USA - Nexxus Lighting Inc's Advanced Lighting Systems subsidiary completed a lighting project for the six-storey Elements Building, housing 7Stones Spas and Strega Restaurant in downtown Corvallis, Oregon. The Elements Building is silver-level LEED certified: LEED is a third-party certification program and the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. Corvallis was the first city on the West Coast and only the third city in the nation to receive the Green Power Community designation by the EPA.

"Advanced Lighting's eLum Cove RGB lighting was used throughout all three levels of the spa and the 2 upper levels for the bar and restaurant," said Paul Benton, regional sales manager for Advanced Lighting Systems. "Strega Restaurant, a sustainable restaurant and bar on the 5th and 6th floors, made extensi

France - Studio 8 of the Carrère Studios at La Plaine St Denis, Paris, has been kitted out with over 140 Robe moving lights at the request of DoP David Seligmann-Forest.

The all-Robe rig was installed by French supplier Impact Evénement and includes 15 ColorSpot 1200E ATs, 26 ColorWash 1200E ATs, three white ColorWash 250 ATs, 90 ColorWash 575 XTs, two white ColorWash 575 XTs and six ColorSpot 700E ATs.

The majority of the lights are hung in the studio's ceiling on special trussing - also supplied by Impact - and the white units are specifically used for floor level lighting of sets and other scenic elements.

The move followed Seligmann-Forest's extensive use of Robe on the 2007 hit reality show, Secret Story and also on Le Grand Soir d'Eliane et Francis. He comments, "I really like the Robe brand and am very happy with the equipment and the relati

UK - i-Pix working with Greenpeace, supplied their BB4 and Satellite fixtures to Greenpeace's Greenfields site at the 2008 Glastonbury Festival, after being approached by the organisation who wanted their area to be as eco-friendly as possible.

The Satellites and BB4s were used to illuminate a large skate ramp complex at the centre of the Greenfields area, the end section of this also doubled as a band stage area showcasing a series of up-and-coming talent.

The Greenfields area lighting and AV was co-ordinated by Niall Whybrow of Potters Bars based PP AV.

"Anything that reduces the amount of energy consumed is good," says Bob Wilson, events co-ordinator for Greenpeace UK, "What i-Pix are doing is very interesting."

The skate ramp was illuminated with four BB4s, rigged at the highest point and washing along its length. In the evenings, a projection scree

Music Industry News: Peter Gabriel says record companies should reinvent themselves to be seen as a service industry and not as "owners" of music. The former Genesis singer told the BBC he thought the current digital age paved the way for changes to be made. Gabriel has been a pioneer in distributing music legally online. He co-founded We7 - a website that allows users to stream and download music for free, with or without adverts - last year. "I love all these experiments - there's a lot of ways for musicians to communicate and sell their records to their fans," Gabriel said.

"There's still room for record companies but they should reinvent themselves as a service industry and not as owners. The structure of the old album and waiting for that to be finished still has some merit but you can do a lot of other things and I think it should be a lot looser and mixe

Germany - Anolis LED ArcLine fixtures have been installed at the 16th Century Industrie & Handels-Kammer (IHK) building in Braunschweig. This is the HQ of the local Brunswick Chamber of Commerce which represents the interests of the economy in the district, and is also one of the few original structures in the city to survive World War II intact.

Recently, leading German architectural lighting designer Bernd Grewe was commissioned by locally based architects Struhkarchitekten Planungsgesellschaft to create a new contemporary lighting scheme to replace the fluorescent lighting surrounding the columns of the building's entrance hall and lobby. The idea was that the structure of the entrance hall should be 'clarified' by the new lighting.

One of the architect's remits was to use low power light-sources and fixtures that were aesthetically pleasing and that blended seamlessly into

UAE - The majestic Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Mosque (also known as the Grand Mosque) in Abu Dhabi has been described as the most striking religious and national landmark in the city to date. Now the lighting has won Speirs and Major Associates international accolades for their design, including two Middle East Lighting Design Awards (MELDA) - Project of the Year and Best Public Building Lighting Project. The project uses a large ETC ACN network for remote device management as well as Congo control systems, ETC Matrix Mk II SineWave dimming and several hundred ETC Source Fours.

With a brief of creating inspired lighting appropriate to this iconic civic building, both externally and internally, and emphasise its standing as a gateway into the city, Speirs and Major specified building-wide ETC dimming and control systems.

