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UK - A.C. Lighting has announced its exclusive worldwide distribution deal for the new TourSpot and TourWash moving light range. Delivering a specification which until now has only been available in top-of-the-range moving light models, the products set a new standard in affordable, high quality intelligent lighting.

Both the 575W discharge spot and wash models are supplied with quick-release fixing clamps, plugs, lamps and safety bond. On the performance front, both models have been put through rigorous on the road testing. Features common to both ranges include 540°/320° pan and tilt with feedback, strobe and dimmer. The TourWash 575 also includes a CMY colour-mixing system with an additional eight-way colour wheel; remote zoom control (16° - 28°) and a directional lens for beam shaping. Notable features of the TourSpot 575 include a rotating wheel with seven gobos, a remo

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UK - PLASA is emphasizing the importance of training development via the PLASA Professional Development Programme (PDP).The format for this year's education programme at the PLASA Show has changed to offer a wider choice with sessions ranging from technical workshops for technicians through to business seminars for freelancers and company start-ups.

The industry seminars have been expanded to cover a wide range of topics on current debates including 'Theatrical Fog - Knowing when Enough is Enough' and 'White Lighting versus Colour in Architectural Application'. Conversely the masterclasses will provide a forum for industry experts to share their knowledge. Speakers will include Brough Skingley from English Heritage on 'Lighting Up The Past - the Conflict Between Historical Accuracy and Modern Technology' and Bruce Jackson of Lake Technology on 'Sydney Olympics' Audio Design.'

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UK - Ray Balcombe has joined the ever-expanding Stagetec team as education consultant. He comes onboard just in time for PLASA and just ahead of the Slough-based lighting and audio sales and installation specialists' major move to Bracknell.

Balcombe was previously working at Redbridge Drama Centre in East London. As a specialist in theatre and educational markets, his role at Stagetec will encompass education, theatre and drama sectors, focusing on development and cross-fertilisation within these vertical markets. He has an excellent track record, having trained at LAMDA and worked on tour and in the West End with major theatrical productions including Billy, A Chorus Line, A Little Night Music, Hair and Godspell.

Balcombe has also worked around the world as a theatre lighting designer and as an LD and technical director for major corporat

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USA - Crown International recently announced that it has received ISO 9001:2000 certification of its Quality Management System. Crown president Blake Augsburger commented: "Our Quality Management System was designed to keep us on track as we develop and market products and services that are of the highest quality, and that exceed our customer's expectations. We have made it a priority to put this system in place, and to manage our business with a focus on quality."

Crown originally achieved certification to the ISO 9002:1994 standard in 1999. This new version of the ISO quality standard places a greater emphasis on top management involvement in the Quality System, as well as a focus on continual improvement. The company's Quality Management System will be re-examined every six months to ensure on-going compliance with the standard.

(Ruth Rossington)

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Germany - Eurogress Aachen, a purpose-built conference, theatre, exhibition and concert centre in the German town of Aachen, has recently replaced many of the luminaires in two of its theatres using stage lighting from New Zealand-based performance lighting manufacturer, Selecon.

The venue has up to 22 conference rooms, theatres and exhibition areas, the largest capable of accommodating 1,700 people, the smallest a mere 10, with a variety of different sized rooms to fit most requirements. Through its dealer Lucifer GmbH, Hagen-based Selecon partner RST Distribution GmbH supplied 34 Selecon Pacific 12-28°s, 20 Pacific 23-50°s, 30 Arena High Performance fresnel GY16s and 20 Arena PC GY16s.

"This was a significant order by a major player in the multi-purpose conference and corporate hire sector," said Christian Pies of RST Distribution. "I've no doubt that this i

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UK / USA - Barbizon Europe has been appointed as a distributor for Matthews Studio Equipment Inc of Burbank, California, USA. With offices and warehouse located just north of London, Barbizon Europe will provide an immediate resource for a wide range of Matthews' products. This complements Barbizon's already extensive range of fixtures and expendables for the entertainment lighting industry.

For over 33 years, Matthews Studio Equipment has served the international motion picture, television, photography and theatrical production industries with specialized hardware and lighting modification devices: the company supplied production equipment to over 53 countries in 2002. Matthews' grip equipment has won two Academy Awards for Technical Achievement and a 2001 NAB Superior Technology Award.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Television lighting director Mike Le Fevre is facing the interesting challenge of lighting two worlds - virtual reality and actual reality - in a new BBC3-commissioned television series, FightBox.

