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Lighting

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PSL has appointed David March as business development manager of its Concert Touring division. Marking his return to the live entertainment industry after a spell in the architectural lighting sector, March was previously European operations manager at High End Systems, prior to which he was general manager at Vari-Lite Europe.

March will be working closely with the PSL Concert Touring team of Stephanie Jefcoate and Scott Russell, who are currently providing video and projection services for the Supertramp European Tour, the UK tours of Godspell and Sunset Boulevard, Lord of the Dance and the upcoming Gabrielle UK Tour. PSL managing director Gary Davies commented: "PSL Concert Touring has been one of the key players in the industry for many years. With David March joining our team we will now be able to offer our ever increasing range of specialist services to an even wider range

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ShowCAD Artist show control systems have recently been installed in Luminar Leisure’s Chicago Rock Cafes in Basildon, Ilford, Redditch, Swansea, Tamworth, Trowbridge and Wrexham. The installations were carried out back-to-back by Lynx Lighting of Yeovil over a very busy two-week period.

ShowCAD is already installed in many Luminar venues including the Liquid chains and, like ShowCAD, Artist implements MIDI, MIDI Show Control, SMPTE, digital and analogue input/output protocols. Additionally, Artist software can control 5000+ DMX channels and, operating on a Windows platform, the software also utilises standard PC protocols and functions.

In the Chicago Rock venues, the systems are programmed to run on Artist’s Real Time Clock and therefore will run all day, every day completely automatically, with the scenes and cues programmed to change to suit the hour of the day or nigh

Doughty - Banner - from 4 July 2025

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The newly formed Stage Electrics Wales has reported a strong start to the year, especially in the live TV sector. St David’s Day 2002 saw the Welsh branch supplying lighting, rigging and mains distribution for the Welsh television broadcast of S4C’s annual talent competition - 'Can-i-Gymru' or 'A Song for Wales'.

Cardiff-based Apollo Television brought in lighting designer Martyn Rourke and designer Phil Williams to transform the Afan Lido leisure centre in Port Talbot into a TV studio for the two-hour live broadcast. Over 18 Lodestar motors were used to fly the entire rig in the venue that had a restricted weight loading. Stage Electrics’ project manager for the event Tim Routledge commented: "In conjunction with structural engineers and with the knowledge of our rigger, Gary Smith, we were able to monitor the deflections in the roof beams once the load was appl

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Color Kinetics Incorporated, specialists in LED illumination technologies, and Targetti, a leading Italian designer and manufacturer of architectural lighting fixtures and systems, have announced an OEM partnership. Through this partnership, Targetti will incorporate Color Kinetics’ patented Chromacore LED technology into a new line of custom fixtures. The two companies also plan to co-develop new Chromacore-based ‘designer’ lighting fixtures.

The new product line, which is planned for launch in the second half of this year, will enable Color Kinetics’ full spectrum colour and lighting effects to be incorporated into any décor through an array of Targetti’s fixtures. Besides aesthetic benefits, LEDs offer a host of practical advantages over conventional light sources that make them an extremely energy efficient, long-lasting, low maintenance and versatile

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Now in its 10th year, Big Day Out is an Australian touring festival that visits Auckland, the Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth every January. It is unique in its design, scale and complexity and attracts many headline acts - the 2002 event featured The Prodigy, Garbage, New Order and Basement Jaxx.

This year, security was tightened following the tragic death of 16-year-old Jessica Michalik last year: organizers West & Lees made changes to audience safety provisions and introduced volunteer safety teams, increased audience lighting and erected a new, alcohol-free, D barricade area (from Mojo Barriers) in front of the main stages. The audience was given free water bottles and sun-block, and crowd surfing was banned. "We also carefully considered the time certain bands take to the stage," explained Matt Dougherty, one of three production managers on the tour. &q

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Dream Theater is an interesting mixture of ‘prog’ rock, metal and mayhem; they have a cult following and are enjoying great success with their latest album ‘Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence’. We’ve not yet figured out quite why it is six degrees, but there must be a reason.

Led by drummer and impresario Mike Portnoy, DT have just completed the European leg of their current world tour, before heading to Mexico and North America. It’s a high energy show, and this is mirrored by lighting designer Benoit Richard. The lighting for the whole tour is supplied by Bandit Lites, handled for the European section by their UK office.

The front, back and two staggered middle trusses, are scattered with a mix of fixtures - from Martin MACs to High End Cyberlights and ETC Source Fours with scrollers. There’s also a copious contingent of floor-based fixtures.

