UK - The success of GLP's Impression LED moving head - which became an immediate hit with both television lighting directors and concert touring LD's on its launch - is now finding its way steadily into the corporate world.

As the latest UK customer, Rob Mander of RM Lighting set out all 16 of his newly-purchased heads recently for a VIP launch of a new lifestyle magazine at a top venue in London's Mayfair.

Mander pinpointed the advantages of the GLP fixture. "These Impressions are so bright yet lightweight that we can both ground support and truss-mount them around the perimeter of a room to provide a constant colour changing atmosphere. However, at the same time we can use them on stage to highlight the performers, as the RGB versions produce a higher light yield than that of a conventional moving light or PAR can."

South London-based RM Lighting purchased the 16

Czech Republic - Czech professional lighting and sound sales company AudioMaster has installed Anolis LED products into its new HQ in Prague - both to enhance the functionality and aesthetics of the building and to demonstrate in situ, the benefits of the brand to their clients.

Music City is a new purpose built four-storey building, a collaboration between AudioMaster and the Prague Music Centre. The concept is to deliver the ultimate retail environment for musicians, performers, installers, technical specifiers, venue owners and managers and anyone involved in the professional entertainment and leisure industry.

Encompassing recording and demo studios, training plus conference and presentation areas, the Music Cafe coffee bar and specialist display areas for guitarists, drummers, keyboard and percussion aficionados of all types, Music City also features all the latest MI, DJ

USA - Norway's projectiondesign returns to InfoComm to showcase its broadest range of projection solutions. The company will lift the wraps off the FL32 projector, projectiondesign's first solid-state LED-based projection system that uses the company's new RealLED technology resulting in "greatly enhanced image performance and ultra-low maintenance". The FL32 is set to greatly reduce operating costs, and features a 100,000-hour life illumination system, says the company.

Since making its global debut at last year's InfoComm, projectiondesign's active stereoscopic 3D projector, the F10 AS3D has earned worldwide praise from the audio visual and visualization community for its ability to provide convincing and compelling 3D imagery from a single, portable device. This year the company will be showing the F10 AS3D, as well as F32 and F22 3D stereo projectors using INFITEC

£15m bonus - The Isle of Wight council has estimated the island's annual music festival is worth £15m to the local economy. The annual event was restarted at Seaclose Park in Newport in 2001 and has since become one of the biggest festivals in the UK. About 50,000 enjoyed the event this weekend with the Pixies and Neil Young headlining on Sunday. The council said it had helped change the island's image and brought millions into the economy each year.

John Metcalfe, Isle of Wight Council's assistant director for economic development and tourism, told BBC News: "The festival is hugely important to the island, especially to Newport. We estimate it is worth at least £10m spent in the Newport shops, and that is just from people from off the island visiting for the festival. If we put on top of that the money spent by the organisers with island businesses and or

UAE - PR Lighting fixtures have been out in force at a number of major events and festivals in the Gulf recently.

Earlier this year, territorial distributors and event production company, TechnoPro LLC, produced the spectacular staging for the Muscat Festival 2009 at Al Qurum National Park in Oman, including lighting, audio, lasers, pyrotechnics and rigging equipment.

The gathering, which included Oman's royalty, and dignitaries from the government and private sector, witnessed the splendid lighting effects created on the set during the Opening Ceremony.

12 PR Lighting Mega Color 4000 CMY, 36 x XL1200 spot and 24 x XL1200 wash lights turned the set into a spectacular show, which reached its peak with a multimedia laser show and fireworks display.

All FX were triggered from a grandMA lighting desk, programmed and operated by Elie Khader from TechnoPro, and the show w

UK - ABTT 09 saw the successful launch of Goboland UK which has been formed with the purpose of bringing Goboland's expertise in custom and collection gobos direct to its customers in the UK.

Goboland UK has introduced the 'Credit Crunch Custom Gobo'. For the next six months, customers can take advantage of this offer which aims to help with customers' production costs in this difficult economic climate. The 'Credit Crunch Gobo' is made from an alternative, non-coated, metal to the high grade Black Steel of Goboland's existing gobos. It is easier to etch and retails at £27.00 for the first gobo with copies at £6.00 each.

"The idea has been met with great enthusiasm," says Goboland UK director, Vicky Fairall. "Customers appreciate the additional option to our Black Steel custom gobos and see it as an extra facet to their - and our - production capabil

UK - Lighting designer Tim Routledge of Blue Lens has won a BAFTA Wales Award (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) for Best Lighting Director. The Award was presented at the BAFTA Wales Awards 2009 held at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay.

