UK - Building on the ever-converging technologies of lighting and video, Blitz has seized the opportunity to greatly expand its offering to clients through a £320,000 investment in new lighting stock and the recruitment of a full- time lighting designer.

Blitz welcomed Simon Brockwell to its team at the beginning of August as a full-time lighting designer. He has a wealth of experience as a freelance engineer, having graduated from Rose Bruford. Brockwell is developing Blitz's lighting design and project management offering so it can offer a more bespoke service to both direct clients and freelance designers. As a trained operator, he is experienced with a range of lighting consoles and media servers, and is helping Blitz further integrate its video and lighting departments.

To enhance the pre-production and visualisation offering, Blitz has installed a new WYSIWYG studi

UK - Ambersphere Solutions has announced that Matt Cowles has joined the company as technical sales effective Monday 3 September.

Most recently he has been a business development manager for Stage Electrics, having previously built his knowledge as account manager in the live events division for the same company. Prior to that he was a product manager at Martin Professional.

"We are delighted to welcome Matt into his role as technical sales here at Ambersphere. This is a newly created role to ensure that as our business expands, we continue to provide excellent customer care and technical support countrywide," comments managing director Glyn O'Donoghue.

"I'm really pleased to be joining the Ambersphere team. There really isn't a better time to be getting out on the road representing Ambersphere with the array of products that MA Lighting and Clay Paky currentl

UK - Meet The Parents is a new reality comedy show, where in each episode a poor unsuspecting guy has to try and last the whole night at his girlfriend's parent's house. What he doesn't know is that he is being recorded by 30 hidden cameras.

Martin Kempton designs the lighting show which includes MAC 500s, MAC 600s, MAC TW1s and Pixel Par 90s, supplied by Richard Martin Lighting (RML).

Meet The Parents is filmed for Objective Productions. The first episode is currently scheduled to go out on Wednesday 12 September at 10pm on E4.

(Jim Evans)

South Africa - This year 20,000 people gathered for the Oppikoppi Sweet Thing Festival held from 9 to 11 August 2012 on the Oppikoppi Farm near the mining town of Northam in the Limpopo Province, South Africa. For the ninth consecutive year, rental company Stage Effects were one of the technical suppliers at the music festival, lighting up six of the seven stages. Avolites controlled all six stages and a grandMA was used for two international acts.

The very first Oppikoppi was held in 1994 and has become a tradition ever since. Thousands camp out in the bush and enjoy an enormous line-up which now features well over 120 different bands, DJs and artists. International acts included Bullet for my Valentine, Enter Shikari and Babylon Circus.

Theo Papenfus and his crew from Stage Effects are no strangers to the dust and tough terrain at Oppikoppi, but each year as clock-work, they

UK - Zero 88 will be celebrating their 40th anniversary at this year's PLASA show.

There will be celebrations on the Copper Controls stand 1-E38 with cakes and bubbly from 3pm onwards on both Monday and Tuesday afternoons during the show.

PLASA also sees the culmination of the 'Me and My Zero 88' photo competition, run as part of the 40 year celebrations. It has been a great success with many interesting and exciting images submitted. The lucky winner of an ORB XF lighting console will be announced during the show. There will also be a large photo wall of some of the Zero 88 team's favourite photo entries on display.

Zero 88 are launching ZerOS 8.0 operating software at the show, which will be shown operating on the ORB XF and Solution lighting consoles. The show stand will also feature a hands on display of RDM and Moving light control with a wide range of consoles availabl

UK - Prism Projection is expanding its RevEAL line of LED products with the debut of three new luminaires - Profile Jr., Studio.3 Fresnel, and Studio.UV Fresnel. With its largest product launch to date, Prism will be debuting the fixtures in Europe at both the PLASA 2012 show in London as well as at IBC 2012 in Amsterdam.

Prism Projection will be on Stand 2-P16 in the White Light Zone at PLASA 2012. For the IBC show, Prism will be on stand 9.C15 in Hall 9 along with Mac Tech LED.

The RevEAL Profile Jr. is a new compact LED profile spot that offers the strengths of Prism's award-winning RevEAL product line, in a new compact design that is compatible with existing industry-standard lens tubes matched with high output performance. The Profile Jr., along with the Profile, are designed for use in many applications including long throws well over 50' like those in front of house lig

UK - Professional lighting sales company Lightfactor's main focus at PLASA 2012 will be key new products offered by its dynamic array of premium distribution partners. Some of the most popular existing products will also be highlighted.

