Color Kinetics has introduced ColorDial, an architecturally-styled, dial controller that offers the ability to control Color Kinetics digital LED-based lighting fixtures at the simple push and twist of a dial. With ColorDial, users have increased flexibility and access to a wide variety of lighting effects in a simple-to-use interface that can be seamlessly integrated into any environment, from residential to corporate, retail to hospitality.

ColorDial’s control knob allows users to change between a variety of pre-programmed colours and colour changing effects - fixed colour, colour wash, three chasing rainbow settings, random colour, random fade, and white light - without any added programming or setting of dipswitches. Users simply press the dial-knob to select the desired effect for their lighting set-up. Once the effect has been chosen, users can then change the speed of the

Bandit Lites has got off to an early start on what could be a record-breaking year. The company has already signed up ten new acts this year with further signings in the pipeline. Recently added to the roster of clients is Luis Miguel (LD Fabian Boggino) who is touring the world with a huge system featuring the Bandit MotoData truss cueing system and a plethora of Martin MACs. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (LD Keith Wissmar) are set to take a bigger system than ever before into arenas for their ‘Tour of America’. Toby Keith (LD Eddie ‘Bones’ Connell), takes his unique form of country music around the states this spring, not to mention a High End Systems rig unlike any other Bandit has ever done before.

Lonestar (LD Alex Krompic) head to Canada with a versatile High End Systems moving light rig allowing the group to play venues of all sizes whilst Acquire the Fir

Thomas L. Schweers will be taking on the role of northeast regional sales manager for Fourth Phase New Jersey. Schweers will be based at the company offices in North Bergen, New Jersey. Schweers was formerly the executive vice-president of sales and marketing for Fiber Optic Systems, Inc in Whitehouse Station, NJ.

In this newly created position, Schweers will be responsible for the direct supervision of Fourth Phase sales staff, and will also oversee the development and implementation of sales strategies and the allocation of sales resources.

(Ruth Rossington)

Avolites has enjoyed a busy few months on the ART dimmer sales front. This follows hot on the heels of the launch of the two latest versions of the ART dimmer at PLASA 2001 - the ART2000-TV and the ART2000-US models.

The development of digital ART2000 dimmer range has addressed the exacting needs of areas such as film, TV and theatre, and two of the UK’s largest film and TV lighting rental companies have recently invested in Avolites ART dimmers - AFM Lighting and ARRI. The AFM order involved a total of 10 dimmer racks - six ART2000 16 amp/48 channels of dimming with an RCD disable system and four ART2000 32 amp/16 channel dimmers, also with a disable system. These are going into AFM’s busy hire stock. The ARRI system involved the purchase of four ART2000 special edition dimmers - with BAC mains input and 48 channels of direct out on Socapex, and two ART2000 12 channel rack

Trey Merrill has joined the sales team at AC Lighting Inc. Originally from Baton Rouge/New Orleans, Merrill has been involved in the music and film industries for a number of years, both on and off stage. Having attended Louisiana State University and the University of New Orleans, where he studied Drama, Communications and English, he eventually graduated from the Seattle Art Institute, with a degree in Music Business & Video Production. He worked as a music critic, band manager, production and stage manager, high steel climber, guitar and drum technician and set carpenter before forming his own production company, Gator Bait Productions. He recently became an associate producer of the Motion Picture ‘The Midnight Hour’ and is currently producing the debut album for a young Louisiana artist 'Benjy Davis' featuring Grammy Award Winners Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown, Lucinda Wil

Carl Pierre Blasor has joined the sales management team as head of international key accounts at Lightpower, the Paderborn-based distributor of professional lighting equipment. Blasor has majored in Linguistics and Cultural Studies and has completed vocational training as an export merchant. Born and raised in Italy, he has also lived in Puerto Rico and the United States, and now resides with his family in Germany. He speaks four languages and has a good working knowledge of a fifth.

