Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025
PLASA Show 2025 - Banner - June-Aug 2025

Lighting

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UK - Blackburn-based rental operation HSL has purchased over 200 units of the powerful ColorSpot 1200 AT and ColorWash 1200 AT fixtures from Robe UK. It's one of the largest European sales of moving heads to date from Robe Show Lighting based in the Czech Republic, and will help establish the brand on the UK lighting rental map.

HSL's Simon Stuart and Robe UK's Ian W Brown completed the deal, and the units will immediately go into HSL's busy hire department run by Sean McGlone. Simon Stuart says: "Today's market is about having a large quantity of rental stock and a fast turnaround, so it was essential that we chose the right fixtures that are reliable and easy to maintain. The Robe 1200 AT series has all the attributes you'd expect from a top quality product. This, plus the two year warranty - giving fixed costs - ensures the units are highly cost effective to run." H

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UK - Laser Electronics Ltd has introduced three new versions of its laser lightshow and multimedia software packages to include: Millennium - an entry level package, which allows 2D control of any laser system; Zion, which offers advanced features such as importation of 3D Studio max files and one of the most advanced 3D engines ever developed for laser lightshow use. Finally V3D, which not only allows the control of any laser system, but also offers the user the ability to emulate any laser effect from a standard video projector.

The Zion package is the simplest to use, true 3D system on the market. Ideally it is suited to creating long, complex shows from scratch utilizing the latest in virtual reality style instant feedback and attacks the most time consuming aspect of Laser Lightshow programming - generating animations. Features include: Free-form 3D; trace scanned-in bitmap

PLASA Show 2025 - Banner - June-Aug 2025

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USA - Color Kinetics has informed PLASA Media that Bill Groener has resigned from his post with the company, with effect from 1 April. The resignation is based solely on personal reasons, say the company. Groener has commented: "The last year has been full of challenges and accomplishments and I am truly grateful to Bill Sims and George Mueller for the opportunity that they gave me. Color Kinetics is (and will continue to be) a tremendous operation and I have great respect for the work that we have done and for the people who 'make it happen' day in and day out. I have absolutely no doubts that the initiatives that we started will result in profitable growth and that Color Kinetics will remain the market leader when it comes to Intelligent Solid-State Lighting."

The statement from Color Kinetics said: "We at Color Kinetics thank Bill for his tremendous contributi

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Czech Republic - Robe Show Lighting has been appointed the exclusive Moving Light supplier for the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest. The company will provide 330 ColorSpot 1200 AT and ColorWash 1200 AT fixtures for the event, which is to be staged in Kiev, Ukraine with the final broadcast live on 21 May.

Spectra Plus from Stockholm Sweden, Eurovision's technical production co-ordinators for the last five years approached Robe about being a partner in the show which is renowned for its ambitious visual aesthetics. The show is also marking its landmark 50th anniversary.

Spectra's Ola Melzig and Jan Erik Jansson and National Television of Ukraine's director of International Relations, Pavlo Grytsak, initially approached Robe's Josef Valchar and Harry von den Stemmen at PLASA 2004.

Extensive testing of the suggested Robe fixtures were undertaken in Sweden, in conjunction with Robe's

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Germany - The 35th 'Ball des Sports', organized by the foundation Deutsche Sporthilfe, and under the patronage of the German Federal President Prof. Dr. Horst Koehler, took place on 5 February in the Festhalle Frankfurt under this year's slogan Nacht der Sterne. More than 2,000 guests, including celebrities and Olympic champions, enjoyed a spectacular show equipped with latest technology.

As the show's media technology partner, CT Germany provided the LED specials, projections and peripheral equipment for the Ball des Sports. On behalf of event producer Kogag, the CT team offered full service including installation, support and dismantling with the technical project management of the CT Düsseldorf sales office.

The highlight of the stage set was CT's new Soft-LED: a dynamic LED curtain, it showed video and graphic content which was created specifically for this show.

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UK - Following its original run in 2002, the Raymond Gubbay production of Carmen recently returned to London's Royal Albert Hall with PRG Europe at the heart of a spectacular visual presentation.

Running from February into early March, it was public demand which brought the return of Bizet's opera for a limited season of just 12 performances. Directed by David Freeman, it was again performed in the round, on a spectacular swirl-shaped ramp and circular pit designed by David Roger. Lighting design for both runs of Carmen was by Andrew Bridge, but this time with PRG Europe supplying a range of Vari-Lite fixtures from its extensive inventory to light the show, along with over 100 conventional lights and 40 colour scrollers.