From VXCO is the latest version of their DMX Creator PC lighting control software. Everything is visually based for easy access and intuitive use, and the new stand-alone software enables the control of 1024 channels and multi sequences that can also be recalled/cued via RS 232, DMX in/out and MIDI. Cues can also be executed remotely and wirelessly via Android or Apple iOS devices.

New from DTS is the Nick 1201 NRG, an LED moving head wash fixture which is extremely bright and very eco-friendly, equipped with 30 high powered RGBW LEDs. It has an 8°- 50° motorized zoom, and a high-efficiency optical system that enables it to be used as a

Hong Kong - In terms of efficiency, LED lights are undoubtedly more efficient than Tungsten-Halogen lights, but in terms of performances - colour rendering, colour consistency) Tungsten-Halogen lights are better. LED light is successfully and widely used in architectural applications, but they have more restricted applications in theatre and TV installation.

LDR's Besio Fabiano and Macostar's Mr. Derek Chow feel that they have successfully answered the question of whether LED and TH lamp sources can co-exist, by combining conventional TH lamps and state-of-the-art LED technology co-developed to produce a lighting solution for two auditoriums in Hong Kong - Lei Tung and Stanley Community Hall.

"We came across this challenging project," commented Macostar's Francis Fung "when the Hong Kong community center decided to revamp its two auditoriums because the venue's

UK - Jands is set to release a new console at PLASA 2012. The Stage CL console has been designed specifically for LED fixtures and provides 12 direct fixture control channels, 'powerful yet simple storing and a touch-screen interface, all packaged in compact and elegant chassis you can carry in one hand.'

CEO Paul Mulholland comments: "LED fixtures are rapidly becoming popular as a cost-effective and flexible lighting solution, but until now there hasn't been a console that gives you simple direct control of their colour and intensity. We saw that there was a whole group of people who would benefit hugely from the ability to harness the true power of their LED fixtures, that's what the Stage CL is all about."

Designed with smaller venues and operators in mind, the Stage CL is ideal for rental applications, audio-visual suppliers, clubs and other venues, karaoke bars,

UK - Product training is an integral part of the 'total support' Ambersphere Solutions offers customers. And if proof were needed, then come along to the Ambersphere stand (1-E36) at PLASA 2012 next week to pick up your free training voucher for the highly successful MA onPC command wing, says the company.

The voucher will entitle the holder to a one-day introduction training course, courtesy of Ambersphere and usually valued at £88 plus VAT.

This special offer is for a limited time only, and exclusively available to visitors to the Ambersphere stand at the PLASA Show. Courses will run throughout the autumn in a number of cities around the UK.

"With the MA onPC command wing being so accessible because of the price point, we want to ensure that we support this by offering everyone the opportunity to expand their knowledge of this product through this special traini

UK - Clay Paky is one of the main sponsors of PLASA 2012. The Clay Paky stand (1-E36 as usual), is facing the 'main square' in the very heart of the exhibition floor, where the Innovation Gallery is placed. This year the stand will be managed by Ambersphere Solutions, the exclusive distributor in the UK for the Clay Paky and MA Lighting ranges of products.

Located on the back of the main stand, the demo-area provides a suitable environment for an effective presentation of Clay Paky products. Access to this area is open to all visitors that, every hour, will be able to attend a 20 minutes product presentation. In the time between the scheduled demos our staff will be available for questions & answers and for in depth individual presentations. Please contact our counter for appointments.

Clay Paky has donated to PLASA one of the six 'Union Jack' Sharpy fixtures that have been us

UK - Jands has created a console designed specifically for LED fixtures. The Stage CL provides 12 direct fixture control channels, powerful yet simple storing and a touch-screen interface, all packaged in compact and elegant chassis you can carry in one hand.

CEO Paul Mulholland said, "LED fixtures are rapidly becoming popular as a cost-effective and flexible lighting solution, but until now there hasn't been a console that gives you simple direct control of their colour and intensity. We saw that there was a whole group of people who would benefit hugely from the ability to harness the true power of their LED fixtures, that's what the Stage CL is all about."

Designed with smaller venues and operators in mind, the Stage CL is suitable for rental applications, audio-visual suppliers, clubs and other venues, karaoke bars, retail spaces and houses of worship.

As well

UK - CAST is pulling out all the stops for PLASA 2012 with the debut of not one, but four new products, plus an educational seminar. PLASA will be held at Earls Court in London, 9-12 September and CAST will be exhibiting in Stand 1-E27.

