12 Nov, 2019 | ETC, High End Systems
With an eclectic program of events, this year’s Summer Nostos
Festival (SNFestival) attracted more than 200,000 people and featured an
array of High End Systems and ETC gear across five stages.
Athens’ most modern cultural landmark – the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center – played host to the annual, week-long SNFestival. The center’s beautiful gardens, the canal, the National Library and the Greek National Opera were transformed into stages for music and theatrical performances, family activities, educational workshops and sports for visitors of all ages and backgrounds.
George Tellos of LightingArt oversaw all lighting design for the
festival. With a team of five lighting programmers, Tellos was tasked
with illuminating the vast and varied schedule of events while under
tight time constraints. It involved designing, programming and operating
50
shows over eight days. This was a manageable challenge for Tellos,
who is familiar with working under pressure, thanks in part to his role
as LD for the Sochi Medals Plaza at the 2014 Olympic Games.
This year’s events featured concerts by Neneh Cherry, Rita Wilson and Andrew Bird; Ana Sánchez-Colberg’s dance performance “Seven to Seventh”; Brian Eno’s music and image installation 77 Million Paintings; and the festival’s largest collective work, Tape Art.
“For the Alternative Stage we needed absolute silence for some of the performances and High End Systems’ SolaFrame Theatre fixture was perfect for this,” Tellos says.
“For some of the shows, including Rita Wilson, I used the SolaFrame
3000,” he adds. “I wanted an amazingly bright and precise fixture, and
anything else looked subdued in comparison. With its high CRI, low
shutter distortion and great zoom range it was an
obvious choice.”
Supplied by PRG XL VIDEO and UTG, the SNFestival lighting package also featured products from ETC – High End’s parent company. These included an Eos Ti and two Gio lighting control consoles; and Source Four LED Series 2 Lustrs, Source Four LED CYC Adapters, Source Four Fresnels and ColorSource Spot fixtures.
“ETC
and High End Systems products are first-class,” Tellos concludes.
“Working on this production I was reminded that even with a little
quality equipment you can do great things!”
4 Nov, 2019 | ETC
Model railways, with their enduring charm, remind us of an
America before the Interstate system and airline travel. As the full-scale
versions struggle to survive, their legacy is kept alive by enthusiasts who
combine architectural, electrical, and scenic skills to amazing effect.
When programmer Zach Moore got the call from Laura Green of Kinetic
Lighting (Glendale, CA) to work on the Pasadena Model Railroad Museum, he could
not have been more delighted. “I love trains and lately I have really got into
Echo programming,” he said. This was the perfect opportunity to combine them
both.
Founded in 1940, the Pasadena Model Railway Museum is a
Mecca for model and railway enthusiasts from all over the world. It inhabits a
5,000-square-foot building in Los Angeles. (Yes, they know. They moved decades
ago, but the name stuck.) The Museum is the home of the Sierra Pacific Lines,
an HO-scale model railroad that is one of the largest in the world.
The scale of the project is impressive: the main line
stretches nearly 1,700 feet (28-scale miles) between Alhambra and Zion. It
takes trains about an hour to traverse under normal speeds and traffic
conditions. The principle yards at Alhambra, Midway, and Zion can store about
2,000 cars. The railroad requires more than 20 operators to fully staff the
yards, branch line, and industries.
Members of the Museum went to Kinetic Lighting’s Annual Open
House looking for an LED upgrade lighting and control solution and a dynamic
way to create more colors, effects, and dimming. At first they decided to
replace 14 fluorescent strips with Rosco VariColor units and control four basic
looks with an ETC Echo system. But the job quickly grew in scope. Soon, Moore
found himself building and programming a hybrid system.
Using an Echo button station and scene controller to send
DMX signal to a Mosaic Show Controller, Moore programmed a 35-minute sequence
that encompassed changes in the light from sunrise to sunset and included a
wave of clouds that passes over the model. “With high overhead angles, the
challenge was to create motion within the cues,” says Moore.
To intensify the color saturation of the sunsets, Moore
introduced four new colors into the crossfade. Strobe and thunder-clap effects
are triggered independently by the train dispatcher who controls the lighting
and audio sequences.
Moore’s background as a train enthusiast with extensive
theme park experience made him the perfect choice for the job. A native of
Boston, he graduated from Cal Arts, became the resident lighting designer at
Magic Mountain and has worked for Universal, Disney and a series of corporate
shows. “I own a couple of ETC Gios and I like to keep them – and myself – very
busy.”
24 Oct, 2019 | ETC, High End Systems
High End Systems has announced the launch of the
SolaPix 7 and SolaPix 19 wash luminaires. The SolaPix family takes the
traditional concept of a pixel wash and pushes it to its maximum potential.
With a wide variety of looks to help set the mood and steal the show, SolaPix
features an additive LED, RGBW colour mixing system for extremely powerful
saturated colours and tunable white control, a versatile 4.5° – 60° zoom range,
FleX Effects Engine and Pixel mapping on all models.
HES national sales manager Sean Hoey commented, “We
are excited to bring this new fixture range to market. SolaPix is truly an
innovative wash fixture. It provides incredible wash capability with great
output, and the face of the fixture brings a new, unique look.”
Automated Lighting Product Manager Matt Stoner added,
“Ever since High End Systems created the pixel wash with our ShowPix fixture,
it has been an integral part of lighting rigs of all types. The SolaPix family
builds on this technology by introducing new optics and next-generation
brightness in a fixture that is far more versatile than ever before. The
lenses and efficiency have been maximised, plus the size and footprint have
been minimised. SolaPix also features HaloGraphic Pixel definition, the newest
patent-pending innovation from High End Systems.”
