USA - D-Tools has announced the winners of the 2007 Design Awards. This annual contest recognizes excellence in System Integration projects utilising D-Tools System integrator software in four categories; Best Overall Project, Best Residential, Best Commercial, and Most Unique (Residential or Commercial).

Winners were selected by the D-Tools development and marketing teams. The winning entries were judged on a number of criteria, including originality, most thorough use of D-Tools' software functionality, overall visual quality of designs, plans, and schematics; and which projects best communicate the system designer's vision.

Best Overall System was awarded to Daniel Tumata of T & T Communications. He created the best overall design, most extensive use of SI software, most detailed and extensive schematics, extensive plan views and overall very impressive work.

Most Unique

UK - The Footbridge at Princes Dock in Liverpool is both an interesting and attractive structure, and is strategically placed in the heart of an area of the city undergoing significant commercial development. That development includes the new Leeds to Liverpool Canal link, which will pass underneath the bridge, and a recently opened cruise liner facility. As such, when the development work at Princes Dock is complete, the Princes Dock Footbridge will become a gateway to Liverpool for visitors arriving on transatlantic cruise liners.

Following discussions with the site owners, Princes Dock Development Company, lighting designer Graham Festenstein received a commission to develop a lighting scheme for the 'wishbone' structure. The bridge's new dynamic and interactive lighting, installed by W T Jenkins, is an eye-catching addition to the Liverpool dockside.

Festenstein has been i

USA - Wybron is launching the Net-IT PS600 at LDI 2007. The Net-IT PS600 is a 600W 24V power supply for Wybron products and other popular lighting accessories. The Net-IT PS600 receives DMX via DMX over Ethernet protocols and also acts as an Infotrace Gateway, providing all the benefits of RDM to the devices powered from it, says the company.

The Net-IT PS600 has two standard DMX outputs, making it a network node as well. It also features an LCD Display of user settings, the IP address and the protocol used. Wybron will demonstrate the Net-IT PS600 at LDI 2007 using Artnet.

"One advantage of the Net-IT PS600 solution is that it supports common DMX over Ethernet protocols," said Miles Dudgeon, marketing director at Wybron. "We have designed it to support ACN when fully implemented and are actively working to support other DMX over Ethernet protocols."

(Jim

USA - Lighting designer Ken Billington is to present the keynote session at the third annual Stage Lighting Super Saturday seminars. Billington says: "I am always happy to speak at any stage lighting educational seminar. I think that the Stage Lighting Super Saturday seminar is one of the best."

A dozen theater lighting professionals will speak. About 20 manufacturers will be on hand and have technical personnel and equipment to demonstrate.

Sonny Sonnenfeld says: "The programme is designed to educate beginners and new professionals who seek additional training. It will be 10 hours of hard work, fun, and a great learning experience."

The tentative program includes inspiration, stage lighting 101, fixtures, colour, consoles, moving lights, trouble shooting, paperwork, and other subjects. The seminar will take place at LaGuardia High School for the Fine and

Italy - After more than a year of anticipation the new Fiat 500 was introduced to the public. The international press conference and the car's official presentation to the retailers took place at PalaIsozaki in Turin. The main technical feature of the presentation was the quantity of projectors employed to cover 1,400sq.m of screens. MA Lighting and Brother, Brother & Sons products helped to make the event run smoothly.

Various models of Barco projectors were used, depending on the different requirements: six FLM 18HD for the front screen, two FLM 20+ for the ceiling screen and nine SLM 12s. Six of these projectors were mounted on the Brother, Brother & Sons v-Base yokes for the floor screen. The precision of the v-Base allowed precise and repeatable pixel-to-pixel overlapping for the double full HD projection from a height of 25m. All v-Base yokes were controlled via DMX from a

Australia - White Light is continuing its association with the hit musical Billy Elliot as it travels its way around the world, helping it to snow down under by supplying the new Sydney production of the show with White Light Snow Machines.

Based on the movie of the same name, and directed by the film's director, Stephen Daldry with his regular theatre collaborators, designer Ian MacNeil and lighting designer Rick Fisher, Billy Elliot opened at London's Victoria Palace Theatre in early 2005 and continues to play to sold-out houses there. The London production uses a lighting rig supplied by White Light. In addition, White Light worked with the show's design team to create a new falling snow effect that was quiet and reliable enough to be used downstage of the proscenium line.

