USA - The SeaChanger Colour Engine from Ocean Optics can be used to produce dramatic architectural lighting effects in large venues such as museums and churches, say the company. The SeaChanger is a CYM colour changer for ETC Source Four Ellipsoidal Spotlights. It uses robust dichroic filter technology, which requires no cooling, to create a virtually endless palette of stable, reproducible colours that do not shift or fade with time or temperature.

Ocean Optics says its patented process yields the most robust dichroic filters available, allowing users to control colour, intensity and saturation to unprecedented levels of precision. The company says its filters also provide higher transmission efficiency than gels and other filter materials, and their resistance to temperature and humidity eliminates the need for noisy fans.

SeaChanger employs four patterned filters: cyan, yel

UK - An LED solution to an unusual interior design challenge has been devised by three experienced nightclub industry professionals - lighting specialist Ian Kirby (of Lighting Effects Distribution), project coordinator Shaun Doyle and interior designer Graham Taylor of Easy Design Solutions. Collectively they have devised a brash, stylised 1970s/80s interior for The Nightclub Company's new Bamboogie music venue concept, annexed to their Creation nightclub in Brighton.

Doyle invited both Taylor and Kirby, with whom he has worked many times in the past, onto the project - and the latter has delivered an intelligent LED solution, which was installed by Ken Morgan of K Morgan Electrical Ltd. "When the Nightclub Company were outlining their idea for the new concept, I told them the only guy they needed to talk to for the lighting was Ian Kirby," declared Doyle. "He wo

USA - Westmoore Community Church in Oklahoma City use their Zero 88 Bull Frog lighting console to live up to the moniker 'The Flock that Rocks!'. Started in 1994, Westmoore Community Church is dedicated to an informal style of worship, providing a concert environment for its patrons. The rapidly expanding church currently runs three services for over 2,000 people on Sundays and is building a new 24,000sq.ft facility. When the sanctuary first opened its doors in 2001, youth leader Scott Blair had just a few conventional lights and scrollers running from a small conventional console. The current technical director, Kevin Gress, started helping with the lighting in 2002 and then undertook the project to expand and upgrade the lighting system.

"I first learned about the Frog range from Zero 88 at a seminar in Dallas," said Gress. "After I saw a demo, I knew it was a F

UK - Strand Lighting has announced that its three UK facilities in Kirkcaldy, Cambridge and London will be consolidated into a new, custom facility outside of London. This means that the Kirkcaldy factory will be closed down in a phased manner, over a period of up to 18 months. The move is being made, say Strand, "In order to remain competitive in today's increasingly global and increasingly competitive lighting market."

Strand says that between now and the end of this year, certain dimming products presently manufactured in Scotland for the European market will be replaced by exciting new products made in Strand manufacturing sites, which are presently undergoing extensive modernization, in the US and elsewhere. The first of these new products, EC21, which features full-density sinewave dimming, will be launched at Showtech in Berlin, following its pre-launch adoption

UK - Lighting designer Nick Jevons used a Martin Maxxyz console, Mac 2000 Profile and Wash fixtures and Atomic strobes in his highly innovative visual show for BBC Radio One's 'One Big Weekend' event, held in Sunderland's Hetherington Park on 7-8 May. The console was one of two newly acquired by Bandit Lites UK, the main lighting equipment supplier to Jevons' company, Electric Fly Productions, who handled the lighting and visual co-ordination for the main stage. The desks will now be available from Bandit's hire stock.

Jevons has worked on every 'One Big Weekend' event since they started, this being the sixth. Jevons used 16 Mac 2000 Wash and 16 2000 Profile units across three trusses - six of each type on the back, six on the mid and four on the front truss, plus 12 Atomic strobes, four on each truss. Other fixtures included four bars of six Pars on the front truss, six ETC Sou

Denmark - Following the departure of Kristian Kolding from the company in late 2004, Martin Professional's owner, Schouw & Co, has announced the appointment of Christian Engsted as the new CEO and president for Martin Professional. Engsted leaves a position as CEO and President of SeaWest WindPower in San Diego, California. Engsted will begin his work at Martin on 15 May 2005 bringing with him vast experience in international management. During the past 12 years, Engsted and his wife and two daughters have lived abroad in Sweden, East Africa and North America.

