Hong Kong’s Special Administrative Region Establishment Day on 1 July 2008 marked, not only 11 years since its transfer back to China, but also the official launch of Artistic Licence Asia.The new company, founded as an evolution of the successful relationship between Artistic Licence UK and the Hong Kong based Ptarmigan Consulting, will, like its UK counterpart, take an active role in both product and project based activities in the Far and Middle East.
“We have been working together on a less formal basis for the past two years,” explains Artistic Licence Managing Director, Wayne Howell. “This has proved to be a great, and continuing, success allowing us to explore the market thoroughly and establish ourselves within it. We have decided the time is now right to formalise the relationship by forming an independent company, Artistic Licence Asia.”
With its manufacturing capability based in the UK, Artistic Licence’s Ethernet and DMX distribution products are proving extremely popular. Art-Net products have made inroads into many projects, the sheer volume of which ensures demand has never been higher. The Wynn Casino Theatre and Lobby, the Venetian Casino and the Lisboa Roundabout in Macau are just some of the projects using Colour-Tramp 2/3 dimensional lighting array controllers, Net-Lynx and RDM Splitter products, with further products sales across Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Galaxy Park, Tianjin
Malaysia and China, and Dubai and Kuwait in the Middle East.
Whilst Artistic Licence Asia is ideally placed to facilitate product sales in the region, its main focus will be project-based, covering both the Far and Middle East. Artistic Licence’s technical innovation combined with Ptarmigan’s 21 years of experience working in these regions will be of great value to those attempting to come to terms with the, often difficult, working environment.
“Our mission is to work closely alongside local and overseas designers throughout the whole process, acting in a guiding and advisory role to help them to find the best solutions to their project,” states Howell. “With the rapid development of China and the influx of new technologies from the West to deal with, we have a lot to offer with our experience and knowledge.
“Artistic Licence Asia has four full time members of staff and a high level of resources to hand. Our track record shows we are not here to jump on the bandwagon but here for the long stay."
Past Artistic Licence projects in Asia have included The Legend, Hong Kong, Songs of the Sea at Sentosa, Singapore (for Lion City Show Supply Ltd), Galaxy Park, Tianjin and the award winning Aspire Tower, Doha, the latter of which utilises 200 of the newly released Artistic Licence Candle-Power CP12-12-350, 24 Net-Lynx O/P Ethernet to DMX512 converters and an Artistic Licence Colour-Tramp 8U.
Currently Artistic Licence is working with Norm Schwab and Glenn Wade of Lightswitch, San Francisco on the Coca Cola Pavilion for the Beijing Olympic Games. A two-storey, 4000sqm building, the Coca Cola Pavilion is the largest facility on the Corporate Sponsor Row, located outside the main Birds Nest stadium and providing exhibition space and corporate hospitality throughout the games.
The building houses an exhibition documenting the history of Coca Cola alongside that of the Olympic Games, the “Perfect Serve” hospitality area, a Media zone running automated fixtures including Vari
The full architectural package adds up to 9 universes of DMX512 which, on the advice of Artistic Licence Asia’s Simon Fraser, is controlled by 13 Artistic Licence Down-Lynx Art-Net to DMX nodes.
Artistic Licence Asia and Lightswitch came to work on the Coca Cola Pavilion following an introduction over an earlier project in Macau for which Schwab is Principle Designer.
“Simon Fraser was recommended to us when we started work on the project about a year ago. Our original design did not incorporate Artistic Licence products,” explains Lightswitch’s Glenn Wade, Lighting Design Project Manager. “But as the design developed and got more complex, we realised that the Artistic Licence range of nodes, converter boxes and distribution tools ticked all the right boxes. They were also readily available in the region and came in at such a good price. Simon’s advice on what we should use has been invaluable and it is good to be able to leave the details to him so I can concentrate on the bigger picture to achieve the results we want.”
“We see the role of Artistic Licence Asia largely as one of integration and as a solution provider,” states Howell. “Whilst we are very happy that our products are doing so well in this region, we are also keen to highlight that we do not restrict ourselves to Artistic Licence products alone. It is our aim to bring the right solution to the table for each project and to support those solutions with the best products and service for the job. The fact that our customers are returning to us repeatedly proves we have been doing just that.”