Singapore - An extensive ADB Lighting control and dimming system, along with 12 ADB WARP Zoom Profile Spotlights, has been installed at the heart of the lighting rig at the recently-opened Genexis Theatre at Fusionopolis in Singapore.

The iconic Fusionopolis research and development complex houses an array of research organisations, high-tech companies, government agencies, retail outlets, and serviced apartments in one location. Planned by Zaha Hadid, designed by Kisho Kurokawa and developed by the JTC Corporation, Fusionopolis's Phase One contains 120,000sq.m of space, with the egg-shaped, 572-seat Genexis Theatre suspended between three multi-storey towers.

ADB's Singapore distributor, Audio Light Asia, supplied the lighting systems, for which a major requirement was flexibility to cover the many potential configurations of the multi-purpose space. Access to the lighting ri

Italy - On 8 May, a large delegation from the British association of directors of photography (STLD) visited the Italian Public television (RAI) studios, for an interesting exchange of experiences with the company management and their professional counterparts.

The STLD (Society of Television Lighting and Design) visit was made possible by Clay Paky, which has been profitably working for years with the British association and, most recently, has partnered with it in organising the annual competition called The Clay Paky Knight of Illumination. The competition gives awards to the best British LDs in the TV, theatre and live event sectors.

The professional relationship between Clay Paky and RAI is equally well consolidated. It is based on mutual respect that has built up over the years, during which the Bergamo-based company has supplied RAI with the most modern TV studio

UK - Lighting designer Kevin Adams put MA Lighting's grandMA consoles to extensive use at the Al Hirschfeld Theater when Hair reappeared on Broadway.

The production, which the New York Times called "an emotionally rich revival," is innovative from a lighting perspective because the team chose to program the conventional lights, automated lights and LEDs from a single platform, the grandMA console. This enabled the production team to have fewer consoles on site during set up and rehearsals and allowed the programmers to work on any console at any time while always having specific access to their part of the rig.

"We decided to run the whole show off the grandMA for two reasons," says Aaron Sporer, Hair's associate lighting designer. "It was more cost-effective than renting two moving light consoles and a conventional light console. And by

USA - The surviving members of The Grateful Dead have just completed their first tour in almost five years. The space themed lighting design - featured 108 rectangular PixelArc compact wash luminaires and 21 PixelLine 110 wash battens. The six-piece, which now calls itself simply The Dead - hit the road in April, playing 19 shows across 16 cities across the USA.

Lighting designer Dan English has worked with the band on and off since 1982. Over the decades, English has experienced the evolution of rock and roll lighting and toured with many pioneering fixtures. The Dead are famous for their psychedelic shows and their lighting rigs have continuously boasted the latest technology.

English reports, "The band wanted a space theme. This tour was scheduled for arenas selling 360° - so the entire scenic concept was limited to the overhead lighting rig. The design had to offe

UK - The new musical production of Oscar winning Australian movie The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of The Desert at London's Palace Theatre has a grandMA full-size console controlling the moving lighting rig.

The show's lighting design has been created by Nick Schlieper, and the stage adaptation, Priscilla Queen of the Desert - The Musical was initially premiered at the Star Casino in Sydney in late 2006. From there, it toured Australia and New Zealand before coming to London, where it is being produced by Back Row Productions and the Really Useful Group (RUG).

Lighting equipment is being supplied by PRG, and freelance programmer Stuart Porter was asked by RUG to programme the moving and intelligent lighting components on to a grandMA. Porter has a wealth of experience and many West End productions under his belt, however this is the first time he's programmed

UK/France - Rosco has announced that it has acquired Paris-based GobosFactory. Joanna Shapley, France development manager at Rosco says: "We believe in investing when times are tough. This is an excellent move on our part, in the right place at the right time. It is a perfect match to enhance synergies and values for both companies."

Rosco and GobosFactory have united their efforts and resources and, combined with its existing market share for custom gobos in France, this acquisition now gives Rosco a solid position in the French gobo-market.

GobosFactory are the French market leaders for custom gobos. Their manufacturing capabilities will now be expanded with Rosco's worldwide production processes. With the high demands of the live events- and television market, Rosco/GobosFactory are well equipped to meet these high-quality demands and significantly reduce delays f

UK - Nick Edwards, formerly of PRG Europe, has taken up a new post as project manager at Panalux, where he will be working in the Broadcast and Events Division, alongside Ed Pagett and Simon Roose.

