UK - A bespoke lighting system supplied by A.C. Special Projects (ACSP) took centre stage for the high-profile launch party of London's revamped The Arts Club, a private members club on Dover Street. The re-launch of the historic Club - which was founded in 1863 by, amongst others, Charles Dickens - was attended by HRH Duke of Edinburgh and a host of artists.

The Arts Club was reopened by restaurateur Arjun Waney and property entrepreneur Gary Landesburg to provide an exclusive meeting place for actors, writers, musicians and other creative artists.

Lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe was amongst several high profile names in the performing arts commissioned to help craft a special ambience in the venue. To create the lighting scheme for the basement's intimate 100 capacity Club Nouveau, Woodroffe approached A.C. Special Projects (ACSP) to collaborate in sourcing and installin

USA - American DJ's new Event Bar DMX is an all-in-one LED scanning light system that features four bright white 3W LED pinspots mounted on an X-Y movement bar.

A 'turnkey' lighting system for nightclubs, stage productions, concerts, mobile entertainers, retail displays, trade shows and special events, the Event Bar DMX is easy to set up and operate, says the company. It is also a very versatile lighting tool that can handle everything from illuminating a large dance floor, to table or cake spotting for that big wedding day or corporate event.

"The Event Bar DMX is a true, go-anywhere scanning light system that has virtually endless uses," said Alfred Gonzales, national sales manager for American DJ. "One of its coolest features is that it has a strobe effect and dimming on each pinspot head, so each of the heads can be operated independently of the others to cr

Australia - 2011 has been a big year for the Ten Network in Australia. Having instigated a number of adjustments to its programming line-up and increased its airtime, the Network recently invested in a significant revamp of its Sydney newsroom and studio.

As part of this refurbishment, Network 10 lighting director Pete Koole examined ways to make his lighting rig more cost effective, reliable and easier to use. During his research he came across the Philips Selecon PL1 LED luminaire. "I could see straight away that the PL1 LED had great potential as keylight in the news studio", he says. Koole now owns 18, all fitted with wireless receivers and he is delighted with them.

The PL1s have addressed a number of issues. Koole's newsroom is situated at the bottom of a five-story atrium and vulnerable to fluctuating colour temperatures from the changing ambient natural light

USA - Gemini LSV of Dallas, Texas, will be holding an open house on 16-17 November, demonstrating the Parasol KLR-10 system. Gemini became the first company in the world to purchase this system. The KLR system is Parasol's second product that enables a designer to move the source point of a number of automated lighting fixtures along a pre-defined path. The KLR system is based on a patent application filed by Parasol earlier this year.

The system will be featured at Gemini's annual open house, with location details available at www.geminilightsoundvideo.com.

Parasol's CEO, Hermann Fruhm, remarked that this first important sale is "a milestone that will be indelibly marked in Parasol's history, much like the first use of automated lights by Genesis in 1981."

(Jim Evans)

USA / Sweden - Wireless Solution Sweden has confirmed Josh Thatcher as the winner of their Call for Entries contest which ran from August through October. Thatcher won a new iPad2 at the W-DMX Swedish meatball and vodka party held on Saturday, 29 October during LDI in Orlando.

The contest began with a call for entries posted on the W-DMX Facebook page and various trade e-newsletters. The challenge was to submit the most interesting use of W-DMX, with the best story to win an iPad2.

Hollywood-based Thatcher won for his use of W-DMX on the movie Super 8, a Steven Speilberg film released in June 2011. Thatcher has also used W-DMX in other major feature films including Cowboys & Aliens and Pirates of the Carribbean.

"This was a nice surprise," said Thatcher, "I use W-DMX on a lot of motion pictures but Super 8 was special. We wer

Italy - One of the best known brands in retail, athletic footwear giant Foot Locker, has installed an eye-catching Martin Professional LED display in the main front window of its flagship store in Milan.

Located in the fashionable Corso Vittorio Emanuele shopping district in the heart of Milan, the store opened in June showcasing a dynamic front window LED display made up of 39 Martin Professional EC-20 LED panels.

