Poland - Duran Duran performed a corporate gig in Warsaw, Poland in the second half of September, with plenty of input from grandMA. Lighting Designer, operator and programmer for the concert was Pawel 'Spider' Pajak. To control his rig he specified one grandMA full-size, one grandMA light, grandMA onPC with NSP and grandMA 3D.

"I decided to use the grandMA control and pre-programming system because it always gives me an opportunity to save a lot of time on the venue," states Pajak. "I've used grandMA 3D to set-up the stage positions for the lights and then to program all the necessary presets, effects and looks. Then I've started to create the whole lighting for each song. In this project my co-programmer, Tomasz Szwelicki, and I used the "world function" to work separately on two consoles . . . it saves a lot of time. This was an advantage because I ha

Worldwide - As The Who begins its world tour with rave reviews and a packed calendar of gigs in the US, the grandMA begins its work behind the scenes controlling innovative lighting design that puts the group in the forefront of artists performing today. The tour, which has been dubbed Uncut. Uncensored. Unrepentant, features "the first new Who music in 20 years," according to lighting designer Tom Kenny.

"There are six new songs and a mini-opera in the middle of the show. When we went into it, Pete Townshend asked me to treat the show in a very different light - literally. He wanted it to look very different from what we've done in the past, but we couldn't use haze or smoke since Roger Daltry has a smoke allergy."

The result is a "unique-looking show, very high tech, very 2006," says Kenny. "There are different types of backdrops, re

USA - Nemetschek North America announced today that ZZYZX, Inc., has released ESP Vision 2.2, which supports VectorWorks Spotlight with RenderWorks 12.5 and includes the modeling plug-in for the Macintosh platform.

"The release of ESP Vision 2.2 is a big step forward for Macintosh users," says Kevin Linzey, VectorWorks Spotlight product manager. "The new plug-ins will allow VectorWorks Spotlight users to work with VectorWorks on their preferred platform right through the export process to ESP Vision. Macintosh users will no longer have to reopen the VectorWorks file on Windows just to export to ESP Vision. Windows users will also benefit from the improved interface, better data handling, and increased performance of the new plug-ins provided with ESP Vision 2.2."

Version 2.2 now uses enhanced Move, Scale, and Rotate tools to enable Vision users to design si

Worldwide - ETC (Electronic Theatre Controls, Inc.) has begun to fulfil orders for its Congo jr lighting control console, which was introduced to the world at the PLASA and LDI 2006 trade shows.

Now beginning to ship worldwide, Congo jr is the compact version of the larger Congo console, with all of the processing power of its bigger brother. With its full-featured Congo functionality - identical channel and output counts as well the same potent operating software - Congo jr handles lighting rigs filled with conventional lights, moving lights, LEDs, media servers, and other DMX-controlled multiparameter devices. Congo jr also features the convenient modularity of an optional Master Playback Wing, which accesses all 40 multipurpose masters of the main console for full playback functionality.

Congo jr is part of the new generation of ETC consoles that master the reality of multi

USA - Wybron has announced that its InfoTrace System won a New Product Award at the 2006 Worship Facilities Conference and Expo (WFX) held in Dallas, Texas. This award recognises the InfoTrace system as one of the most innovative new technology products to hit the houses of worship market.

The WFX award marks the third new product award bestowed on Wybron's InfoTrace system in the past three months. During the PLASA and LDI trade shows, Wybron also won new product awards for InfoTrace. This is the first time any product has won all three awards in one year.

"We are very pleased that the worship market has recognised Wybron's contribution of innovative value-added lighting solutions," said Larry Turner, CEO of Wybron. "We are focused on this marketplace and its need for state-of-the-art lighting technology that enhances congregants' experience."

The InfoTr

UK - ETC is making good use of its new premises with two Congo training courseslined up before the end of the year. Each course lasts two days, allowing delegates to learn about Congo and its sibling, Congo jr and will take place on 22-23 November and 6-7 December.

Training will be hands on, with no more than two people per console, and space for only ten percourse. This is in addition to courses which run throughout the year, offering technical training in how to set up, operate and repair all ETC's products.

Day one introduces users to Congo and Congo jr, covering all the majorfunctions and allowing them to navigate the console and to program bothfixed and moving lights, including creating dynamic effects. The second dayfocuses on the software, editing and using multiple sequence lists.

