UK - A grandMA full-size is controlling moving lights and LED elements for the London West End production of Sister Act. The show, produced by Stage Entertainment and Whoopi Goldberg, has just opened at the London Palladium.

Natasha Katz is the lighting designer. When she asked Stuart Porter to programme the show for her - the two have previously worked together on Beauty & The Beast - Porter wanted to use a grandMA system, a decision Katz was happy to support. Porter has increased his specification of the grandMA, and on this show he uses a grandMA full-size, a grandMA light for backup and four MA NSPs. A tablet PC running grandMA remote software is also used to run the lights from stage.

The rig contained over 100 moving lights - a mix of 62 Vari*Lite VL3500Qs, 60 VL2500s and 18 VL500s, all supplied by White Light. The many LED elements are ensconced in the set

UK - A massive Anolis architectural LED lighting installation has been completed by A.C. Special Projects at London's iconic Somerset House venue. This was designed by Patrick Woodroffe, who was commissioned by Somerset House's director Gwyn Miles.

Woodroffe's brief was to transform the night time ambience of the Edmond J Safra Fountain Court - the hub of the neoclassical building - with a warm white illumination on the facades. Additionally, utilising RGBA fixtures, Woodroffe introduced the potential to bathe the buildings in a rich medley of colours, adding a theatrical dimension for corporate and themed events.

Somerset House hosts a wide variety of special events and a lively programme of public entertainment throughout the year - including live music concerts, ice skating, presentations, product launches and parties.

Once the contract for the supply and installation was

UK - White Light marked its recent appointment as an approved supplier to London's Natural History Museum by creating a scheme for the venue, showing the possibilities of some of the latest visual technology, transforming a space in support of corporate events, awards ceremonies and corporate hospitality.

White Light's creative designer for this event Jason Larcombe explains: "The Natural History Museum's interior is very responsive to light, and the architecture gives it a great sense of presence. With this in mind guests will feel that they are an important part of a dramatic event."

For this event, the design made use of the new flat Fusion 672 panel in conjunction with other LED products from White Light's inventory. "While the theatrical look created by our visual products is, of course, a primary importance to an event, it is not the only consideration,&qu

UK - PRG Europe has invested in eight of the new Novalight Nova-Flower 2K flower effects for its rental stock, which have been supplied to the Birmingham and London, UK based company by Lightfactor Sales, Novalight's exclusive UK distributor.

The deal was completed between PRG's Paul Weaver and Lightfactor's Peter Coles. It builds on PRG's previous purchases of Novalight High Grounds in 2006, for the Robbie Williams Close Encounters world tour, followed by their original 1.2K Nova-Flowers, supplied by Lightfactor in 2007.

The Nova-Flower 2K offers all the features and functionality of the 1.2K version with substantially more power and punch, says the company.

Nova-Flower is the first fully programmable moving yoke 'flower effect' with DMX controllable pan, tilt, colour and shutter, plus other standard features. It has CMY mixing, a rotating reflector (in both directio

Michael Jackson - Concert promoter Randy Phillips says Michael Jackson's death will not spell the end of his company, AEG Live. "People have speculated that this is going to bankrupt our company," the businessman told Billboard magazine. "The truth is, it isn't." Phillips said insurance was in place to cover Jackson's advance, although insurers may not pay out if the star's death turns out to be drug-related. He added that money could be recouped from footage of the tour rehearsals.

AEG will have to refund up to $85m (£52m) to fans who purchased tickets for Jackson's 50-date residency at London's O2 arena. It is also believed to have spent $23-25m (£14-15m) on production costs. Phillips said those "hard costs" were covered by insurance, although profits were not. Phillips admitted the biggest problem facing AEG at the moment was w

UK - Due to popular demand and the increasing quantities of impression and impression XL fixtures appearing in the British market, GLP recently held a service seminar at the Richard Martin Lighting facilities in London.

Since the original training day became fully booked almost as soon as it was announced, Michael Müller, GLP director of customer support, decided to extend the seminar to a second day.

Around 30 technicians from some of the UK's leading sales and rental companies attended the event. During some relaxed training sessions, conducted by Joachim Kraft, Head of the GLP workshop department, they received detailed knowledge about the impression range and also gained new perspectives on LED lighting technology in general.

"The information gained was very valuable and is now being shared with all our employees globally," said James Prince of Bandit Lites.

