UK / Dubai - Industry veteran, John Lethbridge, of Cereco International has announced that he is about to set up a another new company, based in Dubai, after 40 successful years in the lighting industry.

Lethbridge was managing director of Cerebrum Lighting from 1970 to 2000 and one of the three original founding committee members of PLASA. He was also president of Celco Inc. in the USA and a director of Durango (France), Specialist Electrical Services and Presentation Consultants, all concurrently with his role as MD at Cerebrum Lighting.

Since 2002, Lethbridge has been operating as a freelance business development consultant in the Middle East, for various PLASA members, but primarily for Pulsar Light of Cambridge, acting as their Middle East sales manager. Pulsar Light will become Lethbridge's first client in the new venture.

Unlike regular overseas distribution companies

Germany - MA Lighting has announced its new main catalogue which can be downloaded from the MA Lighting website.

MA has improved the clarity and added the latest products like the full grandMA2 range, the MA VPU (Video Processing Unit) and the MA NPU (Network Processing Unit). The catalogue also contains a lot of background information about the MA system, offers a comprehensive overview of all its parts and shows solutions for setting it up.

(Jim Evans)

UK / Canada - CAST BlackBox Corporation has won a PLASA Innovation Award for their newest technology, BlackTrax. This Award marks two years in a row that CAST has won the highly respected Award, having won in 2009 for wysiwyg R24. The award was delivered by PLASA CEO Matthew Griffiths during an award ceremony at PLASA, 2010.

BlackTrax is a hardware motion tracking system for people and objects that operates in realtime. BlackTrax is designed to work with CAST's game-changing BlackBox system of multi-directional high-speed control coordination.

"BlackTrax makes so many new scenarios possible," says Gil Densham, president of CAST, "All production aspects from increased safety to new levels of interactivity and spontaneity."

(Jim Evans)

UK - Black Light has announced its Autumn/Winter schedule of training and awareness courses. These courses have been developed in response to demand from the company's clients in the theatre and events industries and cover a wide range of key skills and technical issues. All of the courses will be run by expert trainers from Black Light and other leading companies. The courses will take place at the company's warehouse complex in Edinburgh.

The courses include training on pyrotechnic awareness, Rosco products, ION lighting desk and chain motor awareness. All attendees will be encouraged to ask questions, engage in discussion with their instructors and highlight any aspects where they need specific advice or training.

The courses require a £25 (ex VAT) booking fee. This fee will be returned when the course has been attended in the form of a voucher to be used with Black L

UK - Broadcast sound specialist Red-TX was employed to capture the audio for the Help for Heroes benefit concert, which took place at Twickenham Stadium on Sunday 12 September.

The event which attracted more than 60,000 people, included some of the injured service personnel who benefit from the money raised by the charity. It was broadcast live by the BBC, which took its music audio feed from the Red-TX sound truck.

Help for Heroes has united the nation behind the Armed Forces. The charity, which does not question the rights and wrongs of recent wars, aims to provide the best possible care and support for injured UK servicemen and women.

Artists performing included Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow, Tom Jones, James Blunt, Alexandra Burke, Pixie Lott, Plan B and The Saturdays.

Red-TX was commissioned to handle the audio by Chris Bretnall, head of Creative Broad

USA - As longtime and extensive users of Robert Juliat Profile spots, it could have been expected that the San Francisco Opera and Ballet would become the first US installation for Robert Juliat's motorized Victor followspots with RJNET electronics.

"When the Opera was remodelled and seismically upgraded in 1996, we purchased 172 Profiles, then the Opera bought a few HMI Profiles and the Ballet added two more. The Victor followspots are our most recent purchase," says Jim Caudle, technician for the San Francisco Ballet. "The building is shared by both companies which have consecutive seasons: the Opera runs May through December and the Ballet December through May. There are permanent followspot positions for both companies and the Victors remain in place for both seasons."

Caudle notes that the Opera and Ballet's previous followspots "didn't have the p

UK - GLP's debut of the new SpotOne at this year's PLASA Show in London received an enthusiastic reception.

The Impression SpotOne represents a breakthrough in providing the world's first high powered RGB LED spot fixture, says the company. Light output is equivalent to a 700W discharge lamp and therefore truly usable in a wide range of applications.

