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UK - The third 2005 Scottish Lighting Show was another major success, according to organisers and hosts black light. The well-attended event was held on 23rd and 24th September at the Granton Lighthouse, Edinburgh.

"We had more exhibitors and a wider range of products than ever," says black light managing director Gavin Stewart. "This year's move to the Lighthouse was a major step up as it provided much more space, it was very visually pleasing and created a really good personal atmosphere."

Having previously been held at black light's own premises, the move to the nearby lighthouse meant that the company's day to day business could also carry on unhindered. "We had to run a broadband line from our building and miles of power cabling, but that sort of thing is what we do every day," continues Gavin. "The staff at the lighthouse were keen to h

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France - The 24th SIEL, France's leading exhibition for the live entertainment and events markets, will be held from 12-15 February 2006 in Expo-Porte de Versailles in Paris. SIEL has for two years now been offering shows on two separate floors: SIEL Live Entertainment and SIEL Nightlife.

"As a major gathering of the pro audio industry, architects and designers attending SIEL Live Entertainment will have access to all of the market solutions and be able to choose the right equipment for using lights or video to the greatest effect," says a spokesman.

SIEL Spectacle is also organizing a series of conferences dedicated especially to applying live entertainment techniques to other fields.

(Jim Evans)

ISE 2026 - Banner - Oct 2025

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UK - LD Andy Hurst specified 48 James Thomas PixelLine 1044s and 10 PixelLine 110s for M People's Another Night in Heaven! tour. The 1044s were arranged in four specially made frames each holding 12 fixtures and the 110s were used to upright a large silver upstage drape.

The frames were hidden behind the backline and then lifted into view half way through the performance of Open Up Your Heart for maximum impact. Hurst created a series of pulsing hearts across the PixelLine wall by first making the heart shapes in PixelDrive and then applying a zoom chase to animate them. The fixtures were then used as a high-impact effects surface, with Hurst crafting very specific PixelLine looks and patterns for each relevant song via his PixelDrive software.

All lighting equipment was supplied by PRG Birmingham and the crew were Nigel "Skippy" Monk (chief), Pat Fitzs

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USA - Stage Lighting Super Saturday, a full-day of seminars, workshops, and "inspiration" for stage lighting designers and technicians will take place in New York City on January 7, 2006 at Pace University's downtown New York campus, now the home of the Bravo Network's Inside the Actor's Studio.

Strand Lighting has announced that it will underwrite Ken Billington's presentation at the event. Tim Burnham, president of Strand says: "Strand Lighting is pleased to participate in Super Saturday. We are particularly honoured to sponsor Ken Billington's keynote address."

Pace University will host the seminar sessions in its Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts, opposite City Hall. The intensive programme will consist of a full day of training in stage lighting and equipment.

There will also be a manufacturers' showcase with technical personnel on h

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UK - Following the popularity and professionalism of last year's show, Stage Electrics once again worked with Dave Roxburgh and his team at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (RWCMD) to present the Stage Electrics Tradeshow in Cardiff on 5 October. This year there was almost a 40% increase in the number of visitors. The RWCMD Bute Theatre was transformed with the help of a team of hardworking students. The students' work is assessed and contributes towards one of four production placement grades for the second year of their studies.

Stage Electrics' major suppliers were on hand to demonstrate their latest products and services. Exhibiting at the show were Martin highlighting their new MAC700, Rosco / DHA whose stand was manned by Ron Knell and Steve Ramos on his inaugural exhibition for Rosco, Zero88, Strand, ETC, Pulsar, Selecon, RCF, Audio-Technica, Sennheiser, Lee Fil

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China - The 4th Music China and 3rd Prolight + Sound Shanghai open this Wednesday - 19 October - at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre in Pudong, Shanghai.

Music China will house around 750 manufacturers and suppliers of musical instrument and accessories. Prolight + Sound Shanghai, with around 170 exhibitors, will show a good range of pro-audio and specialist lighting equipment. Together the events are expected to attract well over 35,000 retailers, wholesalers, dealers, distributors and musicians.

Music China 2005 will house "the largest offering of musical instruments and accessories to be found anywhere in Asia". As well as national pavilions from Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Taiwan, Spain and the UK, some of the world's leading names in MI will be at the show.

