UK - Dialight Lumidrives has launched Colourdriver XP, its new LED driver aimed at meeting the needs of high power LEDs. It provides LED users in the architectural, entertainment and leisure industries with more choice and flexibility over the control of colour changing LEDs than ever before, says the company.

Colourdriver XP meets the needs of high power LEDs like Luxeon K2 and provides high power operation up to 1000mA together with the option of a white or amber mix in addition to the three standard RGB channels. Colourdriver XP is designed for both interior and exterior use, including downlighting, floodlighting, linear wall washes and landscaping.

Control options now available for the first time include Dali, DMX or even power line control with remote device management (RDM).

The heart of the new system is the power supply module that can be used as a stand-alone driver

USA - American DJ has introduced an LED version of another of its moonflower effects. Inspired by the popular Electra 250, the new Electra LED is a scanning mirror moonflower using red, green and blue LEDs that produce razor-sharp beams.

The Electra LED contains 46 total LEDs, 16 Red, 15 Green, and 15 Blue, which provide "amazing brightness and rich, saturated colors that won't fade". In a visual comparison, the light output of the Electra LED is similar to that of a 250W halogen bulb, while drawing much less power and offering all the other benefits of LED technology, says the company.

A glass optical system with new lens technology enhances the sharpness and clarity of its beams, while a wide beam spread allows the fixture to cover a large area. The colourful LED patterns can be projected onto a dance floor or a wall. Sound-active with built-in programmes, the Elec

UK - Chauvet confirms that it has enlisted Northampton-based Impact Products (Europe) as the exclusive distributor of its entire product line in the UK and Ireland.

Chauvet international sales manager Gerry Zigman said the synergy between the two corporate cultures was key in the decision to join forces. "Impact Products has done an outstanding job at quickly establishing itself as a reputable distributor of professional lighting," Zigman says. "They are knowledgeable and passionate about the industry but most importantly, they share our commitment to impeccable customer service. We bend over backward to provide the most competitive, innovative and reliable lights. They bend over backward to keep customers happy."

Impact Products launched at PLASA 06, drawing on more than 15 years trade distribution experience of its parent company, Solutions Group. A UK-wi

USA - Elation Professional reports that its two new 6-channel dimmers - the RMD-620 and DP-640B - have been granted UL approval. Both models are hybrid Dim/Switch packs; the RMD-620 is a 19" rack mount unit, while the DP-640B is an upgraded version of Elation's popular DP-640 model.

"We are very pleased that the RMD-620 and DP-640B have received UL approval. This signifies that they have met or exceeded the most rigorous safety standards in the industry," said Eric Loader, director of sales for Elation Professional. "We anticipate a widespread demand for these two new dimmers from clubs and installations where UL-listed lighting gear is required, as well as from lighting designers and rental businesses who want to offer their customers the highest assurance of safety and professionalism."

The RMD-620 comes with a standard terminal output panel on the r

UK - In keeping with Martin's affectionate theme at this year's PLASA Show, the company showed its distributors a little bit of love by handing out a number of distributor accolades at a special dinner and awards banquet on Saturday, 8 September, at the Vinopolis wine-tasting venue on the south bank of the Thames. The Martin 2007 Distributor Awards recognised exceptional performance in a number of areas.

Distributor of the Year: - For best sales performance/improvement over the past 12 months and the largest sales growth over the past five years. Winner: A&T Trade, Russia.

Martin Gazelle Award: - For fast collection of orders and rapid market penetration for new products. Winner: Fairlight, Holland.

Most Outstanding Projects: - For strong dedication to extraordinary project sales. Winner: Martin Professional Middle East.

Best Customer Relations:

UK - Avolites launched the latest in its series of pearl consoles - The Pearl Tiger - at PLASA 2007. The Pearl Tiger is a powerful, streamlined 10 roller playback version of Avo's most popular 'live' lighting console.

Aimed at a wide range of sectors and applications, the Pearl Tiger is equally suited for small theatres, conferences, schools & colleges, small to medium scale productions or production companies, tours, venues and nightclubs, says the company.

The Pearl Tiger is fully show compatible with all Avo Pearls and shows can be loaded and swapped between these consoles.