Keith Bradshaw, associate director

UK - Belfast's Waterfront Hall venue - an award-winning, purpose-built conference, arts and entertainment centre - has just taken delivery of a new Avolites Diamond 4 Vision lighting console.

This has replaced the original Diamond 3 which had been in residence since the Waterfront opened in 1997. It was part of an upgrade instigated by stage electrician Oscar Kane and was supplied by Belfast-based Production Services Ireland (PSI).

The console is used to control the house lighting systems in the Main 2000 capacity auditorium, and is also moved around the building and sometimes used in the Studio Theatre.

"It was a completely logical move to go on to the D4 after the D3" says Kane, "It's a console that can be used at very basic or highly complex levels - as required."

PSI's Sean Pagel arranged the sale of the D4 to Waterfront. He worked at the flagship v

New Zealand - Selecon sponsored Neil Fraser's guest appearance at a recent Forum in Beijing aimed at developing lighting designers which was organised by the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts and held prior to the 2008 CALME Trade Show.

Forum participants included representatives from the National Academy, the Central Academy in Beijing and the Shanghai Academy. Neil Fraser is the Technical Course Director at the London Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and his key note address (the highlight of the Forum) introduced the UK training system as practised at RADA.

"It was a great honour to represent and introduce the concept of Lighting Teaching in the UK and at RADA to the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts and to do so sponsored by Selecon Lighting," says Fraser. "I was especially honoured to be made an associate professor of the Chinese Academy and it h

UK - A.C. Lighting has been appointed as the exclusive UK distributor for QuartzColor film, TV and video lighting products.

QuartzColor are one of the leading lighting brands in this industry sector, with a strong reputation based on pioneering product innovations such as the Redhead, Blonde, Bambino and Pinza.

QuartzColor's export sales executive, Jean-Marie Reynaud, comments, "We appointed A.C. Lighting due to its renowned expertise and experience in the UK lighting industry. They are committed to ensuring the market's needs are met with the highest possible levels of support, in particular with fast supplies and state-of-the-art after sales service, which is so important in our industry."

Under the agreement, A.C. Lighting will support the entire QuartzColor product range, which includes the HMI daylight Fresnel and PAR spotlights range, Studio and Bambino tungs

USA - The New 42nd Street Studios, located between New York's Seventh and Eighth Avenues, is a prominent rehearsal space for the city's performing arts community.

In addition to three floors of office space, the ten-storey, 84,000sq.ft facility features a total of 14 rehearsal studios, two of which can be used as function rooms. Owned and operated by The New 42nd Street Inc, it was set up as an independent non-profit organisation to assume long-term responsibility for seven historic theatres on the block.

The facility recently tasked its lighting designer, Anne Militello, of Los Angeles-based Vortex Lighting, with the revitalisation of the building, replacing the conventionally-lit extravaganza she had designed at the start of the new millennium, with a LED solution using Coemar fixtures.

When the architectural firm Platt Byard Dovell originally conceived the New 42nd Street

Belgium - Barco reports that Procon is the latest in a line of rental partners selecting Barco's 6mm black LED display, the NX-6.

Over the past two decades, Procon, an international technical full service provider for the media, entertainment and event industry, has assembled one of the most advanced and comprehensive equipment pools in the world.

Together with an order of NX-6 true black LED displays, Procon ordered a significant quantity of MiTRIX modules, DX-700 video processors and XLM HD30 high brightness digital projectors. Also included in the order were 25 Showguns and 25 Showpix, both products from the recently acquired lighting specialist High End Systems.

"At Procon, we have made it our mission to offer our clients the most advanced products on the market today" says Morten Carlsson, CEO of Procon. "We are delighted to add the NX-6 together with all

Canada - The Mule nightclub in Penticton, British Columbia, was recently outfitted with bright and economical Martin smartMAC moving head effects.

"We had lots of patience in working with this project and therefore didn't encounter many hurdles," says owner Lorne Leier. "We took time in thinking out the layout and took proper procedures when time came to execute. We didn't have our mouths precede our brains. I guess you could say it was installed 'smartly.'

"We decided to go with Martin as a referral from Skaha Sound, our dealer here in Penticton." Skaha acquires its Martin gear from Martin Canada.

The lighting upgrade also included an Atomic 3000 strobe and a PC-based Martin LightJockey control system. "Having the touch screen component makes things very quick and easy to use," Lorne adds. "Changing the effects to its required moods i

UK - Kaiser Chiefs lighting designer Richard Larkum and rental company Prism Lighting used over 300 Chroma-Q Color Block DB4 LED fixtures for the band's recent special homecoming concert at Elland Road football stadium.

