Set & Light: Winter 2018 (Issue 125) by STLD_Magazine

Set & Light

www.stld.org.uk

Issue 125: Winter 2018

from the Society of Television Lighting and Design

INSIDE: SKY NEWS TARDIS PROJECT | PLASA 2018 | KOI AWARDS | INSIDE NO 9. LIVE STLD_125 pp1_xx.indd 1

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editorial

Looking forward to 2019 as we end another packed year Another successful PLASA has come and gone. If you missed it, you can read all about it in our extensive coverage on pages 9 to 14. We also had a great visit to Sky Studios (see page 4) and we are now edging closer to Christmas! We have some great meetings lined up for 2019, so keep an eye out on Facebook as well as on our website and in your in-boxes. We have not yet finalised the date of our next AGM, but we will advise you on our website and by email as soon as it has been determined. It will be around mid-January. Do try to make it as it is normally a great event and useful if you wish to put forward new ideas to the membership. If your contact details need updating, please get in touch with Chris Harris, our membership secretary, at members@ stld.co.uk to ensure you don’t miss out on our meeting invitations, which are now issued by email. Due to GDPR, it is necessary to opt in to receive our emails, so if you haven’t, please email Chris to let him know you’re happy to receive communications from us and he will ensure you’re put on our mailing list. This is the last issue for 2018. Our first issue for 2019 will be out in the spring. The deadlines for this are Friday 8 February for advertising and Friday 15 February for editorial. Please contact editor@stld.org.uk for a full media pack. I wish you all a restful and peaceful festive season and a happy new year.

Emma Thorpe Editor

contents 4

Lighting: Sky News

Members’ stories: Andrew Dixon

Event: PLASA 2018

Sponsor news

Awards: Knights of Illumination

Sponsors’ directory

Lighting: Inside No. 9 Live

Index of advertisers

Information: EU regulations update

Committee contact details

Information: New product

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: Sky Studios

Printed by: Gemini Print Deadlines for the next issue: Editorial: 15 February 2019 Advertising: 8 February 2019 Advertising is accepted only from sponsor members of the Society

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lighting

Sky News

Inside the Tardis Words: Richard Bowles Photos: Jeremy Hoare and John O’Brien Former STLD Secretary and Sky Lighting Director Richard Bowles invited 30 sponsors and members to visit Sky’s cantilevered glass box studio on a hot August day, writes John O’Brien. We were welcomed to the studios by Richard, Malcolm, Mark, Ronnie, Ben, Sally and Sophie and given an explanation of how Sky was approaching the future (this was just before the takeover by Comcast). We were taken around the studios on the ground floor and shown the new layouts before going across to the new building, Sky Central, described as ‘a 31-storey skyscraper laying on its side’. The building houses 5,000 personnel on three floors. Ash wood is much evidence in construction, surrounds, partitions and staircases. The cube was an impressive engineering feat, jutting into the main hall and with a view encompassing the ground floor and first floor. Daylight could be seen around three sides and Sky personnel were in view, going about their duties. A lift and staircase provide access to the studio, hidden by the large video wall. Many of the features are detailed in Richard’s article that follows but the uncluttered floor area (the cameras being grid mounted) and the versatile, adjustable desk, are worthy of mention. We later retired to the staff canteen roof garden for refreshments and were treated to a magnificent summer sunset over Osterley, with aircraft glinting in the evening sun.

Introduction

Goal: to move from being a 24/7 breaking news TV channel, with separate output on radio and online, to producing everything centrally and then distributing across multiple platforms to reflect the changing nature of news consumption. To achieve this, a small team was put together to discuss the future of Unit 1, the converted warehouse where Sky News had been based since 2005 (with many changes, including the shift to HD in 2010). This needed a significant amount of work to modernise it, with floor tiles buckling under the sheer volume of cables running around the place and all systems endof-life. Not to mention that every time a new light or setpiece went in, it often needed a structural engineer’s report! The team looked at all options possible within the Osterley Campus: refurbishing or rebuilding Unit 1, a new building or moving into Sky Studios. The Sky Studios option won out, in part because Sky wanted to bring all its in-house production under one roof, and Project Tardis was born. The name came from the seemingly-impossible task of fitting several hundred people and new facilities into a building that was already full!

Glass box

As a prequel to all this, in 2016 Sky had opened a massive new office building, Sky Central: a 33-story office block lying on its side due to planning restrictions. From the inside, this award-winning building resembles a high-end shopping centre – with 4,000 people based inside it, video walls everywhere, 4

multiple coffee shops and restaurants, a superb cinema and even its own branch of Waitrose! The later was touted as the UK’s first-ever cashless supermarket, although, disappointingly, this does not mean everything is free but, in common with elsewhere in Sky, everything is paid for via contactless cards instead of cash. In the middle of this building, greeting people as soon as they pass reception, is a showpiece studio, which had been conceived to show how television production is central to the company to both staff and visitors. This may seem an odd need at first glance, but over 25 years, Sky has grown from a low-budget satellite broadcaster with a few hundred people making TV to a giant pan-European media enterprise... with just a few hundred people making TV! All the different Sky channels were originally expected to use this space at different times of day for their own purposes; however, as Sky Central took shape and different producers were shown this strange, glass goldfish bowl in the middle of a building site, only Sky News expressed any interest in using it, so they took total control of the space. John Bennett, then the head director at Sky News, wanted something different from all other news channels. In particular, he did not want to see any cameras or their tracks and cables. So the ideaof having all the cameras hanging upside-down from the ceiling was born, despite the studio already being built and nobody in the world having ever built anything of that nature before. Oh, and it had to be operated from another building, so the camera operator wouldn’t be able to see what was going on either, but that’s OK because camera operators were going to be automated, along with most of the gallery staff (but that’s another story...) If dealing with all the cameras hitting people on heads wasn’t enough of a challenge, this was then compounded by the fact that Sky’s Executive insisted on completely clear sightlines in all directions from outside the studio, with no obstructions whatsoever – all that just for the benefit of anyone drinking a coffee nearby, not for the viewers at home. This forced a change of the entire set design, which became an exercise in minimalism, with just one central desk, a UHD video wall and a level raised wooden floor (no riser so disabled guests are not inconvenienced). The video wall – totally essential for the way Sky News presents – was then moved across the only entrance to the studio, not only blocking access but eliminating the only sound-absorbing wall in the entire space. With such a small studio, and the idea of being able to shoot 360 degrees, it was immediately apparent that the cameras were going to hang in front of lights. LD Dave Evans was brought for his wide-ranging experience of studio design and, working together with Sky LD Richard Bowles, produced a lighting design based around a ring of ARRI SkyPanel S60 softlights to cover the entire space and on at a base level at all times, which merged seamlessly with the bright daylight

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Top: A view of the grid; bottom the des

Top: A view of the grid; bottom: the desk

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feel of the building and hid the movement of the camera hoists. To give some shape to faces and sparkle in the eyes, the softlights are complemented by ETC Daylight-HD Source-4 and ARRI L7-C, although these do occasionally suffer from having cameras parked directly in front of them! This bright, softly-lit studio was a radical visual departure for Sky News from its previous traditional studios with preciselyfocused lights and fixed positions. Production and the presenters quickly got over their initial shock and took to their new-found freedom to sit and move pretty much wherever they liked.The rotating desk in the centre of the studio was quickly named the magic roundabout as it continuously spun to new positions to mix up the backgrounds, often barely out of vision under VTs, giving the lighting and camera operators huge headaches!

Sky Studios move

The Tardis project consisted of teams from Sky News, Sky Production Services, Broadcast Engineering, Sky Sports News, Property and others. The challenge was to move and bunch up existing users around the fully occupied building without affecting the production and output of Sky Sports; then to build new editorial and production facilities for News in the vacated spaces (knocking a few walls down in the process) and finally to move the entire News operation into an already fully occupied building. If that wasn’t enough, at the same time it was planned to change the News’ entire production process and systems to create an automated story centric workflow across all platforms – the internet/ mobile now being the first place most people consume news – all without interrupting output to a 24-hour TV channel watched worldwide! The first move took advantage of two ground-floor gallery spaces that were never kitted out to save money during the build of Sky Studios in 2011 – with ICA and Tape Ingest moved from elsewhere in the building.This created the space to build new edit suites on the third floor. Sky Sports then lost its offices on the second floor and joined everyone else on the 6

third floor. All remaining corridors and empty spaces filled up with new hot desks, leading to probably the most painful and unpopular change for most people; everyone lost their personal desks and had to squash their belongings into tiny lockers. Two of the large central technical equipment rooms were extended to fit all the new kit needed by News, which stretched both the UPS capacity and the ‘natural’ air conditioning of the building to its limit. A new riser was punched through the entire building to add additional natural cooling capacity (large amounts of forced air conditioning being politically unacceptable). With everyone by this point cleared out from the second floor, two new automated galleries and an open-plan production area were created, bringing the whole of editorial and production together in one place for the first time, together with a small self-op studio for digital and weather.The ‘new’ Glass Box studio had to be taken off-air in order to properly connect into Sky Studios (having been rushed into use, many fibres had to be re-run), which usefully gave us the opportunity to service and relight, as production also decided it didn’t want to look out of the windows any more and changed everything round by 90 degrees. One of the general-purpose studios on the ground floor was transformed into a dedicated News facility with a half real/half green-screen VR set. Finally, at the last minute, an adjacent catering facility was added. But what about that studio? Well the near-overnight transformation of Studio 6 from the home of Soccer Saturday into a robotic studio with an entirely new LED lighting rig instead of tungsten, with a brief to look like what an idealised Glass Box would be if it had been designed as a studio not an office block, will fill another rambling article for another day, together with an explanation of the unique lighting control system developed to simplify operation across multiple studios while resisting automation. We launched the new output across all platforms at 7pm on 16 January 2018 and, with most viewers blissfully unaware of any change, and only the occasional overnight ‘off-tape’ to fix computer issues, it has been a great success.

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lighting

Sky News

This page, clockwise from top: Central camera on overhead track – note the safety bumper cut out; Richard’s plot for the cube; Sky’s very red presentation theatre; there is just one central desk

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event

PLASA Show 2018

PLASA 2018 had a social and constructive atmosphere, especially with the broad range of seminars available

Back with a buzz: PLASA 2018 Students, professionals and enthusiasts came together for the PLASA Show 2018 in its third year at Olympia, Matt Maller writes. The atmosphere across the three-day event from 16-18 September seemed to have built on last year and felt very social and constructive, especially with the broad range of seminars available. Visitors could head to the PLASA Innovation Gallery to browse some of the technology at the forefront of the entertainment industry or be wowed by Robe’s lighting showcase and stand. The good ratio of students and professionals attending the event added to the buzz as eager new faces to the industry made their way around the seminars, trade stands and exhibits, absorbing information and networking with fellow enthusiasts and professionals. It was great to see companies from all sectors of the industry launching new products at the exhibition, such as

Epson with its powerful EB-L1755U projector and GLP’s new modular KNV LED system. The assortment of seminars covered a range of subjects from starting a small business to mental health, electrical standards and simple rigging calculations – a wide range spanning all areas within the entertainment technology industry. I managed to catch up with James Orr, Head of Lighting at Latymer Upper School, to see what he thought of the show this year. He said: “Each visit to PLASA provides me with the resources to learn, share and collaborate with leading industry professionals. This year, I particularly enjoyed ‘Giudizio Universale’, an extremely interesting talk by Rob Halliday and Ric Lipson. Other highlights included a look at ETC’s new moving head (Relevé Spot), the DMXcat DMX tester showcased by City Theatrical and, not least, the lighting show at the Robe stand: an

opportunity to see its latest products showcased in a professional capacity. Seeing the industry’s latest developments first hand is one of the biggest attractions of PLASA. I love looking at the winners of the PLASA Innovation Awards. “Getting the chance to meet with company representatives provides me with an informed and educated view of each company’s products. From these representatives, one can receive advice and insight seldom available on the company website. Such knowledge can be invaluable when using the equipment in a real environment or making decisions for your next major investment. I and can’t wait to be back next year!” PLASA returns to Olympia 15-17 September 2019, much awaited by the industry already! Continued overleaf Set & Light | Winter 2018

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event

PLASA Show 2018

STLD sponsors at PLASA 2018 Maintaining the same format as previous years, the ground floor was dominated by supermarket-sized stands from the likes of AC-ET and Robe, writes Paul Middleton. These were surrounded by progressively smaller stands around the perimeter of the hall and on the upper balcony level, where the various training theatres and presentation rooms were also located. STLD Sponsors AC-ET / Chroma-Q, Chauvet, Claypaky, Doughty, Eaton – Zero 88, Elation, ETC, GLP, Hawthorn, Philips Entertainment, Robe,TMB and White Light had stands at the show, while Schnick – Schnack systems exhibited products in the Innovation Awards gallery. Turn to Sponsors’ news on page 28 for details of their new products. A few companies were exhibiting products that have only just been released – or are in the development stages – to get feedback on how they should be developed. Many manufacturers now have good feedback loops in place to try to ensure they design products that take into account the needs of the end users, rather than selling them products designed by engineers who are not necessarily aware of the practicalities of how their products are used in different markets. In this field I would include companies such as Robe, which is working directly with lighting designers such as Tim Routledge to produce the products they want to use. The venue has one disadvantage to ExCeL London: the amount of daylight in the hall. Showing off the features of many of the lights was difficult unless your stand was sheltered by the mega Robe stand, which this year paid homage to the Tomb Raider genre of films with a 10-minute show every hour. As might be expected, manufacturers focused on the continuing development of LEDs in their new products, and there were representatives from many major production and hire companies on the lookout for new products. What is noticeable nowadays is that while some manufacturers work closely with production companies to produce products to meet their specific requirements, which are then tailored 10

Manufacturers focused on the continuing development of LEDs in their new products. © Paul Middleton

to the mass market, others produce something that is different from everyone else, which can then be patented, preventing the disputes that saw the demise of a number of companies over the past 10 years. The one noticeable absence this year was the large number of Chinese manufacturers showing their copycat versions of major manufacturers’ designs. What is worrying is the number of products that are manufactured in China for cost reasons. The tariff wars developing between America and China might lead to some of the advantages of manufacture in China slipping away. Companies that have manufacturing facilities within the EU are less likely to be affected by those tariffs and the currently unknown effects of Brexit. It was, however, commonly agreed by most of the companies that I spoke to that Brexit was likely to lead to increased costs, especially if a ‘no deal’ Brexit meant a return to the old days of customs border checks and a longer lead time to ship items because of the increased paperwork evolved. Talking to the major manufacturers revealed that while we may consider TV lighting a large business, it pales into insignificance compared to the touring market. There is only a small number of major TV studios in the UK with their

own equipment, and virtually none of these have their own entertainmentorientated lighting equipment. Instead, they rely on the hire companies to supply their needs. So it is that while some niche products are produced solely for TV usage, the majority of products are developed for other markets to meet their demands, and it is TV that has to adapt to products primarily developed for the live event markets. For those markets, the demand is for products that are brighter than the competition and have features that are not necessarily good for TV. While there are increasing attempts to produce LED fixtures that have a high colourrendering index, the demands for brighter and brighter lamps means that – due to the physics of using LEDs and phosphors to produce the base white light – the base colour temperature is getting higher and moving away from our preferred tungsten fixtures. If we were living in an alternative reality in which tungsten lamps had never been developed and technology had jumped straight from candles and gas lamps to lime lights and daylightbased arc lights, we would not have the problems we have on TV now. Arc and discharge based lights initially found usage in outside broadcasts, where their higher efficiency and luminous levels

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The amount of daylight in the hall meant showing off a light’s features was difficult. © Paul Middleton

ideally met the high light-level needs of early colour TV cameras. Their lack of fine output level control meant they were not ideally suited for studio usage, where the contrast ratio of studio lighting needed to be kept within tight limits to meet the limitations of cameras. So the predominate colour temperature for studio lighting is tungsten, whereas all the major development work is going into daylight-based sources . Nowadays, the sensitivity of cameras is not the issue, but faithful reproduction of the widest range of colours is the new holy grail for LED lighting.There are two ways to achieve this: firstly, by using a range of different coloured LEDs, with four or more discreet LEDs being fitted to fixtures to widen their colour gamut and reduce the gaps in the total spectrum when trying to produce ‘white’ light.The other approach is to use an LED engine. This uses an LED that outputs UV light to excite a phosphor coating, which then shifts the colour temperature into the visible spectrum, with a daylight colour temperature of about 6,000K being a common example.The higher the colour temperature produced, the more efficient the LED engine becomes, which, while desirable for live events where the eye likes to see a brighter scene, is not always the best for TV camera usage, where the sensors now available can produce

excellent pictures at much lower light levels than previously. At present, the TV camera manufacturers are still focused on producing pictures that are suitable for the contrast ratios and brightness levels achievable by the average LED-based TV. However, in order to take advantage of new screen technologies such as OLED, cameras now need to be able to produce pictures with much higher dynamic ranges (contrast ratio) and higher resolutions. While 4K is about the highest resolution that makes any visible improvement to the home viewer, higher resolution is useful for larger screens, such as in cinemas, as it doesn’t exhibit pixilation for those close to them. So the question is: does the TV market have to put up with products developed for other markets, or are manufacturers interested in meeting the specific demands of TV? It is very much dependent on the base materials available to them. LEDs are being developed primarily to meet the demands of street lighting and architecture, where the key goals are longer lifespan and lower power consumption, and volumes of usage are many orders of magnitude higher than TV will ever utilise.TV, film, theatre and fashion shows are key markets where exact colour reproduction is highly desirable.