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The Thorndike Theatre in Leatherhead, Surrey, was opened by Dame Sybil Thorndike in 1969. Designed by Roderick Ham, the theatre was built and funded with enthusiastic support from local theatre groups, and went on to become an ambitious and high profile producing theatre. Its manager and founder, Hazel Vincent Wallace, was able to woo well-known actors and directors from London to create some remarkable productions.

At its height, the Thorndike Theatre’s club had 12,000 members; it was described as ‘a jewel of a theatre’. But despite the fact that houses were largely full, the economics of regional theatre meant that there was a dependence on subsidy and local grants. Inevitably there was never enough, and it was eventually closed down in 1997. Only the building’s Grade 2 listing saved it from demolition.

But late last year, following six months of refurbishme

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The opening ceremony of the 2002 Dubai Shopping Festival was one of the most spectacular and technically complex shows ever staged in the Middle East.

Dubai-based ProTec handled all the technical elements, and the whole project - literally from the ground up - was managed and co-ordinated by the company’s Stephen Lakin, who collaborated closely with Damien McGurn, Hares Shehab, Rick Wade and Jason Strange.

Lakin’s involvement with the event began in the summer of 2001, following an approach he made to the Government where he presented his ideas to Sheikh Mohammed. In October he was awarded the contract, without it going out to tender. Then began a race against time to make the show happen for 1 March. No venue capable of staging a show of this stature existed in Dubai, so Lakin’s first job was to find a site and build from the ground up.

McGurn hired local contrac

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John Hornby Skewes & Co Ltd, the exclusive UK and Eire HK Audio distributor, has commissioned leading visual systems company, MAD Manufacturing, to install a state-of-the-art lighting rig in the HK Audio pro audio demo theatre at JHS’ Garforth premises. The whole HK Audio ‘active family’ features in the JHS demo room, including the new Lucas 1000 1kW self-powered system, plus Lucas, Elias, Actor and Projector active systems, alongside T-Series, M-Series and Linear Pro systems. Additionally, a 12-box HK Audio R-Series rig is available for demonstration and rental - this includes the PR 324 power rack with HK’s Digital Field Controller system.

(Ruth Rossington)

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ETC has recently passed a major milestone having sold more than one million Source Fours. It now plans to share the celebration with some very lucky customers. Sometime between June 1 and August 1 2002, ETC will ship four winning Source Four luminaires, representing the millionth-unit made, to their UL/cUL, CE and 100V markets. Four lucky end-users will receive a prize-winning Source Four in their orders.

If you are one of those winners, you will find a rare etched gold-wrapped Source Four inside your box, along with a special Certificate of Authenticity signed by ETC’s entire Source Four luminaire assembly crew. Just return the luminaire to ETC and you will receive the real grand prize - a collection of ETC’s Source Fours including a 5° Source Four, a 10° Source Four, a classic Source Four with lens tubes for every angle, a Source Four PAR EA and PAR MCM, a Source Four P

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Bandit Lites is supplying equipment for the successful System of a Down ‘Toxicity’ world tour, which has just finished its first European leg. Lighting designer for the tour is Jesper Luth, who has created an asymmetrical look with four trusses surrounding the stage. The front truss is straight, while the two sides and the rear double-spanned V-shaped truss are all hung at jaunty angles.

Instruments on Luth's rig include Martin MAC 600s, MAC 2000s, Martin Atomic strobes, plus a bunch of Pars and 8-Lite blinders. He runs the show from a WholeHog II desk with an extender wing. Before it kicked off, he took full advantage of Bandit's pre-programming facilities, spending four days getting ahead of the game in the warehouse in Nashville. The initial System of a Down lighting rig came out of Nashville, with the European leg of the tour supplied by Bandit's UK office. It's the fir

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Renault’s return to Formula 1 - its first full-blooded assault on the F1 world championship since 1985 - was marked by a spectacular high-tech launch of its new car for the 2002 season.

The event, attended by over 1,200 VIPs, including the world’s press, sponsors, special guests and Renault employees, was staged in Renault’s massive Technocentre in Guyancourt, near Paris.

UK production agency Sprout turned to drapes and materials specialist Blackout Triple E’s Paris subsidiary to assist in the realisation of its design for the launch, with Blackout France’s Dominic Peissel in the role of technical manager for the launch and Fabrice Le Floch overseeing the rigging aspects of the installation.

