UK - Following the success of the last PixelRange Workshop initiated by James Thomas Engineering a few months ago, another event is planned this week - again hosted by the STLD in conjunction with Stagetec. The event, to be held backstage at the National Theatre on Friday 22 July, is designed for LDs, programmers, artists, set designers and anyone else involved in lighting and the visual arts, who will get an opportunity to explore and learn more about LED lighting - the equipment, its uses, applications and control.

Featured sections will include the use of LEDS in 'lighting a cyc' with the new PixelLine 110ec batten, controlled by PixelDrive and Compulite's Vector desk. In addition, VideoDrive, the latest software from Radical Lighting, will be on demonstration as will the new PixelBrick, the PixelLine Mini Batten and the new PixelPups from James Thomas Engineering.

Start ti

USA - Production Resource Group (PRG) has announced new responsibilities for two top managers in its Los Angeles office. Susan Tesh, who has been serving as general manager of West Coast Operations, has been named vice-president, sales and customer service. Tom Sorce, formerly the company's vice-president of business development, assumes the role of general manager, Los Angeles, with primary responsibility for business operations.

"Los Angeles is one of our most important markets. Having these two highly skilled professionals working together as a team gives us increased capacity and flexibility to deliver the quality and attention to detail that our customers have come to expect from PRG - along with the quick turnaround this market requires," says Jere Harris, PRG's chairman and CEO.

Tesh has earned a national reputation for her work with live television production

Sweden - Wireless Solution Sweden AB has introduced a wireless DMX 512 Outdoor solution based on the proven technology of its W-DMX Black Box indoor model. W-DMX Black Box Outdoor is IP65-rated and works in any conditions from -20 up to +50°C, say the company. The unit is available in standard black, or custom-painted in any RAL colour to fit architectural design.

Black Box is delivered with built-in AC/DC that accepts 90-250V universal power supply and delivered with standard RP-SMA to follow ETSI and FCC regulations. With a different antenna the outdoor model is able to transmit wireless in line of sight up to 20km between transmitter and receiver. It is also possible to link a transmitter and receiver together to create a 'virtual repeater' to avoid line of sight problems, say the company. A complete set of accessories with different antennas and cables is available to compl

Switzerland - Circus Nock is one of the largest touring Circus Companies in Switzerland. Founded in 1860, the circus has been in the Nock family for seven generations and includes over 100 vehicles, 7km of cable and over 4,500 light bulbs. When looking for a replacement lighting console, the company opted for Zero 88: LD Stefan Ionut had been using a Zero 88 Sirius 250 for the last six years and was delighted with the reliability of the console. "The circus environment is very harsh, with a lot of dirt, a lot of dust and demanding touring schedule. The Sirius 250 never let us down," he explained.

However, with the addition of a number of Claky Paky Alpha Spots to the rig and an increasing number of high-risk attractions, Ionut needed a console that could handle moving lights and offer a full back up system - which led him to Zero 88's Frog range. Roberto Campana from Z

The Netherlands - Flashlight Rental, one of Europe's fastest growing entertainment lighting rental specialists, has become the first company in the world to add the new Syncrolite SXB-5/2 Xenon Skylight (also known as 'the B52') to its rental stock. Their first assignment is to provide some of the big looks for the current world tour by Coldplay for designers Bryan Leitch and Nick Whitehouse.

The latest addition to Syncrolite's Architectural and Theatrical Xenon Series, the SXB-5/2 is the most versatile, compact, powerful and lightweight Xenon fixture in the world, say the company. This fully automated/moving dual scroller architectural and theatrical fixture delivers 5000W of Xenon power for use as a long-throw wash or skybeam/spot. It allows a wide range of mounting options for flown and ground mount, and is ideal for concert, event, and architectural use. The unit is powered

USA - Country music celebrated its annual CMA Music Fest in Nashville, Tennessee with the largest lighting package ever assembled for this event. Headed by Ted Wells and Mark Carver from Full Flood, Bandit Lites was once again selected as the vendor for what is billed as 'Country Music's biggest party'. Bandit worked hand in hand with Carver, Wells and Production Manager Chuck Young on what was deemed the most successful show to date with America's premier country talents performing to record crowds.

Bandit's Vice President Mike Golden said "Working with the event production staff is a sincere pleasure and makes this event a yearly favorite for all at Bandit".

