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USA/UK - Bandit Lites has announced the recent additions of Shawn Lear as project manager at the Nashville location and James Prince as electronics technician at the UK location.

Shawn Lear's responsibilities as a project manager include organising and supporting clients' lighting systems for touring and television application. Lear has had a diverse and long career in the lighting industry and comments, "I'm excited to be a member of the Bandit team. Welcome to the Big Leagues! Batter Up!"

As an electronics technician, James Prince's responsibilities include repairing, servicing and maintaining Bandit's moving lights inventory. Before joining Bandit Lites, Prince was a freelance lighting technician for Disney in Virginia working in their dry dock programme. "With

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UK - LD Mark Kenyon wanted some new and extra special effects for the hugely anticipated final of the BBC's latest Strictly Come Dancing series and decided it was an opportunity to try Robe DigitalSpot 7000DTs.

Kenyon first saw the units in action at one of Robe's The Future is Digital roadshows in London, which he attended along with moving light operator and Catalyst (digital media server) programmer Roger Williams at the behest of Lee House from AC Video.

After this, Kenyon decided that he could make good use of six DigitalSpot 7000DTs to illuminate and add extra treatments to the dancefloor of Studio TC1 at the BBC's Wood Lane HQ in West London.

The DT7000s were rigged 12m up in the roof of the studio and run via ArtNet protocol back to a CompuLite Vector console in the control room, operated by Roger Williams (for the Final) and Dave Bishop (the Xmas Speci

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UK - Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights, was celebrated from 22-29 December with a giant Menorah (9-candle candelabra) standing 9.5m high in London's Trafalgar Square. Designed in 2007 by Mendy Levy and built by Metallica, the Menorah had been lit last year with a temporary LED installation for the first night only.

This year, the Star Events Group had been tasked with modifying the structure for an easier install and removal, and to create a new base which would house permanently installed, upward-facing LED lighting. Their main lighting supplier, Paul Jones of Ethix Management, approached Ambient for an LED lighting solution. Ambient's Tony Kingsley proposed the relatively new AVR Osiris 48, which due to its compact size would just fit into the new Menorah base, and following a trial at Star Events, six of the Osiris units were ordered from Ambient. These were the IP65 48

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Indochine X PixMob Fan Immersion

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's - 40 thousand LED pixels on a ceiling!!! Indochine's whirlwind tour transports fans to another level of the live experience - immersing them from floor to ceiling with PixMob's X4 wristbands, and an LED ceiling made entirely of its NOVA Minis! With the vision of Indochine's creative team, PixMob used its LED fan-technology to turn attendees and venues into an ocean of effects, and a starry sky of LED magic. Très très cool!

Read more about the Indochine tour in the latest issue of LSi

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USA - When Nissan unveiled its all-new 370Z sports car at the LA Auto Show, the company wanted to create a roar, since this marked the first major overhaul of the 'Z' since 2003. The revamped roadster was given centre stage in the company's booth, featured on a turntable under a circular canopy of bright, colour-changing lights.

Lightswitch, which designed the lighting in the Nissan booth, used Elation Professional's Impression RGB LED compact moving head fixture to spotlight the 370Z. Additionally, Lightswitch chose another Elation light to illuminate the rest of the booth, the Design Par 575D, a DMX-compatible discharge moving head fixture with a par reflector.

According to Lightswitch principal Chris Medvitz, auto shows present unique lighting challenges. The Elation products, he said, helped his company meet the design and technical requirements of its client George P. Joh

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Sweden - Lab.gruppen has announced its acquisition of the Lake trademarks and the exclusive rights for use of Dolby Lake Processor (DLP) technology for both touring and permanent sound reinforcement markets, from Dolby Laboratories.

The technology currently referred to as 'DLP technology' as used in the PLM Series will, in the future, be called 'Lake technology or Lake Processing'. The Dolby Lake Controller (DLC) PLM Edition software will be forthwith known as 'Lake Controller software' as new versions of the software are expected to be compatible with both the stand alone DLPs as well as the PLM Series products.

