LDI 2002 Award Winners

Well, LDI 2002 is now history, so we have decided to highlight the award winning products from the show as well as the LDI Designers of the Year that used their talents and imaginations to bring us memorable works and interesting new designs. This year's LDI showcased a number of new and interesting products and technologies that promise to make our lives easier if not somewhat more interesting. Herewith is a recap of the award winning designers and manufacturers.

Designer of the Year Awards

In the world of television there is one name that is synonymous with television lighting. Talk about a career: From NBC in the 1940s to the Olympics in 2002, by way the Republican National Convention in 2000 and hundreds and hundreds of awards shows and specials, not to mention over 25 Emmy, Monitor, and Ace awards. It’s about time the 2002 LDI Lighting Designer of the Year, Entertainment went to Bill Klages.

When it comes to architectural lighting, some of the most exquisite work is done in the elegant environments of museums and the sizzle of science centers, where good lighting design enhances not only the architecture but works hand in hand with the exhibits to create an exciting visitor experience. For his outstanding work in the field of museum lighting, the 2002 LDI Lighting Designer of the Year, Architecture went to Steven Rosen of Available Light.

Theme parks are great fun especially when the theme is the movies. A great new example of this is the new Walt Disney Studios in Paris where the theme is 100% Hollywood. From the stunning exterior lighting of the entry plaza to the dynamic lighting of the Armageddon attraction, the park lighting is 100% perfect. For her role in the design of this movie-lovers paradise, the 2002 LDI Lighting Designer of the Year, Themed Project went to Tracy Eck of Euro Disney Imagineering.

For the past 30 years, on both sides of the Atlantic, John Leonard has worked with everyone from the Old Vic, the Young Vic, the Almeida, The Royal Court, to the RSC and the National, as well as in the West End and on Broadway, on productions ranging from Antony and Cleopatra to Private Lives. For a distinguished career in sound design, the 2002 LDI Sound Designer of the Year went to John Leonard.

LDI 2002 Best Booth, Best Laser Display, and Creative Use of Light Awards

The Best Booth Award, Small Booth went to Penn Fabrication for a clever, eye-catching display that puts their product right in the eye of the consumer.

The Large Booth, Honorable Mention went to Robe for their aqueous projection surface and colorful lighting display.

The Best Booth Award, Large Booth went to Coemar for their futuristic combination of color, movement, and architecture in a kinetic and welcoming environment.

The Best Laser Display, Honorable Mention went to Laser Fantasy International for their ongoing series of witty, visual surprises.

The Best Laser Display Award went to OmniSistem Lights and Effects for stylish launch of their new Pulse Division in a fully designed show.

The Best Creative Use of Light Award went to High End Systems for a sensuous and exciting mix of automated lighting and video imagery.

Product of the Year Awards

At this year’s LDI show we have made changes in the Product of the Year awards. We are creating a distinction between New Products and Debuting/Conceptual New Products. We want to get away from manufacturers rushing a product to the show for a debut before it is ready for release.

At this year’s LDI, new product categories were created. There are now two different categories for the product awards; Product of the Year and Debuting Product/Promising Prototype. To qualify as a Product of the Year, the product must have been released in the past year and be shipping. If a product is introduced at LDI for the first time, it qualifies as a Debuting Product/Promising Prototype. If the product had been a Debuting Product/Promising Prototype at one years LDI, it is qualified to be considered as a Product of the Year at the following years LDI show. This product may be a concept or prototype as long as there is sufficient documentation showing what it will be. This award will honor originality and daring conceptual leaps.

This year the judges put in a lot of time racing around the floor, checking out all of the booths on the floor, the demo rooms, and even the conversations at the parties and in the hotel bars. It was a tough year for a variety of reasons, but overall, we think that we have found products that push the envelope and bring technology to the next level.

Product of the Year – Lighting/Entertainment – Entertainment Technology's Intelligent Raceway is a true cross of sophisticated remote dimming with traditional power distribution. Extremely quiet, cost-effective and eminently flexible to use, the Intelligent Raceway has a place in theatre, television, theme parks, and all sorts of permanent applications. Entertainment Technology is a division of Genlyte Thomas.

Product of the Year – Lighting Accessory – City Theatrical's WDS Wireless Dimming System. There are a number of wireless DMX systems on the market, but this unit is the first to add a 15A dimmer. So, now you can have a remote dimmer on a wagon, in a prop, or on a costume. Now you can add a controllable light wherever you need it.

Lighting Tools and Software Award – As an industry we have embraced the computer as a tool to make our work easier – as a way to integrate our plots; our paperwork; and our visualization of the finished product. People can be passionate about in their loyalty to the platform they prefer to draft on. Outside of our industry, AutoCAD has emerged as a defacto development & exchange standard. For adding the powerful 3D rendering tools of Viz 4 and Lightscape and credibility of IES standard photometrics to entertainment designer’s toolboxes – and making them user friendly enough to use without three new textbooks – we recognize Design and Drafting’s LD Assistant Ac with VIZlink.

