ETC News Feed

Walkin’ in a winter wonderland...

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:52:41 GMT

Window fronts bedecked with ornaments. Garland and wreaths adorning a lamppost. Snowflakes and icicles shimmering on eaves, above doors festooned with candy canes and ribbons. No, we’re not talking about Bedford Falls or a quaint little inn in Vermont, but ETC’s headquarters in Middleton, WI.

Every year in December, ETC elves decorate Town Square – the factory’s main atrium designed to resemble a 1940s New York streetscape and Edward Hopper paintings – to bring loads of holiday cheer to employees and visitors. Every corner of Town Square is decked out in seasonal finery, including colorful strings of light (of course!) controlled by an ETC control system. There’s even a motorized, life-sized Santa Claus popping out of a chimney!

And it’s in this real, live snow-globe where ETC creates our award-winning product line and offers our industry-renowned customer service... year round.

Congo update released

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:26:01 GMT

Congo v6.0.3 software has just been released for the Congo and Congo jr lighting control consoles, Congo Light Server and Net3 Remote Video Interface units. This version is mainly to resolve serious issues that many users may have encountered in the field with previous v6 releases. It is highly recommended that any v6 user should update as soon as possible. This version has been rigorously tested not only in our labs but also in over 30 beta sites worldwide in varying configurations.

As always, if you experience any problems or have any questions, please contact us either at congo@etcconnect.com or by calling your local ETC dealer or our Technical Support departments in the USA, UK, Germany or Hong Kong.

Congo v6.0.3 software and release notes may be downloaded here. All consoles, Light Servers and RVI/Client PCs in a system must be updated at the same time. There is also a v6.0.3 installer for Congo Offline Editor for Macintosh available for free download.

iRFR flies out of the app store

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:59:54 GMT

Sales for the ETC iRFR app, which runs on Apple iPod Touch or iPhone, has exceeded everyone’s expectations – and with proceeds so far of almost US$16,000 being donated to either Behind the Scenes in the US and Canada or Light Relief in Europe, more people than ever before can rely on the charities’ help should they be unable to work.

Dennis Varian, ETC’s Senior Product Development Manager, says: “We’ve been pleased with the success of the app, having sold over 450 copies worldwide. Since iRFR released, we’ve done a couple of updates and introduced several new features, including making it work with both the Congo and Eos families and adding moving light controls and a colour picker.”

The app duplicates the functionality of the ETC RFR (Remote Focus Unit), acting as a remote control on a wireless network and giving users the ability to set levels, call up record targets and manipulate any parameter on a moving light. The price has been set at £29.99/€39.99/$49.99 (not including your device, of course!) to deter casual purchase while encouraging professional users to invest in a low cost remote.

“One user bought eight iPod Touches, so that each of their focus teams could have a remote, effectively making a donation of several hundred dollars all on their own! Rather than having just one or two RFR units to share between everyone, they considered it was more cost effective to put a small iPod Touch in each team’s tool bag. Of course, many users still prefer the safety and durability of a purpose built remote like the RFR, since an iPod Touch is considered significantly more valuable to a thief.”

Commenting on requests to cater for users of other mobile devices, Dennis continued: “We have been thinking about making a version for Windows Mobile and Android OS; however, the problem is the wide range of screen sizes and types – some touchscreen, some not, some with keyboards, some without –make it very difficult to develop for these platforms. Apple has just one resolution and type of interface. For the moment, we’re closely watching the market to see what happens and we’re ready to get to work as soon as a trend becomes apparent. Also, of course, by having this on an iPod Touch as well as iPhone, we knew that people would not be obliged to sign up to a long contract just to get a remote.”