The result was the White Light Snow Machine. This uses the same paper snow as other esta

Denmark - Martin Professional A/S's positive 2007 growth continued in the year's third quarter. Martin increased revenue by 14.3% from $48.4 million in the third quarter of 2006 to $55.4 million in the third quarter of 2007. For the period 1 January to 30 September, 2007 Martin increased revenue by 24.3% to $168.6 million compared with $135.6 million for the same period last year.

The substantial increase in revenue is broadly based across all of Martin's market segments. While the entertainment industry as a whole has experienced general strong demand, Martin has increased its market share through investments in technology and new products. Sales of Martin's LED products for example continue to show dramatic growth and now account for 15% of monthly revenue. Launched only earlier this year, Martin's LED product line is forecast to generate revenue just shy of $20 million in 200

USA - This year's Trans-Siberian Orchestra tour is the biggest it's ever been. Two identical shows are touring the East and West Coast US, each carrying 13 truckloads of production. Included in the total equipment package are 30 High End Systems Showgun automated luminaires and four Wholehog 3 consoles for both tours, supplied by Q1 of Canada.

Production/lighting designer Bryan Hartley is also touring for his eighth year as the LD on the East Coast leg. Lighting director Dan Cassar, now in his fifth year, handles the West Coast run. Both tours started 1 November.

Hartley likes to design in new products with each new production. He believes this is the year for Showgun to shine: "I love them, they're awesome. It's a good quality moving light but three times as big," Hartley says. "There's nothing else like it out there."

The rig features 10 moving pods, wi

USA - Bandit Lites reports that Bandit clients, Carrie Underwood, Sugarland, Kenny Chesney and Rascal Flatts all received awards at the 41st annual Country Music Association Awards. The event was broadcast live from the Sommet Center in Nashville, TN on 7 November.

Former American Idol winner, Carrie Underwood, continues to take the country music scene by storm. Underwood took home 'Female Vocalist of the Year' for the second consecutive year. She also received the 'Single of the Year' award for Before He Cheats.

Kenny Chesney was awarded his third 'Entertainer of the Year.' Chesney performed the current single, Don't Blink from his most recent album, Just Who I Am: Poets and Pirates.

Rounding up the Bandit clients earning awards this year was Rascal Flatts. They won their fifth consecutive 'Vocal Group of the Year' award. The 2006 top-selling art

UK - David Atkinson Lighting Design (DALD) recently completed the lighting design for a major new exhibition - The Golden Age of Couture at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

The launch of Christian Dior's New Look in 1947 marked the beginning of a momentous decade in fashion history, one that Dior himself called the 'golden age'. Celebrating the end of war and the birth of a new era, it set a standard for dressmaking and high fashion that has rarely been surpassed. The V&A's exhibition explores this remarkable decade in fashion history.

The exhibition designers Land Design Studio's brief to DALD was for the lighting to create a theatrical event, as well as adhering to the strict conservation constraints.

The first gallery takes a practical aspect, focusing on the skills, processes and craftsmanship of haute couture, along with the creative inspiration behind some

USA - American DJ has introduced the Dual Gem LED - and launched yet another of its classic club moonflower effects into the LED revolution. Like the company's highly popular Dual Gem, the Dual Gem LED is a dual-lens fixture that provides "double excitement" by projecting two moonflower effects from one unit. But instead of the halogen lamps used by the original, it is powered by high-output LEDs, which produce razor-sharp beams of red, green and blue light that will not fade and are not dependent on a fog machine for their brilliance, says the company."LEDs are acknowledged as the future direction of club lighting, because of the many benefits they provide," said Scott Davies, general manager of the American DJ Group of Companies. "This is why we have been re-designing our most popular halogen effects in LED versions. The Dual Gem is certainly one that ou

USA - ETC is set to unveil its next control desk, Ion, at LDI in Orlando. Visitors to ETC's stand will get the first look at this latest addition to ETC's Complete Control line - the much-anticipated follow-up and smaller sibling to its award-winning Eos desk.

Like Eos, Ion is designed for today's multimedia lighting rigs - delivering seamless control over conventionals, moving lights and LEDs, says the company. College and community theatres, TV studios and rehearsal halls are among the venues that will benefit from Ion's operational style. With its convenient small footprint - only 48cm wide - Ion is billed as "a compact, affordable solution for space starved venues, with the flexibility to grow even more powerful as needed".