Prolight + Sound Shanghai will feature exhibitors from eleven countries & regions, includ

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UK - Event freight specialist EFM, has appointed David Simmill as its new operations manager. Simmill, who has been involved with logistics operation for twelve years, is being brought in to support all four divisions of the company, working across the music, promotions, sports and exhibition logistics divisions to streamline current operations and develop new logistics channels.

Simmill's background includes overseeing a European network between 10 different offices, with complete responsibility for two UK offices. His experience spans air, ocean and road freight in the high profile automotive and aerospace industries.

"My move to EFM, as a company looking to develop, means an exciting time ahead," says Simmill. The diverse clients we work with, with a variety of challenges they each face put the company in a unique position to have the very best logistical faciliti

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USA - For the third year running, Los Angeles-based Visions Lighting helped create the party atmosphere for Spanish-language radio station Super Estrella's annual Reventón concert at The Pond in Anaheim.

Working with Reventón's lighting designer, Chris Reade, Visions Lighting erected an intricate overhead truss structure that dominated the look of the event. The lighting rig itself included 32 Martin Professional MAC 2000 fixtures, 19 Atomic 3000 strobes, 24 High End Studio Color fixtures, 24 Studio Beam fixtures and 20 Molefays.

Visions Lighting, worked around the clock for three days to make Reventón happen. Each of the nine Latin artists playing at this year's event, several of whom had their own lighting designer, played anywhere from a 20 to 50 minute set.

"It's difficult to describe just what Reventón is like for someone who's never experienced it," remar

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UK - AnswerBack Interactive, the audience interaction specialists won the Live Event of the Year category in the AV Awards 2005, through its work with Celador International on the Summer 2005 regional theatre tour of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? Live.

At the same event, AnswerBack was also awarded the Grand Prix - an award given to a project that delivers the best documented results to the user company, or shows how technical innovation can be best applied.

Guy Freeman, Managing Director of Celador Music & Events, said "We are delighted that AnswerBack won these awards for their work on this key project for us. They delivered to time and budget and provided us with an extremely good quality and cost effective solution that enabled us to launch a unique and exciting new product."

Paul Krisman, MD of AnswerBack Interactive, commented "I am thrilled to h

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UK - Electrosonic was awarded four top accolades at the 2005 UK AV Awards held recently in London. For the third year running Electrosonic was judged to be the winner of Systems Company of the Year and Service Company of the Year. The company also collected the awards for Business Installation of the Year and Consumer Installation of the Year.

Electrosonic's submission for Systems Company of the Year was based on the work achieved by its UK Solutions Business, which is a silver level CAVSP qualified company. Electrosonic Solutions divides its activities into a series of inter-connected teams covering sales consultancy, project engineering and management, systems assembly and test, installation, programming and development.

As Service Company of the Year, the turnover of the Electrosonic UK Service Business showed a 43% year-on-year tur

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Germany - Over 65,000 concert-goers attended this year's Popkomm festival in Berlin, where more than 1,500 musicians from 23 different countries provided over 400 hours of live music in 30 different clubs and halls around the city. In the thick of the action was the Berlin production company TSE AG: the team lead by Marcel Fery was responsible for both the lighting and the sound at many of the main events, including one of the real highlights of this year's Popkomm, the MTV Designerama Fashion Show.

The centrepiece of the sound design, for an event that received widespread media coverage within Germany and drew a large TV audience throughout Europe, was an Electro-Voice X-Line, Midas consoles and processors and EQs from Klark Teknik.

Commented Fery: "The extremely wide stage in the Berlin Arena held no terrors for the EV system, with its coverage angle of 120 degre

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World - The White Stripes tour has seen the minimalist rock duo delivering performances to sold-out crowds on several continents. Six years and five albums into their careers, the duo of Jack and Meg White show no signs of slowing down.

Detroit-based Thunder Audio has been providing the sound for much of this year's foray, based around an array of 24 Meyer Sound MILO high-power curvilinear array loudspeakers. FOH engineer Matthew Kettle, mixing the band on a Midas Heritage 3000 console, favours a stripped-down approach that calls for little in the way of effects, other than a bit of compression and a slight touch of reverb. Two LD-3 compensating line drivers provide system drive processing, while status of the loudspeakers are monitored from a laptop computer running RMS remote monitoring system software.

"The MILO rigs, in particular, have proved to be quite versatile,&q

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UK - The recent opening of Carling Academy Newcastle, extends Showsec's long standing partnership with the Academy Music Group (AMG), with the UK's leading event security supplier being confirmed to develop and manage the venue's crowd management plan.