ETC Congo® and Paradigm® help world’s tallest building shine

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:20:40 GMT

Standing at 828m or 2,717 feet – more than half a mile – is Dubai’s massive Burj Khalifa, now the world’s tallest building. Lighting a structure this high is a huge challenge. ETC equipment plays a big part of the permanently installed Celebration Lighting system on the newly inaugurated edifice. Designed by Speirs and Major Associates (SaMA), the lighting consists of over 800 Dataflash strobe lights and six Fineline searchlights controlled by an ETC Congo Light Server and triggered by an ETC Unison Paradigm system featuring touchscreens and automated astronomical timeclock events. The control system was provided by Oasis Enterprises Professional Projects Division, ETC’s distributor in the UAE. The Celebration Lighting system was used during the grand opening celebration on January 4th, 2010, and is designed to run various patterns on the building nightly with special shows on holidays and festival days.

Programmed almost entirely offline using Capture visualization software – with the designers in Scotland and programmer in Germany – this project took long-distance collaboration to the limit. “We essentially programmed this show via Skype,” says ETC Controls Product Manager and Congo Programmer Sarah Clausen. “SaMA worked for weeks to create the model and get all the strobes inserted, focused and patched, and then I worked at the same time to channel and group the strobes into usable chunks to create the effects we needed. Then they sent me a video mock-up of the kinds of effects they wanted. I worked for ten days in our Germany office to build up the effects in Congo. The v5 Effects were essential to this project – some of SaMA’s ideas actually need 42 effect playbacks running simultaneously to create the right look. During the programming I had Capture, Congo and a single Dataflash AF1000 strobe. Iain Ruxton at SaMA had a setup with Capture, a Congo jr console, and another Dataflash. I could program something, send him the show file, he could load it and look at it with the team there. We could see the same thing running at the same time, discuss adjustments, and then I could go on programming on my own. It worked very well. Once we were on site in Dubai we only had to adjust a few timings and then could get on with the business of creating the specific combinations of effects for the nightly shows.”

Says Iain Ruxton, Associate at SaMA: “We've envisaged working like this on dynamic architectural lighting projects ever since we first saw DMX visualizer packages more than a decade ago. Although it's intended as performance technology, we were keen to scale it up to big buildings. We've done some smaller projects with visualization and we used Capture and Congo together on the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. It was invaluable in planning the focus and the show framework there, but the Burj Khalifa is the first time we've programmed dynamic lighting of this complexity on a completely virtual building, without designer and programmer being in the same country. Quite simply, we could not have achieved this by programming on site only."

In daily use, the ETC Congo system is triggered using serial data sent by the Unison Paradigm system at specified times. The touchscreen interface makes it easy to override the system when a special event requires different treatment. This system will give the Burj Khalifa great flexibility and allow it to pick and choose from the designed effects as needed – the ideal solution for a spectacular structure that is visible as far as the eye can see.

Since it’s impossible to capture the dynamic spectacle of the Burj grand opening and the strobe lighting effects in a still photo, watch this Prisme International video.

The new French Revolutions

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:37:22 GMT

Pascal Boulanger, lighting chief at Paris’s Opéra Garnier, is, like many theatre technicians, a man with an increasing number of jobs to do and fewer people to help him. Successive pieces of employment legislation have seriously affected the French lighting industry; chief among them are restrictions on night working and a new 35 hour working week. So Boulanger decided that quiet, reliable and accurate moving lights were the solution – and was impressed when ETC’s French distributor Avab Transtechnik introduced him to the ETC Source Four Revolution.

“We did a number of on site tests for things which aren’t in the technical specs,” explains Boulanger, “such as the noise of a movement or change of gobo, or the reset time of the unit.” As an opera house, noise is a vital issue and, he says, he has even had occasions when the conductor has asked for the house ventilation systems to be switched off to avoid disturbing the performance.

The Revolution was designed from the ground up with theatre use in mind – quiet, accurate and reliable, but with the power of the unique Source Four HPL lamp: its 77V, 750W light source rivals 2kW lamps from other manufacturers, while avoiding issues such as heat excess and space constraints.

Boulanger had enough budget available to purchase 14 Revolutions at once, but because the fixture’s accessories are modular, he was able to postpone additions such as shutters, gobo wheels and irises until they are needed for a specific production.

