During a two-month production hiatus back in 2007, Brent Hageman, the Casino’s head of lighting and sound, had been exploring alternative lighting options and decided to integrate 2-dozen ChromaFlood 200 LED lights into the show’s traditional lighting configuration, purchased in Las Vegas from Mojave Systems’ Peter Chachere. With challenges of the desert’s weather challenges, he was pleased overall with the reliability of the LED products. ‘I’d been hearing about LEDs overall, and in talking with other vendors and researching different brands, we decided to go with 14 Pulsar Chromaflood 200s,’ says Hageman.

‘We’re using 6 for a partial stage wash and 8 for a cyc wash behind one of the ships in the show. For the most part, it’s a pretty conventional application, but we’re doing a lot of color changing and running a few effects through them during the show. These are actually brighter then what we had initially, the colors are more true, and they’re reliable. You don’t have the issues of having a moving part malfunction or shifting a fraction one way or another. Other lights we had been using were having issues, so as far as the maintenance aspect, we’re getting the same results with no issues.’ Since coming back on line after Christmas, Hageman says they’ve zero problems, especially in the face of weather challenges posed with an outdoor show.

‘That’s definitely the main advantage of the Pulsar LEDs. Whether it’s hot, cold, rainy, or the summer’s dry heat, there is no maintenance required’and in a show of this magnitude which operates 7 days a week, it’s nice to have part of your rig that you don’t have to worry about. A lot of companies say that their stuff is weatherproof, or IP65-rated, but sometimes there are issues where they will trip GFI’s and get moist’ But we can run these right in the rain, no problem. It’s also nice not to have to put them into some kind of tent or other enclosure. We just let them do their job.’

Hageman also found an added bonus of using the Pulsar LED, which was the cost-savings aspect, not only from the obvious maintenance, bulb replacement aspect, but the fact that the ChromaFlood’s offer low power consumption. ‘We are running fewer amps of power, and are liking the fact that we are saving energy and not compromising the integrity of the end result. We’re definitely exploring ways to implement more of them into the show this year.’ Photo Caption: Ahoy, Land Lubbers! Live from the Las Vegas ‘Sirens of TI’ show: Treasure Island’s Lighting Production Team and Pulsar principals (LtoR): John Bentley, Brent Hageman, Pulsar US Sales Manager Jerry Colmenero, Pulsar UK Technical Sales Manager Snowy Johnson, Ken Taber and Jeff Baligian. (Not pictured Mark Broedling).

About Pulsar Based in the heart of Cambridge UK, Pulsar develops and manufactures LED lighting and lighting control solutions for professional entertainment and architecture installations around the world. Pulsar is exclusively distributed in the U.S. by Group One Ltd. of Farmingdale, New York. Group One is also the exclusive U.S. distributor for Blue Sky International, Celestion Professional Products, MC2 Audio Ltd.,DiGiCo UK, XTA Electronics Ltd and a number of prominent lighting products. www.pulsarlight.com For further information, please contact any member of the the Pulsar sales network. We are always glad to help.

Anyway, we found this interesting little tidbit on Engadget today.. looks like someone has gone ahead and made a SMS controlled 3000 LED UFO looking spaceship. Well, it’s hanging via some wires, but we don’t need to talk about that. It’s freaking controlled with SMS’s.

Here’s the picture and article. Head over to Engadget for a video too.

Hey France, we’ve got one more for your sophisticated UFO archive. Dreamed up by artist Peter Coffin and crafted in conjunction with London-based Cinimod Studio, this 7-meter structure was built from aluminum and covered with 3,000 shockingly bright programmable LEDs. Furthermore, there’s an on board 6kW generator to provide power, and the overall UFO can be remotely controlled via SMS. There are even assertions that this thing flew along the coast of Sopot, Poland on July 4th (and even a video to “prove it,” posted after the jump), but we all know how dubious such proclamations can be.

[Via Hack N Mod]

I’ve been testing the Tri-L LED light by Altus Lumen. I have to admit that this light has become one of my favorite gadgets. The design of the Tri-L shows great attention to detail. The metal housing is made out of 85% recycled magnesium which is lighter than aluminum, so the Tri-L feels solid yet light in your hand. When folded up, the light acts as a flashlight, and measures just 110×60×20mm, so it fits nicely in a pocket. When unfolded, the light becomes its own 360 degree tripod stand, and can be used as a serious worklight or booklight.

