Brightline, a leading manufacturer of energy efficient lighting systems, now offers technical support through Zoom for its resellers, integrators, and clients. The cloud-based videoconferencing system allows Brightline to program light fixtures remotely, re-focus, visually diagnose potential issues, and perform other troubleshooting. 

“Zoom service is ideal for time-critical issues,” explained Kathy Katz, Brightline managing partner. “You don’t have to struggle through a phone call without visuals or schedule onsite service. Zoom gives us ‘eyes’ in the room.”

To request a free Zoom technical call, contact technical support at techservice@brightlines.com.

Frame.io, a leading video review and collaboration platform used by over one million filmmakers and media professionals, today announced it has raised a $50 million Series C round to help support its next big push into cloud-enabled motion picture workflows. Frame.io will also use this round of financing to continue its deep investment into airtight security, intuitive UX, and camera-to-cutting room technology. Insight Partners led the round with contributions from all existing major stakeholders, including Accel, FirstMark, SignalFire, and Shasta Ventures. Itai Tsiddon, co-founder of Lightricks, will represent Insight Partners as Frame.io’s newest board member.

“We’re thrilled to be partnering with Insight on this next round of financing. Insight deeply understands the creative space and the changing tides the film and video market will see over the next several years,” said Emery Wells, co-founder and CEO of Frame.io. “2019 has been a year of massive growth and of major milestones for us: we celebrated reaching 100 employees, moved into brand new headquarters in lower Manhattan and, most recently, welcomed industry veteran Michael Cioni to the team. We are driving to create the most innovative approach to video workflows since the emergence of digital 20 years ago.”

Designed and built by video creatives—for video creatives—and launched in 2014, Frame.io is a New York City-based startup dedicated to changing the way video creation works. The web-based platform integrates seamlessly with the industry’s leading NLEs, including Adobe® Premiere® Pro, Avid, Apple® Final Cut Pro® and DaVinci Resolve Studio, enabling video creators to upload and organize media and share projects internally or with clients anywhere in the world. This round of Series C funding brings Frame.io’s total funding to date to $82.2 million.

MIRRAD supplies two Avolites consoles for Ben Everett’s design for producer, songwriter and performer’s headlining tour

A lot has happened in Maggie Rogers’ world since 2016, when a video of her demoing a then-newly-recorded song, “Alaska,” for Pharrell Williams at NYU went viral. Following opening slots on major tours with both HAIM and Mumford & Sons last year, Rogers dropped her own major label debut, Heard It in a Past Life, this past January, which charted in the second highest slot of the Billboard 200. Consequently, the artist has spent much of 2019 on the road in support of the album, performing a sold-out fall headline tour in such iconic venues as Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, Berkley’s Greek Theatre, and New York City’s Radio City Music Hall.

The “look and feel” of Rogers’ tour this year has been a collaborative effort between the artist and Lighting Designer Ben Everett, who first started working with her when he lit Rogers’ first-ever show in London two years ago. Having toured with an impressive roster of bands over the past five years—including Bear's Den, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and The Dandy Warhols—Everett is now part of the UK-based MIRRAD team, which has been supplying a pair of Avolites Sapphire Touch lighting control consoles for Rogers’ 2019 worldwide trek.

Everett notes that he’s been using Avolites lighting consoles “pretty much since I started in the live music industry,” he shares. “I was lucky enough to learn on all of the early Titan software, and mainly used the Tiger Touch II and Quartz consoles to begin with. The features that kept me attracted to the desks at first were the ability to quickly create really impressive and intricate effects, and the user-friendly and multi-functional layout of the touchscreens. And while growing with the consoles over the years, the ease of being able to create cue stacks, key frame shapes, and pixel mapping really helps me in my day-to-day programming now.”

Pixel Artworks, the award-winning specialists in light and pixel technology, have designed and delivered The Garden of Light, a unique multi-sensory installation for McArthurGlenDesigner Outlet Ashford.