There are currently three choices for TV lighting designers to deal with LEDs becoming the predominant light source. The first is to continue working with cameras with the key lighting set to tungsten.The second is to choose a mid-range colour temperature of about 4,400K; all the tungsten lights are then gelled up with a ¼ CTB.The third is to work with a keylight of 6,500K and either add full CTB correction or else use LEDs with a native daylight colour temperature. Are manufacturers producing the products that you want or something that they think you will want? Join in the discussion on the @STLDForum. We are considering another LED Shootout next year to see if the colours that manufacturers claim their fixtures produce match on camera. One way to do this would be by having a reference tungsten light source, fitted with a selection of colour gels, aimed at a test chart and typical scene. We would then light that chart with the LED fixture under test and look at the results on picture and vectorscope / waveform to see if the colour produced by the tungsten source is matched by the LED. Again, please let us know if this is something you would like to attend, or see the results of. Continued overleaf Set & Light | Winter 2018

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event

PLASA Awards for Innovation This year I was invited to be part of the panel judging the PLASA Awards for Innovation, writes Bernie Davis. I have to say it was a very interesting experience. For the first time, I spent more time examining equipment than socialising, including looking in depth at equipment I might have completely ignored in the past. And we didn’t just look: we discussed and revisited, and we discussed some more. It was the only way we could form opinions on equipment outside our usual areas of expertise, and I know I speak for all of us when I say we took the task quite seriously. Manufacturers are invited to promote any product that they feel shows innovation or environmental merit, and we all spent a busy day touring around the stands listening to brief presentations from each company. I found it just as interesting hearing the comments from the rest of the panel as I did seeing and hearing the presentations themselves, and on such a range of products, many of which are beyond the usual interest of this magazine. I will stick to the things we are more interested in, and I apologise in advance for the fact that the one product most of us are interested in – moving lights – is probably the hardest to show any significant innovation. I don’t mean to dismiss the lovely fixtures on display, but as the object of this exercise was to spot innovation, it became all too easy to gloss over yet another moving head trying to get a step over its competitors.You can’t blame manufacturers for continually adding to their ranges in an attempt to steer the market in their direction, but when you see yet more moving lights introducing features much like their competitors, it makes comparisons ever more difficult; there is not much to say about many of them when focusing on innovation! AC-ET presented the new Tourmate Multilock Hoist connector, aimed at preventing cross-plugging hoist cables with other users of 19-pin multicore.The connectors are colour coded for easy identity and have the same footprint as the existing connectors, making conversion easy. Accidental cross-plugging 12

is not just an inconvenience; with the three-phase power used for hoists it can be hazardous. AED Group is not a company I am familiar with, but it was showing a very neat telescopic tower – the VMB Show Lift – on which you can mount up to 55kg of equipment and raise it up to 4.1m. The powered lift is fast and quiet and can even be controlled by DMX for a new dimension in lighting design. The lifts fit in flight cases and wheel into place and, after a simple levelling process, are ready for use. This could also be a good solution for those venues where there is limited hanging positions and it is far quicker than building vertical trusses. The simple, clean black design would easily blend in without need for dressing too. Artistic Licence introduced daligate quad, another clever development by this experienced company. This gadget easily links Ethernet to DALI – the protocol much used for venue lighting control. Supporting Art-Net and sACN protocols, it enables one console to integrate with house lighting and the entertainment lighting rig at very affordable prices. They were also presenting matisse dmx: a wall panel DMX controller that allows just a few faders to be programmed to control larger systems.Think of the bigger LED architectural installations used as part of a house-light system these days. The matisse is a very neat and wellthought-out product, delivered at a very reasonable price. Astera LED was not a company I knew, but I really liked its LED Titan Tubes. Looking like fluorescent tubes, each 1m tube has 16 three-colour LEDs, with a surprisingly high CRI and TLCI rating. The tubes come in kits of 12 and can either be linked by power and data cable or work from internal batteries and wireless DMX. A range of clever mounts, from K-clamps to base plates, make this a really flexible product, equally good as an illumination tool as an eye-candy effect, with the added advantage of not needing cabling. Watch for these appearing on TV soon! Avolites is well known for its desks,

which are particularly suited to live event lighting, enabling good effects to be produced quickly, even in a busking situation. Avolites has been developing products in the graphics area for a few years now and its new Synergy has been developed to incorporate video and lighting in a coherent way under one controller. It creates complex video pixel mapping without external Artnet merging, so simplifying setup. Ayrton was showing its Bora-S low-power LED washlight, also capable of gobo projection and framing with shutters. Now presenting yet another moving light is not easy for any company these days – very few have a USP that makes them stand out against all the others – but the versatility of the Bora-S certainly makes it worth further investigation,and it definitely ticks a few environmental boxes – an increasingly important consideration these days. Similarly, the Ayrton Khamsin-S is a powerful LED moving spot. I don’t mean to sound dismissive but all the comments about the Bora-S apply here too: it is a very efficient spot, with two rotating gobo wheels, framing shutters, prisms, full colour mixing, etc etc.To be honest, it is nothing new: just many improvements, making a desirable fixture. Chauvet Professional has a reputation for producing affordable good-quality products and this year it was showing its COLORado Solo Batten and the Maverick Storm 1 Wash. Both IP65-rated, they add that flexibility of being suitable for outdoor use to neat products.The batten is a colour-blended style with good optics, making it useful for set lighting, as well as looking good in shot.The Maverick Storm 1 Wash is an LED wash light, much like others in appearance but with that IP65-rating advantage. It has been developed to take most data protocols directly, adding to its versatility. Claypaky has extended its LED range with the Axcor Profile 600, with all the features you might hope for: rotating gobos, rotating prism, framing shutters, CMY mixing and colour wheel, all driven by a 500W white LED source. DTS introduced its Synergy 5 Profile, which pushed all the limits of delivery

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PLASA Show 2018

Pictured: Left, AED Group’s VMB Show Lift; top, Astera LED’s Titan and, below it, the Titan kit; right, the TMB Proplex IQ Tester

– good zoom, good CRI claiming very good skin tones – but its unique trick was a feature by which it can focus on its own prism and shutters, so giving what DTS describes as a virtual 3D effects wheel. The result was an interesting visual effect, but for me the lasting value was that it was a good high-quality lighting instrument rather than a useful effects generator. Elation added to its already vast range to include the Smarty Hybrid. As the name suggests, it is a moving head that is whatever you want it to be. Spot/ beam/wash features are all included, all driven by a Philips Platinum Flex 200 discharge lamp. To add to its sustainability credentials, the lamp can be dimmed by the ballast, so offering a hibernation mode when not in use. ETC has produced its new Relevé Spot, aimed at the small to mid-level theatre market. ETC already has a good reputation for creating good colour control, both in range and subtlety, and this new addition adds to its theatretargeted products. High End introduced the SolaFrame

3000, driven by a powerful 1,000W Ultra-Brite White LED source, so offering performance and sustainability. Weighing in at 50kg, this is a big light with a big output for big occasions. And talking of big, MA Lighting was showing its GrandMA3 Full-Size: a lighting desk that already has a buzz about it. The high price and longanticipated delivery times have not stopped orders pouring in, and the MA3 looks to be the go-to desk of the future. MA has a great reputation for customer service and its rock-solid systems and excellent networking already makes it the desk of choice on many of the larger events. The MA3 uses a completely new operating system, and although the desk can run in MA2 mode for older existing show files, the two systems are sufficiently different to prevent backward compatibility. But I can’t see that small limitation putting anyone off. An eye-catching display of an LED Wash Light in a shower made everyone aware of the IP rating of ProLight’s Panorama IP WBX unit. Let’s be fair,

there were many LED wash lights at PLASA and, with many of them, you’d have to read the label to know what you were looking at, so an eye-catching display is certainly a good move. Everyone uses LED wash lights now and a good affordable waterproof version is bound to be popular. PRG has advanced its interest in the LED screen market by developing the Pure10 LED screen module. The structure is reduced in size by using carbon fibre, making the framework smaller and stronger, and by turning the slats that support the LEDs themselves into a structure much like an open Venetian blind, the structure becomes transparent, as well as less prone to wind concerns. The lightweight and slim size reduces the cost of crew and trucking, so increasing sustainability. PRG was also showing its Spaceframe: a clever new structure for LED screens, also using carbon fibre technology to add strength and reduce weight. This great use of modern building methods promises to deliver great savings to the touring market, both in financial terms Set & Light | Winter 2018

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The PLASA Innovation Awards recognise and reward pioneering product designs

and also environmental gains. Robe has added to its family of big moving lights with the BMFL Followspot LT. Together with its Robospot system for remote manual control of moving lights, it allows follow spotting from trusses without the need for climbing operators. The spot is the same size and weight as the BMFL, so much easier to tuck onto a lighting rig than the old spot chairs. An on-board camera enables pre-focusing the light, with options over which parameters are left with the lighting desk and which with the spot operator, who works with a panning head and monitor much like a camera operator, with a touchscreen panel for setting up. The software now allows the operator to drive up the 12 fixtures from the one head, so multiple backlights are not a problem. Robert Juliat is famous for its range of high-quality follow spots and it has developed an interesting product – the Robert Juliat SpotMe – which feeds back pan and tilt information to the lighting desk from the spot so that this information can let moving lights follow the artist being spotted. Designed to work as a bolt-on extra with the full range of RJ follow spots, this is another approach to help keep spot operators off the truss. SGM had a small moving fixture that 14

could prove useful in a studio situation. The G-4 Wash with motorised barn doors is an LED unit with genuinely programmable barn doors. The door mechanism is cleverly designed to prevent accidental self-harm should the doors catch on an obstruction; they just wait and move to the correct place when the obstruction is gone. I can see this unit in a busy sofa chat situation that can reconfigure quickly and be corrected from the desk for those moments when the guest sits in and is just out of the light. With additive colour mixing and a good zoom range, this unit would make a versatile addition to any small studio. If you like gadgets then the TMB Proplex IQ Tester is for you. In this age of working over networks, it is a neat and portable Ethernet tester offering analysis of any Ethernet protocol, DMX receive and transmit and timing analysis, and much much more. This was the toy that everyone wanted to take home! This was a quick run-through of the products entered for the Innovation Awards 2018, and only those products closely related to what we do. I must emphasise that my votes were pooled with the other judges, so I cannot be held solely responsible for the final results! Of the products I have listed, Innovation Awards went to the ProPlex

Tester, ETC’s Relevé Spot, Robert Juliat’s SpotMe, Artistic Licence and its dmx matisse, Avolite’s Synergy and PRG’s Spaceframe. I am pleased to say that a Gold Award went to the LED Titan Tubes. The Titan Tube was described as a ‘simple, cost-effective, bright and versatile linear light tube with a 10-hour battery lifetime per charge’ by the judges.They were impressed with the feature-rich units, which will find an application in all sectors of the industry, including film,TV, events and theatre.The thought that has gone into the design of the package, battery replacement and included accessories meant the judges felt it should be give a Gold Award. I would like to offer a personal prize to the AED Group’s VMB Show Lift AEDSL18 – not for the slickest product name but for the product I most want to use on a show. Imagine a motorised tower that goes from 1.5m to 4.1m in height, which can lift up to 55kg. Not only that, it can be controlled by DMX, so giving vertical dynamics to the lighting design. This tower would make a great alternative to a very large stand and has a smaller footprint and looks better in shot. A lot of thought has gone into how it transports and also its safety features. How useful is that! Go to plasa.org.uk for more information on all the products.

Set & Light | Winter 2018

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Knights of Illumination

11th awards witness the first double winner This year saw the 11th Knights of Illumination Awards take place at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith.This was the second year the event has taken place at this venue and it certainly proved popular with all concerned. Over 500 sat down to dinner, with entertainment provided by mentalist magician Chris Cox and the compere for the night, Durham Marenghi. The STLD again looked after the Television awards. The final judging panel consisted of Stuart Gain (Chairman), Stephen Neal (BBC TV Director), Rachel Cooke (New Statesman), Jane Shepherd (Art Director) and John O’Brien (TV Lighting Director and Secretary of the STLD). The shortlist was prepared from the many entries by a subcommittee and then put before the main judging panel to select the winners. Six awards were given in total for the Television section. The results are as follows:-

Events

Andy Stagles (MOBO Awards)

Small Production

Andy Stagles (Songs of Praise)

Video Design & Graphic Display

Kate Dawkins (WW1 Remembered Passchendaele)

Light Entertainment

Dave Davey (The Voice Final)

Drama

Martin Kempton (Upstart Crow)

Contribution to Television Lighting Steve Wells (RML Ltd)

For the first time in KOI’s history, one person won two awards on the night, so special congratulations to Andy Stagles. The night ended with drinks in the bar, provided by The Fifth Estate. Praise must go to Sarah Rushton-Read and her team at The Fifth Estate for an excellent evening. Nominations for the 2019 awards are due to open shortly, so keep your eyes open for anything you think is worthy of being nominated.You can nominate your own work or someone else’s. Just go to knight-of-illumination.com/television-nominations to submit an entry online. Nominations for the TV awards require either a video link to the show or a DVD of the section to be judged, which can be sent to John O’Brien at the STLD. I look forward to seeing many of you at next year’s awards, Stuart Gain Set & Light | Winter 2018

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awards

Knights of Illumination

Andy Stagles waves the KOI sword after winning the Events category. He also won the Small Production award. © John O’Brien

Nigel Sadler with Video Design & Graphic Display winner Kate Dawkins and Stuart Gain. © John O’Brien

Alistair Currie with Dave Hallet, who accepted the award for Light Entertainment on behalf of Dave Davey, and Stuart Gain. © John O’Brien

Shaun Robertson from Philips presents the Drama sword to Martin Kempton with Stuart Gain. © John O’Brien

Set & Light | Winter 2018

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lighting

Live and undead Words & photos: Martin Kempton One of guest actor Stephanie Cole’s lines in this production was, ‘It’s something called Inside No. 9. No, I hadn’t heard of it either’. The show is indeed one of BBC Two’s most closely guarded secrets, and yet for those who have discovered it, it’s one of the best programmes on television. Written by Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith of The League of Gentlemen fame, Inside No. 9 is a series of half-hour standalone television plays – an old-fashioned concept, reminiscent for those of a certain age of the days of The Wednesday Play or Armchair Theatre. Actually, the closest comparison is probably Tales of the Unexpected. Although made by BBC Comedy, these dramas bear no comparison with most of the output of that department. They are comedies – well, of a sort – but the humour is dark, sometimes violent, always very clever and with an unexpected twist. The only thing linking them is the number nine – that and a small bronze hare that can be spotted as a bit of set dressing in every episode. (A little homage to Kit Williams’ Masquerade perhaps?) So far, there have been four series ,with 24 plays in total; another series is in production. Almost all have starred Reece and Steve as well as other actors of considerable reputation and prestige. It’s clearly considered a show to be seen in and I doubt many of the guest actors do it for the money. Most have been shot single camera with high production values, like mini feature films. Almost all have been limited to a single location, ranging from a wardrobe to a gothic mansion. The two creators love to try new techniques and stretch the envelope in ways not seen before. One episode was almost silent and another was shot entirely on CCTV cameras. Another was recorded on analogue tape using 1980s tubed cameras (supplied by Dicky Howett) and shot using traditional multi-camera techniques. My brother, Chris, lit that one. I’m not sure which distinguished BBC LD of the period he was emulating but it looked perfect. And so to ‘Dead Line’, the title of this play.The writers were asked by the BBC to do a live episode and they started working on it in the summer of 2018. Clearly they knew they had to do something different from a ‘normal’ edition; otherwise what was the point of doing it live? It was due to go out at Halloween, although, curiously, not on the actual night, which they amusingly grumbled about at one point during the show. They were partly inspired by the spoof BBC documentary Ghostwatch, which was made in Elstree D in 1992 and starred, of all people, Mike Smith, Sarah Greene and Michael Parkinson. That show claimed to be live but was in fact recorded. It contained poltergeist activity, ghostly appearances and demonic possession. Reece and Steve wanted all that too but this time it would actually be live. Researching the history of TV studios, they discovered that Manchester’s Granada Studios had a long reputation of being haunted. Several archived documentaries and news reports about the ghosts existed and Yvette Fielding had even done a

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Inside No. 9 Live

Pictured: Footage from Inside No. 9 Live. Twenty per cent of viewers were so convinced that ‘Dead Line’, the play within the play, had gone wrong that they switched off. The remaining 80 per cent were treated to a Ghostwatch-style mockumentary – the majority of it broadcast live

Most Haunted there. So, Granada it would be. Granada Studios were closed by ITV in 2013 and they moved their operation to MediaCity in Salford. The studios were purchased by Allied London, which planned to redevelop the whole site and its surrounding buildings. While the plans were drawn up, the studios were reopened and used as basic four-wallers for a few single-camera dramas. The last series of Dragons’ Den was also made there. The assumption was that this would be a temporary arrangement and the studios would eventually be demolished. However, in 2017 they had a change of mind and decided to keep Studios 2, 6, 8 and 12 and demolish all the buildings around them – except for the distinctive office block, which would become a luxury hotel. So far, so good – it looked as though the studios would be available for the live TX of the show. I had by then been asked to light the production and, being a huge fan of the show, I leapt at the opportunity. Unfortunately, it transpired that work on the site in October would mean that we would have no power at all. Even corridors, dressing rooms and toilets would need temporary power run to them, as well as the studio and technical areas. I went to recce the building with Justin Denchfield, my gaffer, in August. We discovered that the site was very run-down, with missing light bulbs in corridors, old photos on walls, peeling wallpaper, technical equipment ripped out and a musty smell throughout. This would all be perfect for our ghostly show. Feeding power to all the areas would be a challenge, but Justin recently gaffered both royal weddings, so in comparison this would be a doddle. We looked at all the studios and discovered studio kit covering the floors of two of them – all purchased from TLS, which had closed a few months before. They are certainly serious about getting these studios up and running again.