The ETC Source Four Revolution features an exclusive QuietDrive motor control for amazing low noise performance, while the two module bays accept any two of the four optional beam-control modules – all of which insert without tools or any kind of disassembly. The modules are ‘plug and play’ and need no patching or internal configuration changes to the fixture.

“We were delighted that Opéra Garnier has decided to invest in the Revolution after doing on site comparisons and shoot-outs,” says ETC’s fixtures product manager Tom Littrell. “The French market has strong traditions and we are proud that they chose Revolutions after evaluating their options. Hopefully this is just the beginning of a strong relationship with the Opéra Garnier and the many lighting designers who work there.”

Photo: flickr.com/noviceromano

ETC SmartBar 2 speaks your language

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:05:36 GMT

The latest update to ETC’s Smart Solutions range of portable, budget friendly dimming products is ETC SmartBar 2. With an all-new electronic design and improved dimming engine, SmartBar 2 is now consistent with other products in the Smart Solutions range – the LCD panel speaks English, German, French and Spanish.

The two products in the range come with either four or six 2.3kW dimmers with magnetic breakers; each has additional hot power out and is controlled by DMX512 with Remote Device Management (RDM) support. It also has socketed DMX chips with an onboard spare, allowing for quick repairs in the event of power surge. Depending on size, many SmartBars can be connected to a standard power outlet for "anywhere dimming."

New fixture mounting points include nylon bushing, allowing the luminaires to be focussed quickly and easily by hand even when securely bolted on.

But SmartBar 2 doesn’t forget the features which were in the original SmartBar, including built in chases for stand alone use without a control desk; manual control; and switched and dimmed operation.

SmartBar 2 is ideal for small and budget sensitive venues as well as touring productions: indeed, anywhere that you need to distribute your dimmers around your venue. The four channel bar is typically used as a T-bar with wind-up stands, whereas the six channel bar is generally used with hook clamps in truss and on pipes in the theatre.

New console training DVDs available

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:39:12 GMT

Releasing later this month is a new training video, led by ETC console guru Tim Guion: Advanced Programming for the Eos Family of Consoles. This DVD will help experienced Eos® and Ion® programmers become more familiar with their consoles. Guion goes over many of the advanced features available on the boards, and the DVD covers everything from Patching, Playback and Effects to Navigation, Peripherals and Editing.

Ion Fundamentals, Part 2 is also available now. Guion delves further into Ion use with this new DVD, the sequel to the first Ion Fundamentals video. He also hosts a two-part DVD training series on ETC Express™ consoles.

For more information and to find out where you can purchase a copy of any of these videos, visit ETC’s Education Center at www.etcconnect.com/education .

Dreamgirls hits all the right notes with ETC

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:24:07 GMT

The acclaimed revival of the 1981 Broadway hit Dreamgirls opened at the historic Apollo Theater in Harlem on November 22nd, 2009, with high-octane talent, outstanding vocals, flashy costumes, and even flashier lighting. Lighting Designer Ken Billington used ETC equipment to help achieve a spectacular, energetic design in step with the emotion- and excitement-driven musical.

The bold lighting design includes two massive light grids located on either side of the stage, with 108 Source Four fixtures per grid. The grids are able to pivot and be moved on and off stage, and at points during the show, they join together to form a giant wall of light behind the actors.

In order to cut down on the extensive amount of cabling required to control the grids, Billington turned to ETC’s Dimmer Doubling. An ETC Dimmer Doubler allows two lighting fixtures to operate with only one dimmer but function independently as if they each had their own dimmers. Applying this technology to the Dreamgirls’ light walls, Billington could mount one 48-channel and one 12-channel ETC Sensor® dimmer to each grid. That turned the 60 channels of dimming per side into 120 channels, allowing for each of the 108 fixtures to have its own control channel, with six spare channels left over. Billington was able to use the minimum amount of feed cable on each grid, saving several hundred pounds of weight and making it easier and safer to pivot the light walls.

After ending its extended stay at the Apollo in December, Dreamgirls began a nationwide tour that will continue into summer 2010.

