate, David told us a little more about the stage, which is 6m wide and might typically be lit by 24 25–50-degree ETC Source 4s, plus many pin spots. His final point was that time rather than materials was the success of his craft. And, might I add, lots of experience as a consummate professional.

Tear Thief looking down chimneys. Credit: Lynette Shanbury.

Below: Little Angel lighting rig. Credit: Bryn Fitch

Past Showlight Chairman Ian Dow (left) helps to manipulate ‘Michelangelo’

Beam benders were invented by Lighting Designer Jules Fisher and allow the light output of a fixture to be at right angles to the fixture.

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A lifetime’s commitment Words: Jane Shepherd Photos: John O’Brien

STLD members and their guests listened to a talk by Art Historian Linda Bolton in the auditorium of the Clore Centre before visiting this exhibition of the work of David Hockney, one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century, in April. The exhibition covered his work as painter, draughtsman, print maker, stage designer and photographer across six decades. Running from 9 February to 29 May, even before opening it was the fastest selling exhibition in the history of the Tate. In order to cope with the demand, the galleries remained open until midnight during the final week before the exhibition closed in London and moved on to Paris and then New York.

Hockney, who turned 80 in July, was born in Bradford in 1937, one of a close family with four siblings. His parents allowed him the freedom to draw and doodle and he loved books and art from an early age, admiring Hogarth, Matisse, Picasso, Stanley Spencer and, perhaps surprisingly, Fragonard.

At 16 he went to Bradford Art College for four years and the earliest picture in the show is a newsprint and textile collage from that period: ‘1954 Self Portrait’. He wears owl-like glasses, with a pudding basin of dark hair, cheekily placing himself in front of a page from The Times with the headline ‘Textile Trade Improves (significant to the woollen industry of his home town)’.

A conscientious objector (his father had been one before him and told Hockney not to worry about what the neighbours would think) he fulfilled his two years of National Service by working in hospitals and in 1959 he entered the Royal College of Art in London, mixing with other young artists such as Peter Blake, R.B. Kitaj, Patrick Caulfield, Ridley Scott (a graphics student) and Allen Jones.

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Tutors left them alone, although ‘at the end of the first year, they told us we were the worst year they’d ever had’.

Just as importantly, Hockney found Bohemia ‘and Bohemia is a tolerant place’. It was a free and classless society, lively, anarchic and rebellious, but he worked long hours, sold work and won prizes.

One of several scholarship students, Hockney recalls ‘having to sandpaper off the nicotine stains on my fingers before going to visit the registrar to borrow some money.

They couldn’t be seen to be lending to fellows that smoked’.

He and his fellow students experimented with abstract expressionism and he was an important contributor to the Pop Art Movement of the late 1960s. Homosexuality was illegal until 1967 but this did not trouble him – he was never abashed by sexuality. ‘We two boys clinging together’ (a quotation from a Walt Whitman poem) from 1961 was the first nod toward homosexuality in his art. ‘Love’ paintings, 1960-61, contain phallic shapes and colours, cryptic codes, images from advertising, scribbled phrases taken from the lavatory walls of Earls Court underground station and tiny graffiti that force the viewer to come up close. The series is numbered as a parody of the fashion for titling abstract paintings by number alone.

In 1962 the RCA would not let him graduate as he had refused to write an essay, with Hockney maintaining he should be assessed on his artwork alone. The RCA capitulated, recognising his talent and growing reputation and he graduated with a gold medal.

In 1961, while still at the RCA, Hockney made his first trip to the USA, buying a £40 ticket for £10, justly confident that the debt would be paid off by sales of his work and feeling

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Hockney at Tate Britain

Painted by Hockney in 1963 shortly after graduating, ‘Play Within a Play’ has the figure of friend (and art dealer) John Kasmin as though pressed against the glass door of his gallery, ‘trapped between life and art’, as Hockney puts it. A sheet of plexiglass is mounted on the front of the canvas, the bottom section painted with foreshortened floorboards and chair. Above them is a symbolic theatrical backdrop with fleur-de-lis border and tassels, foreshadowing his later stage designs for The Rake’s Progress.

The piece plays with ideas of reality and illusion, flatness and depth, naturalism and artifice, perspective and how the eye can be tricked or seduced – themes Hockney continues to explore.

Play Within a Play,1963; oil in canvas and plexiglass, 72” x 78”. Private collection, Topanga, California © David Hockney

that the centre of the art world was no longer Paris but New York. He embraced New York and was embraced by it, establishing his own style. The bleached blond hair was a response to the TV advertisement for Clairol (‘Blondes have more fun’). The defining 1960s and 1970s Hockney look was born: the blond mop, round glasses with heavy frames and a wardrobe of striped rugby shirts with braces, spots, checks, odd socks, bow ties, often all at once and always with bursts of exuberant colour.

Hockney was suited to the anti-traditionalist atmosphere of New York. The bars opened till two in the morning, which fitted in with his relentless working pattern. He described himself as ‘the hardest working man in Bohemia’. The series of Rake’s Progress drawings date from the period after his return from America, the artist’s semi-autobiographical interpretation in etchings and aquatints of Hogarth’s themes of youth and corruption.

In 1964 Hockney first visited LA, his ‘promised land’, drawn to the light and the luxury of space and welcoming ‘the horizontal lines of LA rather than the vertical lines of New York’. He felt instantly at home; visits to the cinema in his childhood made him feel he was brought up in Hollywood and Bradford. As a child he would sit as near to the screen as possible so the image filled his vision, miles away from the dingy streets. “I always wanted to see more,” he said. Even on a bus he always chose the front seat of the top deck for the panoramic view.

Hockney’s art began to move towards less abstract and more observational and naturalistic pieces, which show domesticity, companionship and togetherness in various forms. Energised by California, he worked more in acrylic

Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), 1972; acrylic paint on canvas, 2,140mm x 3,048mm. Lewis Collection © David Hockney. Photo credit: Art Gallery of New South Wales / Jenni Carter

paint, which dries quickly and requires planning and meticulous application. In 1967 he painted one of his most famous works: ‘A Bigger Splash’. Hockney has said that he liked the perversity of taking seven days to paint a splash that lasted for one second.

‘A Lawn Being Sprinkled’ continues a fascination with water in motion, the pool in particular meticulously depicted in various states of fluidity: “With water surfaces you can decide where to look.” In ‘Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)’, 1972 (pictured above) his lover Peter on the poolside is real and clothed, the swimmer distorted.

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Back in England he painted the iconic ‘Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy’,1970-71, (Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell) and a tender portrait of ‘My Parents’, 1977, his father reading a catalogue, unconcerned, his mother self-conscious and endearingly uncomfortable. The interiors and exteriors of Californian homes provided the backdrop for a series of memorable portraits such as ‘Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy’, 1968 (pictured left, top).

Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy, 1968; acrylic paint on canvas, 2,120mm x 3,035mm. David Hockney Inc. (Los Angeles, USA) © David Hockney. Photo credit: Richard Schmidt

From the mid-1970s, Hockney worked in set and costume design for ballet, opera and theatre, including ‘The Rake’s Progress’ in 1975 and ‘The Magic Flute’ in 1978, both at Glyndebourne; ‘Parade’ in 1981 and 2002 at the Metropolitan Opera House, NY; ‘Turandot’ in 1991 at the Chicago Opera; and ‘Die Frau Ohne Schatten’ 1992 at the Royal Opera House, London.

Born with synesthesia, Hockney sees colours in response to musical stimuli and although he never translated this into his painting or photography, it was a common underlying principle in his designs for ballet and opera stage sets, where he based background colours and lighting on the colours he saw while listening to each musical score. At his studio, he built increasingly large and complex stage models at 1:8 scale, using a computerised programme that allowed him to punch in and programme lighting cues at will and synchronise them to a soundtrack of the music.

Increasing deafness over the last 40 years has caused him to give up listening to music and working on opera. He has hardly any hearing left now but he has said ‘I feel I’m seeing space clearer’ ‘Model With Unfinished Self-Portrait’ (pictured left, middle) dates from 1977, combining the sleeping model in the lower third of the canvas in front of the artist himself in front of a blank sheet of paper in a diagramatic representation of space. Naturalistic and non-naturalistic elements combine.

Model with Unfinished Self Portrait, 1977; oil paint on canvas, 1,524mm x 1,524mm. Private Collection c/o Eykyn Maclean © David Hockney

Pearblossom Highway, 11th-18th April 1986 #1; photographic collage, 47” x 64 1/2”. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, gift of David Hockney © David Hockney

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From as early as 1964 Hockney had been using Polaroid photographs as an aide memoire for his paintings. He explored the use of 35mm cameras but his view of conventional photography was that it was ‘looking at the world from the point of view of a paralysed Cyclops – for a split second’. However, cutting up photographs and sticking them together allowed him to achieve complicated multiple viewpoints and he recognised collage as an artform in its own right.

‘Pearblossom Highway, 11-18 April 1986’ (pictured left, bottom) is a work originally commissioned by Vanity Fair as the illustration for an article about Humbert Humbert searching for Lolita in the South West but the magazine chose not to use the work, a collage of a road in the Mojave Desert. A mosaic of over 800 photographs taken over 10 days, Hockney classifies it as drawing with a camera. No photograph was taken from a central viewpoint and every picture is a close-up. The perspective is that of a driver and a passenger. Hockney says that photographs push you away ‘and I was trying to draw you in’.

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Hockney at Tate Britain

In 1985 Hockney was invited to try the Quantel Paintbox: a graphic-creating computer programme for a BBC programme Painting With Light and, in 1986, he started to experiment using an office photocopier, creating layers of colour by putting sheets repeatedly through the machine and manipulating details from original drawings. The fax also became one of his tools, using it in 1989 to fax a 144-sheet composite image (with assembly instructions!) to the Sao Paulo Biennial. Hockney described the fax as ‘a telephone for the deaf’.

In 2009 Hockney discovered the iPhone and then the iPad as new drawing instruments, their screens the natural progression of his fascination with glass, transparency, light and reflection. On the iPhone he was able to draw on the back-lit screen with the side of his thumb, using a stylus for the iPad. Using the Brushes app allowed a variety of brush strokes for effects and textures; a colour wheel modified depth and transparency. On a series of screens in the Tate exhibition, viewers can watch the process of creation of a number of iPad drawings: an insight into the artistic thought process. Hockney has ‘painted’ hundreds of portraits, still lives and landscapes this way, often sending them to his friends. A friend said Hockney ‘does not want to become a machine for producing items of value’.

In 1999, sparked by a visit to the Ingres exhibition at the National Gallery and a fascination for lenses and optics, Hockney started to explore his theory that artists such as Ingres, van Dyck and Vermeer had used optical aids such as the camera obscura and camera lucida to project an image for accurate copying. With his customary relish for controversy, in 2001 he wrote Secret Knowledge : Rediscovering the lost techniques of the Old Masters. His hypothesis remains controversial.

‘Going Up Garrowby Hill’, 2000 (pictured right, top) is one of Hockney’s most reproduced prints: a road trip picture painted from memory in California and the result of a drive Hockney took repeatedly in the summer of 1997 between Bridlington and York to visit a sick friend.

Recording his spatial experience of the East Yorkshire Wolds from his Bridlington base, Hockney painted in oils in the open air, producing multi-canvas works that join to form large landscapes. He used a camera and large-format prints to track work on location and the development of the works as a whole back in the studio. One of these, ’Woldgate Woods’, 2006 (pictured right, bottom) is a landscape he has known in all its seasons since working on a farm in the area in boyhood.

Progressing from painted multi-canvas landscapes, in 2010 Hockney began making multi-screen video works by fixing a rig of 5D Mark II DSLR cameras to the front of a vehicle, which was driven through a wood in each of the four seasons. The results are shown simultaneously on four banks of nine 55-inch monitors presented to comprise a single artwork on the four walls of the penultimate room of the exhibition. Each ‘drive’ lasts about four minutes – benches were provided! The effect of ‘The Four Seasons’ (2010-11) is as mesmerising as the Yorkshire seasons must have seemed to Hockney after 20 years of the uniformity of the Californian climate.

Going up Garrowby Hill, 2000; oil paint on canvas, 2,133.6mm x 1,524mm.

Private collection, Topanga, California © David Hockney

Woldgate Woods, 6 & 9 November 2006, oil paint on six canvases, 914mm x 1,219 mm. David Hockney Inc. (Los Angeles, USA) © David Hockney. Photo credit: Richard Schmidt

Hockney is quoted as saying: “You notice how pokey the television picture is... It’s always edges, edges. We’re moving the edges now.” In 2012 Hockney abandoned his iPad to return to work in charcoal on paper: 25 drawings of the Yorkshire landscape, which reflected his sombre mood after the accidental death of his assistant at his Bridlington studio and his own minor stroke. The drawings also demonstrate his skills as a master draughtsman: monochrome, very simple and austere, often using the absence of line, bare paper indicating the reflection of sky in a puddle.

After eight years of living in England he decided to returned to California in 2013 and and started on a series of vibrant acrylic paintings ‘82 Portraits and One Still Life’(one Set & Light | Summer 2017

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Hockney at Tate Britain

sitter failed to turn up on the appointed day but Hockney was not to be defeated.) Friends, family and acquaintances were portrayed against plain but colourful backgrounds; seated, as Hockney felt he couldn’t ask them to stand for the three days each portrait required: “A 20-hour exposure, not the fifth-of-a-second one.” The works formed a very successful exhibition at the Royal Academy in 2016 but, sadly, were not on display in this Tate exhibition.

In 1960, the student Hockney visited the major Picasso exhibition at the Tate Gallery and determined that he, too, would explore different realities and modes of representation.

A lifetime commitment is demonstrated on every wall of these galleries. As he has said: “Portraiture, landscape and still life – what else is there?” It sounds so simple but the exhibition demonstrates that it is anything but. That, and a lingering feeling as one leaves, that life is good. Hockney was asked what he wanted visitors to feel when they left and his reply was simple: “Joy”. In Hockney’s world, life is still good.

“Thanks for organising a splendid visit to the Hockney exhibition. It was so good to have the introduction to get us in the mood and then the excitement of seeing the real pictures in a gallery that wasn’t too crowded. Compared to the one at the Royal Academy, this had room to move and appreciate Hockney’s amazing art. – Colin IH”

STLD members and their guests listened to a talk by Art Historian Linda Bolton in the auditorium of the Clore Centre

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information

STLD training course

Students light up BBC studios Words & photos: Alan Luxford

PIctured: Iain Davidson. Course topics included lighting music numbers Set & Light | Summer 2017

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STLD training course

The first STLD studio lighting training course took place at the BBC Academy Wood Norton training studios in March and eight lucky students from the world of commercial and corporate television and theatrical lighting took part.

The course tutors were STLD members Iain Davidson and Charles Osbourne.

The course ran for five days and covered multi-camera lighting of various interview situations, music numbers and daytime television type programmes.

The course also covered the famous panorama walk down the length of the studio – Iain’s favourite lighting conundrum.

The challenge for both Iain and Charles was to get the group of enthusiastic and talented students of mixed abilities and backgrounds to understand the skills, knowledge and artistic eye required to become a television lighting director. All this needed to take place in four-and-a-half days – a tall order under normal circumstances. Somehow, everyone seemed to gel in their own way and they all found their feet and their own individual strengths and needs.The teaching was, therefore, adapted to suit specific requirements of the students.

One of the hardest things about teaching such a course is having access to well-equipped studio facilities that can give a range of different experiences, and challenges, and the two studios at BBC Wood Norton did just that. One studio was equipped with double enders on moving pantographs and the other studio had hoists and a range of Fresnels, together with

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cyclorama luminaires.

Lighting the same situation in the two studios gave the students different challenges and some head scratching but all of the finished lighting looked good, with some tweaks from Iain and Charles.

The students were told about the theory of television lighting and about the importance of lining up the cameras to produce constant pictures across cameras. They were then able to put the theory into practice.

Mark Nimin joined us on one of the days to give a masterclass in moving-light console operation and also to share his experiences of some of his large moving-light rig productions.

Alan Luxford showed the latest LED fixtures from Philips Entertainment, which sponsored this first lighting course.

Overall, the participants learned many skills and tips that will hold them in good stead for the future and, as one student commented, ‘the course has given me the professional tools to solve the challenges presented by a small studio space with more confidence’.

The word that came out of the course was eyeline, eyeline and eyeline.

The STLD looks forward to running another lighting course later this year and is grateful to Iain and Charles for their time and commitment in running this first course. Also, a special thank you to BBC Academy for the use of its studios.

27/07/2017 13:34

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Chroma-Q showcase

Chroma-Q presents: An audience with...

STLD members had an opportunity to listen to Cinematographer Phil Méheux and Television Lighting Designer Gurdip Mahal give their unique perspectives on lighting design at a recent Chroma-Q showcase.

The event, which was held at Heatherden Hall within the grounds of Pinewood Studios, was attended by over 70 practitioners from the industry.

Delegates included members from the STLD, as well as the BSC and ALD, and ranged from cinematographers and designers to technical crew and students.

The event provided a showcase for the work, careers and technical styles of these leading experts from the worlds of film and television lighting design.

Iain Davidson, left, interviews Gurdip Mahal

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Phil Méheux on Bambi, the BBC and Bond The evening kicked off with an hourlong insight into the work of Phil Méheux, known for his collaborations and cinematography skills on films including Scum, The Long Good Friday, The Fourth Protocol, Goldeneye, The Mask of Zorro, Entrapment, Casino Royale and Edge of Darkness, among many others.