 

The Tri-L’s hinges are also impressive – they are made with fraction joins instead of screws. The light can be fixed precisely in any orientation you set.

The Tri-L has a built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery, which can be recharged using the provided USB charger, or via mini-USB cable attached to a computer. The runtime is around 1.8 hours for the flashlight, and around 8 hours for worklight once the battery is fully charged. The runtime can be extended with an optional extended battery pack.

The LEDs are latest high-intensity models and they are very bright. The worklight lit up my entire garage, and the flashlight is certainly bright enough for my needs.

The Tri-L will also warn you when it’s about to run out of power. It flashes for 30 seconds when its about to shut off — you have 30 seconds before the spotlight turns off, or 10 minutes before the flashlight runs out.

The manufacturer, Altus Lumen, state that 75% of the Tri-L is recyclable, and is built for easy disassembly. It is made with non-toxic components, and is LOHAS compliant. It is packaged in an eco-friendly carboard container.

The Tri-L sells for $99 and is available from Altus Lumen.

Here’s something that’s sure to draw crowds the next time you feel the need to draw attention to yourself. This dizzying show of colored light is produced by a rapidly spinning Hula Hoop, packed with LED lighting.

Handcrafted by Etsy contributor Schablien, the LED Hula Hoop works its magic with 18 super-bright LEDs embedded into the hoop. Half of the lights change colors, while the other half are fixed tones, producing a rainbow of hues as you swing your hips to-and-fro.

The hoop is powered by a rechargeable battery pack which should give you 8 to 10 hours of illumination before it needs a charge. You can find the light-up hoop over on Schlabein’s Etsy shop for $195.

In the words of Alvin (of Chipmunk fame), “Me, I want a Hula Hoop.”

This huge LED screen displays mesmerizing patterns of light and video to passersby. But the really amazing thing about the enormous wall of light is that it’s completely self-sustaining. That is, the light panels themselves harness the energy of the sun during the day to power a colorful light show at night.

GreenPix – Zero Energy Media Wall uses thousands solar photovoltaic capture cells attached to a grid of glass panels, each of which conceals an array of computer-controlled LEDs.

The wall was constructed for visitors attending the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and located in the Xicui entertainment complex, near the site of the games.

The display opens to the public this month, and will feature live and recorded video performances works by artists from around the world.

GreenPix was designed and implemented by New York architecture firm Simone Giostra & Partners, along with global design and engineering firm Arup.

You can read more about the project over on the GreenPix website. (Check out this nifty simulator application if you want to get a better idea of how the display works). Or Watch A Video of it here.

 

Here is a little gadget to show your support for green energy. The solar powered Keychain LED light gives you light when you need if you expose it to some sun once in a while.

 

The Solar panel on this keychain is very small, but the 3 white LEDs just do not need much juice.

 

The Hong Kong based Gadget store Brando sells the Solar keychain for $9.50.

 

See also the Hymini personal Wind power generator.

 

This is NOVA, a 3D LED display, developed by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich to celebrate their 150th anniversary. Here are some numbers: it is build with 25000 lightballs, each containing 12 LED’s. It can display 16 million colors and 25 images per second. It measures 5 by 5 by 1 meter and it is 3.3 tons heavy. Impressive! So if you happen to go to Zurich, make sure you go and check it out in the train stations main hall, it will be there till September 2009.

There are some more photos in tom29ger his Flickr set.

Simon Watkinson’s Halation project provides 18-month visitor attraction at Southampton heritage site

Southampton City Council has launched its spectacular Halation project, illuminating the city’s historic 600 year-old High Arcades along Western Esplanade with colour-changing linear LED strips from Pulsar Light.

The initiative to highlight Southampton’s five medieval arches near the waterfront is the result of collaboration between lighting artist Simon Watkinson and Southampton City Council, under public arts officer Liz Smith. Costing £74,000 to stage, the project — part of the Southampton Public Art Strategy initiative — has been funded by the Area Investment Framework (AIF) and rubber-stamped by the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) and Southampton Partnership. Halation will run for a minimum of 18 months.

Tyneside-based Simon Watkinson’s work (largely within the Old Town walls) is already familiar to the Southampton community, and he has turned frequently in the past to the local branch of Stage Electrics to help realise his ambitions.