MA Lighting International, a subsidiary of Lightpower, was founded in order to coordinate and carry out its international sales and marketing activities and Blasor, as key account manager, will be a significant contribution to the international team. His main aims will be to consolidate existing international customer relations and maintain and coordinate the more than 30 worldwide exclusive representative

Paul Twist, a figure well known to many in the industry, died recently in the United States. Paul had been working as a freelancer for Colin Hammond at Meteor Lighting in Huntsville, Alabama. His earlier career had seen him working in sales at Chappels (sheet music), Selmer (musical instruments) and Cadburys-Schweppes. He then spent four years in the late seventies with OPTI where he was the company’s first ever export sales director, before he moved on to Meteor Lighting.

His funeral is planned to take place in the UK on Friday 22 February. We’ll advise of further details as they become available.

(Ruth Rossington)

Lancelyn Theatre Supplies and White Light Electrics have recently been appointed as distributors of the Skyhigh range of pyrotechnics and firing systems. Both companies have taken in a broad range of the pyrotechnic stocks.

Skyhigh's product development manager Tom Owen was pleased with the development. "Our strategy is to develop a worldwide distribution network for our products and two such key companies are a serious boost for us." Lancelyn's David Wilkins added: "Pyrotechnic equipment for general theatrical use is an area where there has been little effective choice in the marketplace. Choice and competition will stimulate development and this, alongside increasing demands for safety, will drive the market forward."

(Ruth Rossington)

TMB has recently established a new relationship with Roadogz.com, a website aimed at people on the road in the entertainment industry. Roadogz.com will be selling TMB products including cable, connectors and touring expendables, in addition to its range of workbags, gloves, pouches, mini-fixtures and testing equipment.

Roadogz.com is filled with industry-related articles ranging from technical to travel subjects. It also features databases packed with info for restaurants, businesses, resumés and classifieds. There is a also a ‘production office’ loaded with tools for everyday use such as currency converters, calculators, airline seating charts and more. And, last but not least, the site provides the ultimate diversion, online games.

Roadogz.com owner and creator Jesper Luth began his relationship with TMB when he worked as an operations manager for Bandit UK. "Ro

Following our news item last week concerning the death of Paul Twist, we now have details of the funeral arrangements. The funeral will be held at midday on Friday February 22nd and Paul will be buried after a funeral mass at Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Henfield, Sussex.

Designer and communicator Furneaux Stewart has entered the New Year with a healthy portfolio of work and several new account wins. The company, led by co-founder Laurie Stewart, is already working on several new high-profile projects this year, including an introductory exhibition for Syon House, Cardiff Castle's interpretation strategy and projects for the National Trust at White Horse Hill, Studland Bay and Lawrence of Arabia's home, Clouds Hill. The company is also the exhibition design consultancy for the new Acropolis Museum working with international architect Bernard Tschumi.

Within the automotive sector there are also some key projects ahead with the team, headed up by John Furneaux, looking forward to working with Skoda to create its stand for the Birmingham International Motor Show, in addition to major projects with Citroen and Bentley Motors. Ray Hole, architectural directo

The Poll Winners Concert for the first ever BBC Radio 3 World Music Awards took place last week at Ocean, Hackney’s latest music venue. As the lights went down, the stars - including Johnny Depp and Damon Albarn - came out in force to present the Awards, which celebrate the diversity of music throughout the world.

The event, which featured short sets from the Poll Winners, was also being filmed for broadcast on BBC Knowledge, and crew chief Nick Moran needed to augment the venue’s existing lighting to create a rig which would create maximum impact when televised. This led him to contact Fourth Phase. "It wasn’t until just before the event that we knew exactly what the brief would be," explained Moran. To meet this brief, Fourth Phase supplied 10 High End Studio Colors and 12 Studio Spots, eight bars of four Par 36 ACLs and a Lycian 1.2k HMI followspot.

The

Since his TV debut in 1999, Bob the Builder has become a household name and has recently announced his very own 65-date arena tour and Vari-Lite Europe will be there to help him ‘fix it’!