Bridge's original design was inspired by the model photos he was given of the proposed production, before the original 2002 production: "

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UK - i-Vision has won the 'Special Projects' category of the 2005 Lighting Design Awards, for its innovative design and installation of an LED lighting scheme on the new set of GMTV.

The Welsh-based company offers creative lighting design, installation and project management plus the manufacture of LED and conventional architectural light sources. i-Vision's Luke Dodd said: "It's great to receive such a fantastic reward, following the past few years of cutting edge systems development and specification. It's a tribute to the whole company who have worked incredibly hard to produce genuinely unique and ground-breaking LED technologies."

The GMTV installation was a first for UK television. GMTV's lighting director/designer John Allard approached i-Vision's Luke Dodd wanting a complete change for the studio lighting - to colour-changing LEDs. I-Vision designed the syste

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USA - Beginning this year, all operations of Electronic Theatre Controls (ETC) in Europe will be known by one name. As of 31 March, Transtechnik Lichtsysteme in Germany and IES in Holland will join the company's current locations in London, Copenhagen and Rome under the common banner of ETC.

"Calling ourselves 'ETC' means much more than a simple name change," says the company's Bill Gallinghouse. "It represents the total integration of the people, technologies and products of four strong companies and brands into a unified portfolio. Now we can offer the best lighting solutions to each European market."

ETC has assembled a strong group of talented people in Europe by combining Transtechnik, IES and Avab with the ETC Europe team. "Their unparalleled dedication to products and service is evident in the relationships that they have developed with their c

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USA - Elation Control Systems (ECS) has introduced two digital DMX recorders, the DPR 1 (a tabletop 'pocket' recorder) and DR 512 (a 19" rack-mount version), which the company says will allow the user to copy all the scenes in a light show and then run the entire show at the touch of a button, with all the ease and speed of using a VCR. The DPR 1 and DR 512 are digital real-time recorders, so can record a whole light show including hold and fade times, rather than copying each scene individually and then requiring the operator to "sequence" all the scenes together, as non-digital recorders do, say Elation.

The DPR 1 and DR 512 were designed to work with any major brand of universal DMX controller. Each of the units has the capacity to record and store up to four complete light shows into its internal memory; 33 complete light shows can be stored into external me

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UK - The new family of 700W fixtures from Vari*Lite will be shown for the first time in the UK next week at the RSAMD (Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama) in Glasgow on the PRG stand. The fixtures both featuring full CMY colour mixing, glass dimmer wheels, separate strobes and the extraordinary optical zoom ranges that Vari*Lite users have long enjoyed. David Ripley of the RSAMD said, " It is excellent to see an industry leader such as Vari*Lite showcasing new products here and we hope that visitors and our students can benefit from this."

The Vari*Lite VL2500 Spot luminaire is based on a very popular existing lighting tool - the VL2000 Spot luminaire, adding new features that make it even more appealing. The VL2500 Spot luminaire comes complete with all of the qualities and options designers love from the original Series 2000 fixtures. It continues to be small

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The Netherlands - On 1 January 2005 Rapenburg Plaza BV started its new business from Amsterdam. Rapenburg Plaza is a joint venture of DLA (Dutch Lighting designers Association) and Ground Zero located in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Rapenburg Plaza will focus on lighting design, showcontrol design and programming for theatre, opera, film, museums, TV, theme parks, architecture etc. The production works and trade venture of Ground Zero will now be handled by Rapenburg Plaza. Ground Zero BV will maintain the research and development department, with products like the KISS Box and the Ground Control Console developments.The sales and service representation will also move to Amsterdam. This will be the case for the Dutch distribution of e:cue lighting control systems, the North European dealership for Richmond Sound Design and the Dutch dealership for Medialon ShowControl software.

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USA - Colorado-based lighting manufacturer Wybron Inc has given the first public showing of its new BP-2 beam luminaire, at the USITT Stage Expo, March 17-19 in Toronto, Canada. This compact, next generation beam projector uses the latest developments in optical and mechanical design to give lighting designers another tool in their ever-expanding arsenal of lighting effects. The BP-2 produces an intense soft-edge, narrow (10°) beam of light several times more intense than an ordinary spotlight of similar wattage, say Wybron.

Built of rugged spun steel, with either a metal or cold light coated glass parabolic reflector, it may be lamped with up to 800W tungsten or 150W discharge source. Its T-slot modular connection system allows the designer to combine an unlimited number of BP-2s in any desired array to satisfy any lighting situation, say the company.