Phil was interviewed by fellow Cinematographer Oliver Stapleton, who compared their different entries into the world of film-making – with Phil coming up through the ranks and Oliver starting at film school.

The interview included insights into how Phil’s upbringing influenced his interest in cinema: the imagery, colour, light and music of Walt Disney classic Bambi was the film that sparked his interest in movie-making.

Phil also talked about his early career at the BBC as a projectionist, later a cameraman, working on various TV programmes. He left the security of the BBC to turn freelance director of photography to pursue his dream of becoming a feature-film cinematographer.

Phil explained how advancements in technology had helped to shape the creative decisions made when shooting TV programmes and feature films, including using different film stocks to get the right image resolution, the progression of anamorphic zoom lenses and the development of the portable handheld camera, which had led to more freedom for location shooting.

He also talked about forming longrunning working relationships with filmmakers including John Mackenzie and Martin Campbell, as well as the benefits of using the same production crew when circumstances allowed it.

One of the highlights was Phil discussing his experience of making the James Bond film Goldeneye with Director Martin Campbell. He explained how he was given creative freedom to light the film and pitched his ideas to the studio after reviewing all 17 previous Bond films with Martin. He also explained how it was necessary to step away from operating the camera while lighting sets on a Hollywood motion picture of this scale. To do both wasn’t possible on Goldeneye,with 51 different sets to pre-light and five independent film units.

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Phil Méheux, left, with fellow Cinematographer Oliver Stapleton

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Chroma-Q showcase

Gurdip Mahal on live TV, the role of technology and making mistakes The second part of the evening featured an hour-long interview with TV Lighting Designer Gurdip Mahal.

Gurdip’s TV credits include The Voice, MTV Awards and BBC Sports Personality of the Year. He has also collaborated on projects with music artists including U2, Beyonce, Rihanna, Lady Gaga and Muse.

Gurdip was interviewed by TV Lighting Director and Knight of Illumination award-winner Iain Davidson, whose background specialising in location drama led to them sharing experiences on how these lighting disciplines require very different approaches, yet both use lighting to help enhance a performance or tell a story.

The interview focused on how Gurdip uses lighting to help add the right atmosphere to an artist’s performance, without allowing it to overpower the performance itself.

He described his experience working on big Saturday-night live-entertainment shows such as The Voice, which is typical of entertainment shows in utilising lots of dynamic lighting, LED and video effects to add dramatic effect.

Gurdip explained that on a live TV show like The Voice, there isn’t much rehearsal time to change things.

On a Thursday he will be given details of the artists’ music and what they’re wearing, but these usually change later on. From this, he’ll listen to the music and think about the colour palette to get some looks in for each performance before there’s a singletake rehearsal with each artist on Friday. That night, the production team will stay late to review the whole picture of the lighting, LED and video working together and then tidy things up.

Gurdip also talked about how most live TV shows these days are videoheavy, so there’s a need to work closely with the set designer and get involved as early as possible. As a result, his lighting team also has a lot

of say in the content of video on shows such as The Voice. Ten to 15 years ago, video was under someone else’s control, but these days the lighting department oversees both aspects, controlling everything from the lighting desk, as it is all part of the overall stage look.

Talking about the skills needed to work on these big live TV shows, Gurdip explained there was a need to be adaptable and have a backup plan. He always starts his designs by creating a normal lighting state to light an artist’s face beautifully; the experimental lighting comes after this.

Like Phil, Gurdip always tries to surround himself with the best people as TV lighting is a team effort, and he takes advice from others as to whether a design works or not or needs some tweaking.

Discussing the role of technology, Gurdip explained that initially he comes up with a creative idea, without thinking about which technology can deliver it, in order to focus on the idea itself. Then he has to carefully consider which solution is the best choice for each type of show.

For example, on live TV shows and other productions, where reliability is key, he prefers using LED fixtures such as the Chroma-Q Space Force™ rather than, say, a tungsten key light, where the bulb could go at any time.

It is about picking the lights that are right for the job. Sometimes it comes down to whether colour changing is needed and if, for practical reasons, the space being lit would benefit from a single light instead of multiple lights.

Gurdip also talked about how he thinks it is important to make mistakes because you learn from them and it can improve something else. He loves being out of his comfort zone to challenge himself and learn new things, which he can take to the next project he’s working on.

Pictured right: Gurdip Mahal talked about his experience working on shows such as The Voice Set & Light | Summer 2017

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Chroma-Q showcase

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The event was also a showcase for Chroma-Q products

Chroma-Q’s Global Brand Manager John Fuller

Chroma-Q Space Force

Chroma-Q Space Force

Sharing its passion for lighting with a showcase of products The event also provided a showcase for the latest premium-performance LED lighting solutions from Chroma-Q, whose products have been adopted by some of the leading practitioners in the international film, TV and entertainment sectors. In an adjacent ‘black box’ room, attendees were given the chance to see demonstrations of the award-winning Space Force™ variable white soft source; the new multi-award-winning 28

Color Force II™ battens range; the award-winning Inspire™ colourchanging LED house light and the new Color One 100X™ LED PAR. Chroma-Q Global Brand Manager John Fuller (pictured above left) said: “Today’s talks have been informative and thought-provoking. Phil and Gurdip have provided us with fascinating insights into their creative and technical approaches to lighting and given unique

personal accounts from the sets of some very well-known motion pictures and television projects. Chroma-Q shares their passion for lighting, which is helping to drive the new innovations for tomorrow’s productions.”

For more information about Chroma-Q products, visit www. chroma-q.com or www.facebook.com/ chromaq.lighting, call +44 (0)1494 446000 or email sales@chroma-q.com.

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information

Industry news

Entries open for Craft & Design Awards 2017 The Royal Television Society (RTS), Britain’s leading forum for television and related media, has launched the RTS Craft & Design Awards 2017.

The Awards celebrate excellence in broadcast television and aim to recognise the variety of skills and processes involved in programme production.

Awards are presented in 11 categories, including Design, Makeup Design, Costume Design, Production Design, Effects, Directors, Photography, Lighting and Multicamera, Sound, Editing and Music. In addition, there are three awards given at the discretion of the judges: Design & Craft Innovation, Judges’ and Lifetime Achievement Awards. Entries are not accepted for these categories but the RTS welcomes suggestions.

This year will see Lee Connolly, Creative Director at ITV Studios, take over as Chair of the awards from former Chair Cheryl Taylor. He says: “The RTS Craft & Design Awards are an excellent way of recognising the extraordinary breadth of talent and depth of expertise we have throughout the creative content industry and I am delighted to be the new Chair.”

All entries must be submitted using the RTS Online Awards Entry System at https://awardsentry.rts.org.uk/ entrant/index.php by 1 September.

Entries must have been first transmitted between 1 September 2016 and 31 August 2017 and may be submitted by companies or individuals.

The awards will be presented on 27 November at the London Hilton

on Park Lane. For more information, visit https://www.rts.org.uk/awards/ craft-design-awards.

Relevant award categories

Design – recognises achievement in three categories: trails and packaging, programme content sequences and titles.

Production Design – recognises achievement in two categories: drama and entertainment and non–drama productions.

Lighting and Multicamera – recognises achievement in three categories: lighting for multicamera, multicamera work and multicamera work – sport.

The Multicamera awards are designed to recognise those who work in studio-based or OB multicamera programming across all genres.

LSi journalist joins industry marketing agency The Fifth Estate Ltd is thrilled to announce the growth of the company, with the arrival of entertainment technology editor and journalist Lee Baldock, who joins the group of marketing content producers and strategists. Baldock, who left Light & Sound International (LSi) magazine in the spring, joins The Fifth Estate as Senior Account Director.

Based in Sussex, Lee will work from the company’s seaside office near Brighton. Working closely with Creative Director Sarah Rushton-Read, his focus will be on business development, alongside helping existing clients craft their brand stories for the variety of audiences and platforms that today’s marketing communications need to reach.

Baldock’s long career has seen him spend 22 years representing the entertainment technology industry working on leading B2B publication LSi, gaining experience under the editorships of both John Offord and Ruth Rossington, before becoming editor and head of PLASA Media – a position he has held successfully for the past 13 years. In this role, Baldock has maintained LSi’s dominant position during a time of great change in media. He played an integral role in developing the magazine’s popular website and, in 2007, was one of the first editors in the industry to introduce a free digital version of his publication, supported by a digital newsletter and social media presence. Today, LSi is widely considered one of the most important trade publications in the show technology industry.

“I’m excited to be joining the team at The Fifth Estate,” says Baldock. “I’ve known the company since its inception and have always been impressed by its output and its role in

helping connect some innovative technology producers to the creative people who use that technology out in the marketplace. I’m very much looking forward to being part of that process,and to getting a view of this fascinating industry from a slightly different angle.”

Sarah Rushton-Read, Founder and Creative director of The Fifth Estate, says: “We’re delighted that Lee has chosen to join our company as Senior Account Director. He joins us at a perfect time in the business’s development as we rebrand and refocus our services to meet the ever-changing landscape of corporate communications. Lee has proved himself to be an excellent writer and communicator, editor and project manager. He has a keen eye for detail and a compendious knowledge of the industry and its people.”

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KOI Awards

New names on board for 10th KOI Awards Ola Melzig – Head of Production for Eurovision 2017 – is to host the 10th Knight of Illumination Awards on 17 September at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith, London.

Throughout his eclectic career, Melzig has co-ordinated innumerable high-profile shows around the globe, including the Commonwealth Games, the Nobel Prize Banquet and now no fewer than 12 Eurovision productions – all of which are a long way from his first role in the industry, working as a stagehand in 1989. At the 2017 TPI Awards, Melzig was announced ‘Production Manager of the Year’ as voted for by the public and his peers.

“The Knight of Illumination Awards has become a ‘mustattend’ event in our industry,” says Melzig. “Not only does it offer an entertaining evening among notable lighting designers, it’s also a flat-out great party!”

The Knight of Illumination Awards is the largest UK-based awards ceremony designed to recognise and celebrate the phenomenal talents of international lighting and digital content designers for their work across the UK. Coming on board for the first time as Spotlight Sponsors this year are ADB, which is sponsoring the Theatre Award for Plays; Altman Lighting, sponsoring the Television Award for Small Studio; Avolites, sponsoring the Concert Touring & Events Award for Stage; GLP German Lighting Products, sponsoring the Concert Touring & Events Award for Arena; Green Hippo, sponsoring the Television Award for Video Graphic Display,and SLX, which is sponsoring the Television Award for Light Entertainment.

They will be joining returning Spotlight Sponsors ETC, d3 Technologies, Hawthorn, HSL, Light Initiative, PRG XL Video, Robert Juliat, MA Lighting and Philips Vari-Lite.

Thanks to the support of sponsors, the event has been able to evolve year on year to the international, pan-industry awards event that it is today. Key to that growth has been the support of Headline Sponsors OSRAM and Claypaky, which will be supporting the event again this year.

Another new face this year is Jess Allan (pictured), who has been appointed chair of the Concert Touring & Events category.

Jess has worked in professional show lighting and event production for almost 20 years, gaining extensive experience of both technology and design while working in various roles for companies including Martin Professional and TAIT. In addition, Jess has been a member of the organising committee for Showlight, the quadrennial lighting conference, for the past eight years. Most recently, Jess has 30

launched Productionomics, a company providing specialist consultancy services to the event production industry, including data research, product launch, strategy planning and project work. In addition, she is currently working on key data research/recording specifically in the field of concert touring.

Jess will chair the panel of judges assessing the Concert Touring & Events category, alongside Jonny Milmer of creative design agency Imagination, Lighting Designer and Video Content Creator Miguel Ribeiro, Editor of TPi magazine Kelly Murray and Editor of LSi magazine Claire Beeson, who return to their roles as judges for 2017.

Jess says: “I’ve worked closely with many LDs over the years and have always enjoyed the creative side of show production, so I’m delighted to be joining the KOI team this year.”

Jess takes over the role of chair of the Concert Touring & Events category from Coral Cooper. Coral, a previous winner of the KOI’s Enrico Caironi Lifetime Recognition Award, will remain an ambassador for the 2017 awards.

Submissions can be made for TV and Concert Touring & Events by visiting the KOI website. The shortlists will be announced in August.

To find out more and for information about how to submit an entry, visit www.knight-of-illumination.com/categories.

The shortlist for the Television category has been announced as follows: Drama 1. Emmerdale – Chris Ramage 2. Dark Angel – Larry Smith 3. Hetty Feather – Dominique Clements Light Entertainment 1. The Late Late Show with James Corden – Gurdip Mahal, Rob Bradley, David Bishop 2. Peter Pan Goes Wrong – Martin Kempton 3. Ball & Boe One Night Only – Tim Routledge Events 1. Proms in the Park – Philip Brines 2. Olivier Awards – Ben Cracknell 3. Festival of Remembrance – Bernie Davis Small Productions 1. The Top Table – Philip Brines 2. Battle for Number 10 – Richard Bowles 3. ITV Euros – Chris Hollier, Andy Cottey Graphic 1. Tonight at the London Palladium – Nicolaus Reyniers 2. Let’s Sing and Dance for Comic Relief – Alblerto Torres 3. Strictly Come Dancing – David Newston STLD Award To be announced on the night

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KOI-20

th 2008 2017

Knight of Illumination Awards

“...The only Awards exclusively dedicated to professional Lighting and Video Designers...”

17th September 2017

Organised by:

www.knight-of-illumination.com

The Eventim Apollo Hammersmith, London

Headline Sponsors:

Spotlight Sponsors:

Proudly Supported by:

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AC-ET

has purchased from AC-ET’s specialist Rigging sales division, brand new Out Board LV12 Hoist Controllers. With 12 channels of low voltage control, multichannel or pickle mode, fully compliant with CE directives and housed in a steel rack mount case built with highly serviceable subassemblies, The LV12 chain hoist controller is designed to withstand the rigours of touring and staging life.

Extreme Rigging invested in the CM Lodestar D8 hoists and Out Board LV12 hoist controllers for use by its client base on a number of major film and TV productions.

For CM Lodestar or Out Board sales enquiries, please contact the Rigging sales division of A.C. Entertainment Technologies on +44 (0)113 255 7666 / sales@ac-et.com, or visit www.ac-et.com/rigging

ARRI SkyPanel Firmware 3.0 brings 10 new features AC-ET appointed exclusive Irish distributor for Luminex A.C. Entertainment Technologies Ltd (AC-ET) have been appointed as the exclusive distributor in Ireland for the Luminex range of high-performance networking solutions, following a successful partnership with the brand since being appointed as their exclusive UK distributor in 2014.

With the entertainment and AV industries increasingly reliant on networking solutions, the Luminex range is designed to offer a user-friendly platform for transporting large amounts of data with the speed and reliability that today’s entertainment technology systems demand. Features include extra-robust housings and connections, as well as temperature management, for demanding touring applications; full redundancy; quick-and-simple ‘plug & play’ operation; and support for popular industry-standard lighting, audio and video protocols.

Since establishing themselves within the lighting industry, Luminex have begun to create a name for themselves within the audio and video markets as well. AC-ET’s position as a leading one-stop supplier of integrated systems across these complementary product areas provides a lot of growth opportunities as these technologies continue to converge.

For Luminex and other leading brands available from AC-ET in Ireland, customers should contact Aaron Cripps, Regional Sales Representative for the region. Based in County Limerick, Aaron can be contacted on +353 (0)87 4600 202, email aaron.cripps@ac-et.com.

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n 12 adjustable, pre-programmed lighting effects n Source matching and a much-requested high-speed mode n More control and creativity than ever before The popular SkyPanel family of LED soft lights continues to improve with its third major firmware update. Bringing 10 new features and numerous refinements, SkyPanel Firmware 3.0 is a free update that can be downloaded by users and installed in any SkyPanel fixture.

Changing the game for on-set lighting effect generation, this lighting effects feature permits users to choose and manipulate 12 effects without the need for a lighting console or hours of programming. The lighting effects – candle, clouds passing, club lights, colour chase, cop car, fire, fireworks, light strobe, lightning, paparazzi, pulsing and television – have adjustable parameters that can be customised to individual requirements.

ARRI Rental showcases expanding ALEXA 65 lens range at Cine Gear

Extreme Rigging Ltd invests in CM Lodestar Hoists supplied by AC-ET

n Top cinematographers give their feedback on working with different ALEXA 65 lens options n Four distinct lens series, incorporating modern and vintage optics n Lenses customised and bespoke solutions developed in creative partnership with filmmakers

New in stock and available for immediate hire, Extreme Rigging is pleased to announce the purchase from A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd., of a number of new line 0.5-ton CM Lodestar D8 hoists with 21m height of lift.

With over 130 years of rigging and material handling experience, Columbus McKinnon Entertainment Technology (CM-ET) is one of the leading manufacturers of lifting and positioning equipment.

With precision machined gears, internal chain guide, 110 Volt for long cable runs without voltage drop, H-4 duty rated for heavy duty application, IP66 protection class, overload protection and black powder coated cast aluminium housing that is both durable and lightweight, the D8 truly is a world class product.

In addition, and also available for immediate hire, Extreme Rigging

With the popularity of ARRI Rental’s exclusive ALEXA 65 camera system continuing to increase, not just for high-end feature films but also diverse television and commercial productions, demand for richly varied lens options is strong. The line-up of four distinct 65mm lens series first announced at Camerimage 2016 is now in use on multiple projects, with cinematographer feedback directly influencing technical developments and entirely new optics being added as a result of creative partnerships with filmmakers. This collaborative approach to the ALEXA 65 lens program reflects ARRI Rental’s commitment to personalised service and support on a global scale.