We chatted with the studios’ technical manager, who had previously worked for Granada. Half joking, he said he wasn’t sure at all whether it was a good idea to make a show like ours there. Rather alarmingly, he reckoned the ghosts wouldn’t like it – and advised that we never mention Mary’s name out loud. Standing in a gloomy deserted gallery, he described a couple of recent incidents he had experienced: one when a monopole began swinging back and forth all on its own in Studio 12 and suddenly stopped. He went up to the grid (I’m not sure I would have) but there was nobody there. On another occasion he and a few contractors were climbing the stairs to the grid when one of the monopoles rolled along its track several feet. Again, the grid was deserted. Some weeks later I repeated these stories to Steve and Reece and they decided to incorporate a swinging lamp in the deserted gallery scene as a result. We left Manchester full of enthusiasm but the next day the studios called the production and regrettably pulled out of the deal. They said that since the car park and buildings all around would be in the midst of demolition during our show, we would not be able to have access to the studio for our vehicles. This was a huge disappointment but a small part of me was quite relieved. I’ve never seen a ghost but those studios would have been a creepy place to make a show about, well, those actual studios being haunted. So, where to make the show? One of the stages at Pinewood or Shepperton were considered, as was 3 Mills. Ideally, though, we needed a TV studio rather than a film stage. Fortunately, Maidstone seemed suitable and a studio was available. Maidstone Studios were built for TVS in 1982. When up and running they had four studios, the largest (curiously) being numbered Studio 2. It is about 6,000 sq ft, so similar in Set & Light | Winter 2018

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lighting

size to the old Riverside Studio 1. Our set would fit perfectly and, after a visit by Steve and Reece, they realised that the scene dock also offered opportunities that could be brought into the drama. Maidstone also has a large studio – now called Studio 1 – which was built in 2005. Later... with Jools Holland and Take Me Out are regular bookings there. Fortunately, Later... is made on a Tuesday, so we would have the whole building to ourselves. Studio 2 attracts comparatively little work, which is a shame, but I wonder if this is partly because few production managers know it exists. It has a lighting rig of densely packed motorised bars (boats) and a nice suite of control rooms conveniently located at ground-floor level. (Please note, BBC Glasgow and MediaCity Salford, we do not like galleries two floors up!) The galleries do have a monitor stack (with old LCD monitors, unfortunately) but all other technical equipment is hired in for each booking. Regarding the monitors, I requested three Sony OLEDs for our gallery and also one for the production gallery so they could make an accurate assessment of the pictures. The cameras supplied were 4K Sony HDC4300s, but of course we were only working in HD. I planned to add filters to the studio cameras, so I asked if they could be supplied with quarter black Promists or Glimmerglass, which actually I prefer. This proved tricky to arrange so in the end I went back to basics and employed the technique we used to use many years ago: I ordered some Lee Soft 1 filters and these were cut to the right shape and inserted behind the rear element of each lens. Actually, not to all of the studio cameras. The script called for a play within a play. The first few minutes would appear to be a ‘normal’ edition of the show but then things would seem to go wrong and we would fall off the air. This happened nine minutes into the transmission – a clue for sharp-witted viewers! We would later cut to shots of the deserted studio, so I wanted those pictures to look different from the fictional world and as live as possible. The cameras used for the ‘Dead Line’ drama were therefore filtered and set to PSF, but the camera used for actuality shots was unfiltered, interlaced and slightly cooled and desaturated. For ‘Dead Line’ I lit the play mostly using old Northlights, hired from Panalux. These were originally installed in Teddington Studios and are about 58 years old. The reason I love them is because of their eggcrates, which give excellent control over the spread of the light. They were specified back in the day by Clive Gulliver and the crates are still nicknamed ‘hobbits’ in his honour. They were supplemented by a few bits and pieces I brought to the studio: some Chimeras and Rifalights of various shapes and sizes, a 20-inch Chimera lantern, two lightweight reflectors mounted on top of flats (made many years ago by the late Roger Duncan) and three 1m by 1m ARRI reflectors used for fill. These reflectors have a unique silver cloth fixed to them, which has the property of reflecting a sideways spread of soft light while shading off at the top and bottom. It is great for keeping the light off the upstage flats. I wanted the lighting for ‘Dead Line’ to appear different from the rest of the show, so it was lit relatively high key. Once the crew had apparently abandoned the studio mid transmission, I lit everything much darker and moodier. Of course, in reality we would have faded to black and switched on the house 22

Inside No. 9 Live

lights, but that was certainly not in keeping with the mood. Other areas around the building were seen on camera too, using four Q-Ball cameras to simulate CCTV cameras. The quality of those was far too good so Dave Roberts, my excellent vision controller, tweaked them to reduce saturation, add noise and make them look as cheap and nasty as possible. Apologies to the manufacturers. The areas seen were a corridor, a makeup room, a small crew kitchen and the scene dock. In the first three areas I used existing lighting but adapted it to look as much like my experience of the actual Granada studios as possible. We added ND and CTO to some overhead fittings, several were removed completely and a great deal of black wrap was used to shade walls and direct the light where I wanted it. A few 1x1 LED panels filled in the gaps. I unscrewed a number of the golfballs surrounding the mirrors to give a seedy look to the area and also reduce their glare. Someone from the studios was very concerned about this and offered to replace them with working bulbs. Fortunately, they didn’t do it without asking. The scene dock was lit from scratch. We killed the overhead fluorescents and Justin hung five Chroma-Q Space Force panels in the roof, enabling us to mix colour temperatures. They had skirts added to control the spread. We then rigged about eight pups and 650s with various shades of CT blue and CT orange to light the area, including the electricians’ cage, where Reece would go to investigate a strange noise. A Source 4 with a homemade grille gobo added to the effect. I wanted this area not to appear ‘lit’ but nevertheless to be atmospheric and with lots of spooky shadows.You may be able to tell that I was loving all this! We had a 2K behind the cages skimming right across the whole space, casting weird shadows of equipment and lighting up the haze from an MDG Atmosphere. All the lights were plugged to a dimmer pack in the scene dock and remotely controlled by Julia Smith, my console op. I’ve been working with Julia for many years and have come to rely upon her creative contribution to many shows I light. The action involved Reece going through into a dark caged storage room.The art department rigged a plastic translucent curtain within this. I lit the area behind simply with a spotted up vertical redhead, coloured with 117 steel blue. My grandfather introduced me to the old Cinemoid number 17; I reckon you still can’t beat its cold, greenish quality for spooky moonlight. When we were rigging I noticed that the lamp created a weird shadow from the scaff bars sticking out that were used to hang coils of cable. I realised that by hanging the coils in a particular way, a shadow resembling a spectral shape would be cast on the curtain, raising the tension in that sequence. Reece and Steve loved this but asked the art department to make it look a bit more like a person, so they hung some black cloth there instead. Ah well – at least I gave them the idea. This sequence was covered by a camera mounted on Reece’s cycle helmet. It was supplied by Broadcast Sports International and produced extremely impressive pictures. The action began in a kitchen, where Reece looked at himself in a mirror, establishing to the viewer that the pictures were indeed coming from that camera. Reece carried a small transmitter pack and the system behaved faultlessly in the live transmission. It had to cover the walk from the kitchen into

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the scene dock, then into the Faraday cage of the sparks’ area and then through the dock doors into the studio and through the entire set. We even had rudimentary vision control of it. Following a dead blackout (surprisingly hard to achieve in any TV studio) the camera was supposed to switch to infrared and produce pictures similar to those seen on Most Haunted. Unfortunately, this would involve using a separate camera, so we toyed with the idea of a cameraman standing behind Reece and stepping in, taking over the shot with the second camera. However, Reece wanted his outstretched hands to be seen in shot as he was supposed to be seeing nothing – the viewer could glimpse ghosts that he was unaware of. In the end we had to pre-record this sequence, which was mostly done in one take. I have never lit for infrared before so I didn’t know what I would need to do to enable enough of the studio and its ghosts to be seen. In the end, it transpired that the IR lamp on the helmet did almost all the lighting we needed. So, an experience for all involved and incredibly challenging for every department. We even had the composer playing live on his Prophet keyboard in the production gallery. Incidentally, the shot of the deserted gallery seen in the show had to be pre-recorded as, of course, in reality it was very much occupied. I added a little light to the area and spent some time illuminating a ghost that was seen reflected in the last monitor to switch itself off. I wonder how many viewers spotted that. Of course, many people thought there really was a fault and gave up watching; apparently we lost about 20 per cent of our viewers but the 80 per cent who guessed that it was all part of the show were rewarded with a unique television experience. The Twitter feed was extraordinarily positive: I saw two negative tweets against hundreds who were raving about it. The critics were similarly effusive. It’s not often that one gets the opportunity to work on a show where you can be proud to say ‘I was there’. In December, I’m lighting a live edition of the sitcom Not Going Out. I imagine the challenges on that one will be rather different!

Top: the cast and crew of Inside No. 9, who included Stephanie Cole (above). Martin Kempton chose a dark and moody lighting look to signify a studio abandoned mid-transmission Set & Light | Winter 2018

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information

December date for vote on new EU regulations The European Union has now made available new drafts of its Ecodesign and Eco Labelling regulations for lighting. This third draft, released on 8 October, is what is proposed as the final version of these rules. These drafts are available to read at: n members.wto.org/crnattachments/2018/TBT/ EEC/18_5215_00_e.pdf n members.wto.org/crnattachments/2018/TBT/ EEC/18_5215_01_e.pdf n members.wto.org/crnattachments/2018/TBT/ EEC/18_5216_00_e.pdf n members.wto.org/crnattachments/2018/TBT/ EEC/18_5216_01_e.pdf It is worth reiterating that we – the entertainment lighting industry – have achieved a great deal over the last few months. The second draft of the regulations, released in July, achieved a number of important things for us – in particular, an exemption for many of the tungsten light bulbs in common use and for additive colour-mixing (what the EU calls ‘colour-tuneable’) lighting fixtures. All of these remain in this final draft. However, that draft also included some issues that were problematic to our industry. These included: n the inability of entertainment lighting products to achieve the required 0.5W maximum power consumption when in standby mode – ie, when not emitting light – because of the need to keep processing incoming data all the time in order to be able to respond immediately to commands n the inability of high-powered/high-output white LED sources to meet the efficiency level required because of the way that optical systems naturally become less efficient as they get larger n the definition of green used for colour-tuneable fixtures, which is not set at the right point for the most efficient design of such fixtures n and, finally, a number of specific lamp bases and lamp types, including some tungsten and fluorescent lamps used in film/TV production, which have not been granted an exemption. The entertainment lighting industry through Pearle – the European producers’ league that has been our voice in Brussels – has been trying to feed this back to the EU’s Energy team since July. The version at ald.org.uk/sites/ default/files/resources/PEARLEecodesignlighting amendmentproposal_15102018.pdf is a slightly updated version with more signatories. Philips has prepared a more graphical explainer of the issues, which you can find at ald.org.uk/sites/default/files/resources/DriversandHLLin Entertainment.pdf. However, there has been no response to this from 24

Energy and none of these issues have been addressed in the latest draft. The regulations now enter a consultation period, during which member states can comment on the regulations through their appropriate government body, leading up to the regulations being voted into law. Some are suggesting that the date for this vote has been set as early as 17 December. this year In the UK, the body responsible for working with the EU on Ecodesign is the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). The ALD, the film lighting trade organisation ASPEC and others in entertainment lighting have been talking to this department for some time, and they are fully aware of the issues and are working hard to help. However, we believe that the key is getting as many EU countries as possible to respond with the same message (particularly as Britain is not flavour of the month in Europe at the moment). The group that has been dealing with this from entertainment lighting does have the equivalent government bodies from a number of other countries briefed and bringing the same message back to the EU and we are starting to get word that this will lead to changes that address our remaining issues – but, of course, that won’t be known for sure until the final version of the regulation is released. In case that fails, the entertainment lighting manufacturers are already starting to plan their workarounds. But we continue to believe it would be better to get these outstanding concerns resolved properly, o manufacturers can concentrate their efforts on making innovative new products, not having to engineer workarounds to rules. The EU aims to review its rules on a five-year rolling basis, which means it will start working on the next version of these rules quite soon after this version is voted in. It is already giving clear indications that it intends to become much, much stricter in the next version, the aim being to remove any remaining exemptions for tungsten and other light sources that it considers inefficient. Pearle has now won a place on the European Commission’s Ecodesign and Energy Labelling Consultation Forum, which is incredibly helpful. But we should not consider that we have escaped from the entertainment lighting doomsday scenario that was predicted earlier in the year – rather that it has just been postponed for a few years. We all need to start using that time to prepare for our future, even in the UK where it is not entirely clear what Brexit will actually mean with regard to EU regulations in the short to mid term. As always, the latest updates will be posted regularly on the ALD website at .ald.org.uk/resources/savestagelighting. Check in there often to stay up to date. Rob Halliday The Association of Lighting Designers www.ald.org.uk

Set & Light | Winter 2018

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EU Regulations update / New product

All I want for Christmas is... Christmas is coming and if you want to buy yourself another gadget, then here’s a good one I came across the other day, writes Bernie Davis. BBC people will remember Danny Popkin at TV Centre. Well, he has developed a device that fills a need he has spotted. We rely on picture monitors to make valued judgements on our lighting balance, yet we meet such a range of monitors it is not easy to set them up accurately without a reliable meter. For this purpose he has developed the iPLUGE meter. The idea came from the problem of there being so many monitor types available, and the way that they produce light is incorrectly read by most photocells and low-cost light meters. When you are presented with a hired monitor or an unknown stack, you cannot realistically make picture judgements unless you have a reliable meter. Utilising an RGB sensor with IR filter and a clear sensor without IR filter, it’s possible to get good consistent results from most monitors, around 6,500K. As a bonus, the iPLUGE meter can also act as a line-up chart meter. As Danny says, it’s no good for CRI or TLCI as the sensor is only three-colour. But as a light meter with a range of one lux to 65,000 lux, the simple display will tell you light levels in lux and colour temperature in Kelvin. As a monitor line-up tool it comes with a handy guide showing you how to match different monitor types in a monitor stack, including OLED, LCD (both LED and compact fluorescent backlights) and CRT measurement. It even has a torch mode for finding those menu buttons they hide in the dark corners of monitor fronts. More information, including how to order one can be found at ipluge.co.uk Set & Light | Winter 2018

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members’ stories

A homema de 24V transfor mer for an electric arc welder. Cable joints are often twisted and covere d with a plastic bag. Don’t even think of PAT testing anything!

The local Anglican church in Katete. The walls were built four years ago; the roof is taking a lot longer to install. The congregation move around to chase the shade. Money is very tight. Corrugated iron sheets for the roof are bought whenever there’s spare cash.

My African adventure Words & photos: Andrew Dixon My fourth visit to St Francis Hospital, Katete, Zambia – probably my last. I now find the month working on maintenance there particularly tiring. It’s hot and dusty, but still staffed with kindly, conscientious folk.

Mubanga made contact three years ago asking if we could help confine his X-rays to the consulting room. We arranged for two windows to be blocked up and lead-lined doors to be fitted. Air con was installed (a real luxury at St Francis) and in the past two years this new scanner has arrived – probably a donation from a European hospital.

An area often full of waiting patients in the OPD outpatients’ department. Open 24 hours a day, the area had been unlit until our LED lamp was installed. 26

Set & Light | Winter 2018

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A bit of fun: the half-mile walk back to our digs at night and my shadow from a floodlight and a full upsidedown moon. Think about it!

Three containers arrive from Canada: ‘Hospital equipment for Africa’. A genero us gift? More likely unwanted kit – usually 120V and no transformers include d. We spent £500 buying 120/240V transformers just for two Path Lab microscopes.

04/12/2018 21:21

Andrew Dixon

Above left: A posed photo to record the receipt by Rasario and Vi of LED bulbs for their dark café kitchen. There is little complaint when bulbs die; people just work on in semi darkness. Hopefully these bulbs will last a good while. Above right: important places—the corridor behind me stretches the whole 160m length of the hospital. Now relit with 18w LED lamps from Ledhut… great!

Always on.

Important people: my good friend Boyd Zumbi, the electrician, and his wife Precious outside their house. Isn’t it always memories of people that one remembers best?

Our group shares an open-air supper in the South Luangwa Game Park. A bit of luxury for two nights. The shot reminds me of candlelit conversations lit by John Summers in the BBC Shakespeare series in the 1980s!

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24 hour technical support. visual environment technologies etcconnect.com

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AC ET A.C. Entertainment Technologies unveils latest lighting solutions at IBC and PLASA 2018

The AC-ET stands at IBC and PLASA London featured an array of specialist TV, broadcast and film lighting solutions and related services from leading brands, including Chroma-Q (see Chroma-Q Sponsor news’ entry), Quasar Science, RatPac and Tourflex Cabling. Increasingly widely used in film and broadcast, the Quasar Science Linear LED Fixture range’s compact size, easy setup, superior quality colour and versatility makes it ideal for lighting actors or environments. The lineup includes the popular Q-LED X-Crossfade for tuneable white light and the Q-LED Q-Rainbow, which combines tuneable white light with RGB full colour-changing capabilities. RatPac’s AKS system uses LumenRadio’s award-winning CRMX wireless technology and allows users to control lighting fixtures directly from their mobile phone, tablet, PC or DMX lighting console. In addition, for light sources which are not LumenRadio compatible, RatPac’s Cintenna wireless receiver plugs directly into the back of the fixtures themselves and requires no extra rigging hardware. AC-ET’s Tourflex Cabling in-house manufacturing service makes high-quality bespoke data, mains and multicore lighting cables. Fully tested to ensure that each assembly made in-house conforms to customers’ requirements, the service also holds significant component stocks so that it can turn round large orders rapidly and effectively. It supplies specialist HMI, BAC, PowerSafe AC and a full range of power, data, lighting control, video, audio and rigging cables. Industrystandard branded connectors, including Tourmate, Socapex and Neutrik, are combined with raw cables from brands such as Tourflex Datasafe and Datasafe Ultra.

Media Flare further invests in Green Hippo with via AC-ET

Video production company Media Flare has purchased three next-generation Hippotizer V4 Boreal+ Media Servers, extending its hire stock to nine Hippotizer V4 and Hippotizer V4+ Media Servers to meet demand from its rapidly expanding client base in North America and Asia. 28

The new Hippotizer Boreal+ media servers are being utilised to provide cutting-edge creative video solutions for overseas television shows, concerts, live events and a Las Vegas residency. Media Flare’s freelance TV lighting designer Tom Sutherland said: “Our Hippos have never let us down, and with the V4+ models’ new features and enhancements providing even more creative flexibility, for us it was the only way to go. It’s great that I can rely on a media server that can cover such a range of productions and budgets.” Freelancer Nick Hansen, who has been programming several of Tom’s shows using the Boreal+ servers, said: “Hippotizer media servers are so user-friendly. The Output Manager side is incredibly powerful and flexible, enabling us to handle things when a show’s technical needs change quickly during production. We are also excited by the potential of Notch, which we will definitely be using on future projects to manipulate content with effects.” When it came to sourcing the media servers, Media Flare again turned to AC-ET’s video sales division, which had supplied its previous servers. Managed by Video Technical Sales Executive Chris Beardwell, the Hippotizer Boreal+ Media Servers fitted with Datapath Vision-SDI2 capture cards were part of a complete control rack solution, which also included Datapath FX4-SDI 4K display wall controllers, Rosenthal Mif4 timecode interfaces and cabling from AC-ET’s in-house Tourflex Cabling custom cable assembly service.