The BP-2 makes a stat

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UK - The Compulite Vector control system was in use for some of the largest television lighting rigs for the recent Comic Relief campaign. Comic Relief Does Fame Academy 2005, which saw 13 well-known celebrities compete in a singing competition to raise money for good causes in the UK and abroad. Console operator Roger Williams, working with lighting director Mark Kenyon, chose the Compulite Vector Blue console to control the comprehensive rig of moving lights and LED fittings on the main Fame Academy stage, along with a Compulite SparkTOP console, operated by David Bishop, to drive the conventional lighting.

A total of 107 different songs in 10 shows were programmed on the Vector over the two-week period. A minimum of 80 minutes was transmitted live each night - two nights consisted of two full two hours live. The Vector was controlling 14 Martin MAC 2000, 35 Martin MAC

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UK - Utopium Lighting Ltd was amongst the stars at this year's BAFTAs in Leicester Square. Dave Bryant and West Design worked with Utopium for the lighting and presentation at the Odeon Cinema in London's West End. The lighting kit, including a selection of Dominators and Studio Due CS4 Spot Line was installed over the preceding four days. Whilst the stars were at Leicester Square, Utopium Lighting was busy at the Grosvenor House adding the final touches to the after show party. Produced by AD Events the dinner and party added the glitzy finale to a long week in the movies.

Over this period Utopium also lit the film premieres for Shall We Dance, Bee Cool, Kingdom of Heaven, Robot and the Will Smith movie Hitch. AD Events chose Utopium to rig and light Hitch, which turned out to be three events in one day; the first event was in the morning in Manchest

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UK - Brentwood-based Cosmic Electronics has fitted out the new Whispers bar/club in Gravesend, using a range of LED lighting from Lighting Effects Distribution to create a colour-changing environment - as well as illuminating the dance floor with Geni scanners from the same supplier.

The former Shades has been converted by new owners Benning Bros Ltd at a cost of £160,000, with an upgraded sound system. Mark Damon's sound and lighting company was originally brought in through a contact with the venue's previous manager.

As with the recent fit-out at the exotic Sugar Hut in Brentwood, Cosmic Electronics turned extensively to the catalogue of Lighting Effects Distribution. The real success has been the way he has used LEDs to illuminate the bar areas. Two sets of Alkalite Riva 80 8-pod sets overhead wash down onto the granite-type bar top, while 12 Solar L80's - on their own de

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Australia - The DMXPlayBack, the first device launched by lighting control manufacturer Enttec in 1998, was very successful, but has now received a facelift. The result is the new DMXPlayBack Mk2, with all the functions users have come to rely on, plus new functions and extra memory, at no extra cost, say Enttec The DMXPlayBack Mk2 can store up to 12 complete light shows, each of which can consist of up to 500 static scenes. Scenes can be stored as a snapshot of the DMX input, or can be built using the dedicated free software package ShowEditor 2. Once your scenes have been stored, shows are put together using ShowEditor, and uploaded to the DMXPlayBack Mk2.

Users can choose to run a single show on power-up of the unit, or can trigger individual shows via RS232. For manual control, the DMXPlayBack Remote allows single-button access to all 12 shows, and can even be triggered usi

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UK - Pontins holiday village near Hemsby, Norfolk, was taken over for a weekend in March by one of the largest Dance and R&B Radio stations in the UK, for the fifth Vibe FM Dance Party Weekender, which has become a twice-yearly event. All technical services (including lighting, sound, AV and staging) were supplied by Embee Lighting, based near Norwich in Norfolk.

The radio station's DJs provided the music for the two nine-hour shows, which saw two rooms operated simultaneously, offering commercial and alternative styles. The lighting was the most technically demanding part of the weekend, since both shows required live operation each night.The themed events (entitled 'It Will Be All White On The Night' and 'The Wild, Wild West'), used a mixture of Martin MAC 250+, MAC 500s, and ChromaBanks, ChromaCubes and ChromaStrips from Pulsar. According to Embee's project manager for the e

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UK - Digital media specialist Projected Image Digital has moved to larger premises in West London. Meanwhile, its sister company, gobo manufacturer Projected Image, remains in East London at its purpose-built laboratory and office space on Three Mills Island. "It was always intended to move PID when we outgrew the space," explains David March, "And that's happened much quicker than expected in just two years since the launch of 'Digital'".

The new PID building features a vast workshop facility with more storage, increased office space and a full-scale demo and training area. It means PID can offer comprehensive demos for its entire range including Catalyst and Element Labs products. The move also enhances PID's ability to provide thorough product training on all products, they say.