The Playhouse at Gypsy Corner, as the demo theatre is known, is the stunningfoyer of ET

Europe - During the summer months VisualDMX was used at several festivals around Benelux. From Wesley in Concert at the IJssportcentrum in Tilburg, to the ID&T Sensation VIP rooms at the Amsterdam Arena, VisualDMX is becoming the preferred choice of software controller for many freelance programmers, especially when requiring a Matrix controller, says the company.

Tom van den Heuvel also used VisualDMX and Matrix Mania! to great effect at the TMF Awards VIP after show party on a 12 x 7 metre LED dance floor. Van den Heuvel felt compelled to use VisualDMX because he believes Matrix Mania! is "powerful and very easy to patch and make into a matrix: doesn't matter if its small or big as you can adapt easily and quickly the size and the patterns of the programmed images too."

At the open-air Mystery Land festival, VisualDMX came into its own with the programming of Allar

UK - Stardraw Control, the multi-award winning control application from design and control software systems developer, Stardraw.com has been named as a finalist for the Technology InAVation 2007 award in the category of Most Innovative Control Product for Commercial Use. The nomination coincides with the landmark 5,000 user tally, an astonishing achievement in just over twelve months when the product was still only in beta form.

Stardraw's marketing director, Rob Robinson, is delighted that Stardraw Control has qualified as a finalist for the inaugural Technology InAVation Awards which will be held at the forthcoming ISE show in Amsterdam next February. "Stardraw Control has already been recognised at several prestigious industry awards, and the Technology InAVation nomination serves as further testament to the truly innovative nature of the product," noted Robinson. &

Egypt - 2006 marks the hundredth anniversary of the late Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen's. As a main event and closing ceremony of the worldwide 'Ibsen year', Peer Gynt was performed in Giza beside the Sphinx. For lighting control AVAB/CAC Norway who supported the project, used one grandMA full-size, one grandMA light and two NSPs.

Lighting designer Torkel Skjerven and his assistants Andreas Glad and Stefan Dombeck created a sophisticated show. "The lighting equipment was provided locally by High Lights Egypt while AVAB/CAC provided the grandMA control system," reports Skjerven, "We ran a network of grandMA full-size together with grandMA light as well as multiple grandMA onPC laptops. When dealing with multiple types of fixtures, grandMA gives a great overview of groups, presets as well as colour mixing. Its use of colour coding and different views make

UK - PLASA has announced that the next meeting of its Manufacturers Forum will take place on Tuesday 5 December at the DTI Conference Centre in central London. The Forum, which was established in 2005 to allow PLASA to better understand the issues faced by its manufacturing members, is open to any member company who wishes to attend.

One of the dominant themes of the December forum will be a discussion of Ofcom's proposals, as part of the planned TV switchover from analogue to digital, to sell-off the radio frequencies currently used by the UK entertainment industry. If the sell-off goes ahead as planned, it will leave the UK live events sector without a licence - a major blow for the industry.

Thanks to a strategy suggested by PLASA and its political lobbyists Ranelagh, BEIRG is now lobbying Government to highlight the damage that the spectrum sell-off will have to a sector t

Australia - Haycom Staging has purchased a number of LSC Lighting e24v2 touring dimmers. These units provide a complete portable solution with 24 channels of dimming, 2:1series/parallel patch bay and Socapex or Weiland outputs connectors, all in a compacttouring roadcase, says the company.

"They're a nice, compact dimmer rack with flexible patching on them and LSC is a wellregarded, reliable brand," says Steve Leiter, lighting director at HaycomStaging.

Leiter had a thorough look at all available dimmers on the market but the LSC e24v2package stood out for a variety of reasons. In particular the LCD touch screen on thecontrol panel impressed him. "It allows a quick access to all the functions via simplemenus and also allows you to record internal scenes and looks via the DMXsnapshots," he said. The e24v2 also includes an LSCnet interface as standard, so the

UAE - Production Technology LLC better known in Dubai as Protec recently provided full lighting production services to their Dubai based client, Al Nabooda Automobiles, on the occasion of the Middle East's largest ever car launch. This took place in the iconic Sheikh Rashid Hall of Dubai's International Convention Centre, within the United Arab Emirates.