It contains a full feature set including rotating and indexing gobos, iris, prism, focus, zoom, effects animation, pan and tilt - all of which are motorised. The RGB LED source retains high efficiencies, as no fragile glass colour system is required. To further minimise environmental impact, the baseless design reduces size, weight and transportation, whilst the fixture operates with near silent performance.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Specialist LED lighting manufacturer i-Pix showed six new products in its groundbreaking BB (Building Block) range at the 2010 PLASA exhibition in London and enjoyed one of their best PLASA shows ever.

Says i-Pix founder Chris Ewington: "We had lots of UK and international interest from new and existing people and it was a busy show for us all round. Our highly focused R&D team has spent the last 12 months developing these six new products, and we're confident, post PLASA, that this strategy has really paid off."

New customers were drawn to the whole range of BB products. The non-LED look of the BB1's which more resemble PAR 36 or 46 fixtures was a big advantage, together with the smooth homogenised light engine which sets i-Pix fixtures poles apart from most other LED products, says the company.

(Jim Evans)

Denmark - Martin Professional customer care coordinator, Tina Melholt, is celebrating 25 years with the company. Melholt, who ranks as the longest serving employee at the Danish-based lighting manufacturer, started in 1985 when Martin was called dp electronic A/S and produced only amplifiers and a smoke machine.

"Twenty-five years is a long time and obviously there has been a lot of growth and a lot of changes," she notes. "I remember our first exhibition, which was in London. Our stand was so small we could hardly fit two people in it."

Melholt started as an assistant in bookkeeping before moving into purchasing and eventually customer service. She began at the company 10 years before even the milestone MAC 500 and MAC 600 were launched, and two years before the company name was changed to Martin Professional.

"You don't stay at a company so long if

UK - PLASA 2010 closed on a high, with preliminary visitor figures set to show an increase over 2009 and strong international engagement from across the world. Exhibitors across all the show's sectors enthused about the quality of business leads and relished the show's vibrant atmosphere. The event, which filled London's Earls Court 1 and 2, drew over 12,000 visitors, while the international attendance continued to be strong with nearly 30% of visitors attending from 99 countries worldwide.

Show director Nicola Rowland commented: "The universally positive feedback and the strong visitor figures would be satisfying under any circumstances, but in the current economic climate it's a strong result for our exhibitors and for the show itself - it underlines just how important PLASA remains in the international events calendar.

"Numbers alone were only part of the story,&q

UK - The White Light Zone at PLASA 2010 - hosting the many companies for which White Light is the exclusive UK distributor - featured two products which were winners of the 2010 PLASA Awards for Innovation, and a third that was specially commended by the awards judges.

Launched at the show and an award winner was Coemar's Reflection FullSpectrum, a new design of LED washlight that offers an interchangeable LED light source that directs light from a configuration of LEDs onto a parabolic reflector. This optical design eliminates problems common in other LED fixtures, including visible RGB dots and multi-coloured shadows; it also allows the light source to be moved relative to the reflector, giving a smooth zoom from 18-37°. The fixture is available in Full Spectrum RGB colour-mixing and VariWhite variable white versions.

Introduced earlier in the year but winning an award o

UK PLASA 2010 Show was again a major success for MA Lighting and its co-exhibitors Major and Rainbow Colour Changers. The new grandMA2 software release 2.0, the MA VPU (Video Processing Unit) and the whole networking technology of MA Lighting, including the MA NPU (Network Processing Unit) achieved much praise, says the company.

MA Lighting's managing director Michael Althaus commented: "We received a massive interest in grandMA2 especially from theatres in the UK. They do in particular benefit from the latest grandMA2 software release 2.0 and were interested to find out themselves, why a remarkable number of theatres, among them the Royal Shakespeare Company opted for these future oriented control system.

"In recent years, MA Lighting has collected extensive information from the theatre market and the whole product design of the grandMA2 was heavily influenced by th

UK - Robe lighting enjoyed "an amazing PLASA 2010 exhibition" in London, launching nine environmentally friendly products and a major green initiative - Think of the Future - Consider Nature; designing an ecospheric style booth; and staging The Robe Party, at the Cafe de Paris in central London on the Sunday night.