The Garden of Light uses the latest LED pixel lighting and immersive audio technology to create a stunning 360 degree virtual garden environment and is part of the expansion of McArthurGlenDesigner Outlet, Ashford. In tribute to Kent’s status as the ‘Garden of England’, The Garden of Light provides shoppers with a multi-dimensional walkthrough experience designed to stimulate the senses and reflect on visitors’ connection with nature. The experience will also feature Europe’s largest living wall installation, made up of more than 120,000 leafy green plants, and although the experience is free, visitors are encouraged to donate money towards building a sensory garden for the William Harvey Hospital.

Light is the key factor of the installation, and the immersive and interactive experience offers shoppers a journey into a lush secret garden through projection and LED, with elements of the four seasons accompanying their journey; Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn.

Brightline, a leading manufacturer of energy efficient lighting systems, today announced Open Signal: Portland Community Media Center, a nonprofit media arts and broadcast center in Portland, Ore., has upgraded the lighting grid in its 2,000-square-foot main studio with 30 Brightline L1.2 SeriesONE LED fixtures. The new lighting was installed in July.

Noah Dorsey, media services manager, said the upgrade in Studio A was prompted by the fan noise of previous lighting fixtures in the studio. “We want the studio environment to be as silent as possible,” he explained. “That was something that had been requested by a lot of producers.”

The new 5600K L1.2 lights are controlled through a DMX console. Open Signal contracted Brightline’s premier Pacific Northwest systems integrator, Advanced Broadcast Solutions (ABS), a division of Key Code Media, to supply the new lighting. Dorsey said the lighting “looks dynamic but not so stylized that it can’t be applied to multiple shows.”

Bruce Aleksander, a lighting director hired by ABS for the Open Signal project, said the decision to use soft lights throughout Studio A was based on the need for versatility and accessibility for the wide variety of producers who use the space. Though some productions use an ellipsoidal light for show-specific gobo projection accents, the main lighting is generally not altered.

It was an historic evening for Romeo Santos, one of Latin music’s most successful icons. On September 21, he headlined a night at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, which became the single highest-grossing concert in the stadium's history, a record previously held by U2.

Named for his latest LP, Utopia, the concert, which spanned 45 songs over four hours and included a guest appearance by rapper Cardi B, was as much a visual tour de force as a musical one, with 22 LED screens covering literally almost every square foot of the stage, including the ceiling. It was an undertaking that required the most robust video servers in the world, and video production designer YC3 Lighting Design turned to Avolites Ai servers to make the night magical.

YC3, which was in charge of the overall stage and production design, fashioned the system around eight Avolites Ai servers—two Q3, two R8, one R4, and three custom servers using Avolites-compatible hardware and Miami software licenses—plus an Avolites Tiger Touch II lighting control console.

“It was the biggest show in the history of Hispanic music!” shares YC3 Lighting Design Owner Yamil Charif of the estimated 85,000 fans who were there. “It was also the highest-grossing concert at the MetLife Stadium, even bigger than U2. It had to be perfect.”

And it was, though not without its challenges. Santos, known as “King of Bachata,” the strain of Latin music from his native Dominican Republic, rarely follows a script, and this show was no exception. “He likes to improvise, to make it up as he goes along,” says Charif. “There was no way we could do this with a single file and just program a server and hit a macro; this show required a lot of flexibility, which came from using many servers, so we could adjust the video images to follow what he was doing as he was feeding off of the crowd.”

Independent London post house Directors Cut Films – owned and operated by its creative staff – has invested in a Baselight TWO colour grading workstation with a Blackboard 2 control panel. Directors Cut works primarily in premium long-form television, as well as drama series, documentaries and feature films, with increasing interest in 4K and HDR.

“Being owned and run by ex-editors, we know what is required to meet and exceed expectations in post,” said Senior Colourist Andy Elliott. “We felt it was the right time to invest and embrace HDR and 4K workflows. HDR in particular produces much more of a positive visual impact, with real benefits in the immersive experience for the viewer.”

