Since 2002, the Luminale festival in the German cities of Frankfurt and Offenbach has accompanied Light + Building, the world’s leading trade fair for light and building services technology, which takes place every two years in Frankfurt am Main. Initiated by Messe Frankfurt as a “bridge from the exhibition grounds to the city”, the public event has since developed into an internationally recognised light and culture festival with over 250,000 visitors. Messe Frankfurt as the organiser holds all trademarks and funds the project office, the promotion of Luminale and a beacon project. Due to Messe Frankfurt’s economic situation, this is not viable for 2022. Therefore, the will not take place in 2022.

Wolfgang Marzin, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Messe Frankfurt, regrets the decision, but sees no other option: “Over the years, Messe Frankfurt has continued to build and expand the Luminale brand together and in the closest conceptual coordination with its partners from the lighting industry, the Central Association of German Electrical and Information Technology Trades, Tourismus- und Congress GmbH and, above all, with the City of Frankfurt. Last year, shortly before the start of the tenth Luminale, the painful decision had to be made to cancel the event due to the pandemic, just like Light + Building. Unfortunately, after one and a half years of the pandemic, Messe Frankfurt is not in the financial position to handle this project. We are forcing cuts and maximum efficiency management in all financial areas in order to secure the liquidity of the company. In 2022, we have to concentrate on our core business – also at the request of the exhibiting lighting industry: And that is the staging of Light + Building.” Marzin continues: “The project office Studio Rekkab has developed a convincing conceptual and sustainable new approach for the Luminale 2020 – namely, away from the classic light festival towards a biennial for light art and urban design with high artistic standards and relevant topics such as light, architecture, technology, ecology and social interaction in the city. In this way, the Luminale differs significantly from other light festivals in terms of quality and has consolidated its international reputation in the scene: Artists from all over the world apply to participate in the Luminale. We will hold on to this unique USP – even if Luminale unfortunately has to stop next year.”

Luminale suits a colourful and diverse city like Frankfurt. With its artistically high-quality programme and intellectual discourse, it is attractive for the people of Frankfurt and makes an important cultural contribution to the people and society. It thrives on the cooperation of many – not least the artists who shape this great festival with great projects, innovative and fascinating light creations, an exciting programme in the festival centre and a lot of commitment. “Nevertheless, we have to face reality,” says Marzin, “we respect the exhibitors’ wish to focus all their energy on resuming the event and fair business. To the same extent, we are aware that Luminale has immense significance for the cities of Frankfurt and Offenbach. We look forward to a Luminale 2024.”

The Maverick Silens 2 Profile doesn’t attract attention to itself because of its sound; the 100-percent convection cooled LED PCB fixture operates in virtual silence. However, the versatile 560W luminaire did make waves recently when it was honored with a 2021 PLASA Award For Innovation.

The only moving fixture (and one of two lighting products) to earn this recognition at the PLASA show, the Maverick Silens 2 Profile was singled out for its “near silent operation,” being  described by the independent panel of judges as “the sound engineer’s favorite light.”

Without making a sound, the Maverick Silens 2 Profile wowed judges with its impressive visual performance, thanks to features like CMY+CTO color mixing with CRI, R9, CQS, and TLCI all between 91 and 97 (depending on the color temperature mixed). Other features that speak volumes about this silent powerhouse of a fixture include a four-blade framing shutter system with rotation, a color wheel, animation wheel, a 10:1 zoom, prism, two frosts, static and rotating gobo wheels and 16-bit dimming with selectable red shift.

“Our entire team is very proud of this honor,” said Michael Brooksbank, managing director of Chauvet Europe. “Silence has always been a goal for everyone involved in lighting theatre, broadcasts, recitals and other applications where absolute quietness is essential. However, no one could be expected to give up performance for the sake of silence. Now, with the Maverick Silens 2 Profile, they don’t have to – they can enjoy the best of both worlds.”