"I think it was probably our best PLASA to date in terms of positive energy, quality of visitors and interest shown in the new products," says MD Josef Valchar. "This really confirms that our understanding of current market demands and our R&D is going in the right direction."

Robe's sales director Harry Von Den Stemmen adds: "Visitors were absolutely the target market. Reactions were generally very good and the booth was very busy on all days. The 'green' theme and design was a big hit and tapped into a contemporary nerve.&

UK / France - Robert Juliat's new Aledin LED theatrical zoom profile spot was recognised with an Innovation Award from the judges at PLASA 2010. Aledin, the world's first LED generic profile, was created to fill the gap in the market for a high output, low wattage LED alternative to conventional tungsten and discharge profile fixtures, the company says.

"It has been possible for some time to replace every other lighting fixture - washlights, cyclights, striplights and moving heads - with LED alternatives," explains Robert Juliat sales director, Lionel Garraud. "The only fixture that could not be replaced was a generic profile - until now."

Aledin's 85W LED light source generates an output of 4500 lumens presenting, for the first time, a viable LED profile for venues wishing to reduce their carbon footprint without reducing their technical performance qualit

Canada / Belgium - Montreal-based SC Media Technologies, a division of Soundcraft Canada, has formed an agreement with Barco to exclusively handle its Barco/High End Systems lighting equipment and mid-market 'Elements' LED products. SC Media will provide local support of sales, marketing, service and parts for Canada-based rental and staging partners and integrators for these solutions.

SC Media is providing support through its national sales and dedicated project management teams, expanding its personnel to fulfil the anticipated increase in business from Barco sales and service. The company has a rich foundation in pro audio which will be well complimented by the expansion into Barco's professional video displays. The company also offers creative financing solutions to assist customers in procuring the full range of audio/video products.

"We are very proud of this new p

USA / Italy - A.C.T Lighting has announced its appointment as a distributor for Clay Paky products in the US and in the English-speaking areas of Canada. The announcement was made at the PLASA 2010 show, held in London 12-15 September. A.C.T Lighting will offer the same client-centric service and support for the lighting manufacturer as it has been known for with its other product lines, including MA Lighting's grandMA consoles.

Pio Nahum, Clay Paky's commercial and marketing director comments: "This new appointment will make the Clay Paky range of products more accessible to our North American customers. With offices in New York and Los Angeles, A.C.T Lighting is a leading importer and distributor of cutting-edge lighting products and provides superior customer support and service."

"We are proud to become part of the Clay Paky family and this is a very excitin

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies has acquired the entertainment business of Primarc as part of an ongoing expansion programme that will merge the two companies' entertainment lighting businesses and enable Primarc to focus predominately on the specialist lamps market.

From 1 October, Primarc will relocate to AC-ET's international sales office and warehouse operation in High Wycombe, allowing the company to benefit from AC-ET's infrastructure and logistics.

Primarc's Bob Peach and Kevin Everett will then join AC-ET's UK sales team. With access to both companies' entertainment lighting stockholdings and product sales teams, this will provide Primarc and AC-ET customers with even greater choice and availability whilst continuing to deliver the same high standard of service and support.

Primarc will focus on its specialist lamps business, with particular emphasis on growing

Macau - After five years in development and HK$2bn spent to create and produce The House of Dancing Water, the spectacular extravaganza has opened at City of Dreams, Macau. Produced and directed by Franco Dragone, the production - the world's largest water-based show - is housed in a 1,985-seat theatre designed by Theatre Projects Consultants. Theatre Projects has been integrally involved in the design of the project with Pei Partnership Architects and producer Franco Dragone Entertainment Group.

At 160ft in diameter and 26ft deep, the theatre features the world's largest commercial pool, holding 3.7m gallons of water. Eight 10-ton hydraulic elevators allow the conversion of the 65ft diameter centre performance area from water to a solid floor, and high-speed overhead winches move performers and scenery through space in a 3-D visual ballet.

