Yesterday, the British Airways London Eye became a rainbow of revolving colours when it was lit for the Christmas season. Park Avenue, British Airways' brand communication and events agency, was commissioned to design and realise the project, which began over nine months ago and has involved detailed discussion with British Airways, the British Airways London Eye safety and structural consultants and David Marks, the architect. The Park Avenue team, led by creative director Simon Tapping, producer Ajay Parekh, and lighting designer Paul Cook worked with Keith Duncan and the team at Vari-Lite to achieve the effects they needed. As a result 32 Vari*Lites are attached to the pods and take their colour and design from the sky, rather than more traditional or commercial Christmas designs. Special brackets have been designed to attach the Vari*Lites to the structure and ‘anti-freeze' cue

Panel, power distribution and lighting bar manufacturer Andolite has appointed Mick Staplehurst as marketing executive. His role will be to develop and market an extended range of products for touring, events and conferences, an area in which he has had many years experience with SSE, Britannia Row and others.

Bill Hewlett, the originator of the Icon-M, has left Light & Sound Design. According to MD Dave Keighley, Hewlett has departed to pursue other design ideas, having taken the Icon-M project as far as he could. Hewlett joined the company as a director at the time of the management buy-out from Christian Salveson. Although he is no longer a director, he will continue to work with LSD as a consultant. The Icon-M, meanwhile, is now scheduled for release next summer.

TMB Associates has introduced the PowerPAR 575 fixture. With an MSR575 or MSD575 lamp in a modified Source Four PAR body, the PowerPAR575 offers very bright, daylight-balanced output with the excellent field quality of the Source Four PAR. The attached electronic ballast includes an auto-sensing worldwide power supply and auto restrike. The PowerPAR 575 dimensions are the same as a standard Source Four PAR except for the longer yoke with the ballast. The unit weighs only 8kgs (18lbs) and draws only 3 amps at 230VAC (6 amps at 120VAC). These features make it an ideal fixture for exhibition and display applications as well as architectural installations.

Coe-tech is moving into a new, expanded HQ in Northampton. The company has bought the new, larger, premises in a move designed to locate and integrate the sales team with the general administration and financial divisions. The new building also features new demonstration facilities and showrooms.Coe-tech’s sales operation has expanded so rapidly in the last two years that the company outgrew the previous site it occupied for eight years. This is just the first stage in Coe-tech’s comprehensive expansion plans for the new century which are scheduled to unfold over the next five years. The Millennial year has seen the completion of many major projects for Coe-tech, all of which have contributed to the need to move. In addition to the Coemar, Studio Due, TAS and Futurelight lighting fixtures now established by Coe-tech in a range of pro lighting applications, the poly optics, fi

High End Systems has announced the software development of a new feature for its line of automated lighting products. Called Internal Effects, the feature allows an endless selection of pan and tilt movements to be accomplished with even simple control systems. The present Macro channel is used to support and control the selection of Internal Effects. The feature may also be used with lighting desks such as the Wholehog II, which contains an on-board Internal Effects Engine. The software is available for download through the High End Systems website. Once the software is loaded into the fixture, the existing Macro channel becomes converted into the new Internal Effects feature.

Stagetec has appointed Chris Campbell as project engineer to assist with its rapidly expanding projects department. Campbell, originally from Toronto, Canada, has extensive experience of sound and lighting installations, most recently on cruise ships with Celebrity Cruises.

Fourth Phase Production Arts were at the centre of a dramatic and highly successful campaign by West Midlands Police which involved projecting giant images onto their Lloyd House HQ in the Hockley area of central Birmingham. The images were of their three Most Wanted criminals, and the event was part of an ongoing anti-robbery initiative called Operation Safer Streets. Production Arts provided a Pani BP6 Gold projector to locally-based production company Stagepoint Technical Services, who were asked to undertake this off-beat visual challenge after West Midlands police saw their website. The project was handled for Stagepoint by Andy Carleton and for Production Arts by Emma Hutchison.

Airstar, famous for its illuminated lighting balloon, has extended its special events range with Totem, a lighted column that should add a new dimension to exhibitions and corporate events. Totem’s outer envelope is mounted on a base and the balloon is automatically inflated by an internal fan. The Totem comes in three models – the Totem 200, a 2m column, the Totem 500, 5m column and the Arche – an arch-shaped version.