Ion comes in 1000, 1500 and 2000 channel/output configurations and features an integral LCD for softkeys and non-intensity parameter control.

USA - FogScreen has announced that their successful AV rental partner programme will be showcased at LDI 2007. Resellers and dealers can continue partnering with FogScreen to sell and rent the fully interactive device.

"Our resellers and dealers have greatly benefited from having the FogScreen projection screen in their inventory," said Jorden Woods, president of US operations at FogScreen. "We are looking to expand our reach to new territories this year by adding additional resellers to our AV rental partner programme. With the added benefit of fully interactive functionalities and a dedicated technical team, we feel that this is the perfect time for resellers and dealers to partner with FogScreen."

(Jim Evans)

USA - "Provalo!! I'm Italian" will be the catch phrase at LDI, as LDR and Strong Entertainment Lighting introduce a new range of Italian theatrical fixtures, developed for North American designers.

This new line includes both Profile and Pebble Convex spotlights that are quite popular in Europe. But until now American designers had little opportunity to work with such tools, says the company.

Unlike an ellipsoidal, the Profile is designed around a spherical reflector and double condenser lens system - much like that of a movie projector. It provides a flat field and projects clear gobo patterns.

The Pebble Convex spot provides a crisper field than the Fresnel that is so popular in the USA. The LDR design adds the ability to change lenses in the field from PC to Fresnel and back again.

"Once they 'try it,' we are sure they'll be back for more," says Jack

Slovakia - Every Saturday with a prime time slot the slovak TV channel, TV JOJ broadcasts Music Fever, a journey through the greatest hits in the country's pop history. Lighting designer Martin Kubánka uses two grandMA full-size, one MA NSP, one grandMA video media server and 24 Schnick-Schnack-Systems LED-Panels to create a harmonious design.

"We chose the grandMA because of its unbeatable reliability and quality", said Kubánka, "Using grandMA we could synchronise the TV-lights, effects, smoke and haze as well as video and that was exactly what we needed."

(Jim Evans)

UK - Recolight - the lamp recycling scheme - has now signed up 50 UK lamp producers and made a strong start in creating its recycling infrastructure, heard the scheme's first membership meeting at its Croydon HQ recently.

Recolight chief executive Eddie Taylor said the scheme had achieved a high awareness level for the Recolight brand and made good progress in setting up an effective network of collection points, currently around 800 nationally, which would continue to develop over the next year or so.

The meeting heard that the UK WEEE process was now "settling down"; there were still opportunities to improve processes and some issues relating to the Regulations that needed clarification, such as the format in which evidence that recycling has actually taken place must be reported, and these were all being progressed.

Taylor commented: "I think another import

Belgium - Australian lighting control manufacturer, LSC Lighting Systems has confirmed the appointment of Total Technics as its new distributor for Belgium.

Total Technics, under their registered name Stageline Bvba, have been in the lighting entertainment industry since 2004 and have worked on a number of notable projects within all aspects of the industry including TV, film and live entertainment.

Kurt Bethuyne of Total Technics technical sales says: "We have used the maXim Lighting Control Console for a number of years now and constantly received lots of positive feedback, and because of its proven quality and reliability we have been very keen to access the entire range of LSC products for the Belgian market place."

Total Technics have a comprehensive range of LSC products available and in stock now. LSC's products will be featured and demonstrated at the Total

Europe - Thirteen years after their first top ten hits, Take That have returned to the international scene with a European tour of 50 dates in 10 Countries.

LD Simon Tutchner chose to use 160 projectors, of which 68 were Clay Paky Alpha Spot HPE 1200s and 40 Alpha Profile 1200s, supplied by PRG Europe. "They create the most excellent graphic effects, both quantity and quality wise," says Tutchner. "I had little time to prepare the show and the alternatives that these projectors give me seem truly endless. I chose the effects that could interact best with the scenography, which entails a huge curtain and seven mega LED video-walls, on which fantasy images and close-ups of the four singers were alternated."