Peissel’s first logistical challenge was to overcome the sheer size and construction of the Technocentre. As rigging had never been hung from the 30m high

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Readers of L&SI may recall a piece we ran last year on Rage, the West Midlands-based professional theatre company, which works with various groups in the community.

The company has recently supported the Radiation series of youth events at Christ Church, Lye, where it handled the lighting design, arranged the technical elements and managed the get-in and get-out. Equipment for the event included Martin MX 1s, NJD Datamoons, Rainbow Colour Scrollers, DHA Animation Units, Strand SLs, ETC Source 4 ParNels and an Arc Line Strobe. Conventional lighting was controlled by a Zero 88 Elara Lighting desk with the intelligent lights run through a ShowCAD system.

Each year, Rage offers an opportunity for young people to work alongside professionals on three productions. The company is looking for people in the industry to help develop its work by either donating equipment or expertise. To find

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Full Sail, the Florida-based education facility specializing in digital media, audio, film, video and live show production, has purchased a grandMA console and three grandMA ultra-light consoles for their Show Production & Touring Degree Program from North American distributor AC Lighting, Inc.

Dana Roun, the program director for show production at Full Sail, explains the decision making process: "We required a console representing the current and future industry standards. Out of the major players there were a few stand-outs . . . You have to try to predict future trends and what may happen in the next few years. Look at the life span of a piece of gear. Some equipment could be prevalent in the industry now, however perhaps it’s in the last stages of a long successful run . . . There’s another consideration to think of too. I always try to consider who you’re de

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AC Lighting has announced more new staff appointments at the company headquarters in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. As we reported last month, Ron Knell, a well-known face in the entertainment lighting industry, joins the Export Sales Department as senior account manager. Having spent 19 years with Lighting Technology in London, Knell held the position of export sales manager for the past three years. Knell not only brings a wealth of industry experience to the Export Team, his knowledge of export procedures is seen as invaluable.

David Neal has been appointed to the position of lighting and audio sales executive in the UK sales office. Working for the past 17 years at Westsun Vancouver Inc, Neal has a wide-ranging experience of lighting and audio projects and applications coupled with extensive product knowledge.

Peter Humber joined AC Lighting in March as UK sales executive. Previo

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That is the upbeat message from PLASA’s new Show Director, Sue Saint. Celebrating its 25th year, the PLASA Show is the world’s pre-eminent light, sound and audio-visual event, attracting major brands every year, and this year is no exception.

Stand bookings are currently at 82%, with top names such as Vari-Lite, Sennheiser, Martin Professional, Denon, BSS Audio and Total Fabrication already booked. The show pulls in over 13,000 visitors from the UK and abroad each year, having become the main marketplace for the £11billion entertainment technology industry.

"The show is evolving continually," commented Saint, "and one of the key trends emerging is the growing number of manufacturers choosing to exhibit in their own right, rather than rely solely on representation through distributors. In addition, many long-standing exhibitors, including Numark, Peavey, S

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In response to customer requests for additional financing options, Vari-Lite Inc has partnered with entertainment industry financing specialist FX Financial. Under the arrangement, FX Financial will administer a financing program that provides monthly payment options to qualified customers for the purchase of Vari*Lite products.

"As we continue to expand our line of Vari*Lite automated lighting products, this partnership will allow end users to acquire the best lighting equipment on the market with low up-front costs,"said Clay Powers, president and COO of Vari-Lite Inc. "Through FX Financial, Vari-Lite customers can have predictable and manageable fixed monthly payments."

Vari-Lite selected FX Financial because the financing company focuses exclusively on the entertainment industry, bringing with it years of experience with the equipment and its use. Current FX F

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The Chroma-Q range now offers the lighting professional an even wider choice of high quality, affordable lantern accessories following the launch of a new line of gobo rotators.

The three models available all accept glass or metal B-size gobos and offer compatibility with most popular spotlights including Source Four, Shakespeare and Strand SL types. The Single and Twin models feature basic manual speed adjustment using a small stand-alone power supply. The Twin DMX model offers compatibility with the Chroma-Q and Rainbow power supplies enabling bi-directional, variable speed control via DMX. The robust construction and quality components used in the manufacture of Chroma-Q gobo rotators guarantees long-term reliability, coupled with near silent operation.

This expansion of the Chroma-Q range now gives consultants and designers the opportunity to specify a ‘one brand’ pa

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Zero 88 has appointed Grant Bales-Smith to the newly-created project sales role. Bales-Smith has spent nearly eight years in the industry, gaining broad base experience in hire, events, sales and projects. He moves from Salisbury-based Stagecraft, where his most recent focus was projects and installation work. In his new role, Bales-Smith will be directly responsible for identifying and developing larger-scale projects and working closely with the company’s UK dealer network to manage the installations through to completion.