The lighting designer is none other than Patrick Woodroffe, who will work alongside programmer Dave Hill and operator Mark ‘Sparky’ Risk. The Vari-Lite supplied rig includes 22 VL2Cs, 8 VL6C spot luminaires, 38 VL5, 12 VL5 Arc wash luminaires, all controlled from a Virtuoso console. Conventional equipment will consist of 108 Par 64s, 17 Bambino Fresnels c/w colour changers, six Starklite 1200W HMI followspots. The tour sets off in Sheffield, then moves to Nottingham, London Arena, Newcastle, Manchester, Cardiff and Glasgow. It will then travel to Wembley Arena and then finally to Birmingham.

(Ruth Rossington)

New features of the latest version of the rental management software package include a whole set of new clear icons, built-in support for backup and restore of data and reports, saving of the last used sort-order and sorted column in all List-tabs and Finder-windows, a new facility for multiple contacts per company, default country and telephone settings and much more.

For a full run-down of all the latest features from RMS22, visit the company website at the address below.

(Lee Baldock)

BBC Television is to broadcast five programmes this week which will feature interviews and behind the scenes footage from various West End shows. A Week in the West End will be broadcast daily at 3.30pm on BBC2.

(Ruth Rossington)

White Light and The Moving Light Company have been chosen as the lighting suppliers to two new musical productions in London, one - The Full Monty - the West End production of an established New York hit, the other - Taboo - a new show in a new West End venue.

The Full Monty, a stage adaptation of the hit British film, has been playing to enormous popular acclaim in New York - and is now making the journey back to the UK, where it will play at the Prince of Wales Theatre. Lighting designer Howell Binkley will re-create his New York design, making use of an automated lighting rig of six Martin MAC 2000s, 12 MAC 500s and 38 High End Studio Colors controlled from a WholeHog 2 console. The rig also features around 325 ETC Source Fours, 55 of which are fitted with Wybron colour scrollers, and Orion and L&E Ministrip floodlight units, 80 StarStrobes, police beacons, Robe

The organisers of Entech, the leading entertainment technology exhibition for the Australasian market have reported increased attendance for last week’s three-day show. Darling Harbor proved a popular destination for Entech, with greater interstate attendance (up 8%) and more local visitors. International visits were static, with decreases from destinations other than Singapore (up 10%) and New Zealand (up 5%). Audited actual attendance was up, a record 5,143 trade attended, in addition to 1,272 exhibitor personnel.

The Entech Awards dinner once again sold out, held again at the Metro in George Street. A complete list of winners is attached. Voting was done on the trade show floor, for the first time, in addition to votes garnered from all those who nominated products and people. The Award for Best Lighting Product at the show went to AVR for the Arc Screen; Best Audio Product at

Laser Studio - part of the i-Vision Group - has launched the latest addition to its new I-scan Performer range of DPSS (Diode Pumped Solid State) lasers. Following recent breakthroughs in diode technology, Laser Studio has produced the UK’s first commercially available Colour DPSS laser for under £20,000.

Laser Studio’s new 1W colour unit currently offers eight modulated colour outputs. The aim is to develop the system into a 256 fully modulated colour system in the future. This product, say Laser Studio, heralds a major change in laser technology and is an important step forward in replacing older, inefficient equipment that required complex cooling and hefty electrical supplies.

The ‘Beam in a Box’ concept - and specifically this product - has been designed with the conference, exhibition and club markets in mind, although it will also be suitable for theat

South London-based creative exhibition lighting specialists Stage Light Design started the year busily, lighting two stands at the BETT education/technology show in the Grand Hall at Olympia. It’s the seventh year that the company has been involved with clients at BETT. This year both Intel and RM benefited from their lighting schemes.

