Road Test: Strong Technobeam, page 40 - PLSN.com

INTERNATIONAL NEWS
PROJECTION LIGHTS & STAGING NEWS
Lighting Helps Cinema Create Visual Drama
Colorful lighting adds to the sense of escapism for moviegoers.
KUWAIT CITY — Planners with the Tamdeen
Shopping Center Development Co.
wanted to make a colorful splash in the lobby
of the Avenues Cinema, a multi-screen
movie complex at the Avenues Mall.
Tareq Darwesh, deputy general manager,
and Ali Shiri, architect, had been trying
to choose among various bright shades of
paint. In the end, however, they decided
that any one shade of paint wouldn’t
be flexible enough.
“If they wanted a change of color,
the paint would need to be changed,
which wasn’t very practical,” said Qader
Mohiuddin of Martin Professional Middle
East. Darwesh and Shiri, he said, “expressed
to us their desire for a dynamic
lighting solution instead.”
The cinema opted to use Martin Professional’s
LED Stagebar 54 luminaires
to create a dramatic flourish. Moviegoers
walk past vividly colored hues cast upon
large columns in the main lobby and back
lobby. The lighting helps visitors escape from
an ordinary day.
Cinema architect, Valode & Pistre and
lighting designer, VP Design considered using
Martin Exterior 200 or Martin Alien 02
BATH, UK — Already one of the most
distinctive features of the Bath skyline, the
renovated tower of St. Stephen’s Church,
which dates from 1845, took a step into the
21 st century with a new Anolis LED lighting
installation.
Kieran Sturrock of locally based Enlightened
Lighting did the design. Sturrock also
specified the equipment and managed the
installation for the vicar, Rev. Jonathan Lloyd.
The church was designed and built by local
architect James Wilson in 1845, and the
tower — always a controversial structural feature
— was completed in 1847.
“It’s a fabulous building, and the idea was
to introduce a simple and stylish lighting design
to emphasize the architectural detail of
the structure rather than something that was
a blanket wash,” said Sturrock.
One of the challenges was to keep all the
fixtures as concealed as possible. Since the
LED units were fixed into position while the
tower was shrouded in scaffolding and are
now in hard-to-access places, reliability was
essential.
The standard everyday color is a warm
white with a hint of gold, but the colors can
change for special occasions. For Remembrance
Sunday (the second Sunday in November),
the tower went blood red. During
the Advent season (the four Sundays before
Christmas) the tower was purple.
It was Enlightened’s first major exterior
Anolis installation.
At the top of the tower are eight Arc-
Source Outdoor 12s, attached to the stone
luminaires, but eventually decided on an LED
solution using the Martin Stagebar 54.
The Stagebar 54 is a bright LED luminaire
that functions as either a pixel bar or a wash
luminaire for floodlighting surfaces. With five
colored diodes — red, green, blue, amber and
white — instead of the usual three, the Stagebar
54 offers a broader range of colors.
A pair of Stagebar fixtures is located
on each side of the front columns in the
lobby, with one lighting fixture on each
side of the back columns. The installation
utilizes a total of 68 Stagebars to produce
its dramatic effects.
NORR Consultants International is the architect
for the mall, Kuwait’s largest. The first
of four phases opened April 2007. The second
is to be completed this year. By 2010, when
all four phases are complete, the complex will
rank among the world’s largest malls.
walls and arranged in pairs, cross lighting
the four pinnacles. Another eight ArcSource
Outdoor 12s illuminate the second set of pinnacles
further down.
Two sets of four ArcSource 12s with 6º
lenses are used for silhouetting the flying
buttresses, hidden from view and fixed to the
bottom of the buttresses.
There are four ArcLine Optic 36s washing
up the top third of the tower, bathing the
lancets in a gentle glow, and then eight Arc-
Source Outdoor 18s backlighting the balustrades
two thirds of the way up the tower.
On the front fascia of the tower, facing
down the hill, three empty arch-shaped
niches are lit up with six ArcSource 3s. Six Arc-
Source 12 in-grounds – two per door – skim
up the three entranceways on the front and
at the sides of the church.
The Anolis drivers are all installed on level
one of the belfry, and the lighting is controlled
via a DMX Creator from the Vicar’s PC in the
basement. They are automated with a link to
an astronomical clock which fires them up at
dusk and shuts the installation down at 1 a.m.
Element Labs and Showtec
Announce Asian Alliance
SAN FRANCISCO, CA — LED video
supplier Element Labs, Inc. and Showtecgroup
Pte Ltd, based in Singapore, announced
a partnership in Asia. As a first
step, Showtec recently purchased two
Stealth screens for demonstration purposes
in the company’s offices in Singapore
and Beijing.
“We are continuously looking for innovative,
creative products,” said Henry
Ang, Managing Director of the Showtecgroup.
“We knew were collaborating with
a partner that understands the demands
put on such products by our customers.”
With offices in Singapore, China,
Malaysia, Thailand and Dubai, Showtecgroup
offers clients a full range of technical
equipment for their events.
Bath Church Tower Bathed in Colorful Hues
The LEDs give a dramatic new look to the church’s features,
which date from 1845.
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PLSN MARCH 2008