Lighting

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Poland - Telewizja Polska (TVP SA) which is one of the largest stations in Europe has invested in a variety of lighting equipment by ETC. Impressed by the calibre of lighting control on the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest, which was done with four ETC Congo consoles, TVP decided to acquire its own Congo.

According to Janusz Plewin'ski, the general lighting operator for TVP in Poznan, "Congo is a good choice for mid- to large-sized studios, particularly because the console doesn't use a touchscreen. Its versatile faders and keys allow quick shortcuts to help lighting designers keep up with the busy world of broadcasting."

Congo's 'zoomable' channel views are another helpful feature for television studios, as well as the zoomable Channel Layout function that allows users to draw their own live displays using standard channel symbols or icons. TVP technicians apprec

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USA - Wybron has appointed Bryan Steele as Northeastern regional sales manager for the company. Steele replaces Miles Dudgeon who previously held the position and was promoted to director of marketing at Wybron.

Prior to joining Wybron, Steele was the Rosco Laboratories account executive in charge of covering the northeastern United States. He is currently an artist in residence at the University of New Haven.

"Bryan is a terrific salesperson, well-known and liked in our industry," said Larry Turner, CEO of Wybron. "Many of our dealers have written me to congratulate us on hiring him and tell us how much they look forward to working with him as he transitions to Wybron. Additionally, Bryan's background as a lighting designer really gives him a clear understanding of our clients needs."

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Research for the proposed National Skills Academy for the Creative and Cultural Industries suggests that current and projected growth in live entertainment will generate demand for an extra 10,000 skilled offstage and technical staff over the next decade. And with half of the current workforce expected to retire or leave the industry by 2017, the total estimated number of recruits required rises to around 30,000.

Major employers in the theatre, live music and events industries already report serious difficulties recruiting qualified and experienced professionals in a wide range of disciplines including lighting, sound, stage controls and specialist backstage support staff.

Since January 2007, more than 300 individuals and organisations - including employers, trade bodies and freelancers - have been consulted on the Skills Academy proposal being developed by Creative & Cul

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USA - It's rodeo time in Texas, and MA's grandMA made its debut at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo where two consoles were used to control the main and perimeter lighting rigs for star turns by leading performers.

"What's unique about this show is that you're dealing with 20 performing artists in 20 days," notes LD Systems' John Dickson, who handled all the overhead stage lighting. "And that means 20 different lighting designers. They don't run the board; they give you ideas to translate. The challenge is coming up with different looks using exactly the same rig every night.

The grandMA is really fluid, and its timecode is totally cool. Two shows were done to timecode: the National Anthem and a multimedia presentation honouring the volunteers and featuring a brief history of the rodeo. The grandMAs took the timecode feed better than any other system I've used

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UK - SPS has just completed its work for the Institute of Directors Annual Conference, a one day event that featured presentations by high profile business leaders at London's Royal Albert Hall.

SPS has worked on the IoD flagship event for four years and utilised its extensive experience to design and construct the impressive stage set. SPS used LED screen technology both as a graphic display and a powerful lighting source. This allowed the 2,500 company directors attending the event a clear view of the stage. These LED screens coupled with two large video projection screens created a dramatic stage set. SPS's creative team also produced the graphics and visual content.

The theme of this year's event was Success in a Challenging World. It examined topics such as the rapidly expanding European Union, globalisation of markets and environmental issues. Key note speakers in

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Denmark - Martin Professional's Stagebar 54 is a compact, powerful LED luminaire with a comprehensive colour range, all-in-one simplicity and a tough temperament for the touring market. It functions as a pixel bar for displaying imagery and video or as a wash luminaire for floodlighting surfaces and stages, says the company.

The Stagebar 54 is bright enough to be matched with other light sources. With five coloured diodes (Red, Green, Blue, Amber and White), instead of the usual three, the Stagebar 54 offers a broad range of colors. Lens options include a 29° standard lens or opaque diffuser.

A central feature of the Stagebar 54 is the ability to create even and consistent colours. Each pixel board has been measured and calibrated, "guaranteeing standardized brightness and colour performance".

To ensure the best possible lumen performance, on-demand fans monito

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UK - Staging Services has announced the launch of its new LED, modular staging/dance floor system. It can can be used in conjunction with the company's modular staging system - Super Stage as a dance floor, lit fashion catwalk, stage or exhibition floor. Each LED tile is 500mm x 500mm and can be individually programmed to emit "thousands of colours, limitless sequences, patterns and basic alphanumerical characters".