Spotlight launches Hyperion LED models

Spotlight showcased its Hyperion LED series – including six-colour Fresnel, six-colour profile and warm-white Fresnel models with new software, plus new tuneable-white profile – on the AC-ET stand at PLASA 2018, London, in September. Developed to celebrate 50 years of the brand’s innovation, the Hyperion series has been designed to meet the most discerning requirements of professional users, both for the quantity and the quality of the light output. The Hyperion six-colour LED technology adds amber, cyan and lime, alongside RGB, for a wider choice of even colourmixing, a colour temperature range from 2,700K to 8,000K, and colour rendering up to 97. As a result, it gives designers increased creative possibilities to achieve their artistic vision. The Hyperion range of Fresnels and zoom profiles also includes tuneable-white and fixed-white versions. Designed for large installations such as professional theatres, film and TV studios, the highly efficient 300W luminaires have an output comparable with 2,000W halogen fixtures. They feature a new rounder, sleeker and more compact design, yet retain Spotlight’s reliably efficient internal heat-reduction system and have DMX-controlled fan speed modes to suit different environments and productions.

AURORA Lighting up Love Island with LD James Tinsley

Television lighting specialists Aurora Lighting are pleased to be supporting Lighting Director James Tinsley and the crew on the latest season of Love Island for ITV2.

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Following the incredible success of the previous series, the team has returned to the villa to build the setting for the latest batch of islanders. Colourful and intense, the look created for the show provides the perfect backdrop to the on-screen twists and turns of the relationships evolving between the singles seeking love and a possible share of the £50,000 prize. Working closely with James and his team, Aurora have delivered a full location package to assist in creating the show’s magical setting. Along with a selection of Fresnels and PARs used for ambient illumination, of particular note is the creative mix of vibrant RGB LED flex and practical fixtures, including the 2,000m of festoon that frames the surrounding gardens, adding a fairytale-like quality to the exteriors. James says: “On such a high-profile production it is essential to have the right equipment for the job. We have a very specific lighting kit list for this series; from distribution to dimming and control. I have been impressed with Aurora’s ability to provide the crew with everything they require, enabling us to create the desired looks, both inside the villa and within the garden areas.” In tandem with the main show, Aurora are supporting sister production Love Island: Aftersun. Filmed a little closer to home in front of a live audience at Elstree Studios’ Stage 8, James has mirrored the look of the main show using custom LED signs and LED track floating around the set. Aurora Project Manager Ben Taylor says “There are obvious logistical challenges surrounding delivery of a lighting package to a fairly remote location, even more so when it is for live broadcast. James and his crew have once again done a stunning job in creating the look for Love Island and continuing it through to Aftersun.The series has an immense following so it’s great to have been able to play our part in setting the scene.”

Supporting The Circle for Channel 4

Filmed live on location within a West London high-rise apartment block, the new reality show pits an eclectic mix of characters against each other in a bid to win a popularity

contest while interacting exclusively through a specially designed, voice-activated social media platform known as The Circle. Working with Lighting Designer James Tinsley, Electrician Adam Mitchell and their team, Aurora have provided an array of equipment and infrastructure to assist in building the show’s look, created by Production Designer Sally Lock. The installation features a range of LED and practical fixtures used extensively throughout the room interiors. With over 100 fixed rig cameras in place, the setup has been carefully designed to be functional while remaining unobtrusive to both contestants and viewers alike. The team’s mix of LED, festoon and practical fixtures adds subtle, decorative highlights to the interior and exterior while also providing discreet set illumination. In lighting the building exterior, the LD has used LED to add crisp highlights across each apartment balcony, as well as creating the spectacular 30m-diameter illuminated Circle ident that covers the entire façade. Completing the look, 100 Martin Rush PAR fixtures deliver the intense, controllable colour that includes the show’s signature deep-crimson hues, Aurora also provided a number of their Bi-Flex 2 and Bi-Flex 4 Bi-Color Aladin Kits for additional, bright LED functionality.

Ready, set, go for CBB live evictions

Aurora Lighting are pleased to be supporting Lighting Director Gurdip Mahal on the latest run of live eviction shows at the Celebrity Big Brother house. Complementing the installation’s glitzy, bright-neon backdrop, Aurora have delivered a comprehensive live event package to assist in delivering the suitably vibrant spectacle that accompanies the departure of the latest housemate to be voted out. Held in the custom-built eviction arena, sited adjacent to the infamous house at Elstree Studios, the evictions take place against a grand curved video wall and feature a heady mix of theatrical and full-on rockshow lighting looks. Set & Light | Winter 2018

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Working with Gaffer Richard Shout, Aurora have once again supplied the crew with a range of fixtures to help create the spectacle, complete with intense colour washes and overhead searchlight effects. In building the look for the show, Martin MAC Auras provide their powerful wash across the set, while the ever-popular, versatile Clay Paky Mythos adds an extra dash of colour and movement. A number of Novalight Super Novas are sited above the stage, delivering the crisp aerial beam effects above the eviction arena. Keeping the housemates properly in the spotlight, Robert Juliat ‘Victor’ followspots have been incorporated into the design – perfect for focusing on the celebrity guests as they descend the exit stairway.

BBC STUDIOWORKS BBC Studioworks to facilitate new Channel 5 commission, Celebrity Game Night

BBC Studioworks provided full studio and technical services to Channel 5’s new gameshow, Celebrity Game Night. The production sees actor and radio personality Liza Tarbuck take on hosting duties in front of a live audience for production company Monkey’s take on the triple-Emmywinning American show, Hollywood Game Night. Liza is joined by two teams of celebrity guests, led by captains Danny Baker and Susan Calman. The teams go head-to-head in a series of games that test their pop culture knowledge, acting skills and nerves of steel. The six 60-minute episodes were facilitated in BBC Studioworks’ 11,800 sq. ft. Studio D at BBC Elstree Centre, with two episodes recording back-to-back in October. The production was supported by Studio D’s production galleries, EVS tapeless recording facilities and BBC Studioworks’ audio, electrical, engineering and scenic teams. “We’re very excited to be working with Monkey on the UK’s version of this popular format,” said Meryl McLaren, Commercial Manager, BBC Studioworks. Celebrity Game Night will air on Channel 5 in 2019.

BBC Studioworks welcomes four new productions for autumn: Shows to record across all three sites BBC Studioworks is providing full studio and technical 30

services to four new titles from September to December. Studioworks facilitated Talkback’s Through the Keyhole for ITV in its 11,800 sq ft Studio D at its BBC Elstree site. The comedy panel show, which sees Keith Lemon exploring celebrities’ houses and getting a panel of other celebrities to try and guess the famous homeowner, recorded in front of a live studio audience of over 400 in September and October. Over the road at its Elstree Studios operation, in its 7,550 sq ft Stage 8, are two productions for the BBC. Hat Trick’s Have I Got News for You is recording 10 episodes for its 56th series from October to December in front of an audience of over 350. During the same period, Stage 8 will be turned around by Studioworks’ scenic operations team to host Boundless and MGM Television’s 12-episode run of The Apprentice:You’re Fired!. This will have an audience of over 325. Completing the new lineup, Studio TC2 at Television Centre has welcomed Shiver Productions’ Peston in its new Wednesday night slot for ITV. The flagship political programme, presented by the Political Editor of ITV News, Robert Peston, features discussions with politicians and public figures concerning the major events of the week. “It’s great to welcome these four new productions, which will be spread across our portfolio of sites,” said John O’Callaghan, Head of Studios and Post Production, BBC Studioworks. “Our autumn schedule is particularly strong and is testament not only to our technologically advanced studios but, more importantly, to the exceptional customer experience our team delivers time and time again.”

BBC Studioworks upgrades to tapeless capture at Elstree: Strictly Come Dancing first show to benefit

BBC Studioworks has invested in tapeless capture to cover its Elstree studio operations, including two 12-channel EVS XS3 Servers. The new tapeless setup, increasingly requested by clients, matches BBC Studioworks’ system at its Television Centre studio and post-production facility, creating consistency across its sites. The new tapeless system was embraced by all shows at BBC Studioworks’ Elstree production hub this autumn, starting with the 16th series of BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing. Produced by BBC Studios, the NTA and BAFTA-awardwinning show will benefit from a more effective workflow, a reduction in tape stock costs and the consequential environmental dividend. As the show also post produces with BBC Studioworks, material from the studio will be instantly available in the edit. The EVS XS3 Servers will be based in proximity of the relevant studio, along with a 10 GbE switch and an IP Director. The core system, based in a UPS and generatorbacked apparatus room, consists of three Ultra High Performance XT Access Servers, a mirrored database solution and a management IP Director. All media streams onto BBC Studioworks’ 180 TB Avid Nexis storage, either to be edited or held as a backup. BBC Studioworks has created record operators’ rooms, which service its studios across the Elstree sites, and it is able to rapidly install pop-up rooms when additional facilities are required. Rooms consist of video/audio monitoring, talkback, EVS control, an Avid for checking recorded material and a general-purpose PC.

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“Our investment in tapeless capture at Elstree is in response to requests from client productions and provides them with an even neater and more effective workflow,” said Meryl McLaren, Commercial Manager, BBC Studioworks. “We have been operating tapeless recording at Television Centre since we reopened the facility in September 2017, so it’s advantageous to have a mirrored offering in Elstree too.” For the sixth consecutive year, BBC Studioworks is providing full studio and post-production services to Strictly Come Dancing at its Elstree production hub. Its post-production village, with 11 Avid Symphony suites dedicated to the show, meet the fast turnaround and varied editing requirements and handle up to 100 hours of training material each week. Rushes are ingested, logged, edited, reviewed and incorporated into the shows, which air on Saturday and Sunday evenings. BBC Studioworks is also providing post-production services to the 60-episode series of the Strictly Come Dancing companion show, It Takes Two, from Elstree.

The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice kicks off autumn season at Television Centre

BBC Studioworks was chosen as the studio provider for the fifth series of Love Productions’ The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice. The 10-episode series took up its new home in the 10,800 sq ft Studio TC1 at Television Centre, recording weekly on Saturday nights from August to October. BBC Studioworks provided the show with full studio and technical services, as well as a range of support services, including studio management, engineering and electricians. With a 280-strong audience spread across BBC Studioworks’ retractable seating rostra, and an additional 60 on ginghamclad teashop-style tables on the studio floor (adorned with the audience’s home-baked goods), the show was captured using BBC Studioworks’ HDC-4300 cameras and recorded via its EVS XS4K tapeless recording system.

B360 B360 have continued to grow from strength to strength, continuously proving themselves within the competitive TV industry as being efficient, reliable and able to tackle any temporary/permanent lighting installation, offering the most efficient options to all situations. B360 are able to provide technical knowledge, support, planning, kit and installs through a diverse range of sectors. So far in 2018, we have been involved with many projects, including providing lighting, rigging and crew for the Commonwealth Head of Governments meeting; providing a lighting package for the Russian World Cup BBC Studio; providing lighting, rigging and crew for BAE at Farnborough; and providing lighting, rigging, power and crew for a large festival within London for Singapore Day, to name but a few. B360 worked with both the BBC and CNN on their coverage of the Royal Wedding in May, providing lighting, rigging and crew for all of their studios on location. We have continued to work with the BBC, providing a full package, including power, for both the 2018 Richard Dimbleby Lecture and the Votes for Women Procession 2018. This has been the

second year running that we have been asked to provide a full package for Dimbleby. B360 have also provided crew to assist with a variety of TV shows, including Genderquake:The Debate, The Megan Markle Effect, a lighting and crew package for ITN Productions for coverage for Matalan, as well as a lighting and crew package to assist CC-Lab with their coverage of the Isle of Wight Festival. B360 also provided the power and crew, and full pre-production alongside VER, for the new MTV Show The Royal World. Not only have we been providing a complete lighting package, we are now renowned in working with clients on multi-year projects in a consulting role, guiding and assisting them from conception through to completion. Our consulting role is not only essential for long-term projects but also for shorter projects to ensure they run smoothly and meet all the necessary legal standards. In this role, we spent the summer in Cairo providing full lighting technical support to Sunset + Vine for a new studio. We provide full technical support and all additional kit for both Iran International Studio within Chiswick Park and BT Sports Studio within Olympic Park. We have been providing this support since 2017. We are also continuing with our maintenance work at Ealing Studio on behalf of Timeline. Our 150KVA Super Silent Twin Set Generator has been busy supporting Timeline, provided unfaltering power to assist with the broadcast of many football games, including National League, Woman’s Super League, UEFA League, U21s, Women’s International Friendlies, Rugby and the FA Cup. The generator has also provided power for the broadcast of the Tour de Yorkshire, Nottingham Triathlon and the Cardiff Half Marathon. For a second year running, the generator has returned to Jersey to support Timeline with the coverage of the Jersey Triathlon. It has provided power for the JW Anderson Fashion Show within London. B360 have also provided a power and lighting package for Henley and coverage of the Hockey Women’s World Cup 2018. We have also supported NHK Cosmomedia Europe Ltd with power, lighting and crew for an 8k OB within Kew Gardens. As our power division has been growing from strength to strength, we have welcomed a 250KVA Super Silent Twin Set into B360. We are continuing to expand our dry hire lighting division to meet the demands and have increased our stock of the Litepanel 6x’s. B360 are also happy to announce that we have moved offices and now have premises within Gaddesden Home Farm, Hemel Hempstead, where we are always happy to welcome visitors. As B360 continue to grow from strength to strength we are happy to welcome James Norkett into our family. James has come from an AV background but is quickly learning and taking to the lighting and power industry. James’ role is Operations Manager and he oversees all dry hire. Email him at James@b360.tv or call our office on 0203 9534 360.

CHAUVET Chris Hale joins Chauvet

Highly regarded industry veteran Chris Hale has joined Chauvet as its new UK Product Specialist. Prior to joining Set & Light | Winter 2018

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Chauvet, Chris was the senior product Specialist for Martin Professional UK. During his 23 years with that company and its predecessors, Chris worked with lighting products utilised in the touring, theatre, broadcast and film markets. “Chris is a valuable addition to our team,” said Albert Chauvet, CEO of Chauvet. “He has a broad and deep understanding of many different lighting applications.We’re confident he will be able to make good contributions to Chauvet as we continue to expand and serve more markets with our products.” Working out of Chauvet’s UK office, Chris is involved primarily in the company’s professional product range. “We feel there is an excellent match-up between Chris’s experience and our company’s mission,” said Michael Brooksbank, General Manager of Chauvet Europe. “Not only does he have a great deal of expertise, he also shares our value and customer service-driven philosophy.” Chris said: “I’ve already experienced first-hand just how far Chauvet goes to give the customers the very best experience. With such a broad product range, we have the right products for every application and deliver this with passion and care.” “No matter how big or small, our mission is to put the customer first, to deliver on our commitments and provide the best value and support,” added Matt Hallard, Chauvet UK Sales Manager. To find out more about Chauvet’s product portfolio or to request a demo at your venue, get in touch via uksales@ Chauvetlighting.com. Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/ CHAUVETProfessionalUK.

Chauvet names new European Marketing Manager

Chauvet, a leading maker of entertainment and architectural lighting, has named Alain Minet Marketing Manager of Chauvet Europe. Alain, who comes to Chauvet after successful tenures as a marketing executive at Serge Ferrari and Philips, will work out of the company’s recently opened Paris office. “We have enjoyed exponential growth in Europe,” said Albert Chauvet, CEO of Chauvet. “Our French and German offices, which opened in January, have both been off to incredibly fast starts, while our UK and Belgium facilities have been growing at a rapid pace. Given this growth, we needed someone who could oversee our expanding marketing efforts. Alain fits this need perfectly.” Prior to joining Chauvet, Alain directed corporate communications and marketing at Serge Ferrari. Before that, he was segment manager at Philips Office, Industrial and Healthcare Lighting. “Alain brings a wealth of experience to his position,” said Michael Brooksbank, European General Manager at Chauvet. “His knowledge, experience and passion for excellence will make him a valuable addition to the Chauvet team.” Alain will be heading the European marketing of the entire family of Chauvet brands, which include CHAUVET Professional, CHAUVET DJ, ILUMINARC, and TRUSST. 32

CHROMAQ

Worldwide launch of Vista 3 by Chroma-Q

Chroma-Q, which recently acquired and rebranded the Jands Vista lighting & media control system, has released the long-anticipated Vista 3 software, which introduces a large number of exciting new features and improvements. After receiving extensive user feedback,Vista 3 has been developed to dramatically enhance existing functionality and introduce an array of intelligent new features that appeal to both existing and new users. Some of the new features include the ability to merge multiple showfiles, a new colour engine that supports up to 11 colours, improved 2D fixture visualisations, customisable workspaces, a vastly expanded command line interface and Smart FX masters. These features all contribute to improving the entire user experience in creating and delivering fantastic-looking shows, in addition to making the software even more intuitive to those users who are new to the Vista ecosystem. Vista 3 user LD Ben Inskip has been trialling the software on his shows. He said: “Vista is getting better and better. The features in Vista 3 make everything quicker to access. Custom workspaces and the command line put even more at your fingertips. It allows me to try new things out quickly and focus on adding intricate little touches to shows.” He added: “I’m excited to follow Vista as it continues to improve.” Paul Pelletier, Chroma-Q’s Global Brand Manager, has been working with the development team on Vista 3. “I know a lot of people have been eagerly looking forward to the announcement of Vista 3. It feels great to deliver what we believe is an impressive product and we hope users agree that it was worth the wait.” Visit the Chroma-Q website to watch the Vista 3 software features video and then download the free demo version of the official software release.

Chroma-Q unveils new LED lighting and control solutions at PLASA 2018

Chroma-Q’s new Studio Force II and Brute Force highintensity tuneable-white LED fixtures made their show debut alongside the Vista 3 by Chroma-Q lighting & media control system at PLASA 2018, London, in September. The Studio Force II high-intensity, tuneable, white wash

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light uses a homogenised LED source capable of delivering variable colour temperature, plus/minus green shift control and the ability to produce deep saturated colours when needed. It is ideal for TV broadcast, film and other situations demanding high-quality, tuneable, white light. The Brute Force is a new LED alternative to a traditional quarter ‘Wendy’ light, with a full-colour RGB-W lamphead that draws just 15A at 240V. It has been designed to ensure optimal functionality across a variety of applications. Fully dimmable, the Brute Force utilises multiple Studio Force II tuneable white battens with an extended CCT range between 2,000K and 10,000K. Each unit features mappable pixel control with RDM, DMX and optional wireless operation. The multi-award-winning Color Force II LED batten, featuring RGBA-mixing homogenised optics, was also shown, as was Vista 3.