Showsec has worked closely with AMG in venues across the country for many years, delivering tailored crowd management plans. With Showsec's Northern regional manager Mark Logan continuing the healthy relationship with AMG, Showsec developed the crowd management strategies implemented in the Liverpool and Birmingham Academy venues and have now adapted these to suit Carling Academy Newcastle.

Showsec has employed a team that combines experienced managers and newly recruited local staff who have been trained to work as in-house security stewards, with newly attained SIA licences. Logan commented: "There was clearly a lot of ex

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UK - Speakers at The Event Show which takes place at Olympia in London on 25-26 January 2006, will include the producers of Live 8. John Probyn, production director for Clear Channel Entertainment (UK) Music, will chair the presentation and field a question and answer session with the audience. He said: "I am looking forward to sharing with my colleagues the question I have been asking myself since Live 8 . . . just how did we manage to pull that off so successfully?"

The show will host nine seminars over two days, ranging from Reacting to the Elements, chaired by Roger Barrett, to a Spotlight on Local Authorities by the National Outdoor Events Association (NOEA). The Spotlight on Local Authorities seminar will include the implications of the new Licensing Act.

The White Book 2006 will be launched at the Show. With 40,000 listings and 470 categor

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Europe - By combining the best elements of one of the largest trade communities in Professional Lighting and Sound with Europe's biggest trade show in Audio Visual Systems Integration, Integrated Systems Europe and PLASA plan to augment their knowledge of AV Systems, Lighting and Sound to turn ISE 2006 into the most stunning visual trade event ever held in Europe, the organizations have announced.

This collaborative effort is the result of a joint co-operation agreement to establish a framework to heighten the awareness and importance of AV systems integration in the rental and staging environment by harnessing the influence and standing of a major trade show with the world-leading Professional Lighting and Sound Association.

To demonstrate this, PLASA, in conjunction with their publications Lighting&Sound International and Lighting&Sound America, will be organizing the Lighti

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China - China's third 'Love & Share' Beach Party was recently held at Haibin Beach, Zhuhai, using an Allen & Heath GL3800 multi-purpose live sound mixer and a Xone:62 DJ mixer to manage the numerous musical acts performing during the two-day event.

The party - a highlight of the National 'Golden Week' Holiday - was organized by the Zhuhai Tourism Administration, the Xiangzhou District Government, and the Zhuhai Broadcasting Station. The event attracted more than 20,000 visitors, who had come to see bands and DJs from Beijing, Tibet, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau, Australia, and USA perform a range of musical styles from rock to hip-hop.

Allen & Heath's Chinese distributor, Eastern Acoustic Development Ltd (EAD), provided the sound equipment for the event, selecting a 32-channel GL3800 for the bands, and an industry-standard Xone:62 mixer for the DJs.

"The 'Love & Share' beac

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UK - It is becoming increasingly common to find live CDs on sale at venues minutes after the band leaves stage, and FX Rentals has acted as technical consultants to the first British company offering this service, Live Here Now.

FX's technical manager Adam Pope worked closely with the live to CD company at its inception, recommending that the best way for Live Here Now to proceed would be to source a soundproofed, air conditioned truck into which duplication equipment could then be installed.

After further research, and to supply the required CD output, Pope also advised Live Here Now to invest in 50 seven-bay Magellen CD duplicators, together with a total of 14 Tascam CDRW750 and HHB CDR830+ single CD-R burners for creating master CDs, plus outboard equipment including limiters and compressors. Working in partnership with Will Shapland Mobiles, a Live Here Now engineer mixes

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UK - Dick Tee worked as production manager at The Baby Show at Olympia, designing and overseeing production of the exhibition's main stage.The Baby Show, now in its third year, brought together a selection of baby brands and products, mixed with parenting specialists and guest speakers to offer expert advice and fashion options for mother and baby.

Growing in size since the show began and adding a new city for each year it has taken place, this year The Baby Show visited Glasgow SECC, Birmingham NEC and London's Olympia. The live element of the show has also developed in line with the show's growth, with it now taking a 'main stage' position within the exhibition hall.

Creative consultancy Eight Freestyle managed the creation and choreography of the shows, bringing in production manager Dick Tee to design and oversee the production of the stage. The stage had to

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UK - Joint directors Paul Butler and Ian Robson have completed the successful purchase of Northampton-based full service AV company Mushroom Event Services.