Lead designers for the Foot Locker brand across Europe is design and consultancy company rpa:group. James Breaks, associate director of rpa:vision's design division, comments, "I was at Euroshop earlier in the year together with the client who saw the EC-20 panels at the Martin stand. Foot Locker wanted the potential to create something startling and bold. They were looking to stand out and make a massive impression. The EC-20 display was just what they were lo

UK - The Euston Underpass is one of the UK's busiest thoroughfares, with an estimated 100,000 people travelling its length on a daily basis. It also boasts the latest digital advertising installation from turnkey solutions provider Solutions In Steel (SIS), which has installed two Lighthouse Technologies LED screens, located on either side of the bridge spanning the underpass and visible to traffic travelling in either direction.

Solutions in Steel has considerable experience with Lighthouse screens, having worked with them on projects such as the Two Towers on London's Hammersmith Flyover, Eat Street and Ariel Way at West London's Westfield Shopping Centre and the H Junction Bridge at Shepherd's Bush.

"We provide a 100% turnkey solution, from initial design, through structural engineering, to finished installation and even finance, which makes things as simple as possibl

Australia - The X Factor is the hottest TV franchise around the globe with the second Australian series currently underway and drawing large audiences every week. The set and lighting for this series is very similar to the first series with a few exceptions such as the addition of 28 Vari*Lite VLX LED wash lights.

"The VLX fixtures in the system replace the VL3500 wash and VL2000 wash fixtures that I used last year," commented Ian Anderson, production lighting director for the show. "There wasn't a specific reason for choosing them this year other than I really just wanted to give them a go."

This is the first time that he has used an LED source as one of the main workhorses in the rig and he is delighted with the result.

"The VLX fixtures provide the entire colour wash on the stage," he explained. "They have been working very reliab

UK - Artichoke, producers of extraordinary live events, have unveiled the full programme of artworks, installations and events for this year's Lumiere festival in Durham, 17-20 November 2011. Artichoke returns to Durham at the invitation of Durham County Council who are providing significant funding for the event along with Arts Council England, and a raft of sponsors and funding bodies. Lumiere will bring together more than 30 British and international artists working with light in every conceivable way. From dramatic installations, vast animated projections and human rivers of light, to quieter, more subtle interventions on buildings, streets and bridges, the artworks in Lumiere "will re-invent the familiar in a city-wide nocturnal trail that will surprise, delight and stop people in their tracks".

In a new commission for Lumiere, French fire alchemists Compagnie Car

USA - Clay Paky scored a remarkable string of wins at the LDI show in Orlando, Florida. The company secured a total of four awards: a Parnelli Award, two LDI Awards, and a PLASA Rock Our World Award.

The Sharpy won a fourth Rock Our World Award at a reception organized by PLASA in connection with the annual LDI show. The jury, chaired by Mike Wood, gave the Sharpy their enthusiastic backing. Designer Natasha Katz said, "This is the beginning of more lights that have to be like this - efficient and green," while Nick Jones said, "Absolutely brilliant - an amazing amount of light coming out of such a small piece of kit."

Two days later success struck again when the Sharpy won a Parnelli Award in the category for Most Indispensable Technology. The award is often seen as an accurate barometer of public opinion and shows the extent to which the Sharpy has establ

UK - Digital network operator Ram Vision has extended its Iconic network, signing a five year contract as the exclusive media sales partner for the new 21sq.m LED screen at Glow, Bluewater, installed by ADI which went live on 10 November 2011.

The LED screen will join Ram Vision's large-format screen network and is located on the wall of the cinema in the r new Plaza space. The 3000m² leisure area acts as a hub between the mall, cinema, restaurants and Glow.

The screen has been installed by LED specialist ADI and is a 6mm SMD indoor product from the company's proprietary Virtuality range of screens. ADI worked closely with Bluewater in order to specify the screen - which has a high resolution and close minimum viewing distance - to give a stunning picture whether viewed from across the new Plaza or from a couple of metres away, ensuring that the messages of brands are accurat

Sweden - Lighting designer Mikki Kunttu is using Martin Professional's MAC III Performance luminaire on Malmö Opera's current production of Les Miserables. Presented on one of Europe's largest opera stages, this latest staging of the Victor Hugo classic premiered in September and plays until February 2012.

"The MAC III is really the workhorse in this production as most of the scenes were built around the looks created by the MAC IIIs," says Kunttu. "It was chosen because it's perfect for the high contrast looks needed in this production."

Kunttu placed the MAC III Performances on two simple backlight trusses, upstage. "I've got nothing to complain about," he says. "They definitely get the job done."