The programme, a collaboration between website specialist Bomb and television production company Ricochet Digital, mixes virtual (VR) and actual reality (AR) characters and locations in an entertaining mix of gladiatorial contest and digital imagination.

Although the television series part of the project is being developed at BBC Television Centre Studio 1 in Wood Lane, West London, the concept spans three multi-media elements. The first is a website that selects contestants for the show. Aspirants can construct their own virtual warrior and undertake tests to accrue points, which qualify the top scorers to 'play' on the show.

Secondly, there is the TV show itself, where w

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Australia - Compulite's new lighting control system, Vector, has debuted on one of Australia's leading live television events, the Logies.

A prototype of the Vector was seen at LDI in Las Vegas last October by Megan McGahan from the Australian television network GTV Channel 9. No stranger to Compulite, or to large-scale productions, McGahan spoke to network LD Rohan Thornton on her return and to Australian distributor Coemar De Sisti Australia (CDA), about the availability of a Vector for use on The Logies.

Compulite was initially cautious, as further testing of the system was still needed, but the company realized that there would be considerable benefits for the console's development cycle in being part of such an event. Following the decision to send a console and technical person 'down under', a duplicate system was set up at Compulite's head office in Israel, so that any

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Gibraltar - With nearly a million visitors a year, St Michael's Cave continues to be one of the most popular visitor attractions in Gibraltar.

It is situated 300 metres above sea level, in the Rock of Gibraltar, and has caught the imagination of visitors to the area since Roman times. The Cave was often reputed to be bottomless, or part of a link to Africa, 15 miles away. With a lighting and sound system in need of updating, the Government of Gibraltar issued a very broad invitation to tender, seeking ideas for the refurbishment of the lighting and sound systems - with a short 'day' show for visitors walking through the caves and an 'evening' show for special occasions. Since the Tourist Board of Gibraltar, which manages the caves and the project, wanted a single supplier and a 'turnkey' solution, audio-visual company Electrosonic was called upon to put together a team of specia

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UK - 2003 marks the 100th anniversary for West London's Shepherd's Bush Empire - one of the Capital's oldest and most established venues. L&SI reflects on a century of change . . .

Designed and built by Frank Matcham, the venue still retains the original grandeur of its early years. Situated on Shepherd's Bush Green, it opened on 17 August 1903 with its first performers - The Fred Karno Troupe - and continued to provide first-class entertainment with stars of the Music Hall and weekly variety performance and revues, until the 1950s. George Robey 'The Prime Minister of Mirth', Charles Penrose (of 'Laughing Policeman' fame) and George Formby all graced the Empire's stage.

It was sold to the BBC in 1953 and converted into a television theatre with classic shows such as Crackerjack, The Old Grey Whistle Test, That's Life, Hancock and Wogan all transmitted from the venue. (The cloc

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UK - A.C. Lighting's Projects division has completed the supply and installation of gallery lighting for the Natural History Museum's new T.rex: The Killer Question exhibition. The exhibition bases its killer question on new scientific evidence that suggests the T.rex may not have been capable of killing for food at all, but that it relied on prey already killed and devoured by other predatory dinosaurs. Visitors are given the chance to compare the red-faced scavenger T.rex with the more familiar, roaring and predatory dinosaur to make their own decision about how they lived.

A.C. was awarded the contract after supplying a cost-effective solution requiring minimal upgrading of the existing gallery fixtures to accomplish all theatrical lighting aspects of the brief. Throughout the build project manager Ray Dolby worked closely with the exhibition's designer, Trista Quenzer, to en

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UK - A large moving light rig was supplied by Norwich-based Viking Stage Lighting for an epic production of Jesus Christ Superstar, staged in Cornwall by Redruth Amateur Operatic Society Trust (RAOST).

The 10-night sold-out production ('amateur' in name only) was staged in a 1,200 capacity big top located in Boscawen Park, Truro, and featured five trucks of staging and equipment, a cast of over 100, a 12-piece semi-pro orchestra with considerable sponsorship and a budget of £120,000.

The event's technical infrastructure - including lighting, sound, staging power and distribution -was all supplied by Viking, who have worked with the Operatic Society on many previous occasions, twice on productions in the same big top.

Lighting designer Ian Leonard utilized over 40 Robe fixtures, including eight Pro Wash and eight Pro Spot 250s, with 12 each of the Robe Pro Wash and Pro Spot

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UK - Numerous companies in the industry are offering training, but perhaps one of the biggest run-rates goes to Martin UK, which, over the past 12 months, has run over 70 courses - more than a course a week. In that time, the company has trained over 350 people to service, repair, maintain and operate its equipment.