Four Semi's of Bandit equipment were delivered to this project and a partial list of the equipment provided includes 84 Mac 2K Wash fixtures, 80 Mac 2K Profiles, 72 Mac 600s, 40 Mac 300s, six eight-Lamp bars, s

UK - XL Video supplied cinematographer and visual designer Jon Driscoll with digital projection, Catalyst digital media servers and DL1 moving head projection for the musical, Ha'penny Bridge, which played a six week run at Dublin's The Point.

Kassan Productions originally produced the Irish/English love story and five years on and it returned to Cork Opera House for a technical preview period before moving to the larger venue in Dublin.

With a miniscule amount of rear projection depth, the original production made inventive use of projection for the main scenic and location elements, dispensing with the need for excessive amounts of backcloths and scenery. Back then Driscoll used Pani large format projectors and slide changers combined with an arsenal of traditional VSFX projectors and luminaires with animation effects.

This time he decided on a combination of high p

USA - Theatrical Lighting Systems Inc (TLS Inc) has appointed Tim Dillon as its new addition to the Rental division as project manager. Dillon has served three years in the United States Army and comes to TLS Inc already familiar with the Rental Division, having been a customer for the past several years.

While pursuing his education at Glenville State College, Dillon became a light and sound technician for countless musical and theatrical productions. After graduation he joined the Army and became a technician and performer in the 98th Army Band. In addition to his work with the Army Band, Dillon toured with the US Army Soldiers Show.

(Lee Baldock)

UK - Bandit Lites supplied production lighting and crew for the recent G4 theatre tour, once again working with Production North. Matt Jensen was the LD, Sarah Hollis the production manager and Bandit's Lester Cobrin co-ordinating.

Cobrin said: "After a very successful TV series and UK tour with X-Factor it was no wonder that the bands debut album shot straight to the top of the charts earlier this year. Their voices are so powerful and dynamic which appeals to a very wide audience. G4 are a completely different act to what is out there at the moment. I'm not in the least surprised this tour sold out."

Choreographer Gary Lloyd and G4's producer Ashley Tabor had initially come up with an asymmetrical stage view, which was then developed into a more industrial scaffolding based set by Production North's Steve Levitt. Jensen used the set as the starting point for his li

UK - TMC Ltd has devised a tricky design solution for the 900-seat auditorium at the Birmingham Christian Centre - an Elim Pentecostal church in the city centre - with the help of architectural effects provided by Lighting Effects Distribution.

Commissioned during the late 1980's the building's ceiling is split into awkward asymmetric segments within a polygon-shaped building. But the infrastructure had become tired, the sound element needed upgrading and a visual dynamic introduced.

TMC's hire department had enjoyed a long relationship with the church's events department over the years. The contract sales team were consequently introduced to the project, and invited to work with the client to develop the scheme.

It was evident that the existing low pressure sodium lighting, with its familiar yellow hue, was inadequate and TMC were asked to design a concept in which the mood

USA - Adding to Clay Paky's reputation for excellence on the Las Vegas Strip is the new spectacular, created by Franco Dragone - Le Rêve, at the new Wynn Las Vegas hotel and casino. This show features an array of automated fixtures from the Italian manufacturer and brings to more than 10 the number of permanent show installations that currently use Clay Paky equipment.

The custom-built 2,087 seat Wynn Theatre, which houses Le Rêve, features a one million gallon pool in its centre and a domed roof 80ft overhead. Lighting designer Koert Vermeulen uses 32 Clay Paky Stage Profile Plus SV fixtures, along with 13 Stage Scan moving mirror fixtures and nine CP Color 150E colour changing fixtures. "I'm an LD who designs a lot with gobos," said Vermeulen, "and Franco loves gobos on his shows. The Stage Profile was the only fixture that gave me two gobo wheels and s

UK - The innovative new PixelBrick is the latest in James Thomas Engineering's revolutionary Pixel range of LED fixtures. PixelBrick is available in two models - an indoor IP42 housing and an IP65 outdoor housing. Both utilize 3W blue and green and 1W red and amber Luxeon emitters.

The fixture's compact size makes it ideal for inaccessible places, and it's flexible enough to be used for curves, angles and corners. PixelBrick's silent, non mechanical additive colour mixing system is highly energy efficient for projecting colour, unlike the more wasteful process of filtering out white light.

It consumes just 48W at full power, easily displacing equipment running at 150W, whilst also creating up to 42 million potential colour combinations. It has a standard six degree beam and standard case colour is black. Alternative beam angles and body colours are also available.

For size-t

Denmark - Because rainwater can leak into the base of a lighting fixture and damage electrical circuitry causing all types of problems, Martin has developed the new RainMAC, a simple and effective way to ensure that the show goes on by keeping rain off your MAC fixture.