If the system is used as a raised stage, handrails can be locked into the floor to prevent guests from falling and if it is used at a height of 150mm a bevel is locked into the floor to allow safe access to and from the stage.

As well as the full colour, LED system, Staging Services also stocks a stylish check pattern in black and white vinyl and traditional polished parquet dance floors to suit different events.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - The Grinnell Water Works building in Charlotte, North Carolina was the scene of one of the city's biggest recent mega-bashes, a Players Ball hosted by national recording artist Calvin Richardson and Vintage Productions. LEDs, moving lights and other special effects from American DJ and Elation Professional were instrumental in setting a partying mood, according to lighting designer Jack Kelly of Eye Dialogue Lighting and Sound.

"The biggest visual challenge," said Kelly, "was to 'orient the party', which encompassed two separate spaces - a VIP area in the building's foyer, and a large tent for general admission guests." With each space having its own entrance, there were four lighting zones: VIP, VIP entrance, GA, and GA entrance.

"The easiest way to orient a room is to frame the entertainment and the bar, the two most valued gathering points at

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UK - The seventh annual A.C. Lighting North event in Leeds last week (1-2 May) saw the biggest increase in attendance levels since the event began - attracting over 30% more visitors than last year.

Owing to a construction delay with the new bigger Royal Armouries Saviles Hall, the event took place in its original location - a move which proved conclusively that the show has now outgrown the venue and will need the extra capacity to cope with predicted attendance levels in 2008.

The event provided a showcase of over 70 leading brands for buyers in the Midlands, North of England and Scotland, and also served as a platform for many exhibitors to unveil their new products to a UK audience for the first time this year.

This year's seminar highlights included unique talks from leading lighting designers Bernie Davis and Andy Doig, PSA general manager Andy Lenthall, and Barco crea

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Sweden - W-DMX Generation 3 BlackBox units, manufactured by Wireless Solution Sweden, will be used to send wireless DMX signal to moving trusses and other equipment during the Eurovision Song Contest, staged in Helsinki this month.

W-DMX will control a total of six universes of DMX, including moving trusses containing Syncrolite B-52s and moving lights. It is also being used on a 120cm large prism mirror ball suspended from the ceiling, custom assembled mobile fog machines, and a Cyberhoist-rigged Fogscreen that descends from above the stage during the interval act.

The new W-DMX Generation 3 BlackBox has a high power radio output with up to 375mW and uses AFHSS and TDMA to avoid interference - even in a television broadcast environment loaded with 24 cameras and a hostile radio signal atmosphere.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - Florida-based Chauvet has entered into a licensing agreement with Color Kinetics Incorporated whereby Chauvet has access to Color Kinetics' complete worldwide patent portfolio.

Chauvet CEO Albert Chauvet said, "Because we have invested heavily in LED technology and because we strongly believe that it is the way of the future, we took a pro-active stance in approaching Color Kinetics and seeking access to their patent portfolio. "We are thrilled that we were able to come to an agreement that will help us consolidate our position as a forward-thinking, groundbreaking company while still allowing us to offer the value that we are known for."

"Color Kinetics is committed to enabling the intelligent LED Lighting market by granting access to the IP we've funded and developed for over ten years," said Bill Sims, president and CEO, Color Kinetics. "

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UK - Zero 88 Lighting is being used extensively within the UK TV production sector, reports the company. Zero 88 distributor Flashlight continues to supply a range of control products to a number of production companies. The largest is 3 Sixty Media, the company formed by BBC Resources, Yorkshire Television and Granada Television.

The current filming schedule at Granada's studios includes the remake of hit wartime sitcom Allo Allo in Studio 12 which is controlled by an Illusion 500.

Provision is the TV and Camera rental division of Granada, providing all OB facilities for 3 Sixty Media. Based in Leeds at Yorkshire TV, current shows being serviced include Heartbeat and The Chase, which are both controlled on their own Illusion 500 with dimming being provided by Betapacks.

Stewart Grant, operations manager of the newly opened Manchester branch of Provision

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UK - Stage Electrics training has recently become accredited to IPAF and PASMA, boosting the number of courses the company is able to offer.

IPAF's training objective is "to promote the use of safe working practices in the operation of mobile elevating and mast climbing work platforms and thereby make a positive contribution to the prevention of accidents".

