Italy - For the debut of the new 500 (a car that made history in Italy and Europe in post-war times), Fiat did it in the big way. After a long wait, on the 4th of July the new compact car was revealed within the spectacular "Welcome 500" live show. For the first time ever, a new car model was presented to a worldwide audience (via streaming web, a major Italian TV network and maxiscreens in the largest squares in Turin) live from the Murazzi alongside the river Po.

Coemar was there with 50 Wash Flex, 50 Spot Extreme and 24 ParLite Led. And on the next two days the show was staged a further 30 Italian cities, too.

(Jim Evans)

UK - This year's winner of the Michael Northen Bursary, who received an honourable mention last year, is Georg Spindler who entered his lighting design for The Memory of Water, which formed part of the 2007 student show at LIPA.

Described by the judges as "creative in a very theatrical way, this was a beautifully documented and reasoned entry, with well presented sketches and photographs," the design won Spindler the £500 Bursary.

Presenting the award on 11 September at PLASA 07, Rick Fisher, chairman of the ALD, said: "There was definitely no 'favouritism' because this year, for the first time, the judges were not told the names of the entrants, so to us all the entries were anonymous."

The judges - ALD members Rick Fisher, Sam Gibbons, Mark Jonathan, Mary Pope, Paul Pyant, Mike Robertson and Mark White, also representing ETC - were unanimou

Australia - LSC Lighting Systems in conjunction with Iceworks Design, have come together to light up the Gateway Upgrade Project - Customer Information Centre, located in Queensland, Australia.

The Gateway Upgrade Project is the largest bridge and road construction project in Queensland's history, totalling more than $1.87Billion. The project includes the construction of a second Gateway Bridge and the upgrade of more than 20km of roads, plus the addition of a Customer Information Centre.

Key to helping community understand, interact and accept the new construction is the Customer Information Centre and of course its interactive presentations. Technically speaking the centre is controlled by a Pharos LPC1 (LSC is the official Australian Distributor of the Pharos brand) and an LSC EKO Dimmer. The user interface is also provided by LSC in the ePlate wall controllers, each with e

USA - Founded in 1996, LifeChurch.tv has grown to become one of the most influential churches in America. LifeChurch.tv is a dynamic group of almost 20,000 people that gathers each week at 12 different locations across the US (the vision is for 50 locations in five years). Satellite broadcasts enable all of their locations to be connected, thus their motto 'One Church, Multiple Locations'.

"Each location has a full staff and a worship team that is very contemporary, like a rock band," says Phil Rapp, central technical director at LifeChurch.tv. "The teaching is very relevant to every day life and is fed over satellite to each location. Putting it simply, we will do anything short of sin to see people come to know life in Christ."

Currently, LifeChurch.tv owns over 250 intelligent lighting fixtures from five different manufacturers. "With the vision of

USA - Theatrical Lighting Systems Inc (TLS Inc) has announced the new location of its Nashville office, and two new sales project managers to man it. The new location is 2961 Armory Drive - North Entrance. Expansion is expected as renovations to the building are completed. The renovations will allow for a sales showroom and rental warehouse.

Two "local guys" who have worked in Nashville for many years were hired as new sales project managers. Mike Brack has worked in television, video production and sales since 1986, while J. Andy Flatt has worked in the lighting business since 1987.

(Jim Evans)

Italy - The return of Biagio Antonacci with a mega-concert at the Meazza Stadium (his only Italian summer 2007 date, with guest bands Velvet, Zero Assoluto and the Nomadi certainly lived up to the expectations of his fans.

The set centred on a mega-video (consisting of 11 13.5m high columns) and three 38m catwalks flanked by 200m of Coemar LineaLeds, and reaching out into the audience. "A very bold design, with a number of problems that were not easy to solve," was the satisfied comment of Francesco De Cave, lighting designer, set designer, producer and Catalyst contribution planner.