“Helvar is a pioneer in intelligent lighting control for Smart Buildings. Our Brighter Spaces mission reflects spaces that are exceptionally well lit and support people’s wellbeing, creativity and productivity”, says Adel Hattab, CEO of Helvar. “In these smart spaces the data captured by lighting sensors can be refined into insights that benefit different building systems and help them to interact smoothly to make the spaces both people-centric and environmentally sustainable”, says Hattab.

“Helvar has had close co-operation and a long-term involvement with Aalto University. We are delighted to have the possibility to support and invest in the teaching and research development of smart building technology and intelligent buildings with this Helvar100 donation”, comments Hattab. “We are pleased to contribute to the development of the sector, helping to ensure that the industry has access to broad-based experts whose education is centred around the latest research. For us, co-operation with Aalto University is especially relevant for exchanging knowledge around state-of-the-art information technology and for sharing our own expertise and passion in this field. We see this as a good way to support the education of future experts that will develop, research and produce people-centric and sustainable intelligent buildings, something that is aligned with our ambition to increase the wellbeing of people through our intelligent solutions”, says Hattab.

The Aalto University School of Electrical Engineering doctoral programme has been established to expand the teaching and research of intelligent buildings. It aims to train new experts who want to make a difference, and this is achieved by creating a comprehensive understanding of the future opportunities in the field. The doctoral programme to be established with donations is the first in the field in Finland. The role of intelligent buildings will grow further in the breakthroughs brought about by renewable energy and digitalisation. At Aalto, education and research around intelligent buildings focuses on user-centric approaches, autonomous self-learning systems, new operating methods enabled by digitalisation, and the various integrations between building technology, ICT systems, energy networks and transport.

2021 marks Helvar’s 100th year in business. The company is continuing to introduce innovative and futureproof technologies to support its mission of Turning Everyday Places into Brighter Spaces.

Photo by Louise Stickland.

Lighting designer Bas van der Poel from design practice Light Image used Robe’s brand new LEDBeam 350 moving light fixtures for the recording of a new series of German games show “99 – Eine:r schlägt sie alle!” (99 – One Beats Them All!), which was recorded in the Netherlands at the fabulous circular Westergas venue – part of a former gasworks now sustainably reimagined as a popular event and cultural space – in central Amsterdam.

The 32 x LEDBeam 350s – the first to arrive in the Netherlands – were delivered to lighting rental company Eventec which specialises in supplying lighting for the television and broadcast sector by Robe’s Benelux distributor, Controllux.

Eventec works regularly with the show’s production company, Fabiola BV, and was asked to supply lighting and rigging for the series’ three-week shooting period at Westergas. The show action starts with 100 competitors who play a series of crazy games and knockout rounds until only one – the winner – is left standing!

Bas and director Bastien Angemeer discussed initial ideas for lighting, and Bas created the design based on this plus having an adaptable and versatile rig to be able to quickly cover multiple requirements of the fast-paced show and tight recording schedule.

Recorded in the Netherlands, this was a German edition of the show, so key elements included having a fuller and more prominent production that had featured in the Dutch version, and the director also wanted to be able to conceal props and scenic elements at strategic times with clever lighting and a few tricks while other games were being prepared.

All of this appealed to Bas’s sense of visual adventure!

Apart from that, Westergas is a beautifully stark industrial heritage building that was designed by Isaac Gosschalk in the Dutch ‘Neorenaissance’ style which does not need much enhancement. It dates to the 1890s when the original West Gas manufacturing plant opened to serve the western part of the city.

Bas had already produced a kit list for the lighting design when Eventec’s owner Wijnand Mol and operations manager Stefan Bensch mentioned that they expected to have the LEDBeam 350s by that time … and did he want to try them out? Naturally, Bas jumped at the chance of being the first LD in the Netherlands, and indeed Europe, to use this cool new tech on a TV show!

A 20-metre diameter circular truss was installed in the roof space of Westergas mimicking its impressive circumference, and this was surrounded by a series of 21 x ‘arm’ trusses of two different sizes that alternated around the circular shape of the venue, in the space between the truss and the perimeter wall.

