Rumor Mill: Tyler Truss to Announce New Truck Pack Friendly Truss at LDI With SPY PHOTO

Just when you thought that there couldn’t be any new developments in truss design, Tyler Truss says think again.  While Tyler Truss is hush hush about this one, a little birdie snapped a photo of a their new stackable truss design.

Looks like the design is about 20″ x 16″ with a center cord for even hanging of the truss.  This is totally a Tyler Truss design with the center cord.  No more having to even out the span set bridle every time you change the load to level the truss. Pretty innovative when you think about it.  Super simple solution to a long time “issue” when dealing with truss.

Since LDI is right around the corner, I guess we’ll have to wait till then to hear more. Maybe Tyler Truss will say more before then on their up coming blog.  Stay tuned, information should hit the street soon.

Rumor Mill: ACT Lighting To Distribute Clay Paky in the States

Last week during the PLASA show in London England, it was over heard that ACT Lighting might be distributing Clay Paky here in the United States.  There were mentions of this all over Facebook and Twitter about this bit of interesting news. I am still considering this a rumor as nothing has been confirmed by anyone involved.

What does this mean… There are many in the industry that feel that Clay Paky is the front runner in fixture performance, design and function, but lack the support and product knowledge here in the States.

Is this movement to add ACT Lighting as a distributor in the US a step forward and to change that? Time will tell if this rumor is true. Stay tuned for more information.

Rumor Mill: ETC to Release TWO New Consoles in 2011

Rumors hints of a new console from ETC, (Electronic Theatre Controls) have been dropped a couple of times starting late 2009 at LDI when I intereviewed Anne Valentino about the future of controls.  Not much was said other then expect something sometime.  Pretty vague if you ask me.

Fast forward five months to March 2010 at USITT in Kansas City, Anne did a quick video for me on the history of lighting consoles that were on display at the USITT Lighting Museum.  Towards the end of the video, Anne mentioned this rumored fourth console addition to the Eos family of consoles. Again, not much was mentioned other then be on the look out in early 2011 for the new console.

Today, I can confirm that not just one console will be released in early 2011, but TWO consoles will be released! It is a safe bet that one will be added to the Eos family of consoles as previous hints have mentioned, but a second one?  I’m not sure where it will fall into ETC’s console lineup, but none the less, be on the look out.

Where do you think this second console will be added to ETC’s lineup?  Could it be an entirely new series of consoles? What do you think?  I would love to hear your thoughts in the comment section.

Sneak Peak at Philips/Selecon PL-3 LED Fresnel

When you reach the Broadway level of being a lighting designer, you can pretty much get what ever you want. I am not talking about fame and fourtune but new fixtures and technologies. Such as the case for Don Holder at the Broadway Lighting Master Classes this year. Mr. Holder put on a great session about LEDs vs Tungstens. Since Mr. Holder is a well respected and fantastic lighting designer, he has access to a load of products before they are even announced.

Such as the case with the sneak peak that we got of Philips/Selecon upcoming LED Fresnel, the PL-3. Mr. Holder was able to get not just one of these prototype fixtures, but two for his session. Yeah, I was a little jealous! ;) But enough about that, what about the PL-3.

The PL-3 uses three of the LED engines from the Vari-lite VLX fixture. That means that the PL-3 is a 3 engine, RGBW mixer at 90 watts per engine. Just like the VLX, the PL-3 color mixing happens behind the lens to give an even color out the front of the fixture. Speaking of light coming out the front, the PL-3 is putting out 8200 Lumens of LED goodness with a zoom range of 5 to 50 degree spread.

The entire fixture runs off just 320 watts of power and produces as much light as a 1000 watt tungsten fresnel. The PL-3 is still in the process of being developed but is rumored to have WDMX, WiFi, Network and DMX protocols included right on the fixture. If you look closely, you may notice the fixture housing and yoke are made of plastic. Since the fixtures runs a heck of a lot cooler then a typical tungsten fresnel of that size, Philips/Selecon was able to make the PL-3 even lighter by using a plastic composite.

The PL-3 is still not ready for the big time and like I mentioned, still in development so no release date has been announced yet along with pricing. I have heard hints of another version of the PL-3 is in the works, the PL-5. I’ll let you take a guess on what that means.

Take a look at some of the photos I was able to sneak in at the BLMC2010.

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Zero 88 Set to Release New Console, ORB XF at ABTT

At the Association of British Theatre Technicians Show, (ABTT), happening this week in London England, Cooper Controls and Zero 88 are gearing up to announce the next console in the ORB series of consoles.  The new desk, the ORB XF is designed for professional users requiring hands on live control. Taking the key operating philosophies of ORB, ORB XF adds fader control for intensity channels and live submaster playback, making it ideal for control of live events. Combining theatrical syntax and an interactive hardware platform, ORB XF provides intuitive control of both generic dimmers and moving lights.

Additional information about the ORB XF is still in the works and is expected to be announced before ABTT opens on Wednesday, June 16.

4Wall Rumors True – Purchased Cinelease Event Lighting in LA

Late last week I heard that 4Wall might be opening up yet another location here in the states.  Looks like those rumors are confirmed by 4Wall today. More from 4Wall’s press release.

In a move that adds inventory as well as a new location, 4Wall Entertainment has purchased the assets of Cinelease’s Event Lighting Division. The new 4 wall Los Angles or 4Wall-LA, will occupy a 23,000 sq. ft. facility next door to the Cinelease Motion Picture division.  The site will become 4Wall’s fifth location, following Las Vegas, New York, Phoenix and Washington, DC. The sixteen employees of Cineleasse Event Lighting will be joining the 4Wall Family in LA.