"For example, focusing the audience's attention on the centre of the visual field despite the fact that the catwalks, thanks to the LineaLeds, created a stage effect of aircraft runways. Around 50 iWash 575s provided striking colour backlighting. On the video front, the surrounding

UK - HSL supplied lighting for all main live music and DJ venues at Bestival 2007, and co-ordinated the sound supply via their audio partners ML Executives. The operation was led by site project manager Ian Stevens, involving nine artics of equipment and 38 crew.

The hugely popular 'boutique' style music festival produced by Loudsound Events is now in its fourth year on the Isle of Wight and has expanded to a capacity of 30,000. The site surface area at its Robin Hill Country Park location has also increased. Main stage headline acts for 2007 were the Chemical Brothers (Friday), The Beastie Boys (Saturday) and Primal Scream (Sunday).

HSL has been involved with Bestival since its inception in 2004, and once again worked closely with event production manager Lee Charteris and Loudsound's Jim King and Jo MacKay in co-ordinating all the site's technical production and infrastructu

UK - A.C. Lighting has opened a new 24-hour online shop (www.aclighting.com/shop) to provide customers with round-the-clock ordering access to its range of entertainment technology brands.

Initially the shop will sell consumable items, but as it develops, A.C. Lighting will be introducing more and more items from its extensive range of lighting, audio and rigging products. Consumables currently available through the shop include batteries, effects fluid, filter sheets, gobos, gobo accessories, lamps and tape.

With the shop being available to customers worldwide and many items available in stock for immediate despatch, the new service provides customers with a fast, efficient way to order urgent items for speedy delivery, says the company.

(Jim Evans)

Denmark - Mark Ravenhill, vice-president television and theatre lighting at Martin Professional A/S, has relocated back to the company's Danish headquarters after a two-year assignment at Martin's Florida-based US subsidiary.

Ravenhill's primary goal in locating to the US in 2005 was to place increased focus on America's influential television and theatre markets, along with the growing House of Worship market. He also lent invaluable support through a period of personnel changes at Martin US, says the company.

"I thoroughly enjoyed the two years that I spent in the US organisation," Ravenhill commented. "I not only learnt a great deal about the US market and its way of doing business, which was one of my main goals, but I made many friends along the way."

(Jim Evans)

UK - ETC's PLASA Award for Innovation for its Eos lighting control system has meant a hat-trick of Awards for the company. This is the third such honour that the Eos has won, following product of the year awards at LDI at the end of 2006 and Showtech 2007 in June.

ETC's CEO Fred Foster says: "It is truly gratifying to receive this PLASA award, as well as the other recognitions that the Eos system has received. And it particularly validates the creative efforts of the Eos development team, lead by Dennis Varian, Anne Valentino and Dan Duffy."

(Jim Evans)

UK - Robe Lighting has launched a fresh new look logo and has undertaken a complete corporate re-branding exercise - including a name-change from 'Robe Show Lighting' to 'Robe Lighting', to reflect the current scope and breadth of Robe's products and the hugely increased range which also includes digital lighting and LED products.

In just five years since launching as an 'own brand', Robe has enjoyed enormous success worldwide, and the company says its new identity takes it forward into "a new level of operation".

Robe's presence can be found in all sectors of the professional entertainment and leisure market - from clubs and live music venues to casinos and cruise ships to buildings and architectural applications.

The new logo was introduced at the PLASA 07 exhibition, which also included a completely new booth with a strong contemporary design.

(Jim Evans)

UK - The latest new face representing Stage Electrics on the London scene is Mark Burnett, who joins Paul Roughton as part of Chris Patton's team of business development managers.

Burnett has made the move from the company's Cambridge branch where he has been working for the last two years; and will be concentrating on the West End and touring theatre business.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Lighting designer Mark Wynn-Edwards is lighting the current As I Lay Dying tour with 20 i-Pix Satellites as the core elements of his lighting rig.

The energetic San Diego based metalcore five-piece are currently undertaking an extensive European tour promoting their just released An Ocean Between Us album. It's their first visit to the UK and Europe with their own production.

When Wynn-Edwards, who has an array of heavy, metal and punk bands on his CV, was recommended for the job of LD, he was informed that there was an expedient budget for 'specials' and other than that, he'd have to rely on house rigs at each venue.