Anthony Dod Mantle used both Prime 65 and Vintage 765 lenses on the Oliver Stone film Snowden. “The first four or five weeks in Munich

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involved quite a bit of VFX, so I shot with the Prime 65 lenses and they performed perfectly,” he says. “But then we were travelling to Washington, Hong Kong and Hawaii, with less VFX, and I instinctively felt that I needed a change.There wasn’t time to test the Vintage 765 lenses but I took them because I knew they were beautiful and softer,and the wrap-around and fall-off would be different. It was a leap of faith, and they are slightly more irregular in the colours, but it was an intuitive thing and I was very pleased I did it.”

Other films to have paired the ALEXA 65 with Prime 65 lenses include Thor: Ragnarok, Life, War for the Planet of the Apes, Transformers:The Last Knight, The Great Wall, Sully, Planetarium, The Solutrean and The Dark Tower, which also used Vintage 765 lenses.

Newton Thomas Sigel worked entirely with the Vintage 765 series on Reginald Hudlin’s upcoming movie, Marshall.

Greig Fraser, who used the ALEXA 65 on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, turned to Prime DNA lenses when he selected the system again for Mary Magdalene, directed by Garth Davies. “Working closely with ARRI Rental we were able to develop lenses that had the right look and feel for the film; I used them in conjunction with some of my own lenses, so we had a nice and rounded mix of glass with the qualities we needed,” says Fraser. “As cinematographers, we should want more tools. If we have more lenses then there are more possibilities and we all benefit from those possibilities. What I’ve learned out of this process with ARRI Rental is that I just need to find the right combination of lenses for each story, regardless of what set they are from.”

Most recently, Bradford Young has been shooting with ALEXA 65 and Prime DNA lenses on the as-yet-untitled Han Solo Star Wars Anthology film in London. New focal lengths have been added to the series by the ARRI Rental lens development team to meet his specific creative needs.Young says: “With taking on a new format I felt out of my ‘zone’ because I had to rethink the way I reframe ideas, scenes, logic, light. On top of that, I have to adopt and adapt to a new wave of optics that will hopefully keep the process intuitive.

New AMIRA Multicam looks and features n Improved options for multi-camera broadcast shoots n 4K output at 60fps and preloaded LUT-based looks n Open system for flexible transmission system solutions The new AMIRA Software Update Package (SUP) 5.0 further refines the camera’s Multicam mode – a flexible, open interface for multicamera broadcast applications.

Available for all AMIRA models, the Multicam mode makes the exceptional image quality of ARRI’s ALEV III sensor – also used by ALEXA – available to productions within the multicamera broadcast sphere. Through a Multicam setup, the AMIRA’s shallow depth of field, unrivalled dynamic range and natural colourimetry can lend a cinematic look to live broadcasts, music concerts, TV soaps and other fast-paced, multicamera productions.

AURORA Aurora continues to invest in energy-efficient light sources, with a host of new additions to its LED product range.

As part of a pan-company programme to invest in both products and people, broadcast lighting specialists Aurora is expanding its range of LED and low-energy light sources, with a significant intake

of new equipment.

Following on from the recent purchase of Chroma-Q Space Force, Rosco Silk 210 and Mole Richardson Vari-Soft Softlights, Aurora has now grown its inventory to include a number of powerful LED spots and versatile effects.

Two key additions to the company’s spot range are the Philips SL LEDSPOT 300 – a compact mover that features ultra-precise beam control – and the highly accomplished GLP impression X4 and X4XL for the delivery of powerful, automated colour in a choice of sizes. Expanding its effects offering, the company has added the award-winning TMB Solaris Flare wash/strobe, Chroma-Q Color Force with its super intense colour capabilities, plus the SGM Q-7 colour multi-purpose flood/strobe fixture.

Aurora returned to Glasgow for another round of Robot Wars with LD Gurdip Mahal and Gaffer James Tinsley.

Bigger, bolder and brighter than ever, Series 9 of the cult classic brought together 40 teams of amateur robot enthusiasts all ready to battle it out on the arena floor.

Proudly 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 intenselyfought 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, perfectly synched to deliver the intense colour and movement, highlighting the action taking place in the ring while also providing vibrant washes throughout the arena.

Aurora also supplied a healthy number of products from its growing inventory of LED solutions – in particular, a combination of over 100 SGM P5s and Martin Rush pars allowed Moving Light Op Ross Williams a choice of low-energy options to work with. A selection of effects including SGM Q7s, strobes, Chromastrips and Source Fours were also thrown into the mix to maximise the creative freedom of the team.

Commenting on Aurora’s return to the show, Business Development Manager Ian Charlampowicz says: “We’re incredibly proud to be back on board with James, Gurdip and the entire Robot Wars crew. The show has grown in size and stature since being reintroduced last year and it’s an absolute pleasure to be playing a part in its success.”

Supporting new technology on The Nightly Show As part of a company-wide commitment to investment and growth within its global rental operations,VER is offering clients new next-generation lighting products. The company has been supporting Lighting Director Chris Rigby via its specialist broadcast lighting division, Aurora, with an array of LED and low-energy illumination solutions for ITV’s topical entertainment feature The Nightly Show.

Recorded in front of a live studio audience at The Cochrane Theatre in Central London, The Nightly Show required the creation of a dynamic lighting installation within a classic theatre setting.

Tackling the project with a clear plan to deliver power and versatility, while simultaneously addressing the production team’s desire to maximise the energy efficiency of the setup, Rigby specified a variety of low-energy and LED fixtures that would easily meet the show’s brief for function and flexibility.

On the equipment bought for the task, Chris says: “In a rig that was 95 per cent LED we made use of Martin MAC Aura LEDs to wash Set & Light | Summer 2017

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live band section. Thanks to a multitude of different pan and tilt effects and five pixel mappable 15W RGBW LEDs, the R1 FX-Bs awarded Kenyon with a cornucopia of looks to complement the dancers on stage.

Thanks to the combination of the COLORdash Accent Quad and Rogue R1 FX-B fixtures, Strictly has been awarded with the kind of fresh and exciting visual input needed for the beginning of the 14th series. “I’m exceptionally pleased with the renewed energy in the programme’s visual aesthetic,” says Mark. “Thanks to CHAUVET Professional, we’ve managed to prove that costly set redesigns aren’t necessarily always the answer.”

CHAUVET Professional to debut new fixtures at Frankfurt Prolight + Sound the set and Rush MH6 CT wash lights for the audience, ETC LED Source 4s as backup keys and Philips SL LEDSPOT 300s to key the main areas. The LEDSPOT 300 was a revelation: everything that you could want from a key light over the short to medium studio throw.

The shuttering was particularly useful, but the ability of the key lights to pan, tilt and mix colour temperatures at will was most useful.”

The Nightly Show is just one of a growing number of productions that VER and Aurora are supporting with LED and low-energy solutions.

The companies remain extremely proud of their collaborations with some of the UK’s leading Lighting Directors and are committed to investing further in the next generation of lighting technology.

CHAUVET Visual revamp for Strictly Come Dancing with CHAUVET Professional After 14 years, Strictly Come Dancing has become something of a British institution, with millions tuning in every Saturday evening to watch celebrities compete in a televised ballroom dance competition to the backdrop of big band and Latin music. For the latest series of the long-running television show, the show’s lighting designer was once again tasked with creating rejuvenated looks in the studio on a tight budget. To this end, Mark Kenyon added 80 CHAUVET Professional COLORdash Accent Quad and eight Rogue R1 FX-B fixtures with spectacular results.

“For the latest series of Strictly, the challenge was to create a completely fresh look on set with barely any budget,” says Mark.

“The introduction of the CHAUVET Professional COLORdash Accent Quad and Rogue R1 FX-B fixtures allowed me to introduce entirely new spatial dimensions and looks to the set within budget.”

Adding to an already impressive roster of CHAUVET Professional fixtures such as the Legend 412Z, Legend 230SR Beam, Q-Wash 560Z-LED and Rogue R1 Beam, Mark positioned the COLORdash Accent Quad fixtures intermittently under the balcony surrounding the dancefloor area. The 80 10W RGBA fixtures were specifically chosen to add colour and depth to the entire area underneath the balcony.

Another deciding factor in Mark’s specification of the COLORdash fixtures was their ultra-compact palm-size design. As a result, he was able to install the entire selection of COLORdash Accent Quads not only quickly and effortlessly, but also without detracting from the classic ballroom-inspired set design.

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CHAUVET Professional was pleased to announce the introduction of new fixtures at this year’s Prolight + Sound in Frankfurt, including the Maverick MK3 Wash, the Maverick MK1 Spot, ÉPIX Strip IP and Ovation B1965-FC. True to the brand’s core philosophy, these new fixtures offer lighting professionals unprecedented levels of performance and value.

Building on the success of the Maverick MK2 Wash, the Maverick MK3 Wash answers calls for a more powerful wash fixture, with a much larger pixel array containing 27 40 W Osram LEDs, an impressive 1,080-watt output, seven to 45-degree zoom, 16-bit dimming and a built-in virtual gobo wheel with background colour control for intense visual effects.

The new 350 W Maverick MK1 Spot offers lighting designers all the main benefits of the larger MK2 Spot in compact housing, with rapid seven to 33-degree zoom, a seven to 29-degree beam angle, CMY colour mixing, a flat field of projection, colour consistency, three-facet prism and frost, and crisp gobo projections from two gobo wheels, one rotating, and one static.

Also debuting at Prolight + Sound was the one-metre ÉPIX Strip IP LED strip, featuring 100 RGB LEDs – twice the number found in current ÉPIX Tour products. The LEDs have Alternate Personalities, making them easy to control with DMX only (no media server, Pixel mapper or Kling-Net required).

CHAUVET Professional also introduced a batten-style LED fixture with the standard length favoured in European theatrical settings: the Ovation B1965-FC. It boasts advanced features such as RGBA-Lime colour mixing and responds to RDM, Art-Net™ and sACN, plus standard DMX for programming and networking.

This year’s show also celebrated CHAUVET Professional’s foray into the German market with established industry specialist Fischer GmbH, which now supplies and services CHAUVET Professional fixtures in Germany.

Chauvet Acquires ChamSys Chauvet & Sons LLC has announced that it has completed the acquisition of ChamSys Ltd. the Southampton UK-based designer and manufacturer of lighting controllers. ChamSys provides Chauvet a strong presence in the controller market, which complements its CHAUVET Professional lighting fixtures and LED video panels.

“We are very excited about the opportunity to join forces with ChamSys,” said Albert Chauvet, CEO of Chauvet & Sons LLC. “ChamSys has a well-deserved reputation for innovation, quality and value: the same principles that are at the heart of our own Chauvet brands. Together ChamSys and Chauvet are now in a position to better cover and serve worldwide markets.”

ChamSys will continue to operate as an independent business unit from its facility in Southampton, UK. ChamSys founders Chris

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Sixty Claypaky Mythos2 and 20 Claypaky Supersharpy2 were used to deliver two titanic light sculptures for Swarovski’s Festival of Light

Kennedy and George McDuff will remain as Managing Directors of the company and, together with Sales Director Tony Cameron, will continue to lead its current staff of software and hardware engineers, operations, sales and support teams.

The ChamSys industry standard MagicQ series of lighting control products will continue to be sold by the company’s current network of distributors, except in the USA, where Chauvet will sell and support ChamSys products from its Sunrise, Florida, headquarters.

The CHAUVET Professional sales team will assume responsibility for ChamSys sales in the USA. They will have the full-time support of Phil Watson, former CEO of ChamSys Inc, who has been named ChamSys USA Director.

CHROMAQ Chroma-Q showcases award-winning creative lighting technologies at Prolight + Sound 2017 Chroma-Q® invited users, designers and prospective dealers to visit stand H50, Hall 3.0 at Prolight + Sound 2017, to see the awardwinning Color Force II™, Inspire™ and Space Force™ creative LED lighting solutions, as well as the new Color One 100X™ LED PAR. Chroma-Q is actively seeking partners and dealers to take its product range to continental Europe and other international territories outside the UK and North America.

The latest Chroma-Q products share the same innovative, proprietary technologies, including fully homogenised beam output with no unsightly colour-mixing shadows and 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 award-winning Space Force™ is a variable white soft source

that produces a large volume of soft CCT adjustable white light and delivers a high-quality output suitable for studio through to innovative creative ‘effects’ lighting applications. The unit draws less than 400W of power, includes a built-in ballast and is convection cooled.

Clients utilising Chroma-Q LED lighting solutions include Broadway’s revival of The King and I in New York, USA; Mamma Mia! The Party at Tyrol restaurant in Stockholm, Sweden; UK productions

by The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), the National Theatre in England, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO), the National Theatre in Scotland and and the Welsh National Opera in Wales. International concert tours include Michael Bublé, The Killers, Mark Knopfler, Paloma Faith, Stereophonics, Snow Patrol and Kaiser Chiefs. And finally, TV shows and events include the Eurovision Song Contest and Britain’s Got Talent in the UK.

Chroma-Q at KitPlus The award-winning Space Force™ by Chroma-Q is a cutting-edge variable white LED source replacement for conventional space/soft lights used in film and TV studios. It is tuneable from 2,800K to 6,500K, lightweight with a built-in ballast, energy efficient, passively cooled and with a diffused output so no skirts/silks required. www.chroma-q.com/space-force

CLAYPAKY Claypaky shines at Swarovski Crystal Worlds’ Festival of Light Lighting Designer Björn Hermann employed 60 Claypaky Mythos2 and 20 Claypaky Supersharpy2 to deliver two titanic light sculptures as part of global crystal producer Swarovski’s Festival of Light, hosted at their seven-hectare fantasy park Swarovski Kristallwelten (Crystal Worlds) in Wattens, Austria.

Lead creative agency for Festival of Light was Berlin-based Set & Light | Summer 2017

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StudioNOW, which originated the project’s concept. StudioNOW worked alongside Hermann and German art collective phase7 to create an adventure park of sound and light that included the two colossal light sculptures crafted by the beams of Claypaky’s award-winning long-throw arc lamps. The Mythos2 and Supersharpy2 fixtures were supplied to the event by German event production and rental specialist satis&fy.

As part of the Festival of Light’s ‘Fantasy in Precision’ installation, one of four major installations at the festival, Hermann rigged 20 Supersharpy2 fixtures to the roof of the four-storey Swarovski Crystal Worlds’ playtower. The outdoor installation was designed to extend the faceted crystal patterns of the tower’s architecture into the sky above.

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cultural visits and the uniquely relaxed and informal networking environment that Showlight offers.

Pio says: “We have wanted to host Showlight in Italy for many years and we have been delighted with the result. It is an honour to welcome so many lighting designers to our country, to show them our famous hospitality and to spend so much quality time with them. And I have been so impressed by the speakers; there has been such diversity in the presentations. Of course, everyone here is a lighting expert but there are always new things you can learn from each other at an event such as this. Showlight has been a wonderful opportunity for Claypaky to strengthen our relationships with so many prominent people in the world of lighting.”

Claypaky hosts hugely successful Showlight 2017

Claypaky Scenius Unico takes centre stage at Eurovision 2017

Leading Italian lighting manufacturer Claypaky is proud to have been the headline sponsor and host of the Showlight 2017 conference, which closed on 23 May after three successful days in Florence, Italy.

Over a three-year period, the Claypaky team has worked closely with the Showlight committee to help produce this extraordinary event.

Showlight combines a unique mix of elements: a world-class conference, an exhibition of manufacturers and service providers, and a rich and varied social and cultural programme designed to maximise networking opportunities among delegates, manufacturers, lighting designers and students. Attracting a broad range of the world’s leading lighting designers and practitioners, Showlight happens once every four years and has long been a favourite event on the professional show lighting industry’s calendar.

Staged in the beautiful Tuscan city of Florence, Showlight 2017 saw the highest attendance in the event’s history. About 450 delegates, including some of the best-known figures from the world of show lighting, plus exhibitors and sponsored students, spent three days together watching a total of 29 presentations in the stunning setting of the Palazzo dei Congressi, which includes the grand 19th-century Villa Vittoria and a modern, 1000-capacity conference theatre.

Speakers included Al Gurdon, discussing the lighting of Grease Live!, broadcast for the Fox network; Jeff Ravitz on his 33 years of lighting Bruce Springsteen’s concerts; Durham Marenghi, who gave a fascinating account of lighting the closing ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympics; Martin Kempton, who discussed his experience of lighting for television sitcoms, and Mikki Kunttu, who delivered an inspiring talk on his design for the Royal Danish Ballet’s 2015 production of Swan Lake.

Some of Italy’s finest lighting designers also participated in the programme, including opera specialist Marco Filibeck, Theatre Set and Lighting Designer Vinicio Cheli and Andrea Bocelli’s lighting designer, Aldo Visentin. Other papers covered an eclectic range of lighting subjects, from puppet theatre to medieval buildings, film locations to zoos and candlelight to virtual reality.

Aside from the conference itself, highlights of Showlight 2017 included an afternoon of cultural visits to places of interest, including Florence’s historic Pergola Theatre, the city’s new opera house and the Antinori family’s stunning winery facility, nestled in the hills outside the city. On the Monday evening, delegates gathered for the Showlight gala dinner, hosted by Claypaky in the beautiful surroundings of the Torrigiani Gardens. Speaking at the dinner, Claypaky CEO Pio Nahum thanked the Showlight committee for placing their trust in Claypaky and allowing the event to be hosted in Italy.