The Grade II listed building at 53 Northfield Road is a slice of productio

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Australia / Germany - Australian manufacturer LSC Lighting Systems will exhibit at next months ProLight&Sound exhibition in Frankfurt (6-9 April) in its own right, having co-exhibited with its German distributors for the last 12 years. LSC's Alan Graham comments: "ProLight has developed for us as a true international exhibition with customers and distributors seeking us out from as far away as Asia, Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe as well as out traditional customer base from Western Europe. We felt it important to establish our own presence at this important show and show the wider audience exactly what we do."

Previewing for the first time in Europe is LSC's soon-to-be-released lighting desk, Xtc. This powerful and stylish desk is based on the proven maXim engine and advanced moving light control from the popular PaTPad touch screen module. It offers a multit

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Worldwide - Embrace are riding high on an ongoing world tour following the phenomenal success of their number one platinum album, "Out of Nothing". It's seen the band stage a remarkable comeback following their mid 1990s zenith. Lighting designer is Jonny Gaskell, and the lighting supplier for the UK leg of the tour is Liverpool-based Adlite Productions.

Gaskell's show utilises lots of back-light and silhouetting as a dramatic and visual tool, used in conjunction with low cross stage lighting. He produces a huge amount of looks and variations out of a compact rig, at the heart of which is 12 MAC 550s. "I'm very impressed with the 550s" he says, "They're great beam lights, they're perfect for the size of venues we're playing and they cut through the rest of the rig really well."

Embrace is currently playing many different types and sizes of venue

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Ukraine / Sweden - For the fourth consecutive year, Beacon will produce all the graphic effects for the Eurovision Song Contest, which this year takes place in Kiev, Ukraine, from 19-21 May. Peppe Tannemyr and Lennart Wåhlin, graphic designers at Beacon DigiGobos, are part of the Swedish team producing all the lighting design for the Eurovision Song Contest - one of the world's largest live events and TV productions. It is estimated that close to 300 million viewers will watch the live broadcast.

"As soon as we receive the first act, we begin programming the lights. The lighting designer Per Sundin from Swedish Television, Catalyst operator Pontus Lagerbielke and I will have programmed 60-65% in a virtual setting in Stockholm before we get to Kiev at the end of April. Then we work onsite in a larger team to prepare for the semifinals on May 19 and the finals on May 21,&qu

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Italy - Special Effects company Le Maitre has supplied two of its Stadium Hazers to Milan's prestigious opera house, La Scala. The Hazers are in use for a new production of Tannhauser, at the specific request of the show's designer, David Jacques, who is head of stage design at the Department of Theatre Arts, California State University. Jacques explains: "The design heavily depends on atmospheric haze. There are only a few scenic pieces and the spaces are completely defined by light. As I have had many experiences with the problems associated with how atmospheric haze affects opera singers, actors, and dancers, I insisted that the company use the Stadium Hazers for this production."

Jacques had previously used Le Maitre's Neutron Hazers many times before and enjoyed the positive reviews from the performers about its tasteless and non-irritating fluid. Jacques

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Canada - Gilray Densham, co-founder and CEO of Cast Software, was the recipient of a Special Citation Award commending his company's efforts in the development and refinement of WYSIWYG - the industry's only all-in-one lighting software. "It was an honor to be recognized by USITT, a foundation that promotes and supports hundreds of thousands of students and educators in the field of theatrical production. A significant part of Cast's mission is to provide educational software that encourages hands-on learning, preparing students for real-world scenarios", said Densham. "It's exciting for us to continue our development of specialized design software for this flourishing industry."

While exhibiting at the Expo, Cast introduced Vivien - an all-in-one design package created for the meeting and event industry. "The response from lighting and design professio

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UK - "From tiny acorns mighty oaks do grow" a misquotation often used to indicate that something small is capable of great things. For renowned West End sound designer Paul Groothuis (credits include The King & I and the sumptuous My Fair Lady at the National to name just two) the issue of size was critical as he made plans to fit the control into his equation for Victoria Wood's new musical, Acorn Antiques, at the Haymarket Theatre Royal.

"My main consideration was space," said Groothuis of his decision to use Yamaha's PM5D mixing console. "This is a small theatre and seat revenues are important. I needed a certain amount of channels and a certain sound quality. It was a toss up between having a larger conventional console in a position where the operator couldn't hear, or a smaller one in a good listening position. There was nothi

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