Edwards began as a service technician for installation company Design Intervention in 2000. In 2002 he joined VLPS (PRG Lighting) at Greenford and went on to serve as a senior Vari-Lite technician working on site across the UK, Europe and the Middle East. His experience has included theatre, corporate events, television and concert touring, with highlights including the MTV Europe Awards, The Brits, The Baftas, Live Earth, The Royal Variety Performance and most recently the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow.

At Panalux, Edwards will be project managing a wide range of shows for the Broadcast & Event Division's growing portfolio of clients including studio-based and outside broa

UK - HSL supplied moving and digital lights plus LED elements to the latest series of 0 ond 1, a Welsh language travel quiz show produced by Boomerang for S4C. The rig was specified by lighting designer Martyn Rourke and the eight shows were recorded in a week at Omni Studios near Cardiff.

Rourke's rig included 30 Robe ColorWash 700E AT and four Vari*Lite VL 3000 Spot moving lights, CK iColor Tiles, ColorWeb LED panels and SoftLED cloths as well as 30 ETC Source Fours, i-Pix BB7s, JTE Pixel PARs, trussing and lighting control - all supplied by HSL.

HSL won the tender to supply the kit, and Rourke comments: "They offered all the kit at the best price - and along with that came the great HSL service as always". The account was handled by HSL's TV specialist, Sean McGlone.

The show was shot on a 360 degree set designed by Sid Scott. The 12 initial contestants w

UK - At the ABTT Show (Horticultural Halls, London, 10-11 June 2009), Avolites will show the new ART PowerCube Dimmer along with the powerful Pearl Expert Titan and the Tiger Lighting consoles.

Based on the proven technology of the ART 2000 Touring range, the ART PowerCube features 12 Dimmer circuits, six combined Dimmer and fixed mains circuits, six dedicated fixed mains and two 16A utility circuits, all contained in a compact flightcase that can be lifted by one person and securely stacked.A built-in two-outlet DMX splitter and Ethernet input with ArtNet support will cover the varied control situations that this system will encounter, say Avolites.

18 local control fades allow for quick access to lights and provide for 12 memories to be replayed. The familiar ART2000 operating system features Softpatch, separate Channel Curve, Limit and pre-heat attributes and remote memory

Australia - Robe moving lights got right into the fast lane for the 2009 Melbourne International Motor Show, where they were used on several stands for which lighting equipment was supplied by Victoria-based Clifton Productions, one of the exhibition's main technical suppliers.

Different combinations of Robe ColorSpot 1200 ATs, ColorWash 2500E ATs and ColorSpot and Wash 700E AT Series fixtures were used to illuminate a host of premium automotive brands including Toyota, Holden, Mazda, Lotus, Honda and Nissan.

Each of the stands lit by Cliftons had its own design and layout - developed with each of the individual LDs involved, complete with specially created lighting effects. These ranged dynamically from Lexus' massively impressive display with large washing effects to KIA's modernist LED screen presentation.

"Lighting effects play a huge part in having impact and makin

Russia - Martin Professional again played a starring role in the Eurovision Song Contest, this year with a remarkable 1,120 m2 Martin LC Series LED panel backdrop specified by UK lighting designer Al Gurdon of Incandescent Design.

Also involved were 400 MAC 2000 Washes, 76 MAC 600 washlights and 112 Atomic 3000 strobes with an extra 20 MAC 600s adding colour to the VIP Green Room. Main technical supplier for the Eurovision Song Contest was Procon Event Engineering. PRG served as a secondary supplier with a local Russian contractor also supplying some equipment. Supervising all of this was Rich Gorrod from Incandescent Design.

More than 750 moving heads and over 100 km of cabling were utilised. Procon sent 42 trailer trucks with technical equipment and a team of more than 70 people to this year's event at the Olimpiysky Arena Moscow.

Incandescent Design was contracted to prov

Hong Kong - Fashion and accessories brand Chanel turned to Lighthouse Technologies, for a high-tech makeover using the latest LED screen technology at its new storefront, located at the Peninsula Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong.

For the Hong Kong showcase, which follows hot on the heels of Lighthouse's installation at Chanel's US shop in Beverly Hills, 40 6mm front access panels (P6-FA) were installed in a 5 x 8 panel configuration, 3.2m wide by 3.84m high. Adjacent to the store's staircase, the screen is visible to audiences walking down the stairs or looking in through the windows as they pass by. Lighthouse was responsible for the entire installation, which was completed in March.