(JIm Evans)

USA - Bandit Lites recently worked with the University of Tennessee Athletics Department and Host Communications/The Vol Network to host the first-ever Big Orange Blast.

The free community-wide pep rally kicked-off the 2007 UT home football season. Festivities featured performances by Bandit's own public relations manager, Kimberly Ainge in addition to Waycross and Jason D. Williams. Tennessee head football coach, Phillip Fulmer and select members of the Tennessee football team also participated with the Pride of the Southland Marching Band, UT cheerleaders and Smokey.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Overt Light to Sound Ltd, UK distributor for DAP Audio, DMT (Dutch Media Tools), Showtec Lighting, Antari (smoke and effect machines), Sweetlight, Shure, QSC, Phonic and Yamaha Commercial Audio, have announced the appointment of Dave Hartley as area sales manager. Hartley, who was on the Highlite International stand meeting and greeting his new clients at the PLASA Show in London last week, will be covering the North West UK, Midlands and North Wales.

Malcolm Burlow, managing director, says Hartley brings a wealth of knowledge to the company, having been within the sound and light industry for many years.

(Lee Baldock)

USA - A revamped sound exhibit of the Detroit Science Center has seen the installation of Chauvet COLORtubes EQ by DJS Commercial. The LED tubes offer the possibility of mounting a real-time sound frequency visualiser. As a result, visitors in the experimental room view and show off the sound they create. Each tube can be addressed to respond to a different frequency, from bass to treble, in the pulsating manner of a graphic equaliser on a stereo. DJS Commercial hung 28 of them horizontally encased in a window, so that they can be seen flashing from outside the Jam Room, throughout the centre.

Next, designers turned their attention to the room itself. Exhibit facilities manager Ed Gorczyk wanted to give it a "high tech" feel. The 15sq.ft room was set up like a Saturday Night Live stage of the Seventies, with a huge, slowly whirling fan set into the wall behind m

UK - HSL supplied and co-ordinated lighting and sound production and 40 crew covering all 10 arenas at Creamfields 2007 for producers Loudsound Events. This, the largest Creamfields event to date featured a host of international DJ's and bands including main stage double headliners Groove Armada and the Chemical Brothers, and was the second at their new site in Daresbury near Warrington.

It's the sixth year that HSL has supplied technical production to the UK's best-known dance event. They brought ML Executives onboard as their audio partners to deal with all-things sonic, and all departments worked closely with event production manager Lee Charteris.

HSL's on site co-ordinator was Ian Stevens, He collaborated with project manager Mike Oates who oversaw all the paperwork, advance logistics and prep.

Two dedicated HSL crew chiefs - Dave Jolly and Jonny Harper were appointed,

USA - Brian T. Edwards has joined Production Resource Group, LLC (PRG), as general manager of the company's Los Angeles office. Edwards will oversee all aspects of PRG's Los Angeles division, including sales, event staffing and rental operations. He will report to Joe Schenk Sr, president of PRG's West Coast operations.

Veteran of nearly two decades in the motion picture and television lighting support industry, Edwards comes to PRG from Steiner Studios in Brooklyn, NY, where he served for three years as vice president of operations. Before that, he was with Paramount Pictures for 10 years, as executive director of PPSI, Paramount's lighting rental company in New York and Los Angeles.

"Brian will be a great asset to PRG and we're very glad to have him with us," said Schenk. "In addition to his great experience in our industry, he brings us outstanding management

UK - To celebrate 800 years to the day since King John signed the first charter which created the city of Liverpool, the city arranged some pretty serious events for Tuesday 28 August. Following a weekend of street parties, the big birthday itself began with a lunchtime pageant featuring 800 people in costume representing Liverpool's icons, past and present, and the day culminated in a 20-minute firework display at the Pier Head.

Event Design Logistics, which specialises in outdoor event design, site and production management, worked closely with Liverpool City Council to make this finale event go like clockwork. The display, supplied by Fantastic Fireworks, was set to the music of Liverpool's finest composers and included 'hit' firework sequences from past events.