"With the increasing convergence of entertainment and architectural applications and the recent launch of Frog and Chilli products focused at this sector, Grant will have a pivotal role in developing new UK business for the brand," said Tim Burt, Zero 88 brand manager. "The experience gained at Stagecraft, coupled with the working knowledge he

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Bandit Lites has purchased a new 8,400sq.m facility in Bedford, UK, to serve as the headquarters for its European operations. "Given the tremendous growth we have experienced in the European market, we needed a larger facility to better suit our needs and aid in delivering the Bandit Standard to our customers," said Bandit Lites’ CEO, Michael Strickland. The building features high ceilings, a spacious prep floor, plenty of storage, a spacious loading and unloading area, and is wired for an extensive computer network.

General manager Jason Tang told us: "The move to the new facility in Bedford is an extremely positive move for Bandit UK. This further establishes Bandit's European presence and shows that Bandit will be a major player here in the UK for many years to come. The move should contribute immensely to our growing operations and level of service that we offe

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Zero 88 launched their latest Frog desk - The Mambo Frog - at the SIB show in Rimini. T he Mambo Frog is a continuation of the Frog desk range, and shares many features with the other desks, including similar styling, design and case size as a Fat Frog. Designed with the club, disco and music touring sectors in mind, the desk is primarily a 'fixture only' console. It has no preset faders to control dimmers, although dimmers can be controlled by assigning them as fixtures and using the desk wheels.

Due to the design and interfaces of the Mambo Frog, it is a very powerful and flexible club controller. The combination of a theatre style memory stack, along with both fader and button controlled submasters makes fast-access to lighting states possible. In intelligent-only or rigs with a small number of dimmers, this desk is ideal. It's small size and flexible playbacks mean, again, that it

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The spring touring season is off to a busy start with a number of high profile acts touring under Martin MAC rigs. They include Paul McCartney, touring the US under 50 MAC 2000Es (electronic ballast). Lighting design is by Roy Bennet with lighting supply by Light & Sound Design. For Lenny Kravitz, lighting designer Jon Pollak is using MAC 2000s for contemporary the world tour through August (Japan, Europe and US). European production is by UK-based Lite Alternative.

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young are reunited under a MAC rig for their US tour. Lighting designer is Keith Wissmar, with lights supplied by Bandit Lites. For Westlife, Bandit Lites supply a MAC rig and Jem Glaciator heavy fog machine for the latest European and UK tour. Lighting design is by Barry Halpin. Barry Manilow’s latest world tour also features a lighting system delivered by Bandit Lites and based around Martin M

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Pathway Connectivity, the leading data communications company in the entertainment lighting industry, has appointed Jose Luis Olvera & Associates as its new sales representative for South and Central America. Already representing ETC and Wybron in this market, Jose Luis Olvera & Associates is a well-respected presence in Latin American lighting, with more than 20 years of electrical engineering and entertainment lighting experience. "Jose Luis Olvera & Associates will boost our presence in this important market, and improve availability of our entertainment networking solutions to theatres and studios," says Pathway’s president, David Higgins. "We are thrilled to have a representative of this caliber join the Pathway team."

(Lee Baldock)

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During the SIB show in Rimini, Martin Professional's worldwide distributors were treated to a black tie Gala Dinner followed by Martin's Annual Awards Ceremony at the elegant Villa des Vergers just outside the city. The company’s marketing director and CEO of Martin Italy Pio Nahum presented Martin's Distributor Awards for 2001. The winners were:
Preferred Partner of the Year:
Ecler - Spain

Stage, Studio & Event Distributor of the Year:
Panou - Greece

DJ and Club Distributor of the Year:
Pro Technica - Bulgaria

Architectural Lighting Distributor of the Year:
AMAC - Lebanon

Martin Lighting Distributor of the Year:
High Tech Design - Czech Republic

Mach Speakers Distributor of the Year:
Factory Trading - Cuba

Jem Smoke Distributor of the Year:
A&T Trade - Russia

Best MAC 2000 Dealer:
EVDV

  1. Le Mark offers 20,000 dpi resolution glass gobo service
  2. Alison Lovell joins TMB’s new OEM Sales Department
  3. TMB launches OEM Sales Department
  4. New universal transformers from iLight
  5. Tourmate Multilock connectors break new ground
  6. Ego: new series of DJ Effects from Martin
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