China - Royal Philips Electronics will present its latest innovations in entertainment lighting technology at Palm Expo 2007, being held in Beijing 2-5 June 2007.

Initiated by the launch of Philips MSR Goldy 1200 FastFit and Philips Hi-Brite 1200 FastFit, at last year's Palm Expo, Philips has enlarged the product range with Philips MSR Goldy 700 FastFit and Philips Hi-Brite 750 FastFit.

This rear load lamp base system includes an increased brightness, provides the opportunity to reduce fixture size and weight, assures reliability due to pinch protection technology and has an excellent colour quality, says the company. Several OEMs will underline the display of this lamp concept at Palm via the launch of several Philips FastFit lamp based fixtures.

(Jim Evans)

Mexico - The cities of Guadalajara, Mexico City and Monterrey were host to a series of special concerts by the Alan Parsons Live Project (APLP), fronted by Alan Parsons and PJ Olsson. Handling the lighting programming and operation was Martin Thomas of Relentless Lighting Design who employed a Martin Maxxyz for the task.

"I had been using the Maxxyz with The Alan Parsons Live Project since 2005 whenever I could, but many of the shows the act does are one-offs and there is no touring production," Martin comments. "I had also just used the Maxxyz on the 2006 African/European leg of The Black Eyed Peas and the 2006 US Tour for Chris Brown - it is my first choice of console for any of the acts I'm doing.

He continues, "The Maxxyz has an ease of programming that allows me to build several complicated cuelists in a short period of time. The layout of the console

World - A pair of grandMA consoles is accompanying Beyonce on her world tour, which kicked off in Tokyo and excited Australia before commencing its European leg. With the tour described as a cross between a theatrical play and a rock 'n roll show, the grandMAs control an extensive array of media servers and lighting instruments.

The set is dominated by a tracking staircase unit where the band and back-up vocals live, entirely fitted with Barco's OLite modules. Complementing the staircase unit are drapes, which fly or track in and out to create not only additional scenery but also projection surfaces.

"Beyonce wanted something simple yet sophisticated. The aesthetic is very clean and simple, and the technology is neat," notes Justin Collie who created the performance environment design for Artfag LLC. "Video is an integral part of the show and the visual effects

UK - White Light has announced the next round of training courses offered by its Training Initiative training and education scheme. The company will offer four training days during June, covering moving lights, Avo lighting consoles and pyrotechnics.

The two-part Moving Light course will take place on Wednesday 20 June (Level 1) and Thursday 21 June (Level 2) at White Light's base in Wimbledon, south-west London, running from 10am to 4pm. The Level 1 course provides an introduction to moving lights, including basic set-up and handling, discussions on their potential uses, health and safety issues and basic care and maintenance.

The Level 2 course goes into more detail on fault finding in the lamp circuit, the motor circuit and the sensor and feedback systems, as well as giving a more in-depth look at cleaning and maintenance.

The Pyrotechnics course, run in association with

New Zealand - Selecon Performance Lighting has several new product debuts planned for the ABTT Theatre Show 2007 in London next month, including the long throw Toru 4º-8º followspot, the third and final model from the Performer Series range of followspots.

Previously seen in preproduction mode and now in full production, the Toru 4º-8º followspot has been well received with several orders for major theatres including two units destined for the Barbican, and five Toru 4º-8º followspots for Norway's new National Opera House in Oslo, together with four short throw Tahi 18º-24º models.

ABTT Theatre Show visitors will also have the chance to try out the newly remodelled Acclaim Fresnel and PC which introduce heat management to 500W / 650W luminaires, typically used in schools and community theatres. This new feature ensures operators can focus these versatile little stage l

UK - Audi drew the crowds outside the Royal Opera House on Saturday 12 May, with PRG Europe lighting two Audi R8 Coupes parked outside on platforms. Lighting designer Michael Odam came up with a stunning new look for the cars on the plinths. Thomas PixelLine LED battens and Vari*Lite VL2000 spots loaded with Audi gobos produced by PRG Europe all made the cars look their best for the passing crowds.

A full-colour Audi logo was shone onto the side of the building, while Audi logos spun across the two sports cars. It was all in aid of an annual event sponsored by the car manufacturer at the Royal Opera House, where invited guests attend the opera and a gala dinner before being chauffeured home.