CLAYPAKY Axcor Profile 600 and 400 join AXCOR LED series

After the launch of the powerful and successful Axcor Profile 900 LED spot profile, Claypaky presents two more luminaires – the Axcor Profile 600 and the Axcor Profile 400 – which feature the exclusive, award-winning and patented Claypaky beam framing system. Both these models are available in two versions: with 6,500K colour temperature and high light output or with 5,600K colour temperature and a CRI of about 90. In the crowded world of medium-high power lights, the Axcor Profile 600 stands out for its combination of highperformance, exceptional light quality and versatility of use.

The luminous efficiency is among the highest in this power category and, if necessary, it can be further increased by about 25 per cent with boost mode, making Axcor Profile 600 a perfect tool for tours and large events. A wide zoom range from five to 45 degrees (1:9 ratio) means the light can be used in a variety of situations, including those for which a narrow angle is best. The completeness of its colour section, wealth of visual effects, framing system implemented with technological devices that enhance its precision and versatility, and the possibility of using it as a wash light, make the Axcor Profile 600 an essential benchmark for all modern entertainment uses. With the Axcor Profile 400, Claypaky has revolutionised the medium power market by offering a light able to pack all the most advanced lighting, mechanical and electronic features into a compact body: less than 65cm high. Among the features this compact LED light offers are a framing system that works on four focal planes, an effects section with an animation wheel, a complete colour system with linear CTO and a high-precision mechanical iris. The Axcor Profile 400 is extremely quiet and has three operating modes, which can be chosen according to needs: silent, standard and auto.

New ADB products

LEXPERT: The Lexpert family is a range of LED units featuring advanced digital technology and extremely high-quality light. The Lexpert fixtures are designed for those who appreciate the advantages of LEDs but still prefer white light sources: a step towards the future but with respect for the ways of those who have to use them. The Lexpert profile spot and Fresnel lights feature white LED solutions for replacing 1kW halogen lamps. The series includes the compact and versatile Lexpert Emphasy. Lexpert units are guaranteed by Osram and ADB’s long experience in the lighting industry. They provide excellent value for money. OKSALIS: The Oksalis is a static LED washlight that gives you total control over the quality of all forms of white and coloured light. The Oksalis washlight is based on HCR (high-colour rendering) technology – an LED light module consisting of six chips, each one devoted to a different colour, with amber, cyan and lime added to the basic red, green and blue colours. The Oksalis and Klemantis share the same light technology. Together they form a product line able to provide a wide colour range with extraordinary colour spectrum coverage and different shapes and light distributions. HATHOR 2.0: ADB has released version 2.0 of its renowned lighting software, featuring the following main new features: n Over 10,000 templates, with bi-weekly updates independent from software updates Set & Light | Winter 2018

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n Fixed faders in submasters, not included in page management, like playbacks with in & out n Grand Master, Independents, and Fields n Innovative HSI colours handled by a colour picker n The exclusive park function, by device or by parameter

skin tones and also to working at temperatures that allow screens and video walls to be balanced when on camera.

Mobile solution available: Wily is the smart lighting application for the Hathor product range. Much more than a remote control, the app turns your iPad or iPhone into a freely configurable smart console. KLEMANTIS AS500: Deliveries have started and we will soon see them at work on the stage of the Eurovision Song Contest. The extensions to the Klemantis family will be presented at ProLight+Sound: the more compact 500mm version (KLEMANTIS AS500) and the new symmetrical optical units available as accessories. Klemantis is an asymmetric cyclight based on a six-colour LED module, which uses cutting-edge HCR LED technology to deliver a wide selection of colours, from bold hues to pastel shades. Thanks to an innovative algorithm, the unit is capable of achieving a stable CRI of over 97 (up to 99), as well as an impressive tunable white light ranging from 2,500K to 8,000K. Its light output is enhanced by an innovative optical system, which enables the Klemantis to generate a uniform light with excellent diffusion and perfectly blended colours.

DESISTI De Sisti had a busy four months, which included building a studio in Johannesburg for the World Cup, providing lighting fixtures for the ITV daytime move into Television Centre, continued onsite works at the BBC’s new Broadcasting Centre in Cardiff, upgrading a school’s theatre lighting system, providing luminaires to upgrade the BBC’s Studio L at Broadcasting House and appointing AC-ET as an authorised distributor for the UK. BBC Studioworks went out to tender for the provision of the LED lighting fixtures required by ITV Daytime to relight their daytime shows as part of their move to TC2 and TC3 at Television Centre. Lighting Directors Deke Hazirjian (USA) and Chris Kempton (UK), who between them designed the lighting for all of the relocated shows, drew up a list of fixtures and then proceeded to test the fixtures with side-by-side comparisons to ensure that the complex lighting requirements were met. They chose the Desisti Vari-White range of Fresnels and softlights, ending up with 95 120W F6VW to replace 1kW Pups, 75 200W F10VW to replace 2kW Fresnels and 80 SL8VW 360W LED softlights to replace 5kW softs, with a variety of honeycombs with different beam angles and four S4VW for more compact soft lighting situations. All fixtures were pole operated and were supplied complete with grip equipment, safety bonds, drop arms and extension cables. The results are available for all to see daily on ITV. The De Sisti Vari-White sources have proved to be ideal for matching 34

Prior to the World Cup, De Sisti UK designed and then supplied and installed a complete pre-packed lighting studio solution of all the control, fixtures, data network, grid electrical outlets and all necessary components to turn a studio with an existing barrel grid into a working space using LED luminaires with HD cameras and a green-screen solution. The project was managed by the De Sisti Projects UAE office and utilised De Sisti F4.7D 60W daylight temperature backlights, F6D 120W front keys and SoftLED2D daylight softlights for general fill and green-screen illumination. All fixtures were suspended from Spider Junior pantographs fixed to the existing lighting grid. The studio lighting is all controlled from an ETC Colorsource 20 console, linked into a completely patchable DMX system designed and supplied by De Sisti UK. De Sisti UK are in the process of providing the lighting solutions for the new BBC Central Square facility in Cardiff. Contracted via dB Broadcast, the renowned integrator who are responsible for the complete technical solution, De Sisti UK are providing and installing all of the suspension and cyclorama/curtain solutions, including motorised lighting hoists in two studios and the new Smart Suspension grids, which were launched earlier this year, in three further studios. The system also includes lighting control and a very sophisticated building wide lighting network. Loose equipment is still under consideration, with a view to providing a very advanced set of lighting solutions that match the BBC’s aspirations for a broadcast centre for the future. July saw a large number of F4.7 fixtures with a special shortened yoke being supplied to the BBC World Service TV for Studio L at Broadcasting House. All were equipped with daylight colour temperature LED arrays. The short yoke arms, coupled with Doughty slimline lightweight clamps, saved sufficient distances to lift the lighting up significantly in an office type of studio space. Impression of BBC Wales new Broadcasting Centre in Cardiff July also saw work for IPE Systems providing and installing special lighting solutions for a number of radio studios soon to go on air. Each system was based around the extremely bright, fully focusable 30W De Sisti Piccoletto units, which offer a fully focusable Fresnel with properly working barn doors for relatively short-throw applications. As the studio walls have branding, the Piccoletto barndoors enabled us to focus the light sources away from the branding, which has internal LED lighting provided by others. The Piccoletto fixtures were used in each studio for key and back lighting for presenter, assistant and guest positions. The systems are supported by De Sisti Soft LED 1 fixtures, providing an even wash over the studio desk area. The lighting system is suspended from De Sisti lighting track, which has three power circuits, plus a DMX signal circuit separated from the power circuits. The DMX control is provided by IPE using

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Elation lighting fixtures feature in AT&T Audience Network Music Concerts

their IDS system. This allows the presenter to store presets and adjust light levels via the IDS touchscreen fitted into each. The presenter can match lighting to night or day conditions (the studios each have a window) and also to the number of guests. August saw a new lighting system for Magna Carta School in Staines-upon-Thames. The new system comprises of ETC Thru Power dimmers and Colorsource Profiles with 15 to 30-degree zoom lenses, Chauvet Colorado 1 Zoom PARs, an ETC IonXE 20 control console and a site installation to replace the original 20-year-old LD90 dimmer and Strand 500 Series control system. A further two school projects are currently being designed prior to installation next year. Work is also ongoing on a new four-studio TV complex in West London for an Arabic channel to be launched early next year. De Sisti UK is providing design assistance, with supply of the necessary fixtures, control and DMX distribution. The originally warehouse buildings are using ground supported trusses in the two main studios due to limited load bearing capacity from the roof. One of the two larger studios is being equipped initially, with the second studio due to be kitted out later, and there are two singleperson-to-camera spaces for down-the-line applications. The luminaire complement, which is all based on the De Sisti Vari-white technology offering console control in linear or stepped mode from 2,800K to 6,500K, includes 10 SL4VW 240W LED softlights, which produce 1,024 lux at 3m with a daylight array, making them the brightest studio softlight at 240W. There are 12 F6VW 120W and 12 F4.7VW 60W Fresnels for the main studio, four F4.7VW for the newsroom, two F4.7VW and two SL4VW 240W LED softlights. For those lighting designers and studios that want to experiment with studio Fresnels and softlights, De Sisti UK have complete kits that can be loaned out for experimentation, as they have for rental companies and end users wanting to test the rain-proof range for use externally.

ELATION Artiste Picasso, DARTZ light AT&T Audience Network Music Concerts

One of America’s top lighting designers for television,Victor Fable, knows how to make top acts look good on a tight schedule. For AT&T Audience Network Music Concerts series performances, the designer lights up to 18 different acts over a hectic six-day taping period in Los Angeles. The concert series are quite the challenge, with artists across all genres of music performing on two different stages: a private studio stage and a club stage with live audience. So far this year, Fable has lit two series of shows, one taped in early March at Red Studios in Hollywood and another taped in July at MBS Studios in El Segundo. The musical performances, which also include indepth interviews, air Friday nights on DIRECTV, AT&T U-verse and DIRECTV NOW. Elation lighting fixtures have featured in AT&T Audience Network Music Concerts the past few years and this year the designer has turned to two of the company’s newest LED moving heads to help differentiate looks: the full-featured Artiste Picasso and the compact DARTZ 360. Fable uses an overhead base truss lighting system as part of the standard design for all performances yet needs to find ways to customise looks for each artist on a tight schedule. Although the overhead system changes little from performance to performance as time is limited, the designer finds unique ways to make variations using discreetly placed floor lights and other places to hide luminaires. “You don’t see the overhead rig as much as you see the lights in the lower part of the rig,” he explains, “so that’s where the challenge lies. I try to find lights that haven’t been used too many times on other shows and I like to mix automated lights with traditional film and movie lights.” Set & Light | Winter 2018

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Always up for a challenge, Fable finds ways to customise each performance on a tight schedule. There are a lot of factors to consider and the designer does what he can to accommodate each artist. “If the band sends a set list with colour signatures, I’ll incorporate it,” he says. “Another determining factor is the band setup and what equipment they might bring. Sometimes they bring in their own stuff and we have to think fast, work quick or work around it; it’s very much something that comes up the morning of the shoot or right before the band comes on.” And, of course, there is an artist’s LD to interact with, although Fable doesn’t always know if they will be on location. “You want to give them as much as you can,” he says, although he admits with so many artists to deal with there is little time for nuances and he often paints with big, broad strokes. “The most important thing is trying to get a good blend of different looks so everybody feels like they got something that is special and unique to them. The DARTZ are great to do that with because they work well as a single light, but you can cluster them together and they look like an ACL bar. They were crucial as floor units, and because they’re not big, they would fit between things and not be standing out.” The compact beam/spot DARTZ projects a powerful three-degree beam that is comparable to larger discharge lamp fixtures but also houses an effects package that includes two prisms and gobo projection capability. “I love the DARTZ and have used it on a lot of shows,” says Fable. “It’s a great little light and fills a hole for me. It’s a little smaller than the Sharpy or the Platinum Extreme; it’s lighter with a nice beam.You can cluster them together and they do some really cool effects, even without having to use the 360-degree movement.” On the July series taping, which included a performance by KT Tunstall, Fable hung Elation’s new Artiste Picasso LED moving head. “They paint beautiful pictures and are bright. In fact, a couple of people on the set didn’t know they were LED until we told them,” he says. “It’s a good broad light you can use to do a lot of different things. The colours are gorgeous; they are rich, and the internal effects are good. And one thing I absolutely love having is a wide zoom range for blowing out gobos wide and soft.” The designer has used a slew of other Elation lights on AT&T Audience Network Music Concert shows this year (Satura Profile, Platinum SBX, Platinum FLX, Fuze Wash 120, Fuze Wash 350, and Platinum Beam Extreme).

Elation lighting system for Polsat Esports Studio

Polish design and installation company ARAM has outfitted a new esports studio in Poland with a flexible, state-of-the-art Elation lighting system. The studio, at Polsat television in Warsaw, is equipped with the latest in studio-optimised LED luminaires, designed to provide players and viewers with the best esports experience, whether watching the event on TV, online or in person. The custom Elation lighting solution includes everything from dynamic white-light LED array panels and high-quality white light ellipsoidal spots, to full-colour batten, PAR and LED moving head luminaires that deliver a wider spectrum of chromatic and effect options. Incorporated in the rig are some of Elation’s newest luminaires, including Artiste series LED moving heads. 36

As one of the few technical production companies specialised in esports, ARAM has stood behind the design and technical production of some of the largest esports shows in the world – experience that has given them unique insight into how an esports project should be tailored and delivered. “Esports is an industry with a particular set of needs and requires different show formatting,” says ARAM co-owner Rafał Mrzygłocki. “Although the type of lighting required is generally the same as any other television studio – generally high-quality white light – player lighting was also a factor to consider, meaning we had to be careful not to obstruct the players’ vision or interfere with their communication. As for the audience, they must be able to enjoy the action inside the game.” The Polsat studio was completed in July as the first broadcast-owned esports studio in the country. The flexible space allows for different configurations – for example, news desks can move in and out so the studio can be used according to needs. The alternating designs play to the Elation lighting system’s strength as the intelligent lights adjust accordingly. “Mostly, the space is lit as a traditional studio, but sometimes there are special looks, like an opening cue for instance, when a match completes,” says Mrzygłocki, who notes that another important requirement was for all the lighting to be LED based so as not to overheat the players. “Elation has launched more interesting products over the past few years and we’ve also noticed they have been on more and more top productions,” continues Mrzygłocki, who adds that he has used Elation on ESL One series esports shows in the past and on other projects. “The quality is excellent and the products are well designed. Overall, it is excellent value for money.” With the development of dedicated esports studios key for the development of the sport, the Polsat facility has been a welcome addition to the genre. “We see a big demand for permanent installations of esports studios. Polsat esports studio is the second permanent studio we have provided and, I believe, not the last,” says Mrzygłocki.

Elation continues trend of innovation at LDI 2018

The 30th rendition of the LDI show proved testament to the growing interest in the Elation product range as the company continued its trend of innovative product launches. The Artiste Series continued to make a name for itself with the launch of the Artiste Monet: a new 45,000 lux LED profile

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light with innovative SpectraColor system, which collected an LDI Award honorable mention accolade. The compact, CMY colourmixing Smarty Hybrid, with ultra-efficient 6,000-hour lamp, was also recognised as a unique innovation by industry peers, receiving a PLSN award for Best Hybrid Fixture. Interest in two other Artiste Series luminaires – the Artiste Van Gogh, a powerful framing wash LED luminaire, and Artiste Picasso, one of the brightest and most feature-rich profile LED lighting fixtures on the market today – was also high. A host of other innovative products received significant attention at a busy Elation booth, including the Proteus Profile: a new 45,000 lux IP65-rated LED Profile fixture that houses the same 950W LED engine as the Artiste Monet. Furthermore, as at the PLASA show one month earlier, the RAYZOR 760 and IP65-rated Proteus RAYZOR 760 LED wash effects also generated a lot of attention, with their unique TwinkLED LED twinkle effect system. The Elation team kept busy showing these latest innovations, but perhaps the most popular personality on the Elation booth was Sales Director Eric Loader, who attended the show in the form of a maneuverable E-Bot complete with attached iPad, which allowed him to interact with customers and colleagues.

ETC Black Light appointed as a master dealer for Hog 4

Edinburgh-based lighting, sound and AV company, Black Light, is the latest dealer to be revealed as part of the exclusive group of High End System’s Hog 4 Master Dealers in the UK. Black Light have worked with ETC for 25 years as a respected sales and project company. With an active hire department, this relationship continues to grow with the High End Systems brand adding Sola Frame 750 moving heads to their hire inventory, along with a number of Hog 4 consoles. The appointment confirms the company’s key role in the distribution of Hog consoles around Great Britain. Calder Sibbald, Director at Black Light, says: “I am delighted that Black Light has been appointed as a master dealer for High End Systems. It is an exciting time for ETC and High End Systems and I am looking forward to Black Light being part of the evolution of the brand and product. Being appointed truly demonstrates our reciprocal relationship with ETC and allows us to offer a wider range of their portfolio to our clients.” The Hog 4 range is known for its world-leading moving light control, speed and ease of use, coupled with its ability to control the largest of rigs. Black Light use Hog 4s for a wide variety of clients.