This time the challenge was to soften the arches using lighting strips fixed to metalwork — designed to simulate the timber frame construction that was a feature of Southampton’s Old Town. The metalwork ‘arms’ in turn create three ‘virtual’ arches within the five-arch superstructure, enabling the artist to mount a mesmerising stained-glass effect.

Acting as project manager, Stage Electrics’ Business Development Manager, Ed Gamble, considered how the artist’s concept might be implemented, and proposed 55 lengths of ChromaStrip X3, Pulsar’s IP65-rated RGB linear LED strips, driven over a 7-minute time cycle by a series Pulsar ChromaZone RMX3 operating under generic DMX control.

He said, “We went to Pulsar because we are familiar with the product, we know it is IP-rated and we know we can support it as the back-up is excellent. On top of that it has a very accurate beam angle of 45° so there is no overspill between the segments.”

Handling the DMX distribution from the master position in the central arcade is a concealed Swisson device — part of a range of DMX manipulation and sine-wave dimming products from the Swiss manufacturer which Stage Electrics represents in the UK.

The two criteria which the installation needed to meet were speed and sensitivity. In view of its heritage the work had to be carried out under the close scrutiny of English Heritage and be non-invasive. Thus it required its own ground support — the structure sitting on a 600mm x 600mm x 300mm concrete pad — covered by ballast, and had to be completely self-supporting.

With the control gear likewise concealed in metal boxes, the metal infrastructure was fabricated and installed by local company Scroll Gates, with 8 x 900mm 1W ChromaStrips and 3 x 600mm 1W strips affixed to the metalwork frame in each of the five arches.

This provides the capacity for a near infinite number of colour combinations which have been programmed into the seven-minute sequence by Steve Brown.

Simon Watkinson explained that the installation had to be carried out “at breakneck speed” — views echoed by Ed Gamble and Liz Smith. A project that would generally require at least six months to co-ordinate in the event was delivered in two and a half months, they said.

One of the biggest draws on both time and budget had been bringing the power to the site, enabling the feature to be activated nightly via photo-cell (a solar time clock) and switched off at 1am.

As for Simon Watkinson, he explained, “There was nothing psychological about the colour sequencing — although it is possibly thematic in relation to the sea, and also brings out the heraldic qualities. It is mostly based on the visual impression of stained glass and the shifting quality of the light.”

The structure itself had been derived from Southampton’s timber-frame heritage (particularly in the archaeologically-rich French Quarter) and this had provided the inspiration for the stained glass effect. “The walls have gone through a lot of permutations and I wanted Halation to emphasise these changes rather than be presented as a solid stone structure; the stained glass effect lessens the weight and creates new depths to the spaces. The idea was always to make it striking and simple, and I’m absolutely delighted with the result.”

Equally delighted is Liz Smith. “We had wanted to focus on the Old Town and its historic values, and this has become of huge heritage interest.

“I think it’s a credit to the project team that we were able to pull it off in such a short period of time. We are delighted with the result, and I must say it has been great working with Stage Electrics and our own ground crew, led by Allen Miles.”

Commission:
Southampton City Council Public Art Strategy – www.southampton.gov.uk

Lighting Design:
Simon Watkinson – simon@simonwatkinson.com

LED Lighting:
Stage Electrics – www.stage-electrics.co.uk

Lighting Equipment:
55 Pulsar ChromaStrip X3, 5 ChromaZone RMX3 – www.pulsarlight.com

For further information, please contact www.pulsarlight.com

From Engadget..

Not like we haven’t seen a similar idea passed around before, but James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau have apparently taken things one step further with their LED Dog Tail Communicator. As the title implies, the device would simply be affixed to your favorite canine’s tail, after which it could broadcast actual words based on the speed of the tail wag. There’s no telling just how many phrases the thing could spell out — and honestly, we have no idea how accurate the statements would actually be — but this may be just the thing to keep Rover quiet while still letting him get his point across.

This LED ring from Marumi will allow you to take better close-up pictures with your compact digital camera. The ringlike form provides a smooth and shadowless illumination of your object from every side.

This ring light unit provides an illumination akin to daylight. This results in brighter colours. The ring light has two steps of light intensity. You always can choose the matching light intensity for the actual ambient light.

You can attach the ring light to any camera which has a tripod thread. By the help of the flexible bending arm you can adjust the ring light to any camera type. You just have to bend the bending arm so that it is positioned in front of the lens of the camera.