The latest wysiwyg release, R29, has so many new features and improvements, your job instantly becomes more proficient, more professional and more profitable, says the company. New features in R29 include the ability to touch select fixtures and manipulate in Shaded View, create camera flies in 6D, a new six degrees of freedom camera system, drawing purge, truss end indicators, multi-rotate, enhancements to the Layer Database Window, gyroscope, world grid and more.

BlackTrax V1 is an Ethernet-based, powerful, fast, and accurate solution that tracks objects or people in a defined 3D 'space' and "delivers the dynamic positional data in realt

UK - Cogent Lighting is showing a selection of its current LED solutions and products on the stand of the Cooper Controls Group at the PLASA exhibition in Earl's Court, London. (Hall 1, booth E38).

Highlighted are the latest white light fixtures, utilising the state-of-the-art high powered LED technologies and offering 0 -100% dimming. These are ideal for theatre and performance lighting applications needing ultra smooth dimming.

The series encompasses a whole range of down-lighters from 3 to 46 Watts - all available in cold white, warm white and natural white (4000K) variants, complete with high quality homogenised light engines.

Also featured will be a selection of Cogent's comprehensive range of colour changing RGB and RGBW architectural LED light fittings - up and down lighters, wall washers, in-ground lights and spot lights, all designed and made in the UK.

(Jim Evans

UK - High End Systems' new SolaSpot LED automated luminaire is being introduced on the AC Entertainment booth (Hall 1, Stand E10) at the 2012 PLASA Exhibition. AC Entertainment is the exclusive UK and Irish distributor for the full range of lighting products manufactured by High End Systems, a Barco company.

Lightweight and compact yet extremely punchy, the 550 watt SolaSpot LED is the highest performance LED spot in its class. The luminaire weighs only 24.5 kg but produces a high fixture output of 6,000 lumens and offers an extremely even beam field. SolaSpot LED's fixed color wheel creates vibrant red, blue, green, yellow, magenta, orange and cyan; the fixture's innovative indigo highlighter function creates dramatic new design possibilities. With a color temperature of 6,500 K, pan / tilt of 540 x 250 degrees, variable zoom and iris, remote focus, static and rotating gobo pat

UK - Spotlight is introducing three products in the new Green Line - FresneLED250 Tunable White, ProfiLED 200 and ProfiLED 250 RGBW.

On display in T H5, hall 1 will be three innovative LED products of the Green Line, luminaires that are characterised both by high optical performances and by the real contribution in terms of energy saving, achieved thanks to a specific use of the LED and to the application of 'clean technologies' in the luminaires' production.

This wide family, which includes Fresnel, PC and Profile spots of the series Mini, MIDI and Sintesi, designed both for shop windows, malls, museums, etc., and in theatre or TV studios.

(Jim Evans)

UK - The PLASA Awards for Innovation, sponsored by AED Rent and Lighting&Sound, were presented at the PLASA Show in London yesterday evening, along with the announcement of the prestigious Gottelier Award.

During the show's opening two days, 47 products were judged 'live' in front of a crowd of show visitors and camera crew by an independent panel of expert judges who toured the show floor to view each product presentation.

John Meyer of iconic pro audio brand Meyer Sound was honoured with this year's Gottelier Award in recognition of his life as one of the pioneers of the modern sound reinforcement industry.

Eight Awards for Innovation were presented - including a final Gold Award for Innovation - along with a special Award for Sustainability.

Nominees are asked to demonstrate a new style of thinking, an improvement in technical practice, an aid to safety, energy-s

UK - ETC's stand at PLASA 2012 this year is better than ever, the company reports, with a range of new and updated products on demonstration.

ETC introduced the new Source Four Dimmer on the stand. The Source Four Dimmer reduces cabling and energy demands on buildings while increasing Source Four fixture brightness and efficiency.

By regulating output to support 115V HPL lamps, the Source Four Dimmer supercharges a 230V Source Four luminaire - allowing a Source Four ellipsoidal profile on 230V line voltage to use a 115V lamp to outperform a typical 1200W condenser profile.

Seen for the first time in the UK, ETC's Layers of Light theatre on the stand offers a short presentation, on the hour every hour, visibly demonstrating the power of ETC's Selador x7 LED colour system, as well as offering a close-up look at the different Selador Desire LED luminaires and the new Source Fou

World - City Theatrical has announced that Philips Color Kinetics will now offer City Theatrical's full line of SHoW DMX Neo wireless control solutions worldwide. This new distribution relationship makes it easy for Philips Color Kinetics customers to specify a full range of wireless DMX equipment for their entertainment and architectural installations.

