USA - Worldwide automated lighting and control manufacturer High End Systems recently expanded its European sales team with the addition of Ruediger Haeming as regional sales manager - Central Europe. Haeming's territory includes Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy.

Haeming brings over a decade of entertainment lighting experience in international sales and distribution, most recently with Arcus Lighting in Paderborn, Germany. As Arcus is the High End Systems distributor for Germany, Haeming will continue to work with his former company but in his new capacity with HES.

Haeming jumped into the Digital Lighting Revolution with High End's introduction of the Catalyst mirror head in 2001. Since then he has assisted lighting designers and Wholehog 3 console operators in professional shows with all of High End's line of products including its DL.2 and Catalyst v4 media server.<

USA - Lightolier Controls and Entertainment Technology have announced the hiring of Charlie Hulme as national sales manager. Based out of the Genlyte Controls home office in Dallas, Texas, Hulme will oversee all sales staff and initiatives for both Lightolier Controls and Entertainment Technology.

"Charlie possesses two powerful characteristics that we were searching for in a National Sales Manager," said Julie Smith, Lightolier Controls and Entertainment Technology general manager. "The first is a tremendous aptitude to effectively lead a team of sales managers, and the second is his success building strong and lasting relationships with current and potential clients. We are very excited to have Charlie on board, and are optimistic that his hiring will have a positive effect on our bottom line."

"I am thrilled to be stepping into my new role with Ligh

UK - The Association of Stage Pyrotechnicians has announced the dates of the next batch of Pyrotechnic Safety Awareness training courses in the UK. The dates of the forthcoming courses are as follows:

Loughborough University - Students Union: Monday 19 February 2007
Hosted by LSU Entertainments: Contact - Jamie Campbell
tel: 01509 635101
email: avmcrew@lborosu.org.uk

Loughborough University - Students Union - TBC: Tuesday 20 February 2007
Hosted by LSU Entertainments: Contact - Jamie Campbell
tel: 01509 635101
email:avmcrew@lborosu.org.uk

Aberdare - Coliseum Theatre: Wednesday 28 March 2007
Hosted by ABTT. Contact - ABTT office:
tel: 020 7242 9200
email: training@abtt.org.uk

Taunton - Brewhouse Theatre: Monday 30 April 2007
Hosted by Stage Electrics Limited: Contact - Sara Alarabi.
email: sara.alarabi@stage-electrics.co.uk

Reading - Hex

USA - Martin Professional has announced the hiring of Paul Teague who joins the Martin team as a regional sales manager (Southeast) for the company's public spaces segment. Teague, based in the Dallas area, began in his new position in early December.

Teague's responsibilities involve the cultivation of business and professional relationships with lighting solutions company Holophane, which Martin has recently formed a commercial cooperation with in the United States. The cooperation enables Holophane to offer Martin Professional's complete architectural range of colour-changing luminaires countrywide. Teague will also manage sales targets, marketing plans and strategies, as well as develop and manage specifications for business within Martin's Southeast regional territory.

Teague comes to Martin from The Lighting Alliance, a manufacturer's representative in Dallas, where he w

Argentina - Named after Christopher Columbus and declared a National Historical Monument in 1989, the Teatro Colón is a significant example of cultural heritage in the City of Buenos Aires, and plays a key role in Argentina's artistic industry, defining, promoting and projecting national identity throughout the world. The theatre was recently equipped with Selecon Pacific Zoomspots, chosen for their "exceptional luminaires with outstanding performance, optically and mechanically".

Located on de Julio, the widest street in the world, the 2,367-seat Teatro Colón is the second largest performing arts theatre in the southern hemisphere, second only to Australia's Sydney Opera House. The theatre opened on 25 May 1908 with a performance of Verdi's Aida and during the twentieth century has deservedly earned the reputation of a world-renowned operatic centre possessin

UK - Tryka L.E.D. will show its entire range of LED luminaires and drivers at the forthcoming ARC '07 exhibition (Business Design Centre, London, 12-13 February). The new Strip Module system will be shown for the first time at the architectural show. Featuring the powerful K2 Luxeon LEDs, the new system offers a variety of Strip Modules in a choice of lengths and optional optics. Thanks to the unique airtight clip system all models in the range are sealed to a guaranteed IP65 rating, making them suitable for all interior and exterior applications.