Theatre Projects played a cen

Denmark - The Martin MAC 101 is a small, super light and simple LED moving head wash light. It features a tight and very bright beam, rapid movement and calibrated colours with a low price tag that allows for revolutionary set, stage and decorative lighting designs, says the company.

Utilising cost-efficient, high-volume production and featuring an ultra-compact design that promotes use in larger quantities, the MAC 101 is suitable for easy-to-produce, high-impact looks like large wall matrices or as a dynamic replacement for static PAR cans.

Even in smaller numbers the MAC 101 is a highly effective and versatile wash light, useful for visual effect in a wide variety of applications like concerts, events, exhibitions, clubs, television studios, bars, restaurants and more.

The MAC 101 consumes a low 125 watts of power (0.6 A @ 230V / 1.2 A @ 110V), saving on energy and elimin

UK - The Enchanted Forest, the outdoor sound and light show at Faskally Wood in Highland Perthshire, has appointed Northern Light to produce this year's light show: Force of Nature.

The show, which has been designed by award winning lighting designer Simon Wilkinson and has an original sound score composed by Ronnie McConnell, takes The Enchanted Forest back to its roots as a spectacular son et lumière.

Derek Allan, chairman of the Enchanted Forest commented, "This year we've endeavoured to approach the design of the show a little differently than in the past. Instead of entrusting the outcome to a single company, we've brought together a team of experts and artists in lighting design and sound design, who are working with one of Scotland's most reputable lighting companies to make their vision become a reality.

"The effect will be a more natu

Spain / USA - Creative Stage Lighting has been appointed the exclusive distributor of VMB Towerlift products in North America. The NY-based company will be offering sales, service, and support for the full range of VMB lift products.

VMB offers a total of 14 different lift models. The introduction of the TL-A Line Array lifts has attracted a lot of interest in the US with the product offering a practical solution for companies looking to set up a line array quickly and easily and above all safely.

Ben Sinclair, VMB's export manager commented, "We have been discussing distribution with Creative Stage Lighting for a while now. Interest for VMB lifts in North America has been increasing dramatically. We are delighted that Creative Stage Lighting will now be officially carrying them in North America. VMB lifts offer many special features and we are looking forward to demonstr

UK - Creative & Cultural Skills (CCSkills) is undertaking a major review of the National Occupational Standards (NOS) for technical theatre. Alex Hitchcock, training development manager at Stage Technologies with two decades of training and automation programming under his belt, has written and collated the draft version of the automation NOS for technical theatre, in consultation with other industry stakeholders, and as part of the NOS development working group.

These NOS modules are now available on the CCSKills website and industry professionals are being actively encouraged to provide initial comment and consultations. "It is vitally important," says Hitchcock, 'that the modules are reviewed and commented on by as many individuals, automation professionals and interested parties as possible, to ensure that the NOS become a relevant tool for all employees and employ

Australia - Currently playing at Melbourne's Regent Theatre is a new stage production of West Side Story. Peter Halbsgut lit the original version which earned him a nomination for a Tony Award. Now, several years later, this Australian production is in the capable hands of Greg Yates, associate lighting designer, with Chameleon Touring Systems supplying the lighting equipment for the tour.

Accompanying the show on tour is an ETC EOS 4000 console. "ETC products are always really good and well made," comments Yates. "They're user friendly and 'simple' to use. They're just really good consoles. The EOS obviously incorporates a lot of ETC history but it also seems to have the best features from other consoles. It's like they've grabbed all the best ideas on the market - without copyright infringement - and put them into one console. I particularly like the dir

USA - Robe Lighting Inc has moved its US HQ in Florida to new and better premises in Cooper City. The new facility has full climate control throughout all the technical and service areas, the spares department and warehousing, which is essential for the protection of electrical and mechanical components in the extreme humidity.

The new address is: 12349 South West 53rd Street, Cooper City, Florida 33330, USA; Tel : +1 954 680 1901.

With close proximity to all transportation hubs, the move will also consolidate the efficiency of Robe Inc's distribution network, says the company.

Robe Inc sales manager David Chesal and the team have already moved into the new offices, and have added a new member - Jerry Seay - to handle internal sales and co-ordinate the dealer network within the US.

Jerry Seay brings many years of experience in the worlds of production and moving lights to

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