Crew chief Steve Russell said: "The crew and I got soaked when we were rigging all the lights, but we kept all the units dry and it stopped raining before it got dark. Fortunately the

India - MA Lighting's distributor for India, Reynold's Sound & Lighting Services recently held training in Bangalore. The 30 attendees were lighting designers, rental companies, system integrators, theatre personnel, consultants and specifiers from all over India.

Their feedback was very positive and enthusiastic. "It was the first time we held training for the MA consoles and we were completely overwhelmed by the huge success. After what I've heard from the participants, grandMA has got a really bright future in India," said Felix Remedios, Reynolds managing director.

"The training, organised by Reynold's, was held to meet the growing demands of the Indian market, to bring productions to a higher level and to link with our new office MA Lighting Middle East / India those two booming markets," explained Michael Althaus managing director of MA Lighting.

Du

UK - ETC distributors and dealers from across Europe met at ETC's west London offices and demo facility - aka the Playhouse at Gypsy Corner - on 22 and 23 May to discuss the company's latest products and strategies as well as to receive general product training.

Over the course of the two days, more than 40 delegates from ETC's partner companies were given demos of SmartFade ML and, courtesy of ETC's Eos product manager Anne Valentino, the new Eos lighting control system, which is set for European outings at ABTT and Showtech in June.

The summit attendees also had a chance to discuss technical issues and developments including ETC's Net3 networking and ACN, the new lightweight single-direction protocol used to transmit whole DMX universes over Ethernet, as well as network among their colleagues.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Bandit Lites UK is supplying full lighting production and crew to the current Travis tour, promoting their latest album, The Boy with No Name. This is their first tour in 3 years. Bandit chief executive, Lester Cobrin has previously worked with Travis and comments, "Travis is a band of outstanding talent and I am truly looking forward to working with them again here at Bandit."

Long-time Travis lighting designer Matt Jensen created a crisp, clean style for this show - essentially a theatrical vehicle with some contemporary twists - including lots of soft washes and iris focuses.

Lead singer Fran Healy took a relatively active role in the initial lighting brief, and then left Jensen to develop the show from there. The lighting features a slightly retro PAR can feel - a soft edged, tungsteny affair - and staying true to the design theme, Jensen did not inco

Spain - Góngora Gran Café in Cordoba opened its doors in December 2006, Situated in the historical heart of the city, the Café's new owners have overseen a meticulous conversion of the premises from bingo hall to café-bar during the day, live music venue in the evening and discotheque at night, and have adapted to suit the needs of a diverse and increasingly demanding public.

Lighting was the responsibility of company In-Out Soluciones Audiovisuales. The long-term friendship between the manager of the bar, Abelardo Cárdenas, and the director of In-Out, Antonio Solvas, as well as the motivation to create something spectacular yet elegant, led to the installation of a complete Martin package: 8 MAC 250 Entours, 6 MAC 250 Kryptons, 4 MAC 250 Washes, 2 MX-10 Extreme scanners, 10 Mania SCX 600 effect lights, 30 Cyclo 03 DMX fluorescent linear luminaires with a

UK - Beginning July 2007, Strand Lighting Europe will officially open for business as a member of the Genlyte Group, LLC. The new office, near Gatwick airport, is located at:

Unit 2 Royce Road,
Fleming Way,
Crawley,
West Sussex
RH10 9JY

The contact telephone number is +44 (0) 129 355 0280.

"We are delighted to return to Europe with our new UK-based operation," said Steve Carson, Genlyte Controls vice president. "We are building a strong team and putting our resources behind them to deliver great products and services to our existing and potential clientele."

Key personnel in the new office will be Alan Luxford, general manager; Ken Berreen, sales manager for the UK, Spain, Portugal, and South Africa; Bill Richards, marketing manager; Tracy Downes, customer service manager, and Victor Mikheev, service and engineering Manager.

Alan Luxford a

Austria - Midas and Klark Teknik have appointed a new Austrian distributor: Eltner GesmbH. The company was established in 1950, founding its e.tainment - sound, light & media solutions division in 2001. This division, which deals mainly with the rental, installation and MI industries, distributes a range of top-end audio, lighting and associated products including Electro-Voice, Dynacord, and now the full range of Midas consoles and Klark Teknik signal processing equipment. The new ranges will be handled by Midas and KT product and sales manager Thomas Hasenauer.

