ETC Equipment Survives Bomb Blast
ETC equipment proved its extraordinary resiliency earlier this year, remaining intact and working after a 500-pound car bomb destroyed part of a theatre in Portadown, Co. Armagh, Northern Ireland. The bomb exploded just 80 meters from the town hall theatre, where local primary school children were competing in a speech and drama festival. Fortunately, no one was hurt. And, not only did the Express desk and Source Fours survive the blast, but the fixtures were so resilient that they remained at exactly the same levels as they had been set. Without switching off any equipment, the theatre's Technical Manager Rodney Ellis evacuated the building immediately. "When I returned," comments Ellis, "I was amazed to discover that the ETC Express 125 desk, Connection 96 unit, and stock of Source Four PARS and Profiles were still working at the same level I had left them!"   Ellis is both amazed and grateful that the Source Fours and Express console survived the explosion: "I will definitely be purchasing more ETC Source Fours- they can stand up to almost anything, now that they have passed the Northern Ireland equivalent to the CE mark! It adds a whole new dimension to the saying 'The show must go on!'"  The impact of the blast caused extensive damage to the 108-year-old theatre: all the windows and frames were forced in, and the fire and dock doors were blown off their hinges, one of which was later found on the opposite side of the stage. The control room needed immediate attention after the glass hatch had been blown out and the walls were badly damaged, as was the flytower, which had been stuck by shrapnel and bits of the car. The bomb cost the town an estimated £3.5 million. But with the generous help of ETC's Belfast dealer Stage Services North and volunteers from the local theatre community, the theatre was up and running, ready to continue the Speech and Drama Festival by 10:00AM the following day, albeit minus a few fire damaged non-ETC fixtures.

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Lighting the Sacred: The Spiritual Side of ETC
Over 450 houses of worship - churches, temples, seminaries - use ETC lighting systems. From
the traditional to the trendy, ETC helps illuminate these sacred spaces where light must be profoundly symbolic and practical. Increasingly, churches and temples are large-scale and high-tech in their applications performing arts - centers for worship. And as the trend for houses-of-worship-as-community-centers broadens, many worship spaces are doing double architectural time as lecture halls or sports facilities. The Santa Cruz Bible Church, Santa Cruz, California, for example, goes from being an elaborate worship space with a stage-like proscenium on the weekends to a large gymnasium on weekdays. Theatrical lighting effects for religious services must co-exist with full sports lighting capabilities. Many churches have elaborate icons, art, and structural detail that must be specially highlit for drama, requiring unique lighting design and equipment. Light must be calibrated carefully for reading (prayerbook paper can be thin and hard to read). Candlelight and natural light from stained glass or other windows must also be figured into sophisticated lighting control equations. Designed, specified and sold by Ron Simonson, Mark Pearson, and Jayna Williams of CCI Systems of Olympia, Washington, the ETC system at Santa Cruz comprises an Insight 2 console, multiple Source Four spotlights, a Sensor 48 dimmer, a L86 ARW architectural receiver unit, and three LCD control stations. Williams applauds ETC - and the shipping department in particular - for being able to turn around the Santa Cruz system well before the deadline, saving CCI great time and stress in a pinch.

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The Greatest of All Honor
ETC lights the Indianapolis Congressional Medal of Honor Memorial On Memorial Day weekend, enormous etched-glass sculptures featuring the names of some of our country's most courageous men and women were lit by ETC's dimming and lighting control equipment. The spectacular glass pieces are part of Indianapolis' new Medal of Honor Memorial. Each of the 27 curved walls of glass represent a different conflict in our history and feature the name of every person who has received the Congressional Medal of Honor - 3,410 in total. The Indianapolis Power and Light Company (IPALCO Enterprises, Inc.) is contributing the memorial as a gift to the Medal of Honor recipients and to the country.   So that the names are easily visible day and night, the glass sails are lit from the bottom. Rob Cross of Cross Lighting, Indiana, was intimately involved in the lighting control systems' design and installation: "We used a combination of ETC Unison dimmers, and Paine Sparkman metal halide dimming ballasts to control the fixtures that illuminated the sails as well as all of the sight lighting. The ETC Expression 3 LPC (Lighting Playback Controller) controls both the ETC dimmers along with a Touch Plate relay panel to operate metal halide ballasts."   Metal halide fixtures manufactured by Bega illuminate the sculptures so that the names of each Medal of Honor recipient can be seen clearly. Simultaneously, the ETC system will 'talk' with the memorial's audio system so that the names of the men and tales of their heroic acts are read aloud to visitors walking past the sculptures. "There is also a special telephone interface for special events. You can call up the system and drive it to do a set of special events and macros we set up," says Cross   Says Cross, "It's somewhat similar to the Vietnam Memorial, only it provides much more detailed information on each soldier. And when it's all lit up and the audio is running, it is a powerful presentation in honor of those who have served our country."

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