On the 28th August, PSL will be moving all of its London rental divisions (except for PSL Central) into new customised 70,000sq.ft premises in Potters Bar. The new facility has six loading docks, specialist-handling facilities, a customer demonstration area and purpose-built offices. The companies amalgamating under this one roof will be Presentation Services Limited, including Exhibitions and Concert Touring, PSL Multimedia, PSL Lighting, PSL Set & Stage, PSL On-Screen Creations, PSL Proquip and PSL LED Screen.

It is PSL’s intention to create a true rental and staging company offering customers a wide range of presentation staging services from one building. All of the individual divisions will continue to trade in their own right and be staffed with people trained in their own disciplines. The front-end project management team will have full access to all of the services suppli

The Cast Group, developers of advanced computer software for pre-planning and visualization of entertainment and architectural lighting, have been awarded the coveted Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Engineering Development. The presentation was made last night at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences 2001 Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony that took place in Hollywood, California. This is the first time a Canadian company has been awarded an Emmy in this category. Accepting the award for the Cast WYSIWYG software product were president Gilray Densham and vice president Rick Szijarto.

WYSIWYG is the one tool that allows all production people to see their ideas come alive virtually, in a computer-generated format. It enables users to develop lighting, design sets and perform blocking functions prior to actual production. The software does it all virtually, enabling producers and ot

Broadcast live on TSN from the TD Waterhouse Stadium at the University of Western Ontario in London Ontario, the Canada Summer Games Opening Ceremonies featured a wide array of lighting equipment controlled by a grandMA provided by Christie Lites Toronto. Lighting designer Adrian Goldberg's design consisted of a circular truss on legs at center field as well as a choir stage. Day time temperatures were upwards of 95°F, so setups were done overnight and run by head electrician Jeff Farrow and his IATSE crew. The grandMA console from MA Lighting was chosen to run the majority of the lighting for the opening ceremony. The main moving light sections of the show were the final dance portion, as well as a post-air band. Programmer Chris Newkirk (pictured) ran the grandMA for Goldberg: "It was a great show, and I had a lot of fun programming it on the MA" he said, continuing: "T

Stage Electrics has provided 50 tonnes of equipment to Sidmouth International Festival 2001. Stage Electrics production department supplied technical services to the 47th International Festival in Sidmouth during July. This continues a 27-year relationship with the festival, supplying power generation, distribution, site and production lighting and main arena sound. Nine heavy goods vehicles carrying 50 tonnes of equipment including 2.1km of festoon (3,400 lamps), 6km of cable, 350kW of lighting, 30kW of production PA and 920kVA of generated power was installed by 24 crew over a one week production build. The show ran for seven days with seven operators for both lighting and sound.

High End Systems' Status Cue lighting console will have one final software release before the end of the year, adding Studio Beam, Studio Spot CMY and EC-2 to the fixture library. x.Spot will not be added due to the board's technical limitations in running a fixture as complex as x.Spot. There will also not be any other fixtures added from other lighting manufacturers. Status Cue was introduced in 1993 and has been upgraded over the years with new software to operate High End's DMX-512 lighting fixtures and competing products until this year's release of x.Spot. High End officially discontinued manufacturing the lighting console last year, but will continue to support the product through its customer service department. Jeff Pelzl, manager of HES Customer Service, says: "We will continue to provide parts and service to our customers in a variety of markets who have purchased Status

Powerhouse Distribution is to launch a new fibre-optic material at PLASA 2001. Titled ‘Supa Brite’ the new fibre-optic cable is claimed to be the brightest solid-core side-emitting fibre available. It is clad in a special jacket that is UV stabilised so as not to be affected by direct sunlight and contains algaecides that make it particularly useful for underwater applications. It is available on rolls of 20m or 60m and the diameter of the fibre is 14mm. Powerhouse managing director Phil Parsons said: "It is quite simply the brightest fibre I have ever seen, I am delighted by the prospect of being able to introduce this exciting product into the UK market - you really have to see it to believe it!"

Supabrite fibre will be displayed on the stands of Ohm Industries (C28), and Dare Pro Audio (D36).

