UK - The lighting division of UK live event and communications agency, DRP Group, has made its first investment in Chroma-Q products with the purchase of 24 Color Force 48 LED battens.

DRP is a single source supplier to a multiplicity of corporate presentations, live events, festivals, awards shows, parties and charity works. Their HQ is in the Midlands; they also have offices in London and Manchester and work all over the UK and internationally.

Richard (Rikki) Parmenter, DRP's head of lighting explains that they specifically wanted an LED batten fixture that would light walls, cyc, banners and architectural features with a smooth, linear wash.

Since buying the Color Force fixtures, they have been in demand for a diversity of projects. The Color Force 48 version also happens to be the same width as DRP's standard modular set panels, which are 4 x 10ft. When used for lightin

USA - High End Systems is hosting an Orlando, Florida area open house on 26-27 January 2012. This event will allow customers to see and experience the latest technology from High End Systems.

Sales and technical professionals from High End Systems will be on-hand along with intellaspot, Technospot, trackspot Bolt, DL.3 and Road Hog Full Boar consoles.

Over the course of two days, experts will demonstrate the capabilities of the latest products while also allowing plenty of time for hands-on experience and education. The relaxed atmosphere of the open house ensures attendees plenty of time to learn about High End Systems' products, says the company.

(Jim Evans)

USA - Atomic Lighting of Lititz, Pennsylvania, the exclusive lighting supplier for the second consecutive year to the Latin Grammy Awards, recently provided the show with 50 Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures.

Latin music's most prestigious awards telecast, the 12th Annual Latin Grammy Awards was sent live on Univision Network from the Mandalay Bay Events Centre in Las Vegas. Since its debut on Univision in 2005, the show has consistently increased its ratings worldwide; and is the most widely watched awards show among Hispanics.

Atomic's vice president of operations Brett Puwalski, who has served as the show's gaffer for the last five years, introduced lighting designer Carlos Colina to the Sharpy at the Premio Juventud awards show on Univision last summer. "He loved the tight beam and how bright it was for its small size," says Puwalski. "Carlos has said he can never h

UK - Vortex Lighting Ltd was recently commissioned to provide the lighting for a Carols of Light concert in one of Britain's favourite buildings, Durham Cathedral. The aim of the concert was to raise funds for both the Durham Cathedral Music Endowment Fund and The Sunderland AFC Foundation. Lessons were read by HRH The Countess of Wessex GCVO, Sir Tim Rice, The Rt Hon David Miliband MP, Kate Adie OBE, Steve Cram MBE and Channel 4's George Clarke while the concert included performances by Joe McElderry, Rick Wakeman, Alan Price, Barbara Dickson OBE, Sir Thomas Allen, Clare Teal and Kathryn Tickell.

Durham Cathedral is a very busy building, so the time available to rig and programme the equipment was somewhat limited, but Vortex's crew of just 4 installed all of the equipment, including the stage in just over three hours and removed in less than two hours, says the company.

The Netherlands - Artistic Licence founder, Wayne Howell, is to chair a Lighting Panel discussion at the Dynamic Events Conference being held at 4.00 - 5.30pm on Monday 30 January, RAI, Amsterdam.

Dynamic Events is a new conference aimed at the use of lighting, sound, video technology and staging in large scale entertainment and sporting environments.

The Lighting Session participants include distinguished lighting designers Durham Marenghi, Paul Collison, Koert Vermeulen and David Eversfield. The panel will be discussing the challenges faced in the production of unique large scale events with a global televised audience - from technical to cultural to financial.

After each panellist and the moderator have introduced themselves to the audience, the panellists will take turns to lead on a variety of topics guaranteed to produce a lively and productive session. The discussions

UK - Blackburn-based lighting and visuals rental company HSL is supplying specialist LED light sources to the current series of the popular ITV quiz show, The Chase, in the process renewing its long and fruitful working relationship with leading TV lighting designer Tom Kinane, who has lit the series since it started.

HSL is supplying i-Pix BB4 LED wash lights and Satellite LED 'bricks' plus Pulsar Chroma strips to the show, which is being recorded in Studio Two at The London Studios (TLS) on the South Bank. The schedule is intense, recording three shows a day in batches of five days, and it has a daily broadcast slot on ITV 1 between 5 and 6 p.m. They have also just recorded six 'celebrity specials' - in TLS Studio One with live audiences - that are being aired on Saturdays.

