UK - PRG Europe has supplied the lighting for what is believed to be the biggest moving light rig for a British television series, Stars in their Eyes on ITV, which is filming now for transmission next year. PRG Europe supplied some 90 VariLite luminaires and 80 PixelLine battens, along with mains distribution, cabling and distribution racks, all controlled by a Virtuoso VX desk and an EX1 media server.

"Stars in their Eyes has been going for about fourteen years," explained lighting director Neil Yates, "and we've used PRG Europe for about ten of those. We like the fact that we get a total package from PRG - they have a great deal of expertise, and all problems and changes are quickly sorted out. They're always very amenable with changes and redesigns."

The brief included the stipulation that the lighting rig should not be seen, difficult when you'r

Europe - Turbosound reports that its Aspect series products are being deployed by UK rental company WE Audio, for the current European tour by Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings. The tour follows WE Audio's concert and festival successes with Aspect during the summer and, with the resultant growth of interest in its services, WE Audio has placed an order for a further 12 stacks of Aspect, as well as an additional 8 Turbosound TSW-218double-18" sub-bass enclosures.

Taking in over 50 dates across western and eastern Europe, the one-truck Rhythm Kings tour is visiting venues with audience capacities ranging from 500 to over 3,000. WE Audio is covering these capacities with just 12stacks of Aspect touring cabinets, with each stack comprising a TA-890H mid-high and TA-890L bass cabinet.

The Aspect loudspeakers are being flown as a 3 x 2 left-right system, with ground-stacked TSW-218 su

USA - Strand Lighting's C21 Dimmer range was recognised as the Product of the Year for LDI 2005. Before a standing room only crowd Tim Burnham, President of Strand Lighting, accepted the award on Saturday evening at the LDI Awards ceremony. Tim added, "All of us at Strand are pleased to receive this recognition. I am very proud of the technical achievements of the entire C21/EC21 design team led by Michael Lay and Steve Carlson."

C21 and EC21 dimmer racks are designed for global operation and provide a number of advances in technology. In addition to providing support for conventional SCR dimmers including Quad, Dual and single modules with ratings up to 12kW; sophisticated Sinewave dimmers are also available. Dual Sinewave modules may be freely mixed and matched with standard dimmers in the same rack for complete flexibility.

No special wiring or separate racks are

Very little formal recognition exists for the creative designs produced by those working in the entertainment industry, so PLASA (the Professional Lighting and Sound Association) and the PLASA Show have become joint sponsors of a new category in the 2006 Lighting Design Awards.

The award for Entertainment Lighting is open to theatrical productions, concerts, festivals, corporate events, exhibitions, temporary and one-off lighting installations, and will see a lighting team in the event sector recognized for outstanding achievement.

Judged by leading industry professionals, the finalists and winners stand to earn the plaudits of their peers, industry respect and publicity across a wide range of media, including national press and TV. The deadline for entries is Thursday 12 January 2006 and an application form can be found on the LDA website at the address below.

The event nominated

UK - Capital Sound Hire set three separate production levels (for theatres, small arenas and large arenas) for comedian Lee Evans' current tour - based around Martin Audio line array (and non-line array) components. Evans' gags are embroidered by numerous 'pops' (the mic is used as a stage prop), VT play-ins and a closing song which he delivers on mandolin.

During soundcheck at Hallam FM Arena, the artist listened carefully to the playback of his mandolin track at the three different delay points (each containing three clusters of four Martin W8C's). He is equally concerned about his monitor sound - and although production carries Martin Audio LE12J floor wedges, these are generally forsaken in favour of boosted side fills (provided by six Martin Audio W8LM Mini Line Arrays).

The shows are promoted by Off The Kerb and the production manager is Mark Harris. Capital Sound Hire,

USA - Clay Paky's Alpha Wash Halo is being used extensively on the new Broadway production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Woman in White which opened on November 17.

The Halo, a 1,000W (3,200 K) halogen wash light fixture, was specifically designed for use in theatre and television, and The Woman in White marks the Broadway debut of the Halo. The original London production of the musical, was lit by UK-based lighting designer, Paul Pyant. Pyant's Associate Lighting Designer for the original production, David Howe, was tasked with recreating Pyant's design in The Marquis Theatre, New York.

