Balloon light
Balloon lights (also called lighting balloons) are a specialized type of luminaire used primarily for lighting in the motion picture industry, night highway construction, incident management, and public security applications such as police checkpoints. These luminaires typically consist of one or more high-intensity lamps surrounded by a translucent fabric balloon. The balloon acts as a diffuser to soften and disperse the light. The upper portion of the balloon sometimes has a reflective inner coating to direct more of the light downward. Some commercial products use a blower to expand the balloon, while others have an umbrella-like  internal wire frame. The device is essentially an industrial version of a Japanese paper lantern. The lighting balloon was first patented in Germany on October 26, 1924 (patent #427894). Until the 1990s, several patents were issued, although the application was utilized very little in Western countries. The lighting balloon industry has been greatly modernized by the company Airstar. History. In 1994, Pierre Chabert and Benoit Beylier, founder of Airstar, a French company based in Grenoble (Isère), created a balloon light, a self-supporting spacelight suspended in a helium-inflated balloon. It is ideal for interiors or exteriors where rigging is  a problem. One of the first movies ever lit with this kind of system, was "", directed by Brian De Palma, Director of Photography - Stephen H. Burum, Gaffer - Laurie Shane. It was developed for the ‘embassy’ interior, which was shot at Národní Muzeum, Natural History Museum, Václavské námestí 68 in "Prague". Then one of the next big movies was "Titanic", directed by James Cameron. Later they were used in the Opening Ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, the lighting set for Pirates of the Caribbean, "Rang De Basanti", "Sivaji", "Avatar", Singapore Grand Prix and the Vancouver Olympics. Balloon light