Attendees were unanimous in their praise of the experience, the insights offered by the paper presentations, the quality of the

Lighting Designer and Director of Photography Jerry Appelt specified the new Claypaky Scenius Unico as the main stage workhorse fixture for his richly composed lighting design for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, hosted at the International Exhibition Centre in Kyiv, Ukraine.

This year, 42 countries participated in the global TV phenomenon, each supported by a striking stage and light show embracing video, special effects and a procession of scenic props and costumes, all of which combined to make the lighting of this world-famous event an ever-more-challenging proposition.

Taking up that challenge for the third time, Appelt’s lighting solution was born from a creative collaboration with Scenic Designer Florian Wieder. This was centred around a fresh take on the Proscenium arch, which curved majestically from upstage, and was further complemented by a video floor and an arena-wide LED video backdrop.

Appelt harmonised this with an entirely kinetic rig, based around a huge three-dimensional structure affectionately known as the ‘beehive’. Saturated with lighting and media technology, the beehive hung above centre stage, behind Wieder’s arching scenic projection surface and in front of the video backdrop, to offer a versatile central focus to the stage lighting. This, in turn, was encircled by layers of curved, automated truss elements, all carrying Scenius Unico, equipped with OSRAM Lok-it! HTI 1400/PS lamps.

“My primary goal was to design a lighting architecture that could be as multifunctional as a Swiss army knife!” explains Appelt. “I needed a rig that was supremely flexible from all perspectives and that would also look good on TV. It had to offer an inexhaustible selection of looks for the cameras. Every truss is automated with a view to creating countless singular spaces by manipulating light, shadow and darkness, height and depth, angle and colour, and hard and soft beams.”

This need for flexibility also influenced Appelt’s choice of the Scenius Unico: “I needed a workhorse that could perform the role of two maybe even three different types of fixture, without compromising on colour, output, mechanical precision or effects,” says Appelt. “The Scenius Unico was the only solution because it is so versatile: it can be a spot, a wash or a beam light; it is also high output and relatively compact in size and weight.”

The Scenius Unico, supplied to Eurovision by global lighting, video and rigging expert PRG, provided Appelt with a superior quality of light and 6500K output colour temperature to work alongside the production’s considerable video output. Appelt could shape the light’s beam to within a fraction of a centimetre through its advanced framing system – currently one of the most advanced

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Lighting Designer Jerry Appelt chose the new Claypaky Scenius Unico for his Eurovision Song Contest lighting rig

on the market.

“I primarily used the Scenius Unico as a beam light. I needed a fixture that could deliver a consistent colour range, a bright output and enabled me to convey a wide variety of different looks; the Scenius Unico does this. It also offers a rich colour palette. It’s super bright and it has an old-fashioned, punchy beam replete with hot spot, which I love and is perfect for this kind of show.”

Ola Melzig, Head of Production for Eurovision, agrees: “One of Jerry’s biggest challenges is to balance the lighting and the highpower video for cameras. This demands a high-impact fixture with great features, fantastic output and a lovely quality of light that stands apart from the rest of the lighting and video in the room. To that end, Jerry was insistent that he have the Scenius Unico. We love the colour, especially for TV, and I, as a production manager, love the relatively low weight and the pleasing ratio of high light output to low power consumption. It’s a very powerful design tool but for me it’s also very cost-effective.”

ELATION Elation lighting success on Eurovision Song Contest Elation Professional is proud to have been part of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Kyiv, with over 800 lighting products used as audience and stage lighting by Lighting Designer Jerry Appelt and Head of Production Ola Melzig.

Perhaps no other show in the world lends itself to the use of intelligent lighting like the Eurovision Song Contest. With 42 different songs to highlight over the course of three shows – not to mention

rehearsals and a host of other performances – the flexibility engineered into today’s lighting and video systems allowed the Eurovision design team to be highly creative when custom-designing unique looks for each performance.

Proportions mirrored the enormity of the production, with 1,816 active intelligent lights and 1,000sq m of LED screen used to decorate a performance space of roughly 350sq m.

Official technical event supplier Elation Professional served as an official technical event supplier to the 2017 show, with a large portion of the intelligent lighting package made up of Elation lights. In the rig were 351 Elation Paladin™ hybrid strobe/blinder/wash lights, 132 Platinum FLX™ hybrid moving heads, 140 Platinum 1200 Wash™ and 70 Platinum Seven™ moving head LED wash lights, along with 110 SixBar 1000™ LED battens. Providing the lighting, video and rigging technology for the show was PRG in co-operation with LITECOM. Melzig has handled the technical production on many Eurovision shows and again mastered the myriad of production elements necessary to put on a world-class show. He produced this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in less than five months – a much shorter time period than normal – with the grand final marking his 30th Eurovision broadcast since starting in 2000.

The recipient of TPI’s Production Manager of the Year award was key in the decision to go with Elation for the 2017 show. He said: “We were thrilled to have Elation as one of our technical suppliers this year on Eurovision. Their product range is a great fit for this show and, believe me, we absolutely must have hard-core lighting like this to stand up to the challenge. Eurovision puts a tremendous amount of stress on fixtures and they really came through.”

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Photo: Ralph Larmann

Paladin debuts on Eurovision stage The slogan for the contest was ‘Celebrate Diversity’ and Jerry Appelt’s lighting design appropriately reflected the diversification and variety presented on stage. When Appelt was on the hunt for a strobe effect that he could place behind the huge, curved, semitransparent LED video wall that served as the all-important visual backdrop, Melzig set up a shoot-out of fixtures in Cologne and Appelt liked what he saw in the Paladin. “I wanted to create an additional layer behind the LED wall, something that had impact but that could also work together with the LED video and other lighting. We chose the Paladin and it did a marvelous job.”

Making its global debut, the full-colour Paladin fixtures were used in a large back-wall matrix of 351 units (39 wide by nine high) and played a prominent role in Appelt’s lighting design. Paladin, a versatile hybrid RGBW luminaire with zoom, functions as a bright blinder or strobe, powerful wash light, or, because of its multiple-pixel zone control, pixel map and eye-candy looks. “We used them independently and also pixel-mapped video across them,” said Appelt, who lit the Eurovision show for the third time, having designed lighting for the 2011 and 2012 events.

Paladin effects, which Appelt incorporated into a large number of songs, popped through the LED screen, sometimes as impactful strobe/ blinder effects or chases and sometimes as more subtle eye-candy or warm or cold light twinkle effects, then stealthily disappeared when not in use. “Some of the delegations even asked to have the Paladins used in their performance to give it more power,” the designer added.

Melzig was equally enamored with them, adding: “I love the output, the colour and the zoom. It’s an awesome fixture!”

Audience lighting Most of the audience lighting for the show came from Elation’s powerful Platinum 1200 Wash™ LED wash moving heads, along with Platinum Seven™ LED wash moving heads.

The Platinum 1200 Washes, which house 19 65W RGBW LEDs for plenty of power, worked from three curved trusses over the audience, with more fixtures lined on trusses on each side of the arena. Platinum 1200 Washes were also positioned each side of the stage and used for sidelight.

The Platinum Sevens, reportedly the most stable fixtures in the entire rig, worked from trusses further back in the room and were grouped with Elation Platinum FLX units, which were used to splay the audience in beams when more upbeat moments were called for.

Surrounding the Beehive Above the stage hung a key element in the stage lighting setup: a movable ‘beehive’ surrounded by truss that included Platinum FLX 38

hybrids: Elation’s award-winning spot/beam/wash moving head with patented dual optical system. The FLXs provided some wonderful looks, such as artists immersed in concentrations of beams, or splayed beam effects with the FLX fixtures projected outward.

Additional Platinum FLX fixtures worked from a sidelight position, together with the Platinum 1200 Wash fixtures.

The FLX, one of the more popular hybrid fixtures on the market, was chosen by Appelt on reputation. “I knew that satis&fy had added the FLX to its inventory and had been using them since last year,” he said. “I took that as proof that it was a good fixture and they were right.” Melzig added: “We used 132 Platinum FLXs and we’re absolutely delighted with this fixture; it’s so versatile.”

Arch support The final Elation fixture in the lighting package was the SixBar 1000: one-metre long multi-purpose LED battens with a six-colour LED multi-chip. Filling the space above the stage arch and curving all the way around it on both sides to reflect its shape, the verticallypositioned SixBar pixel strips provided dynamic chase effects, wash and decorative eye-candy looks throughout the show. SixBar fixtures were also mounted vertically on the outer edge of the beehive for a defining decorative touch. “I love the SixBar 1000,” said Melzig. “It’s the perfect tool for wash or pixel effects, with great colour mixing and dimming that hasn’t been seen before.”

A Eurovision success Holding such an immense, high-profile show in the Ukraine isn’t an easy job but an experienced production team can make it look like it is, and the end result was a huge success. “Despite some of the challenges working in the Ukraine, the goal was to create a state-ofthe-art light show and I was happy with the result,” said Appelt.

Elation partners with LMP to distribute Elation products in Germany LMP Lichttechnik Vertriebs GmbH, a pioneer in the distribution of moving lights in Europe for over 30 years, has begun distributing Elation Professional products in Germany. With LMP as its distribution partner, Elation opens up a wider market for its products while moving closer to its German customers and guaranteeing swifter, higher-quality service.

In LMP, Elation has chosen a company that has been well respected and highly successful in the market for over 37 years.

Beyond moving lights, LMP is also well positioned in the field of static LEDs. The company is also known for its systematic brand development and has had success over the years in the positioning of young brands, including its own.

ETC ETC acquires High End Systems ETC and High End Systems have announced they are joining forces as ETC completes the acquisition of the company from Barco Inc. Under the ETC umbrella, High End gains the oversight of an experienced lighting industry team to grow its capabilities in service, support and product development.

ETC will operate High End as a separate company, located in its current Austin, Texas, USA facility. High End customers should continue to use normal means of contact for sales and service.

Current contact information is listed at www.highend.com/

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HSL supplied the equipment for LD Andy Hurst’s lighting design for Sigma at the Royal Albert Hall

company/regional-sales#RDS While there are no immediate changes to the sales and distribution channels, High End plans to evolve and improve the company’s reach in all markets by partnering with the existing distributor and dealer base and investing more in the support of these channels.

New software for ETC’s ColorSource Relay implements wireless RDM The ColorSource® Relay system kickstarted a new era of power control, bringing budget-friendly system infrastructure with data distribution to theatres, houses of worship, schools and community centres. Now the ColorSource Relay is upgrading its simple configuration and wireless performance with the addition of wireless RDM. The latest release of the Relay software – version 1.1.0 – is available to download and offers venues the ability to add wireless RDM to their ColorSource Relay system. RDM is available in all ColorSource Relay units with an upgrade to software version 1.1.0..

In order to upgrade their units, users should contact ETC technical support. In addition to adding wireless RDM, the latest version of the ColorSource Relay software also includes upgrades for performance optimisation of wireless DMX.

HSL Celebrating Life with Sigma at the Albert Hall In May, UK d’n’b duo Sigma became the first drum and bass act –to play London’s Royal Albert Hall, complete with full band.

Creating a special visuality for this ground-breaking gig was Show

Designer Andy Hurst. He used a combination of lighting equipment supplied by Blackburn rental company HSL and the in-house rig, and worked alongside a crew of three from HSL. Lasers – fast becoming a Hurst show signature – were delivered

by ER; LED screens, cameras and projection were from Video Illusions; and BPM supplied the pyro.

A key to Andy’s aesthetic was to embrace the environment, so he chose to highlight the venue’s legendary organ and map it with lasers. He also decided to wrap the front of the choir stalls and the whole of the upstage area with 6mm LED in a 24M-wide by 2.7m-high surface. Because of the letterbox dimension, they had some custom content made by Comix and this effectively became another layer in the visual treatment.

Four production trusses were utilised and HSL supplied an additional 18 Robe BMFL Spot moving lights, which combined with the 12 in-house ones, gave a total of 30 at Andy’s disposal.

Eleven Robe CycFX 8s were positioned along the riser fronts and 38 GLP X4 LED washes were rigged on the trusses for general stage wash coverage, with one row alternating in between the choir stalls’ level arc of Pointes.

The flown rig was taken out to its highest trim height to enable fans to see as much of the organ as possible and, when the overhead LED washes were fully throwing forwards, they emitted some excellent secondary lumens, incidentally catching the venue’s famous roof mushrooms.

To extend the stage space widthways, adding depth and some tungsten blinding capacity, Andy chose 26 PATT 2013s from HSL, which were mounted on a combination of stands located on three levels: the stage and two sets of choir stalls. As PATTs do, they also looked cool as a scenic piece.

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DMX controllable laser units, which were all mounted on droparms rigged off the four trusses. These created vibrant piercing lines of colour, cones of light, oscillations and subtle texturing that worked beautifully and harmoniously with the lighting.

Meanwhile, the organ was mapped with six 15W standard coloured lasers positioned stage right and left. Andy decided against follow spots, instead using four Robe DL7F fresnels from the house rig to make up a front wash for Sigma’s various guest singers and artists.

Rips it up with Thunder Lighting Designer Ian Bintliff returned to HSL to source equipment for the most recent UK tour by bluesy rockers Thunder, who were promoting their new album ‘Rip It Up’ visiting a string of theatre and town hall venues.

With the new album, Ian – known throughout the industry as Scampi – created a new lighting design. Some basic physical parameters included the kit having to fit in one truck of the twotruck tour. Manager and lead singer Danny Bowes’ instructions were to ‘keep it cost effective and make it fab’ and, beyond that, it was an open brief, left to Scampi’s flair, ingenuity, experience and familiarity with the band after 14 years to produce something eye-catching.

His idea was to start the set with a retro ‘rock gods’ look, with the use high banks and huge walls of PAR cans, harking back to the pioneering days of Queen, AC / DC, Judas Priest,Van Halen et al and a nod to his own inspiration to pursue a career in professional lighting (a Queen gig at Manchester Free Trade Hall circa 1975).

Then, as the set progressed, to move the look forward, while still retaining some of those de rigueur rock platitudes.

He decided on four pods for the high-impact back wall, made up of three pre-rigged trussing sections clamped together, giving a six by six matrix of lightsources. These could be split apart to get through the narrower get-in doorways and tipped in the truck – clearing only by millimetres – to stand vertical for an expedient pack!

Each pod was populated with 18 LED PARs and 18 Philips SL Wash 350 LED moving lights, giving a total of 144 in-the-face LED lights with numerous highly-effective options.

Two of the pods were flown off the back truss and two from their own small trusses. On the top of each pod were three Philips Nitro LED strobes, used traditionally and sometimes as floods – one of the many advantages of LED strobes. There were also six Robe BMFL Spots and six Robe Pointes on the back truss.

Moving downstage from the rear pods was the mid truss, which contained a kabuki fitted with a drape backdrop for opening act Cats in Space, plus six more BMFL Spots and 12 additional Pointes.

These were used for all the power looks and big beam effects.

The front truss featured Robe ColorWash and ColorSpot 1200E ATs for some solid rock ’n’ roll front washes and key lighting.

Scampi’s console of choice was an Avolites Sapphire Touch.

After being with a band for 14 years, it’s always a challenge to deliver the base requirements and keep it looking fresh each time around. Then there’s lighting some vintage tunes that simply need certain treatments. “Some songs, no matter how radically the rig and the design has changed from the last tour still need to be lit in a very specific way to do them justice,” he said.

The search for everything to supply John Mayer tour ... and what HSL couldn’t source from their extensive stock, they purchased for John Mayer’s The Search for Everything tour, including new VL4000 Beam Washes, which were on Lighting Designer Nathan Alves’ plot, together with Robe BMFLs and Claypaky Sharpy Washes.

HSL Project Manager Jordan Hanson co-ordinated everything 40

from their end and three of Nate’s regular crew, chief Chris Coyle, Benji Meserole and Holly Lloyd, went to HSL ahead of the tour and prepped the lighting rig, which was supplied as a complete dry hire package for the European and UK legs of the tour.

The overall production design concept for this new tour was designed by Sam Pattinson from Treatment Studio, also responsible for the stunning video content.

Once the primary architecture of the stage was established by Sam and the artist himself, Nate started work on the lighting plot, choosing his fixtures and deciding on a framework to hang them that was in keeping with the overall look.

The set has a strong video aesthetic with a large LED back wall, an LED floor and LED top-and-front-clad risers for the band, bringing a cinematic feel. It is also extremely neat, clean and definite in terms of visual lines and perspective.

In addition to finding the right and most effective lights for the high-light LED environment, he also had to create the numerous moods needed to help capture the dynamics of Mayer’s set, which embraces his full guitar repertoire, from funky soul and blues to rock and pop to acoustic guitar, plus a strong vocal presence.

The BMFLs and the Vari*Lites are hung on eight upstage / downstage orientated trusses flown in a grid directly overhead the stage. The linear structure of this keeps the ordered geometric style of the stage design, which is a nice juxtaposition with the organic nature of the live performance.

Twenty-four of the Sharpy Washes are on the front truss, where they can wash the band or be turned out into the audience, with the other four on the downstage corners for low-level cross-stage lighting.

Sections of the playback video material are spatial and abstract.