The extended family of Intelligent Drive Systems will also be on show, as well as being used to drive all luminaires on the stand, showing its wealth of built-in functions. Each IDS-4 and IDS-12 can run up to 144 LEDs, with the complementary IDS Wall Control DMX offering remote recall of all functions stored on the Drivers and dimming

UK - All are invited to High End Systems' Open House of new products on Wednesday 28 February and Thursday 1 March in London, UK. The company will be offering drinks and refreshments all day (11.00-18.00) with a complimentary lunch buffet available from 12.30-14.30 each day. The day will include demonstrations of the company's DL.2s and its new software features, Wholehog 3 and Hog iPC consoles, all three models of Studio Command (700W, 1200W and Halogen), and Catalyst and Axon Media Servers.

The location is at the Red Stage at Dukes Island Studios on Dukes Road, Western Avenue, London W3 0SL. Those interested in attending should RSVP to the e-mail address below, noting 'London' in the subject field.

India - India's leading lighting designer Atul Sonpal wowed the crowds at the 2007 Hero Honda Star Screen Awards using Clay Paky Alpha Spot and Wash fixtures.

Sonpal's company, Mumbai-based Jagmag Electric, also lighting contractors for the event, is the newly appointed Clay Paky dealer for western India. Clay Paky shipped extra units out to Jagmag in time for the event.

The Star Screen Awards is the highest profile Indian film awards ceremony of the season, and this year was staged at the Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai. Now in its 14 year. Winners are selected by a panel of industry professionals and the winning criteria is professional excellence.

Sonpal's clients were the Indian Express newspaper and Cineyug Entertainment, and the show was attended by a host of celebrities, dignitaries and VIPs including Chief Minister Vilas Rao Deshmukh. The show was also recorded

USA - On December 10, 2006, Spring Awakening opened on Broadway at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre. After receiving critical acclaim as an off-Broadway smash-hit, this controversial and inspirational musical is once again achieving box office success. Behind the lighting design of Spring Awakening is lighting designer Kevin Adams, and behind Adams is the VL1000TI automated luminaire, and a Strand 550I lighting control console.

"While we were moving the production from off-Broadway, I basically took the same lighting plot, and then added in the VL1000 fixtures," said Adams. "I really like how the tungsten source from the VL1000 shines on faces."

Adams first used the VL1000TI luminaire on the Broadway production of Good Body starring Eve Ensler. This production was a one-woman show with a small amount of music, and so he needed an automated li

UK - ETC has released the dates of further training sessions for their Congo andCongo jr lighting control consoles. The courses are aimed for those whohave recently heard about the desks and want to get to know them in afriendly environment.

Training is hands on, with no more than two people per console, and thereare only 10 places available for each two-day session, which will be taughtby associate regional manager for UK & Ireland, Jeremy Roberts. Registrationis first come, first served, and all training sessions held so far have beenfull. The next available session is on 21-22 February, with another inMarch.

To book, send an email to the address below, including acontact number, or telephone +44 (0)20 8896 1000. The courses, which cost £100per person and include lunch, will be held at ETC's in-house training anddemo facility, The Playhouse at Gypsy Corner in west Lond

UK - Stage Electrics is supplying a large lighting package to The Sound of Music, playing in the West End. The rig includes Martin MAC TW1 Tungsten wash fixtures, MAC 700 Washes and MAC 700 Profiles. The show premiered at the London Palladium on Wednesday 15 November, with Stage Electrics also supplying the lighting to the after-show party.

Working alongside production electrician Fraser Hall and production manager Matt Towell, Stage Electrics supplied a total of 17 tons of equipment; the equipment was delivered to the Palladium in just three weeks from point of order. The Martin fixtures are complimented by 19 Vari*Lite VL1000AS.

The lead for this new production of the Rogers and Hammerstein show, one of the world's most loved musicals, was decided via the reality television show How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? with Andrew Lloyd Webber as the ultimate jud

UK - Dialight Lumidrives, the UK based LED technology provider, has appointed PatrickVan Der Meulen as European OEM technical sales manager.

Van Der Meulen, 37, joins Dialight Lumidrives with over 12 years experience in thelighting industry. He joins having spent the previous six years with LEDmanufacturer Lumileds, initially as a mechanical engineer and latterly astechnical support manager for Europe with responsibility to train and educatecustomers on how to use high-power LEDs. Before joining Lumileds he worked atPhilips Lighting Development Laboratories.

Van Der Meulen will be based near Eindoven in The Netherlands. He will be responsiblefor focusing on Dialight Lumidrives OEM customers across northern Europe andproviding them with sales and technical support.