Sound Product of the Year went to the Klark Teknik’s DN9340 Helix Digital Equalizer This extremely flexible two-rack DSP device features an extremely intuitive user interface. For users of the Midas Heritage and Legend boards, it sports a handy auto-solo function allowing for quick and easy outboard EQ selection from the console, as well as dynamic EQ via Threshold Dependent Equalization, which provides real time dynamic control over any potential problem frequency.

Product of the Year – Rigging and Hardware – Who wouldn’t want a product that takes the drudgery out of hanging and re-hanging moving lights? ACT Enterprises’ Moving Light Hanger, distributed by City Theatrical, does just what its name implies, but safer and easier. Even better is the head slapping simplicity of leaving the clamps on the pipe when it’s time to swap out a fixture. The hardware left behind by the original unit guarantees the replacement goes up in exactly the same place, saving time trying to recreate the original hang, or updating focuses and cues.

Product of the Year – Rigging and Hardware, Honorable Mention – We all recognize the importance of safety – nowhere more so than in the area of stage rigging. For helping to bring industrial lock-out/tag-out capabilities to our industry (before somebody else makes us do it first!) the panel of judges recognize the H & H Specialties Rope Lock and Safety Lockout for an Honorable Mention in the Rigging and Hardware category.

Product of the Year – Widget – There are also lots of nifty little products we call Widgets, or simple, clever solutions to common annoyances. This year’s clever solution combines two steps into one and no more Duvetyn is needed, now that you can use the TentTec O-Bag to cleanly decorate and hold down boom bases.

Debuting Product/Promising Prototype

Debuting Product/Promising Prototype of the Year – Lighting/Entertainment – Philips Ceramic ST250HR lamp, based on its C3 technology, offers the stage and studio market a new alternative for a 3200K light source. The product will offer a major advance while running at lower temperature, in a moving light within the theatrical and studio environment, finally giving the output required, yet matching conventional fixtures in a rig it’s alongside. The halogen color temperature; a long-life & lower power consumption make this new lamp a winner.

Debuting Product/Promising Prototype of the Year – Lighting/Architecture – Lighting Services Inc’s BP150 Series Metal Halide Framing Projector combines the color rich ceramic metal halide lamp, excellent optics, and the sturdy LSI track hardware in a sleek, elegantly designed package, allowing for pattern projection in architectural applications.

Debuting Product/Promising Prototype of the Year – Lighting Accessory – Projecting patterns & slides in architectural applications is always a challenge for developing a small, simple, elegant, solution for projecting dichroic slides using nothing more than an MR16 lamp, we recognize the Derksen Gobo Top, distributed by Image Projections.

Debuting Product/Promising Prototype of the Year – Lighting Tools and Software – John McKernon’s Lightwright 4 represents a giant leap forward on theatrical lighting paperwork software. In addition to inspired ease of use, this new version allows the user to make and archive focus notes; communicate and administer work notes within one piece of software. It retains the ability to be customized to the users needs.

Debuting Product/Promising Prototype of the Year – Scenic Effects – Recognizing an opportunity to revitalize the stock of existing owners as well as gain entry into the discipline of video, we congratulate Pani’s E-Slide for its inventive method of adding video to existing Pani projectors. Theatres all over the world will now have a simple, inexpensive solution to their video projection requirements.

Debuting Product/Promising Prototype of the Year – Rigging and Hardware – ACT Enterprises’ Locking Swivel Coupler is a clever solution to an age-old problem: taking the wobble out of your rigging.

Debuting Product/Promising Prototype of the Year – Rigging and Hardware – The committee was very impressed with the very new and very cool looking, New Wave Truss from Total Structures. A modular structural system of truss that includes the range of materials that is available in-carbon fiber, Plexiglas, and aluminum; its integral branding and design opportunities; its connection system and overall appearance, made it an easy choice for the judges.

Special Award for Product Innovation – As the two design areas of lighting and projection mingle, the committee wanted to recognize this forward thinking response to a need. Combining a standard lighting console and DMX with the capabilities of a broadcast-quality video mixer, in a real-time environment, was an act of real imagination. This award went to Diagonal Research and Delicate Productions for its NEV Series 6.

Cool Product – The Optispace Ceiling iball, gets the cool product, but where to we judge it award. It is ideal for point of purchase areas. It uses LEDs to project images including Bitmaps, JPEGS and AVI files onto a plastic sphere, which provides a measure of safety in public spaces, where a glass sphere would be inappropriate.

We want to thank all of the exhibitors for another year of great products, new technologies, and fun swag. There was much celebrating and partying all over Las Vegas. As always it was a hectic, but fun LDI show. We did not have enough time to see everyone; if we could only do without sleep, we could better utilize our time. Oh well, there is always next year.