"We needed a bright, colour mixing, tungsten-source wash light with a great range of subtle pastel and tonal colours that was consistent across all units," remarks Howe on the decision to use the Clay Paky Alpha Wash Halo fixtures. "As the show's scenery is entire

Belgium - Mixing Fun Lovin' Criminals through the house system at Brussels' 2,000-capacity Ancienne Belgique theatre may seem a far cry from Oasis at Knebworth Park in 1996 for top sound engineer Huw Richards, but it provided the opportunity for a good workout for Digidesign's Venue mixing environment.

While the tour had picked up production from Tour Tech on the UK leg, in northern Europe they were flying solo, dependent on whatever the house threw at them. For instance, the previous night they had had the luxury of playing through a brand new Line Array at Het Paard in The Hague, while in Brussels it was through a classic, but ageing conventional stacked system.

After being introduced to Venue by Robbie Allen while babysitting the Manic Street Preachers last year, Richards then spent three weeks in Brazil on the board, taking over the Placebo reins from Ian Nelson. "Ven

USA - New York City College of Technology has been named the 2005 recipient of the Martin Intelligent Lighting Technology Grant. Runners up schools were the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music; and North Carolina School of Arts.

The Grant was presented on November 12 at a special ceremony at the LDI exhibition in Orlando. Martin US vice president of sales and marketing, Eric Loader, commented, "Once again this year there were a large number of applicants with very strong packages which were submitted for consideration. We are very pleased to award this year's Grant to New York City College of Technology. Their Entertainment Technology program which is cutting edge and targeted to the core of our industry will certainly benefit from the award but they will also utilise the grant in a way which will affect a large number of students in a key area of

Italy - The organizers of SIB, Italy's bi-ennial exhibition for show and event entertainment technology (Rimini Fiera, 11-14 March 2006), have announced new features for its 'SIB Teatro' section, which specializes in technology for theatres, television studios and film sets.

The 'SIB Opera House' will be a 2,000sq.m set put together by by Peroni, L'Opera and Musical!, with scenery by major Italian and European opera theatres and featuring musicals performed live - including pieces from Grease, Studio 54, Moulin Rouge, Charlie's Angels and Mambo Kings. In addition, the event will also feature a delegation of the Austrian theatrical association, OETHG, including the technical directors of Vienna Opera and Innsbruck and Linz theatres.

SIB Opera House will include painted scenery, rear-lit and reflecting backdrops, screens for stage effects and devices for moving sce

UK - High End Systems announced that during the Projected Image Digital's Technology Open Days in London, 7-8 December, various HES products will be on show and demonstrated.

Products include the Catalyst v4 software, the DL2 Digital Light fixture, the new Studio Command automated wash luminaire, the Hog iPC and Wholehog 3 console

Event hours are Wednesday, Dec. 7 from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. and Thursday, Dec. 8 from 2-8 p.m. Festive refreshments will be served. Projected Image Digital is located at 53 Northfield Road, London W13 9SY.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

Georgia - A football stadium in Tbilisi, Georgia provided the unlikely location for a huge rock concert - in honour of the BP operated Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline running some 1100 miles between Baku in Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea, to a newly constructed terminal at Ceyhan on the Mediterranean.

RG Jones was contracted to provide the audio - based around their Synco Martin three-way W8LC/WLX line array system - for an event which was headlined by Simply Red and staged at the Mikheil Meshki Stadium, home of Lokomotiv FC.

The company were working for Steve Nolan's Chromatic Productions, who in turn had been contracted by Neos Creative, BP's main contractor for the event.

RG Jones' engineer, Simon Honywill explained: "BP as operators of the BTC pipeline are staging events to celebrate the completion of this pipeline which runs through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Tu

China - Aviom, manufacturer of the Pro16 Monitor Mixing System, has announced that a digital snake consisting of five AN-16/i Input Modules, five AN-16/o Output Modules and three A-16D A-Net Distributors was installed for audio distribution at the opening ceremony at the 10th National Games at the Nanjing Olympic Sports Stadium in Nanjing, China. The Aviom gear was supplied by Acton Audio & Musical Instruments, (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., which is part of the Tom Lee Group.

"For the opening ceremony, more than 60 audio signals generated from the mixing console needed to be distributed to processors located 300m away," comments Jeffrey Lim, Aviom's international sales manager for Asia. "System designers Ruan Feng Audio & Lighting Company Limited decided against using a conventional analog snake system, choosing instead to use a distributed audio system from Aviom."

USA - Now in its ninth year, the Rock 4 Xmas Foundation is presenting its annual holiday tour, covering over thirty cities throughout the US. Again this year, Community Professional Loudspeakers is donating six of the company's M12 stage monitors for the events.