Jeremy Roberts, ETC Associate Regional Sales Manager, says: “When the acquisition of High End was announced, the first call I received was from Calder at Black Light declaring, ‘We want to be part of this journey’. I am very happy they are; this takes our relationship to the next level.” Black Light is supplying the full range of products, including the flagship console the Hog 4, Full Boar 4 and Road Hog 4, and smaller lightweight consoles the Hoglet 4 and HedgeHog 4. All products use matching intuitive operating system software for seamless compatibility and control. For more information visit: highend.com/products/consoles

GLP GLP’s interlocking KNV LED Cube and Arc offer infinite design possibilities, IP54 rating, fast setup and inbuilt pixel control, make it the ideal toolkit. Officially presented at PLASA 2018 and shipping now, the modular KNV LED system from GLP can be used either individually or as a composite. Designers can rely on two basic forms: the cube-shaped KNV Cube and the KNV Arc – a device in the form of an eighth circle. Billed as the first frameless LED module, which combines Strobe, Blinder and Pixel-Block in the market, it looks set to become a game changer as it allows production designers to build unique structures effortlessly. Any combination of KNV Cube and Arc can be combined together to form an infinite level of seamless design elements, where scenery becomes lighting and lighting becomes scenery. Each GLP KNV unit houses 25 power-pixels, each consisting of a hyper-bright white LED for maximum brightness and impact, along with a surrounding ring of 16 RGB LEDs for creative effects and powerful backlight illumination. Combined, each module will output an incredible 50,000 lux. But the KNV system goes much further. Since the modules are IP54 rated, they can be used on exposed stages, festival front trussing or other outdoor applications, with comfortable power/data daisy chain capabilities enabling large modular displays to be created, regardless of the weather. Explaining the design rationale, GLP’s MD Udo Künzler said: “Presently, all existing strobes and single-pixel effects in the market have a defined size and framed housing. The GLP KNV Cube and KNV Arc are the first LED systems with a

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HSL celebrated its 30th birthday with two open days

frameless design for maximum flexibility and independent scaling options. And by combining the two, there are plenty of options for never-before-seen designs to be created, such as rings, letters, walls, snakes and so on.” The powerful GLP KNV Cube and KNV Arc are the solution for any creative designer seeking maximum flexibility of an RGB LED fixture and white-light strobe/blinder, all within a modular system that provides infinite design options. With so much flexibility, GLP expects the new KNV to find immediate adoption in TV set designs, touring, festivals, fixed installations and cruise ships, while its IP54 construction and modular design make this service-free system perfect for dry-hire customers and cross rental.

HSL #HSL30 celebrates 30 years of excellence

Leading UK lighting and visuals rental specialist HSL celebrated its 30th birthday with two special open days at its HQ in Blackburn in October. About 500 industry family, friends, acquaintances and business associates rocked up to the #HSL30 event, which included an exhibition space dedicated to 32 of HSL’s key suppliers and partner companies, including high-profile brands and manufacturers like Avolites, Chauvet, High End Systems, J&C Joel, Martin by Harman, Robe, SGM, Philips Vari*Lite andUnilumin and many more, which showcased their latest technologies. 38

The gallery space rfeatured a stunning digital backdrop to each stand, created using two 60m-long by 2.5m-high runs of HSL’s new Unilumin Upad III 5mm LED screen. Using a disguise gx2 media server, each run of LED was divided into 16 equidistant portions to delineate the stands. In the centre section of each stand’s LED surface allocation was a 1.5m by 1m ‘picture frame’ space of 3.9mm LED onto which each company could display its own artwork, logo and showreel or video content. The gx servers were programmed and co-ordinated by creative video specialist Lucid Technologies: one of the independent companies operating as part of the HSL Group. Throughout the event, in one of the many demo room areas, Lucid showcased the power of some of the latest live media technologies like disguise, BlackTrax and Notch. 3D content was projected via five Panasonic PT-RZ12K 12K projectors, covering 270 degrees of the demo room, with the timeline triggered via another disguise gx2 media server hosting Notch real-time rendering software and combining information from an Avolites Sapphire Touch lighting desk controlling four Robe Pointe moving lights. Creating the automated movement, BlackTrax transferred positional data received from six infrared cameras into the media server, which distributed it to Notch. All processing for BlackTrax was handled by a Lucid custom rack, with networking systems by Luminex. Avolites demonstrated their AI media server in another self-contained area, while Green Hippo and ETC also had dedicated studios to showcase their latest technologies in a relaxed and quiet environment.

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HSL seized the opportunity of having so much of the industry there to officially inaugurate its Coral Cooper Training Centre for Excellence: a large classroom training facility inspired by Coral, which is at the disposal of all the training and educational courses being run at HSL. Visitors were also treated to tours of HSL’s vast warehouse facility and three gallery spaces especially dedicated to the event. HSL’s MD Simon Stuart admitted to being overwhelmed with the response: “I am so impressed and extremely moved by the sheer number of friends who turned out to share this very special moment. So many have been truly inspirational in shaping my life and that of my family! It’s been incredible!” He added: “Being a business for this amount of time is hard. A lot happens in 30 years, and I wouldn’t have got through it if not for all of these wonderful friends and people in my life.” Ian W Brown, Sales Manager at Robe UK, said: “I’ve known Simon for 30 years. In fact, I sold him his first moving light 30 years ago when he owned a snooker club! Over the years, Robe has supported Simon and HSL enthusiastically and seen it grow from a small business into the powerhouse it is now.” Rob Beamer from Sound Technologies (Martin by Harman) said: “It’s important for us to be here today supporting Simon; the Martin brand has been a big part of Simon’s commercial life.” Shaun Robertshaw from Vari*lite agreed: “We are a longterm partner of HSL and were one of first to do business with the company, so it’s great to show our appreciation of 30 years’ hard work and dedication by Simon and his team”. Steve Warren from Avolites recalled how the popular lighting control brand had been there right from the start of HSL: “Simon has always been supportive and we’re here in force to reciprocate.” Simon added: “It seems like just yesterday when three leading brands – Martin Professional, Optikinetics and Sound Department – had the faith in us to negotiate outstanding deals that allowed us to invest and get going. “#HSL30 was a unique opportunity to illustrate where we are now and say thanks to everyone who has collaborated with us along the way. It’s been an amazing journey.”

KINO FLO Kino Flo remakes LEDs in its own Image

Kino Flo Lighting Systems debuted the new L80 and L40 LED Image fixtures during this year’s IBC show in Amsterdam in September. The new-style Image LED fixtures appear outwardly like the thousands of Image legacy fluorescent fixtures on sets around the world, but the L80 and L40 LED lights operate like Celeb, Diva-Lite and FreeStyle LEDs. The company also showed off its new retrofit kits to convert legacy Image fluorescent fixtures into state-of-theart LED luminaires. Repurposing the legacy Image studio series products makes it easy and affordable for customers to transition their used inventory to the latest Kino Flo LED technology that comes standard on the company’s LEDs. “Over the past few years there has been growing interest in repurposing fixtures from fluorescent technology to LED designs,” said Kino Flo President and Founder Frieder Hochheim, “so we are offering a competitively priced retrofit

option alongside the new L80 and L40 complete fixtures.” The L80 and L40 fixtures join Kino Flo’s family of LED soft lights. One of the largest LEDs in the industry, the L80 measures 540in by 28in (114cm by 66cm). The L40 is 54in by 17in (137cm by 43cm). Light output is 185FC/1251 lux at 3m but draws 2.50A (230VAC) – roughly twice the light output of the industry-standard Image 87 fluorescent fixture. The L40 light output is half the lumens compared to the larger L80. The L80 and L40 all-in-one design includes standard DMX in/out ports for cable as well as wireless DMX connectivity (Lumen Radio). Additional specifications include universal AC voltage input 100-240VAC (L80 = 2.5A at 2,300VAC; L40 = 1.25A at 230VAC). Like all Kino Flo engineered LED lighting systems, the new L80 and L40 include the popular TrueMatch Firmware 3.0, with a display showing easy-to-use menu and colour management system, the popular white-light mode >96 photo rendering, fully correlated colour temperature selection (2,500K to 9,900K), hue angle and saturation mode, gel presets, RGB mode, and the new lighting effects mode. In addition, the new L80 and L40 controllers include built-in Lumen Radio wireless DMX, universal VAC input, advanced square wave and linear dimming, plus some added features unique to the Kino Flo LEDs. Kino Flo supplies preassembled, LED panels (complete with Kino Flo’s two white-light emitters and full RGB emitter array), along with a specially designed LED control cover with all the electronics and controls built in. The new LED cover will replace the existing Image 80/85/87 or Image 40/45/47 covers and conforms to ETL electrical standards. Repurposing fixtures with Kino Flo-engineered LED panels and control electronics (including the new TrueMatch Firmware 3.0) breathes new life into the older Image shells. Like the L80 and L40 LED fixtures complete, the retrofit kits include controller covers with built-in Lumen Radio wireless DMX, universal VAC input, advanced square wave and linear dimming, plus many other colour-management controls.

LCA LCA Lights, Camera, Action is delighted to announce it will soon be opening an office and warehouse in Paris, France. LCA Lights, Camera, Action France will be offering a one-stop-shop for lighting, grip, power, distribution, cables, Set & Light | Winter 2018

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consumables and much more. The facility will be open for rental houses, TV and film studios, independent lighting directors and cinematographers looking to purchase a wide range of products from major manufacturers, including LiteGear, Rosco, Manfrotto, Briese, Chroma-Q, Cineo, LitePanels, Bebob, Quasar Science and RatPac, to name a few. Located in the heart of the motion picture and broadcast area in the north of Paris, LCA Lights, Camera, Action France will be headed by Yann Blitte and Gregory Merlet. Blitte has 20 years of experience in the film and broadcast industry, recently working as technical and operating director of Panalux. Blitte began his career working for a rental company, quickly progressing to warehouse manager. He then moved to a new rental company based in Saint Denis, Paris, where he helped to build the company. For the last seven years Blitte has been at Panalux. Merlet started in lighting 15 years ago as a gaffer working on TV programmes, clips and live shows. From there, Merlet worked on implementing lighting in many different areas, including stage, events, film sets and TV studios. With the combined experience of Blitte and Merlet, LCA Lights, Camera, Action France will offer all customers’ exceptional technical knowledge and support. MD Nick Shapley said: “LCA Lights, Camera, Action has been serving the UK market with lighting products for nearly 20 years, and with the current buoyant state of the industry in France, it was obvious that Paris should be the location of a new company. I am delighted that Yann has agreed to head LCA Lights, Camera, Action France.” Blitte said: “I’m thrilled to be heading this venture and look forward to working with many of my colleagues again. LCA Lights, Camera, Action has a reputation in the UK of offering some of the most innovative products in the industry and I believe we can do the same to support the French film and broadcast industry with exciting and quality products.”

Redback, on the LCA stand at IBC in 2017. Since, the unique parabolic layout of LEDs is already making waves in both the photography and motion picture world in Europe and beyond. Unique to the Redback is their 180-degree Hard Teaser, which acts as an ‘eyebrow’ for the light, eliminating the need for additional C-stands, flags and cutter. This year sees the introduction of the new Stealth mode for the Redback: a 180cm Octagon that weighs in at under 6kg and is 25cm deep. Stealth is appealing to large and small productions alike. Despite the huge size, the entire unit packs down to a tidy package for transportation and can be set up by a single crew member onto a C stand or Megaboom in just minutes. Stealth is compatible with all Redbacks and is available from LCA in a complete package for additional savings. Hudson Spider are gearing up to release their second fixture to the market, the Mozzie. The Mozzie is a smaller parabolic layout of LEDs and, like the Redback, the Mozzie emits a soft light that doesn’t require diffusion. Weighing in at just 3lb (1.5kg), the Mozzie is perfect for mounting on cameras, boom poles, anywhere. In its parabolic Mode,the 22-inch (56cm) bi-colour LED Mozzie produces flattering, controlled soft light, without the necessity for flags or diffusion. The Mozzie is built for the harsh rigours of filming and folds down to a mere 7in by 5in (18cm by 12cms). The Mozzie is also able to transform into a soft box with the Stealth accessory, which converts the tiny Mozzie into a 4ft soft box in seconds. The 200W Mozzie emits an incredible amount of light from its focused 1224 95CRI+ LEDs and is sure to be a popular addition to Hudson Spider’s exciting product range.

LCA Lights Camera Action named UK prime dealer for the MIX from DMG Lumière by Rosco

Matthews Studio Equipment’s mantra is creating equipment that lasts. The California-based manufacturer makes camera and lighting support for the entertainment industry that not only stands the test of time but adapts to all types of challenges. This year, one of their coolest new tools is the MQ Mount, a simple but highly creative way to mount T-12 light tube fixtures with minimal light loss. “The T-12 LED lighting market is booming as technology continues to advance beyond incandescent and fluorescent fixtures,” says Tyler Phillips, Executive Vice President, Matthews Studio Equipment. “From three-point lighting to practical, the low profile of the T-12 LED has endless

LCA Lights, Camera, Action is delighted to be the UK prime dealer for the new award-winning MIX from DMG Lumière by Rosco. The Mini and SL1 MIX have already won top lighting technology and engineering awards at Cine Gear Expo and CINEC – a testament to the ingenuity and high quality of this LED fixture. Patent-pending MIX technology uses six unique coloured LEDs that bring true Rosco colour to a cutting-edge, portable and durable LED fixture. MIX allows users ultimate creative freedom and exact colour-matching on set. Created by technicians to improve workflow, the myMIX app gives its users full control, without the need to set up DMX universe or profiles.With a robust library of Rosco gel colours, it permits technicians to mix, save and share colours with colleagues. Users can also capture a colour with a mobile phone or tablet camera and send the captured colour to the light. For anyone wanting a demonstration, LCA have the MIX set up in the studio at their Greenford office.

MATTHEWS

Hudson Spider expands their portfolio

Hudson Spider, the innovative new LED lighting company from California, debuted their initial prototype, the bicolor 40

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applications. The new challenge is rigging these low-profile lights securely and quickly without crushing the lamp but the stem-rod for the MQ Mount can be expanded in a variety of lengths, making the placement of lights simple.” The mount features the industry standard 3/8-inch pin, which can be used with any industry grip head. The pin is knurled to prevent unwanted rotations and is internally tapped ¼-inch-20 to expand its length and rigging capabilities. (patent pending). Manufactured from lightweight, high-impact plastic and aluminum parts, it is compatible with all T-12 fixtures, both fluorescent and LED. For more details, visit products.msegrip.com/products/ the-mq-mount

PULSAR Blackpool’s Winter Gardens is one of Europe’s biggest entertainment complexes. The historic building, constructed in 1878, contains all kinds of venues, including an opera house, ballrooms, theatres and halls. The complex has hosted some of the world’s most famous performers and shows over its 140-year history. An atrium beneath a large dome greets visitors to the Winter Gardens. In 2018, Pulsar provided lights to illuminate the dome for the annual Lightpool Festival – an architectural lighting event that runs alongside Blackpool’s iconic Illuminations. Lighting domes and arches comes with a specific set of challenges. Getting consistent, even illumination on a curved surface can be tricky. However, with the right products and know-how, it’s possible to get some stunning results. The dome is lit up using 24 of Pulsar’s Chroma PowerLine fixtures. The dome consists of 12 different segments, and two Chroma PowerLines light up each segment. The reason to pair up fixtures is that it makes it possible to aim one at the top of the dome and one further towards the bottom. We also used an elliptical beam angle to give more even coverage. Along with the separately aimed fixtures, this achieves even, consistent lighting with no hotspots despite the difficulties of lighting a curved surface. There are lots of different results that you might want to achieve from lighting a ceiling structure such as a dome or an arch. Pulsar have a range of products and expertise to help you achieve your vision. For obligation-free advice, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.

ROBE Estonia Public Broadcasting invests in Robe

Estonian Public Broadcasting (ERR) have recently invested in new Robe Spiider and DL7S Profile LED luminaries for their main studios in downtown Tallinn, where they are making a big impact in both of the principal studios and across several genres of television. Mihkel Robam, head of the organisation’s busy AV department, which includes lighting, and his team have been using Robe moving lights since the original workhorse

ColorSpot 1200E AT range. More recently, they went over to LED, initially with a purchase of LEDWash 300s and now with the latest: 16 Spiiders and 16 DL7S Profiles. Being a state-run organisation, investments are in line with the capital expenditure spending cycles and they are also keen to reduce their carbon footprint as much as possible. The latest Robes were used in Ajujaht (‘Brain Hunt’): a reality show/competition that looks for the best new start-up ideas. This was recorded in two studios: the main one where the teams of finalists pitched their proposals live to the judges and Studio 4. which acted as a green room, Eurovision-style! The lighting for this was specified by the series’ Lighting Cameraman Raul Priks and Director Krista Luts, and the show was produced by Hannela Lippus, with Mihkel assisting Krista as the vision mixer. “They are the best,” said Mihkel talking about the DL7S Profiles. “The fixture has everything you need for television: lots of power, nice shutters and an excellent zoom.” The Spiiders are used in many multi-purpose scenarios. “They are great to look at aesthetically and also excellent all-round lights for live television,” he added, “plus the inbuilt Lumen Radio wireless DMX transmitter offers another whole range of control/access possibilities.” The DL7S Profile is perfect for key lighting and they are finding all sorts of uses for the Spiiders, including talk shows, where they can bring an extra edge to the visual picture. Being government-funded, ERR has to justify why it’s necessary to spend funding money and purchase specific items. For these luminaires, they felt it was time to replace the old ColorSpots after a great run. “We still used them but just not as primary lightsources,” explained Mihkel. They will also cross-rent their Robes when not needed in the studios, mainly to the country’s three top companies: Eventech, E&T and CuuClub, which gives a faster ROI and an additional income stream for the lights during down times. They chose Robe because of the history with the brand and they felt it offered the best quality, reliability and the most flexible options. The great service and support from distributor E&T was another factor. The transition to LED means they are now saving on lamp replacement and other peripherals, making the option a lot more cost-efficient and future-proof ,as well as greener and more environmentally conscious. The Robes are used across all five active TV studios. Studio 5 is dedicated to news and the other two for a succession of Set & Light | Winter 2018

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Sweeney Todd:The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. © Maris Savik

morning and evening magazine programmes. The two main studios are also rented out on occasions for external events. “Robe has a great brand image right now. When I look at all the new products coming on stream, I always look at Robe first – they are leading the trends” said Mihkel. ERR TV studios were originally built in the 1950s and the biggest studio was added in the 1980s to accommodate coverage of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, when Tallinn hosted the sailing competitions. They still have a large working complement of original Soviet-era 2K Fresnels – built to last a lifetime and withstand nuclear fallout. The original Robe ColorSpots are going to give them a good run for their money in the longevity stakes!