Al Nabooda, the leading Audi distributor in the Middle East, launched the latest top of the range SUV from Audi: the Q7. The event was attended by over a thousand invited guests, including selected local VIPs.

The set consisted of, among others, eight hydraulic scissor lifts, four of which lifted two cars through the stage, with the other four featuring UK based pyrotechnic performers from Phoenix Productions.

Eight cars were flown in from the roof of the venue, as part of the reveal, under state of the art motor control sys

UK - Leeds' Grand Theatre, the performance base for Opera North, has reopened to great acclaim after a two year transformation programme by BDP.

The Grand Theatre built in 1878 was a major milestone in Victorian theatre building and is listed Grade II. Once described as "probably the finest theatre of its size in Britain," the Grand's 19th century facilities no longer met present day audience and performance expectations. Working conditions backstage and facilities for artists were increasingly difficult and inefficient.

The £16m first phase works on the theatre have involved new seating, improved sight lines, better ventilation and improved facilities for the disabled. Backstage, the fly tower and flying systems have been upgraded, and two new rehearsal rooms constructed on an adjacent site are connected to the Theatre by a wide bridge, which also acts as a sc

UK - A Stage Pyrotechnics Safety Awareness Course will take place on Tuesday 28 November, at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, in London.

The event will be hosted by Stage Electrics and for more information contact Sara Alarabi on 0117 937 9503.

(Chris Henry)

UK - Philips has introduced the successor to the CD-R 'Lamps for Optical purposes'. The new CD-R 'Philips Optical lamps - Entertainment Lighting' is not only an update but also contains improvements for the user, says the company.

The CD-R has new, more extensive search possibilities; you can search for information via different entries and the CD-R is now application oriented. This new CD-R will support the customers in tracing product information quickly and is based on customer requests.

It will be updated twice a year and will be extended with Medical/Projection lamps in 2007.

(Chris Henry)

Italy - L&SI has learned of the formation of the AILD - the Association of Italian Lighting Designers - conceived with support from the Libera Accademia della Luce and APIAS, the Italian trade association for professional lighting and sound.

The AILD's mission statement says it aims "to give full recognition to the professional category of the Lighting Designer who operates in a cultural context and to the art of lighting in all its forms of expression: theatre, dance, opera, television, cinema, live events, direction of photography and architectural lighting", and "to protect the right of authorship" of lighting designs.

Giovanni Pinna, president of the AILD, says: "Our belief in this ambitious adventure, in the collaboration of our international colleagues and above all in the other Associations who have worked successfully in this field for some tim

Russia - A substantial Robe moving light system, complete with a Robe DMX Control 1024 desk and Robe haze effects have been installed into the brand new 400 capacity Plaza Club in Gomel, Belarus.

The building was previously a classic 1950s cinema, which has been completely gutted and rebuilt by Gomel-based Plaza-Invest who also own another successful club in the town. The Plaza has already become one of the hottest club tickets in town, partly due to it's spectacular lightshow.

The club features three bars and a dancefloor which is the heart of the space and a wide ranging music policy. The owners wanted to have one of the best lightshows in town so they approached Minsk based design, hire and sales company, Art Ramos Studio a.l.c. (ARS) to produce a design, and supply the gear. Art Ramos has been at the forefront of Belarus's professional entertainment industry lighting for 1

USA - When drawing up plans for Widespread Panic's 28-date U.S. tour this autumn, lighting designer Candace Brightman wanted the visual show to be as free-wheeling and spontaneous as the group. To accomplish this goal, Brightman, who served as LD for Grateful Dead for 20 years, worked with Andrew Gumper of AG Light & Sound, which assisted in the programming and visual design of the show.

The duo chose a gear package built around eight Power Spot 575IEs and 32 Power Wash 575Es moving heads from Elation Professional. Three truss arches were constructed over the stage, with the eight Power Spots being positioned on the centre arch. The Power Washes were placed eight each on four separate strips of trussing encircling the stage, two extending diagonally at the front, and two running along the sides of the stage perpendicular to the arches.

"Candace was looking for something d

UK - Lighting Partners, operator of usedlighting.co.uk, has recently moved its operation to a brand new building in Croydon, just down the road from its old warehouse in Beckenham, South London.