"Mushroom has always ticked along quite nicely and we already had a very solid client base," explains Butler. "However, Ian and I realised that to progress things, it was necessary for us to have full control of the company."

The first contract for the new regime at Mushroom was the Marriott Global Pursuits Event, held at London's Grosvenor House Hotel, where they supplied all the lighting and technical facilities for the in-house client based exhibition. "We colour themed the room, supplied the sound system and specialist lighting, which was mainly LED, as well as a colour changing wall and a boat that was used for a feature area," comments Butler.

This was followed by the PLASA Show

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Italy - During SIB 2006, which takes place March 11-14 2006 in Rimini, leading entertainment venue designers will take part in a round-table debate with trade suppliers and manufacturers. The aim is to "analyse the transformation under way in entertainment and the evolution of the sector according to the experience of professionals who have designed Italy's leisure venues over the last 20 years". The gathering is running under the banner Where Will We Go Tomorrow Evening?.

Those expected to take part include owners and managers of Italy's major clubs, art directors, DJs, light jockeys, entertainers, PR staff and the key players in venues created by the designers, who "will participate actively in the discussion, asking questions and explaining their respective points of view".

A spokesman for SIB 2006 says, "An extremely interesting debate is pr

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The Netherlands - This November, Russian President Vladimir Putin became the first Russian leader to visit Holland in more than 300 years, and Mojo Barriers were contracted to provide the security barriers.

The two day official visit involved the Russian President visiting Amsterdam's Dam Square to lay flowers on a national monument and Zaandam's City Square, before moving on to the Royal Palace in The Hague. The following day, he remained in The Hague for meetings with the Dutch Prime Minister.

Mojo Barriers worked with (Amsterdam and Zaandam) City officials and police officers to create safe areas within the cities so that President Putin's safety during the visit was ensured.

Across the two cities, more than 1300 metres of barriers were used to seal off areas of the Cities to the public and there were twenty road closures achieved using vehicle gates. Mojo Barriers was re

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UK - Alton Towers has once again celebrated the end of season with three evenings of spectacular fireworks, lasers and special effects, and for the second year running Stage One built the huge supporting structure for the event's giant video screens.

The structure consisted of two 10 metre high scaffolding towers, positioned 18 metres apart and connected by a run of truss and track. Running along the track were six screen columns, each 1.2 metres wide by 6 metres high. The screen columns were directed by Stage One's Q-Motion control system, enabling them to move to the left and right in a pre-programmed set of sequences and groupings.

Marcus Exelby, Stage One's project manager for the job, said, "We can provide expertise and professionalism in abundance and linking that in with our unique Q-Motion control system really is a winning combination."Chris Foster, producti

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UK - Blackburn-based HSL supplied full lighting production and all lighting and video rigging for the recent Happy Mondays tour. This culminated in a massive sold-out late night show in Manchester Evening News Arena, taking the Madchester dance gurus back to their clubbing roots.

Lighting designer was Andy Liddle, who last designed for the Mondays back in the mid-eighties when they were supporting New Order. He was asked onboard to do these shows by tour manager Neil Mather. The tour was project managed for HSL by Mike Oates.

Liddle designed an adaptable rig based on four upstage/downstage 'fingers' of truss which were assembled in 10ft modules. This was for easy break down and installation into the smaller venues, whist still retaining the look and aesthetics of the stage. The fingers were raked with the upstage ends lower and the downstage ends higher points. At Manchester t

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USA - This year marks dual milestones in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for the 175th anniversary of the church's founding and the 200th birthday of its founder, Joseph Smith. Two of the most ambitious celebratory events were hosted in Utah, home to the church's headquarters, at the 11,000-seat Dee Events Center basketball arena at Weber State University in Ogden.

With a cast of over 2,200 performing in the round on the arena floor, the challenge for sound system provider Webb Audio Visual was to mount a system that could provide full, high-fidelity coverage to every seat without spilling onto the stage area and causing feedback issues. Webb AV's Scott Webb opted for a self-powered Meyer Sound system and cross-rented a MILO high-power curvilinear array system from Audio West of Yorba Linda, California.

From a technical standpoint, the show was distinctly diff

  1. Stars light up Liverpool
  2. Midas on the road with McCartney
  3. Capture Sweden showing latest at LDI
  4. Ice and easy with Stage Electrics
  5. Good old-fashioned loudspeakers
  6. 'Spirit of Nelson' lights up Trafalgar Square
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