UK - PRG Europe has supplied lighting, truss and mains for the BBC Proms in the Park in Glasgow. Equipment provided for the event celebrating the last night of the Proms included over 55 Vari*Lite luminaires and 50 conventionals, including ETC Source Four Pars and Source Four Zooms, controlled from a Wholehog II plus a Catalyst media server. Lighting director for BBC Scotland was Jim McNamee, while PRG Europe's project manager was John McEvoy.

(Chris Henry)

UK - Dialight Lumidrives, the UK based LED technology provider, has appointed SimonAldred as sales manager.

Aldred, 35, joins Dialight Lumidrives with over 10 years experience in the lighting and electronics industry. He joins having spent the previous five years selling high power LED technology in the UK and Europe in his role as Lumileds' UK supplier development manager. Aldred will be responsible for increasing significantly Dialight Lumidrive's sales in Europe over the next three years.

Gordon Routledge, managing director at Dialight Lumidrives says: "We are entering a period of rapid growth thanks to an increasing number of customers recognising our wide ranging LED expertise. Simon's role is to help us manage this demand and continue to widen our customer base."

Aldred adds: "Joining Dialight Lumidrives is a fantastic opportunity for me, as the company

USA - Lighting designer Matt Mills recently specified over 50 Chroma-Q Color Block LED fixtures as part of his set lighting for the Three Doors Down US summer co-headline tour with Lynrd Skynyrd.

The 45-date tour for two of the country's biggest southern rock bands was in support of Three Doors Down's smash hit album Seventeen Days - one of the top five selling US rock albums of 2005 - and Lynrd Skynyrd's recent induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Lynrd Skynyrd was already on the road when Three Doors Down joined the tour, so Mills and Lynrd Skynyrd LD Steve Owens co-designed a new rig, doubling the size of it and incorporating the drum riser and backline elements from previous Three Doors Down tours.

As it was a scaled down version of the band's rig and they were reluctant to purchase another backdrop. Mills thought it would be a good opportunity to explore new c

UK - With only one week to go before the first of this series of Hawthorn@Home events, a 'Pyro Day' on October 13 featuring a demonstration of pyrotechnics by Le Maitre, registrations for the event are doing well, the company reports. "The numbers and quality of the registrations we have already received is encouraging," says Alan Jackson of Hawthorn, "however, we still have capacity at the event to accommodate even more delegates."

Hawthorn regularly organise a series of events, which take place at its base at Old Dalby in Leicestershire. The events run under the heading Hawthorn@Home which give lighting, sound, AV and scenic materials users the opportunity to get hands on with the latest equipment and technology. It is intended the workshops will allow manufacturers, suppliers and users to discuss the products and to gain an insight not normally available o

UK - Lighting Technology Projects (LTP) has completed the specification, supply and installation of a very elegant white lighting scheme for the Grade 1 listed All Soul's Church on Regent Street, in central London's famous Marylebone district.

Designed by King George IV's favourite architect John Nash, All Souls is a 'Waterloo' church, built in 1823 as part of the nation's thanksgiving for the victory of Wellington over Napoleon. Constructed from Bath stone, the design combines a graceful 160 ft Gothic style spire and a classical rotunda 'body'. It is the last surviving John Nash church.

LTP was contacted by designers LUXX, whose Martin Richman and Dominic Berning have worked with them on numerous other interesting, idiosyncratic and innovative architectural lighting projects. LTP's Terry Reeves says: "It's always a challenge working on Martin's projects - they push the a

UK - Bandit Lites is supplying full lighting production and crew for LD Dave Lee on the current 7-week Journey South UK theatre tour, produced by Production North.

Bandit's Lester Cobrin was again asked onboard by Production North - the two companies are regular collaborators - after working together on the very successful X-Factor tour earlier in the year, which was also project managed by Cobrin.

Since coming third on the last series of X-Factor, Journey South, brothers Carl and Andy Pemberton from Middlesbrough, have built up a solid UK fan base which has helped spawn their first - and sold out - tour. This is a testament to the wide appeal of their music. The live show is primarily rocky, up-tempo and very dynamic. It kicks off with a scorching rendition of Thin Lizzie's classic The Boys are Back in Town, and also features plenty of their own original material.

Ba

UK - The ABTT is looking to compile a list of the most useful things the British theatre technician might utilise in their working life, from entries submitted by its members and non-members alike.