Czech Republic - Morava is the latest new club to open in the university town of Zlin in the north of the Czech Republic, complete with a Robe moving light rig, specified by locally based PowerDance, who undertook the technical design and installation of all sound and lighting in the 300 capacity venue.

There has been a club on this centre of town site for about 20 years, but Morava is a new concept under independent ownership, with much attention paid to presentation detail and creating a trendy urban chic vibe.

PowerDance has used Robe products for at least 40 other club installations over the last few years says Šiška Zdenek, who worked closely with the club's lighting operator, Miroslav Werunsky on this project.

Morava is an intimate space and headroom is limited, so they wanted low profile unobtrusive fixtures, and decided on four Robe ClubSpot 160 CTs and four ClubRo

UK - The musical Sister Act, based on the hit film of the same name has opened at the London Palladium. Produced by Whoopi Goldberg, who starred in the film, along with Stage Entertainments, the show features a new score Alan Menken, the man behind such hit shows as Little Shop of Horrors, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid and many others.

Directed by Peter Schneider, one of the driving forces behind the revitalisation of animation at Disney and the creation of Disney Theatrical, the show is being designed by Klara Zieglerova with lighting by multiple Tony-award winner Natasha Katz.

The equipment to realise Katz's design has been supplied by White Light. The rig includes a wide selection of conventional, automated and LED lighting equipment, including over 400 ETC Source Fours, over 250 Wybron Coloram II scrollers, over 60 Vari-Lite VL3500Q S

UK - Richard Martin Lighting has added Chroma-Q Color Block 2 and GLP Impression XL's in chrome to its hire stock.

The Chroma-Q Color Block 2 was introduced by AC technologies and has been used by several LD's on their shows, Lee Allen on Blue Peter, John Ford for Dave Davey on Paul O'Grady, Roger Williams on Know It All and Chris Kempton on Jonathan Ross.

RML took the decision to purchase the fixtures and hire them out as kits which consist of five individual blocks which can be joined to form a 1.2m strip if required. The product offers modularity and versatility with new single colour RGBA optics, 530 lumens output (almost double the original model) and theatrical grade dimming.

IN response to demand, RML has also purchased a number of GLP Chromed Impression XL's. Following the success of the exclusive six month deal RML had with GLP, purchasin

Denmark - Martin Professional has strengthened its customer care department further by hiring Pernille Høgsberg and Andrea Heinz as new customer care coordinators, as well as Katrine Bøje as project manager & customer care coordinator.

Located at Martin's headquarter office in Aarhus, Denmark, the new coordinators' primary responsibility will be all manner of customer service, as well as to implement Martin's new e-commerce platform, Martin E-Shop.

Pernille Høgsberg comes to Martin from Nordisk Tekstil A/S where she was responsible for German market exports. She has also worked as an official translator. Andrea Heinz joins Martin directly from a similar customer service position at TC Electronic. Katrine Bøje joins the company from the Niels Brock business school in Copenhagen where she studied marketing management. She has also worked in retail and

UK - Simon Phillips, GE Lighting's European commercial director has announced that GE is ready for the phase out of incandescent lamps under the European Union Energy-using-Products (EuP) Directive.

In accordance with the European Union Directive to improve the efficiency of some energy-using products, incandescent lamps will be phased out across Europe between 2009 and 2012, and replaced with more energy efficient alternatives. With the first stage in the implementation of the Directive on 1 September 2009, GE says it is confident it has the range and capacity to provide sufficient energy saving alternatives to meet demand.

Speaking about the phase out, Simon Phillips says: "GE's technology and product development have been driven by our GE Ecomagination business initiative, which was designed to help meet customers' demand for more energy-efficient products. Thro

UK - grandPA has kicked off a busy summer with the arrival of its latest investment - an MA2 Lite. This new arrival to the fleet was whisked away on the same day it arrived by lighting company Siyan for a four week tour with the Killers starting at Hyde Park.

The company also reports that it has added a further grandMA series 1 full-size and a grandMA lite to the hire inventory for this busy summer period.

"Demand for MA consoles is at a peak this summer and we have tried to invest where possible even under this stormy financial period, we are proud to have consoles currently on tour with Madonna, The Killers and down on the ever-running Big Brother," says Tim Routledge co-founder of grandpa.