Some of the live IMAG mix cut by Kevin Williams is graded and coloured in a bold pop-art style, and video is also used as a base lightsource, with lots of single-colour blocks and wipes across the surfaces, so lighting this set and performance in a complementary and interesting way is very different to a standard lightshow. The artist and the band have to be seen for both camera and live audience. The lighting also has to match the screen material, with big movements and accents at times. But it’s not a conventional beamy or flashy show; it is more sophisticated, complex and moodorientated, with lots of drama and climatic interventions.

Nate is running the show on a grandMA2 full size console.

JANDS VISTA RAI Television’s Cavalli di Battaglia utilises lighting control by Jands Vista The award-winning Jands Vista lighting and media control range has once again proved its flexibility and power by providing control for Italian national broadcaster RAI Television’s primetime Saturday night entertainment show Cavalli di Battaglia.

The show retraces the 50-year career of famous Italian actor Gigi Proietti. Gigi hosted three primetime Saturday-night one-man shows reliving the most iconic moments from his repertoire. Friends and colleagues from the entertainment world joined Gigi on stage, recreating famous sketches, music and cinematic moments.

The show’s lighting and video concept was a co-production by RAI Television and Lighting Designer Umile Vainieri, who has followed the career of Gigi Proietti since his early days in the industry. The concept was developed accordingly, with conventional lighting used to recall the beginning of Gigi’s career as, at this time, it

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was the only technology available. It culminates in the present day with the latest intelligent fixtures and a massive LED video wall providing fast changing background scenery in keeping with the high production values of modern entertainment shows.

A separate Vista T2 console provided control of the conventional fixtures, in addition to a Vista D1 providing full network-wide redundancy.

Summarising his experience using Vista, Umile said: “I have been a Vista user for many years and I love the creative possibilities this revolutionary system offers me as a designer.Vista’s generic fixture model ensures that I am able to produce great stage looks incredibly quickly, even when time is tight on site.Vista’s timeline feature allows me to fine-tune the most intricate details, which on a show like this enabled me to create and easily experiment with interesting cue transitions and ensure a variety of different looks as we progressed through Gigi’s career and the individual productions.”

KINO FLO Kicks releases Freestyle Kino Flo Lighting Systems will premier its new Select Freestyle line of location lighting systems for motion picture and television production during NAB 2017 Trade Show in Las Vegas.

The new Freestyle systems come with durable, lightweight LED panels that can easily be removed for use as set practicals or for unconventional mounting when lighting in tight quarters.

Weighing in at 8lb (3.5kg), the removable Freestyle LEDs are a force multiplier when it comes to production lighting. The LED panels include rigging points for suspending from a grid or screwing into a set wall, and a twist-on mounting plate assembly for 360-degree orientation or for building into light arrays. Like all Select LED Kinos, the Freestyle panels deliver bright, controllable >97 CRI white light, full hue and saturation-control colour, cinema gel presets and RGB chromatic selection via the AC/DC Select controller.

Lighting professionals also can program Freestyle fixtures to operate between 2,500K to 9,900K or choose a full range of colour, lumen level and green/magenta correction remotely by standard DMX or wireless DMX. The same handheld Select controllers can run fixtures remotely on 50ft of head cable without hooking into a control board.

Colour and luminosity remain stable over the rated life of the LEDs using Kino Flo’s advanced True Match® daylight and tungsten colour management system, which has been the engineering science behind the success of the company’s LEDs, introduced five years ago in the Celeb fixture line.

The passive-cooled fixtures do not overheat the LEDs, so no heat

sink fins or whirling fans. The Freestyle’s 150W Select Controller technology achieves bright soft light, with continuous dimming from 100 per cent to zero per cent on a linear or square curve, without flicker at higher camera speeds or at varied shutter angles. There is no light level change when shifting from 2,500K to 9,900K and the colour doesn’t change when the light levels rise or fall.

The Freestyle comes complete with the full-colour, programmable Select controller, head cable (25ft), complete fixture with removable LED panel, and a twist-on centre mount with the new KinoGrip for handheld lighting. Like the original Select LED systems, the Freestyle is available in Select 31 (3ft) and Select 21 (2ft) sizes.

MULTI-LITE Following on from their highly successful 2015 launch of the QuartzColor LED X Series Studio Fresnel range, Multi Lite (UK) are delighted to announce the arrival of the new,30 per cent brighter, X Series Plus range. The new X Series Plus family offers a minimum of 50,000+ hours LED engine life, versus the 150 hours of a traditional incandescent lamp. With reduced power requirements, no external dimmers required and practically no maintenance or spare-part requirement thanks to LED engine’s dramatically lower heat output, the X Series Plus are a dream to use and maintain.

The X Series Plus family offers state-of-the-art replacements for traditional 650W, 1kW, 2kW and 3kW tungsten spotlights in the form of the X4, X5, X6 and X7 Studio LED Plus models.

Revitalise your 1kW and 2kW Fresnel fixtures in 2017 with MultiLite’s new ReLite LED module from renowned manufacturer Coemar.

The ReLite is an adaptable LED module to replace the CP40 and CP41 type lamps used in film and TV-industry tungsten Fresnel spotlights. The ReLite module offers 30,000 hours plus operating life, smooth two to 100 per cent flicker-free dimming, power savings of over 90 per cent when compared with traditional halogen lamps and it generates virtually no heat.

The ReLite will be available in 3,200k or 5,600k daylight options. It comes as standard with a G22 cap and can be adapted to G38 by using an optional G38 adaptor.

The innovation at Coemar continues with Multi-Lite’s launch in the UK of their VariWhite and RGBWhite SoftLite LED fixtures. These durable steel and aluminium handy-sized 250W power LED soft lights give DMX-controlled, flicker-free light for broadcast TV applications. Measuring in at only 8.2in by 23.7in, the VariWhite model gives variable operation from 3,000K colour temperature to 7,000K bright daylight, and the alternative RGBWhite model offers effortless colour mixing, plus 2,700K to 10,000K white output. Both models have 120-degree beam, zero to 100 per cent dimming and low-noise operation, supported by adjustable foursetting fan cooling.

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VL6000 Beam and VL4000 BeamWash fixtures from Philips Vari-Lite were used on Bruno Mars’ world tour © The Fifth Estate Ltd

For fast and flexible creativity on set, Coemar’s new LED LedKo Profile series now includes their CRI96 200W daylight 5,600K and tungsten 3,200K Studio D and T models.These innovative units use Coemar’s patented Fresnel and PC optics to give soft 16-bit dimmable profiling, with fast and easy four-blade framing.The LED LedKo Profiles also have studio-friendly DMX-controlled adjustable low-noise cooling fans and are interchangeable with your existing profile optics.

Following on from the recent Philips Lighting review of their MSR and MSI entertainment discharge lamp range, branding and distribution on six popular lamp types has now been transferred to Japanese manufacturer Kahoku Lighting Solutions (KLS). The lamp types affected are: MSR 1800 DE 1CT 928106705120 MSR 6000HR UNP/1 928172705120 MSI 575HR 1CT/10924841000040 MSI 1200HR 1CT/10 924840600040 MSR 18000HR UNP/1 928105505120 MSR 12000HR 928173305120 KLS are now distributing these lamps, plus their own complete range of single-ended MSR type lamps from 400W to 18,000W, and double-ended 12,000W to 18,000W lamps, through their exclusive European distributor Multi-Lite.

For further information on KLS UK pricing or any of the products listed, contact Martin Carnell of Multi-Lite (UK) at their London office on 020 8561 4501 or email sales@multi-lite.co.uk.

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PHILIPS Philips Lighting sets new standard in stage and TV lighting with its new Philips Vari-Lite luminaires Philips Lighting has announced the launch of its new Philips Vari-Lite VL1100 LED luminaire, which sets a new standard in high-quality LED moving head spotlights for stage and television applications. The global launch took place at the 2017 ABTT Theatre Show at Alexandra Palace, London, in June.

The Philips VL1100 LED has been designed as a seamless low-energy replacement for the popular VL1100 ellipsoidal reflector spotlight: a favorite tungsten moving head fixture for many lighting designers. High quality, high-CRI light output, consistent colour reproduction and a perfect ‘tungsten’ colour shift emulation are key to its design. These characteristics are all delivered by an exclusive new 3,200K Philips LED light engine, which succeeds in making the Philips VL1100 LED the first moving head fixture to offer a true alternative to the traditional tungsten source.

In addition, the Philips VL1100 LED offers the added flexibility of allowing the user to remotely manage the balance between light output and fan level. When the user sets the fan noise level, the fixture will automatically set the total power output to align with the required noise level, and vice versa.

The Philips VL1100 LED uses the same colour mechanism as the lamp-based version but the colour system has been tuned with the LED light engine to match the original fixture’s colour reproduction.

To maximise cooling efficiency, the fixture features a new hybrid system of liquid cooling and forced air, keeping fan noise levels to a minimum while maintaining the high-quality light output.

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Further enhancements within the new software system include the addition of Standard and Classic operating modes, allowing the Philips VL1100 LED fixture to be used as a direct replacement of the Philips VL1100, with very little modification needed to existing show programs. All other features popular in the original Philips VL1100 luminaire will remain the same in the new Philips VL1100 LED. The VL1100 LED will soon also be available in an HP (high-power/ high-colour temperature) version, delivering a bright, flat and even field at 6,500K, with consistent colour temperature reproduction throughout the dimming curve, providing a low-power replacement for the existing VL1100 Arc luminaire.

Philips Lighting brings the funk on Bruno Mars’ 24K Magic world tour VL6000 Beam and VL4000 BeamWash fixtures from Philips Vari-Lite rock and roll lighting product line have been selected by Production Designer LeRoy Bennett and Lighting Designer Cory FitzGerald to add unparalleled 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 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 important to Bruno how the show is conveyed on social media.”

Bennett and FitzGerald have captured the essence of the Nineties era and added a contemporary twist by mixing the classic rock and roll look of par cans with the beam work and vibrant colour palette of high-power moving lights. Forty-eight Philips Vari-Lite VL6000 Beams are rigged on vertical truss facing out, while 53 Philips Vari-Lite VL4000 BeamWash fixtures provide backlight, sidelight and a myriad of bright, bold effects. The lighting package is being supplied by rental operation VER. The 85-date world tour kicked off in Antwerp, Belgium, in March.

Following the stint in Europe, the North American leg of the tour commenced on 15 July at the T-Mobile arena in Las Vegas and will culminate at The Forum, Los Angeles, on 11 November.

PHOTON BEARD What a busy month we have had. Photon Beard has been travelling the world. We visited BroadCast Asia in Singapore and CineGear in California. Both were great shows and it was fantastic to see so many of you there as well.

There was great interest in our Platinum Blonde and the PB80. If you need any more information, send us a quick message or check out the website.

We enjoyed checking out all the awesome new tech on show, including the Jaunt 360° camera. At first glance, we did think the Death Star had been rebuilt, but fear not, we can’t find any laser beams or evil Sith Lords.

Finally, we would like to introduce our newest member of staff, Georgi Ward. She has joined us to take over our social media pages.

Those of you who follow us on social media may have noticed an increase in activity recently thanks to Georgi and now she has wrestled the keyboard off Peter to do the newsletters.

We are all looking forward to hearing what she has to say. If you have anything that you think is good for our newsletters, such as products in use or stories of how you apply our lights, feel free to send them to us for inclusion.You will get a plug, of course, to boost your own profile a little.

PRG XL The X Factor Live Tour PRG XL Video recently supported Production Manager Iain Whitehead and Production North with lighting, video and rigging services for The X Factor Live Tour 2017. Stopping off at 19 venues around the UK, the tour featured the stars of the 2016 series of the popular prime-time weekend television show.

Lighting Designer Peter Barnes returned for his sixth tour to design the set, lighting and video screen layout. Peter explained the creative process behind the show: “I worked closely with Creative Director Beth Honan on her staging requirements and overall artistic look of the show. The general design complemented what the audience would be used to from the TV show. Although there was no particular brief given to me, with this particular show there’s always been a video screen that opens upstage centre and the rest just falls into place from that, filling in the background with screens and lights. While designing the set and lighting layout to fit in with Beth’s vision, it was also of paramount importance for me to regularly liaise with Iain Whitehead and his production team, as well as my lighting Crew Chief Steve Major, to ensure the rig was practical from a technical and build perspective.”

Lighting technology used included the PRG Best Boy spot HP, Vari*Lite VL3500, Clay Paky Mythos, Sharpy moving lights, A.Leda B-EYE K10 LED effects lights and Solaris Flare LED strobes.

Followspotting power was provided by Robert Juliat Lancelots.

Peter said: “I opted for Clay Paky Sharpys because they have a bright, punchy beam, which shows up against the high quantity of LED screen. The Mythos is an equally powerful light and can be used to give wider beam effects, while the VL3500 gave a bright overall wash, enabling us to see the artists and dancers against the strong backlight from the screens. I used the Clay Paky K10s to give some backwash and effects. The Ayrton Magic Blades and Magic Panels also gave wonderful effects to play about with.”

The main video element of the tour was made up of ROE Visual MC-7H 7.5mm LED tiles, with a central 6m by 4.2m screen, flanked by four 1.2m-wide vertical strips stepping out and forwards from each side. Above this, and fanning out over the stage, were a combination of ROE S18 600mm and 1,200mm 9mm LED strips.

This layout of screen is designed to open up the stage, focusing the audience’s attention towards the central point, as well as giving a false sense of perspective and making the stage look bigger than it actually is. The LED screen content was driven by a Brompton Technology Tessem/Revolution M2 LED processor and Catalyst V5 XL media server. In addition to the LED walls, there were two projection screens either side of the stage playing pre-recorded content and IMAG footage of the show. Sony HXC-100 XL cameras captured footage on the night and was played back through Barco HDX-W20 20K projectors.

Peter was joined by Lighting Operator Dom Crookes, who has worked with him on numerous tours, including Ronan Keating and The Vamps. Dom said: “Beth worked closely with Pete to decide on the style of lighting for each song but generally we were going for Set & Light | Summer 2017

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PRG XL Video supported Production Manager Iain Whitehead and Production North with The X Factor Live Tour 2017

big, bold looks, which replicated what people expected to see from the TV show. I used a Hog 4 Full Boar to program and operate the lighting, which was all pre-programmed and run off of timecode, triggered by the audio track of each song.”

The show cycled through performances from each of the final eight contestants, introduced by their mentor on the side screens, before 2016’s X Factor winner, Matt Terry, closed the show.

The X Factor TV series will return in the autumn, with the next live tour taking to the road in February 2018.

PRG uses innovative products on Eurovision 2017 PRG were an official service supplier for the 62nd Eurovision Song Contest, held in Kiev’s International Exhibition Centre in May, as Ukraine hosted Eurovision for the second time. PRG worked in partnership with Litecom to support Lighting Designer Jerry Appelt and Stage Designer Florian Wieder by supplying lighting, video and rigging technology for the show.

Kiev was Jerry’s third time working on Eurovision, having also designed the shows for Dusseldorf in 2011 and Baku in 2012, as well as numerous other high-profile productions such as the Commonwealth Games ceremonies for Delhi in 2010. Jerry said: “I’m very happy to work with PRG on this project because aside from the enormous quantity of lighting fixtures and complex parameters, it’s essential to work with a company that has the resources to deal with all kinds of unexpected eventualities, that can deliver on the biggest occasions in the most challenging environments. There are few companies that can provide this level of service anywhere in the world. I know that whichever challenge I set PRG, they will deliver.”

Production management guru Ola Melzig has taken the reigns as Head of Production for the Kiev show, his 13th Eurovision. Ola said: “Eurovision is always a production of monumental proportions; we started the load in on 27 March and emptied 200 trucks into the halls. It took four-and-a-half weeks to do all the rigging, hang the lights and audio and then build the stage. The venue was fantastic; there are few spaces around the world that can accommodate 212 tons in the roof and only be at 70 per cent capacity. Full credit to our 44

Head Rigger John Van Look and his team of riggers from PRG for overseeing a complex rigging design and a smooth load in and fit-up.”

Jerry led a comprehensive team in the front-of-house area, which spans the full width of the back of the arena, including individual operators for the main show lighting, audience lighting, key lights, spot calls and video content. The lighting and video control network was one of the largest ever uses of GrandMA consoles, with five active full-size GrandMA2, three GrandMA Light and a selection of additional faders and playback wings. The whole network reached the maximum number of active participants in a single session, 31, controlling 89,000 channels of DMX over 9,865 programmed fixtures. This was driven through 20 GrandMA Network Processing Units (NPUs) and 28 nodes. There was, of course, substantial backup. The total number of lighting fixtures was an incredible 1,816.

Among others, these included: 68 PRG Best Boy HP2; 56 PRG Best Boy Wash Blade; 55 PRG Bad Boy Wash; 130 Icon Edge and the new JDC1 LED strobe from GLP. Haze was provided by six MDG ATMe DMX hazers, positioned around the stage.

In addition to the lighting technology supplied by PRG, we also provided a comprehensive package of LED screens and projectors.

The back screen was made up of ROE MC-12 and MC-18, with sections of MC-7 used at various other points around the rig. There were 56 high output projectors in use, which were used to map onto the stage surround, directly down onto the surface of the stage, onto two high-transparency projection screens at the front of the stage, as well as various ‘standard’ screens in and around the arena.

PRG XL Video supplies lighting, rigging and video technology for Make the Future London Following on from a highly successful event in 2016, creative agency Imagination has once again produced Make the Future London and the Shell Eco-marathon Europe: a four-day event held at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London.