Lightmoves Pty Ltd of Melbourne, a long-established state distributor for Littlite in Victoria, has secured the Australian distributorship of Littlite products. Manufactured in Michigan, USA, Littlite is best known for providing illumination to most major brands of audio mixers, lighting control consoles and lecterns. Littlite is also used in automotive, laboratory and marine applications. Littlite product manager Joe Casamento said: "Initially we will continue servicing existing clients, whilst also pursuing new markets that will benefit from Littlite’s high quality range of products."

Lightmoves has committed to stocking a full range of lights, spare parts and accessories, and plans to set up a distributor network to support the product Australia-wide.

I-Vision recently supplied Fentura Production Services with lighting and lasers for an architectural illumination project for the town of Herne Bay in Kent. The high-impact event coincided with the launch of the two-week Herne Bay Festival. The lighting elements of the project were at its core, and included the linking of two sections of the derelict pier, lighting the shoreside Pier Pavilion building, and also a Saxon Fort - Reculver Towers - a short distance outside the town. The scheme was the brainchild of Herne Bay Seafront & Town co-ordinator Darren Simpson. Tim Matthews specified a 40W YAG laser to electronically stitch the two sections of the pier back together for this week-long lighting installation, which spanned the second week of the Festival. The normally darkened sea end of the pier was lit and highlighted by the scanning laser beams. Colourful architectural lighting for t

Self-adhesive product innovators LeMark Group, winners of two consecutive PLASA Show awards for its Blacktak and SlipWay Tape products, has announced a strategic alliance and working partnership with Scapa Tapes plc. Scapa is one of the world’s largest adhesive tape companies, supported by 22 production and distribution sites around the globe. LeMark will work with Scapa to co-develop, market and manufacture a specialist range of both plain and printed products for all aspects and areas of the growing entertainment industry. Le Mark and Scapa will jointly look to expand both their European and particularly their USA, Canadian and Latin markets.

Stuart Gibbons, LeMark’s managing and marketing director said: "This is an exciting collaboration, bringing together the entrepreneurial skills of Le Mark and the manufacturing excellence of Scapa, forging a global alliance that

Coe-tech has recently supplied Futurelight moving head luminaires to Hertfordshire-based technical production company Universal Events. Owned and run by Steve Butcher, the company has been providing sound, lighting and AV equipment and design for a wide array of events since its formation two and a half years ago. Universal services all its contracts from stock and doesn’t sub hire in or out. Butcher first saw the new Futurelight MH660 (spot) and MH640 (wash) luminaires in autumn 2000: the time was right for a moving light investment, and he sought a bright, reliable versatile fixture. The Futurelight 6 series met the spec at exactly the right price, so Butcher bought nine of each type in November 2000, and quickly followed up with another purchase of five more wash fixtures and six of the new MH860 spots earlier this year.

Recently, Butcher utilized his full Futurelight rig at t

Enliten has recently lit the statue of George Washington on horseback which stands outside Washington Cathedral in Washington, USA. The challenging brief was to light the statue, and nothing else, and the acute angle of the lighting posed the problem of light spillage. As a distributor for DHA Lighting, Enliten’s Paul Simson knew how the company’s products could be used to best advantage, and turned to them to solve the problem. A DHA line-up grid was projected over the statue, and used to calculate the distortion of the statue’s image caused by the positioning of the luminaire. Then, using Photoshop and Illustrator programs to manipulate the image, an accurate gobo mask was created. Fitted onto the luminaire, it was a perfect match for the outline of the statue, ensuring that George Washington was the only thing in lights.

The White Light Group will be returning to its regular location on stand F4, just inside the main doors of the exhibition hall. The familiar White Light bar will be back - and this year the company will be in party mood, as it celebrates its 30th birthday! It will be sharing the party with younger members of the White Light Group, including The Moving Light Company, The Service Company, Enliten, Modelbox and Colourhouse.