To read more about the purchase, visit 4Wall’s web site at www.4wall.com.

Rumor Mill: 4Wall Adding Another Wall

I have heard through the digital grapevine an interesting piece of news about 4Wall Entertainment Lighting. If you don’t know about 4Wall, here is a little background info.

4Wall Entertainment is a full-service lighting company that specializes solely in providing entertainment lighting systems. We are proud to say that we don’t try to focus our resources and talents on anything other than providing quality lighting. This ensures that we don’t spread ourselves too thin, so no matter the size of your production, you’ll be treated as if you’re our only client and your project will receive the care, dedication, quality, and expertise which have become the hallmarks of 4Wall.

Just recently, 4Wall opened a new location right here in Washington, DC, 4Wall DC, making that their 4 location in the United States. Well, it sounds as though 4Wall will be adding a 5th “wall” or office to their business. I haven’t been able to lock down a location as of yet, but source deep within the wall hinted at a US location. Pretty vague hint as the states are rather large! I’ll keep after them and get more information, stay tuned!

Rumor Mill: Something up Barco’s Sleeves for ProLight + Sound

Like I said earlier, ProLight + Sound is just around the bend and all the exhibitors are leaking like a sieve.  Over the weekend I heard from a very reliable source deep with in the Barco family that Barco too has a number of new products to announce and show off at ProLight + Sound in Frankfurt Germany later this week.

We will be showing many enhancements, upgrades and new products geared towards strengthening the digital lighting and moving luminaire product lines.

That is literally all I got.  What does it mean?  Has that engineering genius, Richard Belliveau from High End come up with something revolutionary… AGAIN? Is Barco planning to announce a new product from their recently purchased LED and video division of Element Labs? I am hounding my source for more details and will hopefully hear something before the show begins on Wednesday.

Martin Has Even More Coming at ProLight + Sound

This week has been all about Martin’s rumored new control surface which is being officially announced next week at ProLight + Sound.  It all started with a little video and then some more details about the desk.  Well, it looks like that is not all that Martin is announncing next week.  They have a couple more things up their sleeves.

Fro the teaser intro on Martin’s web site, Martin claims that the competition will have to take this one laying down and will be shocked at the news. Here is a line up of the products Martin is preparing to announce.

• 4 new moving heads in the MAC range
• 2 new LED video panels
• 2 new indoor & outdoor LED striplights
• 3 new indoor & outdoor LED luminaires
• 3 new controller solutions
• 1 new Jem smoke machine

Add them up and that comes to 15 new products being announced at ProLight + Sound for Martin! We’ll just have to wait till next week to see what the other 14 new products are.  Stay tuned!

Rumor Confirmed: ADB Lighting to Preview New Desk at ProLight + Sound

ADB Lighting out of Belgium is preparing to preview a “new generation control desk” as ProLight + Sound next week in Frankfurt Germany. ADB will be showing of a prototype of their multi-modal lighting and video flagship desk codenamed HATHOR.

So what makes this new desk so revolutionary? Here is what little ADB is saying about the desk thus far.

Advanced features include a graphics based user interface with support for up to eight multi-touch screens, advanced luminaire and fixture tracking facilities, state of the art lighting cue transfer control, flexible user configuration and customization, and unlimited capacity and full scalability.

The new controller is a professional theatre and television studio ‘concept’ desk that will be the flagship of the ADB lighting controller range, integrating control of conventional luminaires, moving lights, matrixes, LED, video and architectural control embracing all available protocols.

Looks like ADB is holding this one close as they are not even releasing a photo of the concept desk.  If you are attending ProLight + Sound next week, make sure to stop by the ADB Lighting stand at B36, Hall 11.1.  Maybe by that time, ADB will update their web site, www.adblighting.com with more information.

More on Martin’s Mystery Video and Control Surface

Yesterday I posted a very interesting video from Martin about what they plan on launching at ProLight + Sound at the end of the month. Well, Martin was kind enough to send over a few details and photo of the desk. Here are some of the details that Martin was able to provide about the new desk.

• Fully integrated control solution in smaller a form
• High resolution touchscreen in 16:9 format
• Folding built-in display
• Lightweight and solid construction
• Powerful software with unmatched ease of operation
• High quality components for tactile access
• Multiple playback systems
• Multiple external display
• Up to 46 direct access to playback from surface
• 6144 parameters
• Digital LCD buttons for direct parameter access
• Multiple wing attachment (MaxModules)
• 4x DMX Universe direct from the console
• Up to 12 Universe over Artnet
• Calendar and schedules
• Customizable Graphical User Interface
• Powerful effects engine
• 1000 cuelists with fader control
• 1000 cuelists with playback control buttons
• Parallel execution of multiple cuelists
• Submaster, Groupmaster and Override functionality
• Fanning functionality on Parameter and time
• On-the-fly global timing adjustments
• All this is just 14.4kg or 32 lbs.

A name has still not been released along with any additional photos. But from yesterdays video, what what you can see when the camera is in focus and in between strobes, it looks super sexy. The new Control surface will be on display at ProLight + Sound in Frankfurt Germany starting March 24 in the Martin Professional Stand, Hall 9.0 B91.

Rumor Mill: Sneak Peak From Martin @ ProLight + Sound

I received a VERY interesting email yesterday for one of my contacts deep under cover at the Denmark plant of Martin Professional.  They sent me a link to a server that has disappeared as of this morning.  Thank goodness I was I able to snag a copy of the file off the server before that happened!

Looks like Martin is preparing to announce something huge at ProLight + Sound 2010 at the end of the month.  From the looks of the video, Martin is playing this one close to the chest. From what I can tell, it HAS TO BE a new control surface! Take a look at the 52 second video, what do you think?