The event promotes innovation and future technologies and includes a variety of family-friendly activities and exhibits to educate and entertain.

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Imagination’s Global Project Director, Lynda Hickey, and event Technical Director, Matt Francis, called on PRG XL Video to supply lighting, rigging and video technology for the event, as the company was able to provide technology across all three disciplines.

PRG XL Rigging Account Manager Ade Stead, worked with Imagination’s brief to specify and build rigging structures for the outdoor stages, LED screens and lighting, and truss and supports for the lighting in multiple marquees across the site.

Lighting Account Manager Cameron Bannister,and onsite Crew Chief Dana Read provided a variety of fixtures, including bright-white Source4 Power Floods to light the Eco-marathon paddock and parc ferme marquees where the energy-efficient vehicles were prepared.

ETC Source 4 Power Par fixtures were used for general lighting in the experiential areas. A crowd-pleasing zorbing experience, with midi-controlled lighting that changed colour based on the energy generated by the participants, used German Light Products GLP X4 fixtures to light the zorbs. On the main stage, truss totems were used to back the performers and these featured a combination of Sunstrips, mounted vertically, mixed with Robe Pointes and Robins.

On the video side, PRG XL Account Manager Rich Pow and Crew Chief Nathan Avery worked with Matt Francis to provide a high-resolution Unilumin 3.9m LED screen in the welcome area. This displayed an introductory film to visitors as they arrived.

In the park, they supplied a pair of ROE Visual MC-7 screens either side of the main stage, which displayed IMAG footage of the performers, and highlights of the Eco-marathon action. A further relay screen situated centrally in the park also displayed IMAG footage.

A pedestrian bridge across the Eco-marathon track allowed visitors to walk from the entrance and paddock area to the main stage. Built into the side of the bridge, a further LED screen displayed the countdown clock for the qualifying heats and main race, as well as results, stats and social media info.

IMAG footage was captured by several IP cameras installed across the site by Imagination, along with two wired and three wireless cameras from PRG XL. A jib-cam was brought in for the finals of the Shell Eco-marathon Europe. Rich said: “The additional camera jib we supplied captured some different footage, which looked fantastic on the IMAG screens.”

All the camera feeds were handled by one of PRG XL’s broadcast quality PPUs, with the video cut by Video Director Matt McCafferty.

The cut footage was then output to all the screens across the site via Barco e2 screen management systems.

One of the outdoor game areas – Energy Light – used LED strips.

Players were encouraged to transfer weights onto a weighing mechanism. The LED strips changed colour as more weight was added, giving a visual representation of the game.

PROLYTE Prolyte Group expands distribution in Belgium and the Netherlands Following recent expansion, Prolyte can now welcome AED Nederland as Prolyte distributor in the Netherlands, AED Distribution as ProLyft Service Point in Belgium and Controllux BE as both Prolyte distributor and ProLyft Service Point in Belgium.

With the appointment of two new Service Points in Belgium and extra Prolyte distributors in the Netherlands, as well as in Belgium, Prolyte Group has guaranteed full distribution coverage in both countries.

Compiled by Emma Thorpe ~ email sponsornews@stld.org.uk

Following AED Group’s aquisition of the Luxibel activities of former Prolyte distributor and Service Point in Belgium,Velleman BV, Prolyte needed to rethink its distribution options for Belgium and the Netherlands. With these recent appointments, customers in both countries have all the options at hand.

Both Controllux and AED Distribution are experienced and long-term Prolyte distributors, with lots of in-house experience.

Both companies have built strong markets for Prolyte products and serve their own customer base.

BGR70 truss from Prolyte Group starts successfully Following its launch at the P+S Exhibition, Prolyte Group can confirm the first sales orders for its latest truss innovation, the BGR70, which also featured as mainstage support for the Untold festival in Romania this summer.

The third edition of the Untold festival was held in Cluj-Napoca, taking place across various locations in the city, including the 30,000-seater Cluj Arena stadium.

Festival Director Corneliu Ladin (pictured below, right, with Bruno Lerminiaux) said: “With the massive capacity and unique features of the BGR70 truss, we can create even more stunning designs; I’m really impressed by the design of this truss.”

Arena Events, based in Romania, has bought over 125m of the BGR70 truss, all of which were used for the Untold festival.

Other companies that have invested in the truss include Scenos Techninis Servisas from Lithuania and TSD Group from Argentina, which received their first batch in June. STS will use the truss for rental purposes on several upcoming projects this season.

PULSAR Pulsar becomes Luxeos Luminaires Ltd Pulsar is making a few changes: our new name is Luxeos Luminaires Ltd. This reflects the passion and drive we have for the new Luxeos range of products and services. We recently won the largest contract in the company’s 45-year history and it is all Luxeos products. We’ll be sharing pictures and news once it’s completed.

You can still call us Pulsar, the same company you have known for so many years. It’s just run by a new legal entity, which is Luxeos Luminaires Ltd. For our customers, very little changes.You have direct access to the same fantastic management team and employees, we use the same best-in-class suppliers and we have the same unbridled enthusiasm and passion you have come to expect from all of us at Pulsar over the decades.

We are proud to be a British-based manufacturer – a big part of Set & Light | Summer 2017

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our 45-year heritage. In the last three years we have increased our purchases from UK and European-based manufacturers. We are moving our factory a few miles up the road, where we will continue to build Luxeos and Pulsar products. Right here. In Britain. As always.

We recently launched the new Luxeos Flood and Luxeos Linear and they’re taking off, with more innovative products to come. Our second brand, Luxeos is rolling out across our entire product range and sits beside the Pulsar trademark and brand. Pulsar has a long history and has always thrived on providing an outstanding service to our customers.We are looking forward to this continuing across all brands.

For more information, visit www.pulsarlight.com or contact Pulsar on +44 (0)1223 403500, email sales@pulsarlight.com – exactly the same as always.

RML RML illuminates Election Results 2017 Richard Martin Lighting (RML) supported Lighting Designer David Gibson in lighting the BBC coverage of the General Election, Election Results 2017, aired on BBC One. When Theresa May called a General Election it wasn’t just the politicians that scrambled but also the world of television – to produce relevant content for something they usually have over a year to prepare for.

Lighting Designer David Gibson was called upon to light the BBC coverage that ran from when the polls closed all the way through to the next morning. The overnight coverage was presented by David Dimbleby, who has anchored the BBC’s coverage of every General Election since 1979.

A vast rig was employed, going into the Elstree Studio D in two parts, and David chose a mixture of strong and stable units, including the Clay Paky Sharpy, the Martin MAC Aura, James Thomas Engineering Pixel Par 90 and Pulsar Chroma Flood 200 TC and 300mm Chroma Cubes. The units combined to create a sophisticated and stylish look, keeping the studio looking fresh and bright as the night dwindled into the early hours.

RML lights the Battle for Number 10 RML supported LD Richard Bowles in lighting one of the biggest nights in the election campaign as Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn faced a live audience and Jeremy Paxman in May v Corbyn Live:The Battle for Number 10.

Aired live from Sky Studios on Sky News and Channel 4, Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May separately faced audience questions before being grilled by Jeremy Paxman on key issues such as Brexit, social care and the economy. With the General Election just a week away and the polls narrowing between the two main political parties, the night proved illuminating on both sides.

Lighting for May v Corbyn Live was designed by Richard Bowles, supported by RML, and a vast rig was employed. As well as the interior lighting for the debate, Richard also designed the lighting that surrounded the exterior of the studio, and an emphasis was placed on LED products for both sections.

Inside the studio, the staging was open, letting the party leaders face the audience head on, and the lighting succeeded in keeping the leaders open and uncovered as they faced questions from the live audience and Paxman. For the interior lighting, Richard used a variety of lighting, with MAC Auras surrounding the stage, joined by GLP X4 units. Accompanying them were VL1000TS, GLP Impression 46

and SL LEDSPOT 300 units.

The British weather can never be relied on, especially on a bank holiday, so the lighting outside the studio consisted of waterproof fixtures. A crowd of SGM P5s were strategically placed and used to flood the building in hues of red and blue, proving striking as the evening darkened. HO Uplighters and Pixel Par 90 (IP65) units joined the P5s outside as well as Liteware Satellites, which accompanied the walkway and greeted both party leaders as they entered the studio – programmed red for Corbyn and blue for May, of course.

Let’s Sing and Dance for Comic Relief Let’s Sing and Dance for Comic Relief came to a barnstorming end, with The Chasers dancing and singing their way to victory with a Wizard of Oz-inspired routine. Aired live from BBC Elstree, the show was lit by Roger Williams with support from RML. Presented by Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins, the show saw three weeks of heats, with acts whittled down to six final performances.

With five performances per heat, Roger employed a range of lighting in order to create distinct looks. With a mixture of favourites such as MAC Auras and Sharpy’s, through to some of RML’s latest units such as the GLP X4 and GLP X4S, each performance felt unique and exciting.

For the final, Roger drafted in some units to create a truly spectacular display – our new VL6000 Beams. With a large 14-inch front aperture, the unit produces a retro-style searchlight effect, with a high-output tight collimated shaft of light at 6.5. The unit was used in the winning performance by The Chasers as well as during musical guest Zara Larsson’s performance of new song ‘So Good’.

Roger said: “Fantastic support from RML as always. I had a wide variety of lamps to choose from and picked exactly what I needed for a very complex set and a lot of varied musical content. The final was enhanced by the new VL6000 Beam and this was the first outing in the UK for the fixture, which provided a great addition to the already exciting rig. The lamp was powerful in all colours, stylish and had an amazing beam well developed by Phillips and Vari*lite.”

ROBE Robe Spikie wins Live Design Award Robe’s Spikie has been named as one of the 2016-17 Live Design ‘Products of the Year’, which were selected by a panel of industry experts and aficionados, including designers, programmers and engineers active in the essential production disciplines of lighting, sound and video.

Robe’s Craig Burross, National Business Development Manager, went to New York to accept the award. He said: “I was honoured to accept the award on behalf of Robe. Everyone in our ‘family’ greatly and sincerely appreciates this new product recognition for Spikie.

We would like to say a big thank you to everyone at Live Design and, of course, to our amazing Robe Lighting customers!”

Robe’s Spikie was launched at the Prolight+Sound show in 2016 and has enjoyed phenomenal success.

Designers love the fact it is so small and lightweight: a 16lb super-fast LED WashBeam, utilising a single 60W RGBW light source, complete with a specially designed 110mm-wide front lens that produces a high-quality solid beam. It has continuous pan and tilt rotation in both directions and variable speed, plus a fast zoom that facilitates a soft wide 28-degree wash at one end, going to a tight sharp-edged four-degree beam at the other, for stunning in-air effects.

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Compiled by Emma Thorpe ~ email sponsornews@stld.org.uk

RML supplied LD Roger Williams with some of its latest units, such as the GLP X4 and GLP X4S, for Let’s Sing and Dance for Comic Relief

Then there are some added bonuses such as the innovative ‘flower’ effect, which produces three piercing rays: sharp, multicolored spikes of light bringing another unique visual effect to the table.

At the same event, Sooner and Robert also received an Excellence in Live Design Award for ‘masterful teamwork’ in their numerous and varied concert design and production collaborations, which this year included Depeche Mode, Lady Antebellum and Kelsea Ballerini, in addition to The Weeknd.

Robe Helps Slovenia on its Way to Eurovision One of the 43 hopefuls for this year’s Eurovision in Kiev, Ukraine, in May was Slovenia’s Omar Naber whose song ‘On My Way’ was chosen at a spectacular Eurovision Melody (EMA – Evrovizijska MelodijA) show staged in Hall A2 of the Gospodarsko Razstavisce exhibition centre in Ljubljana.

A lighting design by Crt Birsa amazed audiences – both onscreen and live – for which Crt utilised over 200 Robe fixtures on the rig, including Spiiders, BMFL Blades, Pointes, MMX WashBeams, Squares, LEDBeam 100s, PARFect 100s, CycFX 8s, LEDWash 600s, ColorSpot 1200E ATs and a single Robin 600E Spot, supplied to the show by Slovenia’s largest rental company, Event Lighting.

Crt worked closely with Set Designer Greta Godnic to create a striking visual environment for this high-profile show, which was broadcast live on Slovenian national TV in three parts – two semi-finals and a grand finale, each attended by a live audience of about 1,000.

Crt is one of the country’s leading LDs and gets involved in many of RTV’s (Slovenian National TV) largest and more complex shows.

When Greta and Crt were initiating the designs, they wanted to involve the whole room in the show rather than separating the stage and set from the venue. One big harmonious performance space was a key aesthetic goal.

While there was a reasonable amount of time on site, that is

never enough, so Crt did plenty of previsualisation, allowing him to come to the expo centre prepared with most of the basic lighting building blocks. Then it was a case of finessing, which as we all know can be an infinite process!

The imposing set comprised three giant, grey industrial-style crosses each side of stage, resembling huge hammers laid on their sides.

Far upstage was a 40m by 8m grey scenic-projection mesh with a number of lights hidden behind, including Sunstrips and LEDBeam 100s, and this was fed with images from four high-powered projectors.

Fourteen BMFL Blades were right at the core of the rig: two used as follow-spots, controlled via the TV lighting operators’ console, positioned on towers at the back of the hall. Four of the remaining 12 BMFL Blades provided centre-back for the cameras and eight on the floor upstage for those huge beamy looks, strong contra-lighting and nice gobo effects into the cameras.

Twenty-four MMX WashBeams were on the front trusses and also under the control of the National TV operators. They were picked due to the blades and, positioned as they were, could light both the stage and the green-room areas immediately in front of it.

The 36 Pointes were the main show effects lights. The trussing design formed three main, diagonally-orientated squares (like the diamond in a pack of cards), with 16 Pointes in the outer squares and eight on the inner one, which they dubbed ‘the chandelier’ due to it having the greatest concentration of lights. The other 12 were around the front and to the sides of the stage.

Twenty Spiiders also made their presence felt. Sixteen Spiiders formed the middle square and were used as secondary effects lights.

Usually, Crt combined them with LEDBeam 100s and Squares. The other four were used to wash the venue ceiling with colours to match the set.

Continuing on the LEDWash theme, 22 LEDWash 600s were on the rig: 14 dedicated to keeping the audience lit and coloured at all times, divided evenly down each side of the venue. Six more were Set & Light | Summer 2017

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Compiled by Emma Thorpe ~ email sponsornews@stld.org.uk

Robe supplied 58 Pointes, 34 MMX WashBeams, 24 LEDWash 600s, 24 BMFL Spots and 20 Spiiders for the 2017 Porin Music Awards

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hung on the inner two squares and used to illuminate the prominent structural pillars in the centre of the hall, while the other two assisted the Spiiders with the ceiling wash.

A total of 31 little LEDBeam 100s made their presence felt!

Sixteen formed a four-by-four matrix in the centre of the lighting rig.

They produced a cool wide shard of light at the epicentre.

Fifteen LEDBeam 100s were concealed behind the projection mesh at the back in a three-wide by five-high formation. Staying mostly hidden, they made massive impact when fired up and flashed.

These were Crt’s ‘secret weapon’ effects lights and made up the third element of show effects lighting.

The LEDBeam 100 has long been a favourite in Crt’s design toolbox. Being close together on this show, the ones in the centre worked well as one large multi-point source.

The 32 PARFect 100s – fitted with 10 and 20-degree lenses – were instrumental in this role, positioned anywhere a compact LED fixture could be squeezed in, in the pillars and all over the floor.

They were used in conjunction with the 12 CycFX 8s, six of which were under the stage at the front, carefully applied to give the impression that the stage was floating in the air! The other six lit the inner surfaces of the large pillars.

Four Robe Squares were rigged between the eight Pointes in the inner trussing square, positioned in close proximity to each other to accentuate their role as a centrepiece, and they looked particularly good combined with the pixels of the LEDBeam 100s and Spiiders.

Crt likes the effect of the Robe Squares on camera and also the pixel effects. “They were made for cameras,” he says.

Eight out of 16 ColorSpot 1200E ATs were rigged above the stage for performer backlight, with another eight on the other side of the hall&toLight backlight the2017 green room and colour this area between the Set | Summer

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songs, matching to the colours of the audience and the set. A single 600E Spot was rigged centre-back for rear silhouetting performers.

Crt ran the lighting on a Chamsys console. He had to programme for 26 live performances and create a wide range of general and signature looks for the show to help with atmospheric tasks like ramping up the tension when awaiting the results, razzamatazz for the winner announcement, plus looks for all the ad breaks, stings, jingles and other sound, vision and time fillers used during the broadcast.

The biggest challenges were ensuring that the show replicated the design visualisations exactly and a huge amount of accuracy was necessary when building the set and installing the lighting rig.

Everything had to be symmetrical and in the right place. In some places, set elements and the lights were close together, so a few millimetres out and the set could have blocked lighting positions, etc.

Event Lighting’s large stock of Robe kit has been supplied by Slovenian distributor, MK Light Sound d.o.o.

2017 Porin Music Awards The Spaladium Arena in the stunning Croatian coastal town of Split was the venue for the 2017 Porin Music Awards (AKA ‘the Porins’): a glamourous, high-profile evening, which honours the achievements and talent of Croatian artists across a diverse mix of genres and 30 categories and is broadcast live on the national HRT network.

Lighting designer for this year was HRT’s Marko Foretić, who chose to work with a moving-light rig of over 160 Robe fixtures, supplied by one of the leading Croatian rental companies, Promologistika. He worked closely with Promologistika’s Miro Hrg who designed the set and video elements.