Martin Professional has appointed Claus Rothmann as director of logistics, with effect from the start of the new year. Rothmann holds a degree in Manufacturing & Systems Engineering, as well as Business Administration & Organization. He comes to Martin from a position as vice-president of Dandy Company's corporate supply chain development. Rothmann will form part of Martin's management team alongside sales and marketing director Pio Nahum and R&D director Stig Poulsen. The management board remains unchanged and consists of CEO and president Kristian Kolding, who relinquishes the logistics responsibility, Lars Dige (finance) and Torben Johansen (production).

GAM Products has extended the GamTube line to include as standards the new T-5s and T-8s as well as T-12 bi-axial lamps. GamTube is a colour sleeve that fits over fluorescents of almost any size and comes in 40 off-the-shelf colours.

Australian-based lighting control manufacturer, LSC Lighting Systems (Aust) Pty Ltd, has appointed three new distributors for its lighting control product range. Socel Ltd in Santiago, Chile, has been operating in the lighting market since 1987. They have already placed their first stock order of LSC desks and dimmers. Tectronics of the United Arab Emirates has been trading since 1978 with offices in Sharjah and Abu Dhabi with one shortly to open in Egypt. An order has been placed for an Atom lighting desk and patch panel for a hotel project in Dubai. Stagetec Distribution Ltd, based in Slough, UK (see earlier news), has been created to import LSC and other international brands into the UK market. Their initial stocking order for Atom and Axiom desks, along with samples of LSC’s new dimmer range, has been delivered with further orders to be fulfilled prior to Christmas.

Lighting students at Rose Bruford College recently completed a project that allowed them to apply their design skills to a wide range of performance genres. Known as the ‘Related Fields’ project, third year students of the BA (Hons) Lighting Design degree course collaborated with Stage Management and Directing students to create a nightclub environment, an audio-visual performance, a son et lumière and a contemporary dance work.Each team of four lighting designers, two directors and a stage manager was responsible for taking their production from initial concept to full performance over a period of four weeks. With the first two years of the course focused on theatre, this project represented the students’ main opportunity to tackle other types of performance. The work was supervised by visiting tutor Nick Moran, highly experienced in both theatre and corporate events.

PLASA has announced that Neil Darracott (pictured right), design engineer at Total Fabrications Ltd, has been elected to the Executive Committee of the Association following the elections which closed on 1 st December. The elections attracted 123 membership votes in total, compared with 104 last year. Mick Hannaford (Light Processor), the serving PLASA chairman, has been re-elected for his second three-year term, while PLASA Treasurer Sammy DeHavilland of Dare Pro Audio/Deco Leisure, has been re-elected for a three-year term. Newcomer Neil Darracott fills the other three-year term, while Paul Hinkly of LMC Audio, who was co-opted onto the PLASA committee last year, was elected for a further one-year term.Peter Walker of NSR, who was not re-elected, has served on the PLASA Committee for the past six years, and was for much of that time involved with membership issues, particularly related

Fisher Productions were specially commissioned to organise the recent official opening of the British Museum's Queen Elizabeth II Great Court, in conjunction with the events department of the British Museum. The project involved the arrangement and co-ordination of the entertainment and technical support aspects of the opening, as well as the creation of a spectacular Son et Lumiere. The two-acre inner courtyard of the British Museum, hidden for 150 years and now transformed into Europe's largest covered square, provided an impressive setting for the four-minute Son et Lumiere, which was performed to a revised arrangement of Haydn's 'The Creation', by Stephen Warbeck. The finale involved shafts of light shining through the glass and steel roof from a specially-erected crane outside the building. The Great Court was officially opened by Her Majesty the Queen.

The first major event to utilise Martin Professional’s new MAC 2000 profile spot was the opening of Lotusphere 2000, a conference for software company Lotus Development Corp, which was held at the International Congress Center (ICC) in Berlin. Stage Electrics supplied 28 MAC 2000 profile spots for the event, which featured a large stage set created by Michael Woodage and lit by lighting designer Durham Marenghi. "The brief called for the set to change colour in symphony with the opening video sequence," says Marenghi. "The colour palette was able to match all the colors utilized in the video graphics and faded between them without the associated intermediate and unwanted colours, which was most impressive. The beam-shaping effect was used to light the tall 3D numeric figures at the rear of the set and allowed us to keep the beam completely off the screens. The adjust

After a number of years at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, where the spiralling success of the event has seen more and more people literally squeezed into the hotel's Westbourne Suite, the 2001 Live! Awards dinner will be held in the Great Hall of Alexandra Palace. The change of venue offers the twin benefits of easily accommodating the large numbers who now wish toattend the Awards, while allowing much easier access to exhibitors and visitors to the Live! Show. The Live! Awards dinner takes place on the evening of Wednesday 7th February 2001, the first day of the Live! Show. In addition, this year, for the first time, you can register online for the Live! Show at the web address below, which also features comprehensive Show information.