Any item is eligible and suggestions so far include: the multi-tool; a 17mm box spanner; the hard hat; knee pads; Pilbrow's Stage Lighting Design; a sound pressure level meter; personalised crew room coffee mug; and, a walkie-talkie that works in the nearest pub.

Submissions should be sent to techequip@catherinecooperevents.co.uk by the end of October and include a contact number. One entry chosen at random after the closing date will receive a year's free ABTT membership subscription.

(Chris Henry)

Canada - 102 year old Butchart Gardens in Victoria is one of Canada's top tourist attractions, covering 55 acres and renowned for its themed gardens, floral displays and spectacular views.

With between one and 1.5 million visitors per year, the gardens also host a range of events, including live music and, for 10 Saturday evenings in summer, a spectacular firework display.Being situated on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, the gardens are not an acoustically friendly environment, both in terms of physical location and climate. For more than six years, Victoria's DL Sound & Lighting had used Turbosound Flashlights at the venue and this year looked at ways to further improve sound coverage and quality for the weekly firework show.

The challenges that a new system had to overcome included high humidity and direct sunlight all day, the effects of a salt atmosphere - both in terms of

UK - Northern Light have announced the arrival of Calder Sibbald as their new events manager. Prior to joining the company, Calder was branch manager of Tower Productions South where he worked on glamorous A-List celebrity parties and events.

Calder possesses a degree in Stage Management and Theatre Production gained at Queen Margaret University College. Whilst at university, Calder moonlighted as technical manager for two Edinburgh institutions - The Venue and Liquid Rooms nightclubs.

Calder says: "This is an exciting opportunity for me to develop Northern Light's Events division. Since I was at school, I have worked in various fields of production in Scotland, the UK and Europe. In conjunction with Gregor Murray, our events services manager, I'll be working to build up Northern Light's market share of corporate and celebrity event production."

Northern Light's ma

Italy / China - During the recent Italian Government mission to China, the Prime Minister - accompanied by four ministers and the Chairman of Confindustria (the Confederation of Italian Industries), and with 600 businessmen in tow - met with top Chinese leaders.

Formal events alternated with festivities on a grand scale, such as the concert to mark the opening in Guangzhou of the Third International Small and Medium Industries Fair/Chinese-Italian Small and Medium Industries Fair. This memorable event was staged in a vast auditorium, where a battery of Coemar iSpots S was well able to handle a show of such gigantic size. This typifyies a market (China) where Coemar's presence is constantly growing, thanks to some dynamic joint ventures. The lighting for the event was provided by Hu Jia (lighting designer), the Guangdong Singing and Dancing Performer Group (lighting contractor) e

UK - Birmingham Hippodrome has recently purchased much-needed items of stage equipment to ensure that the 'show must go on', thanks to the generosity of its members and donors who have supported the theatre in recent months.

A new state-of-the-art scissorlift, extending to a dizzying 7.9 metres, has been a welcome addition to the Hippodrome's technical crew who will use the lift onstage for tasks such as focusing lighting and building scenery whenever a new production arrives in town.

Stars of the ballet, opera and musicals will shine even more brightly with the arrival of 24 Source 4 lanterns containing revolutionary lens tube technology for the main stage, making the Hippodrome one of the first UK venues to install this latest version of a lighting industry benchmark.

Being an independent, not-for-profit charity, the money raised by Birmingham Hippodrome Friends and throug

Sweden - Wireless Solution Sweden AB had the honour of celebrating Benedictus XVI on his first voyage as Pope back to his home country of Germany. He began his journey in the capital of Munich before heading to his birthplace of Marktl am Inn, in Germany's South- Eastern corner near the Austrian border, the pilgrimage town of Altötting and Regensburg.

In Altötting, a town of 13,000, he held a grand open air mass in the town's Kapellplatz Square with approximately 70,000 visitors. The lighting during the ceremony was done by the German production company Neumann & Muller.

The team used one W-DMX S-1 Transmitter and two W-DMX R-512 Receivers (one on each stage) and one Booster from Wireless Solution to control 12 HighEnd PC Beams and several daylight fresnels with dowsers at each stage. Lighting was programmed with a GrandMA Light console with backup. The distance was 250 mete

USA - With Acclaim Lighting's new Color Ray LED luminaire, it's easy to cast a palette of changing colors on any area. A robust color-changing effect, the Color Ray features three high-power 1-watt LEDs - red, green and blue - that can produce an extremely bright flood of colour whether used outdoors or inside a building. The fixture features a high ingress protection rating of IP 65, meaning it can withstand dust and rain for safe, reliable outdoor use.