SHoW DMX products can be found on nearly every Broadway and West End show and tour and have also been used on major music tours and events including the U2 360 Degree tour and the London Olympics. SHoW DMX products have also been used in many permanent architectural installations around the world.

The SHoW DMX Neo family offers a range of wireless DMX solutions from the simple plug and play SHoW DMX SHoW Baby to the professional grade SHoW DMX Neo and the outdoor SHoW DMX Vero and Vero Net.

All SHoW DMX Neo products feature t

UK - LED Engin, Inc., a leader in high lumen density LED products, has demonstrated emitters and LED modules that enable the size of entertainment lighting products to be reduced significantly, on stand 2-S11 at the PLASA 2012 exhibition.

The company's LuxiGen platform of white and multi-colour compact emitters generate the high luminous flux density demanded in entertainment lighting, particularly for spot beams, distance lighting effects and in dynamic lighting scenarios. Patented thermal management technology allows the LED die to be driven to higher current levels and in a denser configuration than industry standards, without adversely affecting operating life. LED emitters are up to 80% more efficient than traditional tungsten lighting and this combination of features in LED Engin products enables lighting fixture designers to at least halve the size of their products, and

UK - Chauvet Professional COLORdash Batten Tri linear wash lights enliven the stage of the Royal Opera House in London's Convent Garden. Additionally used for corporate events, the 12 compact-sized fixtures supplement the existing stock and provide flexible lighting options.

"We bought the units for two reasons," said Paul Hornsby, lighting systems manager for Royal Opera House, "[for] a compact light source [when] lighting up pieces of set where we needed a small-sized, bright, low-heat unit and for events-small room meetings to lighting the windows of the Paul Hamlyn Hall for the Christmas period."

Royal Opera House selected the fixtures after its use on television shows like Strictly Come Dancing. Supplied by Stage Electrics, COLORdash Batten Tri features a row of calibrated tri-coloured LEDs that can perform complex pixel mapping and intricate ru

UK - The Olympic Torch donated by Czech moving light manufacturer Robe lighting's CEO Josef Valchar, was auctioned at PLASA 2012 and won for £6,200 by leading European AV rental company, AED Rent.

The proceeds are going to entertainment technology industry charity, Light Relief.

The auction was held directly after PLASA's 2012 Awards for Innovation - one of which was won by Robe's Robin DLF Wash LED fresnel moving light - and followed some animated bidding, all co-ordinated by professional auctioneer Jonathan Humbert, brought in by Robe for the occasion.

The torch was collected by AED Rent's Glenn Roggeman.

It was carried on the Olympic relay ahead of the London Summer Games, and will now complete the final leg of its journey from London to AED Rent's HQ in Willebroek, Belgium.

The auction was inspired by Robe's current 'Working With Winners' initiative which has b

UK - LED lighting specialist, MHA Lighting has added two new starters to its sales and communication teams.

Jim Williams joins MHA as regional business manager (Northern), bringing with him a very successful track record of over 20 years' experience in senior sales roles within the lighting industry, with Thorn, Coughtrie and Dialight.

Also moving to MHA is Anthony Monks, who joins as senior communications executive. His experience includes roles with Airbus UK, Lancashire County Council's Brussels Office and Advanced Computer Software Group.

MHA Lighting's managing director Tom Harrison says, "I'm delighted to welcome both Jim and Anthony to MHA Lighting's ever-growing family. They've joined MHA at a very exciting time, as we've secured a number of new exciting projects.

"Jim's extensive experience and strong, established relationships with potential clients wit

UK - For the first time, the prestigious Knights of Illumination Awards, hosted by Clay Paky, incorporated special new effects, much to the delight of both guests and organizers. The awards, which were held on Sunday 9 September at Battersea Evolution in London, honour the achievements in lighting design by the best in our industry and is attended by hundreds of talented and experienced lighting professionals.

The opening sequence to the award portion of the evening began with a woman walking down the aisle toward the stage, holding the coveted Knight of Illumination award - a hand crafted sword. As she walked onto the stage, the sword was suddenly bathed in the light of two Clay Paky Sharpys, positioned on either side of the stage and tracking the sword to centre stage with perfect precision. When guests realized that these were not followspots, and there were no followspot ope

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