Intel’s stand was straightforward for SLD, who lit a stage area and lectern used for presentations with Par 56 lanterns, controlled by a Pulsar Rock Desk and dimmers. The RM stand was more complex: as one of the UK’s leading suppliers of software and hardware to the educational market, RM wanted their stand to have plenty of impact. The stand design was totally new and included two demonstration theatres that were continuously in use. Lighting was designed by SLD’s Alastair Crooks, who lit the theatres with Par 56 and Par 36 lante

Laser Magic won the prestigious contract for the 2002 Skyworks laser show on the 26 January 2002. The laser team arrived one week before the event to install and programme the show to a custom soundtrack. Very large distances where involved with this event and to this end Laser Magic used (for the first time) the new Coherent Corona diode YAG laser, which has an output in excess of 80W. This was sited at Perth’s famous Bell Tower and is one of the largest entertainment laser systems in the marketplace.

Several other lasers were also used, including Emerald 40W Nd YAG lasers and some smaller 10W CW YAG lasers. Laser Magic even had a laser system bolted on to a fast motorboat, which created special effects as it travelled across the bay shooting beams in to the night sky. In total, five laser systems were used on this show all controlled via the latest Pangolin 2000 software and ea

From the opening ceremonies until the last medal is awarded, Vari-Lite Inc will play a prominent role in lighting the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. More than 1,200 Vari*Lite luminaires are being used to light events within and surrounding the Olympic Games, including the nightly concerts following the medals presentations at the medals plaza.

Rusty Brutsché, chairman and CEO of Vari-Lite, said: "Just as the athletes have spent years training for the competition, organizers have shown the same dedication in preparing for the way the games and events are presented. We were up here exactly a year ago for a trial run on the opening ceremonies, so it has been a painstaking process to make sure the proper equipment is in place and being used. Vari-Lite is extremely proud to be an integral part in the way these events are presented worldwide."

A lighting package th

PSL is the first video projection rental company in the UK and US to invest in High End Systems' new Catalyst image manipulation system, which turns ordinary video projectors into artistic tools. Winner of five technical awards in 2001-2002, Catalyst offers users a unique new tool that integrates the video and lighting industries.

At the heart of the system is the Catalyst Media Server (video processing computer and video/DMX interface). This provides an unlimited range of real-time image processing capabilities. Designers can load their own still or moving images or select from an extensive library of stock files. They can then scale, rotate, zoom, edit, morph, colour mix or overlay to create the desired effect. Images can be projected anywhere in three-dimensional space using Catalyst's unique orbital movement system. The head provides 250 degrees by 360 degrees of movement and can b

Many of the top names in the lighting industry watched as the new Vari-Lite VL1000 ellipsoidal reflector spotlight was put through its paces in collaboration with the Vari-Lite Series 2000 products at a recent open day hosted by Vari-Lite. The demonstration took place on Thursday, 7 February at The Manhattan Center Studios Grand Ballroom in New York. "The VL1000 continues the Vari-Lite tradition of providing the most reliable and innovative lighting systems available on the market," Bob Schacherl, Vari-Lite vice president of sales and marketing, told those in attendance.

Attendees, which included some of the top lighting professionals on Broadway, were treated to an exhibition showcasing the VL1000 ERS. Also on display, were the VL2202 spot luminaire, the VL2402 wash luminaire and the VL2416 wash luminaire.

(Ruth Rossington)

Show Presentation Services has appointed Mike Fisher as its head of lighting, following Stephen Prince's return to lighting design on a freelance basis.

Mike Fisher joined SPS in 1999 as Prince's right-hand man and over the last two years the duo have established SPS as a major player in the conference lighting market. He told us: "Everyone at SPS was unhappy to see Stephen Prince leave, but his ideas, drive and vision have given us a great platform. Now it’s my job to let our established clients know how the SPS lighting department can help them whilst maintaining the highest standards."

Mike Fisher was previously sales and marketing director of Cerebrum Lighting and was part of the team that established the brands of Celco and Powerdrive in the eighties and nineties. More recently he had returned to freelance lighting design whilst continuing marketing strategy with

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