The LEDBeam 350s were positioned at the top end – nearer the outside – of each of the 21 x sticks of ‘finger’ truss, with a MegaPointe at the other end, and two Spiiders in the middle.

In addition to these, also on the lighting rig were another 82 Robe fixtures – 40 x Spiiders, 20 x MegaPointes and 22 x ESPRITES – plus other lights.

The Westergas floor had to be kept relatively clear of kit and set allowing the games to be set up, played, and filmed, so the ESPRITES were on trusses hung in the middle of the circular truss and were optimised for key light.

The remaining 11 x LEDBeam 350s were deployed on the floor in different positions … used as punchy and flexible lightsources around the back wall that could be moved to wherever they were needed according to the shots.

It was the first time that Bas had designed lights for this show, although he’s previously worked on several other Fabiola productions.

He was “super-excited” to be using the LEDBeam 350s and well impressed with the brightness and speed of the fixture. “It’s a large space and they are right at the furthest lighting points from the centre of the room, and they throw really nicely and brightly into that area,” he commented whilst on site.

A LEDBeam 150 fan ever since that fixture was launched, Bas has also always liked using the rarer LEDBeam 1000 for front light due to its “excellent soft skin tones.”

He rates the white LED source of the ESPRITES and the fact that the luminaire also has multiple uses, making it a “truly versatile workhorse” fixture and great for television or theatre front lights as well as show effects for multi-camera and festival environments.

A major challenge of lighting “99 – Eine:r schlägt sie alle!” was the speed at which games and shots needed to be set up and recorded. Bas needed to accommodate the director’s wishes and requests quickly and efficiently as they simply didn’t have the time to fart around, so all these Robe fixtures made a perfect combination.

He worked alongside lighting programmer and operator Thijs Benschop also from Light Image using a grandMA2.

Eventec was founded by Wijnand in 2007, and in 2012 the company started investing in Robe moving lights, a process that has continued steadily for the last 9 years as the brand has become well established in the Dutch television sector and Eventec has stayed at the forefront of new and emerging lighting technologies and trends.

With 80% of their turnover in TV world, Eventec has been lucky enough to keep working throughout the pandemic as the sector has been going full steam to meet the massive demand for new entertainment and general TV content.

The ESPRITES were another new addition to Eventec’s inventory in 2020, and the initial order was quickly followed by another one as they were specified like ‘hot cakes’ and they also discovered ESPRITE is great in combination with their RoboSpot remote controlled follow spotting systems!

They now have over 200 of the newest Robe fixtures in rental stock – LEDWash 600+s, BMFL Blades, LEDBeam 150s, LEDWash 300s and MegaPointes, ESPRITES and now the LEDBeam 350s – and are expecting the LEDBeam 350s – like the rest of the kit – to be in constant demand going forward.

L-R: Copper Candle’s Enrique Munoz Jimenez, James Simpson and Andrew Voller celebrate after the PLASA judges recognised the products’ innovative approach to merging gaming technologies into a framework engineered for the live events industry.

Copper Candle, a Creative Technology Business specialising in immersive technologies, has won, not one but, three separate PLASA Innovation Awards during September’s PLASA Show 2021, held at London’s Olympia.

The winning products – Copper Stream, Bone Stream and Cue29 – were chosen by a panel of industry experts and have been created to optimise the real time design, broadcast and audience engagement of live music, theatre shows and events in the virtual environment.

The PLASA Innovation Awards judging panel said: “The Judges have chosen to award a suite of products from this boundary-pushing software developer. They felt the group of products shared the same innovative approach to merging gaming technologies into a framework engineered for the live events industry. The judges believe these products are at the forefront of the move towards virtual production in events.”

Following 18 months of a global pandemic on the live entertainment sector, James Simpson, managing director and Founder of Copper Candle, was thrilled, and reassured, by the outcome of the awards: “Winning industry specific, product awards are critical to the success of curve leading products like ours. If there is a positive outcome from the recent pandemic, it’s that it has revolutionised people’s attitude to virtual technology. For a new start-up like Copper Candle the PLASA Award has provided the respected expert and public validation we need for our products. In turn that drove our future customers to pick up the phone to discuss their own projects!”

