Barbizon Lighting Blog

Barbizon Charlotte's 5th Annual Lighting Estravaganza a Smashing Success

2012-01-24T13:52:00.001-08:00

A record crowd attended Barbizon Charlotte's 5th annual Lighting Extravaganza at the
University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem. Nearly 160 students and professionals visited Stage 6 to see the latest production equipment from over 25 manufacturers.

Special congratulations goes out to John Bailey of Express A/V and James Goins of UNC Greensboro who were the winners of the I-Pads that were raffled off at the Extravaganza to attendees who visited a majority of the manufacturers stands.

Pictured here is James Goins receiving his iPad already loaded with the Barbizon Electrician's Handbook app.

Thanks to all these manufacturers who exhibited.

2011-12-09T12:59:00.000-08:00

News from Barbizon Lighting Company - Winter 2011

Having trouble viewing this email?Click here

From all of us at Barbizon, we want to wish you a very Happy Holiday Season and thank you for choosing Barbizon as your partner in production. We know there are many choices out there for you to purchase your equipment and expendables from, but we appreciate and value your business and never take it for granted.

We've been busy this year, we've added some handy tools to the website like an online gel cross-reference and remember you can compare all the major manufacturer's gobos side by side to get the exact look you need.

As always, if you have any questions or comments please call or email me at jresnick@barbizon.com.

Have a terrific and safe holiday season from all of us at Barbizon.

Jonathan Resnick - President/CEO
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In This Issue

● Website & App Update

● New Light Initiative

● Project Spotlight

● LDI Show Report

● The Dana Dolly

● UNCSA Lighting Extravaganza

● Capitol LED Showcase

● Florida LED RGBBQ

● 2011 Tradeshows

● Lights Gone Wild!

It's Time For Holiday Gobos

Adding projected effects will enhance any holiday stage, room or event. The holiday-themed gobos (also called patterns or templates) are available in both sleel and glass designs. For added wow-factor you can incorporate a rotator. Click HERE to be linked to our website to checkout holiday gobo selections or call your local office at 866-502-2724

New Team Members

Barbizon is pleased to welcome these new employees:

Stefanie Brewer - Denver

Kathy Fogg - Denver

Karlene Gayle - Florida

Marianne Greco - Chicago

Vasanth Kumar - India

Linsdye Law - Denver

Christine Metgzer - Phoenix

Chris Moore - Denver

Mike Moore - Florida

Chris "Topher" Treviño - Dallas

Thomas Wilkowski - Denver

Welcome to the family!

Barbizon Website and App Updated

We've added and updated some useful tools on the

website and our app! New to the website is a gel

cross-reference between the major gel suppliers. It's clickable from the Barbizon.com front page under the Resources menu. Or just click the image to the right.

Also just in time for LDI we posted a new version of our Electrician's Handbook for iOS and Android. The new version has new tools like working formulas and an offline version of the Gel Cross Reference. If you had it already it should have updated. If you would like to download your very own copy to try it, CLICK HERE.

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Barbizon Launches its New Light Initiative

Barbizon's New Light Initiative aims to work with manufacturers to bring to market the best in energy saving lighting and control products and to build a business model that benefits the customer, the environment and our staff.

At the moment there is a shift in the public view, individuals and companies are exploring ways to reduce energy costs and updating outdated technologies to illuminate their buildings. The concept is simple: generating power costs money and resources, so each bit of energy wasted is bad for your bottom line, whether you're a corporation or an environmentalist. Thankfully, decreasing waste can be as simple as changing a light bulb.

It has been estimated that buildings with inefficient lighting systems contribute 40% of the worlds greenhouse gases. A great deal of this pollution is the result of outdated incandescent technology that has already been banned in some places like California.

Our goal is to provide customers with a range of eco-friendly products which save energy, increase company profits and benefit the environment. To accomplish this Barbizon utilizes our extensive network of agents and partners. We also pride ourselves on the advice and services we provide to suppliers and customers wishing to become more sustainable by ongoing education of our staff and having experts to answer questions when needed. Barbizon's New Light Initiative aims to provide a complete end to end solution. Being 'environmentally friendly' is often misunderstood, however we can help a company address the following issues:

Becoming more 'green' and eco-friendly, through the implementation of various energy saving products
Operating more efficiently and effectively and reduction of the carbon footprint
Saving more energy by operating more efficiently and effectively
Becoming more environmentally friendly by integrating various internal processes into every day business operations such as recycling and waste management of lighting and recyclable production equipment.

Contact your local Barbizon office if you need more information or would like to start a conversation about the best steps to save energy with your current system.

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Project Spotlight: Merrimack Access Television

Background: Merrimack Access Television is a public access cable station serving the local community in Merrimack, NH.

The project was a complete renovation of the selectmen's 39'x39' meeting room. The Drop ceiling height was at 13' with no option for a pipe grid to use conventional fixtures. The Room was being used approximately 35-40 hours a week.

Solution: Jonathan Lipsy of Barbizon Light worked with the station management to determine an appropriate fixture package for their needs that fit within their drop ceiling, but also started a dialog with the local power utility to see if there were any energy efficiency incentives available.

From the local utility's custom incentive application (filled out by Barbizon), along with Jonathan's energy calculations, it was confirmed that Merrimack fulfilled the needed requirements to secure energy incentives. Due to Barbizon's previous experience in securing utility incentives, Merrimack was able to receive an incentive worth over 45% of their total lighting package and was able to cut their studio utility bills by almost 85%!

For more information on this project, or if you would like Barbizon to help you navigate the confusing waters of utility energy efficiency rebates, call your local Barbizon office at 866-502-2724.

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LDI 2011 Show Report Posted

We sent our team out to scour the show floor for all the news from our manufacturer partners and compiled the highlights for you. Whether your interests are the latest in rigging, dimming or LED's you can Click Here to check it out.

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Barbizon Now Carries Dana Dolly

Barbizon is now a dealer for DANA DOLLY. The Dana dolly is a portable camera dolly system that works on basic 1.25" speed rail. Starting at only $599.00 this is a great system to add production value at an affordable price. The link to the video below is the "Rental Kit" which costs $899 as shown. It has very smooth performance, despite using a bit of rough speed rail we found in the warehouse.

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Barbizon Charlotte's UNCSA Lighting Extravaganza Jan 13th
Our Charlotte office is hosting their 4th annual Lighting Extravaganza at the UNCSA campus on Stage 6 January 13th. Over 20 different manufacturers will also he on hand with the latest in production gear. For more information about who will be there and to register online click HERE.

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Barbizon Capitol Sets Date for Jan 24th LED Showcase
Barbizon Capitol comes to George Mason University with the all the current LED technology for hands-on demonstrations.

For more info click HERE.

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Barbizon Florida Sets Date for Jan 26th RGBBQ
What do you get when you have all the latest in solid state lighting along with a gilled lunch, why a RGBBQ of course!

Barbizon Florida has set aside January 26th for their second RGBBQ. Education seminars, and all the latest gear will be in one place for people to check out. For more info click HERE.

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Barbizon on the Road in 2011
Barbizon will be at lots of National and Regional events next year. Once they are all confirmed we will post them to our website. Shows already confirmed are:

PLASA Focus - Austin
USITT
NAB
LDI
INFOCOMM

To see the current list CLICK HERE

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Holiday Lights Gone Wild
All across the nation the yearly holiday lighting arms race had commenced. In the spirit of the season we dug up a new example, This time in HD! This year's pick is from Fort Lauderdale. They have 65K LED lights on the house. Even though LED's are efficient, we bet their electric bill is still pretty high. Click on the image to watch the YouTube Video.

2011-11-07T20:49:00.000-08:00

Where you not able to make it to LDI this year? We had our team scouring the floor looking for the latest and greatest.

Yes that means only one thing... Our show report has been posted.. Check it out here http://www.barbizon.com/show-report.php

Barbizon Selects New General Manager for Barbizon Florida

2011-10-27T06:17:00.000-07:00

TheBarbizon Lighting Company is pleased to announce that Mike Moore will be thenew General Manager to lead the company’s Florida operations. Moore will be responsible for the leadershipof the Barbizon Miramar and Orlando offices.

Moorecomes to Barbizon with 18 years of management and operations experience in theperforming arts and ministry community and joins Barbizon following hisresponsibilities as Director of Operations at the First Congregational Churchof Ossipee in New Hampshire. He previouslywas the Director of Production and Operations at the North Shore Music Centerin Beverly, MA.

“Barbizonis extremely happy to welcome Mike into our family,” remarked Barbizon’sPresident Jonathan Resnick, "Mike is joining the company at a veryexciting time. We know that with his strong background and expertise, he’ll bea tremendous asset - not only to Barbizon Florida, but to Barbizon’s entiremanagement team."

"Barbizonis a company I know and believe in, I was a dedicated customer for manyyears," Moore noted. "I look forward to working with this fine groupof people to oversee the operations of the Florida offices. It’s nice to be inFlorida and to be working for such a respected company that is doing suchexciting work in the entertainment lighting industry."

Moorewill be working out of Barbizon’s Miramar offices and can be reached at954-919-6495 or emailed at mmoore@barbizon.com

Barbizon & Rosco Supply Gel for NYC's 85th Annual Feast Of San Gennaro North Gate Xtra Moenia Art Installation

2011-09-19T14:11:00.001-07:00

If you are in the NYC and have a chance to wander down to Mulberry St. between Houston and Prince St. to the Annual Feast of San Gennaro check out this amazing art installation that uses a whole lot of ROSCO gel.
The pieces were cut by laser and then joined together with rivets. Early in the morning the sun hits the structure and with the breeze blowing it creates shifting patterns and colors on the pavement below.
SoftLAB collaborated with members of The They Co. who currated, organized, and permitted, and all around made the piece possible. The geometry was engineered with Matt Clark at ARUP and all of the building connections were designed by Nathaniel Stanton of CRAFT Engineering.
The piece was produced by Two Bridges and supported by St.Patrick’s Old Cathedral.
The piece will be up until September 25th, 2011 so if you are downtown we hope you get a chance to check out the festival, play a little bocce ball, and let us know what you think about the installation!
Below is a video of it going up from SoftLAB's site.

SAN GENNARO GATEWAY NORTH from SOFTlab on Vimeo.

Live Webcam of Orlando's Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts

2011-09-12T09:14:00.000-07:00

Barbizon Florida is part of the team working on Orlando's Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. We got a great email today of a website that according to the press release allows "local and online communities can put on their hardhats and tune in for themselves to view progress of the Dr. Phillips Center with the installation of the new webcam overlooking the construction site.

Positioned on top of CNL Tower I in downtown Orlando, the webcam provides a wide view of the entire active construction site, allowing users to zoom in on the project’s site activities, which began in June."

It's even got a time-lapse button that speeds through the images.. If you want to check it out the image below is linked to the site.

Barbizon Charlotte Participates in 24 Hours of Booty

2011-08-25T06:47:00.000-07:00

For the 6th year Barbizon Charlotte participated in 24 Hours of Booty – a fundraising event which brings cyclists of all abilities together to raise vital funds for cancer research and survivorship. The official 24 hour cycling event of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, proceeds benefit both the LIVESTRONG Foundation and local, life-changing charities. The 24 Hours of Booty experience represents hope, challenge, remembrance and celebration. This year’s event raised over $1.15 Million.

Charlotte's Myers Park neighborhood is home to the Booty Loop, a popular local 2.97 mile circuit that has a great mixture of hills and flats that challenge riders at every level. At the center of it all is Bootyville, hosted by Queens University at Charlotte, which serves as the event headquarters. Riders set up campsites and canopies where they can eat, sleep, or more importantly, rest and relax with friends off of the bike.

This year’s Barbizon team included Jeff Montgomerie, Esthere and Paul Strom, John Hartness, Lisa Magee and Andrew Fisher.

Barbizon would like to thank the following companies who supported our team: Electronic Theatre Controls, Apollo Design Technology, City Theatrical, Rosco Laboratories, TMB Associates, and W.H. Onley Company.

Francis Ford Coppola's Twixt goes on Live Tour with Isadora

2011-08-12T07:54:00.000-07:00

Repost from: http://www.joblo.com/movie-news/con-francis-ford-coppolas-twixt-and-live-3d-tour

I was a little surprised that Steven Soderbergh came to Comic Con this year, but I’m pretty sure I did a spit take when it was announced that Francis Ford Coppola would also host a panel. The GODFATHER and JACK director brought Hall H a first look at his latest experimental film TWIXT, an original horror tale inspired by one of Coppola’s own dreams. And fittingly for a master filmmaker like himself, Coppola produced one of the most unique and inspiring panels I’ve ever seen at Comic Con.

When guests walked in to Hall H they were promptly handed an Edgar Allan Poe mask. Clearly, this was a mistake meant for yesterday’s RAVEN panel. Except no—Coppola’s film also features the gothic author in an even more unusual way than John Cusack’s action hero Poe. And before long the director took to the stage himself, appreciative for the vast applause but eager to get to work explaining just what the heck Twixt was and why there was so much random equipment on stage.

Turns out the Poe masks were actually super fancy 3D glasses when you put them on, which came in handy as TWIXT is partially a 3D movie. (More on the “partially” later.) Coppola briefly discussed the technology and the film’s genesis and influences, but we were quickly treated to about 5-7 minutes of random footage from throughout the film.

Val Kilmer plays a Stephen King-knockoff author named Hall Baltimore, who barely pays the bills with his series of witch-themed books. He arrives in a small town for a signing, while we’re introduced to the community’s strange history through narration by none other than Tom Waits. It’s a quiet, average town most noticeable for its clock tower with seven faces, each with different times displayed. There was a horrible murder(s) some years back that people don’t like to talk about, which might have something to do with a group of local goth kids, who may or may not be vampires, and their guyliner-clad leader Flamingo. At a signing, the town sherrif (played by Bruce Dern) asks Kilmer to investigate/exploit the murders for a book they can write together. Kilmer is reluctant but after talking with his wife (Kilmer’s former wife Joanne Whalley) and agent (David Paymer) he decides to do it. Soon he’s either having dreams or seeing the dead ghosts of the murdered girl V (SUPER 8’s Elle Fanning) and Edgar Allan Poe, who acts as Kilmer’s spiritual guide as he discovers the secret behind the murder and its seeming connection to his own life.