"We are really proud to be a member of the Midas and KT family and are confident that we will be able to raise the profile of these two brands in Austria," says Eltner's sales manager Matthas Reinthaler. "The most important thing is to be in regular contact with the customers, conducting demos, workshops

Canada - Comfortably Numb, Canada's Pink Floyd Show is considered one of the finest tribute acts in North America, performing faithful renditions of Pink Floyd classics to nostalgic fans. This authentic re-creation of the Pink Floyd experience has been made even more convincing thanks to the addition of Martin's RGB Laser 1.6.

"The LD saw an opportunity to insert it into the show since Pink Floyd was always known for its laser show in the past," comments André Daigle, product specialist at Erikson Pro Canada who programmed and operated the laser from a laptop. "Everyone was ecstatic about the added dimension it brought." Lighting designer Todd Minicola of NOC Audio Visual of Kingston, Ontario adjusted his existing light show on the fly to give the laser a 'front and centre' appearance in the show.

"It is so easy to create effects with the Marti

UK - Students at the University of Kent held their annual Keynestock Festival earlier this month and attracted more than 1,400 people to the three day live music event, which raised over £2,000 for the Prince's Trust.

The majority of the cabling used during the Festival was high quality Van Damme, supplied UK by VDC Trading and sold to Kent Union Technical Services (the Student Union's internally-run events crew) by Idium Technology.

Over the last two years, Kent Union has amassed a selection of Van Damme multicore, mic, DMX and power cables, as well as an array of Cat 5 and video cabling. These purchases have been part of a major investment by the Student Union, which was determined to bring the running of events such as Keynestock in house, thus improving the range and quality of events on offer.

Jon Fagg, a final year student at the University who set up Idium Techn

UK - LED lighting manufacturer i-Vision has installed a variety of its standard Lumos range of LED lighting products into the stylish new Intoto Kitchens showroom in Cardiff.

This illustrates the concept of 'The Green Kitchen' in terms of energy consumption, whilst also attractively illuminating the various premium kitchen ranges in the showroom, and offering Intoto's designers and clients a series of lighting packages and ideas to combine with their kitchen planning.

There is a heavy emphasis on contemporary designs, all of which lend themselves to feature lighting. Intoto's Chris Galtry says, "Introducing integral lighting as an option has been a great success so far, and definitely gives us the edge as designers and suppliers."

The showroom features examples from i-Vision's extensive white and RGB LED ranges including the Lumos Strip, Lumos +3s and +1s up/down-l

UK - Bandit Lites UK continues its busy early summer run with another major arena tour - this time with Girls Aloud, one of the most successful pop groups of the decade. Bandit is once again working with Production North.

Lighting for this Greatest Hits show was designed by Peter Barnes with whom Bandit has worked on many other projects including Westlife, McFly and the X-Factor. Lighting is being directed and operated on tour by Andy Hurst.

"It's great to be working with Iain Whitehead (production manager and set designer) and Production North again," says Bandit UK chief executive, Lester Cobrin. "We all work really seamlessly together, and once again Pete has put together another excellent looking show."

Barnes chose to use Martin Professional MAC 2K washes as the principal moving lights on the design, with 32 of these specified as opposed to ju

Dubai - Awards recognising outstanding use of lighting in the GCC territories, were presented at the Middle East Lighting Design Awards (MELDA) gala dinner, which took place during the recent PALME Middle East exhibition in Dubai.

The standard of this year's entries reflected the remarkable pace of development and scale of new commercial projects in the region.

The difficult task of adjudication fell to a panel of top lighting professionals, including Barry Hannaford of the IALD, and director, dpa Lighting Consultants; Yahya Jan AIA, vice president, design director, Norr Group Consultants; Riad Saraiji, associate professor of architectural engineering at UAE University, and Paul James, Editor, Mondo*arc magazine.

Paying tribute, James said: "There is a general feeling in the design community that lighting, particularly in Dubai, is becoming increasingly 'Las Vega

USA - Wireless Solution Sweden was recently part of the team responsible for an installation at Evangel Cathedral in Upper Marlboro, Maryland which features High End Systems DL.2s controlled with W-DMX.

Creative Stage Lighting from North Creek, NY supplied all the new equipment and the complete wireless system. This installation is in addition to Evangel's large existing lighting rig consisting of Wholehog 2 and Wholehog 3 Consoles, High End Systems x.Spots and Cyberlights, Morpheus Color Faders, Vari*Lite VL1000's and over 575 dimmers.