HSL's project manager and TV sector specialist Sean McGlone comments, "It's always a pleas

UK - Following the successful launch of the Impression Spot One during 2011, GLP has now introduced the Impression Wash One, which offers a Fresnel-based optical system with a full feature set of beam control options.

Using the same 400W RGB LED light engine as the impression Spot One, the Wash One is able to deliver delicate colour changes or instantaneous colour bumps, says the company.

Careful calibration ensures that as wide a colour spectrum as possible can be achieved - from soft pastels to deep saturated shades - and everything in between.

The impression Wash One offers a useful 6°-60° zoom range - but in addition, it contains a high powered 3° narrow beam mode to offer further flexibility to designers.

The fixture also boasts a useful and innovative beam shaping function that enables the user to illuminate only the parts of a stage that need to be lit;

UK - London- based lighting rental company Colour Sound Experiment (CSE) has designed and is supplying contract rental lighting systems to four popular clubs in popular seaside destination Brighton for Inn Brighton Ltd. The operations are all being project managed by Colour Sound's Fletch.

He comments, "The key is to assess each space and design and deliver something appropriate and specific for the size and the entertainment being staged, and also offer a cost-effective solution to the client". All the systems have been programmed and set up for straightforward operation by the venue's lighting crew or DJs.

Life is a 700 capacity nightclub right on the seafront with three arched spaces towards the back forming the main dance floor, which are lit dynamically with a rig including Robe Scan 575 XTs as the central moving light system. These are joined by 48 x LEDJ Spect

Austria - In a major technical upgrade, the ORF center in Vienna has changed all its grandMA series 1 consoles to grandMA2 consoles. The MA NSPs (Network Signal Processors) were also replaced by MA NPUs (Network Processing Units), and additionally, the ORF has invested in new grandMA2 fader wings.

Altogether the Austrian national public service broadcaster now owns four grandMA2 full-size consoles, 17 grandMA2 light consoles, 15 MA NPU, nine grandMA2 fader wings as well as six versions of the grandMA onPC software solution.

Engineer and project manager for the upgrade Manfred Wagner explains why the grandMA2 was chosen, "We had plenty of good experiences with the grandMA series 1, so for this reason the grandMA2 was a pretty logical choice. The grandMA2 is not only extremely reliable but also offers powerful backup solutions and is a perfect option for TV projects, becaus

Qatar - Production company Qatar Vision recently produced the Qatar Football Association Award Ceremony using 150 moving lights from Clay Paky. The design of the show was conceived and created by Qvision with less than a month's production time.

"We received a call from Qatar Stars League Organization three weeks before the event, and we had to come up with the most creative show that can be produced in a completely empty space," said Sharif Hashisho, managing director of Qvision and the show director. "We spent four days on the creation of a 3D simulation in our creative department and presented to the client for approval. The client immediately approved the project and we had one week for the actual production."

Mr Hashisho puts the success of the event down to the level of staff and equipment the company has. "In three days we managed to have the fu

Poland - New Year's Eve 2012 was celebrated in style in Wroclaw. ARAM, one of the biggest event engineering company in Poland, participated in this show, organized by Polish Television providing latest LED multimedia .

The set contained 120msq.m of Fourlight FlexLED LED curtain installed as a main screen and side screens. Additionally, ARAM also delivered more than 50m ² LED screens (SMD 10mm) also from Fourlight.

One of the LED screens with an area of 35sq.m was set to the side of the stage, a second smaller one stand 200m from stage. The sets also featured Barco Mitrix and MiStrips.

Lighting gear included Pulsar Chroma batten's, Sharpy's from ClayPacky and many others. Multimedia was driven by two Catalyst HD media servers , operated jointly with lighting by three WholeHogs III.

The show was directed by Konrad Smuga , set design by Radoslaw D?bniak , and lighting design

UK Chauvet has announced the appointment of Lee Garrett as south territory sales manager.

Garrett's focus is the retail sector in the southern territory. In the near future, he will also oversee the contractor and production sector. Garrett has been involved in the sound and lighting industry for 17 years, six in a sound and lighting retail outlet specifically. He has been a lighting jockey in a nightclub, has worked as account manager for Coemar and Antari, and was a freelance agent for an architectural LED firm.