Photo by Joan Marcus

While acting in Hamlet, Jude Law decided the ETC Source Four Revolutions® looked like something out of Star Wars

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:24:30 GMT

ETC’s revolutionary moving light, the Source Four Revolution, has been enjoying a short run at New York’s Broadhurst Theater, where lead actor Jude Law decided it looks like a Star Wars character!

Programmer Rob Halliday says: “The fixtures were only a short distance above Jude’s head, and when they were on the reset position, pointing straight down, he thought he was going to bump his head on them. It’s unusual for an actor to notice the moving lights, let alone comment on them, so we were very amused when he started saying they reminded him of something from the Star Wars movies. More importantly, in this incredibly precisely lit show, his understanding of what we were trying to do was remarkable and his positioning was always spot on.”

The show was a transfer of the Donmar Warehouse production of Hamlet, first seen at London’s Wyndham’s Theatre as part of the Donmar’s yearlong West End season. There, the rig used the equipment specified to serve that season’s four shows and included a core of ETC Source Four® fixtures. Says Halliday, “When the show arrived in New York, lighting director Neil Austin decided that he wanted to be able to control the lighting – particularly the head-high crosslight – more precisely, so we added 14 Revolutions with shutter modules to the rig. By replacing conventional Source Fours with Revolutions, we were able to accurately adjust the position and shutter cuts from scene to scene, to contain the lighting to exactly where it needed to be.

“The Revolutions were chosen over other shuttering moving lights because of their low running noise and because the scroller module allows a precise choice of the required colors, rather than the approximations offered by color mixing systems.”

Picture credit: Johan Persson

ETC Mosaic™ show controllers make new Winspear chandelier the toast of Texas opera lovers

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:29:11 GMT

The 50-foot chandelier in the new Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House greets visitors with a constellation of color -- a spectacle of sparkles and hues directed by a pair of ETC Mosaic show controllers. Since the Winspear opened, in October, as part of the AT&T Performing Arts Center, the chandelier has been lauded as “a mass of golden starlight” (KERA-TV) and “downright magical” (Dallas News).

Mike Wood of Mike Wood Consulting LLC and Scott Ingham of Ingham Designs developed and built the illuminated rods and control scheme for the programmable chandelier, based on the concept of architect Foster + Partners. The chandelier is made up of 318 six-foot-long acrylic rods. Each rod is capped with an illuminator head bearing four lighting emitting diodes (LEDs) in red, green, blue, and white to provide a full color spectrum. Each of those 318 heads actually has five individual control channels: one for each color and the fifth to control dimming speed, resulting in 1,590 total channels. “The speed channel enables each head to do its own dimming slowly and smoothly, emulating the incandescent houselights,” explains Wood.

A microprocessor in the head of each of the acrylic rods responds to data transmissions from the two ETC Mosaic show controllers. In view of the number of channels, Mosaic's mapping feature was essential to efficient programming. “Having a processor in every head let us break down the data into little bursts to prevent any interference with the sound system,” notes Wood, “but it would have been horrendous to program them one at a time. We used Mosaic's ability to map it all to a matrix or grid and were very pleased with how fast the programming went. This feature allows you to animate or program over a timeline. We were able to program it very subtly by applying images over the grid and mapping them to individual locations. As a result, the chandelier is always subtly changing colors, with each rod shifting individually. There's always a little bit of life to it. We matched the warm colors of the space and used a warm white to match the white gold leaf of the balcony front.” It can be keyed to the mood of the show – as, for instance, during the run of Philip Glass's Dracula, when it could shine blood-red.

When the house lights dim prior to a show, the chandelier retracts into the ceiling so that just the ends of the rods are visible in a twinkling starfield effect before darkening. “The cable needed to be as thin as possible so it would be invisible to the audience and they'd only see the floating rods of color and light,” explains Wood, who built the prototype illuminator head in his workshop.