While that’s the plot we got, the striking visuals and atmosphere conveyed a lot more. Much of the footage was incredibly dreamlike and eerie with the ghosts being presented in black and white with hints of color. Elle Fanning especially looked creepy in a flowing white dress, garish metal braces and heavy red makeup around her eyes. There were lots of other ethereal images that would be hard to describe, but the tone was very unsettling, especially anything narrated by Tom Waits. In fact, it appropriately reminded me of something Poe himself would write. There were also legitimately funny spots thanks to the talented Kilmer’s acerbic persona, especially when his character is struggling to write his book. All added it up, TWIXT looked like an old fashioned mystery wrapped up in one of Coppola’s more recent artistic explorations. But nothing prepared the audience for what he announced yet.

Coppola and underground electronic musician Dan Deacon, who’s providing the score for the film, both quickly discussed the evolution of art and cinema and its current state today. Coppola said that since theater and music have been able to be recorded, it’s lost some of the magic and spontaneity of live performance art. So in a tribute to the days before art was a “canned” commodity for mass consumption, Coppola and Deacon are planning on going on tour before TWIXT opens for a live performance of the film.

Wait, what?

Now that movies are digital, Coppola has the ability to “change the experience to suit the audience” in real time. Using software called Isadora, originally designed to help choreographers coordinate video with dancers, Coppola can actually “perform” TWIXT in front of a live crowd by altering the length or order of the scenes, using alternate takes of dialogue, cutting sequences entirely and more—all with live musical accompaniment by Dan Deacon. Theoretically, Coppola can give you more of what you want. If the audience is reacting well to a scene, he can make it longer. If they clearly hate a character or aren’t into a certain plot point, he can cut some screen time. The experiment is designed so that each performance of the movie will be completely different and a new experience for the audience.

Coppola then treated the excited Hall H audience to the first ever dress rehearsal of the process. Using a technical interface that has various versions of every scene of the movie (meticulously labeled, of course), Coppola began “mixing” the footage we had just watched earlier. And I have to say, the second time around was noticeably different. The new music and alternate takes led to some tonal shifts. A seen where Dern explains to Kilmer one of his wild theories about the muder went from being off-the-wall funny to fairly ominous the second time with added music and some editing. When the audience clearly responded to one scene in particular (Kilmer getting drunk and ad-libbing), Coppola added in more and longer takes to keep everyone laughing. The director also changed the order of certain scenes, which made the plot and character motivations seem almost different, especially given the already dreamlike quality of the material.

I’d like to say that everything went off without a hitch, but like with most dress rehearsals, especially ones involving new technology, there were definitely some glitches. Coppola couldn’t get the software to respond and had to restart the demonstration a few times. His excitement also led to him to want to try new things (“I’m going to push this and see what happens”) which led to us seeing the same scenes about 5 or 6 times in a row, including a “shuffle” version that made zero sense. But the filmmaker’s enthusiasm was infectious and the idea so novel that Coppola never lost the audience at any point during the panel. He, Deacon and Kilmer also had a very good sense of humor when things went wrong. Deacon would yell “The new age of cinema has begun!” when something didn’t work, Coppola resorted to singing the “Nosferatu song” to kill time and even Kilmer jumped in to do some schtick while the other two tried to fix things. Everyone was clearly having fun with it, including the audience.

Other fun tidbits:
- Coppola says he’s always loved 3D from HOUSE OF WAX on, but hates wearing the glasses. His belief is that movies shouldn’t be entirely 3D, only sequences that make sense and would benefit the most from it. He said watched most of AVATAR without the glasses and only put them on when he thought the movie really used it.

-On his return to the genre after 1992’s DRACULA, Coppola said he’s always loved gothic horror and the tradition of gothic romance from Nathaniel Hawthorne, Poe and Robert Louis Stevenson. He learned all about it from his mentor Roger Corman (who made FCC wash his car every week) and read 9 year olds Bram Stoker’s Dracula while working as a camp counselor.

- Some guy asked Val Kilmer a question and slowly held up a sign that said “Will you be my huckleberry?”

-Though his last few films have been low budget “art” films he financed himself, Coppola would like to work with a bigger budget again but would need the same stringent controls he has now. He’s actually working on bigger budget movie right now, claiming he’s getting old and has things he still wants to express with a bigger canvas.

-Bob Stencil asked if Coppola could promise that nobody will ever remake THE GODFATHER, but the director admitted that he doesn’t have control over the rights. He did stress how much he hates remakes because that money could be going to telling new stories. That statement was met by huge applause.

-Music and theater are thousands of years old, while cinema is comparatively still a baby. Coppola believes that the medium still has many more surprises other than 3D in store, stuff our children will invent. 3D is not a magic fix for the industry.

-The dream that inspired Coppola to make TWIXT involved him walking with Edgar Allan Poe through the woods and the director asking the author to “show me the way.” Coppola said that was a good example of how starting a film is asking a question, and finishing it gives you the answer.

Repost: It hertz when you do that – power grid to stop regulating 60 Hz frequency

2011-07-20T08:15:00.000-07:00

This is a repost from the Blog: Watts up with that?

It's interesting to think how the rammifications of this will affect our industry.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/06/25/it-hertz-when-you-do-that-power-grid-to-stop-regulating-60-hz-frequency/

A 60 hertz sine wave, over one cycle (360°).

“Experiment” on the US power grid will change the way some clocks and other equipment function.
Story submitted by Joe Ryan

The AP has released an “exclusive” story concerning the nationwide “experiment” that will be conducted on the US power grid. The experiment will relieve the power providers from the duty of regulating the frequency of power on the line.
Normally the power stations condition their power to a frequency of 60 cycles a second, a frequency that many old clocks use to maintain their time. With the new standard, or lack of standard, these clocks will stop keeping time properly.
But the problem is more than that.
First, we have this gem from Joe McLelland who heads the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (from AP article):

“Is anyone using the grid to keep track of time?” McClelland said. “Let’s see if anyone complains if we eliminate it.”

… forgive me for not getting warm fuzzies from this. Likewise, Demetrios Matsakis, head of the time service department at the U.S. Naval Observatory, had this to say (AP Article again):

“A lot of people are going to have things break and they’re not going to know why,”

So, we have what appears to be an untested, for the hell of it, “experimental” major change to the US electrical grid coming in a few weeks and those in charge aren’t really sure how it will work or if it may break something?

Not only is this what a LAB is for, but it is also something that the Federal Government should be TELLING people about in advance, and not in an AP “exclusive” press release.

Rosco and Barbizon outfit WFTV's Mobile Studio with RoscoView & LitePads

2011-07-18T07:38:00.000-07:00

This is a repost from the Rosco Spectrum Blog

As WFTV, the ABC affiliate in Orlando, began to prepare for their long-haul coverage of the Casey Anthony Trial outside the Orange County Courthouse, they began to think
about how the quality of their newscasts would be much better if they could bring their reporters and anchors in out of the elements - but still have them on location. Their solution was to build a mobile version of their news set in the back of an old production truck that they had once used to shoot their local commercials - and Rosco VIEW and LitePads helped them make it happen.
They had a smaller version of their news set built in the box area of the truck with a window behind the desk so that they could shoot out the back.

As you can see, the problem with shooting out the back is that the bright exterior light blows out the background and doesn’t allow you to see the details of what’s outside. By installing Rosco VIEW in the back of the truck, the WFTV crew can now control the exposure through the window - even as lighting conditions change outside.

Imagine shooting inside a medium sized moving truck and you’ll have a pretty good idea of the cramped quarters of the WFTV mobile studio. In order to light it, they needed a
source that would not only make the talent look good, but would also be easy on the anchors’ eyes and not generate any heat. Rosco LitePad Axioms utilize cool running LEDs and are engineered to emit a soft, glowing, pool of light rather than a retina-searing beam of light as other LED fixtures are apt to do. This makes the talent look good, while making them more comfortable at the same time.
The test run for the WFTV mobile studio was the final launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour. Once WFTV’s operations manager, Dave Sirak, and his crew had the Rosco VIEW and LitePads installed, they invited me to join them at Kennedy Space Center so that I could see the mobile studio and all of its Rosco components in action as they delivered their shuttle launch news coverage. I was so excited! I have wanted to see a shuttle launch since I was 11 years old and now I was also getting a chance to have a first-hand look at how a news team handles the high pressure situation of a shuttle launch…

…getting scrubbed! I’m not going to lie - the mission getting scrubbed with a couple of hours left on the countdown clock was disappointing, but the time I got to spend in Orlando with Dave and his crew was fantastic. What I did get to see first-hand was how the WFTV mobile studio is a perfect example of how Rosco VIEW and LitePads can be used.

The Rosco VIEW System allows easy control of the brightness of a window

Rosco VIEW enables Dave and his crew to change the exposure out the window as the lighting conditions change throughout the day. For example, the camera inside the truck was aimed due east at the countdown clock with the shuttle off in the distance, which meant that the lighting conditions were much different during the morning broadcast than they were at the midday broadcast. Rosco VIEW allowed the crew to change the exposure of the window with a quick rotation of the Rosco VIEW Camera Filter as they shot their various newscasts throughout the day. And, even though the temperature got up into the nineties that day - the LitePads made it much easier to keep the news set inside the mobile studio nice and cool.

LitePad Axioms are a great choice lighting tight locations because they don’t generate heat and they don’t blind the talent.
The mobile studio was a gigantic hit in the media area of the launch site. People from news outlets from around the world kept coming by to see “The Truck” and ask me questions about how to incorporate Rosco VIEW and LitePads into their studios back home.

It was easy to see why the other news outlets would be jealous of Dave’s truck since all of our neighbors in “media-row” were shooting underneath pop-up canopies like this one:

Meanwhile, Dave’s crew was out of the sun, air-conditioned and sheltered from the high winds we experienced that day - making the crew more comfortable, the anchors more presentable and everyone in general was in a much better mood - even though the launch was scrubbed.

A big thanks to Dave Sirak and the WFTV crew for their hospitality during my visit to Orlando

What better way to illustrate to you how well the Rosco VIEW and LitePads work than by showing you a video shot on-board the WFTV mobile studio? Dave Sirak at WFTV was kind enough to shoot some footage of me on their mobile news set, and we’ve added the video to our Rosco YouTube Channel.

LitePads and Rosco VIEW help WFTV shoot their stories where the news happens - and they can do the same for you.

Ever Wonder about Transformers & Sustainable Power Distro?

2011-07-09T13:34:00.001-07:00

We have your guy! We did a three part interview with Andy Topinka of Technical Group Services to explain Sustainable Power Distribution and Harmonics in Transformers.

Barbizon Boston teaches classes at the New England Drama Guild.

2011-06-23T14:21:00.000-07:00

Recently the Technical Services Department participated in the New England Drama Guild finals which were hosted by Andover High School in MA. All of New England was represented by the finalist schools. Barbizon's Boston office presented workshops for the students over the course of the day.

Barbizon's Tracey Coste said about the event, "We felt this was important because, as former high school students in New England, we knew that there weren’t many places to get technical guidance at the high school level. As it turned out, we were correct that this was an area of need. While on site, we were thanked repeatedly for offering a technical option since the students are generally only exposed to the artistic side."

The two workshops offered were:
From Console to Fixture: A Technical Explanation of Lighting Control
This workshop will explain the basics of a lighting system from the console through the wiring and finally out to the fixtures. It will discuss circuits vs. dimmers vs. addresses vs. channels as well as a brief explanation of the data path.

A Practical Approach to Lighting Design
This workshop will introduce people how to use tools such as Angles, Timing, Color and Templates to enhance a performance.

Below are the participating high schools, plus we had representatives from the hosting school, Andover High School, as well:

Plymouth Regional High School – NH
Gilford High School – NH
People’s Academy High School – VT
Milton High School – VT
E.O. Smith High School – CT
Stamford High School – CT
Gorham High School – ME
Yarmouth High School – ME
The Bromfield School – MA
Manchester-Essex Regional High School – MA
North Kingstown High School – RI
Mount Hope High School - RI

Tuesday 6/14: Barbizon Electric LEDs for Film & Video Day

2011-06-07T10:13:00.001-07:00

Orlando Open House During InfoComm

2011-06-06T10:14:00.000-07:00

Barbizon's Electrician's Handbook is Now an App!

2011-03-10T05:10:00.000-08:00

Barbizon Lighting is proud to announce the release of the Barbizon Electrician's Handbook App, giving Entertainment Technicians our coveted little flipbook - now in a native application for the iOS and Android!

Every page, formula, gel and lamp reference you'd find in our printed edition is here, along with a few other goodies as well.

•    Handbook Indexed Navigation
•    References for Electrical Terms, Wire and Cable, Lighting Fixtures, Lamps, Color, Patterns, Pipe, Knots, and More...
•    Page to Page Navigation
•    Pinch/Zoom of Handbook pages
•    Interactive Contacts for All Barbizon Office locations, worldwide
•    Barbizon Torch (for those of you with LED flashes on your device)

ETC releases Eos v1.9.5 software !!

2011-01-17T11:08:00.000-08:00

478MN

ETC is announcing the release of v1.9.5 software for the Eos® family of control (Eos, Ion® and Element™). This much-anticipated software release adds several major functions to Eos and Ion, and new features to the whole family.

The software can be downloaded from either the product pages on ETC’s website or the Downloads page at www.etcconnect.com/downloads.aspx, where you can also find the v1.9.5 manual supplement, which includes the v1.9 and v1.8 supplements as well. Offline software and Client software should be updated at the same time. A series of three videos explaining the new features of v1.9.5 is available on the product pages, or in ETC’s YouTube library at www.youtube.com/etcvideolibrary.

Features for Eos and Ion only:
Virtual Media Server
The Virtual Media Server (sometimes referred to as pixel bit mapping) allows the creation of grids of fixtures, to which static and animated images can be applied, with a variety of manipulation tools. Similar to a media server, desk channels are patched as a server channel or a layer channel. Layer channels may be defined in order to apply stock or user-imported images, or they may be defined for procedural effects.

[If you have been waiting anxiously for the Virtual Media Server feature, please note that there is a second software download: the Eos Family Pixel Mapping Installer. This software allows you to add media content to the console for use with the Virtual Media Server.]

Flash On/Flash Off
Channel intensity flash on/flash off using [Highlight] & [Full] and [Highlight] & [Out] has been added. When this button combination is removed, the channel resumes its previous state.

Flexi-Encoder State
A flexi mode – which is called by pressing [Flexi] and any of the encoder paging buttons – has been added. This suppresses parameter spaces not applicable for the current channel selection.