Speaking about the move, David Morgan of Lighting Partners commented: "This long-awaited relocation will increase efficiency throughout our operation from equipment servicing to dispatch. A huge increase in warehouse space plus a larger service area will enable us to meet our rapidly expanding used equipment needs and our increased stock levels of new equipment. For the first time since launching the business three years ago our sales and administration function will be integrated on site further increasing the speed of order fulfillment."

The 5,000sq.ft building, which is just four weeks old, is located off the Purley Way in Croydon with excellent links to Central London and

Australia - Australian designer and manufacturer of lighting control products, LSC Lighting Systems, have announced the shipment of the 1000th Minim console from its assembly plant in Melbourne.

The first Minim - which, LSC says, was the direct result of listening to customer requests and in-depth market research - rolled off the production line in 2003. Since its inception there has only ever been one software version of the Minim - testament to its clever design, say LSC. Based on a fader-style theatrical layout, the Minim can be used as a 12-channel twin preset manual control console, or with a tap of a single button, switched to memory recall mode. The Minim can also be used as a 24-channel console in wide mode and includes switchable mains power supply to ensure reliable operation anywhere in the world. The Minim has firmly established itself as a standard in the entertainm

Europe - Pink's current tour is called I'm Not Dead which is dramatically indisputable to those who have witnessed the acrobatic and physically demanding show she is performing across Europe until the end of the year and worldwide in 2007.

Bandit Lites UK is supplying full lighting production and crew for Pink's tour, a rig that includes Martin MAC 2000 Washes, MAC 2000 Profiles, Atomic strobes and Jem ZR fog machines.

The production and lighting design was created by Mark Fisher and Barry 'Baz' Halpin. With considerable input from Pink, they've woven lighting, video and scenic elements into a stimulating and provocative visual collage.

"This is not a standard pop show," says Halpin. "It's full of tricks and gimmicks and is highly choreographed. Pink is very versatile and is heavily involved in design and production of the show."

Some 110 MAC 200

UK - Adlib Lighting is to host two WholeHog 3/iPC training courses in conjunction with High End Systems from 10 - 14 January. Each course will provide two days of training. The training days will be held at Adlib's Liverpool HQ and will be presented by Frank Schotman from HES Europe.

There are six available places per course. The course has been specifically designed to allow attendees sufficient attention time on each console - which will include the WholeHog 3 and Hog iPC.

"It's very much hands-on and practical in approach" says Abraham, who adds that the courses are being run due to popular demand after numerous requests form visiting crews and operators, and also because Adlib is keen to embrace the ongoing convergence between themselves and High End Systems.

The company has recently invested in new lighting consoles including a Hog iPC which is currently in ac

People's Republic of China - For the first time all Portuguese-speaking countries came together for a sporting event - the Lusofonia Games. The games were held in Macau, a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China. With an impressive opening ceremony in the Macau Stadium, Beijing based lighting director Simon Leeds, and lighting operator Jason Weng, announced the beginning of seven days of competition between eleven nations, 733 athletes and four continents - all united by their language. Three grandMA full-size and four NSPs controlled the huge lighting rig which consisted amongst others of 400 moving-lights, 60 Sky Art 4k CMY searchlights and 820 PAR cans.

"The grandMA was the most suitable due to all the different fixtures being used and its ease of programming," explains Leeds, "another important factor for choosing MA Lighting technology

UK - For the fourth year in succession, entertainment lighting supplier White Light was commissioned by the Estée Lauder Companies to turn a major UK landmark pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October. Previous years have seen White Light's team transform landmarks from the Royal Opera House in London to the Biomes at the Eden Project in Cornwall.

To achieve the dramatic lighting of Nelson's Column White Light's Simon Jones used a wide selection of equipment from White Light's extensive rental stock, including ETC Source Fours, White Light Exhibition Uplighters, Clay Paky Alpha Wash 1200s, StudioDue Citycolour 400s, Martin MAC2000 Profiles and Vari*Lite VL2000 Washes all controlled from an MA Lighting grandMA Lite console. The equipment was installed by a team led by Jones and production electrician Ben Cash.

The most challenging part of the project was lighting

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