"The Color Ray is a rugged LED color-changing fixture that works as well outdoors as inside," said Eric Loader, director of sales for Acclaim Lighting. "In fact, the '6' in its IP is the very highest rating given for protection against solid objects, which means it can't be penetrated by any type of particle, even very fine dust. The second digit '5' signifies that it can stand up to water coming at it from all di

UK - Bandit Lites has announced the appointment of Lester Cobrin as chief executive for all UK & European operations. In his new role, Cobrin will oversee one of the largest lighting supply companies in the UK & Europe.

Cobrin began his career in the entertainment industry in 1991 working at SamuelsonConcert Productions & Theatre Projects. While there, Cobrin acquired experience in alldepartments. Starting on the shop floor, he moved into company purchasing and sales, andlater into client management. Cobrin covered a variety of projects while acting as clientmanager, including touring shows to corporate events and everything in between.

In 1997, Cobrin joined Light & Sound Design and began to build a substantial client basewithin the concert touring, special events, corporate and theatre market sectors. Whilethere, he also had the opportunity to get hands-on experience as ligh

UK/Europe - Bandit has once again been contracted to supply lighting services for The Moody Blues' current UK & European tour. The tour marks 14 years that Bandit Lites has serviced the lighting and visual needs of the rock legends, with the account being managed by Bandit's recently appointed chief executive, Lester Cobrin.

At lighting designer, Mick Thornton's request, Bandit Lites Inc. crew member, Shawn Beaulieu has also been brought over to the UK to work on the European leg. The band completed a short tour earlier in the year and a one-off in California just before this leg, which is the first substantial touring work they have undertaken in 2006.

Given carte blanche to produce the show design, Thornton seized the opportunity to introduce Martin Professional's Maxedia digital Media server to the visual equation. This has helped enormously with the seamless integration of

UK - The Event Show has announced that Michael Eavis, the Godfather of Glastonbury, will be speaking at the Access Sessions, hosting a question and answer seminar for event organisers at Olympia in London on 24 January 2007, day one of the two-day exhibition.

The Event Show is established as one of the leading exhibitions in the industry for anyone organising indoor or outdoor events. The Show attracts some of the most prestigious names in concert promotion, sound and lighting, festivals and live entertainment.

"This is a major coup and we expect a packed audience for his seminar," explains Michelle Tayton, manager of The Event Show. "The continuous evolvement of Glastonbury is one of the event industry's greatest success stories. The fact that we have been able to provide event organisers with access to one of the industry's most prestigious figureheads is test

UK - Theatre Projects Consultants has been awarded the status of an Investor in People. This award acknowledges that the company recognises the importance of its people and values their contribution to its business to deliver a high level of service to clients throughout the world.

The Investors in People Standard is a national quality standard which sets a level of good practice for improving an organisation's performance through its people. It provides a framework for improving organisational performance and competitiveness through a planned approach to setting and communicating business objectives and developing people to meet these objectives.

The Standard was developed in 1990 by a group of organisations representing both employees and employers, and was launched nationally in 1991. In October 1993 Investors in People UK (IIP UK) was established as the body that would tak

Italy - Proel has announced the appointment of Hasna Nahdi in Proel's ExportDepartment. Nahdi boasts experience in products and international markets in the installation field and is excited about the opportunity to join the Italian company.

Proel Installation Division has specialised and skilled staff, able to give suitable solutions fitting any customers' needs, says the company.

"I am enthusiastic about Proel Installation Division because I have seen in this company the essence and the great capacity to integrate different fields synergies with the sole objective to match the PA market demand," says Hasna Nahdi.

"Thanks to Proel's consolidated experience and prestigious position in the entertainment, stage equipment, sound reinforcement, lighting . . . we will be in the position to answer widely to any kind of enquiries."

To offer further technical a

USA - Bandit Lites have announced their recent involvement in Farm Aid 2006. The event took place on September 30, 2006 at the Tweeter Center at the Waterfront-a 25,000 capacity outdoor amphitheater in Camden, New Jersey.