Cues Release to Last Active Source
In this update, cues released from any fader will return to the last playback that had been in control of the associated channels/parameters, rather than to the content of the cue list on the master playback.

Features for Eos, Ion and Element:
Shielded Submasters
A priority may be assigned to a submaster called “shield.” When a submaster is shielded, the parameters assigned to that submaster are excluded from any live control other than the submaster. They cannot be played back in cues, nor can the user take control of the channel parameters manually. The content of a shielded submaster is automatically made exclusive and can't be controlled by anything other than that submaster, including by manual control.

GM Exempt Channels
Intensities of channels may be set to Grandmaster (GM) Exempt in patch. When set to GM Exempt, the Grandmaster, Blackout, Go to Cue 0, and Rem Dim functions have no impact on the current intensity setting.

Playback Status Display (PSD) Countdown Enabled/Disabled
There is now a setup option to enable or disable active cues dynamically counting down in the playback status display. When set to disabled (the default) the PSD does not count dynamically, but the [Time] button can be depressed to temporarily toggle the view. When set to enabled, the PSD does count down active cues, and the [Time] button can be used to toggle to a static view, showing the recorded timing.

Non-Dim Indicator
A channel level indicator has been added in Live/Blind views when a channel is patched as a non-dim.

Color Picker and Non-Standard LED fixtures
It is now possible to use the color- and gel-picker on “non-standard” LED fixtures (RGBA, RGBW, etc).

Macro Flag to force into Foreground or Background
Macros fired manually, by default, post to the command line. Macros that are run from cue lists, by default, run in the background. A flag can now be applied to the macro in the macro editor to force the macro to always run foreground or background, regardless of how the macro is called.

The return of [Time] [/] for setting intensity upfade and downfade times
It is now possible to use [Time] [n] [/] [n] to set the intensity upfade and downfade times. [Time] [n] [/] [/] modifies just the intensity upfade time.

Manual Master Cue List
It is now possible to set each cue list as a Manual Master. When set as a Manual Master, cues may be triggered manually simply by moving the faders from one end of travel to another. Timing values are scaled according to the timing stored with the cue. It is possible to still trigger cues from timed playback using the Go button. On Eos and Ion, this is a third option to the “fader” mode (Proportional, I-Master and Manual Master) in the Cue List Index. On Element, this is a setup option.

Changes to [Update] [Thru] and the addition of [Update] [+]
It is possible to update a range of cues using [Thru] or [+]. If the leading cue number is not specified, the current cue is assumed ([Update] [Thru] [10] [Enter]).

Macros may be stored with [Enable] or [Disable] flags
It is possible to store macros that force a setup option to enable or disable the associated feature, rather than acting as a toggle state.

Snap facility added to specified parameters
Specific parameters have been set to “snap,” ignoring cue-level fade times. These snap settings can be overridden in two ways. If the user wishes to turn snap off for a parameter or add a snap function to a parameter that isn’t currently snapped, he or she may make a custom version of the fixture profile and enable/disable snap as necessary. For a one-time override, discrete timing may be used (Eos/Ion).

Expansion of the Serial I/O functionality
The serial interface has been improved to allow Eos to send and receive serial strings. Strings may now be sent/received via RS232 ports on the I/O Gateway or over the network via UDP messages.

Congo® and NT™ Show File Import
Import of ASCII files from Congo and NT control systems is now supported.

Channel/Address check mode for the RFR
Channel and Address check mode have been added for the RFR. This is now the default screen for the RFR when engaged.

Barbizon LDI show report

2010-11-11T08:45:00.000-08:00

The Barbizon Lighting LDI 2010 Show Report has been posted. Click on the image above to see what our team saw on the show floor.

Around Atlanta this week?

2010-10-31T16:42:00.000-07:00

Barbizon will be exhibiting at the annual Worship Facilities Expo in Atlanta Wednesday and Thursday Nov 3-5.

Click the image if you need a floor pass!

Barbizon Lighting Company

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

2010-09-27T11:20:00.000-07:00

Looking for a gig? We've got openings..

USITT Young Designer & Technician Awards Nominations Due by 10/15

2010-09-23T14:01:00.000-07:00

Barbizon is a proud sponsor of the USITT YD&T Awards (We've been doing it since 1998!)

Well it's that time of year again when nominations are due. Click the pic and it'll forward you to the USITT site with all the nomination info.

Good Luck!

To Light Or Not To Light - That Is the Question.

2010-08-06T07:04:00.000-07:00

Below is a reprint from this month's HD Video Pro Mag Misinformation column. In it editor Neil Matsumoto discusses why even with more and more sensitive cameras on the market, lighting is still important.

"Because of new HD technology like the RED Mysterium X sensor and HD DSLRs, cinematographers can shoot in low-light settings like never before. Just remember that lighting is still king, and a well-lit movie on a cheap camera will always look better than a poorly lit movie on an expensive one."

"As have cameras, lighting gear and techniques have changed throughout the history of moviemaking. In the silent days of cinema, cinematographers rolled extremely slow filmstocks on large hand-cranked movie cameras. To light interior scenes, the crew had to make do with gigantic arc lamps that took more than one person to move and could easily fry the talent if left focused on them for an extended period of time.

How things have changed. Filmmaker/photographer Vincent Laforet recently shot the short film Nocturne with the new Canon EOS-1D Mark IV, lit only by dingy sodium-vapor street lamps in downtown L.A. Laforet didn’t use a single external light source for the shoot, not even a flashlight. He set the ISO on his 1D Mark IV at 6400 ASA and was blown away by its image quality. For the indie feature The Girlfriend Experience, director/DP Steven Soderbergh lit the entire film with practicals and natural light. He claims to have used one “movie” light for a shot in which he wanted to give his actress an edge light, but now wishes he had “just let it go.”

Will shooting without “movie” lights be a new trend in Hollywood? Hmm, I doubt it, but one thing for sure is that with new HD technology like the RED Mysterium X sensor rated at 800 ASA, the ARRI ALEXA with its 13.5 stops of latitude and ISO settings in the 25,000 range for HD DSLRs, it’s getting to the point where today’s cameras can see in the dark better than the human eye. For filmmakers like Soderbergh and Michael Mann and cinematographers like Emmanuel Lubezki, ASC, AMC, and Jim Denault, ASC, obtaining a “natural”-light look is an aesthetic in itself. But let’s make one thing clear: Shooting in natural light and getting a natural-light look are two separate things. I once intervewed Denault for his work on Maria Full of Grace (2004) and made the observation that he made good use of available light to get a naturalistic look. He immediately corrected me and informed me that the light was available only because he “put it there” and that the natural-light look was appropriate for the story.

Recently, I caught the House episode in which the production team used Canon EOS 5D Mark IIs to capture the season finale of the show. The filmmakers revealed that one of the main reasons they selected the 5Ds was for their ability to shoot in low light (the majority of the episode was shot in a collapsed building). I was blown away by the look of the episode, but for me, what separated the look of the show from most of the work shot with HD DSLRs was the lighting, especially how faces were lit. Since House is a major network television show with primetime players, it’s essential that the actors’ faces be professionally lit so TV audiences can see their performances and, more importantly, their emotions. We also shouldn’t underestimate that the show is shot and lit by a professional camera, lighting and grip crew with probably more than a hundred years of experience under its belt.

The episode just further proves that a well-litmovie shot on an inexpensive consumer camera always will trump a shoddily litmovie shot on a Genesis or 35mm-film camera. Cinematography lighting is first and foremost a craft, but when applied to serve a great story, it’s one of the grandest art forms."

Assistant Project Manager Needed in NYC!

2010-07-30T07:57:00.000-07:00

Barbizon Electric Co., Inc is looking for an Assistant Project Manager who can work within the construction community and coordinate the installation of theatrical lighting and rigging equipment for permanent installations.

Barbizon Electric, the NY division of Barbizon Lighting Company has been providing the entertainment industry with lighting supplies for more than 60 years. The New York City office services customers in Manhattan, Long Island, areas of upstate New York and New Jersey. The Systems Division specializes in installing entertainment lighting and rigging equipment in venues such as professional theatres, television studios, retail stores, schools, universities and themed environments.

Responsibilities include working with customers and manufacturers to execute contract work, coordinate deliveries, layout system designs, review construction documents, track progress and attend/ coordinate job-site meetings.

Required Skills Include:

Strong technical theatre or studio background
Strong interpersonal and conflict resolution skills
Strong verbal and written skills
Strong organizational and multitasking abilities
Computer: Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook and Windows
Valid drivers license

CAD/ Visio skills and construction experience a plus

This is an entry-level position. The perfect candidate for this position would have a background in Theatrical/TV Studio Lighting. Barbizon is an international corporation with a small company atmosphere. A competitive salary and excellent benefits package is available for the right candidate.

Please submit your resume by mail or email to the following:

Jill Pittsley

456 West 55^th Street

New York, NY 10019

jpittsley [at] barbizon.com

ETC Names Barbizon Lighting as Distributor for India

2010-07-26T15:05:00.000-07:00

BANGALORE, India - ETC (Electronic Theatre Controls, Inc.) has named long-time U.S. dealer Barbizon Lighting Company Inc. as its official distributor in India. With its newly-established office here, Barbizon Lighting will support those purchasing ETC products in India with is a sales, service and educational support.

Barbizon is also working with dealers across India to provide information on product lines including ETC Sensor+ dimming, the Eos, Congo and SmartFade families of control consoles, the Unison Paradigm lighting-control line, ETC's Selador Series LEDs, and the existing Source Four line already widely in use in India.

"For more than twenty years, Barbizon and ETC have been working together to serve the lighting industry around the world," said ETC CEO Fred Foster. "It is a natural step to work with Barbizon to provide the same excellent level of service and technology to the lighting industries in India."

"Being one of the first ETC dealers, Barbizon has a proven track record with the ETC line," said Barbizon president Jonathan Resnick. "With our growing customer base in the region, this partnership was a next logical step and a win/win for both companies."

Abhay Shah is the manager of Barbizon India, heading up the Bangalore office. Shah holds a Masters degree in Industrial Engineering and Management from Oklahoma State University, with a specialty in Supply Chain Research.

The Barbizon India office has already supplied ETC lighting equipment and systems to Electrocraft and Kasthuri TV and is handling the specifications and project management for a new educational facility and a convention center.

The Barbizon office in India can be contacted via www.barbizon.in and is located at the following address:

Barbizon Lighting India Pvt. Ltd.

#34, 1st Block, 5th Cross,

Kumara Park West,

Bangalore - 560 020, Karnataka, India

Office: +91-80-23562534

Mobile: +91-9900085324

Can you take your camera battery on a plane??

2010-07-20T08:38:00.000-07:00

Please be advised that due to recent changes in the IATA (International Air Transportation Association) classification of Lithium batteries, the DIONIC 160 is now classified as a 183wh battery. Due to this new classification, and according to transportation regulations, the DIONIC 160 battery now exceeds the maximum watt-hour allowance for a lithium battery and can no longer be transported on commercial airlines.

You can check the label on the rear of the DIONIC 160 battery and see the (Nominal Rating), which is the manufacturers rating of the cell pack. If your battery indicates 183wh, then it falls under this new classification. Older DIONIC 160 batteries which are rated at 160wh can be transported on an airline, with a maximum carry-on allowance of (2) two batteries. (NOTE: Always check with the appropriate airline and shipping carrier for the latest in transporting lithium batteries) If you need a battery which is capable of being transported, we have other options including the new DIONIC HCX (124wh li ion battery) and the HyTRON 140, which has no travel restrictions.

It is recommended that all regulations be reviewed periodically in their entirety for the latest information. For further information see:

US Department of Transportation
http://SafeTravel.dot.gov/whats_new_batteries.html
DOT Battery Brochure updated 9-03-09

IATA
http://www.iata.org
IATA-Lithium Battery Guidance Document updated 9-03-09

US Code of Federal Regulations
http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov

FAA.gov
http://www.faa.gov

All Anton/Bauer lithium ion batteries are declared to have passed the appropriate UN Manual of Tests and Criteria (2003, Sec 38.3, Lithium Batteries (ST/SG/AC.10/11/Rev 4).

Anton/Bauer manufactures the following Lithium Ion Batteries:

Anton Bauer Model	ELC (Equivalent Lithium Content)	UN test ST/SG/AC.10/11/Rev 4 , Part-III, SS 38.3 T1-T8	Shipping Classification/testing required	Special Markings/Packag-ing	Carry-On / Check in Passenger Air ⁽⁶⁾
DIONIC 160	8.0 grams to 25 grams/ 183 Watt hours	Certified passed tests	Class 9 ^{(1) (2)} / YES	YES ⁽²⁾ / YES	Forbidden / Forbidden
DIONIC HCX	Between 8.0 grams to 25 grams/ 124 Watt hours	Certified passed tests	Class 9 ^{(1) (2)} / YES	YES ⁽²⁾ / YES	YES⁽⁶⁾ up to 2/ Forbidden
DIONIC HC	<8> 91 Watt hours	Certified passed tests	Excepted⁽³⁾/ YES ⁽⁴⁾	YES ⁽⁵⁾/ YES ⁽⁵⁾	YES ⁽⁶⁾/ Forbidden
DIONIC 90	<8> 93 Watt hours	Certified passed tests	Excepted⁽³⁾/ YES ⁽⁴⁾	YES ⁽⁵⁾/ YES ⁽⁵⁾	YES ⁽⁶⁾/ Forbidden
ElipZ 10K	<8> 75 Watt hours	Certified passed tests	Excepted⁽³⁾/ YES ⁽⁴⁾	YES ⁽⁵⁾/ YES ⁽⁵⁾	YES⁽⁶⁾/ Forbidden

FOOTNOTES:

US continental is excepted 49 CFR (Hazardous Material Regulations ) ss 173.185;
Effective October 1, 2008 Special Provisions 189 of 49 CFR (Hazardous Material Regulations ) batteries must ship Class 9 Hazardous materials unless transported by motor vehicle or rail car.
ICAO/IATA Packing Instruction 965 and US 49 CFR (Hazardous Material Regulations ) ss 173.185
US DOT effective Oct 1, 2009 mandatory UN Manual of Tests and Criteria testing (IATA/IC already effective. Batteries that pass UN tests are accepted.
Special Provision 188 of 49 CFR Hazardous Material Regulations Effective Oct 1, 2008
All Carry-On/Check-in passenger air rules should be verified at time of travel with your specific carrier.