In the early 1980s, PASMA devised a training course for users of alloy towers, now universally acknowledged as the industry standard, and so commenced a long history of skills training to make the use of access towers as safe as possible by producing many thousands of competent users.

The current Stage Electrics training programme now includes accredited courses, PASMA Mobile Access Tower training and IPAF Mobile Elevated Work Platform training (MEWP). The courses are a mixture of theory and hands on practical e

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USA - USA - Bandit Lites is once again working with ZZ Top - this time on the band's 2007 tour. Lighting designer Chris Stuba collaborated with ZZ Top's tour manager Pablo Gamboa, production manager Donny Stewart and Bandit vice president Michael Golden to ensure that the design coordinated with the band's image as well as the music itself.

Stuba chose Martin MAC 2000 washes, VL 3000 spots, VL 1000 AI, PixelRange Pixelines, Color KInetics Color Blasts and I-Colors, Martin Atomic Strobes and PAR 64s to light this show. Control is via one GrandMA and one GrandMA lite (Backup). XL Video is supplying the soft LED drape and interface.

"The pre-production of this tour began when I was out as the LD for Bob Seger, so on days off I designed the ZZ Top tour on WYSIWYG," says Stuba. "Troy Eckerman programmed the show on ESP."

(Jim Evans)

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USA - Martin Architectural heads to Lightfair 2007 with a pair of new fixtures in its outdoor Cyclo Series as well as new 1200 W fixtures in its Exterior range of outdoor luminaires. Martin will also be showing a new, playback controller optimised for Martin's range of Cyclo RGB+W fixtures. The Cyclo Series provides a simple dynamic lighting solution with a fluorescent linear luminaire that uniformly washes surfaces in colour and variable white light. The Exterior range of programmable, weatherproofed luminaires is capable of both traditional white light and alluring colorwash projection for dynamic illumination of a wide variety of outdoor architecture, says the company.

The complete Exterior range will be on display at the Martin Architectural booth as will luminaires in the Inground Series, FiberSource Series, Cyclo indoor and outdoor Series as well as Lightpipe solutions. Th

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USA - Production Resource Group (PRG) has named Mickey Curbishley senior vice president of its concert touring group. He will work out of PRG's offices in Greenford, UK, and Los Angeles.

Curbishley most recently served as director of sales at the Greenford location, where he oversaw business development and client support for concert tours and special events. He began his career as a lighting technician for concert headliners including Elton John, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, George Harrison, Frank Sinatra, Judas Priest, and AC/DC. He later managed the London office of Light and Sound Design (LSD), which was acquired in 1998 by PRG.

"Mickey has an immense amount of experience and know-how, as well as a great commitment to customer service," says Jere Harris, chairman and founder of PRG. "As our market continues to expand throughout the world, he is precisely the

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UK - The annual competition to select who will represent the UK in the Eurovision Song Contestant, Making your mind up, was broadcast live from the BBC's Maidstone Studios with all the fanfare and lighting extravaganza of Eurovision itself. With a line up of accomplished artists from groups like; The Darkness, East 17, Atomic Kitten and Big Brovaz, the show had the smell and feel of the big time.

Lighting designer Roger Williams set out to differentiate this year's live broadcast from past shows by moving away from a studio feel and creating a much bigger 'arena experience'. Set in larger studios with weaving catwalks and an impressive but concealed lighting rig of over 90 Martin moving lamps, he achieved just this.

Joining at the concept stage, Williams was also able to integrate lighting directly into the set design and worked with Essential to include over 60

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Slovenia - MK Light Sound in Slovenia supplied Anolis LED fixtures to illuminate the Vecronia booth at the Flora Fair exhibition in Celje, Slovenia. The massive annual show held at the Celjski Sejem features everything for home and garden, and this year attracted nearly 30,000 visitors over three days.

Vecronia are specialists in garden architecture. Their philosophy is that a garden is an extension of the house - effectively another room - and should contain a fusion of natural elements and high technology.Each year, in conjunction with the NBO group of companies (Nova Bivalna Okolja - New Living Spaces), they present many innovative and exciting ideas in the field of garden architecture.

Vecronia has worked with MK Light Sound (Anolis's Slovenian distributor) on several previous lighting projects. When MK recently showed them the Anolis range, the Vecronia design team realis

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UK - Easilyled.com has launched what it claims is the world's first 1 kilowatt LED fixture. Known as the KiloLED, the unit measures just 500mm square but has a punchy output equivalent to a 4.5K Tungsten source, says the company.