Engsted holds a B.Sc degree in industrial engineering from Odense University College of Engineering. From 1988 to 2001, he was associated with the ABB Group, and as of 1994 he acted as President of some of its subsidiaries, ending with this position in ABB Service Inc. Since August 2001, he has been the head of SeaWest Win

UK / USA - Super Vision International, Inc has signed a licensing agreement for its Variable Color Lighting System patent with AVR of Leicester, UK. Marcel Fairbairn, the managing director of AVR's US operations and president of GearSource Inc, stated: "In recent years, LEDs have become a more acceptable source for lighting and AVR has been a leader in providing creative LED lighting products. After reviewing the options for IP protection and legal coverage we decided to work with Super Vision. Super Vision promotes new ideas and allows open access to their technology and we look forward to creating new products that will utilize the technologies we've now licensed from Super Vision."

(Lee Badock)

UK - Robe UK is restructuring following exceptional growth over the last 12 months. Ian W Brown - who joined the company in September - becomes sales director, having helped boost the turnover dramatically since his arrival. His colleague Bill Jones becomes sales manager. Both will continue heading up the sales department, looking after their current clients, seeking new business and continuing their successful 'in person' sales strategy.

Robe UK is also looking for two new members to join the sales force reveals Ian W Brown, "To ensure we maintain the company's efficiency and thoroughness in processing the increased volume of orders." One will be based on the road to help Brown and Jones to cover the UK and maintain their high level of personal contact. The other will be based at Robe's Northampton HQ, engaged in administration and ensuring smooth running of the vital

UK - The most recent in a series of Sporting Heroes Dinners - presented by Amanda Heathcote of Maiden Management at London's Grosvenor House Hotel - saw event staging specialists PSL build and dress the stage to enable sporting legends to pay tribute to rugby star, Jonathan Davies. With television sports commentator John Inverdale as MC, sporting legends such as Sir Steve Redgrave, Ian Botham OBE and Martin Johnson CBE in turn took their place at the lectern in The Great Room.

PSL has provided their screens and set building expertise at the famous gala venue on many occasions in the past, but this time their scope extended to animating the giant Welsh dragon, through which the guest speakers entered, with flashing lights, smoke and sound effects billowing from the 'mouth', which formed the door. Flanking the dragon were 16ft by 12ft projection screens. With a pair of Barco's awa

Israel / Canada - Compulite Systems has teamed up with Cast Software, pairing their lighting control consoles with a copy of the WYSIWYG Console Edition (CE) software. Cast is the developer of the award-winning WYSIWYG suite, the industry standard in lighting design and pre-visualization software. Compulite is the manufacturer of the advanced Vector family of lighting boards as well as a variety of other popular lighting desks.

"We are thrilled that Compulite has come on board and decided to offer WYSIWYG CE with their professional grade consoles," says Bob Mani, VP of sales and business development at Cast. "Their customers will be receiving the best package available in the industry."

WYSIWYG CE will be packaged with Compulite's Vector-Red, and offered as an optional bundle with all other Compulite desks. All Vectors are capable of running WYSIWYG on-boar

UK - Utopium Lighting Ltd recently used their force in staging the UK premiere of Revenge of the Sith - the latest and last of the Star Wars movies. AD Events contracted Utopium Lighting Ltd, who requested lighting designer Chris Bushell and project manager James Maillardet to produce the show. The film's director, George Lucas, was there on Monday 16 May in Leicester Square to appreciate the event, along with the stars and the crowds of fans.

Contained on the 15m Orbit Stage was the rig of PixelLine LED fixtures; X.Spot Extreme, Studio PC Beam and Cyberlight Turbo moving lights from high End Systems and Wholehog II. Ground support towers were used for the lights needed for the 'red carpet' entrance, and CO2 cannons were saved for the arrival of Darth Vader! In addition to lighting the show, Utopium rigged all the 1-ton LED video screens; one on the roof and six on the gr

UK - The latest version of James Thomas Engineering's PixelDrive software was in action at Radio One's One Big Weekend event recently, used by lighting and visual designers Nick and Joey Jevons to programme and control 240 Chroma-Q Color Block DB4 LED fixtures.