Routledge won the Award for Grand Slam, a two-hour "as live" concert at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff celebrating Wales winning the Six Nations Grand Slam rugby trophy last year. It was headlined by the Stereophonics and also featured performances by Feeder, Rhydian Roberts and Heather Small, plus interviews and Ruth Jones from Gavin and Stacey.

Routledge's challenges on the job included lighting a stadium sized show on a studio budget in a very short time - for which he used a combination of ingenuity, lateral thinking and classic lighting skills. "I was really pleased with the results" he c

UK - The Association of British Theatre Technician's ABTT Theatre Show was another success despite fears that London's most severe tube strike for 12 years would play havoc with the visitor attendance.

The Show's organisers report that whilst pre-registrations were a healthy 10% up on last year, the total visitor count to the show was only slightly affected by the strike on London's underground system, down by 15% on 2008's figures.

Roger Fox, show director, commented: "We were delighted by the attendance at this year's show and very happy to have maintained our position as a leading event in the industry's calendar despite the tube strike. We were only 15% down overall on last year's visitor figures, which proved that people battled against the odds to attend. Feedback from exhibitors has been very positive. We're looking forward to an exciting 2010 Show on 16 and 17 Jun

Spain - VMB has announced that Spotlight is to be the new exclusive distributor for VMB towerlifts in Italy. Spotlight will be responsible for all the sales in the Italian market and will also be in charge of all the servicing and support.

Spotlight celebrated its 40th birthday last month with a series of open days. Augusto Andraghetti, Spolight's president said: "The partnership between Spotlight and VMB is based on a similar strategic mission - our work, over the past 40 years, has been focused on continuous improvement, technical innovation and customer satisfaction, in order to always be a step ahead in providing solutions for the performing arts."

Spotlight exclusively distributes a number of brands including Arkaos, ADB, Compulite, Chainmaster, Eurotruss, Litestructures, Kleu and now VMB.

VMB's export manager Ben Sinclair comments: "I am looking forward

UK - LD Jonny Gaskell is using 12 of the new i-Pix BB7 LED wash lights - with the 20 degree wide angle lenses - on UK dance gurus Orbital's ongoing own shows and festival dates.

Gaskell has worked with the band since 1996. "Dynamics are always the key with lighting an Orbital show," he explains, "You have to keep everything pumping with the music, which is full on from start to finish, so you need a very flexible and versatile selection of fixtures."

Gaskell's style also usually involves adding a strong physical shape to the lighting rig - in this case achieved with V-shaped trusses and a VersaTUBE matrix. This is another reason he wanted to use BB7s - their flower-like looks bring spatial contrast to the sharp lines of the metalwork and LED tubes.

He first used the original 10 degree BB7s on Prodigy last year, and was impressed. "As always with i-Pi

USA - Kentucky-based Goodwin Lighting Services recently supplied a number of PixelLine 110s to light an unusual bespoke wave set design for an annual sales meeting and party for a major insurance company - organised by Accent On Cincinnati.

The concept was realised by event designer Joe Rigotti and consisted of white stretched fabric over a custom made frame.

Lighting designer Glen Goodwin explains: "Each piece of the stage back drop is 4' wide and 30' tall. I lit each row top and bottom with a PixelLine 110 - setup so I had control of each strip. The challenge was make each function hosted in the ballroom look different. I needed to be able to transform the look of the stage and be able to create kinetic colour changes to make the set come alive."

The event was over three days - each day the ballroom had three room transformations - breakfast, lunch and a party at

Romania - A major spectacular marked the Rumanian Soccer Association's celebration of its centennial in Bucharest's Parliament Palace on 13 May, 2009. Around 1,200 invited guests from around the world were on hand to witness a laser performance by tarm Showlaser that was the highlight of the evening's programme, and, once again, Ralf Lottig's team managed to top everything they had seen before.

Poweful, full-colour lasers projected ultrahigh-resolution graphics on movable, black gauze-screens stretched across the stage, creating the impression of giant holograms. The laser finale that followed filled the entire hall.

UEFA-President Michel Platini thanked the host organisation, describing the occasion as "a wonderful evening with the most creative, brightest, and colourful laser performance I have ever seen."

