UK - Blackburn-based lighting and visuals rental specialists HSL supplied lighting equipment and crew to Cheryl Cole's first solo A Million Lights arena tour, once again working for technical producers Production North.

The lighting design by Peter Barnes, directed / operated out on the road by Neil Trenell of Fix8, proved that imaginative and intelligent use of lighting and effects can bring serious layers of magic to a high-impact show.

The tour was project managed for HSL by Mike Oates who comments, "Production North under the technical direction of Iain Whitehead co-ordinated another superb looking and highly entertaining show, and we were really pleased to be involved."

Barnes and Trenell worked closely with creative directors Fatima Robinson and Beth Honan, who commissioned the set design from Bruce Rogers. They also initiated the video and visuals con

UK - A.C. Special Projects (ACSP) have provided an attractive exterior LED colour-changing lighting scheme for Da Mario Gastronomia Napoletana, an Italian restaurant in the heart of London's busy Gloucester Road area known for being a popular celebrity haunt.

Located a short walk from Kensington Palace, the 120 year old building's beautiful architecture merges Venetian and Gothic styles and was commissioned by Queen Victoria.

Having previously provided the restaurant with a custom multi-zone audio and DJ system for their basement, when deciding to upgrade their exterior lighting system, Da Mario contacted ACSP about the project - who also have extensive experience supplying and installing specialist LED lighting schemes.

Lance Bromhead, who project managed the job for ACSP comments, "It was really vital for the lighting to be elegant, understated and appropriate for the

Lebanon / UAE - The latest Middle East technical production company to invest in Robe products is Sound On Stage, based in Lebanon and the UAE, and run by Mazan and Rawad Saad.

The company, well known as an audio specialist, wanted to expand its operation to include lighting, so recently made an investment in Robe's Robin LEDWash 1200 and 600s, MMX Spots and LEDBeam 100s to kick start its lighting rental stock.

Sound On Stage supplies design services, equipment and crew for a variety of different corporate events / presentations and live concerts and shows.

The deal was co-ordinated by Robe's Middle East Sales manager Elie Battah.

Says Rawad, "We really liked the Robin range for its light weight, which makes the physical handling extremely easy."

He adds that Robe's reputation for reliability and robustness was another key reason leading to their decision, toge

Canada - Pop legend Peter Gabriel gives a rare glimpse of his nostalgic side in his new Back to Front Tour, which recently opened in Quebec City with a full performance of his classic 1986 album, So. Many aspects of the show hark back to the past, and lighting and show designer Rob Sinclair is using Clay Paky Alpha Spot QWO 800 fixtures in an application employed by him 25 years ago.

Gabriel wanted to bring back some of the elements from the tour that launched So, including camera booms with lights mounted on the end, one boom for himself and one for each of the original touring band members who have reunited with Gabriel: bassist Tony Levin, guitarist David Rhodes, drummer Manu Katche and keyboardist David Sancious.

"We brought the technique up to date by having five manually-operated camera booms with three Alpha Spot QWO 800 fixtures on each of the

UK - Black Light has installed an external lighting system at the recently completed, £20m, sports centre at Lancaster University. The project, which presented a number of key technical challenges, highlights the company's national reach and the fact that it can offer turn-key solutions of the highest quality.

"We were asked by the consultant, ARUP (Manchester), to provide a lighting system to highlight the building during dark hours and make it stand out from the street," says Jock Wallace, Black Light's installations manager. "As the sports centre is a brand new building we had to ensure that our work complemented it aesthetically. We also had to be extremely careful that our installation was faultless and that we achieved a perfect finish."

To ensure that the project's goals were achieved, Black Light carried out a demonstration of equipment on sit

UK - Entertainment lighting specialist White Light supplied the lighting to the Horse of the Year Show, a long-standing fixture in the British event calendar, held at the Birmingham NEC. The event features equestrian displays, show jumping, and more. The show is an annual must-see for equestrian fans.

The Horse of the Year Show is organised by Grandstand Media Ltd, with Production Team as the production company led by artistic director Nadia Raibin. The show's lighting design was by Mark Strange, with Ben Fox as technical producer - who gives "a big thumbs up from the whole team to White Light for a great event". White Light supplied lighting for the main Andrews Bowen International Arena along with the smaller Caldene Arena.

