Date: August 2008

LIGHTHOUSE AND THE PICTURE WORKS ENSURE JAY-Z'S GLASTONBURY PERFORMANCE IS UNFORGETTABLE

UK – 12th August 08 - Within literally minutes of Jay-Z hitting the stage at the 2008 Glastonbury Festival, which was held in UK at the end of June, the rapper’s Saturday headline slot had already become the stuff of legend. And a giant Lighthouse LED screen played a large part in ensuring that people would never forget the festival’s first rap headliner.

Prior to the festival, there had been a fair amount of negative comment about Jay-Z headlining the festival’s Saturday night, most famously from Oasis’ Noel Gallagher. The rapper dealt with the issue head-on with a two-minute video intro to his set, which used a wide variety of footage, cut-together in a thoroughly ironic style, to lead into the first song - an equally ironic cover of Oasis Wonderwall.

The intro was screened on a giant 15 x 5 panel (15.3m (w) x 3.8m (h)) Lighthouse R7-ER 7mm visual pitch LED screen, which also formed a visually stunning backdrop to the rest of Jay-Z’s set. The only problem was that, not long before the festival, there were very little R7-ER screens in the UK that wasn’t already in use.

“We were already on site doing various projection jobs and we were the only company who had any quantity of R7-ER available,” says Robin Wealleans of screen provider, The Picture Works. “Unfortunately we only had about half the required quantity of panels in the country and Jay-Z insisted on using R7-ER for the backdrop. It was obviously a key part of his performance so there was a stark choice for the Glastonbury organisers – to source more R7-ER panels or Jay-Z doesn’t play.”

The Picture Works pulled out all the stops to get additional R7-ER panels they already had on order to the Glastonbury site. The problem was that the panels were still in China.

“Just a week before the festival, the panels were still at Lighthouse’s production facility in China,” says Robin. “They had been held up due to the typhoon which hit China in April and it was a major logistical challenge to get them air freighted over to Somerset in time at such short notice.”

As it was, with Lighthouse and The Picture Works both pulling out all the stops, the panels made it to Glastonbury in time - just!

“We were supposed to be hanging the screen on the Thursday evening, but the panels didn’t land in the UK until Friday morning,” says Robin. “There was no chance to take them to our premises and test them, We managed to get them straight to site by 4pm on Friday and I was taking the protective plastic off the panels on stage.

“Everybody worked incredibly hard, there wasn’t a moment to spare. My heart was in my mouth for several days. It was quite a miracle that we managed it.”

But the stress and work were well worth it, as the screen helped Jay-Z to deliver a headline performance that will be remembered for many years.

“I watched most of the set from side stage with festival founders Michael and Emily Eavis, who were absolutely delighted,” says Robin. “The screen looked stunning, the panels worked extremely well ‘straight out of the box’ and Jay-Z’s people were really delighted.

“When you saw how much detail had gone into the video content for Jay-Z performance, you saw how important the screen was. It was the Lighthouse screen that allowed all that to happen and it played a huge part in making his performance so memorable.”

~END~

Pictures courtesy of Mike Lethby

About Lighthouse Technologies

Lighthouse Technologies Limited is a leading LED technology developer, manufacturer and global supplier of state-of-the-art LED modular video panels, which can be assembled into large scale video screens for indoor and outdoor use. Specializing in the research and manufacture of LED video screens, Lighthouse has its own intellectual properties with more than 10 active patents worldwide and is committed to remain as the premier creator of intellectual property value.

The company’s LED components, panels and complete video systems undergo stringent quality control with power-on, burn-in processes at ISO 14001 and ISO 9001-certified manufacturing plants. Its products have won several international awards, among them, the IBC Exhibition Design Award 2005, the Best-In-Show Award at InfoComm 2005, the Best New Product Award at the National Association of Broadcasters 2002 (NAB) show and the Good Buzz award at InfoComm 2004, the Technological Achievement Certificate of Merit in the 2003 Hong Kong Awards for Industry as well as the prestigious Consumer Product Design Award and the HKITCC Certificate of Merit in Technological Achievement in the 1999 Hong Kong Awards for Industry. Lighthouse was also recognized as one of the Fastest Growing Technology Companies in the 2002 Deloitte Technology Fast 250.

Lighthouse operates worldwide, through sales offices and technical support teams in the United States, Canada, South America, United Kingdom, Continental Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. For more information, please visit www.lighthouse-tech.com.

Media Contact:

Sarah James, Gasoline Media Limited,
9 Dalmore Avenue
Claygate
Surrey KT10 0HQ
England.
E-mail:  info@gasolinemedia.com
Phone: +44 (0)1372 471472

Lighthouse Technologies Limited,
Suites 531-537, Building 2,
Hong Kong Science Park,
Shatin, N.T.,
Hong Kong.
Tel: 852 2192 1688
Fax: 852 2423 1062
E-mail: info@lighthouse-tech.com
www.lighthouse-tech.com