Lake technology is used in several successful products including the original Lake products, Mesa Quad EQ and Contour; the Dolby Lake Processor from Dolby Laboratories and the PLM Series Powered Loudspeaker Management systems. Specifically, this agreement allows Lab.

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USA - For the fifth time in as many years, Texas-based LD Systems travelled to Las Vegas in December for the 49th annual Wrangler National Finals Rodeo (WNFR), a 10-day event many consider the Super Bowl of rodeo. LD has partnered with the WNFR since 2004 as the event's exclusive light and stage producer. 2007 marked the first year that LD also supplied sound reinforcement for the event.

Last year, LD used an Electro-Voice XLC rig to provide coverage at the 18,500-seat Thomas and Mack Centre on the campus of the University of Nevada Las Vegas. This year the WNFR returned to the Thomas and Mack Centre, and so did LD Systems' XLC rig.

The system, comprising XLC127DVX cabinets and XLC215 subs in two-over-six combinations, was deployed in four arrays surrounding the arena's central scoreboard and video wall.

Robert Ausmus, director of production services, LD Systems, reports, &q

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UK - City Theatrical has announced three training days for January and February in the UK. They are: Wednesday 21 January at White Light in Wimbledon, London SW19; Wednesday 28 January at White Light's West End office on Shaftesbury Avenue, London., and Friday 20 February at AC Entertainment Technologies North in Leeds.

The training will focus on the use of SHoW DMX, City Theatrical's wireless DMX system. The sessions will be 'hands on' and topics covered will include: Setting up a wireless DMX system, Advantages (and disadvantages) of wireless DMX, Avoiding other wireless users to reduce interference, Use of directional antenna to improve range and reception, Art-Net and SHoW DMX and Remote Device Management (RDM) using SHoW DMX.

There will also be a first chance to see other new products launched for 2009, and other existing City Theatrical products.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Elton John kicked off his Red Piano tour in the UK at Birmingham's National Indoor Arena, with lighting designer Kevin Bye operating the show using a grandMA console. Tim Routledge of grandPA - a new programming, training and control supply house dedicated to the MA Lighting platform - was brought in to assist Bye in programming the desk during the very short rehearsal period at Lite Structures' facility in Wakefield.

The tour is carrying two grandMA full-size consoles - one live and one for backup - and four MA NSPs, with the whole control system run on PRG's new fibre optic looms.

PRG's control systems engineer Gordon Torrington is overseeing all the FOH elements of the tour. All lighting kit is being supplied to the tour by PRG,

(Jim Evans)

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Germany - Meyer Sound has added welcomes Jan Frederick Christoph Meyer aka Freddy to its European Technical Support team. "I am happy about becoming a part of the Meyer Sound family and joining the European Tech Support team," says Meyer. "I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to participate in many different productions with Meyer Sound's versatile and reliable gear. This experience will allow me to support Meyer Sound customers and provide the level of service the company is known for."

More recently with Munich-based technical event supplier, Gerhofer, Meyer brings to the company experience in rigging, lighting, pyrotechnic and laser techniques and a keen understanding of Meyer Sound products, as well as IT and digital networks. He studied communications engineering at University of Applied Sciences Cologne and is currently finishing his Bachelor Prof

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UK - Two Catalyst digital media servers are being used to great effect on the Kings of Leon Only By The Night tour in an integrated visuals show created by live visuals director Phil Haynes, lighting co-designer/director Ali Bale, creative designer & co-LD Paul Normandale and live video director Phil Woodhead.

The Catalysts - running a pre-release version of the latest V4.2 software which gives 10 submixes on 16 layers - are outputting the nine-camera IMAG mix and assorted playback content to 1000 tiles of Barco MiTrix screen and 270 Element Labs VersaTube HDs.