(Jim Evans)

UK - Yorkshire-based Harvard Engineering has won two prestigious awards. The first was won at the Yorkshire Digital Awards for its revolutionary LeafNut wireless street lighting system, in the category of Best Application of Internet Technology. The second was for Company Innovation at the 42 Under 42 Yorkshire Business Awards, and was also for the LeafNut system.

Harvard Engineering has spent over six years developing the LeafNut system, which is already in operation in a number of towns, cities and trunk roads throughout the UK.

LeafNut allows local and highway authorities the ability to accurately control and monitor all assigned lighting units by providing remote wireless, web based switching and dimming back to the operator through a webserver.

LeafNut's wireless management system interrogates and regulates individual street lanterns on a real time basis using the micro

UK - Stage Electrics will exhibit at the first ever Excite! (24-25 June) at London's Earls Court, the new name for the Exhibiting Show.

Technical products on the stand will include: Stage Electrics' new LED screens with a colour spectrum of 1 billion colours, designed for indoor or outdoor use at sporting events, product launches and concerts; The Arkaos media server designed to seamlessly run real time video performances; Rosco Lite Pad HO - a bright and lightweight 'everywhere light' for TV and photography shoots, and Truss from Prolyte.

Anna Western, divisional sales manager at Stage Electrics comments: "We are thrilled to be exhibiting at the inaugural Excite! as we feel it is a dynamic environment in which to highlight the diversity of technical and creative expertise our Live Events division can offer."

(Jim Evans)http://www.stage-electrics.co.u

UK - When Lambeth College in south-west London undertook an extensive building programme to create a new 6000sq.m Sixth Form Centre including new Drama and Dance Studios, it was to local lighting supplier White Light that they turned for advice, equipment, installation and support.

"Both of the new performance spaces are flexible," comments Roger Hennigan, White Light's technical sales manager, "with the Drama space able to be divided into three areas depending on how the tutors want to use it. This required us to design and install three lighting grids as the space can be divided into three with acoustic partitions. The grids are internally wired incorporating both 16 amp dimmer and DMX data outlets, and the installation includes vertical booms, floor traps and wall-mounted outlet boxes also including dimmer and DMX outlets. A Triple E Chain track was installed t

Germany - Following speculation regarding the future of G-LEC, the leading innovator of transparent LED video, GLP German Light Products GmbH has announced its acquisition of all assets of the G-LEC business, with immediate effect.

Formed in 2001, G-LEC provides leading edge systems and solutions to the entertainment and architectural markets and enjoys a world class following. In acquiring the business, GLP has ensured the continuity of the innovative and pioneering technology for which G-LEC is renowned, while the association of the two companies echoes the converging use of lighting and video technologies.

G-LEC, now a fully owned subsidiary of GLP, has discontinued all rental activity and will focus on selling the G-LEC product range through the company's existing offices, as well as new sales channels. All owners of G-LEC products, whether for sales or rental, will contin

UK - Global Design Solutions' innovative LiteWare range recently made its Television debut on the BBC's Friday Night with Jonathan Ross show, which featured Lionel Richie and Sparks.

Episode eight of the current series of the BBC show saw Lionel Richie performing an impromptu duet with Jonathan Ross. While the pair performed Lionel's classic number 'Three times a lady', LiteWare fittings, controlled wirelessly by DMX, illuminated the underside of the piano and along the front of the stage. At the conclusion of the duet, the lighting crew removed the fittings and deployed them at the front of the performance stage for the live performance from US Pop Rock band Sparks.

Richard Martin Lighting, who supplied the BBC show from their inventory of LiteWare hire stock, decided to undertake a screen test on the LED uplighter to ascertain its performance in front of the camera. T

South Africa - International dance brand Godskitchen brought their successful 2009 world tour show to South Africa, headlined by Armin van Buuren and staged at two events in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

Gearhouse South Africa supplied full technical production for the Cape Town event for their client Kilowatt AV, headed by Dillon Jearey, all working closely with international production manager and lighting designer, UK-based Simon Barrington of Production Eye and project manager Andrea Frey from Angel Music.

Kilowatt has worked on previous Godskitchen events, but this is the first time they have involved Gearhouse - whose Cape Town branch supplied staging and structure, lighting, audio and AV for the event at Bellville Velodrome, which was enjoyed by 4000 dance enthusiasts. Gearhouse's 15 site crew were led by project manager Theo van As.