The RainMAC was designed with input from rental companies who are often in a situation where full protection domes are impractical to install, yet where rain is likely during the course of an event. Its development is an example of Martin's policy of supporting users by bringing customer initiated solutions to the marketplace.

A vital tool in the struggle against the unpredictability of the weather, the robust and UV resistant RainMAC is ideal for outdoor events. Easy to install, the molded compound plastic guard fits all MAC moving head fixtures from the MAC 250 Series to the MAC 2000 Series.

Easily placed o

UK - On Wednesday 13 July, David Caulfield, the UK managing director of Martin Professional, presented £1,000 to Lyn Paver, chief executive of the Devon Air Ambulance Trust at Stage Electrics, Exeter. Martin Professional offered Stage Electrics a sales incentive promotion for a two-month period in late 2004, similar to many promotions in many sales organizations around the country. "However, Stage Electrics does not incentivize sales staff individually as we believe it is always about team efforts," explained Linda Moore, sales and marketing manager of Stage Electrics. "Therefore we gave each of our branches the opportunity to win £1000 for a charity of their choice for the branch with the highest achievement over budget."

Exeter Branch nominated Devon Air Ambulance and set about winning the money for them. All of the Stage Electrics branches participated a

UK - ShowCAD will launch Artist 2005 at the forthcoming PLASA Show at Earls Court (11-14 September). The system incorporates many advances over the original Artist show control system, say the company, with features including video to DMX mapping as well as matrixing and macro features which are "extremely useful for LED programming". The system has been extended and can now control up to 32,000+ DMX channels. DMX In is also featured in the new version and MIDI, RS 232, Digital and Analogue input/output protocols are all employed. SMPTE and all types of timecode files from CD, DVD, avi, mp3 and mgp files can be read and synchronized to Artist cues and events. The system features setup wizards, powerful automatic scene generation functions, multi-media interfacing, WYSIWYG options and more, say ShowCAD.

Avalon New York City, Avalon Hollywood, Guru Valencia, Fabric Londo

USA - CITC has introduced a new haze machine - the Starhazer II DMX. The award-winning company, which has recently celebrated its 15th year, is best known for its unique special effects equipment, including the Little Blizzard snow machine. The Starhazer II, the company says, has double the output of the previous StarHazer - plus DMX on-board, superior insulation for whisper-quiet operation, cycle/direct/ remote operation, a seven-filter system, and a dual opening for wide coverage.

The DMX 512 allows control from a lighting desk, using just one channel. It also has a convenient 5-pin XLR 'In' and 'Send' feature for setting up other units on the same DMX line. Also included is the remote control featuring buttons which allow either manual 'on' and 'off' operation, or 'timed' operation of 0-60 seconds 'on' or 0-4 minutes 'off'. StarHazer II DMX also comes with a control switch th

UK - Metropolis AV has designed a colourful new architectural lighting installation, including some specially customized LED fixtures, at the new Sportsman Casino in Old Quebec Street, central London. Tucked away in a discreet street near to Marble Arch, the venue - a world class gaming facility - wanted something eye-catching that would distinguish it from the surrounding buildings and that would be an additional finishing touch. Exterior lighting was the perfect solution. In addition to conventional colour changing wall-washing effects, they also wanted a bit of movement.

Metropolis's Simon Harris and Andy Shelton thought laterally when designing the scheme. They asked their manufacturing division Met 3 to make some special moving versions of its TC12 LED spotlight, complete with 6° lenses. These are mounted within existing down-lighter fittings and fixed onto off-the-shelf p

USA - The new $2.7billion Wynn resort and casino in Las Vegas features an abundance of Martin Professional equipment supplied by Production Resource Group (PRG), say the company. The equipment appears in four main areas - the central outdoor feature, the Wynn Theatre, convention and meeting space, and a pair of high profile clubs. PRG was the lighting system integrator for all the theatrical and most of the architectural lighting systems on the property.

The centerpiece of Wynn Las Vegas is a 150ft tall mountain with a five-story waterfall that cascades into a three-acre, man-made lake. Unlike most front features in Las Vegas, however, the Wynn feature is only viewable from within the property. Mac fixtures works alongside Jem Roadie smoke machines and submersed LEDs as part of a multimedia light-and-water show that runs every 15 minutes. The fixtures include 23 Mac 2000 Wash wi

USA - Bonnaroo has been the top-grossing festival in the US since it began in 2002 and Bandit Lites has been lighting the two principal stages every year. Set in the fields of Manchester, Tennessee, some 60 miles south of Nashville nearly 80,000 music lovers descended for the annual three-day festival. The New York Times noted, "Bonnaroo, in just its third year, has already revolutionized the modern rock festival." In a special issue of Rolling Stone, Bonnaroo was named one of the 50 moments that changed the history of rock'n'roll.