Founded in 1996 by Morrison Music and Production's Wayne Morrison, the Rock 4 XMas Foundation works to bring food, gifts and holiday spirit to less fortunate families by hosting the annual concert series. Past shows have featured performances by Bad Animals, Blue Oyster Cult, Randy Jackson, and members of Toto, Quiet Riot, Dio, Vanilla Fudge and many others.

"The annual Rock 4 XMas tour is a massive effort, and has grown bigger every year," remarked Morrison. "We'd never be able to pull it off without the help of our sponsors. Community has been a generous supporter of the organization, and we really app

UK - 100% Light is a brand new show launching in 2006. Running alongside 100% Design and 100% Detail, it will feature the very latest and best in architectural and contemporary lighting product.

50-60 selected lighting companies will exhibit, the majority new to the 100% brand. 100% Light is a selective show and all exhibitors will be vetted by the 100% Light Selection Panel, made up of lighting industry experts.

The 100% branded shows held at London's Earls Court, attract over 25,000 architects, specifiers, interior designers, engineers and lighting designers amongst the 36,000 visitors each year. Exhibitors at 100% Light will not only be able to build on this established visitor attendance, but meet new visitors only interested in seeing the best lighting product.

100% Light will be located between 100% Design in Earls Court 2 and 100% Detail in Earls Court 1. A comprehens

UK - Buro Happold engineers dominated this year's Teambuild competition taking home the overall winner prize as well as the award for best contract strategy.

The competition, run by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), sets a series of challenges for groups of up to six engineers under the age of 30 to test their team working skills. Each team has to provide the necessary, multi-disciplinary skills to cover all aspects of masterplanning, building design and construction, tested through completing five stages of a build project, based on a real site.

The winning team, named Imhotep after the architect credited with building the first pyramid in ancient Egypt, included Rachel Banham, Rachel Sandbrook, Ivan Chan, Ben Worth and Ruth Bailey, all based in Buro Happold London, and Alex MacLaren, an external architect.

"Congratulations to all our staff who took part,"

Belgium - Following a busy spell of exhibitor bookings during the last two months including 3LCD and Belden, the organizers of ISE 2006, Europe's biggest trade show for AV Systems Integrators report that the event next February in Brussels will be twice the size of the 2005 show and is almost sold out.

Mike Blackman, managing director ISE 2006 is delighted, but not surprised by these figures. "The AV Systems Integration market continues to grow at an increasing rate, the outlook for new business is buoyant and we have more than justified our decision earlier this year to invest in a substantial increase in floor space at the Brussels Expo to accommodate the increase in bookings."

Visitors who attend will see a number of new displays, a comprehensive conference including a new manufacturer's forum and a series of displays in the Brussels Expo. The Residential Solution

USA - Theatrical Lighting Systems (TLS) has received the Parnelli Award for Regional Lighting Company of the Year at the 5th annual Parnelli Awards in Orlando.

Named after Rick "Parnelli" O'Brien, the awards honor both individuals and companies in the entertainment industry who keep it moving forward with the "four H's": Humanity, Humility, Honesty, and Humor. These qualities were the defining traits of Rick O'Brien, a renowned production manager and respected colleague.

The award banquet was held in conjunction with ETS-LDI, the industry's yearly product and services convention. Chip Monck presented this year's lighting awards. TLS David Milly said that receiving the award was a real honor, but having Chip Monck present the award was just as notable. Monck is a previous Parnelli Lifetime Achievement Award recipient.

The award is voted on by

USA - Rigging Seminars will conduct four classes in 2006. They are in Las Vegas 20-23 February, Las Vegas 3-6 April, Denver 5-8 June, and Seattle 9-12 October. Each class covers the principles and operation of both stage rigging and arena-style rigging. The most popular part of the course is the hands-on training.

The seminar is suitable for beginning and advanced riggers. It is for riggers, venue staff, stagehands, universities, production companies, consultants, engineers, and contractors. It can be used as preparation for some sections of the ETCP Rigging Certification test.

Rigging Seminars is the longest established entertainment rigging training program. It has trained thousands of riggers and is highly respected in the industry for the extensive knowledge of the teachers. Classes are taught by Harry Donovan and Jay O.Glerum, both working professionals with more than 40

UK - Bloc Party has recently completed a successful UK tour and are currently on a 15 night European tour rigged out with a full selection of Evolution wired microphones. Featuring heavily in the mic line-up is the award-winning 900 Series which has won Sennheiser its fourth prestigious TEC Award in as many years.