Marko’s ideas for the lighting were developed following in-depth

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Rosco’s Silk line of LED soft lights has been upgraded

conversations with Miro and the event’s director, Danko Volarić.

The set was based on a series of circles – originated from the idea of spinning vinyl records. Six round trusses of different sizes were flown and filled with either LED screens or projection surfaces, and the main and B stages were connected by a stylish S-shaped runway.

Once they had established optimum positioning for the trusses based on the shape of the stage, size of the hall and other parameters such as the position of tables for the nominees and the audience seating, he started deploying lighting fixtures.

The Robe count was 58 Pointes, 34 MMX WashBeams, 24 LEDWash 600s, 24 BMFL Spots and 20 Spiiders. Sixteen Pointes were arranged around the set on the deck, with the rest distributed across the circular and other air-based trusses, and the BMFL Spots were rigged upstage, where they lit the audience and musicians.

The MMX WashBeams were placed unobtrusively on the circular ramps above the stage and used for aerial eye-candy to complement and support the Pointes.

Marko, Miro and the rest of the creative team collectively decided on the content for the screens and projection and many of the lighting colour mixes took their lead from the video footage. Marko says: “As these (video feeds) were all abstract, creating a harmony and a fluidity between the colours and the lights was essential.”

Lighting and video playback was all run through an M6 controller, programmed and operated for the show by Branimir Vorberger The biggest challenge, Marko recalls, was the short time period allotted for technical preparation and programming the whole show, which entails a lot of kit being installed and realising a complex design.

Promologistika delivered the full production, including staging, rigging, audio and video.

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ROSCO Rosco announces upgrades to Silk line Rosco Laboratories has announced several upgrades to its popular Silk line of LED soft lights.

The newest versions of the Silk family of products maintain all of the qualities of the original Silk products, including pure, soft-white light and high colour fidelity. All Silk fixtures in the product line now feature new control options such as wireless DMX, as well as greater control of output and colour temperature and overall improvements to the units’ physical properties.

New features include: n Two new DMX modes, including DMX Master, which enables one Silk fixture to control others on set that share a common base address, and Wireless DMX via Lumen Radio technology n DMX dimming is now possible in 8bit or 16bit mode, offering a multitude of smoother dimming options n A choice of four dimming curves: Linear, Square Law, S-Curve or Tungsten The physical look of the units has been enhanced as well, including knobs that are flush from the main control housing, a matte finish on the control housing and larger safety/rope hanging ports.

Silk is available in a variety of sizes, including Silk 110, Silk 205, Silk 210 and Silk 305, and can be purchased through Rosco’s worldwide dealer network. Other variants, including Silk 220 and Silk 410, will be coming soon.

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sponsor news

STAGE ELECTRICS Students experience industry standard in live sound Stage Electrics has supplied the University of Huddersfield with a raft of live sound equipment to allow students on its BA (Hons) Music Technology, BA (Hons) Music Technology and Popular Music and BMus (Hons) Creative Music Technology courses to get hands-on experience with the latest digital products.

“Working with digital consoles for live sound is something we have wanted to develop into our courses for quite some time,” says the university’s Stewart Worthy, who teaches the courses along with fellow lecturer Alex Harker. “The other part of the university already runs music technology courses with industry-standard analogue consoles such as Allen & Heath and Avid, but we wanted to do something different in our area, offering two different consoles with different operating principles to give our students a more diverse experience. We’re delighted that we’ve been able to do this for the first time this year.”

Stewart worked with closely with Stage Electrics’ Rob Beamer on the tender to supply two industry standard consoles: a DiGiCo SD8 and a Yamaha CL5, along with stage racks and other associated equipment, including Sennheiser radio mics and a rack of Radial eight-channel mic splitters.

“The Yamaha console is very useful because you come across them in a lot of different types of live sound activities,” Stewart says. “The DiGiCo has become an industry standard for theatre productions, as well as other live sound applications. DiGiCo consoles also have different features and flexibility in terms of setup, which gives our students an additional perspective. The combination of the two consoles also allows our students to work with two digital protocols as we use Dante for the Yamaha and MADI for the DiGiCo.” The university has integrated the new equipment into its courses through a combination of lectures and workshops. The ultimate goal is to use them on productions with students from performance modules, allowing everyone to work together and providing a real-world experience in a controlled environment.

“The students enjoy using both consoles,” says Stewart. “In live performances, they have to work at both FOH and monitor, with the consoles also alternated between the two positions. Some students develop a console preference, so we give them a choice of which one they want to use for their final assessment: a multitrack mixing test.”

He adds: “We have no doubt that having digital equipment in our inventory is going to help our students immeasurably. We know that we are now giving them all the skills they need.”

V2LIGHTS Low-energy lighting for 8 Out Of 10 Cats Panel show 8 Out of 10 Cats returned to our screens with an all-new low-energy lighting scheme, skilfully selected by Lighting Director Oli Richards. The show’s producer Zeppotron (Endemol Shine UK) enquired about the possibilities of introducing low-energy lighting to assist the production obtaining BAFTA Albert+ accreditation.

The original series design featured a substantial amount of tungsten fixtures, which came as part of the studio’s inventory. Richards has always embraced new technology throughout his career and was pro-active in reviewing low-energy alternatives for this production.

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We subsequently arranged a lighting test at Version 2, where tungsten units were juxtaposed against their LED counterparts.

We have been able to reduce the energy consumption of the cyc lighting enormously. Oli decided upon 32 ARRI Sky Panel S60C to replace the 32 4kW Strand Iris 4 units, a traditional 4kW tungsten source lamp, creating an energy saving of about 89 per cent.

Oli was also able to swap a tungsten 750W Source 4 for the new LED version, the ETC Source 4 Lustr2 LED (14 in all). This brought an energy saving of about 77 per cent. The units still offer the LD the required output and consistency required for key lighting faces, critical to any televised production.

Finally, the 1kW Par 64 Can (14 in all) were used to tone the stage floor with colour, which required a coloured gel. These have now been replaced with an LED equivalent, the Martin Rush Par 2 Zoom (14 in all). This fixture swap brings an energy saving of 70 per cent.

The show’s design has been enhanced by the introduction of new technology. Richards and his team of operators have a greater creative palette to enhance the vibrant mood of Patrick Doherty’s set.

Production Executive Charlotte Hopkinson has been delighted with the end result, too. The low-energy lighting design is likely to reduce the production’s carbon footprint significantly, which is a criteria of Albert. Financial savings are expected to be achieved, with reduced energy bills for both lighting and air conditioning, as well as reductions in lighting consumables.

Version 2 Lighting and LED specialists LED Creative supported the crew and BBC Studios production team for Red Nose day 2017.

This year’s undraiser was broadcast live from Building Six at The O2, London.Version 2 worked closely with Lighting Director Oli Richards and Gaffer Mark Gardiner to create the vibrant, versatile installation, designed to easily handle instantaneous shifts between an eclectic mix of moods as the show switched between comedy, interview, musical performance and reports on the difference that Comic Relief is making in the world.

Scenic Designer Josh Grace worked with LED specialists LED Creative to build the dynamic set, the designer’s clever use of the company’s new BYTE Intelligent Pixel System adding colour, style and movement throughout the continuous organic waveform backdrop.

Along with an extensive lighting package, which included rigging, labour and power, the show featured bespoke fixtures created specifically for the evening. Of particular note were a host of daylight converted Portman P1 heads, created through collaboration between Richards,Version 2 and LED Creative to incorporate cylindrical LED frames that added crisp highlights to the fixtures, making them a key onstage feature.

LED Creative’s Director, Adam Howard, says: “We’re incredibly proud to have supported Comic Relief and Josh Grace’s set design with our new product offering. The Led Creative BYTE system, which simplifies and streamlines setup time and costs and retains artistic choice and creativity, was the perfect fit for the requirements of this high-profile and time-critical project.”

WHITELIGHT White Light goes underground with Alice Alice’s Adventures Underground is an immersive theatrical retelling of the classic Alice in Wonderland story. Presented by theatre company Les Enfants Terribles, the play has had two runs at The Vaults

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Compiled by Emma Thorpe ~ email sponsornews@stld.org.uk

beneath London’s Waterloo Station. White Light supplied the lighting equipment on both occasions.

Lighting Designer Mike Gunning says: “My brief on this production was to create the correct aesthetic to tell the story.”

To achieve this, Mike worked alongside Set Designer Sam Wyer.

He adds: “With this show, it is part theatrical and part installation.

The audience experience it from every single angle, which is something we needed to consider, along with the story flow. As the show is run on recurring loops, with audience members being continuously taken around in groups, the design is actually 10 running concurrently as opposed to a single one”.

Mike approached White Light to provide him with a range of fixtures to achieve his design. These included Pulsar ChromaFlood 200 UV LEDs, Chroma-Q Colour Force, ETC ColourSource Spot LED, Philips SL PAR155 Zoom Wash, CORE Point30s, Birdie XLRs and Minuette Zooms. These were all controlled via an ETC Ion 2K Console. There was also a Unique 2.1 Haze Machine, a Viper 2.6 Smoke Machine and a Little Blizzard SP DMX Smoke Machine.

Mike says: “For this production, I tried to draw on a predominantly LED rig. This was in order to keep the heat to a minimum within that underground space. The equipment I used not only allowed me to achieve this but also gave me the flexibility on colour that this production needed”.

He adds: “It’s a privilege to work on a show as innovative as this as it offers a unique theatrical experience for all ages. I am grateful to all of the team and WL for their support throughout”.

White Light provides lighting for The Philanthropist The Philanthropist has been delighting audiences across the globe since it first premiered at the Royal Court in 1970. It made a welcome return to the West End earlier this year in a new production at the Trafalgar Studios. Directed by Simon Callow, the latest version starred some of television’s brightest stars, including Matt Berry, Simon Bird, Lily Cole and Tom Rosenthal. Having already supplied shows at the Trafalgar Studios this year, White Light was called upon once again to provide the lights for The Philanthropist.

Lighting Designer and Olivier award-winner Mike Robertson says: “For this version, Simon has approached it with a fresh vibrancy, whether it’s the younger cast or the set. It feels like a very modern take on what is now a classic piece.”

This reinvention had an impact on Mike’s design and he worked closely with Set Designer Libby Watson. He says: “What’s brilliant about this set is that there is not a bad seat in the house and each one sees it from a different perspective. There is also a lot of clever trickery that occurs throughout, therefore, my approach was to create a style of heightened naturalism. Whereas everything appears to represent reality in the theatrical sense, there is a slight change in the colour and quality of the source, which hopefully makes the audience question what is the truth.”

Similarly, as the play is set in one room, Mike had to work alongside the practicalities of this. He says: “As there is a roof over the set, there’s actually not that many places to put lights. Also, it is white, so if you are not careful it can become a giant mirror.

Similarly, the stage is pushed out into the auditorium, meaning this limited the space for units even further. That said, my main consideration when choosing the rig was ensuring that it could colour mix, frame and make as little noise as possible”.

Mike drew on a mixture of ETC Revolutions, Martin MAC TW1s, ETC Source Fours and Philips Vari*Lite VL3500Q Spots for his rig.

He also added additional house lighting to further create the fresh feeling of the performance.

He adds: “I’ve had a great time working on this revival alongside the warm staff at Trafalgar, particularly Michael Corcoran, who is the venue’s Head of Lighting. I am also grateful, as ever, to WL for providing top-quality service once again and supplying brilliant equipment in record time.”

White Light continues to invest in GLP Products Since it was founded in 1971, White Light has established itself as a leading supplier of lighting equipment to the entertainment industry.

Whether it’s theatre, broadcast, concert touring or installations, the company offers its services on a variety of projects, from Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, to ITV Sport’s coverage of EURO 2016 to Jessie J’s UK tour. To ensure that each client receives the very latest equipment, the company constantly invests in revolutionary products from leading manufacturers, with one of these being GLP (German Lighting Products).

GLP was established in 1994 as a leading manufacturer of cutting-edge lighting technology. Being at the forefront of LED technology within the entertainment lighting sector, the company is committed to providing designers with technology that allows them to expand their artistic expectations. The company’s award-winning X4 series has become a standard around the world, recognised for its versatile and packed feature set.

WL’s Managing Director Bryan Raven comments: “Whenever GLP have announced a new product, it has always been one that has filled a gap in the market and offered clients something that previously wasn’t available. When the GLP X4 Bars were launched at PLASA a couple of years ago, we immediately invested in these as we recognised they would allow designers to create looks and feels that previously couldn’t be achieved.”

With the X4 Bars in particular, WL stocks more than 200 in its inventory, along with a whole host of other GLP fixtures. Bryan adds: “Our ethos is simple: if it’s a great product and we know that it’s going to be used regularly and benefit our clients then we’ll invest in it. With the X4 Bar 20s, these are currently in use on 42nd Street, along with An Inspector Calls, La Cage Aux Folles and even the first-ever lighting rig at Shakespeare’s Globe.”

Alongside offering revolutionary technology, GLP has an expert team that helps create its products and relay back the needs of those working within the entertainment industry. Earlier this year, they appointed Simon Barrett, whose role at the company is to work closely with premier lighting designers and specifiers, as well as GLP’s users, including WL. This isn’t the first time that Simon has worked with the company. He says: “I actually worked for WL many years ago back in 2004! Despite the company’s huge growth over the past decade, they have still retained their friendly, family-feel approach and I’m very excited to be working with them again in some capacity.”

GLP’s Simon Barrett and White Light’s Bryan Raven.

Photos courtesy of GLP and Pamela Raith Set & Light | Summer 2017

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A.C. Entertainment Technologies Ltd (Ian Muir) Centauri House, Hillbottom Road, Sands Industrial Estate, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire HP12 4HQ Tel: 01494 446 000 ~ Fax: 01494 461 024 ~ Email: sales@ac-et.com ~ Web: www.ac-et.com/film-tv Anna Valley (Part of Shooting Partners group) (Mark Holdway, Doug Hammond) Unit 13, Mount Road Industrial Estate, Feltham, Middlesex TW13 6AR Tel: 020 8941 4500 ~ Fax: +44(0)1932 761 591 ~ Web: www.annavalley.co.uk ARRI CT Ltd (Andy Barnett, Siobhan Daly, Lee Romney) 2 Highbridge, Oxford Road, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 1LX Tel: 01895 457 000 ~ Fax: 01895 457 001 ~ Email: sales@arri-gb.com ~ Web: www.arri.com ARRI Lighting Rental Ltd (John Colley, Mike O’Hara) 2 Highbridge, Oxford Road, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 1LX Tel: 01895 457 200 ~ Fax: 01895 457 201 ~ Manchester 0161 736 8034 (Jimmy Reeves) ~ Email: mohara@arrirental.com ~ Web: www.arri.com Aurora Lighting Hire Ltd (David March) Aurora Lighting Hire Ltd, Unit 21, Ockham Drive, Greenford Park, London UB6 0FD Tel: 020 8813 2777 ~ Email: Dmarch@ver.com ~ Web: www.auroratv.co.uk Barbizon Europe Ltd (Tom McGrath) Unit 5 Saracen Industrial Area, Mark Road, Hemel Hempsted, Hertfordshire HP2 7BJ Tel: 01442 260 600 ~ Fax: 01442 261 611 ~ Email: tmcgrath@barbizon.com ~ Web: www.barbizon.com BBC Resources – Studios Ltd Room B001, The Hub, Television Centre, London W12 7RJ BBC Academy (Tim Wallbank) Room A16, BBC Wood Norton, Evesham, Worcestershire WR11 4YB Tel: 0370 010 0264 ~ Fax: 0370 010 0265 ~ Email: bbcacademy@bbc.co.uk ~ Web: www.bbcacademy.com CHAUVET Professional (Michael Brooksbank) Unit 1C, Brookhill Road Industrial Estate, Pinxton, Notts NG16 6NT Tel: 01773 511115 ~ Email: mbrooksbank@chauvetlighting.com ~ Web: www.chauvetprofessional.eu Chris James & Co. Ltd (Barry Frankling) 43 Colville Road, Acton, London W3 8BL Tel: 020 8896 1772 ~ Fax: 020 8896 1773 ~ Email: info@chrisjamesfilter.com ~ Web: www.chrisjamesfilter.com Chroma-Q (Ian Muir) Centauri House, Hillbottom Road, Sands Industrial Estate, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire HP12 4HQ Tel: 01494 446 000 ~ Fax: 01494 461 024 ~ Email: sales@ac-et.com ~ Web: www.chroma-q.com Cirro Lite (Europe) Ltd (John Coppen, David Morphy, Frieder Hockheim) 3 Barrett’s Green Road, London NW10 7AE Tel: 020 8955 6700 ~ Fax: 020 8961 9343 ~ Email: j.coppen@cirrolite.com ~ Web: www.cirrolite.com Claypaky S p A (Davide Barbetta) via Pastrengo 3/B, 24068 Seriate (BG), Italy Tel: +39 335 72.333.75 ~ Fax: +39 035.30.18.76 ~Email: davide.barbetta@claypaky.it ~ Web: www.claypaky.it Dedo Weigert Film GmbH (John Coppen, David Morphy) 3 Barretts Green Road, London NW10 7AE Tel: 020 8955 6700 ~ Fax : 020 8961 9343 ~ Email: info@cirrolite.com ~ Web: www.dedolight.com Doughty Engineering Ltd (Julian Chiverton, Mark Chorley) Crow Arch Lane, Ringwood, Hampshire BH24 1NZ Tel: 01425 478 961 ~ Fax: 01425 474 481 ~ Email: sales@doughty-engineering.co.uk ~ Web: www.doughty-engineering.co.uk