These latest spec Catalyst machines were supplied by Catalyst's UK distributors Projected Image Digital (PID) to the tour's UK & European lighting contractors Lite Alternative. They are fitted with two Apple MAC 3.2 GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon processors, 4GB RAM, an 8800 Graphics card, 128GB Solid State Drives and

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Dubai - IIR Exhibitions has pledged greater focus on the Install market - in both the Commercial and Residential sectors - for PALME Middle East 2009.Exhibition director, Alex Heuff, has confirmed that a dedicated Install Middle East vertical show will provide the hub of this year's show on April 26-28 2009 at the Dubai International Exhibition Centre. As part of the continuing evolution of the PALME brand, Install Middle East will have its own dedicated space and entrances, and will host more than 150 exhibitors. The show will also feature for the first time an Integrator Pavilion, which will allow up to seven of the region's major project consultants and installers to show their portfolios.

Heuff states: "The Pavilion is specifically for regional systems integrators and is aimed at attracting the property developers and consultants who work with them.

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UK - Set up by the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), the Digital Lab is a new £50 million facility at the University of Warwick in Coventry, designed as a high-quality research environment.

Its mission is to become the world's first multi-disciplinary centre, enabling leading digital experts to come together and deliver research, which can impact on all sectors of the economy. The Lab will initially focus on Digital Healthcare, Digital Manufacturing and Service, promoting innovation and boosting research opportunities between academics and user organisations.

The facility provides end-to-end hi-definition quality using native HD projectors from Christie, while site wide AV distribution through an access grid is central to the design of system integrators, Pure AV.

"The fact that we already had a good working relationship with WMG probably helped," said direc

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France - The town of Asnières sur Seine just outside Paris has decided upon a new Innovason Sy80 digital mixing console to complete its AV inventory.

Thierry Plenier, who runs the AV department with department head William Baruch, comments: "I was fascinated by the Muxipaire (digital snake) when it first came out, and when we bought our first digital console in 2002, if I'd had the budget, I'd have bought a Compact Live. As it was, we went for another solution, which has served us well until now, but we are reaching the ceiling of its limitations in terms of mix capacity, and our analogue console just doesn't offer us the flexibility we need to handle monitors."

Regarding the Sy80, Plenier notes: "From a technical point of view, first and foremost, the sound quality is excellent. Secondly, to our huge delight, you don't have to configure your patch to the conso

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UK - London-based Insync Productions provided all technical design, equipment and staging for a recent private event at the Dorchester Mayfair, using a combination of their Martin Audio W8LM/W8LMD line array, WMX and WS218X subs, W8VDQ differential dispersion enclosure and LE12JB stage monitors. They also provided Martin Audio's Blackline F12s and S218 subs for coverage in the purpose-built nightclub, annexed off the main ballroom.

With an artist roster headed by Girls Aloud and Katherine Jenkins, and also including Ian Waite and Camilla Dallerup from Strictly Come Dancing, the Band of the Scots Guards, Corolla and Rhydian Roberts, the production values had to meet top concert spec.

Commissioned by party planners Jamie Walters & Co, Insync Productions' managing director Scott Tompkins said: "We always try and set high production values, whatever the event, and for

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Live in the USA - Beyonce, U2 and Bruce Springsteen are among the musicians who have signed up to perform at an inaugural celebration for US President-elect Barack Obama. Stevie Wonder, Usher, Mary J Blige and Sheryl Crow are also scheduled to perform at the event on 18 January at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. Historical passages will also be read by singer Queen Latifah and actors Jamie Foxx and Denzel Washington. Mr Obama, who will be sworn in on 20 January, is expected to attend.

Executive producer of the show, George Stevens Jr, said he was taken by surprise by the eagerness of stars to perform once he was given the go-ahead by the Presidential Inaugural Committee. "On that first day, we asked Springsteen, Bono and Garth Brooks within a period of 45 minutes and got three 'yeses'," Stevens told the Associated Press. The artists have been asked to perform so

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South Africa - ETC's sub Saharan distributor, T&A Lighting/Prosound hosted the region's first Ion control desk workshops in South Africa earlier this month. Held at the Market Theatre cultural complex in Johannesburg, the session was conducted by ETC product trainer Dave Whitehouse, with the heads of lighting for both the Market Theatre and the Civic Theatre in attendance with six other board operators. Market Theatre personnel were so impressed that they have specified the desk for a production in January.