Simpson went on to say that the Copper Candle team were astounded and flattered by the support they attracted from visitors to the PLASA Show: “Our industry has had such a tough two years. Even so, people seemed genuinely pleased to see us doing well. We were delighted to find so many industry professionals and colleagues to be interested in our Motion Capture streaming technology, Bone Stream. The product was only recently developed so we submitted it for an award last minute!”

Throughout PLASA people were discussing new uses for the Copper Candle product range that the Copper Candle team confess even they hadn’t thought of. Andrew Voller, Creative Technologist at Copper Candle discusses: “PLASA was an effective way to ascertain how people envision using the Cue29, Copper Stream and Bone Stream plugins for the Unreal engine in their workflows. It was fascinating to hear the future creative applications people are already devising and our plugins will continue to develop as we better understand user workflows in the virtual production arena.”

One of the big challenges that the Copper Candle team has overcome with its products is streaming DMX onto the devices that run the app. The solution was Copper Stream – an optimised form of DMX that can be streamed remotely to devices on wifi or the cloud. Bone Stream came when we realised that the technology we’d created could stream animation data. This enabled producers to include live performers into their apps, alongside remotely operated scenery and lighting, both of which Copper Stream and Cue29 can handle.”

With a focus on four key markets, the Copper Candle products satisfy the needs of the pre-visualisation and design community who want to build and test ideas remotely using real-time engines, the immersive theatre and live experience market, where VR/AR and realtime content is needed, perhaps for story telling experiences or in museums and galleries. Also key is the live events market where real-time content creation for screens and projection is becoming a critical element of more traditional live media workflow. In addition, the virtual production industry emerging in Film and TV increasingly requires Unreal Engine to drive content into LED backdrops and sets for in-camera filming.

The lighting industry needs a systemic change if it is to fully adopt circular principles and practices.

That was the conclusion of a gathering of lighting designers and industry executives in a special webinar on ‘The specifier’s role in the circular economy’ organised by the WEEE compliance body Recolight.

Manufacturers will have to reassess their business models for a time when reuse of products is normalised; designers will have to reconcile the inherent conflicts in creating a high quality interior that’s demountable and reusable; and clients will have to challenge the traditional take-make-waste consumption of building and refurbishment projects.

New business models – such as specialist ‘remanufacturing’ firms which upgrade, test, sell and warranty reused lighting products – will also be created.

Chaired by Ray Molony, head of content at the Build Back Better Awards, the panel included Bob Bohannon, head of policy and academy of the Lighting Industry Federation; Kristina Allison, senior lighting designer at Atkins and chair of the SLL’s education committee; Mark Ridler, head of lighting at BDP; Sophie O’Rourke, Intermediate lighting designer at Nulty+ and founding member of the Green Light Alliance; Bruce Weil, co-owner of the independent practice Lighting Design Studio; and Nigel Harvey, the CEO of Recolight.

Weil said the retail lighting sector especially needed to reconsider its lighting practices.

“It’s a real outlier” he told the audience. “It’s wedded to extremely high illuminance levels and energy use and when we come to offset the carbon in our projects, it’s a real standout.

“As the climate crisis evolves our role as lighting designers will potentially become even more critical but I think we are far from any kind of standardised approach.”

To listen to a replay, head to the Recolight Events Page.

Smart Buildings Show, the dedicated smart buildings event taking place at ExCeL London on 6–7 October 2021, has announced a roster of industry-leading speakers for its 2021 conference.

With a wide array of session topics across all theatres, attendees will be able to learn from and engage with ever-important topics such as energy, connectivity and usability.

One such session includes a presentation from Paul Phillips, Director of International Sales at Turntide Technologies, titled ‘‘Rethink Sustainability: From Cost Center to Growth Driver’’ which will focus on what sustainability means to businesses today.

Also leading the charge in Connected – Spaces & Infrastructure Theatre at 10:00am on day two is Jamie Cameron, Director of Digital Solutions at Johnson Controls, whose session will focus on ‘Tales from the Frontline of Smart Buildings’.