Introduced in 2004, Sennheiser's 900 Series features a range of powerful transparent mics ideally suited for stage use with excellent transient response and feedback rejection. Bloc Party FOH engineer Pete Bartlett has chosen the e935 for Kele's lead vocals and explains, "The e935 has given me far greater definition on Kele's voice, crisp and clean, but it also copes easily with his wide range, and dynamic variations". An e935 and e945 are used by Matt and Gordon respectively on backing vocals.

The bass is miked up with the legendary all-rounder MD421, and

UK - Live brand experience specialist MMM has won the coveted 2005 Corporate Event Award (CEA) for Event Management Team of the Year.

MMM nominated its in-house Jaguar event management team for the award and won because of its innovative approach to live branding exercises, the huge success of the experiential events that it produces for Jaguar and the way the company works with the client on a strategic level. This involves a truly comprehensive understanding of Jaguar's business on all levels, says the company.

MMM has handled Jaguar's account for over 15 years and is made up of a core team of five people - a director, two event managers, an administrator and a warehouse manager. The judges were impressed with the longevity of the relationship, which has needed a lively and constant creative evolution to develop the brand identity and keep pace with the times.

The Team del

Germany / Europe - The organizers of Photokinaannounced that the fair looks set to be a success. Oliver P. Kuhrt, executive vice president of Koelnmesse GmbH, says: "The imaging market is booming and therefore provides ideal conditions for a successful photokina 2006. The World of imaging is benefiting from the increasing convergence of markets and technologies. It's the only event in the world that represents this market in its full complexity."

Koelnmesse is expecting to attract around 1,600 suppliers from 50 countries to the event which opens on 26 September 2006, with more than 60% of the exhibitors coming from outside Germany. Also on hand will be major names from the IT and telecommunications segment. Many of these, including Epson, HP, Casio, Samsung and Panasonic, will be enlarging their stands - as will companies such as Nokia and Microsoft. Kuhr

UAE - Events freighting specialist EFM recently shipped 60 tons of sensitive production equipment for the formal inauguration of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), to celebrate its first successful year of operations. With offices worldwide, EFM was brought in to move the technical production, including screens, a giant revolving stage, PA, lasers and most sensitively, pyrotechnics.

EFM's Chris Lumb was flown into Germany to manage a 26-hour load, which was particularly arduous due to the size and complexity of the staging. EFM's managing director Mike Llewellyn and Lisa Ryan were in Dubai ready to receive the unusual consignment and oversee the success of the project. On completion, Chris was flow out a few days later to re-pack the equipment and get everything safely back to base. The German production companies have expressed their admiration of the extemporary

Belgium - ISE - Europe's largest trade show for AV systems integrators - will include a powerful demonstration of large LED video screens, which will take over the impressive frontage of the huge Brussels Expo Centre, say the organizers.

ISE 2006 is already set to be twice the size of the 2005 show. Mike Blackman, managing director of ISE 2006, says the event is set to stimulate all human senses over the three-day event. "People who come to trade shows are looking beyond just seeing a series of products. Our exhibitors and sponsors have pushed the boundaries of showcasing systems integration solutions into a new era of dazzling shows and eye-catching displays. Without giving too much away, no one who arrives at the Brussels Expo will fail to miss the gigantic LED Outdoor Park that we have set up with our partners. Huge LED video screens will welcome visitors and set the sce

Spain - D.A.S, the Valencia-based loudspeaker manufacturer distributed in the UK by Sennheiser UK, has a busy show calendar during the next few months. The company will be represented on the road at a number of trade shows, on both the national and international scenes.

The latest D.A.S. products, such as the Aero-38A powered line array systems and SML-12A 'low-profile' powered monitors will be on display at international shows including NAMM (Anaheim, California, 19-22 January), SIEL (Paris, France, 12-15 February), Entech (Sydney, Australia, 13-15 February), SIB (Rimini, Italy, 11-14 March), NSCA (Las Vegas, USA, 16-18 March), and MusikMesse / ProLight & Sound (Frankfurt, Germany, 29 March - 1 April). On the national level, meanwhile, 15-17 February will see D.A.S. at AFIAL, Spain's pro lighting and sound association's official show, to be held at the Cristal Palace in Madrid'

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