The Alpha Spot HPEs and the Alpha Profile 1200s are installed on the three stages, two of which are in the background and a third, circular, in the middle

UK - The Leeds Castle fireworks displays have for many years had the reputation as being one of the leading fireworks events in southeast England, with visitors from all over the region going to watch the beautifully choreographed displays set among the majestic setting of the castle and lake. This year, Leeds Castle organizers wanted to add something extra special to the night, with the brief being "to light the castle up in a way that has never been seen before".

STL Lighting's Iain Austin, who has already been involved in the Summer Concerts held at the castle, took charge of putting together an impressive array of City Color architectural lighting fixtures and Martin Mac 2000s near the waters edge of the castle.

The lighting configuration made it possible to set different atmospheres as the story of a Mythical Dragon unfolded in front of the 12000+ audience, with

UK - The South African superstars Ladysmith Black Mambazo, who first came to international prominence performing with Paul Simon over 20 years ago, called on the specialist branding and stage fabric experts Sunbaba to provide them with a series of colourful backdrop images for their 35 date tour of the UK.

Lighting designer Tim Speechley was responsible for the visual element of the performance by the nine-strong vocal group and he hit upon the idea of using the band's LP covers as an image. He ordered a number of coated polyester backdrops, emblazoned with images of the group's LP covers, which themselves told the story of Ladysmith's illustrious heritage at the heart of the anti-apartheid struggle.

"When I was planning the look, I realised that they had released about 40 LPs during their career and some of the covers were very impressive," he explains. "There

USA - Philips Lumileds has announced its new cool-white Luxeon K2 with TFFC LED. Chip and packaging advancements enable extended capabilities that deliver maximum performance in any environment, says the company.

"Customers are already making the move to 1000 mA drive currents and higher to take advantage of higher light output and improved efficacies," said Erik Milz, product manager at Philips Lumileds.

"Incorporating TFFC technology and package improvements gives us the best LED for the most demanding applications and environments such as automotive, signaling, general lighting and architectural applications. Using a single chip allows for the smallest optical source size making it easier to design optics such as reflectors, diffusers and lenses that are essential for most applications."

(Jim Evans)

UK - Lighting designer Paddy Sollitt has specified 18 Robe 575 AT Series fixtures - six ColorWash 575E AT Zooms and 12 ColorSpot 575E ATs - for the Pigeon Detectives' current sold-out UK tour.

Sollitt was given a free hand in the lighting design and needed a lighting rig with plenty of creative options to match the band's intensely energetic live performance.

The 12 ColorSpot 575E ATs are all rigged on the back truss. Four of the ColorWash 575E AT Zooms are attached to the top of four vertical trussing sections stood behind the band on the deck, with the other two on the floor. The rig is a precursor to the one that Sollitt is designing for them next year, which steps up to much larger venues.

The 36-date Pigeon Detectives tour is carrying a large lighting 'specials' package supplied by Zig Zag Lighting which includes the four vertical trussing sections, with the Robe's prov

Italy - ETC has responded to a request for sponsorship from la Biennale di Venezia by supplying some 350 Source Four luminaires, to complement the 300 that the organisation already owns.

La Biennale alternates between architecture and art/theatre/film and, as the name suggests, is a biannual event held in Venice. First held in 1895, the event has become increasingly international, with representatives from different countries being invited to install national pavilions at the exhibition. This year, 76 countries are represented.

The venue, the Arsenale di Venezia (Venetian Arsenal) is a former shipyard and naval depot which in its heyday in the early 16th century employed some 16,000 people who were able to produce nearly one ship each day. Now, some 250,000 people come from across Italy and around the world between July and November to see the art.

ETC dealer Decima and a lo

USA - City Theatrical's new SHoW DMX wireless DMX received the 'Best Debuting Product of the Year' in the Lighting category at the LDI show in Orlando.

The SHoW DMX system utilises a method that synchronises the hopping pattern of the radio with the incoming DMX burst to attain levels of data fidelity previously unreachable with wireless DMX, says the company. Additionally, SHoW DMX has a range of features including adjustable output power, limited bandwidth mode, and limited burst mode that allow it to peacefully coexist with other radio signals in the busy 2.4 GHz band.

SHoW DMX also is fully RDM, so users can change radio settings and monitor receiver strength from their laptop during the performance, as well as monitor any other manufacturer's RDM gear on their production.

City Theatrical's president, Gary Fails said: "Our SHoW DMX system is truly breakthrough techn

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