Leading broadcasters and production companies in the UK routinely turn to Directors Cut to finish major projects. While the work includes major dramas and some feature films, the company has a reputation for long form TV, especially documentaries. Recent projects graded by Elliott include biographies of Cher and Elton John, an investigation of the Bauhaus for BBC4, and Sir David Attenborough’s call to action Climate Change: The Facts.

Elliott pointed out that such programmes frequently bring together footage shot on multiple different cameras and formats, often in less than ideal circumstances. The task for the colourist is to integrate all of the footage as well as create a coherent look that reflects the story the director wishes to tell. That makes the speed and power of the upgraded Baselight suite an important asset.

At Inter BEE, the FilmLight presence will be led by Koichi Matsui, General Manager of FilmLight KK, along with Yoko Kimura, newly appointed sales and product specialist. “FilmLight is one of the world’s leading companies for production and post production technology,” said Koichi Matsui “Yoko’s recent appointment underlines this region’s importance to us, and is a clear indication of the support we are giving to our existing and future customers in Japan.”

Top end post-production is placing ever-more stringent technical demands on technology, in support of the creative ambitions of directors, cinematographers and colourists. 4K and HDR are now commonplace, and 8K is being broadcast today in Japan. Recently, Baselight workstations were chosen for grading and finishing Ang Lee’s new movie, Gemini Man, shot and delivered in 120 frames per second, 4K, high dynamic range 3D.

Only the power of the Baselight X system can handle such a data-intensive project, while still giving the colourist free rein with next-generation creative tools and realtime response. FilmLight will demonstrate these tools as part of its latest software version at Inter BEE 2019, on an 8K display powered by a Baselight X grading system. This includes new productivity features such as the enhanced timeline with collapsing stacks and multiple tracks.

Ed Shaw of NEICO and Brett Bolton create a stunning immersive projection mapping project in the heart of Las Vegas’ Art District with the help of some of the industry’s top brands.

Tucked away in the Arts District of Las Vegas, a unique installation is taking shape. Ed Shaw of NEICO and Brett Bolton are working tirelessly to create the first of its kind audio visual art installation in Las Vegas. With the support of Avolites, Group One Ltd, AG Light and Sound, X-Laser, GLP and Notch, NEICO presents SPLNTR.

Shaw has had a love for projection since working with 1024 Architecture on the BOOMBOX, one of the first world-wide touring productions of its kind. The spark for SPLNTR came earlier this year when he saw a projection project named ‘POETIC AI' by Ouchhh in Paris and decided that having never seen anything like this in Las Vegas before, now was the time to develop his own idea for an installation. After speaking to a few people, the vision became a reality and he had the go ahead with some help from Avolites. “We were looking for an alternative to a trade show that was more appealing to our clients and designers” Stephen Baird-Smith sales manager of Avolites says “At the same time Ed had the idea for an interactive installation. We’d worked with him and NEICO before on the OMNIA and JEWEL projects so we knew we would work well together. It was the perfect opportunity to bring it together”

Leading London boutique post house Fifty Fifty has added a second Baselight grading suite as part of its expansion programme. With the growing interest in top end content for broadcast and streaming, both suites are equipped for 4K and HDR Ultra HD, and certified for Dolby Vision grading and delivery.

The Immersive Digital Experiences Alliance™ (IDEA) today announced the release of the first draft of royalty-free specifications for the Immersive Technology Media Format (ITMF). ITMF is a display-agnostic interchange format for conveying high-quality and complex image scenes to a wide variety of immersive displays, including extended-reality headsets and display panels, based on the highly anticipated light field technology.

Anton/Bauer today launched the Titon SL series of 14.4V Gold Mount and V-Mount batteries. Joining the first-generation Titon batteries launched earlier this year, the rugged Titon SLs pack the consistently reliable performance found in other Titon batteries into a smaller and lighter-weight form factor, making them ideal for independent content creators (ICCs) and freelance camera operators. The Titon SL is currently offered in 150Wh and 240Wh models.