HARMAN’s Martin Professional Share Your Passion Contest Winner Receives First-Hand Lighting R&D Experience

AARHUS, Denmark — In late 2013, HARMAN’s Martin Professional put out a call to lighting designers around the world, whether a professional lighting designer, small-venue producer or industry newbie, to share their passion for the lighting industry. With hundreds of entries, a 1-minute-long video from 22-year-old Ricardo Dias from Portugal managed to convince Martin he was the most passionate member of the lighting industry. His creative approach to lighting earned him, along with his father, a round-trip visit to Martin headquarters in Denmark for a 2-day tour of a lifetime.

Dias’ creative approach to lighting design was the most impressive point of interest to Martin. The recession continues to impact the lighting industry in Portugal, so the lack of proper equipment forces Dias and his crew of 3-4 friends to be creative when hired for a gig. During events, the team has to make on-the-fly repairs and adjustments on the hardware side and customize software, so they continuously turned to the Martin Forum and YouTube for inspiration.

As a student of Electronics at the University of Aveiro in Portugal, Dias is used to working in the cross field between hardware and technology. One of his recent school projects was an application written for the Microsoft Kinect that allows him to control the light with simple gestures. His next step is a project combining gestures and voice control of light in a stage environment.

Dias is also head coach for a robotics football team and is hoping to attend the upcoming world championship “Robocup” in Brazil this summer. Additionally, he is the President of a Youth Association at his university, consisting of professors and students, where he organizes and promotes extra-curricular lectures and workshops, providing support to student projects.

During their visit, Dias and his father visited the Martin production facilities in Frederikshavn and HQ in Aarhus, where they had a tour of the R&D department and experienced a lighting demonstration in the Martin showroom. They also spent time with Martin employees, such as Ricardo’s longtime industry hero, Product Manager Paul Pelletier.

“They were born and raised in the digital age. Technology does not intimidate them - it is a natural part of their everyday lives,” states Pelletier. “Maybe this is why technology has becomes part of the solution for Ricardo and his peers.”

Among Ricardo’s favorite products is the RUSH range. As he puts it, “all those effects in one small lamp is incredible and I wish I had one at home.” His long-term goal is to combine his passion for lighting with electronics and one day - in the not too distant future - he sees himself working in Martin R&D.

“To Martin, in the wake of his visit, Ricardo Dias has become the symbol of an emerging generation of cross-disciplinary lighting enthusiasts with a brand new methodology and approach,” stated David Ravnkilde, Director of Marketing, Martin. “We’re excited to see what the future has in store for Ricardo and his generation and how they will impact the lighting industry!”

As a world leader in the creation of dynamic lighting solutions for the entertainment, architectural, and commercial sectors, Martin lighting and video systems are renowned the world over. Martin also offers a range of advanced lighting controllers and media servers, as well as a complete line of smoke machines as a complement to intelligent lighting. Martin operates the industry’s most complete and capable distributor network with local partners in nearly 100 countries. Founded in 1987 and based in Aarhus, Denmark, Martin is the lighting division of global infotainment and audio company

HARMAN International Industries. For more information please visit: http://www.martin.com.

HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets – supported by 15 leading brands, including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon® and Mark Levinson®. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of 14,600 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia and reported sales of $4.5 billion for the last twelve months ended September 30, 2013.

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One Direction’s “This Is Us” World Premier Shines Bright In Front of Adoring Fans With HARMAN’s Martin RUSH Series

LONDON, England — With an estimated 70,000 fans screaming and hoping to catch a glimpse of One Direction, the five-member band walked the red carpet outside the Empire Cinema in London’s Leicester Square for the world premier of “1D: This Is Us.” Lighting design and production was handled by premiere veterans Limited Edition Events who utilized HARMAN’s Martin RUSH Series Strobe 5x5’s to add some eye-candy to the daylight event. Emitting an intense but diffused cool light the units produced a myriad of pixel mapped effects which looked fabulous on the global live broadcast.

Nearly 30 Martin RUSH Strobe 5x5’s, provided by HSL lighting of Blackburn, were built into two double sided pyramid set pieces on the main stage along with two smaller pyramids on the DJ stage. With strategic spacing between units an exploded video effect was created. Each of the hundreds of pixels – 25 in each strobe – were controlled individually through the new Martin M6 lighting console.

“The Rush panels are a positive step from the original tungsten panels we all know and love. The cool LED’s provide a crisp clean look to the performance space along with the added benefit of a strobe function and remarkably low power requirements stated Edward Regan, LD. “In addition the kit is smaller and deploys quickly which allows us to be more flexible with our designs. It was a neat set; really good to look at!”

Alongside Regan was Limited Edition’s MD James Barnfather. “The client brief was to create a large high impact effect which would also act as the main backdrop to the interview area; in addition it had to look great on camera and to a live audience in bright daylight conditions. We used a lot of the Jarag-5 panels on the Fast & Furious 6 premiere which the client really liked; therefore we started looking for a similar style product but with a more modern look. The Rush panels worked really well, especially in conjunction with the M6 console which allowed us to create a host of mapped effects in a very short programming window.”

The M6 is a state-of-the-art lighting console, which functions as an advanced ‘visual control’ surface, able to control any lighting rig from conventional moving lights to digital fixtures and LED pixels. Controllable via multiple DMX options or sound activated, RUSH Strobe 5x5 includes preprogrammed effect, letter and number macros for easy-to-produce graphics and messaging.

RUSH provided a stellar performance on camera and for the live audience, receiving a vast amount of positive comments from both technicians and the end client.

A link to the 1D: This Is Us premiere highlights can be found here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uasLHTP1N_w


Founded in 1987 and headquartered in Aarhus, Denmark, Martin Professional is a world leader in the creation of dynamic lighting solutions for the entertainment, architectural, and commercial sectors. Martin lighting solutions are industry standard on top tours and events, grace prestigious theatres, energize nightclubs and decorate major television studios around the globe. Other important areas of application are indoor and outdoor architecture and commercial applications where Martin products are increasingly being used to transform spaces with dynamic light. Martin also offers a range of advanced lighting controllers and media servers, as well as a complete line of smoke machines as a complement to intelligent lighting. The company operates the industry’s most complete and capable distributor network with local partners in nearly 100 countries. Martin Professional joined the HARMAN families of category-leading technology and lifestyle brands in March 2013.

HARMAN (www.HARMAN.com) designs, manufactures, and markets a wide range of infotainment and audio solutions for the automotive, consumer, and professional markets. It is a recognized world leader across its customer segments with premium brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon®, and Mark Levinson® and leading-edge connectivity, safety and audio technologies. The company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 14,000 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia and reported sales of $4.3 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2013.

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