“The fixture’s FleX Effects Generator is a macro
system that allows users to choose from a library of different patterns; once
selected, up to three colours can be selected for use in the pattern.
These patterns will display over the background of the fixture, which is also
completely user-controllable. Effect speed and fade rate add the final
touches, giving the user a massive level of control for fixture face looks.”
21 Oct, 2019 | ETC
The
Festival de Nederlandse Dansdagen (Dutch Dance Festival) is recognised
internationally as the main event for dance in the Netherlands and 20
ETC
Source Four LED Series 2 luminaires were used to light the performances
during the festival this October.
The
six day event invites dance companies from all over the country with
styles varying from ballet to urban, avant-garde to modern dance and
performance
art. It welcomes a national and international audience and also
presents its own productions including Bloedbanden, dansMuseum and Club
Tweak.
Theater
aan het Vriithof, based in the south east city of Maastricht, hosts
acclaimed performances such as the National Ballet as well as a youth
dance day that caters for all ages and audiences throughout the
festival.
The
venue traditionally used 10 booms with conventional tungsten profiles
as side lights but the technical team at the Dutch Dance Festival found
the frequent changes of colours particularly challenging for so many
shows. For the 2019 edition of the festival, they wanted to replace
these profiles with ETC LED fixtures.
“Our
wish for the 2019 edition of the festival was to replace the
traditional profiles with LED fixtures. It would save time and give all
the Dutch
dance companies the opportunity to work with the newest technology
which we were able to achieve with ETC,” says Marijcke Voorsluijs,
technical director of the Festival de Nederlandse Dansdagen.
When
testing each side light boom using two ETC Source Four LED Series 2
profiles and one traditional par can, the lighting designers from the
dance
companies were convinced that the Lustrs would create the atmosphere
that their pieces needed whilst also eliminating gel changes between
pieces.
“As
the largest dance festival in the Netherlands we bring innovation and
sustainability to the audience but also provide a space where all dance
companies can meet and exchange ideas. We’re proud to encourage them to
broaden their horizon whilst using the latest LED technology by ETC
alongside traditional lighting fixtures,” remarks Marijcke.
10 Oct, 2019 | ETC
The Rossini
Opera Festival (ROF) is an international music festival held in August
of each year in Pesaro, Italy, the birthplace of
the opera composer Gioachino
Rossini. The festival – and its technical team – have always paid close
attention to technical innovation, often leading new trends in the
field of operatic lighting.
“Here
we’ve experienced the whole journey of theatrical lighting, starting
forty years ago with analogue systems, incandescent or discharge
sources. Then there was the transition to digital, the advent of the
scroller, the first scanners, the yoke, the moving head and now we have
LEDs used to their full capabilities,” says Fabio Rossi, head of the
festival’s lighting department.
For
an event like the Rossini Festival, where almost all the shows are like
intricate works of art, the technical equipment used is of
utmost importance. “The products used must be silent, high quality,
versatile and, above all, reliable,” continues Rossi. “The equipment is
subjected to intensive use, it must remain operative for up to sixteen
hours a day, for more than two consecutive months
in rather high ambient temperatures. In this context, the console – the
heart of the system – must be absolutely guaranteed to work reliably.”
Serendipity
played a crucial role in the inclusion of ETC’s Gio @5 lighting console
in the festival. “My personal encounter with Eos was
rather fortuitous,” says Rossi. “I was working in a theatre in Eastern
Europe and a series of unexpected events meant I found myself working on
an ETC Gio, without ever having seen one before. In about an hour I was
able to configure it and have enough control
to do exactly what I needed. This eventually led to Gio @5 becoming our
core system here.”
Gio
@5 is a powerful and versatile console, which takes full advantage of
the features offered by Eos software, albeit in a compact package.
“The features that convinced us to choose an Eos system over other
brands are the simplicity of programming; the cue management system, the
particularly high-performance tracking system; but most importantly the
color management,” concludes Rossi.
During
the course of the festival, several people were tasked with operating
the console and their experiences were overwhelmingly positive.
“The system appeared stable and well organized, the learning curve was
fast and I immediately realized that Gio @5 offers a wide choice of
options,” says operator Alberto Cannoni.
“The
network configuration and the patch were simple and immediate. In
recording and editing the cues I found the pleasure of working
with a machine that meets the classic needs of a theatre console.
Working in Blind also represents a quick and effective solution for
tracking,” concludes Andrea Valentini.
8 Oct, 2019 | ETC
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Ballet Philippines, the premier
ballet company of the country. ETC is happy to be part of the celebration by
providing lighting equipment to the celebratory ballet production, “Swan Lake.”
Jennifer Tipton, renowned American lighting designer completed the lighting
design for the production. Scenic design credit goes to the US-based Filipino
set designer Eduardo “Toto” Sicangco.
The ballet production ran August and September 2019, in the Main Theater of
the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP). The Source Four LED Series 2
Lustr augments the lighting inventory of the Cultural Center. ETC’s x7 Color
System brightens up the theatre, further enriched the color rendering, creating
stronger audience reactions with deeper, richer dramatic scenes.
With support from the Asian Cultural Council, Jennifer Tipton hosted several
masterclasses for young and promising Asian lighting designers. Participants
interacted with Tipton and experienced live demonstrations of lighting,
focusing, and plotting a rig.
Apart from the anniversary activities of Ballet Philippines, ETC held a
two-day Eos console training session with the Cultural Center of the
Philippines, in Manila. Attendees learned basic and advanced skills on Eos
consoles, delivered by ETC trainer, Audrey Leung.
ETC was honored to be such a large part of this celebratory event.
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