Since its launch in South Africa, Ion systems have been installed at Durban City Hall, Port Elizabeth Opera House and TV station M-Net.

(Jim Evans)

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Korea - Audiences attending the production briefing and casting announcement for the Korean musical, Dreamgirls at the Seoul Plaza Hotel recently, were treated to transparent sonic clarity - due to the use of a premium sound reinforcement system from QSC Audio.

The company's Korean distributor, Sama ProSound, provided a matched, end-to-end solution, using advanced QSC line array technology, amplifier and network audio control.

The Korean version of the musical is co-production between OD Musical Company, headed by Shin Chun-soo, and American producer John F. Breglio.

To match the importance of the occasion, Sama ProSound supplied a WideLine-8 system comprising 12 x WideLine 3082 enclosures, four WL212-sw and two WL218-sw subs - powered by 12 of QSC's new PL380 and four PL340 PowerLight 3 amplifiers, with a DSP322ua digital network device. The rig was under the managem

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UK -Will Young recently completed a British tour reinforced by Butterfly Outline arrays, supplied by London rental company Britannia Row Productions.

Sound reinforcement on the tour featured an audio system comprising 32 Outline Butterfly CDH 483 Hi-Pack modules and eight Subtech 218s, powered by Outline T9 amplifiers.

The audio technicians on the tour were Davide Lombardi (System Engineer) and Gary Bradshaw.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - Something to bear in mind before you make any last-minute arrangements to visit the NAMM show this month (and no, it's nothing to do with that ESTA!) . . .

Following amendments to the US's Visa Waiver program, all tourists or business visitors to the United States from Visa Waiver countries are now required to apply for approval from the Electronic System for Authorisation of Travel (ESTA) prior to travel. The new system came into effect yesterday, 12 January 2009. From now on, anyone without an ESTA approval will not be allowed to enter the US.

The application can be made from the website below; successful applicants should receive authorisation within 72 hours, and the approval will remain valid for two years, or until your passport expires, whichever is first . . .

(Lee Baldock)

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South Africa - Johannesburg-based Sound Stylists supplied Robe moving lights for LD Andre Rossouw from SABC's Air Time for his design at the Highway Africa Digital Journalism Awards. The 2008 event was staged at the Guy Butler Theatre on the campus of Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa, also broadcast live on SABC International.

The 36 Robes - a combination of ColorSpot and ColorWash 700 and 575E ATs - were at the core of the rig. They were all hung off the theatre's over-stage fly bars, with the 700s rigged on the downstage bars and used for stage washes. Eight of the ColorWash 575E ATs were positioned on the floor, with the rest in the overhead rig.

Sound Stylists also supplied AV, rigging and crew for the Awards, run in conjunction with a conference and hosted for the eleventh year by Rhodes University, sponsored by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC

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Argentina - Fixtures from PR Lighting dominated the stage when the Argentine Magazine Awards were held recently at the Salon de Convenciones Metropolitano, in the city of Rosario.

In fact Pablo and Néstor Deligio, who run Deligio Iluminaciòn - the company responsible for the production - used exclusively PR Lighting pieces, as the country's most important artists were honoured.

Altogether, 36 x PR XL 700 spots, 12 x PR Wash 1200, 12 x PR 575 spots, 8 x PR Design 250s - and an Orland Follow 1200 were woven into Néstor Deligio's lighting design. These were controlled from two Avolites Pearl 2008 consoles.

Pablo Deligio commented: "We are consistently impressed with the performance of the XL700 moving head in particular - it meets all our requirements in the professional sector. We have been very surprised and impressed by the quality of the XL range

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