"I really needed a fixture that was mega-bright and spectacular that would flash, strobe and change colour very quickly to match the energy and intensity of the music," says Wynn-Edwards. "I also wanted to add a few elements of finess

USA - ETC has released an update for its newest and most advanced lighting control system to date, the Eos. Version 1.2 is designed primarily to provide support for Net3 Radio Focus Remote (RFR) units and Universal 2x10 fader wings, although many other features and improvements have been added.

In addition to the RFR and fader wing support, other major enhancements in v1.2.0 include improved features such as Undo/Command history. This command allows you to sequentially undo the last actions taken, including record, update and delete functions. A Redo command is also included.

Up to 1000 snapshots can be stored and recalled, which reconfigure selected portions of the desk and external monitors to their condition at the point the snapshot was stored.

Curves may be defined and edited to 100 points of granularity. These then can be assigned to dimmers in patch, or to cues or cue

USA - American DJ has added three new mobile effects to its On-The-Go Series - the Deco FX, Hyper FX and Warp FX. Targeted toward beginners as well as experienced performers, each of these additions to the On-The-Go series is modelled after a larger, more complex and/or more expensive American DJ effect that is not part of the series, says the company.

"With these three new fixtures, we've taken some of our best-selling effects and re-interpreted them to fit the On-The-Go model by scaling down their size and weight and simplifying their operation," said Scott Davies, general manager of the American DJ Group of Companies. "Our new Deco FX, Hyper FX and Warp FX are designed for anyone who wants an effortless and affordable way to enhance their performance with an interesting variety of great, professional-quality effects. If you're a DJ, musician or entertainer who

USA - Bandit Lites recently lit Volunteers Crusin' For A Cause homecoming celebration. Coaches, Holly Warlick and Nikki Caldwell road Harley Davidson motorcycles for an 11-day cross-country journey to raise breast cancer awareness.

The Market Square homecoming event was the last stop in a 3,000-mile ride from Berkley, California to Knoxville, Tennessee. The trip also included special events and rallies in Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Dallas, Little Rock, Memphis and Nashville.

Lighting designer, Chris Lisle, chose to use six-Lamp Bar Silvers, Martin MAC 500s, 600s, Coemar LED Pars, and Martin Atomic Strobes. Lighting was controlled by a WholeHog II.

"Lighting design for Crusin' For A Cause was actually pretty simple, but I tried to add some uniqueness to it," explains Lisle. "Because there was a lot of TV coverage, and IMAG for the video screen, I bas

UK - The first LED fixture capable of competing against a conventional 575W washlight made its debut at this month's PLASA Show on the stand of German company GLP. And waiting to snap up the first consignment to arrive in the UK were leading theatrical hire companies, White Light and Hawthorn Theatrical.

Ian Kirby, of UK distributor Lighting Effects Distribution, confirmed that the two companies had secured the first GLP Impression compact moving heads to arrive in the UK after they had been previewed at this spring's ProLight&Sound expo in Frankfurt, and then successfully trialed at Live Earth in Hamburg.

German promoter Marek Lieberberg commissioned Cologne-based Showtec to handle the lighting, and they designed 75 of the pioneering heads into their stage grid for the event.

This was all the encouragement Ian Kirby needed. The delighted distributor reports that L.E.D. now

UK - The London Coliseum has carried out the first upgrade of its dimming system since the completion of its four year restoration programme in 2004, with the installation of an ETC Sensor+ 96 way dimming rack. The complete installation, from receipt of order to re-energising the system, took just eight days, ensuring the house was ready for rehearsals and performances in the new season.

The order for the new rack was received by Fagan Electrical on 30 August 30 and ETC delivered the rack to the Coliseum the following Monday. The Sensor+ rack upgrades the house light dimming system, supplying more than 80 channels, most with an RCD on each channel. Other channels utilise the Sensor+ emergency lighting modules, some dimmed, some relay switching. Control is from an ETC Unison system, which was installed during the refurbishment.

Nick Ewins of Fagan Electrical said, "We had

UK - As in the past three years, PRG Europe has supplied the lighting and control for the Edinburgh Tattoo, which includes over 120 VL5s, 17 City Colors and seven MAC 2000 performance spots, which carry gobos for the show sponsors, as well as a Wholehog III.