Adding an additional layer to the fireworks were 12 B52 5kW Syncrolite searchlights at the Pier Head, plus two fo

UK - PLASA 07, the first PLASA Show managed in-house by PLASA Events, has been judged an 'outstanding success' by exhibitors and visitors alike - with a large number of this year's exhibitors already confirming their intention to return to the show in 2008. The show featured over 500 new product launches and attracted over 50 new exhibitors.

With the show floor packed on Monday morning, PLASA Events also announced its acquisition of the A.C. Lighting North trade show, bringing the PLASA Events' team's expertise and drive to this fast-growing event for the north of the UK.

PLASA 07's radical new layout saw an easy-to-navigate, one-floor event occupy both Earls Court 1 and 2, combined with lower noise limits and a smoke-free atmosphere - plus exhibitors' determination to make the most of the new opportunities with brand new stand designs. The massive growth in innovative video a

France - The first 1800W followspots ever to go on the market will shortly be available from French followspot specialists, Robert Juliat. Two models will be available, a long throw version named Victor (7-14.5°) and its short-throw counterpart, Flo (13-24°).

The Victor and Flo have been modelled around the new 1800W MSR DE, hot restrike, lamp, which has been developed in co-operation with Philips to offer a high output of light in a very compact unit.

Despite physical dimensions which match the 'LDI 2006 product of the Year' 1200W HMI Super Korrigan, there is an increase in light output of up to 50% on the 1200W models, a fact which Robert Juliat director, Francois Juliat, is happy to promote.

"We are now offering in the same compact format and design as the 1200W but with the equivalent light output of a 2500W," he explains. "The compact size (less t

UK - An interactive, low energy light bulb installation designed by Jason Bruges Studio and commissioned by Greenpeace has been moved to the front of house feature space at the 100% design exhibition which begins this Thursday (20 September) in London.

Exhibition organisers have recognised that the combination of style and efficiency embodied in Bruges' Light Garden will be a major draw for the show and a groundbreaking example of low energy technology. Jason Bruges has designed a fully interactive, dimming garden of light, which at its brightest will dazzle observers with its intensity whilst consuming a fraction of the energy of its exhibition neighbours. The installation is presented as part of Kinetica's latest group show - In Flux.

In addition, a completely new type of energy efficient bulb, produced by small scale manufacturer Varilight, will feature in the instal

UK - Le Maitre chose the recent PLASA Show in London to celebrate the company's 30th birthday. Company directors Rick Wilson and Karen Haddon were joined by members of the media and industry luminaries to help them celebrate their great achievement.

In a short address, Wilson gave praise to all those people, past and present, who had helped them on the way: "Le Maitre has benefited from a great deal of help from both the industry and the media," he said. Karen Haddon added: "It's hard to believe that from such small beginnings, Le Maitre is now such an established international brand."

(Lee Baldock)

UK - Wireless Solution Sweden announced the winners of their Outstanding EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Asia) Dealer Award during PLASA 07.

Lightpower of Germany and Leifull Light & Sound of China won the Dealer award, and Golden Sea from China was recognised as an Outstanding OEM Dealer. The winners were awarded with a special limited-edition GoldBox, custom made by Wireless Solution in celebration of W-DMX BlackBox unit number 10,000. The awards were given in a special ceremony held at the Wireless Solution booth.

"We are so grateful to have the support of such strong dealers in Europe and Asia," said Niclas Arvidsson, international sales manager and founder of Wireless Solution. "We wanted to share the celebration of our 10,000th unit by recognising those dealers who have helped make this possible."

(Jim Evans)

UK - "One day I was working on Starlight Express in Edinburgh, the next I was in hospital with the prospect of being unable to work for many weeks." Chris Luscombe is a freelance production electrician, who is now singing the praises of Light Relief for its support during an extremely lean time.

The injury wasn't even work related - Chris was walking down some steps when he twisted his ankle, to be told in hospital that he had both fractured and dislocated it. Initially he was told he wouldn't be able to work for five to six weeks, but he soon found out that his job meant he would actually be off work for 14 weeks. Chris's wife works for him, looking after the administration side of the business, so no work meant no income at all.