At the hub of the 2009 Godskitchen s

The Netherlands - Cuelux, the new platform-independent software lighting controller from Visual Productions is now available from stock. The first batch of Cuelux has already been shipped out across Europe to a range of dealers including those that are positioned to feed the webshops, as ecommerce is an easy route for Cuelux to reach its intended audience, says the company.

Designed to suit the entry level market, Cuelux is a DMX512 lighting controller for intelligent lights, LED, dimmers, lasers and various other effects; it is shipped with an affordably priced USB-to-DMX adapter cable. Cuelux is multi-platform and can run on Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows. Care has been taken to design Cuelux' 100% touch-screen compliant graphical user-interface to reflect the functionality of the industry standard control boards. Programming the lights through the Cuelux cue-list system is id

Hungary - GE Lighting has announced the launch of its new range of High Output LED retrofit lamps.

"Unlike many retrofit LED lamps on the market today, the new lamps from GE maintain a high standard of colour quality and do not compromise on light output," says Andrew Davies, LED senior product manager. "Very significantly, they are designed to fit the international standard size & shape for the lamps they are intended to replace, meaning users will not get unpleasant surprises when attempting to retrofit them into existing sockets."

Included in the range is a GU10 lamp. Consuming only 4 Watts of power, the GU10 offers "superior beam intensity to a 20 watt halogen GU10 lamp, whilst matching the wide flood beam angle given by halogen". This allows for 80% energy saving to be achieved. Colour temperature is a warm white 3100K whilst colour rendering

UK - RC4 Wireless has been awarded Lighting Product of the Year by the Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT) in London, for their RC4BlackMagic Wireless DMX and Dimming System.

"We are particularly flattered by this award because of the nature of the voting process," said James David Smith, president and chief product designer at RC4. "The ABTT is a small organisation of in-the-trenches theatre people -electricians, carpenters, lighting and sound personnel - who make live theatre tick in the UK. There are no nominations for ABTT awards, all you need is a great new product on display at the ABTT Theatre Show. Judges are anonymous industry professionals without commercial bias. They visit all the stands in the show, large and small, looking for notable new products."

While presenting a special pipe-clamp trophy to Smith in a formal ceremony, the c

Upbeat in Orlando - InfoComm International has announced that InfoComm 09 (17-19 June, Orlando, Florida), the annual conference and exhibition for professional audio-visual buyers and sellers worldwide, was the biggest commercial AV show ever held on the East Coast of the United States, with more than 29,000 AV professionals attending from more than 80 countries. There were 850 exhibitors participating this year, representing an increase of 80 since the last time the event was in Orlando. "InfoComm continues to be the one trade show where most professional AV service providers make their important buying decisions for the year," said Randal A. Lemke, executive director, InfoComm International. "Despite the global economy, the AV marketplace has enthusiastically embraced InfoComm as the place to make their purchasing choices, network with product and service provider

UK - New Zealander Rodd McClintock, a design student at Leeds Metropolitan University, is the winner of the 2009 Enlighten Design Competition run by Leeds-based High Technology Lighting.

The brief in the fourth annual contest staged by the Middleton Grove lighting design specialist was to design a luminaire for a high-end market using Philips matchbox gear and fluorescent lamps.

McClintock, 37, won the competition - it encourages innovation, raises awareness of the potential the lighting sector can offer and recognises and rewards good ideas - with his entry Lumin-Eye,centred around a sustainable world theme.

He explained: "My inspiration came from the sea, with the design based on brain coral and blown glass, which is made from sand, a highly sustainable resource with excellent reflective qualities and producing beautiful colours, though my winning entry was mad

UK - Katherine Jenkins performed a special one-off concert in front of a packed Birmingham NIA on Saturday evening, as part of the opening celebrations of the 100th Rotary International Conference. Together with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the international mezzo-soprano delighted the audience with a selection of classic arias, tracks from her new album and a rendition of 'We'll Meet Again.'

For the performance Stage Electrics provided two 6 x 4m LED screens, a DMX-controlled Chameleon LED Starcloth, over 100 moving lights including Martin MAC 700s, MAC 600s and Vari-Lite VL2000s. Lighting designer for the night was Neil Tremmell, who used a GrandMA control system. Stage Electrics also specified an L-Acoustics V-Dosc line array system for the performance audio.

The 100th Rotary International Convention is a week-long event held in Birmingham, likely to attract 3

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