On show on the stand are a selection of products for which White Light is the exclusive UK distributor. This will include the complete range of Robert Juliat followspots, including the new Marius 1.2k followspot which is a nominee in the PLASA Awards for Product Excellence, as well as smoke and haze machines from Look Solutions. White Light's new adjustable and fully-rated LOLER Lighting Ladders will also be on show, holding the latest addition to The Moving Light Comp

PRG ran its annual Used Equipment Auction in July. The event, a joint effort between two PRG companies - Fourth Phase and ProMix Electrotec - sees hundreds of items going under the hammer. Fourth Phase inventory featured miles of cable, dozens of intelligent moving head units, and hundreds of Lekos and Par cans, while ProMix Electrotec offered professional sound reinforcement mixing consoles, power amplifiers and loudspeaker systems. Bill Groener, north-east regional vice-president, told PLASA Media: "There is tremendous interest in professionally-maintained equipment that is being sold from our rental inventories. Intelligent buyers have figured out that they can stretch their budgets through the acquisition of this kind of gear. By turning over our rental inventory to these savvy buyers, we are able to purchase new gear to offer our rental clients." PRG is also running a used

On August 20th, TMB’s Los Angeles staff held a monkey installation ceremony to celebrate the signing of the lease on the company’s new international headquarters. As part of the celebration, TMB’s signature surf monkey statues were placed on the building’s rooftop, making the new home official. The newly-built headquarters is a 40,000sq.ft facility, overlooking the Hansen Dam Golf Course in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley. The building is located approximately 10 minutes from TMB’s current Burbank location. Over 8,000sq.ft of customized office space, plus training rooms and a fully-featured demo/showroom are currently under construction. The 32ft high shop area will contain over half a mile of small parts shelving, plus space to house over 1,000 pallets on a VNA (very narrow aisle) pallet racking system, using a digital, wire-guided forklift. Addition

NHL Hockey Team the Nashville Predators have purchased a Fat Frog console from Zero 88 through local dealer Bandit Lites in Nashville. Jimmy Corn of the Predators, whose home stadium is the Gaylord Entertainment centre in Downtown Nashville, specified the Fat Frog after an exhaustive process of looking at different consoles and decided that the Fat Frog "offered the best bang for buck" and "the most features in the price range". The console is running eight Martin Pro MAC 2000s, four High End Systems Cyberlights, a host of special effects and conventional lighting. The main focus of the effect lighting is pre-game and intermission entertainment, and for highlighting each goal when it is scored. A concern of Corn's and the rest of the lighting team was that their new console be easy to learn for inexperienced operators, but still be powerful enough to perform edits on

Victoria Park in Hackney, East London, exploded into life in June as legendary French pyrotechnic artists Groupe F performed their high-energy Garden of Light spectacle - with live fire and music.

The result was an unforgettable incendiary experience; Groupe F used the park environment as a backdrop, filling the surrounding space with sparks, flames, bangs and flashes - as well as a colossal jet-flamed Catherine wheel. Groupe F’s relationship to fire and ‘fireworks’ is certainly not a classical one. The show opens with an alchemist character,stoking and playing a ‘keyboard’ of fire - and just as alchemists changed the properties of real substances, Groupe F transformed fire into water for the finale of the 45-minute show.

Thousands crammed into the park to enjoy the two nights of free performance, part of the month-long London International Festival of

As one of Germany’s biggest distributors of lighting equipment to the entertainment industry, German distributor Lightpower handles brands such as Clay Paky, MA Lighting, Rosco, ETC, Eurotruss, Rainbow Colour Changers and Pulsar. The Paderborn-based company recently provided L&SI with an insight into its role in two very different projects in southern Germany.

Known as ‘the Tent Event’, the Zelt (or ‘tent’) Musik Festival (ZMF), took place in Freiburg this summer, for the 19th consecutive year, in the heart of a very hot and humid Black Forest. With more than 100 events spread over 19 days, ZMF has a diverse appeal, attracting around 150,000 people of all ages and musical tastes, from across Europe. It also has a strong family appeal, with a cosy beer garden atmosphere, and entertainments for children during the day.

Lightpower’s involvement, which

Firepower is the new Royal Artillery Experience, set in the historic buildings of the Royal Arsenal on the River Thames at Woolwich.

The attraction was designed by Event Communications, whose main challenge was to overcome people’s discomfort with the reality of war. They tackled this by highlighting the role in the fight for democracy and freedom played by the armed forces, especially the Royal Artillery, which has been present at all major theatres of war involving the British Army over the last 300 years.