Demon Robes for Sweeney Todd at Vanemuine

Recreating the dark and gruesome world of Sweeney Todd, the fictional Demon Barber of Fleet Street, at the Vanemuine Theatre in Tartu, Estonia, was a tricky task, requiring the juxtaposition of a Victorian, east London docklands ambiance as the historical industrial backdrop, shot through with lighting and effects to recreate multiple locations. It laid down a few challenges for Lighting Designer Margus Vaigur, who had the house Robe luminaires at his disposal, including 20 MMX Spots, 52 LEDWash 1200s, 16 LEDWash 600s and 12 CitySkape Xtremes, together with 12 new Robe DL7S Profiles, which are a recent addition to the venue’s Big Theatre house lighting inventory. Margus lit the entire production with the Robe moving lights, together with some other LEDs, about 200 in total, using no conventionals at all. The production – the first time the musical has been staged in Estonia – was directed by rising star director and actor Janel Jonas. The imposingly stark industrial set was created by Iir Hermelin, and both took a keen interest in 42

how the space was lit and how the atmospherics played a vital role in the unfolding of the story of a man who became bigger than his own destiny. This was also the first time Sweeny Todd had been sung in Estonian – Vanemuine has a healthy reputation for breaking through cultural and traditional barriers – and with a large cast of about 40 onstage during the busy scenes, this all presented more challenges to Margus, who had to craft exactly the right ambience for each scene. Iir commented that Margus ‘thinks dramaturgically’ when it comes to applying light to a scene, treating it like another actor. As an architect of space, he likes the way the LD plays with beam angles and warm and cold colour temperatures: “He really does craft lights just like a sculptor.” While strongly defined – including several ship/seafaring artefacts – the set was also elusively abstract. It was like a universal space, but also literal enough to represent specific locations, so there was a lot of emphasis on lighting different sections of it to complete the pictures and make visual suggestions to the audience, It was the first time that Janel had worked with Margus – an experience he was enjoying when I caught up with them during rehearsals. Margus and Iir have collaborated before on a couple of operas as well as some TV work. At the start of the design process, all three creatives had several brain-storming sessions where they discussed and blocked the basics. Then all worked separately, developing their own areas, with the occasional cross referencing to check they were all on the same page. Margus used the LEDWashes extensively, both for various general lighting and for effects, with some on the overhead rig and some on the floor and on side booms. There was a lot of low-level shadowy lighting throughout to emphasise the sinister undercurrents of the drama. The lower level lights

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were also used to shoot up through the shredded metal floors of the upper set, and Margus made much use of the LEDWash 1200s and 600s’ excellent daylight white ranges of 4,000k upwards. He found the DL7S Profiles extremely helpful all round and loved the subtle and sophisticated colour mixing. They were the primary profiles supported by the MMX Spots, although Margus said that, overall, they could have done with more profiles generally in the show! Positioned on the high bars, the DL7S’s shutters were used to isolate areas of the stage and set, tightly picking out specific elements and highlighting certain actions, building drama with their sharp focuses and precise edges. Come press night, the reviews were good and the production enjoyed plenty of critical acclaim and lots of packed audiences.Vanemuine is one of the best-known production houses in Estonia, with a reputation for worldclass international productions. The venue first invested in Robe moving lights in 2013 as part of an upgrade to all Estonia’s state-run theatres, which has made a huge difference to the scope and quality of the shows staged there. Margus himself is based at The Endla Theatre in Parnu, where he lights their own productions and co-ordinates the lighting department. They also have Robe moving lights in the house, so he is familiar with the brand and uses the fixtures daily in his work. In addition to his work at Endla and various freelance lighting design projects, he is also a regular lecturer at the country’s only Technical Theatre College in Viljandi.

Robe is In the Spotlight again

In Die Kollig (Afrikaans for ‘In the Spotlight’) is a new TV music show in South Africa produced by one of the country’s most famous TV personalities, singer and entertainer Johan Stemmet, recently broadcast on SABC 2. The first series’ episodes were produced by Stemburg TV and recorded at the Urban Brew Studios at Randburg Waterfront. The show was creatively lit by Ryan Lombard, HOD of Lighting at Blond Productions, using about 100 Robe moving lights and other fixtures. All the lighting and video equipment was supplied by Blond Productions. Each show featured a local music artist whose story was revealed thorough a series of 12 songs, which included a tribute, a ‘legend’ song, a duo and other variants. There were also plenty of guest spots and surprise appearances to keep it pacey and interesting! The intense seven-day shoot schedule entailed recording two episodes per day, so Ryan had to light 24 songs – each one looking different and unique. That was the challenge – and the reason he chose Robe moving lights to assist. The initial set design was a collaboration with Dream Sets, after which Ryan and Christiaan Ballot, owner and founder of Blond Productions – now one of the leading South African TV lighting and production specialists – were asked for their input. They also specified the video screens at this stage. Once the set details were finalised, they started working out the lighting positions. Ryan had plenty of creative freedom as Director Anne Williams and he have worked together before and she knew he would deliver the required atmospherics and mood.

Three U-shaped trusses were installed in the roof of the studios to provide most of the lighting positions. The upstage one was the widest, with the other two reduced in size proportionately to give a shrinking perspective effect. One of the briefs from the producers was that they wanted it to look huge on camera, yet also capture the intimate, cabaret-style vibe, with guests sitting at tables around the performance space rather than on traditional tribune seating. Other lighting positions were provided by truss totem towers positioned around the stage at floor level. Rigged on these were 36 Robe LEDBeam 100s, 12 miniPointes, 12 MMX Spots, 18 LEDWash 300s, 12 600E Beams and eight PATT 2013s, plus a selection of LED PARs, and battens. The little LEDBeam 100s were the main effects lights of the show and provided the most spectacular eye-candy looks. Ryan mostly ran them at only 10-20 per cent brightness to be subtler with the effects – a ploy that worked better for all the low-angle camera shots. The miniPointes were a key fixture, together with the MMX Spots and 600E Beams. They were used extensively throughout all the songs, sometimes in static scenes to create mood and ambience and other times strobing and flashing to ramp up the excitement and razzmatazz! Ryan has used Robe products on numerous projects in the last 10 years since he’s been working for Blond, and the miniPointe is currently one of his favourite fixtures. “It’s plenty bright for the camera and you can almost do a whole show just using prisms and three or four colours.” The MMX Spots were perfect for washing the main set and floor area for defined beams and nice, simple zoomed-in gobo looks, while the LEDWash 300s were a major source of backlight and great for washing and augmenting the performance area. The lighting console was a grandMA2 light with a grandMA2 NPU, also running an MA VPU with all the video content that Blonde compiled specially for the production. Ryan programmed furiously during each available two-hour session, creating all the effects lighting and major looks, while Alisdair Richards took care of the ‘classic’ television lighting elements like key lighting, perfecting flesh tones and eliminating shadows, for which he used a different system comprising 40 2K fresnels, 12 ETC Source Fours and two Robert Juliat Topaze follow spots. The camera session for recording the artist closeups was the only rehearsal Ryan and Alistair had for what was to Set & Light | Winter 2018

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come, so they needed to get every cue bang-on, as the first time they saw the actual show was when it was on camera. The set featured seven separate screens, five built using 48 6mm LED panels, which were more abstract in shape, so the graphics were scaled exactly to fit. The two high-definition 7m by 4m side screens were built from 56 panels of 2.9mm LED, also from Blond. Ryan enjoyed lighting all the stars taking part for different reasons; however, Afrikaans singer Jannie Moolman possibly stood out the most.

ROSCO Rosco Laboratories employees honoured at the Stan Miller Awards Night

Rosco Laboratories held its annual Stan Miller Awards Night, inviting colleagues from around the world to celebrate in its headquartered city in Stamford in the US. The ceremony, now in its fourth year, has grown from one global award – The Stan Miller Award – to offering four different recognition awards. The coveted Stan Miller Award recognises an individual who exemplifies Rosco’s spirit, vision and values, which have led to the company’s success over the past century. This year, the award went to Chris Millman, Global IT Manager. The three new awards were: n The Lifetime Achievement Award, presented to Pat Santarsiero, Director of Human Resources, US. n The Jim Meyer Recognition Award, presented to KatieMarie O’Connor, Marketing Technology Manager. n The Michael Hall Recognition Award, presented to Joanna Shapley, Manager of Customer Experience, Rosco EMEA. Rosco congratulates these winners and is honoured to have over 200 loyal employees around the globe. The new recognition awards allow the company to recognise those who paved the way for Rosco: Michael Hall, a driving force behind Rosco’s global expansion, who joined the company in the early 1970s to run their London operation, and Jim Meyer, who passed away in September 2017 after nearly 42 years with Rosco US.

Winner of the cinecAward for Lighting Engineering

Presented at the Cinec International Trade Fair in Munich, Germany, the cinecAwards recognise innovative, trendsetting products and developments in the fields of motion-picture technology and post-production. This year, out of nine finalists in the Lighting Engineering category, MIX technology by DMG Lumière was awarded top honours by the Society for CineTechnik Bayern (CTB). The patent-pending MIX technology uses six unique colored LEDs that bring true Rosco colour to a cutting-edge, portable and durable LED fixture. MIX allows users ultimate creative freedom and exact colour-matching on set. Created by technicians to improve workflow, the myMIX app gives its users full control, without the need to set up DMX universe or profiles.With a robust library of Rosco gel colours, it permits technicians to mix, save and share colours with colleagues. Users can also capture a colour with a mobile phone or tablet camera and send the captured colour to the light. 44

SIGNIFY (PHILIPS) Philips Strand offers ideal LED alternative with new SPX LED WW profile

The new Philips Strand SPX LED WW, a high-output, warmwhite LED profile spotlight fixture, offers a powerful, energyefficient alternative to existing models. The SPX LED WW was officially unveiled at the LDI exhibition in Las Vegas. The SPX LED WW is targeted primarily at applications such as education, houses of worship and themed environments. It has been designed to meet the requirements of consultants and specifiers looking for quality, efficient and reliable fixtures to serve as straightforward replacements for conventional profile fixtures. Dimmable either via DMX or via a conventional forward-phase dimmer, it provides a smooth, stepless fade right down to zero: the perfect dimming credentials for performance lighting. The SPX LED WW uses the latest energy-efficient warmwhite LED light engine to produce an output equivalent to that of a 575W fixture. Its beam is crisp and precise, directing light only where it is intended. Thanks to the SPX filter frame system there is zero light leakage, so no additional masking is required. With reduced fan noise, the SPX LED WW is also quieter in operation than comparable LED fixtures. The SPX LED WW uses the same proven, high-precision, high-performance gate and lens sets as the renowned Philips Selecon SPX Profile fixtures, with secure locking shutters, while other lens sets can be used via an adaptor plate. It also employs a Philips Selecon box-style gel colour holder. DMX connection is via familiar, robust XLR connectors. Bill Richards, Product Manager EMEA for Signify Entertainment Lighting, says: “The SPX LED WW will appeal where quality LED alternatives to traditional light sources are needed. The conventional profile fixtures still in use around the world will ultimately need to be replaced with lowenergy product and we believe this is the best mainsdimmable LED fixture available. It is the ideal candidate for direct, one-for-one replacement of existing profile fixtures.” Signify became the new company name of Philips Lighting as of May 16, 2018. Signify Entertainment Lighting comprises the Philips Vari-Lite, Philips Strand and Philips Selecon brands, as well as the Philips Showline range of LED stage luminaires.

Philips Vari-Lite’s VL10 BeamWash sets new standards in aerial dynamics

Signify has launched the new Philips Vari-Lite VL10 BeamWash luminaire. Following successful tests on prime-time television and live concerts, the VL10 BeamWash was officially unveiled at the LDI exhibition in Las Vegas. The first lighting fixture to be designed around the new high-performance Philips 25R Platinum 550W lamp, the VL10 BeamWash packs a new level of power, dynamics and personality into a compact, fast-moving body. The VL10 BeamWash produces 28,000 lux of output from the concentrated power of the new lamp, making it the brightest and most versatile fixture in its class. Its 2.2 to 48-degree zoom range delivers a broad choice of looks, from crisp, tight beams to wide, smooth washes and mid-air blasts,

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enhanced by an unrivalled suite of creative beam effects. Among the effects choices available are dual overlaying prisms, an eight-slot rotating gobo wheel and an aperture wheel featuring 12 designs, including beam reduction to a laser-like 0.7 degrees and a range of bold break-ups and aerial dynamics. Designers can access a further layer of design versatility with the exclusive new VL*FX glass animation wheel system, while mega-stepping, twist and shake control also add to the creative mix. Effects can be softened with the internal frost and strong, even washes can be created using the dedicated wash mode. As usual, designers can choose from the full Philips Vari-Lite colour palette: the enhanced CYM colour system and fixed colour wheel offer everything from the subtlest hues to the deepest reds and blues. The fixture’s large 180mm front lens gives a stage presence usually associated with far larger fixtures, combining personality with performance in this compact, fast-moving body.Weighing just 33kg, the VL10 BeamWash is brighter, lighter and more versatile than any comparable fixture on the market.

Philips Strand Lighting gives winning movie performance with #LANDoftheBRAVEfilm

A range of Philips Strand Lighting’s latest LED instruments were supplied to Collective Productions for the filming of the compelling crime thriller by DWR Distribution, Signify’s Entertainment Lighting sales partner in South Africa. The equipment included Studio Panel MkII, 150S and 300S Softlights and LEDhead Daylight fixtures. During principal photography in July and August, gaffer Hein van Zijl and assistant Tangi Kamukwatange used the fixtures in a range of locations, including close interiors and challenging exterior settings, from riverbeds to roadsides. Throughout the shoot they appreciated the equipment’s portability, well-engineered accessories, selectable colourtemperature presets and high-quality light output. Van Zijl praised the Studio Panel MkII for its compact portability and high-quality 5,600K colour-temperature light output, while of the LEDhead, he said: “The LEDhead unit is useful for interior or for close-up exterior photography. Its onboard dimmers are user-friendly and its three colourtemperature options cover our most commonly used balances. It’s compact, with good packaging for travel, and the accessories are great: compact, sturdy stands and excellent diffuser filters and barndoors that slide in in seconds.” He also praised the softlight fixtures, saying: “The 150S and the 300S both give a good 5,600K light and are easily portable for their output. The 150S is useful as a soft fill for indoor scenes or closer outdoor setups, while the bigger 300S is an excellent fill or key light for even the biggest setups, indoors or out, day or night. The menu is accessible, with great features, and the barndoor system is of excellent quality, helping us to reliably shape and guide the light where we need it.” #LANDoftheBRAVEfilm, written and directed by Tim Huebschle and produced by David Benade, is due for release in 2019.

George Masek returns to the Philips Vari-Lite fold Signify Entertainment Lighting is delighted to announce the return of Philips Vari-Lite veteran George Masek. His

appointment closely follows the arrival of Brian Friborg as the new Head of Signify Entertainment Lighting, and of Gary W Sanders as Sales Manager for the Americas. Based at the company’s Dallas office, Masek will look after Business Development for the Philips Vari-Lite, Philips Strand Lighting, Philips Selecon and Showline brands. A well-known figure in the international show-lighting business, Masek has specialised in automated lighting for almost 30 years. Beginning his career in 1990 as a Vari-Lite road technician, he toured the world with leading artists, providing on-site support for Vari-Lite products from the renowned VL1 onwards. He later moved into technical support and sales, becoming Vari-Lite Product Manager in 2002. Over the next decade he was a key part of the Vari-Lite design and engineering team that produced the highly successful VL3500 Spot and Wash fixtures, as well as the VL500 Series and VLX luminaires. In 2012, Masek left Philips Vari-Lite to take the role of VP of Automated Lighting at ACT Lighting. In this position, he represented a range of leading manufacturers to the US market, gaining further invaluable experience with a broad variety of new customers and product lines. “I’m thrilled to be able to return to a company where I’ve had so much history,” says Masek. “Working with all the talented people there over 22 years to create, sell and support cutting-edge, industry-changing luminaires was a great pleasure. Since the first time I saw Vari-Lites on their early tours in the 1980s, it was my dream to work for this amazing company. I’m honoured to be able to come back and see that dream continue to the next stage.” Welcoming the appointment, Brian Friborg says: “We could not be more delighted to welcome George back to the Philips Vari-Lite fold. He has played an important part in the Vari-Lite story over the years, and with his long experience and passion for the brand, I have no doubt that he will do so again in the years to come. There are exciting times ahead for Signify Entertainment Lighting.”

STAGE ELECTRICS Stage Electrics installs new lighting grid at BBC’s Alan Turing Imaginarium

The Alan Turing Imaginarium is a flexible event space in the BBC’s Dock House at Media City, Salford. It is used for conferences, meetings and as a presentation and studio space from which to broadcast coverage on events such as the recent Winter Olympics and Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. Stage Electrics was contracted to install a lighting grid that would be able to meet the needs of such a multipurpose space. Set & Light | Winter 2018

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“The grid and all its elements were carefully considered to make sure they were both aesthetically pleasing and in keeping with the room,” explains Stage Electrics Project Manager Matthew Addison. “For the times when the room is not being used as a studio, a simple infrastructure of distributed production lighting power and DMX was installed to support event and mood lighting.” The design had to take into account the shape of the room, which is not square, and the low ceiling height. As the space needed to be installed over the Christmas period, ahead of the Winter Olympics, Stage Electrics had to work under a tight timescale. “We only had two weeks on site to complete the installation,” adds Matthew. “But we were able to complete the project in time for the first broadcast.” Stage Electrics designed a bespoke aluminium grid designed to follow the shape of the room, which is set inside a bulkhead. Its lines follow the outline of the room and use a Box Truss, with ladder beams, which provided a host of lighting positions. A power-control distribution unit and Swisson 5R-5R DMX distribution amplifiers are enclosed within a Stage Electrics Wallbox, and Stage Electrics Grid Boxes are installed on the truss and controlled by an ETC ColorSource 20 desk.

Stage Electrics unlock new lighting capabilities for the Stephen Joseph Theatre

With an unclear future for tungsten lighting, the Stephen Joseph Theatre has taken no chances in investing in a new range of LED fixtures. The theatre’s existing lighting fixtures were in need of an upgrade, with their pre-existing tungsten dimmers on their last legs; the timing was perfect to make the transition to LED. The theatre turned to Stage Electrics, who were able to offer advice, guidance and demonstrations of the latest equipment available. “The Stephen Joseph Theatre approached us with a clear inclination that now was the right time for them to make the change to LED,” said Andy Elsegood of Stage Electrics. “During the wake of the EU ECODesign stage lighting regulation changes, it would have been unwise to replace their longstanding tungsten equipment with new tungsten, so I was glad when they informed me they were already considering an LED solution.” “After evaluating several different possibilities with Stage Electrics, the theatre settled on ETC’s Source Four Series 2 Lustr profiles and Ambersphere’s Ayrton Ghibli moving-head LED spots.” added Andy. “This was not an overly difficult decision as the ETC Lustr’s deliver some of the boldest colour rendering available and the Ghibli is equipped with a framing system that offers unlimited creative possibilities.” Since Stage Electrics delivered the new LED fixtures, the theatre has used them extensively. “We are overjoyed with our Source Four and Ghibli fixtures. We can’t tell the difference between the old tungsten fixture’s output and the new LED ones; they’re just as bright – if not brighter!” said Paul Stear, Chief Electrician at the theatre “The Source Four can do every colour one can imagine, while the Ghibli is phenomenally bright, with an exceptionally flexible zoom size – this fixture is able to project light to the size of a tennis ball or light up the whole stage.” 46

Since investing in over 40 new LED fixtures, the theatre also installed a lighting control desk from ETC, the Gio @5. “Previously we owned and used ETC’s Ion control desk and the transition from Ion to Gio @ 5 has been unbelievably easy,” explained Paul. The Stephen Joseph Theatre had a busy summer season, including the 40th anniversary production of the Alan Ayckbourn classic, Joking Apart, directed by the author, and a critically acclaimed production of Patrick Barlow’s The 39 Steps, directed by Paul Robinson.