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Please mention Set & Light when contacting sponsors

Eaton – Zero88 (David Catterall) Zero 88, Usk House, Lakeside, Llantarnam Park, Cwmbran NP44 3HD Tel: +44 (0)1633 838 088 ~ Mob: 07802 464484 ~ Email: enquiries@zero88.com ~ Web: www.zero88.com Elation (David Martin, Key Account Manager) Elation Professional B.V., Junostraat 2, 6468EW Kerkrade, The Netherlands Mob: +44 (0) 7495 051413 ~ Email: david.martin@elationlighting.eu ~ Skype: ElationDavid ELP (Ronan Willson, Barry Denison-, John Singer, Darren Fletcher) 15 North Gate, Alconbury Airfield, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire PE28 4WX Tel: 01480 443 800 ~ Fax: 01480 443 888 ~ Email: info@elp.tv ~ Web: www.elp.tv ~ Elstree Office: 020 8324 2100 ~ Manchester Office: 0161 300 2922 ETC (Mark White, Jeremy Roberts) Electronic Theatre Controls Ltd, Unit 26-28,Victoria Industrial Estate,Victoria Road, London W3 6UU Tel: +44 (0)20 8896 1000 ~ Email: uk@etcconnect.com ~ Web: www.etcconnect.com Film & TV Services Ltd (Eddie Fegan) Unit 3, Matrix Park, Coronation Road, Park Royal, London NW10 7PH Tel: 020 8961 0090 ~ Fax: 020 8961 8635 ~ Email: mail@ftvs.co.uk ~ Web: www.ftvs.co.uk Fountain Television Ltd (Mariana Spater) The Fountain studios, 128 Wembley Park Drive, Wembley HA9 8HP Tel: 020 8900 5800 ~ Email: Mariana.spater@ftv.co.uk ~ Web: www.ftv.co.uk GLP (Noel Smith) 7, Heron Units, Heron Road, Sowton Industrial Estate, Exeter, Devon EX2 7LL Tel: 01392 690 140 ~ Email: N.Smith@glp.de ~ Web: germanlightproducts.com Havells-Sylvania Ltd (David Hogan) Havells-Sylvania Ltd, Avis Way, Newhaven BN9 0ED Email: david.hogan@havells-sylvania.com ~ Web: www.havells-sylvania.com Hawthorn Lighting (Dave Slater, May Lee) Head Office: 01664 821111 ~ London Office: 020 8955 6900 ~ info@hawthorns.uk.com - www.hawthorns.uk.com HSL Group Holdings LTD (Simon Stuart, Mike Oates) Unit E&F, Glenfield Park, Philips Road, Blackburn, Lancashire BB1 5PF Tel: 01254 698 808 ~ Fax: 01254 698 835 ~ Email: hire@hslgroup.com ~ Web: www.hslgroup.com Jands (Jack Moorhouse) Centauri House, Hillbottom Road, High Wycombe, Bucks HP12 4HQ Tel: +44 (0)1494 838 323 ~Fax: +44 (0)1494 461 024 ~ Email: jack.moorhouse@ac-et.com ~ Web: www.jands.com/lighting Key Light Hire Ltd (Alex Hambi) Unit 24, Sovereign Park, Coronation Road, Park Royal NW10 7QP Tel: 020 8963 9931 ~ Fax: 020 8961 236 ~ Mobile: 07949 686 802 ~ Email: alex@keylight.tv ~ Web: www.keylight.tv Kino Flo Lighting Systems (John Coppen, David Morphy) 3 Barretts Green Road, London NW10 7AE Tel: 020 8955 6700 ~ Fax : 020 8961 9343 ~ Email: info@cirrolite.com ~ Web: www. kinoflo.com LCC Lighting (Lee Rickard) P.O. Box 78, Guildford, Surrey GU3 2AG Tel: +44 (0)1483 813 814~ Email: sales@lcc-lighting.co.uk ~ Web: lcc-lighting.co.uk Lee Filters Ltd (Eddie Ruffell, Paul Topliss, Ralph Young) Central Way, Walworth Industrial Estate, Andover, Hampshire SP10 5AN Tel: 01264 366 245 ~ Fax: 01264 355 058 ~ Email: ecruffell@leefilters.com ~ Web: www.leefilters.com

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Lights Camera Action (Nick Shapley) Unit 14, Fairway Drive, Greenford, Middlesex UB6 8PW Tel: 020 8833 7600 ~ Fax: 020 8575 8219 ~ Web: www.lcauk.com Litepanels Studio Lighting EMEA (Spencer Newbury) 16152 Saticoy St,Van Nuys, CA 91406, USA Tel: +31 629 29 6575 ~ Email: Spencer@Litepanels.com ~ Web: www.litepanels.com LSI Projects (Russell Dunsire, Nick Mobsby) 15, Woking Business Park, Albert Drive, Woking, Surrey GU21 5JY Tel: 01483 764 646 ~ Fax: 01483 769 955 ~ Email: nickM@lsiprojects.com ~ Web: www.lsiprojects.com Lupo Lighting (Damien Lovegrove) Fir Tree Farm, 59 North Street, Nailsea, Bristol BS48 4BS Tel: 01275 853204 ~ Email: damien@lovegroveshop.com ~ Web: www.lupo.lighting Martin by Harman (David Stewart) 6th Floor Salisbury House, London Wall, London EC2M 5QQ Mob: +44 7976 786 768 ~ Email: david.stewart@harman.com ~ Web: www.martin.com Matthews Studio Equipment, Inc. (John Coppen, David Morphy) 3 Barretts Green Road, London NW10 7AE Tel: 020 8955 6700 ~ Fax: 020 8961 9343 ~ Email: info@cirrolite.com ~ Web: www. msegrip.com MEMS Power Generation (Mark Diffey) Beechings Way, Gillingham, Kent ME8 6PS Tel: 08452 230 400 ~ Fax: 01634 263666 ~ Email: sales@mems.com~ Web: www.mems.com MULTI-LITE (UK) Limited (Martin Carnell) 15 Airlinks, Spitfire Way, Heston, Middlesex TW5 9NR Tel: +44 (0) 208 561 4501 ~ Mob: +44 (0) 7970 224313 ~ Fax: +44 (0) 20 8561 8041 ~ Email: MCarnell@Multi-Lite.co.uk ~ Web: www.multi-lite.com OSRAM Ltd (Terri Pearson, Andy Gilks) 268 Bath Road, Slough, Berkshire SL1 4DX Tel: 01925 273 360 ~ Email: displayoptic@osram.co.uk ~ Web: www.osram.com/pia Panalux Limited (David Baker) Panalux Broadcast & Event, Unit 30, Perivale Park, Perivale UB6 7RJ Tel: 020 8832 4800 ~ Fax: 020 8832 4811 ~ Email: info@panalux.biz ~ Web: www.panalux.biz Philips Entertainment Group Europe (Amber Etra-) Rondweb Zuid 85, Winterswijk 7102 JD, Netherlands Tel: +31 611 030 083 Philips Lighting UK Ltd (Stuart Dell) Philips Centre, Guildford Business Park, Guildford, Surrey GU2 8XH Tel: 07774 122 735 ~ Fax: 01296 670 956 ~ Email: stuart.dell­­@philips.com ~ Web: www.lighting.philips.com Photon Beard Ltd (Peter Daffarn, Mike Perry, Simon Larn) Unit K3, Cherry Court Way, Stanbridge Road, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire LU7 8UH Tel: 01525 850 911 ~ Fax: 01525 850 922 ~ Email: info@photonbeard.com ~ Web: www.photonbeard.com PLASA (Norah Phillips) Redoubt House, 1 Edward Street, Eastbourne, Sussex BN23 8AS Tel: 01323 524 120 ~ Fax: 01323 524 121 ~ Email: norah.phillips@plasa.org ~ Web: www.plasa.org PRG XL Video (Kelly Cornfield, Mat Ilot) The Cofton Centre, Groveley Lane, Longbridge, Birmingham B31 4PT Tel: 0845 470 6400 ~ Email: kcornfield@prg.com / milott@prg.com ~ Web: www.prg.com/uk

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Pulsar Light Of Cambridge Ltd (Andy Graves, Paul Mardon, Snowy Johnson) 3 Coldham’s Business Park, Norman Way, Cambridge CB1 3LH Tel: 01223 403 500 ~ Fax: 01223 403 501 ~ Email: andy@pulsarlight.com ~ Web: www.pulsarlight.com Richard Martin Lighting Ltd (Steve Wells) Unit 24, Sovereign Park, Coronation Road, Park Royal NW10 7QP ~ RML Admin: Lantern House, Old Town, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire GL56 0LW Tel: 020 8965 3209 ~ Fax: 020 8965 5562 ~ Email: info@richardmartinlighting.co.uk ~ Web: www.richardmartinlighting.co.uk Robe UK Ltd (Ashley Lewis, Mick Hannaford, Steve Eastham) 3 Spinney View, Stone Circle Road, Round Spinney Industrial Estate, Northampton NN3 8RQ Tel: 01604 741 000 ~ Fax: 01604 741 041 ~ Email: info@robeuk.com ~ Web: www.robeuk.com Rosco (Cristian Arroyo) Blanchard Works, Kangley Bridge Road, Sydenham SE26 5AQ Tel: 020 8659 2300 ~ Fax: 020 8659 3151 ~ Email: contact@rosco.com~ Web: www.rosco.com Schnick-Schnack-Systems GmbH (Erhard Lehmann) Mathias-Bruggen-Strasse 79, 50829, Germany Tel: +49-221-992019-0 ~ Email: erhard.lehmann@schnickschnacksystems.com ~ Web: english.schnickschnacksystems.com Sony UK Ltd (Daniel Robb) The Heights, Brooklands, Weybridge, Surrey KT13 0XW Tel: 01932 816 368 ~ Fax: 01932 817 014 ~ Neil: 07774 142 724 ~ Email: Jane.Green@eu.sony.com ~ Web: sonybiz.net/uk Specialz Ltd (Dave Smith) Unit 2, Kingston Industrial Estate, 81-86 Glover Street, Birmingham B9 4EN Tel: 0121 766 7100 & 7110 ~ Fax: 0121 766 7113 ~ Email: info@specialz.co.uk ~ Web: www.specialz.co.uk Stage Electrics Partnership Ltd Encore House, Unit 3, Britannia Road, Patchway Trading Estate, Patchway, Bristol BS34 5TA Tel: 03330 142100 ~ Fax: 0117 916 2828 ~ Email: sales@stage-electrics.co.uk ~ Web: www.stage-electrics.co.uk The Hospital Club Studios (Samantha Dunlop) ­4 Endell Street, London WC2H 9HQ Tel: 020 7170 9112 ~ Fax: 020 7170 9102 ~ Email: samd@thehospitalclub.com ~ Web: www.thehospital.co.uk The London Studios (Dave Stevens, Jerry Kelleher) Upper Ground, London SE1 9LT Tel: 020 7157 5555 ~ Fax: 020 7157 5757 ~ Em­ail: dave.stevens@londonstudios.co.uk ~ Web: www.londonstudios.co.uk Tiffen International Ltd (Kevan Parker) East Side Complex, Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Bucks SL0 0NH Tel: +44 (0)870 100 1220 ~ Fax: +44 (0)1753 652776 ~ Mob: +44 (0)7545 440973 ~ Email: kparker@tiffen.com ~ Web: www.tiffen.com TMB (Paul Hartley, Bill Anderson) 21 Armstrong Way, Southall UB2 4SD Tel: 020 8574 9700 ~ Fax: 020 8574 9701 ~ Email: tmb-info@tmb.com ~ Web: www.tmb.com TSL Teknique Systems Ltd PO Box 3587, Glasgow G73 9DX Tel: 07860 290 637 ~ Web: www.tekniquesystems.com Unusual Rigging (Mark Priestley) The Wharf, Bugbrooke, Northamptonshire NN7 3QB Tel: 01604 830 083 ~ Fax: 01604 831 144 ~ Email: mark.priestley@unusual.co.uk ~ Web: www.unusual.co.uk Version 2 Lights Ltd (Nick Edwards) Unit 4 Wessex Road, Bourne End, Buckinghamshire SL8 5DT Tel: 020 3598 6938 ~ Email: info@v2lights.co.uk ~ Web: www.v2lights.co.uk

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sponsors’ directory

Please mention Set & Light when contacting sponsors

White Light Ltd (Bryan Raven, John Simpson, Jason Larcombe) 20 Merton Industrial Park, Jubilee Way, London SW19 3WL ~ Tel: 020 8254 4800 ~ Fax: 020 8254 4801 ~ Email: info@WhiteLight.Ltd.uk Web: www.WhiteLight.Ltd.uk ~ Hire Tel: 020 8254 4820 ~ Hire Fax: 020 8254 4821 ~ Sales Tel: 020 8254 4840 ~ Sales Fax: 020 8254 4841 XTBA (Chris Cook, Fiona Fehilly, Simon Peers) Unit 2, The Old Curatage, The Street, Caston, Norfolk NR17 1DD Tel: 020 8882 0100 ~ Email: dmx@xtba.demon.co.uk ~ Web: www.xtba.demon.co.uk

education members Bucks New University (Catherine Williams, Acquisitions Librarian) Buckinghamshire New University, Queen Alexandra Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire HP11 2JZ Tel: 01494 522141 (extension 4521) ~ Email: acq@bucks.ac.uk ~ Web: http://bucks.ac.uk Exeter College (Atila Mustafa, Lecturer for Film & TV Production) Victoria House Learning Centre, 33–36 Queen Street, Exeter, Devon EX4 3SR Tel: 01392 400500 ~ Email: info@exe-coll.ac.uk ~ Web: www.exe-coll.ac.uk

sponsors’ directory The STLD interactive Sponsors Directory has been available for sponsors’ use for over a year now. It is proving a very useful tool for the STLD and, we hope, for those of our sponsors who now use it. Its main advantages are that it enables the STLD to display up-to-date and accurate information about your company on its website. In doing so, it also helps us update our records and ensure that we have accurate mailing and invoicing details.

STLD sponsor companies can make use of this facility by contacting Bernie Davis at sponsors@stld.org.uk with the name and email address of the person who will become the company’s ‘sponsor user’. They will be registered on our secure database and will then be able to modify their company’s information within the sponsors directory.

Please note that the directory can now enable companies to be searched for by category and area.

Bernie Davis – STLD Sponsor Liaison

index of advertisers Aurora 24 Chroma-Q 25 ClayPaky 31 Doughty 12 Eaton – Zero88 22 Elation 4 ELP BC ETC 13 Lee Filters IBC Tourflex Cabling 16 Unusual Rigging 11 White Light 10

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membership application

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membership application

MAPV18, 03-08-2016 PG2

Annual subscription fee for Membership is: £75 Full; £50 Affiliate, Retired and Overseas; £25 Students.

When you join or renew your membership of the STLD, you will receive an invoice that details; your annual membership fee, the STLD’s bank account details and the subscription fee due payment date.

The best and the preferred method for paying for your membership is by direct bank transfer to the STLD’s account using the following format as the payment reference.

YOUR SURNAME/INV*** (INV*** being the number of the STLD’s membership invoice) STLD Bank Account and VAT details: Bank: HSBC Sort Code: 40-07-14 IBAN: GB45MIDL40071411171518

Account Name: The Society of Television Lighting Directors.

Account Number: 11171518 VAT Registration: GB 551 463 648

Member benefits information available at: http://www.stld.org.uk/benefits.php Current membership rates are available at http://www.stld.org.uk/membership.php

Please return the completed form to: Chris Harris, STLD Membership, 4 Fenbourne Close, Shelfield, Walsall, WS4 1XD Any questions please email members@stld.org.uk

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society committee

Chairman Stuart Gain 07774 161 996 ~ chairman@stld.org.uk Secretary John O’Brien 07717 170 288 ~ secretary@stld.org.uk Treasurer Mike Le Fevre 07956 305 662 ~ treasurer@stld.org.uk Deputy Chair Andrew Dixon 07885 731 865~ andrewdixon@stld.org.uk Sponsors Liaison + Administration Officer Bernie Davis 07860 662 736 ~ sponsors@stld.org.uk Exhibitions + Membership Chris Harris 07775 846 972 ~ members@stld.org.uk Magazine Editor, Sponsor News, Assistant Sponsor Liaison + Advertising Sales + Diary Emma Thorpe 07850 709 210 ~ editor@stld.org.uk Publicity Andrew Harris 07973 745 583 ~ publicity@stld.org.uk Website Ian Hillson ianhillson@stld.org.uk Student Representative Jacob Shooter 07895 185 615 ~ jacobshooter@stld.org.uk Rick Dines 07780 707 169 ~ rickdines@stld.org.uk

Robert Horne 07762 562 434 ~ roberthorne@stld.org.uk

John King 07860 759 294 ~ johnking@stld.org.uk

Alan Luxford 07867 536 522 ~ alanluxford@stld.org.uk

Paul Middleton 07720 446 921 ~ paulmiddleton@stld.org.uk

Jonathan Taylor 07774 698 847 ~ jonathantaylor@stld.org.uk

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Elstree Light & Power Lighting - Power - Rigging

Hire of equipment and services for Studio - Location - Events

Cardington: 01234 744222 Manchester: 0161 300 2922

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