"Chanel is a brand that thrives on creativity, a value that Lighthouse pursues in every project we take on," says Peter Chan, general manager of Lighthouse Technologies. "The fact

USA - When Capron Lighting & Sound Company's David Gruber was looking for a powerful light with which to project the Jake Burton logo at the 27th annual US Open Snowboarding Championships, he decided that Robert Juliat's 4000W HTI Lancelot was the right light for the job.

The championships, which took place in March this year at Stratton Mountain, Virginia, were to be televised, so a bright, sharp image was called for to ensure the logo of the world's leading snowboard manufacturer, and founder of the championship, was presented to best advantage, for both broadcasting purposes and to the surrounding audience.

"I needed a fixture that would project a sharp image at a distance of 500ft," explains Gruber, who was project lighting manager for the event. "My research indicated that a Robert Juliat Lancelot 4,000 watt HTI followspot would be the best choice, and that

Australia - The iconic Bondi Pavilion building set on the edge of Sydney's Bondi Beach, has recently had a refurbishment to its theatre that included lighting control, acoustic upgrades and new seating. LSC Lighting Systems, supplied the lighting control system including a maXim XL lighting desk plus four 12 channel iPRO dimmers. Equipment was supplied through Herkes Professional Lighting.

The Bondi Pavilion was originally constructed in 1928 and included "dressing accommodation," Turkish baths, shops and a ballroom. Revitalised by the Waverley Council in the 1950s and reopened in 1978 as the Bondi Pavilion Community Centre, it is now a vibrant arts and entertainment venue and includes an art gallery as well as the Bondi Pavilion Theatre. The theatre seats 230 in raked format onto an end stage that can also work as a proscenium.

The Bondi Pavilion precinct presents a

Hong Kong - Over a 12 day period in December 2009, Copenhagen will host the United Nations Climate Change Conference, at which ministers and officials from the 192 UN member states, plus representatives from a large number of interested organisations, will discuss all aspects of climate change.

To raise awareness of the importance of the conference - and of the issue of climate change in general - international pressure group Greenpeace has invited LED media design company LED Artist to be its artistic partner in establishing an iconic Countdown Clock, to be displayed in various public areas in Hong Kong.

Designed to serve as a reminder to both the Hong Kong government and general public that there is an ongoing race against time to combat climate change, the Countdown Clock comprises one of LED Artist's Multimedia Information Systems Tower (MIST) systems, depicted emerging fr

UK - MilTec (UK) will be showing a broad spread of new and established products at the ABTT show in June.

The PR Lighting XLED590 is a 450W LED moving head wash luminaire with an output of nearly 6,000 lumens, it has 90x 5W Osram Diamond Dragon LEDs. It features four pre-programmed CTC whites and also has a dedicated CTC channel for fine adjustments. This unit is suitable for use on large professional stages and rental applications.

Also from PR Lighting, the XL250 is a compact 250W automated luminaire with a motorised iris and 14-22 degree zoom lens. With high quality and efficient optics, 17 gobos (seven rotating), 12 interchangeable colours and a three- facet prism, this unit is aimed at professional stages, rental applications and school installations.

MT Lighting's StageWash range features four LED pars with outputs up to 108W. In the MT Lighting PixStrip LED screen ser

Denmark - Martin Professional has opened an online shop for purchasing Martin lighting and smoke products and more. The new Martin E-Shop, accessible at eshop.martin.com, provides 24/7 access to Martin Professional products from one location.

The Martin E-Shop is initially available to all Martin Professional distributors, as well as the Scandinavian and UK markets, but will soon be made available in the USA, Germany, France and Italy.

The E-Shop is simple to use with a shopper-friendly purchasing process, familiar Martin web design, secure payment system, and direct delivery. Also available via the website are product accessories, spare parts, swag and more, making the Martin E-Shop a one-stop shop for everything Martin, says the company.

(Jim Evans)

World - Lighting designer Steven Douglas is using grandMA lighting control for the first time on the current Killers Day & Age world tour, which has just completed its first US, UK and European legs. He had two grandMA full-size consoles - one in tracking backup - and four MA NSPs running over Ethernet, controlling nine real DMX universes and 111 virtual universes for all the video content, stored on three Vixen media servers run via Arkaos, also triggered from the grandMA.

Design wise, Douglas went for a complete departure from the last Killers tour, which had been classically theatrical in style. This time the stage and lighting have a contemporary look, a juxtaposition of circles and rectangular shapes and a massive 268 panel ColorWeb screen which spectacularly defines the space.