The Chroma-Q Color Block DB4 provided show lighting designer Richard Larkum's first venture into LEDs for the debut Kaiser Chiefs tour in 2005, and he's been using them ever since on his rig for the band, with the number growing on each successive tour as the budget and venues have got bigger.

The Color Block has also been a main workhorse fixture in the rental stock inventory of Prism Lighting, who introduced Larkum to the DB4 for the band's debut tour and have been supplying the lighting ever since.

For the last Kaiser Chiefs tour, Larkum came up with the idea of custom lighting 'pods' consisting of square frames holding either strobes or Molephay strips. T

UK - Digidesign has announced the immediate availability of specially-priced MassivePack 7 and MassivePack Pro 7 mixing and sound processing plug-in bundles, exclusively for Pro Tools|HD owners.

The new bundles offer registered Pro Tools|HD owners an opportunity to get significant savings on eight of the most in-demand Digidesign Development Partnersplug-ins from Eventide, TC Electronic, Abbey Road, Brainworx, and more, as well as a choice of eight more plug-ins from Digidesign's own collection, including Eleven, Digidesign's new guitar amp emulation plug-in, ReVibe, Reel Tape Suite, and more.

In addition, the upgraded MassivePack Pro 7 includes an HD Accel card (in PCI or PCIe format) and two additional plug-ins from TC Electronic. Both bundles are Windows XP- and Mac- compatible; many of the plug-ins are also compatible with Digidesign Venue live sound systems.

(Jim Evans)

UK - HSL is supplying stage lighting - including 16 new Robe ColorWash 750 AT Tungsten moving light fixtures purchased specially for this event - together with a stage sound system, site-wide lighting and electrics, comms, power distribution and full public address and announcement audio - to the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea's 2008 Opera Holland Park season.

For the first time in six years of HSL supplying the event, the moving light elements of the rig have been expanded substantially, including the ColorWash 750 AT Tungstens together with eight Robe ColorWash 1200E ATs rigged on the box truss and two ColorSpot 1200E ATs rigged on the first advanced bar in the auditorium.

London Borough of Kensington & Chelsea's operations manager Michael Harth says: "HSL always offer us a very competitive and comprehensive package covering all technical aspects of the pr

UK - The Edinburgh Festival is fast approaching. By 8 August visitors will be migrating from all over the globe to participate in this year's spectacular festival. The Stage Electrics' dedicated 'Edinburgh Support Team' will be moving up to Edinburgh from 21 July for the duration of the festival to be on hand to provide a rapid response to all technical needs that may arise.

This year Stage Electrics will have a 24-hour helpline available which gives anyone the ability to reach one of its technicians anytime day or night on 0131 522 2251. The team will be permanently stationed in Edinburgh for the duration of the festival, alongside a dedicated support vehicle available to ensure any spare equipment needed reaches the client immediately. All equipment will be ready for immediate dispatch, says the company.

(Jim Evans)

Italy - Back in April, at the 2008 SIB lighting and sound trade show, Diego Stefani of Dea Service won an ETC SmartFade ML lighting control desk. Dea Service, which is based in the province of Vicenza, rents entertainment technology equipment and solutions, mainly in the mid-eastern regions of Italy. The company supplies many live events including concerts, outdoor events and meetings, recently supplying the Italian leg of the Ferrari F430 Challenge.

Stefani comments: "I was at the ETC stand looking at Source Fours, which I'm an aficionado of and was given a demonstration on the SmartFade ML as I had never used one before. I was familiar with the bigger ETC consoles, but found the SmartFade ML to be very intuitive for such a small desk. I was really surprised to have won it and it will be a great addition to our stock."

The desk was presented to Stefani by Fabio Anse

Belgium - Barco reports that its CLM R10+ compact DLP projector was selected for use at Expo Zaragoza 2008. More than 30 CLM R10+ projectors are installed at different locations, across five pavilions. Running from 14 June to 14 September in the city of Zaragoza, Spain, the international exposition expects to attract over six million visitors.

This year's Expo theme is Water and Sustainable Development and Zaragoza has made enormous efforts to construct the exposition site completely in line with its environmental theme.