The Color Blocks were supplied by main lighting suppliers Bandit Lites UK to Jevons' company Electric Fly Productions, co-ordinators of all lighting and video production on the main stage of the event at Hetherington Park, Sunderland. The PixelDrive was triggered from an Avolites Pearl lighting console, dedicated specifically to LED control and operated by Joey Jevons. Utilizing the versatile selection of onboard effects in PixelDrive allowed them to quickly and easily create colour and movement sequences and chases across the Color Blocks.

The main stage video 'look' of the weekend became the fluid, organic blen

USA / Europe - When ETC bought the Avab brand three years ago, they promised to continue to support and develop it: now, the company has announced that it has kept its promise with the release of v3.5 in October 04 and now v3.6 of the popular Safari software.

In response to requests from users, the upgrade includes improved scroller handling, display of device addresses in patch and editing timegroups in blind (including extended drag-and-drop functionality). A history of status files now allows the user to go back to un-recorded play. A few issues experienced by a small number of users have also been resolved.

Safari v3.6 is available as a free upgrade for a limited time. Current v3.5 users can simply email the address below, indicating whether they want a download link (about 4MB) or a disk set. Other v3.x users can register at

USA - Vari-Lite has appointed John Adams as director of product development for all current and future Vari*Lite products. Adams will direct all engineering and project efforts through his engineering, software, and optical staff at Vari-Lite's Dallas headquarters.

"John's reputation and abilities fuelled our desire to bring him to Vari-Lite. His experience in developing products for other manufacturers convinced us that he would make a valuable member of our engineering development team," explains Steve Carson, vice-president and general manager of Genlyte Controls and Vari-Lite. "His extensive knowledge in entertainment lighting will contribute significantly to our success in developing the products that will carry us for many, many years to come."

British born, Adams is a lighting industry veteran and founder of UK lighting distributor, Lightfactor. For

Australia - Lighting control systems manufacturer LSC Lighting Systems has announced the appointment of Ian Pope to the position of business development manager. Pope has extensive experience in sales and business development in the world market across a broad range of products. His wide network of associates across the world in differing sectors is something that LSC will capitalize on, say the company.

"My experiences show that in Australia we are certainly capable of delivering world class products, so when the offer to join LSC was made available I welcomed the opportunity. The management structure is one that encourages teamwork and with our very capable agents globally, coupled with new product development, I see LSC as a future Australian Export Award Winner."

Gary Pritchard, LSC's managing director, commented: "The success of the maXim range of control d

Europe - Bandit Lites is supplying a full lighting production and crew package for the current Elvis Costello tour - hot on the heels of its work with the 'other' Elvis tour 'Elvis The Concert'. Elvis Costello - one of the world's most loved and acclaimed multi-disciplinary musicians - has been a Bandit account on both sides of the Atlantic for some years. The current LD is Liam McCarthy, one of a number of candidates put forward by Bandit three years ago, when Costello last sought an LD. This leg of the tour sees a step up in production size which is project managed by Bandit's Lester Cobrin.

The essence of lighting Costello is keeping it understated, subtle and in the background - so it's not a distraction to him and his music, explains McCarthy. There's specific things he doesn't like - including smoke, spot lights or audience lighting, and certain things he does like - like

UK - At the forthcoming ABTT Show (15-16 June, Royal Horticultural Halls, London), Lightfactor Sales will show a variety of its core theatre and performance orientated products available from Italian manufacturers SGM and LDR, LightProcessor and Wireless Solutions.

From SGM will be the Palco LED colour-changer for indoor and outdoor use (IP65 rated), the Ribalta - a batten-style LED fixture, IP-rated and available in 4ft lengths; and the Giotto 400 CYM - a new moving head projector for use in high-profile entertainment applications - concerts, theatres and television studios. Features of the Giotto Spot 400 CMY include 400W hot re-strike MSR lamp, 9°-27° motorized zoom, CMY colour generation system, plus a colour wheel with six colours and white, two rotating indexable gobo wheels and an animation wheel, linear iris, full variable frost, variable CTO filter, a rotating prism,

USA - A Hog iPC is being used for control of the Nine Inch Nails' tour's lighting show. LD Roy Bennett designed the tour, with lighting director Chad Smith out as board op. Recently, lighting contractor PRG had purchased a number of Hog iPC lighting consoles, so Smith switched out his Wholehog 2 for the new unit with the tour already underway.