Stage Electrics expand installation division

Stage Electrics have announced that Chris Wells and Mark Willey have joined their busy Installation Projects department. Based regionally, in the North-West and East Midlands respectively, Chris and Mark have joined the team in order to meet an increasing order book and regionally serve our Installation customers. As well as significant experience in delivering installation projects, Chris has a strong background in theatre, having worked in the technical departments of Royal Lyceum Edinburgh, Watermill Theatre and Oldham Coliseum, as well as serving as Technical Manager at Southport Art Centre for over 21 years. Mark also joins with Project Management experience and his career history includes spells at The Mill at Sonning, The Hawth at Crawley, Queen’s Theatre in London, and The London Palladium. Chris and Mark will be responsible for designing, engineering and project managing installations to satisfy a customer’s aspirations.

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Ian Dunne, Commercial Manager for Stage Electrics’ installation division (pictured above, centre, with Chris, left, and Mark), said: “We have seen an increase in the demand on our installation services across the UK. Chris and Mark are a part of the plan to meet this increase in demand and better service our national customer base; we are always looking for suitably qualified individuals to join our expanding team”.

TMB TMB introduces ProPlex extended length Ethernet patch cables

TMB proudly introduces the first Ethernet patch cable with full, verified performance up to 100m. This unique, one-of-akind, stranded, flexible CAT6a patch cable is ideal for all portable networks up to 10-Gigabit, and features renowned ProPlex durability, reliability, handling, low skew, noise rejection and data-transmission characteristics. In entertainment applications, ProPlex CAT6a Extended cable is especially useful for front-of-house cable runs, where the industry-standard lengths for sound, lighting and video are typically either 100m or 300ft. Prior to the introduction of this cable, no portable, stranded CAT6a or CAT5e cables providing 100 per cent verified performance were available to support these lengths. Drawing upon over 30 years of experience and over 15 million feet of ProPlex Data Cable sales, ProPlex CAT6a Extended combines the highest data-transmission integrity with the ability to withstand the most extreme handling and conditions, indoors and outdoors. ProPlex CAT6a Extended is available to TMB’s professional customers as either raw cable or fully-assembled patch cables. “ProPlex CAT6a extended length cable is a watershed,” says TMB Sales Manager Stephanie Kilburg. “10-Gig speed over longer runs, with proven ProPlex reliability and handling characteristics, is a winner for portable networks

everywhere. ProPlex cables are well known for holding up under rigorous conditions where other cables fail and for maintaining excellent data integrity, even after many years of the physical stress of portable use.” Kilburg adds: “All cables are not the same. ProPlex Data Cables are the standard to which all others are compared. The new, revolutionary ProPlex CAT6a Extended cable is shipping now!” The first to design and build custom, proprietary cables, connectors, and assemblies for the demanding entertainment production and staging markets, and still the industry leader over 30 years later, TMB is exclusive worldwide distributor for ProPlex cables. Learn about ProPlex CAT6a Extended cable and other ProPlex Ethernet cables at tmb.com/ proplex-ethernet. Find out about other innovative and exciting TMB products attmb.com.

VERSION 2 We’re Two! When we founded Version 2 in 2016, our vision was to become the most trusted independent provider of specialised lighting equipment rental and support to the UK broadcast and event industries. In two short years, we’ve accomplished a lot, and today our company boasts a state-of-the-art inventory covering the full spectrum of film and TV lighting. We’re fortunate to count many high-profile broadcasters on our client list. We’d like to take the time to thank all our customers, suppliers, crew and production friends for supporting us on our journey so far.

WHITE LIGHT White Light in the picture for Canon Camera launch

Canon recently held the launch of its new camera the EOS R at Shoreditch Electric Light Station, London.The camera giants invited journalists along to take part in an experiential experience in which they were transported to a utopian land 400 years in the future.The experience was produced by award-winning theatre company Les Enfants Terribles, known for their work on Alice’s Adventures Underground. Having provided the lighting on a range of immersive projects,White Light was called upon to supply the equipment for this particular launch. Lighting Designer Charlie Morgan Jones says: “Canon wanted to launch their new camera, yet do so in a way that was interactive and provided the journalists in attendance with an unforgettable experience. Les Enfants came up with the concept that a Canon ambassador was lost in the future and it was down to the invited journalists to find her.The set design team created a variety of spaces, including the lab, missing persons’ room, Museum of Curiosity, workers’ Space and the gym, each of which contained clues and potential pointers as to where the ambassador might be.The finale is that they find her in a space named Utopia and she does a beautiful aerial act, which they photograph using the new Canon camera, thus allowing them to try out this latest model and all of its settings.” Set & Light | Winter 2018

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

Charlie’s own brief was to create a lighting design that not only helped tell the story and add to the immersive experience but would also allow the camera to take the best photos possible. Charlie says: “I’ve never done an event like this before where the lighting had to be so precise in terms of hitting certain lighting levels, while at the same time retaining my own aesthetic for the live audience. The team from Canon actually came round with a light meter to ensure we were hitting the exact levels and we often had to adjust our lighting brightness accordingly.” When Charlie first visited the site, it was a complete empty space. Using only the renderings and drawings he had, he approached the WL team and worked closely with Jonathan Haynes and Jim Dewhirst to obtain the exact fixtures he required. He explains: “This was a unique project in the sense that it was very ‘theatrical’ yet wasn’t taking place in a theatre space as it were. After speaking with WL, I decided to draw on the ETC Source Four Minis, which proved invaluable for the smaller spaces where we simply didn’t have the space for a large rig. A lot of the rooms required powerful lighting, yet for this to be done discretely, and I feel the Minis are the only fixture that are able to achieve this.” The largest space used in the experience was the Utopia area. It was here where the entire launch would culminate, with an aerial performance from the ambassador. Charlie explains: “The biggest feature in Utopia was the sun, which was a monster to create. It comprised of 19 par cans, 32 pin spots and a lot of LED tape (although I suspect my Chief LX Paul Walmsley and his masterful electrics team secretly loved making it!). The space also utilised eight MAC III Performance, three MAC TW1s and a range of Robert Juliat DALIS.” Over the main acting space, 14 ETC Lustr 2s provided general coverage, acting as a ‘big light’ to ensure the cast could be seen clearly by the camera. The setup time for the project was tight. Charlie explains: “We had three days to set everything up and we were working alongside the construction team, who were simultaneously building the set. Also, due to the fact that there was very little free space in the main areas, we actually had to position the lighting desk in another room, meaning all the programming was blind. That said, Lighting Programmer Shane Button was fantastic and it often involved a lot of trial and error, with me speaking down a radio to him, acting as his eyes. I was lucky to be surrounded by a brilliant team, including my right-hand man LX Paul Walmsley, as well as Charlie Hayday, Gareth Clough, Clancy Flynn and Paul Salmon, who were all equally fantastic.” The launch was a huge success, attracting journalists from across the globe. It also marks yet another example of WL working with Charlie. Charlie says: “This was a fantastic project to work on and unlike anything I’ve ever lit before. I want to say a huge thanks to all the WL team for being so accommodating and for offering guidance from the initial planning stages, all the way through to final delivery.”

the process. The play has run in the West End for three years, now at The Criterion Theatre, and has been a smash hit with audiences and critics alike. It is now embarking on a UK tour and White Light is supplying the lighting equipment. A Mischief Theatre Company production, The Comedy About A Bank Robbery is produced by Kenny Wax and Stage Presence in association with Birmingham Rep and features a lighting design by David Howe. David says: “It is a play where the situation brings the comedy to life.You have an escaped convict set on capturing a priceless diamond from the bank and, with him, his eccentric sidekick, trickster girlfriend and the maintenance man.The brief for me was to support the writing, which is extremely fast paced as we swiftly move from one location to another, often by the way of musical montages. I worked closely with the other brilliant designers David Farley (Set Designer), Roberto Surface (Costume) and Jon Fiber (Sound) to create the world our writers envisaged.The writers were the performers in the original West End company and therefore the show evolved massively in rehearsals. It was very much an organic, collaborative process.” Whereas the script remains the same as that performed in the West End, there were some changes to the production that needed to be implemented for the tour, due to both space and touring requirements. David says: “Structurally, the set is quite complex: it may look simple but contains much trickery to help achieve the visual and, often, gravity-defying effects. David Farley produced a range of visualisations for each venue, which proved invaluable to both producers and myself when planning the show. When I originally laid out the West End design on paper (yes, I use paper!), the show hadn’t even started rehearsals, so I had to design-in as much flexibility into the rig as possible, knowing the script would evolve. Coming back to the production for the tour, I’ve been able to pair back and make stronger statements, which give it vibrancy and set the tone from the start. “The West End’s rig is a mixture of Viper Performance spots, Revolutions, MAC Auras and TW1s. For the tour, we have a simpler package of MAC Encore (Cold) and MAC Auras as the basic spot/wash combination; a couple of LED Lustres for a low-angle cross light; and Colour Force Battens to provide a colour highlight on the set. I’ve been impressed with the MAC Encore’s flexibility – not only with the quality of LED light, but also the great colour mixing, which has meant I’ve been able to replicate some of the warmer colour tones I use in the West End version. It used to send a chill through me when people requested ‘bright for comedy’ lighting, but not on this show. In fact, darkness and shade in many ways are key to creating the ambience and location in our world of the robbery. If anything, the darkness plays against the insane comedy action of the play.” The play opened in Birmingham in September and tours until mid-2019. As with most touring productions, the tight schedule meant that David had to work closely with his team to ensure his intricate design could be recreated across the country. He says: “The show closes on a Saturday night before loading in on Monday and opening Tuesday. I remain indebted to my team, who manage to make it all work – the initial team from Birmingham Rep, led by Andy Fidgeon, and Programmer Alex Boucher, along with my Touring Production Electrician Sonic Harrison, who refocuses/updates the show each week.”

White Light in the frame for The Comedy About A Bank Robbery

From the team behind the Olivier Award-winning The Play That Goes Wrong, The Comedy About A Bank Robbery is an hilarious and dynamic show focusing on the robbery of Minneapolis City Bank – and everything that goes wrong in 48

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sponsors’ directory

Please mention Set & Light when contacting sponsors

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 B360 (Barry Denison) 33 Lindlings, Hemel Hempstead, HP1 2HB Tel: 0203 9534 360 ~ Email: info@b360.tv ~ Web: www.b360.tv BBC Studioworks (Karen Meachen) Room N101, Neptune House, BBC Elstree Centre, Eldon Avenue, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire WD6 1NL Mob: 07970 115 998 ~ Email: karen.meachen@bbcstudioworks.com ~ Web: bbcstudioworks.com 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 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 Cinelease (Simon Evans) Unit E, Field Way, Greenford, Middlesex UB6 8UN Tel: +44 (0) 20 3137 6191 ~ Email: simon.evans@cinelease.com ~ Web: www.cinelease.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 DeSisti (Nick Mobsby) 25 Rowtown, Addlestone, Surrey KT15 1EF Tel: +44 (0) 7785 233073 ~ Email: nick@desistilighting.co.uk ~ Web: www.desisti.it

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sponsors’ directory

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 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 (Larry Beck) Elation Professional B.V., Junostraat 2, 6468EW Kerkrade, The Netherlands Mob: +44 (0) 7495 051413 ~ Email: larry.beck@elationlighting.com ELP (Ronan Willson, Darren Fletcher, John Singer) Cardington Studios, Cardington Airfield, Shortstown, Beds MK42 0TF Tel: 01234 744 222 ~ Email: info@elp.tv ~ Web: www.elp.tv 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 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 Green Hippo (Tom Etra, James Roth, Anastasia Nikolaou) Unit 307 Parma House, Clarendon Road, Wood Green, London N22 6UL Tel: 020 3301 4561 ~ Fax: 020 8889 9826 ~ Email: jamesr@green-hippo.com ~ Web: www.green-hippo-com Hawthorn (Dave Slater) Crown Business Park, Old Dalby, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire LE14 3NQ Head Office: 01664 821 111 ~ London Office: 020 8955 6900 ~ Email: info@hawthorn.biz ~ Web: www.hawthorn.biz 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 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 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 Vitec Videocom Lightpanels (Andrew Woodfin) Mob: +44 (0)7860 785 046 ~ Email: andrew.woodfin@vitecgroup.com Web: www.litepanels.com

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Please mention Set & Light when contacting sponsors

LSI Projects (Russell Dunsire, Richard Bunting) 15 Woking Business Park, Albert Drive, Woking, Surrey GU21 5JY Tel: 01483 764 646 ~ Fax: 01483 769 955 ~ Email: richardb@lsiprojects.com ~ Web: www.lsiprojects.com Martin by Harman (Ritchie Reed at Harman partner Sound Technology) Sound Technology Ltd, Letchworth Point, Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire SG6 1ND Tel: 01462 480 000 ~ Email: info@soundtech.co.uk ~ Web: www.soundtech.co.uk 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, Emma Woolf) 268 Bath Road, Slough, Berkshire SL1 4DX Tel: 01925 649 106 ~ Email: sp@osram.co.uk ~ Web: www.osram.com/pia Panalux Limited 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 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 Pulsar (Dave Cowan, Mitesh Mistry, Paul (Snowy) Johnson, Katie McGovern) 1 Pembroke Avenue, Waterbeach, Cambridge CB25 9QP Tel: 01223 403 500 ~ Fax: 01223 403 501 ~ Email: sales@pulsarlight.com ~ Web: www.pulsarlight.com Richard Martin Lighting Ltd (Steve Wells) Unit 24, Sovereign Park, Coronation Road, Park Royal, London NW10 7QP ~ RML Admin: Lantern House, Old Town, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire GL56 0LW Tel: 020 8965 3209 ~ 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

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sponsors’ directory

Please mention Set & Light when contacting sponsors

SGM Light UK (Anthony Van-Sertima) Unit 8, St Johns Court, Sevington, Ashford, Kent TN240SJ Tel: +44 (0) 1233 460 400 ~ Mob: +44(0) 7769 711 594 ~ Web: www.sgmlight.com 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 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 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 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

education members 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

The STLD’s interactive Sponsors’ Directory is a useful tool, both for the STLD and, we hope, for those of our sponsors who use it. Its main advantage is that it enables the society to display up-to-date and accurate information about your company on its website. In doing so, it helps us update our records and ensures 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 enables company searches by category and area. Bernie Davis – STLD Sponsor Liaison

index of advertisers BVE 19 ClayPaky 16 Doughty 25 Elation 15 ELP BC 52

ETC 27 Lee Filters IFC Unusual Rigging 20 Version 2 8

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membership application

V18-070818

Society of Television Lighting and Design Membership Application Form Section1

Personal Information

All personal information submitted to the Society of Television Lighting and Design is treated in accordance with the GDPR Regulations 2018

Surname:

First Name(s):

Address: Mobile:

Twitter/Instagram:

Web site:

Employer/Freelance:

Membership Category

Full Membership

Affiliate Membership

Section 3

Postcode:

Telephone:

Email:

Section 2

Mr/Mrs/Ms/other:

For those whose occupation involves or is associated with television lighting, design or related crafts

Overseas

For those who fulfil the criteria above but not resident in the UK

Retired

For those who fulfil the criteria above but retired and not working

Student

For students in full time education with an active interest in lighting or design

Please complete section 3 with details of your involvement with the television industry

Please complete section 3 with details of your course and or interest in television lighting and design. Give recent productions

Relevant Information Please complete this section with the relevant information about yourself

P.T.O. Set & Light | Winter 2018

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membership application Section 4

Proposal for Membership

I, the undersigned, being a current member of the STLD, certify that I know the applicant in section 1 and recommend that they are accepted into the membership of the STLD in the category applied for in section 2. One full member/tutor for student membership. Overseas applications do not need to provide a proposer, but it may be helpful to support your application.

Proposers Name:

Proposers Membership No:

Proposers Telephone:

Proposers Signature:

Proposers Email: Section 5

Method of Payment

Annual subscription fee for Full Membership - £75, Affiliates - Retired and Overseas - £50, Students - £25 NB a limited number of FREE sponsored Student memberships are now available each year. Please contact the membership secretary by email at the address at the foot of this page for further details.

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 for future years. The best and preferred method for paying for your membership is 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: GB45MID40071411171518

Account Name: 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 Memberships rates are available at http://www.stld.org.uk/membership.php Section 6

Application Declaration

I, the undersigned, wish to apply for membership of the Society of Television Lighting and Design. I agree to abide by the rules of the Society (available at http://www.stld.org.uk/pdfs/STLD-Rules.pdf ) I would like to receive correspondence from the STLD Email opt in Tick if you would like to receive correspondence from the STLD by email Tick if you would like to receive correspondence from the STLD by post Post opt in I would like to receive correspondence directly associated with the STLD from their Sponsors Email opt in Tick if you would like to receive correspondence from STLD Sponsors by email Tick if you would like to receive correspondence from STLD Sponsors by post Post opt in N.B We may need to contact you by telephone to verify membership details, but we will not pass your telephone details on to any third parties.

Signature:

Date:

Print Name:

Notes (for STLD use):

Membership Number:

Membership approved:

Renewal Date:

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 54

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society committee

Chairman Stuart Gain 07774 161 996 chairman@stld.org.uk

Deputy Chair Andrew Dixon 07885 731 865 andrewdixon@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

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 John Piper john.piper@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

Jane Shepherd 07710 511 547 jane.shepherd@stld.org.uk

Bruce Wardorf 07702 741 338 bruce.wardorf@stld.org.uk

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ELP Broadcast & Events Lighting - Power - Rigging

Hire of equipment and services for Studio - Location - Events

Manchester: 0161 300 2922 Cardington: 01234 744222

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