Martin Roadshow Coming to Barbizon Capitol

2010-07-16T05:06:00.001-07:00

The Martin Roadshow is stopping of at our Washington, DC office, Barbizon Capitol on Friday, July 23rd from 10am to 4pm. Stop y to see some of the latest lighting products that Martin has to offer. You can RSVP for the event through Facebook or by emailing the Capitol office at capitol@barbizon.com. See the official invite here.

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

2010-07-15T07:05:00.000-07:00

We've added a few new opportunities to our job openings page.

Right now we are looking for peeps in NYC, Washington DC, Charlotte, & Denver.

More info here! http://ht.ly/2bSFc

How are lightbulbs like potato chips?

2010-06-30T08:38:00.001-07:00

Yup - that's what we said..

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has created a label, a lot like the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Nutrition Facts label, to be placed on lightbulbs starting in mid 2011 to help consumers decide which bulb is most adequate for their particular lighting application.

"The Lighting Facts label will indicate the lightbulb's wattage, brightness (lumens), light appearance (on a warm to cool scale), estimated annual energy cost and estimated life expectancy. These labels will be placed on the back of lightbulb packages and will "emphasize the brightness of bulbs" on the front of the package instead of "the current wattage information that's now prominently featured."

More info @ DailyTech

ETC releases updated iRFR application, with special features for iPad!

2010-06-25T07:00:00.000-07:00

From the ETC Press Release today:

Available now on iTunes, software update v1.1.33 for the iRFR application has a number of new features, with several specifically designed for the Apple iPad.

When running the iRFR application on an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, new features include a Cue Playback Display, which offers playback controls of the master cue list, and shows the current cue and dynamic duration, as well as several previous and pending cues.

A similar tool, the Cue List Display, provides the same information, but doesn’t have playback controls. This display is ideal for designers during previews who want to keep track of the cue status, but want to make sure they don’t hit the Go button by mistake! When this feature is used on an iPad, it is also possible for designers to make notes on a per-cue basis. Those notes can then be copied and pasted into an email for distribution. This feature was designed after watching designers monitor playback with their iPhone and then have to put the iPhone aside to make handwritten notes.

An additional new feature is a Pan/Tilt display that provides ETC axis controls on the Eos® product line. Also, a new Encoder Display – only on the iPad – allows users to create a page of encoders, which can be moved and resized as desired using standard Apple navigation techniques.

Finally, the new Console Connect List creates a list of different consoles to connect to. This is ideal for users with multiple control consoles or who work in different venues. Once the IP address of the device is entered, this can be stored along with a console name, enabling fast switching from one device to another.

These features are all available for ETC’s Eos, Ion® and Element™ control consoles. They will be added to Congo® and Congo jr consoles with a new Congo software update in the future.

As a reminder, all profits from iRFR application purchases are put toward ESTA’s Behind the Scenes program in North America and its British equivalent Light Relief. These programs provide emergency grants and financial support to industry professionals who are injured or sick. To date, the iRFR application has brought in thousands of dollars of support for Behind the Scenes and Light Relief.

Brightline's new i-Series LED Video Monitor Light

2010-06-07T17:28:00.000-07:00

Here's something that's been missing... Brightline is releasing their new i-Series LED Monitor light.

It's LED so it's cool to the touch, designed to make it easy to look your best on camera, allowing individuals to conference remotely without sacrificing critical visual details. According to their literature "many non–verbal nuances of facial expression and eye contact are critical to effective communications. The i-Series enhances visual clarity, thereby increasing the readable content within a video image and raising the engagement level of participants in the conference.

It comes in sizes from 16" up to a double stack 48". We'll get some pictures and ballpark pricing from the show floor later this week.

Barbizon, Rosco Labs & SeaChanger @ InfoComm this week!

2010-06-06T08:25:00.001-07:00

Barbizon Capitol Host AvoTraining May 27 & 28

2010-05-24T06:59:00.001-07:00

RSVP for AvoTraining to capitol@barbizon.com

Apollo Big City Bash in Washington D.C. Thurs June 3

2010-05-21T10:26:00.001-07:00

Join Barbizon Capitol at Apollo Designs Big City Bash, Washington, D.C.

Join Apollo Design

On Thursday, June 3rd, Apollo Design will be hosting their Big City Bash in Washington, D.C. Join members of the Barbizon Capitol staff while we explore and get a hands-on demonstration of Apollo's 2010 product lineup such as their new Spotlight Architectural Fixtures, Multiform LEDs, and the Smart Color PRO.

When

Thursday, June 3rd
11am to 7pm

Finger Food/Beverages, including beer & wine after 4 p.m., will be provided.

Where

Crowne Plaza Hotel
Chesapeake Room
8777 Georgia Avenue
Silver Spring, MD 20910

Map to the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

RSVP for the Apollo Design Big City Bash Washington, D.C.
Visit Apollo Design's web site to RSVP

In Denver May 18 &19 - Check out our LED Demo Days

2010-05-11T11:55:00.000-07:00

NAB 2010 Wrap Info

2010-04-15T18:54:00.000-07:00

It was quiet at the hall today. Lot's of visits from other exhibitors trying to make the best of the last 5 hours of the show. We did see some old friends who purposely came today to avoid the crowds. There were also bargain hunters with carnie rolls of $100's seeing what they could convince exhibitors to sell so they didn't have to ship it home.

The scoop is that attendance was up from last year. This year was around 88K, so people are coming out again.

Barbizon's team is feverishly working on their show report assignments and we will start to compile them next week for posting. We will post the link here when it's done!

If you stopped by thanks and we will be in touch with you soon with the info you requested.

For those of you who were unable to come and you've seen something that interests you email us @ inquiry (at) barbizon.com and we can route it to the appropriate office.

More soon!

NAB 2010 - Wednesday Day Three

2010-04-14T21:29:00.001-07:00

Three days in the desert.. Legs weary, lips chapped, but we press on to see all the things that can be seen at this year's show.

Cool things of note today: ProPrompter - So it's been a week and a half since the iPad came out and these guys have already made it into a teleprompter. They also have a baby version or iTouch/Phone for mini cameras.. Pretty neat.

Now this is handy for everyone. Lots of us use Rip-Ties for cables, but traveling a lot I find my iphone and various USB cables get tangled and need managing. Well there's now a velcro tie for that. Rip-Tie Mini!

They also have new attachments for regular cables, using buckles and easy snap-ons.

Phrygian Gordium would be proud.

There's LED's everywhere and in the show report we will be telling you about all of them... New ones include: DeSisti, Videssence, Gekko, Arri, and we're just scratching the surface.

So I ran across this audio company from Sandwich Illinois named JK Audio. They do a lot of radio stuff so they really have not been on the radar. But they have a widget that I think the production community is going to love. It's a Bluetooth adapter for intercom beltpacks. Plug this unit into the headset jack and you can pair it with a cell phone or any bluetooth headset. Ok.. that's clever. Now you'll want to make sure your headset has a mute.. and you'll be able to see the call button - but even with those little wrinkles it's a pretty darn cool idea.

I was hanging out at the SeaChanger booth checking out the interviews that Jim from Jim on Light and Justin from iSquint bathed in light from the new NEMO fixtures that use the Luxim's LIFI plasma lamp source.. and heard that hopefully in time for LDI in October they are working on a big brother for the Color Bug. Here's some hints, Light Level, Color temp &.... CRI measurement.

Bring it! It will make testing all these LED's that keep coming along a lot easier!

Ok - it's been a long day.. need to sleep.

NAB Day Two - the beat goes on.

2010-04-13T19:31:00.000-07:00

Day two wrapped an hour and a half ago and it was just as busy as yesterday. There's a lot of people in town to see the latest and greatest production gear.
Today we saw a few really cool things of note:
First is Zylight's new variable frost panel. it's a flexible panel with LCD's sandwiched between the panels. An electric charge is introduced and it goes from frosted to clear. Pretty cool. The 2x2 is expected to be in the $400 ballpark range and the 4x4 is in the $1200 range... but final pricing has not been set. All in all pretty cool. BTW the interesting audio track is compliments of an attendee looking at it the same time as us.

Another slick unit was the new Light Panels SolaENG camera top light.

Size: 4”x4”x5”
Weight: 10 ounces
Fresnel lens: 3 inch
Power: 30W (equiv. to 250W tungsten)
Power Requirement: 10-20VDC (traditional ENG batteries)
Via 2-Pin D-Tap power cable

They are saying around $600 list. I am curious about the molded exterior and how they are venting heat but there is a lot of light coming out of this unit. Equiv of 250W tungsten??? I am skeptical, but still pretty darn bright.

Kata introduced 3 new innovative collections which embody all of Kata's well known and valued attributes, but in addition now pledge to be the lightest most protective photo/video bags. In the new lineup you will find a combination of cutting edge technologies and materials such as: specially formed foam encased spring steel Spine Guard for ultimate structural protection, light yet durable RipStop fabrics & meshes, Aeriform foams and Spider Webbing straps, which join together to provide State Of The Art products which embody the ultimate essences of Lightweight Protection.

Matthews also has put their grip gear in the shrinking machine and released the Micro Grip line.. Here's a pic of Ed demo'ing it on their site. You can see the whole video HERE

It's a great way to move camera lights off axis so your talent doesn't get the deer in the headlights look.

We'll have more info from our team tomorrow and remember if you are here in town Weds will be the last day for the mini classes with Jim Sippel and John Gates in our booth. Here are the times an topics.

John Gates:
Illuminating Info on LEDs in 30 Minutes - 10:30AM
Three Keys to ChromaKey - 2:30PM

Jim Sippel:
Hands-On Lighting for Video Shoots - 12:30PM
Lighting Set-ups Using HMIs - 4:30PM

Remember we'll have the show report posted soon after the show - links here and on the website.

NAB 2010 Day one - In the can

2010-04-12T22:53:00.000-07:00

It was pretty busy around the floor today. We spoke to the NAB staff and attendance is up from last year for day one and - hopefully - if the registration numbers hold true for the rest of the show!

Holy cow there is a lot of cool things out.. from a cursory glance around the floor here are some highlights.. more info and pics coming soon.

Kata bags has redesigned their bags to be lighter weight but still just as protective
ProPrompter has an adapter for the iPad to make it into a teleprompter, either stand-up or on a camera.
Videssence's new LED fixtures are really bright and efficient.
Zylight has a flexible screen for in front of their IS3 panel or a 2' sq panel that has an adjustible frost from clear to full frost using LCD's.

We have our booth meeting in the morning and our team will discuss all the cool things and I'll run around and get images to post.

More soon!

NAB 2010 Opens tomorrow morning

2010-04-11T20:28:00.000-07:00

When we left the hall this afternoon crates were being removed, fingerprints polished from cases. Yes in addition to the considerable amount of pollen, the smell of NAB is in the air.

There's lots of goodies this year. Manufacturers came by with tidbits of cool gear they plan to show and in the next few days we'll highlight it here. LED's abound, there's great use of the LIFI plasma lamp, and there's a lot of other cool things for the DSLR video crowd we've seen.

We're ready to go - Barbizon is in booth 5048 and we'll have presentations by Jim Sippel and Jon Gates through Wednesday. The schedule is:

John Gates:
Illuminating Info on LEDs in 30 Minutes - 10:30AM
Three Keys to ChromaKey - 2:30PM

Jim Sippel:
Hands-On Lighting for Video Shoots - 12:30PM
Lighting Set-ups Using HMIs - 4:30PM

We hope to see you!

Kansas City Here We Come!

2010-03-28T17:36:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow morning we'll begin the load-in for the annual USITT Stage Expo. This year we are headed to Kansas City to Bartle Hall.

The show is earlier this year because of Easter and Passover. Stage Expo days are Weds, Thurs, & Fri. We'll be in booth 530 so be sure to stop by.

If you don't have your floor pass yet you will need to register onsite. They are still free, but you need to remember to use the complimentary stage expo code: BLC530

We are also sponsoring the recording and web broadcast of the Jennifer Tipton Super Session on Friday 4/2 from 9:15 - 10:45 a.m. So if you are not here you will be able to see it live on the internet.

Blast from the Past

2010-03-27T08:40:00.000-07:00

A customer brought this in to our New York office this week. He has been buying from us for over 50

years!

Check out the date of the catalog - it even has the original Barbizon address on the biz card.

Amazing.

SETC 2010 - It's A Warp

2010-03-21T09:24:00.001-07:00

SETC was just a couple weeks ago in Lexington Kentucky and Barbizon Lighting Company was there! SETC or the Southeast Theatre Conference is one of our favorite trade shows and events of the year. Each year brings new bright eyed lighting and design students as well as old and dear friends and customers to the annual conference in the Southeast part of the states.

In our booth we had a plethora of control and LED options on display and available for demo. Stating off with the higher end of control, we had the grandMA 2 Full Size desk on display connected to the grandMA 2 3D visualizer showing off some advanced control options an moving light training. Also connected to the grandMA 2 was Vari-Lite's latest product, the VLX LED wash light. On the opposite side of our booth, we demoed ETC's Element lighting desk which was connected to a couple of Altman's Specta Cyc LED fixtures and ETC Selador LED fixtures. Something else that we had on display is a new white LED fixture that is still in prototype from The Light Source. While we would love to mention more about it here, it is still in development and is expected to be released in the very near future. Keep your eyes open for more information soon.

SETC kicked off Wednesday night with the Annual Tech Mixer which was sponsored by Tom Cat Truss this year. The tech mixer gives students a chance to meet their fellow tech and design students as well as educators and manufacturers attending the show. During the course of the Mixer almost all of the exhibitors at SETC donated give aways to lucky winners. Babizon was honored to be included by giving away one of the best and industry favorite lighting tools, the Ratcheting Light Wrench, a $40 dollar value!

One of our favorite sessions at SETC had to be Kenton Yeager from University of Tennessee Knowxville's Light Lab Demo and Workshop which was being held right outside of the exhibit hall. Kenton worked closely with our Charlotte office to spec and build a 1/6 model and working "theatre" light lab to demonstrate different lighting angles and color choices as well as including different technologies such as LEDs and even miniature moving lights. Students and educators learned about how Mr. Yeager constructed and organized the lighting lab and the benefits of having and using a scaled light lab during the design process.