Also used on the show are Martin MAC 2000 Washes and MAC 600 wash lights, as well as Martin's PAL 1200 moving mirror spot. The Mar

UK - The award winning Hot Ice Show at top UK amusement park, Pleasure Beach Blackpool is one of the many shows around the world taking advantage of the Jands Vista lighting and media control system to run their lighting during their ice skating spectacular.

Hot Ice has been running for over 70 years, with the 2011 show, Aura, performed twice daily, six days a week, to entertain and enthral nearly 20,000 visitors a week. This makes it one of the UK's most popular attractions.

Hot Ice is created, produced and directed by Amanda Thompson and presented by Stageworks Worldwide Productions at the Pleasure Beach's ice skating theatre, The Arena. Stageworks head of production, management & events, Scott Hope, specified the Jands Vista T2 in consultation with his team, when the time came to upgrade and replace the show's lighting control desk.

Key to his

USA - ETC's Source Four Fresnel, which launched earlier this year, picked up the Best Product award in the Equipment category at the LDI/PLASA Awards ceremony in Orlando this month.

Voting for the awards, which recognise newly released and outstanding entertainment technology products, was open to all employees of PLASA member companies who attended the LDI show.

Customers had been asking for a Source Four Fresnel for years - but ETC waited to make a winner, says the company. The dichroic reflector design enables a Source Four Fresnel equipped with a 750W HPL lamp to equal the lumens output of other manufacturers' 1000W Fresnel fixtures

The first batch of 250 Source Four Fresnels received in Europe from ETC's production facility in Wisconsin, USA, has just been delivered to dealers.

Meanwhile, ETC's Selador Desire LED line picked up two awards at the 2011 Worship Facilitie

USA - MA Lighting received two awards at the recent fourth annual PLASA Rock Our World Awards.

The first was for the 83rd Annual Academy Awards ceremony, where a grandMA2 light played the crucial role of controlling 34 media servers, feeding multiple onstage screens via 70 video projectors.

The second award was given for Disney's World of Color, where the installation also relies on grandMA2 for lighting control.

The Rock Our World Awards were created to honour groundbreaking achievements by PLASA members in the world of entertainment technology .

"We fondly recognise our trophy-winning partners' hard work, dedication to detail and outstanding conceptual product designs," says A.C.T Lighting executive VP and COO Ben Saltzman. "We cherish our strong, productive relationships with them, and stand behind their continued efforts to bring durable, reliable lighti

France - Belgian lighting designer Francis Mannaert is currently using a raft of Philips Vari-Lite VL3000 Spot and Wash Luminaires to create a dynamic supernatural lightscape for the National Opera Ukrainia's touring ballet, set to the hauntingly evocative music of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana.

Conductor Grigori Penteleîtchouk originally commissioned the production for a small classical music festival - Festival des Nuits Sainte Victoire, in 2009. However, so successful was it that producer Franck Dompietrini and Maestro, Penteleïtchouk, decided to take an expanded version of the production across France and play to the largest audiences possible.

Mannaert used VL3000 spots and washes, as part of a traditional ballet lighting rig, he explains: "I use the Vari-Lite's for punchy key, back and side lighting. There are no props or scenery on stage except for a p

USA - Chauvet is a sponsor of Academy of Production Technology three-day seminars dedicated to the advancement of education and safety in the live event production industry. Led by Richard Cadena, a 24-year veteran of the entertainment lighting industry with a background in electronics and electrical engineering, the classes travel the country to capture a wide-ranging audience.

November's class will be set at Chauvet headquarters in Sunrise, Fla. The class covers theory and practices of entertainment technology for the working electrician and technician.

Attendees will learn essential training in safety, codes and regulations, control systems, and basic electricity to advanced power distribution. The course work also counts towards renewal credits for ETCP Certified Electricians.

"We are pleased to open the doors to our facility for an educational endeavour," said

UK - BBC's The One show returns to the small screen with this year's hosts including Lenny Henry, Jasper Carrott and Griff Rhys Jones. The sketch shows will also include an array of special guests.

Richard Martin Lighting (RML) support lighting designers Oli Richards and Martin Kempton to create a simple and elegant setting for the shows. The specification includes Stage Zoom 1200's, MAC 500's, MAC 600's, 900mm Chroma Strips, GLP Impressions and GLP Impressions XL, Alpha Beam 700's and Stage Bars.

In addition to the main lighting rig, RML also liaised with Rosco to supply gobos for the show.