Project manager Keith Duncan explains: "Through my company Amorphous Projects, I supply project management and crewing for the entire site electrics. We install the electrical infrastructure for emergency lighting, sound and the show lighting. I have a core crew of four on site: lighting director and operator Gerry Mott, crew chief Biz Bauermeister and lighting technicians Clive Mitchell and Cara Wiseman, who look after the day to day running of the site."

Project manager for PRG Europe John McEvoy notes: "The Tattoo took the opportunity to test out some new follow spots this year and, after I brought some u

UK - York College, a £60 million development consisting of a 29,350 sq.m facility at Sim Balk Lane in York, is one of the largest single further education buildings ever constructed. The building consists of a main theatre space and a separate drama/rehearsal studio. The main space was equipped with 96 ways of Compulite CompuRACK digital dimming.

The College wanted to utilise the very latest technology throughout and a Compulite Vector Green control system, complete with iControl riggers control system and WYSIWYG console edition, was specified. The Vector was chosen because of the ability to completely customise the behaviour and syntax of the console to suit a wide range of users and a multitude of multimedia features using the latest software Release 3.15. Its improved theatre style features were a further advantage.

The Vector PC software is available as a free downl

USA - Wybron has announced that Terry Taylor and John Tabor have joined the company to cement its ability to best serve the house of worship market's lighting needs. Taylor, former head of lighting designs at New Life Church and Tabor, assistant lighting designer at New Life, are two of the country's foremost experts on lighting the worship space.

"I am thrilled that these two successful and high-profile church lighting experts have joined Wybron to support our focus in this vertical market," said Larry Turner, CEO of Wybron. "With Terry and John, Wybron is already improving its role of providing churches with the best possible lighting fixtures and retrofit products that benefit the emotional process of worshiping."

(Jim Evans)

Australia - Following the success of the Colour Your World Conference in March, Mandylights' Greg Yates was again behind the drawing board and then the lighting console for Australia's largest conference - the Hillsong Conference, which saw an abundance of Martin gear in use including the new semi-transparent LC series video screens.

This conference attracted more than 26,000 Christians from 68 nations representing 19 denominations who call the Acer Arena home for five days as part of the annual Hillsong Conference. Considered Australia's largest annual conference, each year it attracts pastors, worship leaders, musicians, community workers and individual believers representing hundreds of churches.

During the conference, the rig has to light everything ranging from the contemporary worship music that Hillsong is famous for, through to ballads from Guy Sebastian and Pau

USA - Modelled after the US Capitol building, the Georgia State Capitol building in Atlanta with its gilded dome and monumental neoclassical structure was considered the perfect expression and symbol of the "New South" when it was built in 1889. More than 100 years later, it's still an architecturally impressive and symbolically important building for one of the country's fastest growing states.

However, at night, the building and dome lost much of its lustre with a lighting scheme that created uneven lighting. The rotunda was primarily lit with 400W high-pressure sodium lamps from an extremely steep angle, resulting in deep shadows above the curve of the dome and at the upper cupola. A mix of lower wattage metal halide lamps and high-pressure sodium lamps combined to create hot spots and uneven colours on the stone and gold leaf.

"The overall result was somewha

USA - Reflecting ever-increasing use of LED sources to light sets and stages around the world, Philips Solid-State Lighting Solutions, the new entity formed by Philips' acquisition of Color Kinetics, has announced the adoption of its new tour-friendly lighting system, ColorBlast 12 TR, by the industry's leading supplier and integrator of entertainment technology equipment - Production Resource Group (PRG).

To provide a one-stop solution for its customers, PRG also purchased the complementary power/data supply, PDS-750 TR, designed by City Theatrical, specifically to withstand the rigours of the touring world.

To date, the integrated LED lighting system has already been supplied for the concert tours and corporate events of Aerosmith, Gwen Stefani and Astra Zenica, and television productions including 1 vs. 100, the Daytime Emmy Awards, and the presidential candidate deb

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