Further to our news story of 27 October, Group One of Farmingdale, New York has officially announced the appointment of Keith Dale as International sales and marketing manager for its Elektralite, the company’s lighting control division. Dale, the founder of lighting control manufacturer Celco, has worked with Group One in a manufacturer/distributor capacity for some 15 years. He told us: “It’s great to be working with the Elektralite team, they’re a great group with an expanding range of control products that deserves a wider international audience. My mission is to increase brand awareness on a global basis and introduce the many advantages of the product line to international distributors and end-users alike.”Dale will be based in London, and can be contacted on: Tel: +44 (0)20 8467 5421, or via the e-mail address below.

Martin Professional has given its website a new look, in order to give its visitors a more customized experience. Martin has segmented the website into the various lighting industry segments. There are also separate areas for Jem smoke machines and Mach loudspeakers.Users logging on to the site for the first time can customize their visit by choosing a lighting industry sector, and language, so that users are always directed to a sub-site reflective of their background and interests. The 10 different sub-sites cover the following segments: DJ, Club, Touring, Theater, Architectural, TV, Commercial, Leisure, Jem Smoke and Mach Speakers. Each sub-site contains products and case stories relevant to that particular sector, as well as company information, a comprehensive distributor directory page and support area, as well as some fun extras.

Coe-tech, UK distributors for Coemar and TAS intelligent lighting products, has ended the year on a high note in the live concert and touring market, having enjoyed a high degree of success in establishing the new Coemar CF7 moving light as a must-have tool for many top lighting designers. The award-winning CF7 has now been supplied to top touring artists including Robbie Williams (LD Liz Berry), Steps (LD Vince Foster), Mel C and 5ive (LD Peter Barnes), Sarah Brightman (LD Patrick Woodroffe), the Beautiful South (LD Dave Byars) and Radiohead (LD Andi Watson). The CF7 HE (hard edge) luminaire’s profile was further boosted by winning an LDI 2000 Award.

Early November saw the final concert at Wembley Stadium before the venue is demolished and redeveloped. Quietly publicised, it passed off with little note in the Nationals, but nevertheless raised a substantial amount of cash for the NSPCC thanks to a host of stars.

Keith Morris, under the auspices of CSS Productions, managed the event, reassembling the team he used so successfully for the British Gas, Maritime Museum New Millennium’s Eve event (strange how little we hear of the Millennial events that succeeded). Being November and rather nippy around the towers, this dinner and music show was staged on the pitch, but under cover. Serious Structures provided its Space Building, a giant derivative of the classic Orbit roof, being a curved ‘tunnel’ 92 metres long, 40m wide, with a max height at centre of 15m. The main feature of the Space Building is the totally transp

Stage Light Design supplied creative lighting design and equipment for the Cal IT conference, held in the Fleming Room of the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in Westminster. The company was called in by production company Dynamic Range to light the event, a major symposium for Californian IT companies visiting the UK to promote their products and seek new investment.The event’s fast-moving format allowed for 10-minute presentations to be given by the different companies. They did this on stage, backed by a large central screen, flanked each side by two auxiliary video monitors. Stage Light Design’s Alastair Crooks designed the stage lighting and operated the show using a LightProcessor QCommander console. A front truss was fitted with assorted fixtures including Golden Scans, Stage Color 300s and conventionals. Onstage lighting fixtures included more Stage Colors, Codas and other

Martin Professional UK is at the centre of a fraud investigation following the discovery of financial irregularities at the company. A statement posted on parent company Martin Gruppen’s website headed ‘Irregularities in Martin Gruppen’s UK subsidiary’ runs as follows: “At a meeting today, the Board of Directors was informed that fraudulent actions against Martin Gruppen and accounting irregularities have been discovered in the company’s UK subsidiary. These irregularities date back at least to 1999 and were discovered after a former longstanding chief financial officer and his close subordinate retired. Close examinations by KPMG, Martin’s auditor, of these irregularities call for provisions and write-offs in the amount of DKK 9-10 million (between £732,000 and £814,000) in the current financial period. Once the company’s auditor has ful

Television lighting director John Allard has won an award for the development of a new fluourescemt lighting system based around a twin 36W PLL light tube. SunStar, now manufactured by AC/DC Lighting of Barrowford, Lancashire, is a cost-effective, highly portable tungsten or daylight balanced fluorescent light. With its hot light output, cool running and low energy consumption, this system is ideal for use with television film crews, photographers and exhibition set illumination. The light units are already in standard use with television companies GMTV and This Morning.

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