(Jim Evans)

UK - The Satellite is battery powered, cable free and wirelessly controlled, with a movable adjustable twin headed LED head with 360 degree pan/180 degree tilt.

They are a high output LED fixture with RBG colour mixing, no heat and IP rated for outdoor use. They can also be used with an internally wired telescopic pole up to 2.6m.

Using the standard LiteWare flightcase charging system they are designed for quick get-ins, venues with power issues and where cables can't be easily run or masked.

The Satellites are already proving a hit with Hawthorns' Production Solutions team and their dry hire customers. Senior project manager Chris Knight recently used the Satellites on a corporate party for a major financial institution; he commented, "The Satellites were brilliant. Quick, simple and surprisingly powerful."

(Jim Evans)

USA - At this year's LDI Show in Orlando GLP presented a spectacular launch showcase for both its own, and sister company G-LEC fixtures - as well as offering other creative visual solutions for LD's.

Pride of place went to the German manufacturer's LED washlight, the impression Wash One, which was making its North American debut. This was joined by a new video display and controller from G-LEC, and new IP65 outdoor rated and battery powered fixtures from its Scenex Lighting range of LED scenic lighting fixtures. A wide selection of Global Truss products were also displayed on the stand.

Stated Mark Ravenhill, president, GLP German Light Products Inc, "The Wash One preview created exactly the feedback we had been hoping for. With two identical demo stations, and a rig of units we were able to showcase both the Wash One and Spot One, as well as the Volkslicht Zoom and impr

UK - The new Chroma-Q Color Charge Plus is a higher output version of the original battery powered, wireless DMX fixture. It is suitable for temporary indoor lighting applications where wiring is a challenge or where install speed is critical, transforming a venue in minutes.

The Color Charge Plus utilises the very latest generation of LED and optics, resulting in 50% more output (900 lumens) than the original Color Charge (600 lumens) from the same size unit.

The Color Charge Plus fixture's environmentally friendly design includes a recyclable long life battery cell and an interchangeable LED head for upgrading in the future. The highly efficient nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) power cell delivers up to 30 hours usage from a single charge and provides up to 1,000 charges; approximately double the life of lead-acid batteries. The fixture also features a built-in mains charger that

USA - Robe Lighting had a busy and successful LDI 2011 exhibition in Orlando, Florida, where it showcased its latest products including, for the first time in the USA, the newly launched MMX Spot - the first of Robe's next generation of 1200 series moving lights.

Other new fixtures introduced to the US market included the Robin 1200 and 300 LEDWash, The Robin DLX Spot and the new versions of the CityFlex 48 and CityLine 48 from Robe's popular LED series.

The Robin LEDWash 600 RBGW - Robe's fastest selling luminaire of all time - together with its PureWhite version, both of which are fast becoming 'industry standard' specified products, were also at the centre of the action.

(Jim Evans)

USA - Pink wristbands, T-shirts and ribbons are a common sight during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month - but a pink hospital? West Jefferson Medical Centre(WJMC) wanted to do something special to celebrate the life of breast cancer survivors and honour the memory of those who lost their battle with the disease, so the New Orleans-area hospital 'turned pink', putting its 10-story front entrance aglow in brilliant pink lights for the entire month of October.

The traffic-stopping pink lighting display was created by Abstract Productions, LLC (Baton Rouge, LA), using Rebel Pro Par RGB LED pars from Acclaim Lighting. Adrian Miceli of Abstract said that power draw was "a huge factor" in selecting a fixture to colour wash the 120ft long by 10-story-high exterior space, since the lights were to remain on continuously for 12 hours daily.

The Rebel Pro Par's energy effic

UK - Manchester-based dbn Lighting supplied lighting design and equipment - including trussing and all necessary rigging - to the main stage at the 2011 Ramsbottom Festival staged at Ramsbottom Cricket Ground in Bury, a picturesque riverside location in Greater Manchester.

As in previous years, the boutique style Festival was a partnership between The Met, Bury's renowned live arts venue and Ramsbottomonline.com. dbn's Nick Buckley was asked to create a production design to cover the three days of live music, headlined on the Friday by The Animals & Friends, followed by The Guillemots on Saturday, concluding on Sunday with The Waterboys.

His design had to be flexible enough to deal with the different sounds and styles of these and the other artists on the line up each day, and took the Waterboys spec (LD Craig McCleary) as a general starting point. Buckley wanted to give them

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