These courses have taken place in a variety of locations, including Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dublin, as well as at the company's base in Maidstone. The current training programme offers a range of 10 courses, principally covering service and operational skills.

Chris West, Martin UK's head of training, is employed on a full-time basis to organize and run these training courses. When he's not doing that, he's developing new courses to cover the wider variety of educational needs of the company's customers. Over the next year, Ma

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Europe - Arbiter Pro Audio has supplied Liverpool-based Adlib Audio with a large quantity of JBL VerTec line array elements for David Bowie's upcoming 'A Reality' tour. The tour kicks off in Copenhagen in October for a three-month, 14-country European stint.

Adlib won the contract after working with Bowie's FOH engineer Pete Keppler on the Eels this summer. Keppler specified a VerTec system for the tour after using it for the first time at last year's inaugural 'Move' festival in Manchester, which was headlined by Bowie.

Adlib was the first UK hire company to invest in JBL's renowned line array system back in 2001 soon after its launch. Since then, it's been in constant use on a myriad of tours and events around the world. The latest deal, co-ordinated by Arbiter's Karl Bates, sees Adlib supplying 32 VT4889 full-size enclosures, 32 VT4880 subs, 32 4888 medium-sized VerTecs an

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Germany - For nine years now, in a factory not far from Leipzig, a company has been developing and producing stage chain hoists and chain hoist controllers that have come to represent the excellence of German manufacturing in theatres and entertainment complexes all over the world.

The ChainMaster story began with a request for help from the theatrical world. The need was for an electric chain hoist conforming to the VBG-70 standard which was in force at the time. (VBG is an accident prevention and insurance organization, and VBG-70 was drawn up to improve standards of safety in venues). At the time, there was no equivalent electric chain hoist system on the market, so ChainMaster's managing director, Frank Hartung, who founded the business along with his wife, Susanne, recalls: "That was all the incentive our team needed to develop the requisite system."

In the spri

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UK - Here, as promised last month, we round-up some of the main highlights of our industry's contribution to this year's Glastonbury Festival.

- Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage has traditionally been equipped with Turbosound Flashlight systems, but this year, in a major departure for the organizers, SSE Hire provided one of the world's largest Nexo GEO T Tangent Array systems. Nearly 100 GEO T4805 cabinets were used, configured with two far-field arrays of 24 cabinets each (25m offstage each side) and two near-field arrays of 11 cabs flown from SSE's Teepee structures, each about 7m offstage. There was also a centre array of six T4805s for centre image/near-field, and two field delays (eight cabinets each) 130m down-range from the system. Camco Vortex amplifiers powered the whole system. SSE's Chris Beale says they used 12 CD-18 subs per side, plus nine S2 subs under the near-field

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UK - Intrigued by the growing discontent in the industry that guerilla projection is causing, L&SI talked to players on both sides of the fence about the pros and cons.

Pod Bluman, well known for his role in several guerilla projects, doesn't regard guerilla projection as an issue, and he's not alone:

"We rarely get more than half a dozen or so onlookers, so there are never any huge crowds leading to problems. Most of the projections are of a corporate advertising nature anyway, so it's very rare to do anything that is truly controversial." It seems that the Police are fairly indifferent to it as well; despite a major security threat closing Parliament Square and Whitehall, Bluman and his team sat on an empty Westminster Bridge merrily projecting onto the Houses of Parliament without any intervention. "I have been searched under the prevention of terrorism act,

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France - As many will be aware, the French summer festival season was hit hard by industrial action. A series of strikes and walk-outs by freelance technicians and performers caused the cancellation of the arts festivals in Avignon and Aix-en-Provence, and the popular Francofolies song festival in La Rochelle, along with long-established dance events in Marseilles and Montpelier.

Activists also halted shooting of the new Jack Nicholson movie in Paris, where riot police also removed demonstrators trying to stop the Rolling Stones concert at the Stade de France.

The catalyst behind the strikes is the French government's decision to change the workings of the unemployment fund for theatre, dance, film and music professionals, which currently takes into account their time-off between shows. The fund is 825 million Euros in deficit and the government is now insisting that benefits

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Singapore - Two events aimed at theatre lighting professionals are taking place at Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay, Singapore, this October. The first Asia Light 2003, a three-day theatre lighting seminar for lighting designers around Asia, will begin on 13 October 2003. The Esplanade Technical Theatre Specialists Programme, an initiative to develop the local theatre industry, also returns on 8 October with a series of theatre lighting workshops.