The Mosaic controllers are part of an overall ETC lighting package that also includes a Unison® Paradigm house-lighting control system, an Eos® lighting console, Sensor®+ dimmers, and Source Four® fixtures, all mastered by an ETC Net3™ networking backbone. Having seen similarly complex architectural projects run by this show-controller technology before, Wood knew it was going to be a good product for the job. ETC staffers Durrell Ramer (Professional Services) and Chris Price (Applications Engineering) helped customize system details. Robert Degenkolb of JR Clancy was project manager, and Wood's partner Ingham Designs designed and built the LEDs, circuit boards, and electronics.

Photo: Mike Wood

ETC helps Behind the Scenes with iRFR proceeds

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:54:31 GMT

A half year after its introduction, ETC’s iRFR iPhone application is not only powering up ETC lighting consoles, it’s generating much needed financial aid for two great industry support programs. At the LDI 2009 tradeshow in Orlando, ETC CEO Fred Foster presented a check for $6,100 to the Behind the Scenes program, the result of proceeds from the sales of the now-popular iRFR app.

When ETC introduced the iRFR (Radio Focus Remote for iPhone and iPod Touch) this past year, employee Luke Delwiche (ETC Tech Services, London) suggested that the profits be put toward ESTA’s American Behind the Scenes program and its British equivalent Light Relief. (At the PLASA tradeshow in London this September, ETC presented an £1800 ($3000) check to Light Relief.)

In an industry like entertainment technology, many people work from job to job, sometimes in high-risk situations, without continuous health insurance. The Behind the Scene and Light Relief programs recognize that there must be a communal safety net, providing emergency grants and financial support to these industry professionals and friends when they are injured or sick. Corporations like ETC, as well as other organizations and individuals donate funds to these programs in a variety of ways. ETC has been a leading contributor, initiating a challenge grant in 2007.

The ETC iRFR application is purchased through iTunes for iPhones and iPod Touches that people already own – no special hardware or factory-coding required. As they buy the iRFR app from the iTunes store, they designate Behind the Scenes or Light Relief, and the corresponding charity’s logo appears as the iRFR’s start screen. ETC Software Engineer Chris Mizerak developed the user-friendly application.

Photo: ETC CEO Fred Foster presents Behind the Scenes’ Rick Rudolph with a check for $6,100 dollars at LDI 2009, Orlando.

ETC releases Eos v1.8 software

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:03:26 GMT

ETC has released new software for the Eos® family (Eos, Ion® and Element™) of control: v1.8. You can access the Release Note for this upgrade, and download the software for free from the Downloads section of www.etcconnect.com.

ETC’s YouTube channel now includes a video of Eos Product Manager Anne Valentino explaining all the features added in v1.8, which can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgsCxjfEFHs. More information is also available on the Eos and Ion user forums, and in the 1.8 User Supplement.

The upgrade includes the following updates and changes:

Increased output on Ion

Ion is now available in five- and six-universe increments (Ion 2500 and Ion 3000). The Ion RPU is also available with six universes (Ion 3K RPU). Existing Ions and RPUS can be upgraded to these increased outputs.

Mirror mode

When an Eos or Ion device connects to the network, it is possible to "mirror" another device (called the host) on the system. When a device is in mirror mode, the displays that are present on the host are shown in exactly the same format, page and flexichannel state on the mirroring device. Concurrent with this, it will now be possible to connect a PC using the offline software without a client dongle. When this is done, that PC can only operate in mirror mode.

Mirror mode makes it possible to use a PC with offline software or an RVI with Element, operating in mirror mode only.

Fan

Version1.8 also supports a fan function to distribute parameter and timing data. On Eos and Ion, fan is both a command-line function and an encoder function. A number of fan options are provided. Fan in Element is much simpler: it is a command-line function only, always operating in ‘From Start’ channel mode.

Show control

A number of changes have been made to allow easier live editing of time code events.

Dimmer feedback

Several Sensor®-dimmer feedback issues in v1.7 have been resolved in v1.8. We have also implemented dimmer feedback from our German FDX dimming systems.