Gordon Routledge, managing director at Dialight Lumidrives says: "Patrick'sappointment is part of the conti

UK - Rosco will be introducing the X factor to the annual Architectural, Retail & Corporate Lighting (ARC) trade show this year 12-13 February, Business Design Centre, London). The X-Effects large-scale 3D image projector provides large scale 3D effects previously unavailable to lighting designers. Utilising a 200W Enhanced Metal Arc source, whose short arc allows for an output of 5,000 lumens and a 7,000-hour lamp life, the colour temperature is similar to a Xenon source at 6000°K but with nearly twice the luminous effectiveness of a halogen source.

The effect is created by rotating two X-size glass gobos off centre of the optical path; this results in a projection that does not appear to have a visible direction or pattern, say Rosco. The colour slot will accept dichroic colour filters and the projector includes onboard potentiometers to control the speed and direction of

USA - Elektralite, manufacturers of entertainment lighting fixtures and controllers, haveannounced the launch of PaintSpot, an affordable color changing spot fixture, to compliment the extremely popular PaintCan flood released last year. By using the same lamp types as its wide angle brother (either the economical GLA or GLC 3200K) and utilising a 24° beam angle and six colour wheel (plus white), users have plenty of "light muscle" available to punch through the strongest colour washes, even in haze or fog, say Elektralite.

With two gobo wheels - one rotating and indexable, the other fixed - a myriad of dynamic effects can be created and played upon the chosen subject. And being interchangeable, gobos can be switched around or substituted with others from the large Elektralite collection. Other features include full electronic focussing, an iris and strobe facility

UK - London's first festival of light, 'Switched On London', will be switched on at the Pool of London tomorrow night at 6pm and will continue until 16 February in conjunction with The ARC Show (Business Design Centre, London, 12-13 February).

Members of the lighting design and architecture community from all over the world are being invited to attend the festival to examine the relationship between light, architecture and the city consisting of temporary lighting installations and a series of light related events with an overall concept theme of 'theatre'.

The Pool of London is a natural amphitheatre within the city, encompassing the River Thames, bordered by Tower Bridge and London Bridge and including many famous landmarks. A number of iconic landmarks in the area including The Tower of London, Tower Bridge, HMS Belfast and City Hall will be temporarily and spectacularly li

Italy - Rome-based rental company Brokershow is the latest Italian hire company to invest in Robe Show Lighting's new DigitalSpot 5000 DT.

Massimo D'Aiello (one of the three brothers who own the company) explained that they have invested heavily in Robe moving lights over the last three years, and now have over 60 Robe products including ColorSpot 1200 ATs, ColorSpot and Wash 575 ATs and ColorMix 575 ATs. They like the brand because the fixtures are reliable and hard wearing - essential features for a busy rental company.

When the DigitalSpot was launched, they were keen to get the new fixtures into their hire stock, and went ahead with the purchase of two units. "It was a hugely versatile, new and exciting product and we knew we would have work for them immediately - so we didn't think twice about it," says D'Aiello.

Brokershow was founded five years ago. They sup

UK - March once again brings the RSAMD (Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama) Graduate Exhibition and Trade Show (21-22 March, 10.00am - 5.00pm). For two days, final year students of the Technical and Production Arts Course will be exhibiting a broad range of work from their three years of study in the Chandler Studio Theatre.

At the same time, the Academy's main theatre, the New Athenaeum, will become an exhibition space for the Technical and Production Arts Programme's sponsors and suppliers, enabling them to demonstrate and discuss their most recent equipment and products with prospective clients and visitors to the Academy. Companies such as Black Light, Stage Technologies, ETC, MA Lighting, Green Hippo, Selecon, Martin Professional and White Light will be taking part.Alongside this, a range of seminars will also be taking place over the two days, lead by Bernie Davies

Hong Kong - The Canon Corporation has recently installed the latest Laservision LED technology at its prominent Kowloon skyscraper base, called Oterprise Square, so that the building can participate in Hong Kong's record-breaking Symphony of Light Show.

"Artificial light accounts for almost one-fifth of the world's electricity consumption - substantially more than the output of all the nuclear power stations in the world. Within 25 years, the global demand for artificial light is projected to be almost twice today's level as the developing world moves towards western living standards," say Laservision.

The company says that a shift in global climate trends and an international focus on sustainable energy has seen high-rise buildings around the world favouring energy efficient lighting design as a means of retrofitting structures for modern times.