Other speaking sessions include:

• Making Smart Smarter – Brett Spindler, Building Enterprise Solutions, Senior Director, Schneider
• How to Make Buildings Smarter with Location Based Services – Fabio Belloni, Chief Customer Officer & Cofounder, Quuppa
• The Human Connection to an Intelligent Building – Matthew Marson, Global Market Sector Leader – Technology, Arcadis
• Is there a trade-off between healthy buildings and Net Zero Carbon objectives – or can you achieve both? – Mark Tyson, Head of Property Operations, Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) Real Assets

Demand for our industry-leading conference sessions will be high so remember to plan your visit and ensure you don’t miss out!

To find out more and to register for FREE, please visit www.smartbuildingsshow.com.

The 40 under 40 website is now live and open for nominations which will close on 12th November for nominators and 19th November for nominees. Are you are a worthy recipient or do you know someone who deserves an opportunity to be recognised for what they have achieved in lighting so far?

This award used to be part of the Lighting Design Awards which is now no longer running. Filix Lighting who used to sponsor the Award have taken it on and with the help of Light Collective and are looking for the class of 2021. The Award has been running for five years with 200 recipients to date. You can hear from all past winners on the website.
Our esteemed judges for 2021 are as follows:

Paul Traynor – Light Bureau – UK
Regina Santos – Light Fusion – UAE
Elias Cisneros – 333 Luxes – Mexico
Aviva Gunzburg – NDY Light – Australia
Randy Reid – Designing Lighting – USA
Christine Sicangco – Christine Sicangco Lighting Design – Philippines

The 40 under 40 is a unique annual competition to select young and outstanding individuals who work in a creative capacity with the application of lighting in architecture. Nominations are accepted from international candidates under 40 and nominators must cite why they are exceptional. Candidates should be passionate about lighting and display outstanding talent and potential, and have demonstrable achievements in the field.

Winners will be announced in an online event on December 15th.

www.40under40.events

www.filixlighting.com

www.lightcollective.net

More than a decade after they first installed the artistic lighting at the stunning 18^th century Somerset House, A.C. Special Projects (AC-SP) return to the site to perform an upgrade to the vestibule lighting.

Somerset House is London’s working arts centre built on historic foundations around one of the most beautiful courtyards in Europe. Situated at the very heart of the capital, they are home to the UK’s largest creative community.

Welcoming around 3 million visitors a year to public events, creative enterprises, artistic practice and more, Somerset House have for a number of years utilised LED lighting to bring elements of the building and its architecture to life, as well as maximising colour changing capabilities to support specific events.

Mick Figg, Head of Buildings at Somerset House comments; “AC-SP have been looking after the architectural lighting at Somerset House since 2008. This recent vestibule lighting upgrade has been done with the aim to draw in visitors from the strand and act as our main entrance for events. The colour changing element of the fixtures enable us to create a more immersive experience for our guests and really set the scene for events.”

AC-SP supplied and installed over 100 Anolis ArcLink 4 fixtures mounted in IP rated encapsulate tubes for this project, alongside all the cabling. Typical LED battens would have been too large for this installation and become visible, this solution allows the fittings to be installed subtly and not detract from the architecture of the building.

AC-SP’s Project Manager, Chris Little comments; “Somerset House approached us to upgrade and install the fixtures in their vestibule. As one of the first areas visitors see, the lighting here is integral for making good first impressions, therefore, we wanted the fixtures to be fitted discreetly, but also provide a quality output – this is why we installed the Anolis ArcLink 4 – the open beam angle allows for a powerful output and smooth, even coverage of the area. We also installed the cabling discreetly within the ceiling so as not to take away from any of the aesthetics of this beautiful building.”

Mick concluded; “The new fixtures provide a much better output and bring a new lease of life to the Vestibule, especially in the evenings. It is always a pleasure working with the team at AC-SP. The installation of the new fittings and cabling was carried out to the agreed programme and completed to a high standard.”