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BT Tower, MA 2, Lengthy Wireless


Smiffy

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Hi Guys:

 

Thought some of you Next Genners might like this

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/cbbc/episode/b015qz4s/Blue_Peter_03_10_2011/

 

16 Big Light's

20 Vari Lite VL3500 Washes

Grand MA2 Light

MA 2 iPad Remote

 

LD Was Jonny Milmer from Imagination

Programmer was Tom Wright

Crew Chief was Steve Russel

 

You might be interested to know that the VL3500's lighting the top segment of the tower were running at about 45%, while those lighting the lower segments at about 30% They were plenty bright enough ;)

 

Cheers

 

Smiffy

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Is architectural lighting a big business? What other kind of lighting is there in it?

 

An internet acquaintance works for one of the big architectural lighting firms. I'd say that going from the amount of work that he does (a lot of which seems to be in the Middle East and Asia) that it's a very big business. Pretty much any new building that's architecturally interesting these days has some sort of lighting to show it off after dark.

 

In terms of what get used, he seems to be using more and more LED sources, although various types of discharge lamps also feature heavily. Moving lights aren't massively common, after all the majority of architectural lighting is intended to get left in situ for many, many years and require nothing more than relamping every so often. The BT Tower thing was a special case, as it was only required for a short while. I've seen him post photos of some utterly ridiculous things they've used on projects, including some sort of three-phase powered strobes.

 

A lot of the programming work seems to get done with desks that many BR posters would be familiar with from theatres and other venues (I think he's prone to using a Congo for a lot of his stuff, but don't quote me), although they seem to transfer the programming into some sort of architectural controller afterwards, often a touch-screen affair with a nice user interface for non-technical operators to use.

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Is there not a video somewhere of Patrick W programming the Dome's milennium eve show from the top of Canary Wharf?

 

It always seemed more sensible to me to study architectural lighting design at degree level than any "showbiz" course. Lots more work and a lot better paid. Take a look around your city centre particularly civic centres and work out the ratio of illuminated buildings to theatres. Then think about all the offices and workspaces that need adequate lighting, they don't just bung stuff up and hope.

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Is architectural lighting a big business? What other kind of lighting is there in it?

 

I seem to recall that all those years ago (1990?) when Strand relaunched a version of Tabs as 'Lights' ( I think under Andy Collier) a good deal of the content, even then, was architectural. But was it ever any different? In the early days Strand did a lot of controls for such work - see the Silver Jubilee Tabs.

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What the heck did they do to the theme music??!!

 

I was also rather shocked to find that the presenters both look to be about 12. Wikipedia tells me that one of them is the same age as me, though - which I'm taking as further evidence that it's not be relied on as a source.

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What the heck did they do to the theme music??!!

Blue Peter has just moved to Media City or whatever it's called in Salford, so they obviously decided to do horrible things to the theme tune at the same time.

My kids have just got old enough to enjoy Blue Peter, I haven't watched it since the Simon Groom days, but unlike most kids TV it's actually still quite good. Barney's excitement when they let him set the colours on the ipad controls was classic!!

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