On Thursday and Friday night, Barbizon hosted a reception in our suite at the Hilton Hotel to say thank you to our valued customers and manufacturers for their years of support. Our reception was well attend and gave everyone a chance to mingle, talk exchange ideas before heading off to dinner. It was a real treat to see old and new friends as well as meet some of the up and coming students in the lighting and design industry.

SETC Tech Mixer

2010-03-04T04:51:00.000-08:00

Last night was the Tech Mixer hosted by Tomcat Truss. Altman provided some illumination to the party by lighting the room with a couple of Specta Par's and Specta Cyc LED fixtures. If you don't know what the Tech Mixer is, it is a chance for all of the "techies" at the show, no matter what age or level of profession they are at, to get together, have a drink, a bit to eat and talk. This is the second annual Tech Mixer and it just keeps getting better and better every year. Here are some of the photos that we snagged from last night.

Barbizon @ SETC

2010-03-03T13:43:00.001-08:00

This week, Barbizon is exhibiting at the Southeastern Theatre Convention, (SETC) in Lexington, KY. The convention runs from tomorrow, March 4th through March 6th in the Heritage Hall of the Lexington Convention Center.

Today was the load in for exhibitors and getting our booth setup and ready for tomorrow morning. Pictured above is our Barbizon Booth taking a nap and preparing for the next three days. We'll have more photos and coverage of the SETC Convention right here on our blog as well as up-to-minute happenings on the show floor from our twitter feed, @Barbizon.

Tonight brings us the Tech Mixer hosted by Tom Cat Truss starting at 8pm.

Burn out: Weak links affect High Brightness LED lifetime

2010-02-23T14:00:00.000-08:00

An interesting article about weak links in LED lighting and how it can drastically lower life expectancy.

http://www.edn.com/leds/article/ca6718478.html?nid=2321&rid=16221133

Burn out: Weak links affect HB-LED lifetime
By Margery Conner, Technical Editor -- 2/18/2010
EDN
AT A GLANCE
Properly chosen capacitors can support the long life and reliability that SSL (solid-state-lighting) products require.
Heat is the main culprit in decreasing capacitor life.
Aluminum electrolytic, ceramic, and film capacitors all have their place in HB-LED (high-brightness-light-emitting-diode)-driver designs.
Sidebars:
LED-array size determines drivers’ output voltage
LED Workshop covers LED reliability, driver design
The trendy nature of consumer electronics and the rapid advances in IC features and capacity have led to a culture of products that need not outlast the next wave of devices: When an iPod or a cell phone fails after a year or two, many consumers are willing to dispose of it and buy the next version with its cool new features (Reference 1). However, electronics are finding their way into not only solid-state lighting but also automobiles, home appliances, and energy management and monitoring, and for these applications customers expect lifetimes of 10 years and beyond. Not all electronic components are unreliable. It’s difficult to think that a microprocessor would simply wear out, for example. Nevertheless, a designer’s poor choice or poor layout of the other components that surround a microprocessor, including capacitors and the PCB (printed-circuit board), can cause these components to overheat and ultimately fail.
Lighting products have historically been reliable, but as electronics-rich CFLs (compact fluorescent lights) began to replace incandescent bulbs, consumers began seeing the products’ early failures. In some cases, these failures resulted from poor product selections. CFLs are not a good choice for lights that users frequently turn on and off, such as those in a closet. CFLs also require proper airflow, which they may not get in a downward-facing light fixture. Other failures are due to low-quality lights in the product design, the components in the design, or the units’ assembly methods. The electronics components surrounding the fluorescent tubes rather than the tubes themselves are often the culprits that cause these failures. As residential, commercial, and industrial lighting begins to incorporate HB-LED (high-brightness-light-emitting-diode)-based SSL (solid-state lighting), will SSL be similarly prone to short lifetimes and reliability problems?
Product lifetime and product reliability are different things. “Lifetime” refers to the length of time an end user can expect a product to work, whereas “reliability” refers to how many products per thousand a user can expect to fail in normal use during their expected lifetime. HB-LED-device manufacturers often quote lifetimes of 50,000 hours or more for the devices (Reference 2). However, specifying lifetimes for HB-LED-based lights is more complicated than using the lifetime for an HB LED because the lighting unit comprises an LED driver—a power supply whose lifetime and reliability vary based on its internal components. Capacitors usually have shorter specified lifetimes than the other components in the driver circuit.
“People see capacitors as being the Achilles’ heel of SSL,” says Geof Potter, a power technologist at Texas Instruments. “But a nonsolid electrolytic capacitor can have the same lifetime as the components it’s supporting if the designer chooses the right capacitor.” According to Potter, the most important factor affecting the lifetime of electronic products in general and capacitors specifically is heat, including both the temperature extremes the product will experience during its life and the device’s operating temperature.
An HB LED and its driver determine the lifetime of an SSL. HB LEDs have two wear-out mechanisms: the encapsulant, which begins to discolor over time and the application of heat, and the current through the LED. After a certain amount of current goes through any diode, the diode becomes less able to convert electrons to photons, causing the LED to grow dimmer rather than simply burn out. Lumen maintenance is a number that defines end of life for an LED and generally is L70, which means that the LED is emitting 70% of the light it did at its maximum output when it was new.
The main wear-out mechanisms for drivers are the aging of the electrolytic, the solder joints, and the optional optoisolator. The electrolytic in the electrolytic capacitor ages due to the chemical reaction that takes place as the capacitor charges and discharges. This aging accelerates with heat; however, it’s a misconception that electrolytic capacitors dry out, which would happen only if you opened the capacitor’s vent. Although the chemical reaction in a driver differs from that of a battery, their aging processes are similar.
Electrolytic capacitors, which in LED drivers are usually nonsolid aluminum electrolytic capacitors, don’t have fixed lifetimes. Spec sheets for aluminum electrolytic capacitors typically quote temperatures of, for example, 85, 105, and 125°C. However, electrolytic capacitors experience internal heat that you must also factor in when selecting their temperature range. Ambient temperature and internal power dissipation cause internal heating in aluminum electrolytic. The heat from the application’s environment and radiated heat from the other components surrounding the capacitor affect ambient temperature. Ripple current causes internal power dissipation, according to the equation P_D=I_R²×ESR (equivalent series resistance), where P_D is dissipated power and I_R is the ripple current. Ripple current contributes to the temperature rise in the capacitor’s core. The size of the capacitor and inductor on the output of the LED driver determines the ripple current. Make sure that the capacitor can support the ripple current and still maintain its rated internal temperature.
Cost is also a factor in selecting the temperature range for aluminum electrolytics. Although 85°C is a standard temperature, it can’t support a long life for SSLs in any but the most benign temperature applications, such as small indoor lamps with sizable heat sinks. Devices that can withstand temperatures of 100 and 125°C are usually necessary for outdoor applications, such as streetlights.
Aluminum electrolytics’ high CV (capacitance-voltage) number usually dictates the choice of aluminum electrolytic capacitors rather than, say, ceramic or film capacitors. Electrolytic devices are often the best choice for designs that need high capacitance and high voltage. Ceramic capacitors are making progress, however, due to recently increased voltage ratings. As a result, some ceramic units can work in LED-lighting designs (Reference 3). Note that you must derate the voltage by half with these units. If the highest voltage you anticipate is 50V, use at least a 100V capacitor. Many SSL applications require high-voltage capacitors, and most ac/dc drivers require an aluminum electrolytic capacitor on the input ac side. For example, parking-lot lighting and streetlights usually run at higher voltages, such as three-phase 308V ac or single-phase 240V ac, requiring 400 to 600V capacitors. However, ceramic capacitors sometimes work well on the output side of the driver, in which the number of LEDs in series in an array determines the output (see sidebar “LED-array size determines drivers’ output voltage”).
MLCCs (multilayer ceramic capacitors) have excellent high-frequency noise characteristics and do well on the output-dc filtering, in which they filter out the high-frequency PWM (pulse-width-modulated) noise. However, ceramic capacitors typically fail due to mechanical stress, according to Jerry Zheng, vice president of technology marketing at iWatt. “I tell customers not to go smaller than the 0805 [the package size of a surface-mount device],” he says. “The mechanical stress of a solder joint will easily cause damage. Most ceramic capacitors fail due to handling and soldering.”
Several manufacturers in the capacitor industry have introduced compliant lead packages that resist cracking. Ron Demcko, application engineering manager at AVX, describes the package as a tin-finished termination with a sublayer comprising a conductive epoxy that allows for some degree of compressibility or compliance in thermal expansion or physical force. These parts cost about 10% more than those in other packages. No matter what size case you use, though, failure due to cracking always increases if you use hand-assembled parts.
Read more In-Depth TechnicalFeatures
Heat again is a culprit in decreasing lifetimes of solder joints, and the most common causes of their failure are heat excursions. TI’s Potter says that HB-LED luminaires should contain as few solder joints as possible to maintain reliability and lengthen their lifetimes. Using fewer solder joints requires more integration of functions and components, and high-end, expensive luminaires often require this level of integration. However, for SSL to catch on in high volume, consumer-grade lighting, such as replacements for 60W incandescent bulbs, the lights must be inexpensive. The cost issue probably will require Chinese manufacturing. Chinese manufacturers produce most of today’s incandescent and CFL bulbs, and they usually choose hand assembly, which produces lower-quality devices than the manufacturers can produce if they choose mechanized assembly (Figure 1).
LED drivers can also use film capacitors, which are expensive but reliable. Consumers have been complaining about EMI (electromagnetic interference) from CFLs, so designers must be vigilant about suppressing EMI noise in the PWM section of LED drivers. Film capacitors, with their excellent high-frequency response, are a good—albeit expensive—choice in high-frequency noise filters.
Optional optoisolators are other wearout mechanisms. These components provide an economical form of isolation but are subject to aging, which heat accelerates. According to iWatt’s Zheng, the US Department of Energy’s Energy Star program does not mandate the use of either isolated or nonisolated LED drivers for offline LED lamps. However, LED-lamp manufacturers often use a metal heat sink for SSLs, which requires an isolated LED driver or an insulated heat sink to protect the user from coming into contact with the mains voltage through the heat sink. Adding insulation can reduce the effectiveness of the heat sink because the heat sink does not mate directly to the heat-generating LEDs. Moreover, if the heat sink is floating—that is, not electrically grounded—then it can radiate RF noise, resulting in high EMI. As such, nonisolated-LED-driver design can complicate safety and thermal management and EMI control.
One alternative to using an optoisolator is to perform the power conversion on the primary side so that there’s no need for secondary-side feedback to the primary side. The heat sink can thermally mate to the LED’s substrate on the low-voltage secondary side, and you can also ground it to reduce EMI. “Isolated LED drivers can in effect improve thermal efficiency, reduce EMI, and reduce the cost and complexity of LED-lamp designs that use heat sinks,” says Zheng.
If you use a transformer to isolate the LED driver, then the heat sink can thermally mate to the LED’s substrate on the low-voltage secondary side, and you can also ground it to reduce EMI. “Isolated LED drivers can in effect improve thermal efficiency, reduce EMI, and reduce the cost and complexity of LED-lamp designs that use heat sink,” says Zheng (Reference 4).
For More Information
Avnet Electronics Marketing
www.em.avnet.com AVX
www.avx.com Cree
www.cree.com
iWatt
www.iwatt.com Philips Lumileds
www.philipslumileds.com Seoul Semiconductor
www.seoulsemicon.com
Texas Instruments
www.ti.com

Author Information
You can reach Technical Editor Margery Conner at 1-805-461-8242 andmconner@connerbase.com.

References
Conner, Margery, “iFixit’s Kyle Wiens: extending electronics’ life span,” EDN, Jan 21, 2010, pg 13.
Conner, Margery, “Innovative packaging improves LEDs’ light output, lifetime, and reliability,” EDN, Jan 7, 2010, pg 21.
Conner, Margery, “Ceramic caps promise long lifetimes for smaller LED lights,” EDN, Nov 23, 2009.
Conner, Margery, “Power-converter IC targets dimmable LEDs,” EDN, Dec 3, 2009, pg 10.
LED-array size determines drivers’ output voltage
HB LEDs (high-brightness light-emitting diodes) usually have a forward-voltage drop of approximately 3.5V, so the number of LEDs in series determines the LED driver’s voltage, according to Geof Potter, power technologist for Texas Instruments. The simplest way to drive multiple LEDs is to put them in one long string and have one power supply drive the string. However, bright outdoor lamps, such as streetlights, may have 100 or more HB LEDs, requiring a dc output driver with more than 350V and an output-filter capacitor with a voltage of 800V, which is usually impractical.
An alternative arrangement has an array of 10 strings of 10 HB LEDs, requiring a main power supply that provides 35V dc of regulated voltage (Figure A). The 35V-dc power probably doesn’t reside on the aluminum panel that supports the LEDs and does double duty as a heat sink. Each 10-LED string has its own constant-current supply that can probably use a lower-voltage ceramic capacitor on the input to the LED string.

LED Workshop covers LED reliability, driver design

EDN’s second “Designing with LEDs” Workshop will take place in Santa Clara, CA, on Wednesday, March 17. Spend the day with EDN and learn how new HB-LED (high-brightness-light-emitting-diode) devices, packages, control electronics, and thermal devices combine to revolutionize lighting for consumer and medical devices and automotive, architectural, and signage applications.
At the workshop, Geof Potter (photo, top), a power technologist at Texas Instruments, will present “The useful lifetime of HB LED lighting systems,” and Jerry Zheng (photo, bottom), vice president of technology marketing at iWatt, will present “The top 3 design challenges for solid-state lights.” A panel of speakers from Cree, Philips Lumileds, and Seoul Semiconductor will present their viewpoints on the challenges that can face the next generation of HB LEDs and what their companies are doing to overcome these challenges.
The workshop will also feature hands-on demos of HB-LED devices, drivers, and cooling devices. Cary Eskow, director of LightSpeed, the SSL (solid-state-lighting) and LED business unit of Avnet Electronics Marketing, will give the keynote presentation on the new products and environments that HB LEDs will enable. Click here to register now for this free workshop.

© 2010, Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Repower America

2010-02-22T13:34:00.001-08:00

I got an email (mail list, not personal) from the President of USGBC and Al Gore.

Read the letter and check out the website. It's pretty interesting. I know we've had a tough winter but we can't let people forget weather and climate are two different things.