End-users are encouraged to upgrade to v1.8 at their earliest opportunity. Please remember that any RVIs (Remote Video Interfaces) and RPUs (Remote Processor Units) in use will also need to run the same version of software that the main consoles use.

The Grand Mosque’s lighting design wins two more prominent awards

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:55:26 GMT

Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Mosque (also known as the Grand Mosque) was just awarded two more awards for its lighting design. The ESTA Association named ETC and Martin Professional winners of their prestigious “Rock Our World Awards,” which recognize outstanding, innovative achievements by ESTA members in new products, product applications and projects. The Germany-based Professional Lighting Designers’ Association also presented the Grand Mosque with a Recognition Award for Best New Project. Other awards bestowed on the Grand Mosque in the past have included the IALD Award of Merit, IES Award of Excellence and two Middle East Lighting Design Awards for Project of the Year and Best Public Building Lighting Project.

With lighting designed by Speirs and Major Associates (SaMA), over 1,200 fixtures – including ETC Source Four® luminaires – are controlled by 21 ETC Congo® Light Servers and 15 ETC Unison® processors supplied by Oasis Enterprises. Seventeen custom-built equipment racks and 52 customized dimming racks contain almost 2,300 circuits – Relays, SCR- and ETC Matrix Mk II SineWave dimming – that are controlled via 276 ETCNet3™ DMX/RDM Gateways.

Says ETC Controls Product Manager Sarah Clausen, who was also the lead programmer of the Congo systems on site: “The Grand Mosque project spanned seven years of work across multiple departments and international offices within ETC and in cooperation with Martin Professional, with whom we are honored to share the Rock Our World Award, to achieve the design ideal of Speirs and Major Associates. The end result is a magnificent but subtle effect that stretches the boundaries and technologies of lighting design and is wholly deserving of these awards.”

A five-member panel of judges named the recipients of the ESTA awards at their annual dinner, on Thursday, November 19th, on the eve of the LDI tradeshow. Said panel chair Mike Wood: “The winner might be a product that could change the industry, it could be a remarkable way that someone has used a product, or it could be an entire project which brings together the expertise of many in a single enterprise. It could be anything anyone in this room devises, creates, designs, constructs, installs, or uses. No rules, other than we are proud to be part of the industry that produced it.”

The Professional Lighting Designers’ Association award, which was presented at the conclusion of the Professional Lighting Design Convention in Berlin, recognizes those who have contributed most to the advancement of the field of architectural lighting design. The judges said: “This project incorporates supreme lighting insight and skills. While it respects the building's inherent cultural and religious aspects, it can be celebrated as the best of its kind in aesthetic, meaningful and spiritually overwhelming architectural lighting.”

The lighting for the Grand Mosque has been designed to mimic the phases of the moon, so at a full moon, the building is white, and for the new moon it is blue; every day there is a change. In addition to the color change sequence, ‘clouds’ glide across the building as though they were moving from west to east, clearing from Mecca. This was achieved using a series of building-mounted and totem-mounted rigs 65 feet off the face of the building, from which light is projected.

ETC enters rigging market: Unveils new automated hoist system at LDI 2009

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:56:04 GMT

The LDI tradeshow in November 2009 was another history-making moment for ETC, as we officially announced our entry into an entirely new product market: rigging. ETC unveiled a line of innovative motorized hoists and hoist-control systems for theatrical and architectural use. The product family is called ETC Rigging™, and its first offerings are the fixed-speed ETC Prodigy™ hoist systems and ETC QuickTouch™ controls. (More specific information on the benefits and features of ETC Rigging at www.etcrigging.com, which also offers detailed video and animated illustrations of the products.)

“ETC has always been driven to create products that represent real progress in entertainment technology,” explains ETC CEO Fred Foster. “We have developed this new range of rigging systems with the same spirit of pioneering technological innovation that brought the industry our Source Four spotlights. Our ETC Rigging systems literally and figuratively raise the bar – engineered to set new standards for safety and smart design, while being affordable.”