The company's agency wing, grandPA - Programming Associates, is also busy this summer with its programmers working on shows including the Take That Circus Live D

UK - High Technology Lighting continues to build on its trading partnership with West Yorkshire-based JCT600, one of the largest privately owned motor retail groups in the UK.

The Middleton Grove, Leeds, company has designed and installed both internal and exterior lighting systems at the new JCT600 VW dealership on Sticker Lane, Bradford.

During its five-year business relationship, High Technology Lighting has also provided lighting solutions at the group's dealerships in Bradford, Leeds, Wakefield and Sheffield, along with JCT600's Tordoff House headquarters in Apperley Bridge, Bradford.

Mark Taylor, group property director with JCT600, said: "We took the decision some years ago to remove the specification of light fittings for our major developments from the main contractor. This has allowed us to work closely with High Technology Lighting, producing economic and ene

USA - Plunging 132ft at 60mph with its screaming passengers' feet dangling in mid-air, the floorless Bizarro roller coaster at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson has been ranked as one of the scariest rides anywhere. When the New Jersey amusement park's management decided to upgrade and re-theme the coaster (formerly known as Medusa) earlier this year, they were looking to pump up its thrills and chills to a new level.

This goal was accomplished in part with a lighting display using ELAR Exbar BL RGB LED bars from Elation Architectural, the architectural lighting division of Elation Professional. 70 strobing, RGB colour-changing Exbars were installed in a series of five loops that riders race through immediately after surviving Bizarro's first breathless plunge. Along with the visual 'thrills' provided by the lighting, passengers experience more 'chills' in the loops - literal

Balaeric Islands - A.C. Entertainment Technologies recently supplied event production company Three Media Creative with state-of-the-art sound and projection systems for new show Come Fly with Me at the Gran Casino Theatre in Mallorca. Combining the music of Frank Sinatra with the spectacle of a Broadway show, the production is based around New York in 1959 and features a mix of swing music, acrobatics and dancing.

When the show's producers, Globo Balear, took over the Gran Casino Theatre to host the show, the 1,500-seater custom-built theatre had never been used before for such a technically ambitious production. They therefore appointed broadcast and production specialists Three Media Creative as technology consultants when the show first went into pre-production planning.

James Baker, Three Media Creative Show Technology Consultant and his team had the remit of desig

UK - Hadlow Down Parish Council and St Marks Church have joined forces to demonstrate a new innovation to provide a series of carbon-free lights on village paths. The new sustainable lights made by Uckfield firm NiteSafe give out a gentle light to guide users along dark paths in the churchyard.

Councillor Michael Lunn, portfolio holder for sustainable development said: "This has been a long term problem especially during winter months. We wanted to find a solution which improved safety but had a zero carbon impact - these small lights do exactly that. Nearly everyone in the village will benefit from this innovation. It's a win for the environment, a win for the church, and a win for our community. This is the first step of Hadlow Down Parish Council leading the way to become more sustainable."

(Jim Evans)

Germany / India - The distribution of HK Audio products in India will now be handled exclusively by Dhanashree Electronics. This firm is part of the well established Toshniwal Group of Companies, a family business which has long been active in the Indian market in several industries. Dhanashree Electronics' primary areas of operation until now have been in the manufacture and marketing of electronic components and industrial lighting; distributing professional audio equipment represents an expansion of their business into new territory.

Abhishek Toshniwal, marketing & business development director of Dhanashree Electronics, comments: "Adding professional audio equipment to our distribution network was our next logical step. We have been having more and more contact with PA rental firms and installation companies, and we've been wanting to expand our product portfolio in ord

UK - Lighting designer Jon Pollak recommended that Adlib Lighting supplied the equipment and crew for the UK leg of veteran American jazz rockers Steely Dan's current European tour.

Pollak first worked with the Liverpool based company in 2007 when he was lighting folk singer Ray Lamontagne. "They did a fantastic job. I was so impressed with the kit and the personnel that I really wanted to use them again," he states.

Lighting-wise, the UK shows were based on three straight 48ft trusses to cover the 50ft wide performance area.