Farm Aid 2006 featured Farm Aid president and founder, Willie Nelson, board membersNeil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews, as well as Jerry Lee Lewis withRoy Head, Los Lonely Boys, Arlo Guthrie, Gov't Mule, Steve Earle, Allison Moorer, SteelPulse, Shelby Lynne, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Jimmy Sturr & his Orchestra, Pauline Reeseand Danielle Evin.

Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp organised the first Farm Aid concert in1985. They wanted to increase awareness about the loss of family farms and raisefunds to keep family farms in business. Dave Matthews joined the Farm Aid board ofdirectors in 2001. To date, Farm Aid has raised over $29 million t

USA - Gear-Source, Inc. announces it will launch a completely new version (GS3) of their site www.GearSource.com at LDI 2006 in Las Vegas.

"With GS3, we've grown up a whole lot, and you'll see it shows," says Marcel Fairbairn, president of Gear-Source, Inc. "Not only are we expanding our offerings, and giving the user even more options to search, post listings, purchase, etc - we're making the entire process easier."

GS3 has streamlined the online selling process, and brought the important information to the forefront."It's always been our goal to offer a host of selling methods, options, etc. Until now, we haven't had the tools. The new page designs, and backend software will allow us to start adding features to the listing process enabling the seller who needs his money fast to take advantage of additional tools available."

GearSource.com empl

Denmark - The Exterior 1200 Wash is the newest addition to Martin Architectural's Exterior range of outdoor luminaires. Its powerful 1200W lamp and full range color mixing system make it ideal for dynamic illumination of tall structures, high-rises or any high-visibility architecture.

The Exterior 1200's CMY system blends the colours cyan, magenta and yellow to achieve a full spectrum of colours. Further colour options are also provided on a four-colour wheel.

The Exterior 1200 houses an efficient 1200W metal halide lamp capable of reaches of nine stories and above. Its optical performance results in a uniform distribution of light and colour, and an opti-white front glass gives a pure white light. Ellipsoidal beam shapers and other optical accessories provide precise optical control for pin-point illumination of columns, pylons and very tall structures.

Narrow and medium mo

USA - High End Systems today launches Axon, a rack-mount media server featuring the same graphics engine as the DL.2 digital light. Axon will be shown at High End Systems' booth at the ETS-LDI trade show on 20-22 October in Las Vegas.

Axon is a flexible solution for those who already have their own video display device, and want a world of unlimited image possibilities.

"Axon has been a highly requested product since we first released the DL.2 last year," says Scott Blair, director of digital lighting development. "The ability for lighting designers and programmers to use a media server - which operates like the DL.2 - for other elements of their show represents an enormous time savings when programming a show by not having to switch between the programming syntax differences of other media servers. Axon puts all the features of the DL.2 Graphics Engine into a 3

USA - Royal Philips Electronics (AEX: PHI, NYSE: PHG) today announced that it will present its latest innovations in entertainment lighting technology at LDI 2006, being held in Las Vegas Convention Center from October 20-22, 2006.

At the Philips booth #1455, the company will present its complete Philips FastFit range. Initiated by the launch of Philips MSR Gold 1200 FastFit and Philips Hi-Brite 1200 FastFit, at the beginning of this year, Philips has completed the product range with Philips MSR Gold 700 FastFit and Philips Hi-Brite 750 FastFit. This rear load lamp base system has been co-developed with Bender & Wirth.

The benefit of this new lamp concept is not only a fast lamp replacement due to the unique lamp and lamp holder design, it also includes an increased brightness, provides the opportunity to reduce fixture size and weight, assures reliability due to pinch protect

USA - Bandit Lites has teamed up again with lighting designer, Seth Jackson to light Toby Keith's most recent Hookin' Up and Hangin' Out tour. Toby Keith will play sixty-plus shows to cities throughout America from August through November.

In his fourth tour with Toby Keith, Jackson says that he and Keith are very in sync when itcomes to lighting needs and expectations. "Toby Keith is a rock show. It is big, bright, and anything but subtle, "explains Jackson. "We try to interact with the set design yet still give ourselves a lot of layers and positions so we can create as much depth as possible, while still accommodating the necessities of a rock show: heavy backlight, lots of floor angles, audience lighting, and a lot of pyrotechnics."

Jackson and lighting director, Eddie Connell, are using the VL3000 spot as thebase of the system. In addition, Jack

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