Koster Design of Branson, MO was responsible for the design and installation of the entire project. Kelly Koster and Mike Gormley of Koster Design first met with Bryan Meares from Evangel Cathedral at the High End Systems booth during LDI 2006.

The new gear was shipped directly to Creative Stage Lighting, where a staff of four worked exclusiv

UK - Scheduled to open on 19 June at London's Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, Lord of the Rings, at £12.5 million, is one of the largest and most expensive musicals to be staged in the West End. The entire rig is being controlled by two grandMA full-size, one grandMA light, one grandMA ultra-light and seven NSPs. grandMA 3D and grandMA onPC software were used for the pre-programming of the show.

"We used the grandMA due to the complexities of the lighting rig. It consists of approximately 200 moving lights and 300 conventional lights, and the requirement that after the opening night the lighting operator also controls special effects and triggers the Catalyst Video System," explains associate lighting designer David Howe. "During the three month preparation and detailed technical process, three programmers (moving lights, conventionals and special effects)

UK - Hawthorn's continued commitment to the Clay Paky Alpha range of moving lights has been further advanced by the addition of the Alpha Profile 1200 to its rental stock.

The Alpha Profile 1200 is a professional beam shaper which combines the technology of the Alpha units with an exclusive framing system, designed and patented by Clay Paky. With the Alpha Profile 1200 it is possible to achieve any effect you desire using the wide range zoom 10° - 30°, a full colour system, 14 gobos (6 of which rotate), an animation effect and a prism. All of the effects can be combined with endless varieties of beam shapes and sizes, says the company.

"The Alpha Profile is an exceptional unit to add to and to compliment our current range of moving lights" said Martin Hawthorn, Hawthorn's MD. "We have received many requests from both lighting designers and hire customers

Finland - A huge Cyberhoist motion control system was used to animate the dynamic set created by lighting and screen designer Mikki Kunttu for the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) semi-final and final, broadcast live from Helsinki's Hartwall Arena.

The set comprised over 400sq.m of Barco LED modules which formed the stage floor, a catwalk out into the audience and left and right screens. The screens, and a total of 16 lighting trusses, were lifted and lowered by four ultrafast Cyberhoist CH250 (250kg load capacity / 0 to 40 meters per minute, variable speed) intelligent chainhoist motors and 34 Cyberhoist CH500 (500kg capacity / up to 20m per minute variable speed) motors.

The complete system, programmed by CyberHoist-operator Joeri Swagemakers, operated by Cyberhoist technician Chris Sabelleck and supplied by Flashlight from The Netherlands, was under the control of an InMo

UK - Selecon is offering visitors to next week's ABTT Theatre Show the opportunity to win one of four top of the range Leatherman Charge TTI hand tools.

Entry forms for the promotion can only be obtained at the Show; either at the Selecon Stand or keep an eye out for someone in a bright yellow 'Get a Grip!' t-shirt and collect one from them. Fill it in, pop it in the tombola at the Selecon Stand and you are in the draw - the earlier you enter the more chances you have to win, says Selecon. There will be a total of four draws with one winner per draw.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Multiform Technology has announced the sale of its trademark, product IP and company history to an affiliate of Hong Kong-based Adelto Group.

Iain Price-Smith, founder of Multiform, will continue to act as a consultant to the company, who will be developing a new range of quality performance lighting products designed in Europe, which are to be manufactured at Adelto's affiliated manufacturing plant in Guangzhou, China. Global distribution will be handled by Adelto offices in Hong Kong and Germany.

Existing products will continue to be manufactured and distributed in the UK under licence by Light Engineering who will continue to provide service, spares and technical support for these products.

The first new products to be released will be a range of sophisticated, colour changing, DMX-controlled LED luminaires, followed by a range of dimming controllers to succeed Multi

UK - Lighting Partners will again be exhibiting at this year's ABTT Theatre Show with products on display from its usedlighting.co.uk operation together with Smoke Factory smoke machines and budget products from stagelighting.co.uk.

Iain Dennis of Lighting Partners commented: "We are delighted to be returning to the ABTT show after last year's event proved to be such a success. Our stand will include a selection of products from our new and used operations, plus it will be the first chance in the UK for the public to see the latest range of smoke machines from Smoke Factory including the Tour Hazer II, Captain D and Fan Fogger."

Florian von Hoffen from Smoke Factory will be on the stand. The Lighting Partners team will also be joined by Malcolm Burlow of Highlite UK.

(Jim Evans)

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