Professionals from the theatre lighting industry in Asia will now have a platform from which to share information and ideas on their craft, and foster closer networks with other lighting designers when Esplanade presents the first Asia Light 2003, a theatre lighting seminar, from 13 to 15 October.

The facilitator for Asia Light 2003 is Francis Reid, a theatre lighting specialist with over 40 years of experience and author of the indis

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France - Following their show-stopping appearance at the Glastonbury Festival this summer, Radiohead went on to complete the European festival leg of their 'All Hail To The Thief' world tour.

Lighting designer Andi Watson had been keen to develop a concept that was practical to tour for festivals as a 'special', but which could also be incorporated into the lighting rig and visual elements as the tour developed. Originally, he thought in terms of a video-based solution, but this transmuted into the idea of having a row of colour-changing LED battens upstage, capable of producing a variety of spectacular effects, as well as introducing a layer of texturing and depth to the stage.

Watson researched the LED products currently on the market before deciding on the James Thomas Pixelline 1044 batten, of which 48 were rigged vertically, end-to-end on 24 Manfrotto stands. Watson reali

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Sunday, 7 September, 10.00am and the 26th PLASA Show has opened its doors to crowds of visitors at London's Earls Court. The new-look PLASA Show, with its stunning central bar and networking area at its heart, offers a wealth of new product innovations from the leading manufacturers and suppliers of professional lighting, audio, staging, audio-visual, communications and display technology. The Show has once again proved its reputation as the international launchpad for new product innovations, with 79 new products nominated for the PLASA Awards for Product Excellence and many, many more new product launches everywhere on the show floor.

We'll be keeping visitors to this website up to date with some of the highlights from London over the next four days, including the announcement of the winners of this year's Awards for Product Excellence on Tuesday evening, and a complete review of the

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Leading UK audio rental specialists Britannia Row Productions announced at the PLASA Show today the world's first order for the newly unveiled DiGiCo D5 Live FMX package - the complete, front-of-house and monitor digital mixing system as previewed by Brit Row on Robbie Williams' Weapons of Mass Distraction tour this summer. The company is also purchasing a D5 56EX console. Brit Row's Bryan Grant and Mike Lowe joined the DiGiCo team on the show floor this morning to make the announcement, along with suppliers LMC Audio.

The D5 Live FMX gives a full 112 mic inputs on stage, with a worksurface for monitors and a worksurface for FOH, both with their own local DiGiRacks. Three 150m drums of fibre optic cable are provided to allow for a digital split and full redundancy of your fibre multicore. The D5 Live FMX package can also be split into two D5 Live 56 EX packages, maximising rental flex

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DJ Sunday had the judges on the edge of their seats, and the audience on their feet for the Gemini 'Extreme V' DJ Competition at the PLASA Show 2003. Out of more than 100 hopefuls, three would-be champions emerged for the finals having won through the three previous heats. And when it came to the final scratch - there was only eight points in it.

The DJ Sunday's Gemini 'Extreme V' Champion 2003 is Derby DJ 'Angelo' (who previously won the competition in 2001). His accomplished 10-minute demo was in a league of its own, but that is not to denigrate last year's winner Adie who was invited to contend his title. Angelo decided to enter the competition again ' just for the crack and the fun of being involved in the competition.' However the surprise of the night was 16-year-old Jason Abel from Surbiton who particularly impressed the judges with his grasp of the equipment at such a young ag

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Mackie Designs Inc announced at the PLASA Show yesterday its plan to change its designation from Mackie Design Inc to Loud Technologies Inc. The change is intended to eliminate the confusion between 'Mackie' the company, and 'Mackie' the brand - as well as clarify the positioning for each individual brand under the now Loud Technologies umbrella.

Jamie Engen, CEO at Loud Technologies, said: "As the company has grown, it has become increasingly difficult to differentiate the corporate entity 'Mackie Designs Inc' from the brand 'Mackie'. The change will enable us to more clearly communicate within the financial and business communities while at the same time, allow the brands under the new corporate designation, Loud Technologies Inc, to strengthen their own unique identities and market positions. The transition from Mackie Designs Inc to Loud Technologies Inc will take place over a

  1. CKI & Altman announce agreement at PLASA
  2. SJM provides PA for Great River Race
  3. Merger creates new Events Group
  4. Loud Technologies to expand RCF as industrial brand
  5. Blackout in the frame
  6. grandMA on Ice
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