These were loaded with 21 Martin Professional MAC 2K Washes and 16 MAC 700 Spots. The Washes were utilised for general band and stage washes, primarily an ever evolving series of subtle and straightforward colour combinations, while the spots took the role of providing basic beam-work and effects across the 12-piece band and substantial area t

UK - DMi D&M Europe has announced the launch of Escient Zone, its integrated CI home control system. The launch of is accompanied by an extensive programme of product support and training for DMi appointed installers.

Zone complements the latest Ethernet and WIFI network enabled AV source and control components from D&M's Denon, Marantz and Escient brands. Its introduction enables DMi appointed CI professionals to offer in-home automation systems, seamlessly incorporating components from these brands.

Zone is positioned to provide fully featured, high performance home automation and control, at a lower price point than current market leading systems; enabling CI dealers and custom installers to extend their target market for integrated home automation, says the company. Likewise, it enables a greater number of dealers to gain full access to a single integrated home control sys

UK - The second edition of the Knight of Illumination Awards, the only international awards designed and held to provide public recognition for the work of lighting designers in live and televised shows, is at the starting blocks.

The award ceremony is organised by Italian manufacturer Clay Paky in association with STLD and ALD, and is sponsored this year by Osram. Timed to coincide with the PLASA Show, it will be held on 13 September 2009 at the Ibis Hotel, Earls Court, London.

The previous edition saw Dave Davey, Ben Smithard, Nigel Catmur, Al Gurdon (TV category), Jonny Gaskell, Richard Larkum (rock category), Lucy Carter, Paul Pyant, Paule Constable and Neil Austin (theatre category) triumph. They were presented with a customized real traditional medieval sword and given the title of "Knight of Illumination", a slightly romantic and generous figure always

UK - Heathrow Express has been awarded the overall winner in Category B (Outdoor Workplace), in the Lighting Federation's new Energy Management and Innovation in Lighting Award Scheme (EMILAS).

Steve Chambers, service proposition director at Heathrow Express, said: "The prime objective of EMILAS is to give recognition to lighting schemes showing proven energy savings with a minimum 20% improvement over previously installed schemes. Our new lighting system, at the train maintenance depot, Old Oak Common, has a smart metering system which allows continuous monitoring of lighting levels, including daylight monitoring and a non-occupancy over-ride. Heathrow Express has saved over 25% of its electrical lighting consumption since the start of this year and 102 tonnes of carbon since February 2008."

Heathrow Express's approach to the environment began even before the servic

Denmark - With the P3-100 System Controller for LED screens, Martin Professional enables video to finally join with lighting and motion control technologies for true visual integration.

The P3-100 lets you treat LED screens like lighting instruments - brightness, image position, image rotation can be adjusted and changed instantly, says the company. And this happens independent from the source of the video. The P3-100 is not a media server but an intelligent interface between the source and the screen.

The P3-100 makes setting up an LED screen very straightforward and intuitive. It also contains a built-in graphical user interface with real time visualisation of the video mapping - true 'what you see is what you get' emulation of what the screen is showing. The P3-100 also includes a number of other advanced features including built-in scaling and de-interlacing. The integrate

UK - ETC has supplied a range of lighting and control equipment to English National Ballet, including an Eos and an Ion control desk through new console dealer London Light Production Services.

"English National Ballet had already decided they liked ETC, so they just needed a demonstration of the desk, to confirm it did all they needed it to do," says London Light's managing director, David Buffham. "Their previous system was 25 years old and well overdue for an upgrade, given the number of moving lights they had added to their stock. We provided hands on experience with the system, as well as both pre and post sales support and training."

David Richardson, chief electrician at the English National Ballet, says, "We had been looking around for a new desk for some time, and this was the first we've seen which fitted our needs. We wanted the accessibilit

Cuban News - The UK's Royal Ballet has arrived in Havana for its first visit to Cuba. It is putting on five days of shows, featuring the company's Cuban star Carlos Acosta and a tribute to Cuban ballet legend Alicia Alonso. All the tickets were sold out within hours, as Cubans looked forward to seeing the first major ballet company since the Bolshoi almost 30 years ago. To cater for the huge demand, the performances will be shown on giant screens outside the theatre. The director of the Royal Ballet, Dame Monica Mason, said the national passion for ballet was one of the attractions of taking the company to Cuba. "Dance is central to the culture in Cuba. It's at the very heart of the Cuban people," she said. The company will perform at the Gran Teatro in central Havana the first three days, where the screens will be based. The Karl Marx Teatro will host the final two.

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