Experts for almost 35 years in the stage world, with thousands of lighting installations worldwide, ETC has closely scrutinized the state of the art of rigging. Sophisticated technical features such as slack-line detection, status feedback, load cells, and absolute position encoders, are standard – not options – in ETC’s rigging product range. More kinds of venues will now access cutting-edge automated rigging. The range of applications for this first series of ETC Rigging goes from grade schools to high schools, colleges and universities, to houses of worship, community theaters, and TV.

ETC Rigging includes unprecedented innovation in technology – a smaller powerhead, unique cable management system, an innovative compression tube backbone. Prodigy hoists retract compactly into 30 inches of plenum space, fitting into low-ceilinged venues while preserving sightlines and aesthetics. Venues whose architecture could not support other hoist systems can now access motorized rigging: ETC compression-tube technology imposes no additional lateral-load stress on buildings. And new buildings with limited budgets can choose affordable ETC Rigging instead of having to specify expensive catwalks or other structures to gain easy, safe access to their truss and stage equipment.

Known for award-winning control systems in the lighting world, ETC has taken this expertise into the rethinking of better controls for hoist automation, with the result being the powerful, scalable, yet simple to operate ETC QuickTouch series.

ETC is also partnering with the most experienced and qualified rigging installers, supporting them with our project management, customer and technical service, and manufacturing to provide the most complete, safe and economical rigging solutions available.

Story updated on January 14, 2010.

A Passion for Color: Brazil’s Grupo Corpo tours with Selador™LEDs

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:54:54 GMT

The intensely muscular and sensual movements of Brazil’s Grupo Corpo (Body Group) dance company are encased in pure color. Grupo Corpo lighting designer and artistic director Paulo Pederneiras wants everything saturated in color – cyc, floors, legs. Unlike painted backdrops with static lighting, this color has to change dynamically as the choreography itself morphs. The source for this painterly palette of light: ETC’s Selador Series™ Paletta™ LED fixtures.

Known for passionate innovation not only in choreography but also in scenic and lighting design, Grupo Corpo was the first dance company to employ the new Selador Series x7 Color System™ LEDs within their greater lighting rig. They used them in their fall season and have ordered more units for their touring arsenal.

“Using the seven-color Selador LEDs,” states Grupo Corpo’s Web site, “Paulo Pederneiras creates a new scenic spatiality where volume and texture acquire an ‘ethereal materiality’ because they are made of pure light.”

Grupo Corpo is particularly pleased with how the Selador LEDs blend with conventional fixtures, such as their numerous Source Fours. “For people who work with professional lighting, the color mixing that can be achieved with the Seladors is great,” says GC’s Technical Coordinator Gabriel Pederneiras. He also considers the green benefit of LEDs essential: “Energy saving should be important to any production or venue. And ETC has been involved in energy conservation since they made it possible [with the Source Four ellipsoidal spotlight] to substitute a 575-watt lamp for a 1000-watt one – with the same or better quality of light. Selador continues that commitment.” Grupo Corpo are longtime end-users and owners of a full rig of Source Four® ellipsoidals and PARs – as well as ETC SmartPack® touring dimming, and an ETC control console.

One of the company’s mainstay pieces since 1996, a fusion of classical and avant-garde dance and music, “Bach,” had always employed Fresnels with L195 as a backlight. “But once we hung the Selador Paletta LED fixtures on the same pipe,” says Gabriel, “we were so pleased with the light, that we eliminated the Fresnels altogether and now use the LEDs instead.”

In 2010, Grupo Corpo resumes their international touring schedule, taking their Seladors with them to use in their ten-ballet repertoire. Tour stops will include Canada in March, Spain in May, Germany and France in November, as well as the company’s regular Brazilian tour in August.
View YouTube videos of Grupo Corpo’s acclaimed dance piece “Ímã,” which uses Selador lighting fixtures:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_53b0BBvGE

For Grupo Corpo touring dates and in-depth information: www.grupocorpo.com.br

Article was updated January 12, 2010.