"The Chauvet brand is growing. We have some lovely products in all three sectors of our business. There is a very bright light at the end of the tunnel, which I can't say is the same for a lot of companies within our industry," says Garrett. "Value, innovation and performance are key to a good business mix and is very much the reason why Chauvet is exc

The Netherlands - LED manufacturer Pixled launches its new Pixled F-10i/o - the first of two new fully IP-65 rated indoor / outdoor LED displays - on Booth F41 in Hall 11 at the Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) exhibition in Amsterdam next week.

The new product features a real pixel pitch of 10.4 mm resolution and is populated with 3in1 SMD chips. The die-cast aluminum modules measure 50 x 50 x 4.5 cm and are ultra-lightweight at just 28kg per square metre. With 5000 Nits of brightness, and the IP-65 rating applying to both front and back of the screen, Pixled F10 i/o is the designed for a wide variety of indoor and outdoor projects and applications, says the company.

Next, Pixled will add the Pixled F-8i/o 8 mm pitch variant to this new indoor / outdoor product range.

The F-10i/o display will have a primary spot on Pixled's booth at ISE 2012, and in addition to this, other P

USA - While many concert tours rely on large lighting rigs that showcase extreme lighting displays, some are more about the experience of the music than the production behind it. Such was the case for lighting designer Rich Locklin and lighting director Steve Fallon who have recently completed work on the latest Paul Simon tour.

Tasked with creating a design that worked in harmony with the music instead of overpowering it, Locklin and Fallon teamed with authorized dealer TMS who supplied them with Vari*Lite luminaires from Philips Vari-Lite.

"This show is not about lighting," began Locklin. "You close your eyes and listen to the music and when you open them again you're not looking to be shocked into the moment, lighting has to be about supporting the artist and the music."

With a stage set up that consisted of four risers with nine key lighting areas, an

UK - Officially launched in September 2011, and representing the powerful partnership of MA Lighting and Clay Paky products, Ambersphere Solutions offers quality products combined with a superior support network dedicated to the UK market.

In its first few months of trading, the company has reported the addition of an impressive number of new customers whilst continuing business with long term customers of the MA and Clay Paky brands.

"We want to remind our existing customers of the commitment we have to ensuring they maximise their investment in our products by offering excellent after sales service, training and support from our base here in the UK," states Glyn O'Donoghue, Ambersphere's managing director.

"At the same time, we want to reach out to those rental and production companies who may never have thought MA and Clay Paky products were accessible to t

UK - LEE Filters has announced that its new website is now live. "The site is the result of extensive research undertaken with lighting professionals to find out exactly what our customers want from our website," the company says. "The feedback we got played a crucial part in the design, navigation and content of the site. We hope you like the improvements that we have made and that the site becomes an invaluable working tool for you."

(Lee Baldock)

UK - "Kids are used to the high production values of Lady Gaga. You can't fob them off with something else." So says Suzi Digby, internationally renowned choral director and conductor explaining her innovative new scheme, Vocal Futures, which she hopes will prove that youngsters from any background can form a life-long bond with classical music.

To prove the point, Vocal Futures recently created their first production, a staged version of Bach's St Matthew Passion performed in Ambika P3 - an old concrete laboratory in the University of Westminster on the Marylebone Road in Central London - featuring actors, singers including opera star Sir Willard White, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment plus 300 young Londoners aged between 16 and 22 who not only attended performances but also recorded a 'virtual choir' for the production.

Tasked with br

UK - Anglia Lighting has announced the promotion of Mark Pinkney to divisional marketing manager, to lead the business into its next phase of growth. Anglia Lighting, the UK distributor for Cree, specialises in energy efficient LED lighting for commercial and domestic buildings, including hotels, retail premises, restaurants and vehicles.

Pinkney sees significant opportunities to grow Anglia Lighting in a sector that has been relatively unaffected by the downturn. "Anglia Lighting will double its turnover this year, and I expect to see it double again next," he said.

"LED lighting is extremely attractive, as it saves cost and carbon emissions, but is also quite complex. Anglia Lighting offers customers a "wall-to-light" solution backed by an exceptional level of expert support. Working with us, customers can implement a lighting system that maximises l

UK - Production Resource Group are pleased to announce that Andrew Strachan has joined their UK team as a senior account manager.