Designed to be a universal light source, it has applications for the film and TV market as well as theatre, and architectural markets.

"Our main motivation for developing the KiloLED is to provide bulk light output at a fraction of the power," explains EasilyLED's Chris Crockford. "The sheer light power coupled with the ability to provide full RGB colour mixing and individual component control, makes the KiloLED substantially different from the rest. It is not just another other LED wash light, the KiloLED is a 30 degree beam soft light, with 43,000 lumens of power behind it."

The KiloLED runs in two modes of DMX operation - wide

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UK - Geoff Buckley has invested in a new Avolites Pearl Expert console, which had its first outing on the recent James UK tour. This saw the original band, headed by front man Tim Booth, perform live for the first time in nearly six years - to great critical and popular acclaim.

Buckley has worked for the band for the last 18 years. They hit the road again after a substantial break, with a new album due out later in the year. These initial gigs were to test the water and interest in their loyal fan-base, which has very much proved to be still bubbling for them even after this substantial break.

Buckley has owned Avolites desks for some years and has always been a fan of the brand, and particularly a Pearl fan, right from the outset. When this came up, and he was asked onboard, he seized it as a great opportunity to test out the new Pearl Expert console. "It was the perfec

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Germany - The BoneyM musical Daddy Cool opened at London's Shaftesbury Theatre last September, with a lighting rig supplied by White Light. Now the show has moved to Europe, opening in late April in a EuropArena 70m diameter touring theatre tent in Berlin, the start of what is hoped will be a long, world tour. The tour has lighting designed by Rob Halliday, with equipment once again supplied by White Light, working with German supplier Racks & Stacks.

"When the show closed at the Shaftesbury, there was talk about the whole rig moving to Berlin," notes White Light's hire director, Dave Isherwood. "Ultimately that didn't happen because the rig design was changed to suit the much larger venue. However, Rob was keen to continue to keep some core elements of the rig from London, particularly the VL3000 and VL3500 spotlights, the DHA Digital Light Curtains and th

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USA - Nexxus Lighting has signed a non-binding letter of intent to acquire Advanced Lighting Systems, Inc based in Sauk Center, Minnesota. The transaction is scheduled to close on or before 31 July, 2007, subject to satisfactory completion of a due diligence review, approval of Nexxus' board of directors and other customary closing conditions.

"Advanced Lighting Systems is an excellent strategic fit with Nexxus Lighting, not only in terms of LED lighting/fibre optic products, but also with respect to technology and market coverage," stated Mike Bauer, president and CEO of Nexxus Lighting. "They have an excellent team of people and our strategy is to provide ALS the infrastructure and resources to help them flourish as a brand and accelerate new product development.

"Paul Streitz, the President of Advanced Lighting Systems, brings over 15 years of experience

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UK - Bloc Party's recent UK tour featured a Radical Lighting RADlite NG1 digital media server, operated by lighting designer Dom Smith. The RADlite was driving five 4m high columns of Element Labs VersaTILES (18 panels in total) which were attached to the front of five upright trussing sections standing on the floor. These were arranged in a gently curving semi circle mimicking the lines of the rear truss overhead.

The aesthetic idea behind these were that they would create a monolithic tower block feel to the stage - reflecting the slightly perturbed and harsher urban ambience of the new album A Weekend In The City. He also intended this architecture to physically enclose the band within their performance area onstage.

Smith specified the RADlite because he wanted a video element to the show and he thought the towers should come to life, and play a multiple role in the

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India - The second PALME India integrated entertainment technology show promises to grow by as much as 25% under the weight of the sub-continent's fast-developing infrastructure, according to the promoters.

Inaugurated last year as PALA India, this year's exhibition (4-6 October, Bombay Exhibition Centre) will be spread over 3,000sq.m of exhibition space and is expected to feature around 200 brands distributed across 115 stands.

This is the target for exhibition manager James Raffoul, who has been taken on by IIR Exhibitions to maximise PALME India's potential. Having previously worked on high-profile exhibitions for Brintex and Emap, Raffoul says he couldn't resist the challenge to consolidate an incipient event in such a fast-emerging market.

"The fact that last year the show attracted 120 exhibiting companies spread over 75 stands, with 2,500 visitors attending, indi

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