Chris said: "We have two young children, a mortgage, lease on a car - all the usual trappings - so it was all a real shock. I

Italy - For the debut of the new 500 (a car that made history in Italy and Europe in post-war times), Fiat did it in the big way. After a long wait, on the 4th of July the new compact car was revealed within the spectacular "Welcome 500" live show. For the first time ever, a new car model was presented to a worldwide audience (via streaming web, a major Italian TV network and maxiscreens in the largest squares in Turin) live from the Murazzi alongside the river Po.

Coemar was there with 50 Wash Flex, 50 Spot Extreme and 24 ParLite Led. And on the next two days the show was staged a further 30 Italian cities, too.

(Jim Evans)

UK - This year's winner of the Michael Northen Bursary, who received an honourable mention last year, is Georg Spindler who entered his lighting design for The Memory of Water, which formed part of the 2007 student show at LIPA.

Described by the judges as "creative in a very theatrical way, this was a beautifully documented and reasoned entry, with well presented sketches and photographs," the design won Spindler the £500 Bursary.

Presenting the award on 11 September at PLASA 07, Rick Fisher, chairman of the ALD, said: "There was definitely no 'favouritism' because this year, for the first time, the judges were not told the names of the entrants, so to us all the entries were anonymous."

The judges - ALD members Rick Fisher, Sam Gibbons, Mark Jonathan, Mary Pope, Paul Pyant, Mike Robertson and Mark White, also representing ETC - were unanimou

Australia - LSC Lighting Systems in conjunction with Iceworks Design, have come together to light up the Gateway Upgrade Project - Customer Information Centre, located in Queensland, Australia.

The Gateway Upgrade Project is the largest bridge and road construction project in Queensland's history, totalling more than $1.87Billion. The project includes the construction of a second Gateway Bridge and the upgrade of more than 20km of roads, plus the addition of a Customer Information Centre.

Key to helping community understand, interact and accept the new construction is the Customer Information Centre and of course its interactive presentations. Technically speaking the centre is controlled by a Pharos LPC1 (LSC is the official Australian Distributor of the Pharos brand) and an LSC EKO Dimmer. The user interface is also provided by LSC in the ePlate wall controllers, each with e

USA - Founded in 1996, LifeChurch.tv has grown to become one of the most influential churches in America. LifeChurch.tv is a dynamic group of almost 20,000 people that gathers each week at 12 different locations across the US (the vision is for 50 locations in five years). Satellite broadcasts enable all of their locations to be connected, thus their motto 'One Church, Multiple Locations'.

"Each location has a full staff and a worship team that is very contemporary, like a rock band," says Phil Rapp, central technical director at LifeChurch.tv. "The teaching is very relevant to every day life and is fed over satellite to each location. Putting it simply, we will do anything short of sin to see people come to know life in Christ."

Currently, LifeChurch.tv owns over 250 intelligent lighting fixtures from five different manufacturers. "With the vision of

USA - Theatrical Lighting Systems Inc (TLS Inc) has announced the new location of its Nashville office, and two new sales project managers to man it. The new location is 2961 Armory Drive - North Entrance. Expansion is expected as renovations to the building are completed. The renovations will allow for a sales showroom and rental warehouse.

Two "local guys" who have worked in Nashville for many years were hired as new sales project managers. Mike Brack has worked in television, video production and sales since 1986, while J. Andy Flatt has worked in the lighting business since 1987.

(Jim Evans)

Italy - The return of Biagio Antonacci with a mega-concert at the Meazza Stadium (his only Italian summer 2007 date, with guest bands Velvet, Zero Assoluto and the Nomadi certainly lived up to the expectations of his fans.

The set centred on a mega-video (consisting of 11 13.5m high columns) and three 38m catwalks flanked by 200m of Coemar LineaLeds, and reaching out into the audience. "A very bold design, with a number of problems that were not easy to solve," was the satisfied comment of Francesco De Cave, lighting designer, set designer, producer and Catalyst contribution planner.

"For example, focusing the audience's attention on the centre of the visual field despite the fact that the catwalks, thanks to the LineaLeds, created a stage effect of aircraft runways. Around 50 iWash 575s provided striking colour backlighting. On the video front, the surrounding

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