Strachan previously ran the lighting department of a leading rental company in Dubai, recently relocating to the UK to be based at PRG's Longbridge, Birmingham base.

Having worked in the Middle East for the last 11 years, Strachan's specific experience of the region is an important addition to the skills of PRG's 21 strong UK account management team, where he will

be primarily focused on television, corporate and special event projects in the UK and globally.

PRG UK has also announced that Luke Jackson has joined their event services team as an event services coordinator.

Experienced from working in PRG's Production Technicians Team since early 2010, Jackson's new role sees him working for Rich Gorrod as part of the team representing PRG onsit

UK - When the Royal Opera House installed Unison architectural lighting control for the stage and side stage areas as part of the original 1999 refurbishment, it was recognised that lighting control systems will be eventually replaced as new and better products are developed. When senior lighting manager Nick Ware and his team members decided it was due for replacement, they looked first at the updated version of the product: Unison Paradigm.

Lighting systems Manager Paul Hornsby explains, "The system has remained on 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the last 11 years, and has served us well. But it was time to consider replacing it.

"We talked to colleagues at other venues across the country, doing extensive research into the systems they were using and discussing whether a different system might serve our needs better, but always came back to ETC's updated arch

Reasons To Be Cheerful - The UK music industry is celebrating after the Live Music Bill passed its third reading and report stage in the House Of Commons. The Bill, introduced by Lib Dem Peer Tim Clement-Jones and promoted in the Commons by Bath MP Don Foster, should now proceed to Royal Assent.

As a result, small venues wanting to host live music events will no longer need a local authority entertainment licence - cutting bureaucracy and expense, and making it easier for pubs and clubs to host live performances.

Jo Dipple, acting chief executive of UK Music, the UK commercial music industry's umbrella body, said, "This is a great day for music. The Live Music Bill will make a real and positive difference to lives of musicians. There is no doubt that the current Licensing Act has created needless layers of bureaucracy - making it complicated and expensive for pubs and oth

Russia - Innovason has confirmed the appointment of Imlight LLC as the brand's new distributor in Russia. Headquartered in Kirov in north-eastern Russia with offices in Moscow, Imlight is one of Russia's premier manufacturers and distributors of professional sound, lighting and staging equipment. They also have a large systems contracting division as well as a major rental division that handles some of the biggest tours and events throughout Russia.

Imlight has already got off to a flying start with Innovason with a number of concerts using Eclipse GT already under their belts and many more planned. Some of the biggest include a tour with one of Russia's biggest (and most controversial) singer/songwriter pop stars, Philipp Kirkorov. Imlight's rental department handled the sound requirements for the part of the tour that went through their region. According to Imlight's Pavel Zau

USA - The Angus Bowmer Theatre at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) in Ashland has taken delivery of three Robert Juliat Lucy 1200W HMI followspots from Musson Theatrical, Inc. of Santa Clara, California. The OSF's recent emphasis on musical theatre prompted the acquisition, which expands the company's followspot inventory. OSF previously purchased a pair of Robert Juliat Super Korrigan 1200W HMI followspots for its Elizabethan outdoor theatre. The outdoor theatre seats 1200, and the Angus Bowmer Theatre seats 601.

"The superior brightness and optics of the Juliat spots made it easy to decide to go with the Lucy followspots for the Bowmer Theatre," says master electrician Noah Beauregard.

Lighting and video department manager Michael Maag worked closely with Musson's director of sales and marketing Dinna Myers to specify the best fixture for the job. "Every

UK - Lincoln University has invested in 30 Chroma-Q Color Force RGBA LED fixtures for its two television studios at the campus's Media Broadcast Production Centre, which have recently been upgraded to full multi-camera and HD spec. facilities.

The University runs a variety of the UK's leading media orientated courses and the TV studios are used for full programme productions and an assortment of other associated functions.

The Chroma-Q Color Force 12" / 300mm multi-purpose fixtures and Color Force 72" / 1.8m battens have replaced all the studio's old soft lights and cyc lights, substituting approximately 43,000 Watts of power consumption with an expedient 3,700 Watts with the new LED lighting.

Chroma-Q Color Force was chosen after extensive research by studio engineer and technical specialist Steve Judge, who also teaches the practical and technical elements of cou

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