While you are surfing check out Bill Gates talk on energy at the last TED conference

Here's a link: http://ow.ly/1a4Sc

February 2010

A Message from Al Gore and
Rick Fedrizzi

Dear Friend:

We have entered a new decade, a new era in humanity’s consciousness about our ability to impact our planet – for better or worse. Amid this collective conversation about what we’re going to do to ensure our legacy is one of environmental, economic and social success, it’s critical that your voice is heard.

We ask a lot of our community – and we get a lot in return. You’re passionate, committed, innovative and insightful. The members of the green building movement, in every field and sector of the industry, dedicate themselves personally and professionally through hard work day in and day out. But sometimes, the most effective step is also the simplest. So today, we are asking you to take a simple – yet powerful – action to lend your voice to the conversation.

Repower America, a campaign of the Alliance for Climate Protection and the Climate Protection Action Fund, is leading the global conversation about solving the climate crisis, freeing ourselves from our overreliance on fossil fuels, and creating millions of jobs through the transition to a clean energy economy. The Repower Wall represents the faces and voices of more than 55,000 people from all walks of life, and logos of corporations who are committed to doing their part in this worldwide effort. Will you join us?

Share with the Repower America community your vision, your passion and your hope for the role green building can play in a greener, cleaner energy future. It’s easy and free to add your video or photo along with your green building message to this virtual discussion. Visit today, listen to what other people are saying, make a difference with your voice or company logo, and be heard across America.

Visit The Wall now »

Sincerely,


Al Gore		S. Richard Fedrizzi
Board Chair		President, CEO and Founding Chair
Alliance for Climate Protection		U.S. Green Building Council

Neat new Feature from Production Intercom

2010-01-27T10:14:00.000-08:00

New Feature Added To The BP-1

We have added the ability to switch from a Dynamic to Electret Microphone with the a recessed switch on the rear panel of the BP-1.

There is no scheduled price increase for this feature, and we plan to include the feature in all BP-1's manufactured after 01/11/2010.

The BP-1 will ship with the switch in the Dynamic (out) position for use with a standard 200ohm Dynamic Mic. Your customers will have the ability to use any 2k ohm Electret Mic. by simply setting the switch to the Electret (in) position.

All BP-1's shipped after Jan 11th 2010 will have the following information sheet included in the packaging.

Remember that the BP.15 has always had the ability to accept Dynamic or Electret Microphones. Now both beltpacks have this ability.

Pelican Helps Haiti

2010-01-26T12:56:00.000-08:00

Pelican™ Sends Vital Survival and Rescue Items to Provide Help in Haiti
Pelican Donates Head Lamps and Flashlights; Valued at $100,000

TORRANCE, CA – January 21, 2010 – Pelican Products, Inc., the global leader in the design and manufacture of advanced lighting systems and virtually indestructible cases, today announced its contribution of $100,000 worth of head lamps and flashlights to the Haiti relief effort. The in-kind donation will help aid and assist rescuers, volunteers and emergency response teams in their relief efforts in Haiti. Emergency triage shelters are without lighting, so head lamps allow doctors to treat patients in completely dark locations.

“Our prayers go out to the people of Haiti,” said Lyndon Faulkner, Pelican’s President and CEO. “It is impossible to see the devastation and not want to help. We hope that our donation, along with the donations of others across the county, will help bring some relief to the people of Haiti.”

Pelican™ cases are also being utilized by emergency response teams to transport and carry supplies to Haiti. Pelican cases are some of the most durable, longest lasting protector cases and are engineered to be completely watertight, crushproof and dustproof.

Additionally, a link to the American Red Cross donation page has been added to the company’s popular homepage-www.pelican.com.

Barbizon Florida (Miami/Miramar) Job Opening

2010-01-25T08:36:00.000-08:00

Job Opening: SYSTEMS SALES – Miami/Miramar, FL

Barbizon Delta is looking for a full time Sales Representative for our Systems Division in Miramar, FL.

Barbizon’s Systems Division specializes in Design and Integration of Lighting and Rigging Systems for broadcast facilities, professional theatres, educational institutions, themed environments and a wide variety of other facilities.

Responsibilities include:

Consult on, design, bid, and sell Systems jobs to include, but not limited to, Rigging, Lighting, and Sound.
Selling complete systems and system components
Coordinate pricing between providers and end-users.
Attend meetings with end-users, consultants, architects, and representatives in both our office and in the field.
Assist architects, consultants, and end-users in the design and implementation of complete systems and system components.
Write/compile specifications and coordinate the creation of drawings for consultants and architects to create a full biddable document.
Provide quotations and budget numbers for end-users, consultants, and architects.
Bid on projects, both public and private.
Attend trade shows to make contacts, create leads, and learn about new products.
Create new client base.
Build relationships with manufacturers, clients, and sub-contractors.

Required skills include:

Well-rounded technical theater knowledge base, esp. in stage lighting, rigging, and sound.
Must be self-motivated and eager to learn.
Good interpersonal skills.
Computer skills: Microsoft Word, Excel, Acrobat Reader, basic understanding of AutoCAD and Visio, basic e-mail and web knowledge.
Good writing skills: used in document/specification creation and quotations.

Qualified Candidate will have:

M.F.A or equivalent experience.
Proven previous sales experience a definite plus.
An understanding of basic business practices.
Previous technical theatrical design or implementation experience skills
Excellent communication skills
Sales and problem solving skills
Bilingual Spanish/English preferred

Barbizon is an international corporation with a small company atmosphere. A competitive salary and excellent benefits package is available for a proven performer.

For more information, please send cover letter and resume as Microsoft Word document attachments to: scullipher@barbizon.com.

DSC's annual "Charts in Action" Contest

2010-01-21T06:36:00.000-08:00

DSC's annual "Charts in Action" Contest

Enter now for more valuable Prizes than ever!

First Prize - ChromaDuMonde 28R, 21x13” - with CaviBlack - list $1374

Second Prize - ChromaDuMonde 12+4R, 21x13” - list $1055

Third Prize - ChromaDuMonde 12+4R, 17x10” - list $949

Fourth Prize - ChromaDuMonde 12, 17x10” - list $787

Plus the 16 runners-up will each receive a Pocket Camette (colorbar/grayscale with CamWhite on rear) - list $105 As always, you, our clients will be the judges - keep in mind that creative and interesting shots are always the biggest winners – so get shooting! 

Email your pics to michaelw@dsclabs.com by February 28^th - then come see the winning shots proudly displayed at our NAB booth C11426. Here to inspire you are a couple of last year’s winners.

Barbizon Capitol LED Day 2010 is Back

2010-01-05T07:20:00.001-08:00

You can RSVP for the LED Day 2010 by emailing
sford@barbizon.com.

Want to learn more about the Luxim Plasma lamp?

2009-12-31T07:04:00.000-08:00

Here is a good story from ZD Net with an explanation.

This is the lamp we see in some moving lights now as well as SeaChanger's Nemo fixture.

Barbizon Arizona Moves to New Offices!

2009-12-20T12:00:00.000-08:00

Barbizon Arizona opens up in their new digs Monday 12/21 - Come by and see the new offices!

Barbizon Light of Arizona
1320 S. Priest Drive, Suite 105
Tempe, AZ 85281

Phone and Fax stay the same:
Tel: (480) 237-0470
Fax: (480) 237-0475

View Larger Map

ENTTEC Year End Deal!

2009-12-18T05:50:00.000-08:00

ENTTEC just let us know about a neat year end deal you might want to check into.

LightFactory V2.2 has now been released and to help build excitement about the new features in this version, ENTTEC has announced a special promotion.

Who: This is available to all LightFactory version 1.x users, whether they bought thru our dealer network, or from another source including online.

What: Cross Grading from either the Limited or Basic version 1 licenses, up to a version 2.2 with a full 512 dimmers support will be $149 USD List Price for a limited time. (This was a $479 value coming from the Limited Edition, or $390 from Basic, just to give you some perspective on what a huge deal this is.)

When: Now through the end of the year.

How: Use Part Number 70581. This is true whether you are upgrading from Limited or from Basic. Place order for one of these upgrades through the normal ordering procedures except that minimum order size is waived since it's a software license by email. User will need to supply their old ver. 1 License Code or a valid Registration Code. (Lic. will take less time time to process and is therefore preferable.)

After December 31, the price will go back up.

Call your local Barbizon office @ 866-502-2724 to check into it.

Interesting LED Lighting Dilemma

2009-12-16T07:55:00.000-08:00

from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121483046

Money-saving LED traffic lights can’t melt snow
By Dinesh Ramde - Associated Press Writer

December 16, 2009

Milwaukee — Cities around the country that have installed energy-efficient traffic lights are discovering a hazardous downside: The bulbs don’t burn hot enough to melt snow and can become crusted over in a storm — a problem blamed for dozens of accidents and at least one death.

“I’ve never had to put up with this in the past,” said Duane Kassens, a driver from West Bend who got into a fender-bender recently because he couldn’t see the lights. “The police officer told me the new lights weren’t melting the snow. How is that safe?”

Many communities have switched to LED bulbs in their traffic lights because they use 90 percent less energy than the old incandescent variety, last far longer and save money. Their great advantage is also their drawback: They do not waste energy by producing heat.

Authorities in several states are testing possible solutions, including installing weather shields, adding heating elements like those used in airport runway lights, or coating the lights with water-repellent substances.

Short of some kind of technological fix, “as far as I’m aware, all that can be done is to have crews clean off the snow by hand,” said Green Bay, Wis., police Lt. Jim Runge. “It’s a bit labor-intensive.”

In St. Paul, Minn., for example, city crews use air compressors to blow snow and ice off blocked lights.

Some communities began installing cool-burning LEDs more than a decade ago, and it wasn’t long before drivers started complaining about the problem.

Illinois authorities said that during a storm in April, 34-year-old Lisa Richter could see she had a green light and began making a left turn. A driver coming from the opposite direction did not realize the stoplight was obscured by snow and plowed into Richter’s vehicle, killing her.

“Would the accident have occurred if the lights had been clear? I would be willing to bet not,” Oswego police Detective Rob Sherwood said.

Authorities said dozens of similar collisions have been reported in other cold-weather states, including Iowa and Minnesota.

Not every storm causes snow to stick to the lights, but when the wind is right and the snow is wet, drivers should beware, said Gary Fox, a traffic engineer for the city of Des Moines, Iowa.

Exactly how much a technological fix will cost is unclear, but it will surely cut into the savings and the energy efficiency many cities are enjoying.

Wisconsin, which has put LED bulbs at hundreds of intersections, saves about $750,000 per year in energy costs, said Dave Vieth of the state Transportation Department. LEDs installed seven years ago are still burning, while most incandescent bulbs have to be replaced every 12 to 18 months, he said.

Minnesota, where authorities have upgraded hundreds of traffic lights to LEDs, is experimenting with weather shields.

One reason there have been so few deaths is that drivers know they should treat a traffic signal with obstructed lights as a stop sign, traffic experts say.

“It’s the same as if the power is out,” said Dave Hansen, a traffic engineer with the Green Bay Department of Public Works. “If there’s any question, you err on the side of caution.”

Christmas Light Hero!!

2009-12-12T17:18:00.000-08:00

From Make Mag ---

"Christmas Light Hero is using 7 light controllers from Light-O-Rama built from kits to control 21,268 lights and LEDs. Each controller has 16 outputs and 2-3 TTL level control inputs that are used by the game system to fire different programmed light sequences depending on what happens in the game. It relies on the fact that the game sequence is very consistent. If the game and the lighting sequences start together, they will stay in very good sync through the length of the song. The light program allows branching and overlays for fail, star power and "ready." I have some ideas to automate the initial show/game sync, but for now you have to push doorbell buttons at the right moments.

To program the show a video recording was made of a perfect round of Guitar Hero playing Eric Johnson's Cliffs of Dover. The timing of all the dots and the light show choreography follow that video.

When you play, you watch only the Christmas lights, but the audio you hear is from the Wii, so your flubs are broadcast for all to hear (people in cars can tune 99.1 and crank it up as loud as they want.) When we are not playing, a separate version of the program that has the audio from the recorded game plays with the lights as a loop. The YouTube video also has this audio, (because I forgot to record the direct audio when I was shooting the documentation, and the camcorder did not pick it up very well.)

A video screen is on the driveway showing the game video, but if you want to be on the high score list you have to make it through the whole game only watching the Christmas Lights. Even though the game is in "easy" mode, the lights don't provide the same timing detail as the game does, so it is much harder. Even expert Guitar Hero players have a hard time with the lights, and nobody has made it through without errors (yet)."

Pavement Embedded LED's in the Plaza del Torico in Teruel, Spain

2009-12-10T16:58:00.001-08:00

Via Gizmodo: "The Plaza del Torico in Teruel, Spain was renovated with something even better than yellow bricks—over 1230 color-changing LED lamps embedded in the pavement. The whole system can be programmed to change colors and patterns in sequence."
For more info check out: http://www.archdaily.com/43040/plaza-del-torico-b720/

How Quantum Dots Can Improve the Look of LED Lighting

2009-12-08T06:16:00.000-08:00

Reprint from Kate Greene's Blog : http://kategreene.net/?p=453

QD Vision, an MIT spinout, is commercializing quantum dots, tiny crystals that emit bright light of a particular color. Because quantum dots shine at specific colors, a layer of them can be added to an LED to alter its original color. This is exactly QD Vision’s first product: quantum dots that makes white LED lights, famous for their erie hue, look better.

The quantum dot lighting solution is relatively simple: Adding red quantum dots to a white LED makes the resulting white light appear warmer. Light from the LED gives electrons in the quantum dots an energetic boost for a short time; when the electrons return to their lower energy state, they emit a photon, a process called photoluminescence. (Photoluminescence is in contrast to electroluminescence, in which electric current, not light, excites electrons.)

I caught up with the founder of QD Vision, Seth Coe Sullivan, at the Printed Electronics 2009 conference in San Jose last week to ask him a few questions about lighting. Below is an edited version of our conversation:

Kate Greene: What quantum dot products are you selling right now?

Seth Coe Sullivan, founder of QD Vision (front)

Seth Coe Sullivan: Today, we’re commercially shipping a quantum light optic. It’s essentially a light-emitting filter: a plate of glass with quantum dots printed on top. We sell it to a couple of customers. One is a fixture company, and one is a lamp company called Nexxus. They make Edisonian-mount lamps, so you can screw the lamp into the same mount you screw an incandescent bulb into. The Nexxus lamp used to have a diffuse filter plate on the top of it. With our product, they just take that plate out, and put the quantum light optic in its place. You get to transform the color without paying any price in terms of efficiency. You have the color of incandescent lighting with the efficiency of LED lighting.