Expo Zaragoza 2008, labeled the biggest water festival on earth, features 140 pavilions and presents 5,000 shows in 13 different venues including a daily parade by Cirque du Soleil called The Awakening of the Serpent. Its most emblematic buildings are the Water Tower, an 80m high transparent building designed by Enrique de Teresa to

UK - The atrium of the Blue Fin Building, part of the Bankside development in London, has become home to a LPC X controller from Pharos Architectural Controls. The media wall had special control requirements to be considered - not the least of which was the near-30,000 channels of control needed to support the Color Kinetic's iColor Flex SL fixtures that make up the media wall in the reception area for IPC Media. This is one of many landmark projects specified by Speirs & Major Associates, supplied by Architainment, installed by Lighting Technology Projects and featuring Pharos controllers.

Orri Petursson of Speirs and Major Associates says: "The media screen is 40m long x 3m high and is made up of 9,500 RGB LED nodes spanning the entire length of an atrium. The obvious way to deliver and manage the content for this LED installation was to use a media server, however, due t

UK - Light Projects Group has linked up with Australian-manufacturer Neoz to distribute their award-winning range of cordless lamps in the UK.

The range of cordless lamps and cordless lighting systems, launched by designer Peter Ellis, are aimed at the commercial, hospitality and entertainment markets. The Collection comprises 25 different lamp designs created from a varied range of organic materials including glass, metal, and resins.

The latest range - the V4 Cordless Lamp system - is claimed to be the world's first rechargeable lamp to use Lithium Ion cells giving them a high energy discharge to size and over 1000 charge cycles. By using 5W halogen lamps, the fittings also feature a long (4000+ hours) lamp life and are easily replaceable, says the company.

Neoz has already proved popular in the UK and around the world having been used extensively in prestige venues such a

Poland - A UFO was seen hovering in the skies over Gdansk on the 4 July. Flying up the coast, and then circling the town and dock areas, its dramatic lighting display of geometric colour patterns drew immediate attention.

It turned out not to be little green men from Mars, but an ambitious collaboration by New York artist Peter Coffin with London-based Cinimod Studios, and their design director Dominic Harris. Harris, who has worked with Pharos Architectural Controls on other projects, approached the control manufacturer for the Untitled (UFO) project, knowing that the Pharos LPC X could handle the requirements both in terms of the channel count and in realising the design brief for the playback of effects, but also - because the unit is entirely solid state - it would cope with all the vibration and movement being suspended from a helicopter travelling on sweeping and er

Local News: Ever wondered why pubs turn music up so loud that you have to shout to the person next to you to be heard? The answer, says a report in The Guardian, may be that canny landlords are using loud music to make you drink up faster. A study by French scientists suggests that loud music in a bar is good for the bottom line. They found that when the volume goes up, punters drink faster and consume more. Mark Hastings, director of communications at the British Beer and Pub Association said, "At last we have the solution to Britain's record rate of pub closures. Thank goodness for French academics coming to our rescue, as long as they don't insist it has to be wall-to-wall Edith Piaf and Johnny Halliday."

Old News: Ageing rock stars and session musicians will keep receiving royalties for their old recordings for the rest of their lives under a European Union plan.Performer

Austria - Atrio in the town of Villach is the largest and most spectacular shopping mall in the Alps-Adriatic region. With a sales area of 28,000sq.m, it offers 82 shops and catering enterprises, and features exceptional architecture, both indoors and out.

An eye catcher inside the centre is a dynamic lighting scheme along a corridor of escalators, a multi-coloured illumination realised by use of specially developed Martin Alien 02 Downlights. The Alien 02 Downlight is a modified model of the customary Alien 02 colour changer, housing a 150W halogen metal halide lamp, CMY color mixing system and mechanical dimmer. The special design was developed in collaboration with Bartenbach LichtLabor of Aldrans, Austria.

In direct comparison to LED devices, the Alien 02 Downlight provides several advantages such as a high luminous intensity, 9000 hour lamp life and easily achievable lamp

Ireland - Lough Eske Castle traces its roots back to the late 1400s and the famous O'Donnell family who founded the nearby town of Donegal. The original castle was built around 1474 and the current Lough Eske Castle was constructed in the 1860s, but was destroyed by fire in 1939. The castle has undergone a recent transformation bringing the hotel back to its former glory.

onepointtwo provided and fitted the lighting for Lough Eske. "We worked closely with The Kaye Rice Partnership from the designer's initial concept to final installation," says Julie Stokes, onepointtwo lighting consultant. "The client and The Kaye Rice Partnership knew exactly what kind of lighting they wanted and we were delighted that we fulfilled every aspect of the brief."

The lighting design for the five star hotel caters for all aspects of the lit environment including the lobby, fu

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