Many governments a

UK - Beadlight will be launching five new products at the ARC Show next week (Business Design Centre, London, 12-13 February). Based on their proprietary diffusion and video technologies, these Bead*light LED fixtures add a rich ambiance to the local environment through their ability to work together as an automated, integrated 2D or 3D screen array. The ice*lighting range, of which these new products form part, offers designers the ability to create unique dispersed screen features over which animations, textures and colours seamlessly flow, say the company.

The ice*lighting products being officially launched at ARC are: Panel - five-pixel panel (L 510mm / W 110mm / D 85mm); Crystal Cube - an artistic version of the ice*lighting cube where the 'circular' light source is contained within a clear acrylic housing; Pixule - the ice*lighting version of the Bead*light capsule which a

Italy - The Mole Antonelliana dominates the skyline of Turin. At over 167m, La Mole was the highest brick building in the world at the time of its completion and remains the tallest building in Turin. To celebrate International AIDS Day, architect Daniela Fabbris began a search to find a lighting fixture capable of projecting a logo directly on to La Mole from a terrace at a distance of 30m.

Alessandro Fantin from Vari*Lite distributor Audio Link explains: "During the meeting I had to personally guarantee that the VL3500Q spot would be able to project the standard colour of the red AIDS logo - as it was impossible to do tests due to the city location of La Mole and the webcams connected. A risky promise, but one I knew the fixture could deliver!"

The Turin government have embraced the project as previously the only logos that could be projected and seen on the brown

UK - Entertainment lighting supplier White Light will be at ARC 07, the architectural, retail and commercial lighting show, which takes place at the Business Design Centre in Islington, North London from February 12-13. White Light will be on the Enliten Architectural Lighting stand, M35, demonstrating a range of products for which they are the exclusive UK distributors.

Those looking to control lighting remotely without the need cables will be interested in the W-DMX wireless DMX system from Wireless Solutions in Sweden, currently in use on the Light Elements project in Maidstone.

Designers looking for cost-effective playback of pre-programmed lighting will be interested in the showSTORE and miniSTORE DMX playback systems from ELC which record and playback DMX data from shows created on full-featured lighting controllers and then play it back triggered by conditions such as c

France - ETC, through its French partner ATF - Avab Transtechnik France - will onceagain be showing off its newest and latest products at SIEL, including Congoand its little brother Congo jr, which has been a runaway success in Franceand across Europe.

The Congo console was designed " to be the most complete platform forcontrol of any device - whether that happens to be conventional dimming,automated luminaires or media servers - without losing the feel of a classiclighting control system," says Avab software developer Anders Ekvall. Otherteam members included Avab Transtechnik France's Jean-Louis Pernette andChristian Rezgui, who were instrumental in directing product development.

Just a year later, ETC introduced the Congo jr, with the same functionalityof Congo but with a smaller footprint and smaller price tag - aimed at venues like rehearsal halls or black-box t

New Zealand - Selecon and Philips hosted a seminar in Taiwan that highlighted the supply chain from lamp manufacturer to end user. "We had a challenging situation" says Phil Sargent, regional market manager for Selecon, "you can do a nice presentation together with product demonstrations but it really doesn't do justice to the whole background story behind the optical system development and thousands of hours of R&D time."

Normally the partnership between the luminaire and lamp manufacturer's R&D teams is glossed over and presenters move on to more product specific areas, and this leaves the story of the collaboration untold.

"Philips and Selecon have the same dealer in Taiwan, and when Mr. Anthony Wu, managing director of Ming Li approached us with his idea of a joint seminar, we were delighted to be involved" says Sargent. "After discussin

World - Lighting designer Bryan Leitch has specified Avolites to control lighting for Justin Timberlake's extensive Future Sex/Love 2007 world tour which kicked off in San Diego in January and hits the UK and Europe in April and May.

As soon as Leitch won the design contract, his company Siyan immediately purchased two additional Diamond 4s from Avo. Siyan's three existing D4 consoles were already committed and spec'd onto other tours running during the same period.

Leitch co-designed and developed the Future Sex/Love show with programmer Nick Whitehouse. The two had worked together on Coldplay's 2003/04 Rush of Blood To The Head tour which also utilised a D4.

Fixture-wise, the D4 is controlling over 120 Vari*Lites - a mix of VL4s and VL3000 spots and washes plus 12 VL1000s; 120 ColorKinetics ColorBlasts; 20 Syncrolites - eight 1Ks and twelve 3ks; 40 Ato

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