The centrepiece of Firepower is the ‘ground-shaking’ Field of Fire - a spectacular multimedia presentation that recreates what it feels like to be in the middle of a real battle. On entering, visitors are surrounded by various pieces of artillery. Suspended above these are four 5m wide front projection screens. Projecting onto each screen is a Barco 6300 LCD Vid

The small Midwestern town of Carthage, Missouri, in the US, is home to a unique amphitheatre that draws tens of thousands of visitors annually.

When Samuel Butcher, the creator of the American figurines and greeting cards featuring Precious Moments and his sons Jonathan and Don decided to develop an attraction in their home base, they turned to a creative team that included the lighting designers of Nautilus Entertainment Design for their inspiration.

The ‘Fountain of Angels’ is an open-air music and water production featuring a plaza of large programmable fountains centred around 252 bronze sculptures - some weighing as much as 1,000 pounds each. The action centres on a fountain containing a water jet that shoots 75 feet into the air, surrounded by a cathedral arch and two foam jets that are smaller versions of the main water jet. The water is held in a 100,000-gallon un

Capitalising on recent installations such as the Core in Yeovil, The CC Club in Piccadilly, London and Toxic8 in Cambridge, custom neon specialists Simply Neon are expanding in several directions. Within the space of a month, the company has appointed a new general manager, moved into a new, expanded UK base in Staines, Middlesex, and is opening a European branch based in Portugal. Simply Neon’s so-far buoyant 2001 continues with the appointment of Phil Kendrick as the new UK-based general manager while managing director Tony Newman opens a Portuguese office, aimed at developing new market opportunities in Europe. Originally trained by Hoover as a toolmaker, Kendrick has enjoyed a varied international sales and marketing career spanning many areas including garden building and the surveillance/security industry. Kendrick comments: "It’s great to be onboard with Simply Ne

Lighting distributor Fourth Phase in London was chosen to provide additional projection equipment for what was the culmination of U2's Elevation Tour, which played to fans at the specially constructed 80,000 capacity arena at Slane Castle, County Meath, Ireland, on August 24 and September 1.

U2's regular show designer Willie Williams and lighting director Bruce Ramus worked with the band to create a simple background to complement the mega group’s performances. Working closely with head of projection Anne Johnston, Williams chose Fourth Phase in the USA to supply products for the duration of the world tour: initially the design used four projectors but, due to the greatly increased size of the audience at Slane Castle, Fourth Phase London was asked to supply an additional four projectors.

Integral to the production, the E/T/C Audiovisuel PIGI projectors were used to project abs

Four days of events will mark the public opening of the world's first rotating bridge. The Gateshead Millennium Bridge links Newcastle Quayside with the new arts and leisure developments on Gateshead Quays - including BALTIC the Centre for Contemporary Art, which opens next year, and the Music Centre Gateshead, where work has already started on the new international centre for music performance and education. The £9.7 million lottery-funded project will be officially opened on Friday September 14, the date for the first public showing of its high-tech lighting system. This will be followed by a weekend of unique live musical performances - staged by music north, the producing and presenting arm of Music Centre, Gateshead.

Announcing a UK exclusive distribution agreement, AC Lighting will use its presence at the PLASA exhibition to display the product range of leading German manufacturer, MA Lighting Technology Gmbh. MA Lighting will also be present at the show (J12) and in addition a private suite has been booked to provide facilities for in-depth product demonstrations away from the noise of the show floor.

Taking pride of place at PLASA will be the grandMA lighting console and the release of Version 3.00 software. This release facilitates advanced networking capabilities, including the ability for multiple operators to programme complex shows on the console and for full tracking back-up between consoles and replay units. The grandMA is the largest console in the range and harnesses the benefits of the latest technologies: a distinguishing feature is the three colour TFT touch displays with brilliant c

For the first time PLASA is running an on-site clinic at the PLASA Show to lend useful business support and advice to member companies exhibiting at the event. This new initiative, which will also see the launch of a new health-related service, is aimed not only at existing PLASA members, but also at prospective members who can learn for themselves the advantages to be gained from using PLASA services. During the course of the Show, representatives from the Association's range of service providers will be on hand in the PLASA Clinic to answer questions and assist members. Services available include the following:

Telephone Interpreting Service provided by Comunicado: interpreters specializing in over 100 languages. Cost is charged per minute, less than half price to PLASA members.

Legal Advice Service provided by Sherman Phillips: advice on intellectual property, contract, leasehold

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