"I heard good things about the Hog iPC from Butch Allen, who's using it on Garbage, so I was excited about it," Smith says. "So when we were in Boston, I switched out the day of show. I was freaking out at first, thinking, 'What am I doing?'. In this show, there is no room for error, but I felt confident with the console. I powered it up and ran my show and I haven't looked back."

Hog iPC is the newest product in the Wholehog family of controllers, and the industry's first hybrid console - it's designed to use the Who

Japan - The 2005 World Exposition in Aichi, Japan is themed around nature and the power of life. The Australian pavilion reflects this theme - 'Nature's Wisdom' - from an Australian perspective. The pavilion showcases Australia's unique lifestyle, shaped by the harsh and beautiful continent and influenced by the people that have come to its shores, including indigenous Australians, European settlers in the 18th and 19th centuries, and more recent arrivals to Australia from Asia and all around the world.

The Australian Government appointed Melbourne-based firm Think!OTS to design, construct and maintain the Australian pavilion. Think!OTS joined forces with the major Japanese exhibition company Delphys Inc, which has been designing and building pavilions stretching back to the World Expo held in Osaka in 1970. Leading indigenous design firm Balarinji is also part of the Think!OTS

USA - Robby Malvaez has been named sales and technical representative for the recently-formed Nicolaudie America. Says a spokesman: "The new US operation has only been going for a few months, but already we can report that it is a great success. We are now closer to the American market and are able to offer much better support to Sunlite users. The new company will also be integral to increasing our presence in South America."

(Jim Evans)

UK - Paul Wilmshurst has been named general manager, Dynalite Europe. Wilmshurst has a solid lighting controls industry background and experience in both European and Asian markets, most recently as European marketing manager, lighting controls for Philips Lighting in Eindhoven. In his new role he will focus on both the domestic UK and European markets served by Dynalite Europe, overseeing all aspects of the business and contributing to strategic development.

John Gunton, Dynalite managing director says: "We are thrilled to welcome Paul aboard. Both the UK and European markets are increasingly important to Dynalite and I have every confidence that he will contribute significantly to our success in the region."

(Jim Evans)

Italy - The CP Color 400 SH (Separate Head) is a new, silent, 400W CMY colour changer, with the power supply unit separate from the lighting body. The lighting body can be placed up to a distance of 300m (984ft) from the power supply unit, with connection via a single power cable. This, says the manufacturer, is of particular benefit where space is at a premium and in theatres where equipment must be hidden from general view.

If required, the lighting body can be clamped to its own power supply using an optional 'fast clamping kit'.

(Jim Evans)

Norway - Laser Production Network (LaserNet) has installed four separate laser systems on Norwegian Cruise Line's (NCL) newest ship, the 81,000-ton Pride of America. LaserNet technicians went to Bremerhaven shipyard in Germany to carry out the work which included installation of the first RGB (white light) diode DPSS laser system in the main show lounge.

"One of the main directives from NCL was that all the lasers had to be air-cooled and yet they wanted white light graphic capability on the main stage," says LaserNet president Tom Harman. "In the past, this would mean water hoses, expensive heat exchangers, and three phase electricity. However, by using the current laser technology of solid state diodes, we were able to provide a full colour laser system without all that hassle."

In addition to the solid-state white light system, two Copper Bromide lasers

UK - Mountview's Technical Theatre students will be presenting an exhibition of their work at the Candid Galleries, London EC1 on Thursday 9 and Friday 10 June 2005.

The exhibition covers all areas of technical theatre and is described by the organizers as "a wonderful opportunity for our students to showcase their talents and skills for prospective employers. The exhibition will be of particular interest to anyone connected with or curious about technical theatre work or training."

Mountview's BA (Hons) Technical Theatre course covers five main disciplines: lighting, sound, construction, design and stage management and the exhibition promises to reflect the broad range of skills the students have developed during their training.

Mountview claims to be the only drama school to offer a two-year fast-track degree course in technical theatre, providing "the pract

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