KG: The optic is emissive, and so it doesn’t decrease efficiency like a filter?

SCS: Right. We’re using blue photons from the LEDs and making red photons from the quantum dots. In theory you could make the lamp four times as bright by going from blue to red. But we’re not using all the blue light from the LEDs. We’re just making a little bit of red to tweak the spectrum.

KG: Okay, give me a quick definition of quantum dots.

SCS: A quantum dot is a semiconductor nanocrystal that we synthesize in a chemical solution. When you make semiconductors very small, the quantum physics dominates the conventional semiconductor physics. So size matters. A quantum dot, made of the semiconductor cadmium selenide, that is six nanometers in size emits red light, one that’s four nanometers emits green, and one that’s two nanometers emits blue.

KG: How long have they been around?

SCS: They date back to the 80s. But there’s really been a series of improvements of efficiency and stability so that all of a sudden quantum dots have crossed the line in commercial relevance. The first applications were all in biology. They were used to tag sections of cells and other things. Then there was a Christmas tree light product that predated us. It’s neat, but it doesn’t provide any actual value to the world. Still, it was great to see them put something on the market.

KG: But in terms of a major commercial product, QD Vision has the first?

SCS: We really are the first to put something in a mainstream market where you’re adding value to the world. By making LED lighting, which is the most efficient lighting technology in the world, something that’s pleasing to consumers, all of a sudden you can drive adoption of LED technology. LEDs make up less than one percent of lighting right now. Philips talks about it being 80 percent in 2020. That’s massive growth in the next 10 years, but in order for that to happen, people have to want to buy them. It’s not enough to be efficient. They have to look good too. We think we’ve solved that problem, and we’re talking to all the major players to build quantum light optics into their products.

KG: What’s the change in cost to add a quantum light optic?

SCS: It’s actually a reduction in their manufacturing cost. Nexxus is actually going to offer products at same price, but that just means they’ve improved their margins by increasing their efficiency. When you look at these things, you always need to do an apples-to-apples comparison. I’m comparing our product, with the high color quality that it has, with trying to make the same color quality with any other technology. Because we’re doing that with roughly 30 percent more efficiency, you’re using 30 percent fewer LEDs to produce the same number of lumens. By putting in a quantum light optic instead of 30 percent more LEDs, you take all that cost out. When you add the cost of quantum light optic in there and the net result should be reduction in main cost.

KG: Can I buy a quantum-dot light today?

SCS: Almost. We are shipping to our customers. Our customers then have to make a lamp or a fixture, sell them to their distributors, and then their distributors have to sell them to end customers who have to install them. Right now that hasn’t sold all the way through. For example, the Nexxus product will be the first quantum lighting product sold on bulbs.com. So probably in late January or early February you’ll be able to go to that site and purchase a Nexxus array lamp with a quantum light optic inside.

KG: Will it be expensive?

SCS: I’m told the retail price will probably be $100.

KG: How does that compare to other LED lighting?

SCS: It’s extremely competitive within LED lighting. LED costs more than other lighting technologies. An incandescent bulb of the type we’re talking about might be $3. A compact florescent might be between $5 and $10, so a $100 light bulb is an investment. But this bulb isn’t meant for you and me, in our homes today. It’s for people who look at total cost of ownership model when they install lighting. So if you’re a building owner, you look at the cost of bulb and also the electricity to run it, the maintenance cost to replace it, and the future bulbs you’re going to have to buy. If you look at total 50,000-hour life of our product, you’ll need five compact florescent bulbs or 25 halogen or incandescent bulbs. Then you add in the cost of the guy climbing the ladder to change the bulb, it pays you back in 12 to 18 months.

KG: What’s next for quantum-dot lighting?

SCS: With existing customers, we will expand the product line offering. So we do that in terms of different colors temperatures offered. 2700 K is the temperature that describes what an incandescent bulb produces. That’s what we’re offering now. But we can also do 3000K, 3500K, 4100K products.

KG: Who are your other customers?

Seth Coe Sullivan (back)

SCS: We’re working with all the lighting majors. Lighting is an extremely fragmented market. We do have a lot of different customers that are in the design cycle to launch products in 2010.

This is the first of two Q&As with Sullivan about QD Vision Products. The second Q&A will focus on improving liquid-crystal displays with quantum dots.

JR Clancy's new Battery powered nicropress tool

2009-12-03T05:42:00.000-08:00

JR Clancy collaborated with National Telephone on the technical specs for the new Model 5506 battery operated swaging tool. This compact tool offers a new versatility previously unseen in powered swaging.

The tool’s one handed operation allows the user to align and swage sleeves easily without additional assistance. If you’re up in a personnel lift by yourself, swaging is now easily accomplished without wild acrobatics or bruised ribs. Another advantage to the tool is that it requires fewer crimps per sleeve compared to the manual press tool. Instead of the 3 crimps required on a 1/4″ oval sleeve or the 4 crimps on a 3/16″ oval sleeve, this tool only requires 2 crimps.

The tool presses quickly and efficiently, giving an audible bypass when the proper crimping pressure is achieved. The tool comes in a case with two lithium-ion batteries, a charger, a Nicopress gauge, and 1/4″ die.

The battery lasts for approximately 200 crimps. With the two batteries, you have essentially unlimited operation as the battery can charge up before you’ve exhausted the other one. Interchangeable dies are available for use on fittings for up to 5/16″ cable.

2009 LDI Show Report Posted

2009-12-01T16:36:00.000-08:00

We had our team out talking to our manufacturer partners on the floor and compiled a list of the latest and greatest we saw at the show. You can check it out at:

http://barbizonmedia.com/ldi09/

Lasers are back!

2009-11-23T11:55:00.000-08:00

Check out this vid that Peter Kirkup from Cooper Controls put together. It's a montage of images from LDI last weekend.

CAST Software Offers wysiwyg to Students at 90% Savings

2009-11-22T17:37:00.000-08:00

I suppose this could be considered an early Black Friday Deal.

In a special promotion, CAST Software is offering Wysiwyg Perform Special Student Edition at a 90% discount compared to the full professional version. Cast will also credit the pprice toward the purchase of the full professional version of wysiwyg Design or Perform.
The offer is available only to students and academic institutions. Applying students and schools must be properly registered with Cast to qualify. The school registration form can be obtained from Cast -- email to learn@cast-soft.com. Perform SSE comes with 1,000 channel capabilities and will be watermarked "for educational use only." This is a time-limited offer, available only while supplies last, on a first-come, first-served basis.

Call your local Barbizon office for more details. 866-502-2724.

More from LDI: RSC Light Lock

2009-11-22T04:43:00.000-08:00

We grabbed a little video of the RSC lightlock in action in the Total Structures booth. It's pretty amazing what one can do with gyros. (no not the meat version... gyroscope)

Today we'll spend more time grabbing interesting images so to post, but stay tuned for a link to the Barbizon LDI Show Report. We have our team members scouring the floor for the the skinny on the new items on the floor. If you cannot wait until then check out iSquint.net's LDI 09 Flickr set.

LDI 2009 is up and running!

2009-11-20T20:20:00.000-08:00

Here's a quick vid of LDI just as it was opening from the wings of the South hall @ the Orange County Convo Center. The haze was thick and the traffic was brisk on the show floor today. We saw a lot of old friends roaming around seeing the latest and greatest in the entertainment lighting industry. For a great collection of show pics of the show floor check out iSquint's 2009 Flicker set. I hope to get a little more video tomorrow for you all to see of some of the standout items.

LDI Show floor opens today

2009-11-20T04:03:00.000-08:00

When we left the hall last night to go to the ESTA dinner there was still a fair amount to be done by some of the exhibitors. But we're production people, I know that when I walk in this morning everything will be ready and the HVAC will be on!! (It was cooler on the dock than in the hall.)

If you are here or even close we'll be here until Sunday with the rest of the industry showing the latest and greatest. Barbizon will be in booth 1127

We'll be posting some of the highlights of the weekend and compiling news for our annual show report that we'll get posted ASAP.

If you need a show floor pass you can click here.

Oh and by the way we're not the same Barbizon having meetings @ the Rosen Plaza. Yup.. the modeling company is also in the main conference hotel looking for 'talent'.

And no, we didn't do their lighting.

LDI Opens in less than a week!

2009-11-14T06:53:00.000-08:00

The LDI show floor will have been open for a day already by this time next week and we'll be there covering what manufacturers are showing. There will be posts here as well as a complete compilation in our annual show report.

A few teasers we've gotten via email this week:

ETC will be raising the bar (think rigging)
Strong has an 'illuminating' exterior fixture (LED)
Apollo Design Tech is jumping into the LED and fixture game
A very economical opto splitter from ENTTEC
Martin and Wybron have RADAR

Here's the flier we got from Apollo.

Stay Tuned.

Create Your Perfect Bag and win a bunch of Stuff!

2009-11-05T10:20:00.000-08:00

KATA invites you to design your dream photo bag and submit it to the challenge.

Each bag will be reviewed by a professional panel of judges. The best design will be selected as the winner, hand built exclusively for the designer and packed full of high-end photo equipment:

Canon 5D mk II body
2 Canon Lenses (24-105 EF L IS USM & 70-200 F/4.0 USM)
Gitzo Traveler kit (tripod+ head)
Litepanels MICROPRO

Winners of the second and third prize categories will win a Kata bag packed with gear worth $4000 and $3000 respectively. Entries close on March 1st, 2010.

For more info http://www.dreambagchallenge.com/
Isn't that a dream come true?!

Holy Crap! Robert Juliat LED Profile @ LDI

2009-10-26T18:20:00.000-07:00

This will be interesting to see!

Preview it on YouTube..

More info to come.

Welcome to Hell's Kitchen Mr. President.

2009-10-21T07:55:00.001-07:00

New Yorkers are pretty used to Presidential gridlock, but the Barbizon Electric office on 55th Street experienced it first hand Tuesday.

When President Obama was in town for the day his motorcade route came directly in front of our offices.

"The entire street was barricaded off for the day and two tow trucks were parked on the block. If a car even looked like it was going to stop it was hooked up and sent to the tow lot!" commented Barbizon's fearless leader Jonathan Resnick.

Our (Barbizon's) President (You can also see him on the curb right next to the NYC officer in the pics below) went out to greet Obama hoping he might stop by to discuss lighting techniques, but it seemed the leader of the free world's schedule was pretty packed.

Show Crew Network is Live.

2009-10-20T10:33:00.001-07:00

Friends of Barbizon Lighting launched a new crew sourcing portal. We have not used this service yet, but want to let our customers know about it because it is a new, interesting, resource.

What's interesting is that it pairs people who need crews with crew and processes the payments also.

"Show Crew Network was developed by production industry veterans looking for a way to simplify the process of booking crews for gigs and making freelancing easier for production industry pros. The founders consulted with production companies, rental staging companies, freelancers, event firms, touring companies, sound, lighting and video houses and many others along the way to design a system that makes booking jobs for both employers and crew members a snap. In addition, Show Crew Network is robust with features that save time and money as well as reducing the headaches of scheduling, managing and payroll."

It's worth checking out.. Free for techs and companies to post their profile and availability/needs.
The fee breakdown is:

Crew Member Registration - FREE!
Company Registration - FREE!
Crew Member Payment Disbursement Fee - $1 per transaction
Company Service Fee - 7% per transaction
Company Escrow Processing Fee - 3.9% per transaction

The innovative aspect to this service is that it protects both the employer and employee because the payment for the gig is held in escrow (for more info on how all that works check out their FAQ. )

Check it out and let us know what you think!

Job Posting: Service Technician - Charlotte, NC

2009-10-19T10:46:00.000-07:00

Barbizon Lighting Company' Charlotte, NC office has an immediate full time opening, for a lighting technician to provide the following:

Troubleshooting, repair, maintenance, testing and upgrade of production lighting equipment
Troubleshooting, repair, maintenance, testing and upgrade/retrofit of dimming and control systems
Technical maintenance, troubleshooting, repair and installation of in-house technical systems
Technical phone/counter support for products sold
Electronic/electric/mechanical bench support
Field service and commissioning of dimming systems
Bench repairs
Customer phone support on dimming systems

Qualified candidate will have:

Ability to troubleshoot electrical, electronic and mechanical components and lighting/control systems
Thorough understanding of entertainment and architectural lighting and control systems
Understanding of DMX and network control configurations and wiring topologies
Intermediate or better electrical skills practices
Ability to follow direction
Ability to read and understand construction documentation
Strong communication skills
Strong organizational skills
Strong customer service skills
Moving light and/or Factory Certification
Clear understanding of installation, operation and integration of lighting and riggings systems
Demonstrated understanding of systems and related problem solving skills
Bachelor of Science, BFA or MFA in Technical Theater, Engineering or related discipline or commensurate vocational experience

We offer a competitive salary and excellent benefits package.

For consideration, send cover letter and resume, as a Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat document attachment to jhartness@barbizon.com.

Job Posting: Systems Integrator for Miami (Miramar) FL

2009-10-15T20:18:00.001-07:00

SYSTEMS INTEGRATOR – FLORIDA

Barbizon Delta is looking for a full time Systems Integrator for our Systems Division in Miramar, FL.

Responsibilities include:

Generate sales of products and services offered by Barbizon
Market our company, products and services to prospective clients
Respond to Requests for Proposals, consultant bids, and design build projects
Generate quotations, specifications and contract documents
Build relationships with contacts in the industry
Coordinate project work and installation with Barbizon’s project management team
Engage in industry activities outside of the workplace that benefit the company and the industry (active involvement in trade associations, benefits, etc)

Required skills include:

Understanding of installation, operation and integration of lighting and riggings systems
Comprehension of Marketing and Specification Sales
Ability to present Barbizon Products and Services to groups
Design and analytical skills
Excellent communication skills
Sales and problem solving skills
Understanding of construction documentation
Strong technical background in theater and/or broadcast
Bachelor of Science, BFA or MFA in Technical Theater or commensurate vocational experience

Barbizon is an international corporation with a small company atmosphere. A competitive salary and excellent benefits package is available for a proven performer.

For more information, please send cover letter and resume as Microsoft Word document attachments to: scullipher@barbizon.com

Do Your LED's suffer from Droop?