It's the first full tour on which he's specified a grandMA, although he's used it on num

UK - Six employees from the Royal Shakespeare Company will be cycling from Stratford-upon-Avon to Amsterdam this June. Members of the company's Lighting, automation, transformation and porters departments, together with two freelance lighting technicians, will embark on their 369 km trek from the RSC's Courtyard Theatre at 10am on Thursday 11 June.

The idea was the brainchild of RSC head of lighting, Vince Herbert who says: "When I first suggested the bike ride, the instant reaction from my colleagues was laughter - for some reason they don't think a 50-something like me will be able to manage it. But Holland is very flat, so it can't be that hard, can it?"

The Stratford group will be joined by an additional four cyclists, including representatives from lighting equipment suppliers, White Light, who will begin their expedition in London.

After a journey that includ

Australia - As a general rule, winter in Melbourne is a rather cold, dull and drab experience and not one renowned for its abundance of colour. That was until last year, when the colourful LED artwork maxims of behaviour lit up the winter skyline on the façade of the Royal Mail House building, located on the corner of Bourke and Swanston Streets in the heart of Melbourne.

June 2009 sees the return of this artwork that transforms this distinctive 1960's era building that had been quietly and unobtrusively minding its own business for over 40 years. As part of an initiative to increase awareness and create more talking points around Melbourne, The Melbourne City Council launched its Illuminating Melbourne initiative, which called for proposals from Australian artists to create a significant new public artwork within the Melbourne CBD.

The proposals needed an empha

Slovakia - Over 100 Robe lighting fixtures made a stunning appearance at the 2009 Slovakian Miss Universe Pageant, an event on which they have a history, along with lighting designer Martin Kubanka.

The show was staged at the Sibamac Arena in Bratislava in front of a live audience of 4500, simultaneously broadcast live on STV1 to record ratings. It was directed by Thomas Eibner, and Kubanka also worked closely with DOP Vladimir ?ur?ansk? and set designer Martin Klang.

This year, the creative theme was nature and the scenic elements reflected grass and foliage, sea and sun. The overhead trussing configuration followed the wide lines and gentle V-shapes of the stage set below, presenting a coherent and highly attractive visual package to compliment the nature of the occasion and the 12 finalists.

Kubanka wanted to make a big impact with the lighting. He used 50 Robe ColorSpot

Denmark - Lighting Science Group Corporation (Lighting Science) and Martin Professional announced today a distribution agreement that will give Martin access to Lighting Science's X16 DOTZ LED strings for global distribution.

The X16 DOTZ LED string has been well-received in the market since its introduction and will be marketed under the name FlexDOT in Martin's line of LED video products. FlexDOT has already been used in multiple projects across the lighting market.

FlexDOT is a string of (RGB) LEDs designed for a variety of dynamic lighting applications including video and other entertainment displays. Leveraging the DMX512 lighting control protocol, each LED capsule on the string produces a wide colour palette of millions of hues. This allows the user to create a personalised interactive experience through colour control, special effects and animation of each light point.

USA - Barco reports that three major band tours - No Doubt, The Crystal Method and the upcoming Aerosmith tour, are all debuting the new High End Systems' Showbeam 2.5 in their shows.

The Showbeam 2.5 is a new 2500-watt automated wash luminaire that features the Twin Beam technology, allowing two hard-edge beams to exit the fixture on command. Features include variable control over the Twin Beam's deviation and rotation speed, all with little brightness degradation, the ability to add incremental colour to the Twin Beam using the CMY colour mixing system, and a LED tracking system encircling the lens. It also features a user-changeable fixed colour wheel, a variable CTO and the ability to produce an 11-degree fixed hard-edge profile with fast colour change and Electronic Strobe. The profile can be rapidly zoomed from 11 to 33 degrees.

Butch Allen, No Doubt's lighting designer,

South Africa - Gearhouse South Africa supplied lighting and power for the spectacular closing ceremony of the 2009 DLF Indian Premier League Cricket series at Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg. The show kicked off immediately after a knife-edge finish to the Series kept the 35,000 audience enthralled right down to the last ball, before the Deccan Chargers beat the Royal Challengers Bangalore by six runs.

Gearhouse's Tim Dunn designed the light-show for the event, - a fusion of Indian, African, Bollywood, Caribbean and American entertainment with special guest appearances by American rapper Akon, Eddie Grant and Bollywood superstar Katrina Kaif. The high energy show also included drummers, fire dancers, traditional dancers and a Miss Bollywood IPL South Africa model parade culminating in a massive pyro and fireworks show.

Four production companies were involved with the event -

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