Produced by Superfly Productions of New Orleans and Ashley Capps of Knoxville, Tennessee, the show celebrated its fourth year in 2005 with a line up of such notables as Widespread Panic, Dave Matthews Band, Trey Anastasio, Jack Johnson, The Black Crowes, Allman Brothers, Modest Mouse, Joss Stone, The Mars Volta, Kings of Leon and over 60 oth

The Netherlands - Luxeon LEDs from Lumileds have been used to light Stevenage Borough Council's new Customer Service Centre in a project that turns the entire ceiling into a bespoke luminaire that simulates the sky.

In the first project of its kind in the UK, Future Group Lighting Design and Light Projects, a certified member of the LUXEON Lighting Network, were briefed to create a welcoming environment for both members of the public and call centre staff, through the creative use of light.

To achieve this the architect Brian Martin designed a feature ceiling, consisting of a series of coffered arcs that conceal a specially developed light solution. Using white and blue Luxeon LEDs a colour changing effect that runs over the course of the day has been created, simulating the sky and creating a feeling of light and space.

Key to the lighting solution is the light source, spec

UK - Leading entertainment lighting supplier White Light has recently completed the supply and installation of a new lighting rig to Patidar House in London, the headquarters of the Federation of Patidar Associations, a Gujarati Hindu Patel community organization. Having completed demolition of their existing building in December 2003, the Association has been working since to complete a new headquarters incorporating a custom-designed performance space for their performing arts programme. The new space is of a proscenium arch design with a balcony on three sides of the auditorium, and with a retractable main seating bank to allow the creation of a flat floor area when required. With its seating in place, the auditorium can accommodate around 250 people.

White Light's Projects team, led by Roger Hennigan, became involved with the project through White Light's regular collaborato

The Netherlands - Now with two years of operational experience under their belts using IES sine wave dimmers, Het Muziektheater in Amsterdam can reflect on the technology's performance and economic benefits - benefits demonstrated in terms of silent operation and, thanks to no harmonic distortion, savings in electrical charges and lamp replacement costs too.

When Het Muziektheater commenced a major refurbishment programme in summer 2003, IES B.V. - pioneers of the advanced dimming offered by sine wave technology - designed and built special distributed dimming PowerBars for them, together with custom IES Matrix dimmer cabinets, all connected with an integrated state-of-the-art Ethernet communication system.Commenting on the choice of IES sine wave dimmers, Bert Pronk, theatre project leader and Hugo van Uum, head of lighting, said: "We were particularly impressed, not only

UK - Architectural and feature lighting specialist i-Vision has designed and installed a stylish lighting scheme at Bollicini in Chester - blazing a trail as the town's trendiest modern Italian restaurant. i-Vision's Dave Mackay was approached by Bollicini's owners Les Owens and Gianni Poletti to discuss the project. The new venue is located in a beautiful old listed Georgian building - previously a bar - which has been completely gutted and restyled into the ultra-contemporary Bollicini, a thoroughly 21st century take on Italian cuisine and ambience.

Bollicini means 'little bubbles' - and 'Fizziness and Fun' were exactly the atmospheric conditions the owners wanted to convey, explains Mackay. i-Vision created a lighting design and specification to match the owner's self-styled interior visions which feature tasteful blending of wood, metalwork, exposed brickwork and glass, plus

UK - Projected Image Digital, digital media and control solutions specialists - has supplied, installed and commissioned a customized version of PixelMAD software to playback low resolution video imagery across a massive LED surface at the Wynn Resort development in Las Vegas.

The LED fixtures are embedded in a three acre artificial lake. The PixelMAD system is controlling 24 universes of DMX and 4012 Color Kinetics' C-Splash 2 LED fixtures spread across the base of the 'Lake of Dreams'. The system gives eight layers of digital media playback and 1:1 pixel mapping.

The PixelMAD is running on a 2.5 GHz dual processor Apple Mac and all system hardware and software is specified by PID. The software is triggered via a GrandMA console. The GrandMA also controls other fixtures in and around the Lake including over 100 Martin MAC 2Ks, EC2s, Syncrolite 7Ks, Atomic Strobes, over 3000 D

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