2009-10-14T14:42:00.000-07:00

From this month's Architectural Lighting Mag to see the original click HERE

LEDs Tackle the Technical Issue of Droop

Source: ARCHITECTURAL LIGHTING Magazine
Publication date: October 1, 2009

By Elizabeth Donoff

Although solid-state lighting has made significant headway in the lighting industry and fixture marketplace, there is still a sufficient amount of technical performance data that is unknown and untested when it comes to this new technology. An article in the August 2009 issue of IEEE Spectrum, a publication from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, calls attention to a problem specific to LEDs known as “droop.”

Droop is a phenomenon experienced by blue (nitrate) LEDs—the LEDs that are used to produce white light. As the diode's power level reaches an output sufficient for general lighting applications, the efficiency of the LED declines significantly. To maintain this amount of light output, you have to continue to feed the LED more and more power. In effect, this cancels out any potential energy savings this much-touted nonfilament light source might provide, and highlights the fact that LEDs perform best at low power. This puts a very different spin on the information that lighting manufacturers have been promoting as they race to announce and outdo one another with higher lumen-per-watt totals.

No one knows for sure why LEDs experience this technical anomaly, and scientists and engineers are hard at work to solve the puzzle. Some researchers attribute it to the electron structure of the diode, but there is no general consensus. One thing is for sure: now that this technical truth has been revealed it adds yet another hurdle for solid-state lighting to overcome as it tries to prove itself as a lighting technology with long-term potential.

grandMA2 Open House at Barbizon Capitol

2009-10-14T09:06:00.001-07:00

Click Here for more information.

C47 USB Drive??

2009-10-12T16:48:00.001-07:00

Clothes pin (C47 for you grips) USB drive. I wonder if it is holding some CTB on a 2K fresnel barn door if the heat would corrupt the data... Click the image if you want more info.

Wybron's Mobile Showroom Rolls into Barbizon Capitol

2009-10-12T09:46:00.000-07:00

Click here for more information and to RSVP

ESTA & PLASA ANNOUNCE INTENTION TO MERGE!

2009-10-05T07:56:00.000-07:00

We got this in the inbox from ESTA this morning...

"Agreement will strengthen both organisations and create new opportunities

PLASA (headquartered in the UK) and ESTA (headquartered in North America), two of the leading bodies worldwide for those working in the live events, entertainment and communications industries, have signed a Letter of Intent to merge.

The announcement comes on the back of long-term strategic reviews conducted by both associations who believe that uniting as one body will lead to a stronger voice for members, the enhancement of existing initiatives and an expansion of the range of benefits and services.

The proposed merger has the full backing of both the ESTA Board of Directors and the PLASA Executive Committee who voted on the proposal this Summer and who will formally recommend the move to their respective memberships, subject to due diligence being completed successfully, during the Spring/Summer of 2010. If both memberships vote to go ahead, the first stage of the merger will be completed by December 2010 effectively creating an industry-wide membership network of over 1100 dealers, manufacturers, installers, service providers and consultants operating under the PLASA name. This will also include members of PERA - the Production Equipment Rental Association - whose members work across the film, video and broadcast industries and which recently merged with ESTA.

In reality, any merger will simply be a continuation of an already established relationship between the two organisations who have worked together on a range of initiatives for many years and who share the same aims and objectives.

The planned merger will not lead to any immediate changes and the direct priority for the ESTA and PLASA teams will be to continue to serve the joint membership in the strongest, most relevant way possible.

To reinforce this aim, the proposal outlining the merger recommends that leadership groups be established initially in North America and Europe elected by their respective members to represent their interests and to shape the organisation to meet their specific needs. Each of these elected leadership groups will provide representatives who will sit on an Executive Committee charged with overall responsibility for governance, strategic planning and financial direction. Joining these representatives on the Executive Committee will be members-at-large elected from the membership worldwide.

Work on key initiatives will continue as before and in many cases will be considerably strengthened by the projected merger. ESTA’s industry-leading Technical Standards Program has always received active participation from PLASA and its members and the planned merger envisions a further development of this essential project.

The commitment to furthering industry skills will also remain a key priority and while the methods of implementation differ, the goals of increasing the level of knowledge and skills in the industry and creating a safer working environment are jointly shared and will be fully implemented.

Other initiatives such as market research will be strengthened with current research exercises expanded and opportunities for additional research explored.

ESTA President Bill Groener and PLASA Chairman Rob Lingfield view the proposed merger as a significant and essential move for members of both organisations, who they believe will benefit from having a much strengthened representative body safeguarding their interests and developing their commercial advantages.

In a joint statement, PLASA CEO Matthew Griffiths and ESTA Executive Director Lori Rubinstein said: “This is essentially about doing what is best for our members. The proposed merger will radically enhance what we can achieve on behalf of the companies and individuals we represent, making us a more effective and informed advocate for the industry. The industry needs an organisation that is responsive to its members’ needs and one where they feel fully connected and involved. We share common goals and objectives and a united approach to the issues and challenges of our market will provide major long-term benefits and greatly broaden the role of the organisation.”

www.esta.org

www.plasa.org

For further information contact:

Ruth Rossington

PLASA

E: ruth@plasa.org

Lori Rubinstein

ESTA

E: lrubinstein@esta.org"

Less than a month left to upgrade your WYSIWYG Dongle for Free

2009-10-02T09:17:00.000-07:00

Cast sent out an email and we wanted to remind our customers, if you own a copy of WYSIWYG read this and take advantage of this upgrade offer before they start charging for this service in November.

Release from CAST:

We have improved the security of our products. As you know, R22 included seriously upgraded security protocols that imposed technical demands on our dongles that makes most purple dongles obsolete. The new security has rolled out seamlessly and in R24 it was augmented more by the new semi-annual call home feature, which checks each dongle against CAST's master dongle list and, for example, will shut down any dongle unless it has been re-authorized by you and CAST. Using better encryption algorithms for our dongles, we are protecting our Members' investment and making wysiwyg impossible for ongoing unauthorized use. Each infield dongle, starting with R23, is tested to determine whether it can support wysiwyg's new security systems going forward.

You may recall, before the new security protocol, that any User who lost a dongle was required to purchase a new software license dongle a price ranging from $699 to $4,999 after all, in the old days there was no way to shut a dongle down if it'd been stolen or lost (an unauthorized user would have ongoing access to your wysiwyg ). Today, Members will only pay a $299 dongle replacement fee and will not have to repurchase the software.

Free dongle exchange program CONCLUDES 30 Oct, 2009. In Jan 09, recognizing the bad economic times vs. the importance of rolling out the new security system , we announced a free dongle exchange program for any wysiwyg Membership in good standing at the time he/she wanted to exchange their dongle.

After running this program for 10 months, this FREE dongles exchange program ends 30 October 2009.

For this final month Members in good standing can avoid paying $299 if they act before 30 Oct that's roughly ½ the price of a Design Membership renewal! Please spread the message among your wysiwyg users so they can take advantage of this offer before it expires, all they have to do is renew their memberships and become current to save!

After 30 Oct, End Users will be required to pay the $299 dongle replacement fee for the exchange of any standalone dongle and $499 on all networked systems, professional and educational.

A link to download a form for return can be downloaded HERE

Camera Crane Fail

2009-09-28T08:54:00.000-07:00

Actor or Operator fail? - You be the judge.

In Memoriam: Harry Donovan, 1943-2009 (from PLSN online)

2009-09-24T15:53:00.000-07:00

Harry Donovan, an engineer who was one of the country's best-known and most experienced riggers and author of Entertainment Rigging, died Sept. 23 after an ongoing battle with cancer.

Donovan, who toured with KISS, David Bowie, Elton John, The Eagles, Rod Stewart, Aerosmith, Bruce Springsteen, The Who, Paula Abdul, REO Speedwagon, and many others during a touring career lasting 22 years, rigged over 200,000 points for some 4,000 staged performances without failure.

Donovan then founded Seattle-based Donovan Rigging Inc., which handled rigging, contracting, consulting and training, and he published Entertainment Rigging in 2002.

By organizing arena rigging into a few simple engineering principles, practical rules of thumb, and safe working techniques, Donovan was able to present information that was immediately useful to riggers and managers through his book and his public and private training seminars.

Donovan, a longtime member of IATSE, USITT, and ESTA, also helped promote rigging certificates.

The son of a marine engineer, Donovan was raised in Connecticut and Maine and grew to share his father’s love of sailing, spending free time in his later years aboard his 52-foot sailboat on the coastal waters of the Pacific Northwest, often accompanied by fellow crew members from his touring days. He is survived by his wife, Patty.

Barbizon Capitol's LED Day

2009-09-17T05:48:00.000-07:00

For more information, please click here or RSVP to sford@barbizon.com or 703.750.3900

PLASA Innovation Awards Announced

2009-09-15T16:42:00.000-07:00

Fresh from London, here's the Innovation award winners from this year's PLASA show @ Earl's Court.
A lot of it will be here in November @ LDI in Orlando (if you need floor passes click HERE and use the code BARBIZO.)

From the Release:

"Over 60 products were nominated for the Awards, all of which are on display, both on the winning exhibitors' stands, and in the centrally located Innovation Gallery at PLASA09, which continues until 5.00pm on Wednesday 16 September.

Adam Afriyie MP, Shadow Minister for Innovation, Universities and Skills presented the Awards, which were judged by a panel of independent judges drawn from across the industry.

Eight Awards for Innovation were presented, and the judges also singled out three products for a commendation.

The eight Awards for Innovation went to:
LumenRadio for the CRMX Nova, which the judges felt advanced the technology behind wireless DMX distribution. It's low latency, RDM control and cognitive co-existence techniques will open up more applications for wireless data transmission in harsh radio environments.
D.T.S. Illuminazione srl for the XR300 Beam. The judges were refreshed to see this significant development in existing moving light technology. The XR300 allows full continuous rotation of both pan and tilt axis at some speed which will dramatically increase the creative possibilities using such fixtures.
Robe UK Ltd for the Robin 300 series PLASMA. The opportunity to deploy new technology in the form of the PLASMA lamp led Robe to perform a ground up rethink and redesign of the traditional moving light. The result is a fixture that impressed the judges with its quality of light, low power of operation and rich list of features.
Cast Group of Companies for the WYSIWYG R24. The plethora of LED display technology caused Cast to re-evaluate its design and visualisation software which has led to a significant redesign of the graphics engine and fixture attributes. It now allows the full visualisation of modern display technology including video and LED screens and their content.
Coda Audio for the SC8 Sensor controlled subwoofer. The concept of monitoring sub bass loudspeakers and tailoring the audio input to ensure a good coherent output has existed for some time. Coda are the first though to come up with a novel integration of velocity sensors into actual speaker drivers which has enabled its speakers to be accurately measured and performance compensated in real time.
ETC for the ETC Selador fixture, a significant step towards the ultimate goal of energy efficient incandescent replacement lighting, ETC has developed this LED fixture with a colour output that gets close to the spectral curve of traditional incandescent source, thereby making LED technology a step closer to wider use in theatres and similar applications.
JoeCo Limited for the BlackBox Recorder, which the judges said provides a neat, compact solution for capturing multichannel audio and combines ease of use with good functionality; features that will see it deployed in many pro audio applications.
Midiator Vision for the Midiator. The judges felt that this new breed of show controller combines all the creative elements of a show and enables them to be under the control of one designer. It synchronises visual and audio events together via a simple user interface and the Judges noted that "Like a beautiful rug it ties the visual elements of a room together."
According to the Awards Chairman, James Eade: "This year the entries displayed a range of technological advances which resulted in a considerable amount of products vying for one of the coveted eight awards. We did whittle it down to the eight after a considerable debate, but there are also some notable commendations".

Those commendations (in no particular order) are;

Klein & Hummel for its SMS speaker installation tools, designed with the specific aim of assisting the installation contractor to install its speakers quickly and reliably.

Artistic Licence for its Two-Play installation DMX controller, a compact unit that combines a DMX recorder and playback device with a host of features for remote control integration and protocol conversion; all at a cost-effective price.

SRS Light Design for its WMC12 Wireless Hoist Controller Unit, a motor controller that the judges felt was well thought out and designed. It is scalable up to 64 motors, useable with any existing systems and features a wireless remote riggers handset.

Finally, the judges chose not to award an Environmental Award this year, as they felt there was no product which in itself offered a significant environmental advantage. However, the Judges did feel that both Element Labs' Cobra tiles - made from recycled aluminium - and Global Design Solutions' Liteware event lighting system - which features an optional solar charging facility - were notable for their consideration of sustainable materials and energy.
The Gottelier Award
This year's Gottelier Award, presented by Rob Lingfield, Chairman of PLASA went to Alex Cooper of Klark Teknik in recognition of his design work on such legendary products as the Midas range of mixing consoles."

$50 Rebate from Manfrotto through the end of the year!

2009-09-14T13:36:00.000-07:00

Been thinking about a how your old sticks are beat up and more of a pain than they are worth?

Now is the perfect time to purchase a Lightweight Manfrotto Carbon Tripod because when you purchase a Manfrotto Carbon Fiber Tripod and Manfrotto head you can receive a $50 rebate!

So why choose a Manfrotto Carbon Fiber? Unlike many of the knock-offs in the industry, Manfrotto Carbon Fiber is manufactured from the highest quality materials and latest technologies. Test drive Manfrotto Carbon Fiber Tripods and you will see why our products don’t de-laminate, have better torsion rigidity, can easily be taken apart and put back together, are totally field serviceable and, most of all, are very light weight.

To download the rebate click the pic above, click HERE

Need a Floor Pass to WFX in Charlotte Oct 29 & 30?

2009-09-02T07:42:00.000-07:00

We've got your hookup to floor passes @ the WFX show in Charlotte the end of October.

We'll be in booth # 1837

CLICK HERE to start your free floor pass registration.

Need a Floor Pass to LDI in Orlando

2009-08-20T12:32:00.000-07:00

Registration is open for LDI and we've got your complimentary floor passes.

Click this LINK and use the VIP code "BARBIZO"

Yea, yea I know.. but the codes can only be 7 letters.

See you November in Orlando!

For More Information
Avnet Electronics Marketing www.em.avnet.com	AVX www.avx.com	Cree www.cree.com
iWatt www.iwatt.com	Philips Lumileds www.philipslumileds.com	Seoul Semiconductor www.seoulsemicon.com
Texas Instruments www.ti.com

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