"We've been through a few different lighting companies on the Horse of the Year Show over the last few years," comments Ben Fox, &quo

France - Over 200 Robe LEDWash 600 RGBW LED moving lights were again central to Peter Heilig's lighting design concept for the BMW and Mini booths and press launches at the Mondial de l'Automobile 2012 à Paris (Paris Motor Show). This was staged at the Paris Expo, Porte de Versailles and attended by over 1.2m visitors over two weeks.

The lighting fixtures were supplied by Rock Service from Salzgitter in Germany and specified by Heilig after his very successful use of Robe's LEDWash and PureWhites for BMW at the Geneva Motor show earlier in the year.

Thirty-two LEDWash 600s were positioned on the floor at the back of the BMW stand - designed by Mutabor Hamburg - for the press launch and unveiling of the new eco-friendly BMW Concept Active Tourer vehicle at the event.

(Jim Evans)

USA - Martin Professional's M2GO and M2PC lighting controllers are selling strongly in the US.

With over 300 units sold in the US since June, and outstanding sales at the recent LDI exhibition in Las Vegas, Martin Professional's M2GO and M2PC lighting controllers are quickly establishing themselves as the lighting control choice for rental houses across the country, says the company.

"The success of the M1 console has really paved the way for these new M-Series consoles," states Scott O'Connor, product specialist - control at Martin Professional, Inc. "With the M2GO on its way to becoming the standard for rental houses, our M-Series consoles have not finished impressing. We will have more from the M-Series coming soon."

The M2GO is equipped with a fast, dual-core processor with no external computer required while the M2PC is the complementary control surf

UK - Following the successful launch of its Super2fer product at the PLASA Show in September, where it picked up a PLASA Award for Innovation, manufacturer Digital & Future Technologies has announced that it is now working on a new chipset upgrade, which will mean a delay to the shipping of the product.

Chris Crockford told LSi: "This is a blow to our original plans, but it will mean more bandwidth and more box connectivity. We have also found a couple of manufacturing errors with the original boxes when tested in the field, so we are working to correct them, along with integrating the feedback we received from people attending PLASA."

Designed for all aspects of the entertainment industry, the Super2fer allows users to modulate their video, audio, lighting, and IP data through standard 16A mains cable up to 500m from source.

To see Crockford's PLASA Show presentat

UK - Manchester-based lighting, rigging and visuals rental company dbn designed and supplied a large ground support system for the Games Time outdoor stage spectacular, which played its final performance at Derby last weekend.

The show, produced by Walk The Plank and Déda, was a mixed-media performance combining music, dance, video, lighting and pyrotechnics, directed by Lea Anderson and starring members of the local community. Four teams - Red, Blue, Green and Yellow - sporting fabulous carnival style costumes designed and made by Mahogany - competed to win the Games Time Finale.

dbn's Stephen Page was asked to design the truss and lighting for the event, which played four towns - Skegness, Loughborough, Northampton and Derby - celebrating the spirit of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the East Midlands.

dbn invested in a new Slick ground support sys

UK - Flightcase manufacturer 5 Star continues to enjoy brisk business this autumn with a wide variety of projects including a substantial supply of cases to Edinburgh-based lighting, sound and AV specialist, Black Light.

The cases - a series of general purpose and custom items - were purchased to protect and transport Black Light's newest equipment investments, including lighting and rigging kit.

5 Star designed, manufactured and delivered the order with their characteristic speed and efficiency so the cases were able to go straight into action on a range of events and hires.

5 Star was selected for its reputation for producing robust, premium quality cases as well as the expedient turnaround, and was project managed for them by John Barsby out of the company's Wisbech HQ.

Eight Eurotrucker road trunks with full trays, one ETC Gio lighting console case, two Selecon Acclaim

Turkey - SGM's new generation LED strobes have arrived on the Aegean coast. In one of the world's biggest open air venues 18 of the XC-5 RGB strobes pulse beneath the night sky of Bodrum. The stylish Halikarnas, which overlooks the Aegean, was completely redesigned this summer by its millionaire owner Süleyman Demir.

Lighting stalwart Andy Graves, of Turkish-based LEDsistem, supplied 18 of SGM's innovative XC-5 RGB strobes among the lasers and special effects that animate this luxurious multi-zone venue. They had been specified by Arch Lite's Matthew Button and Trent O'Connor, who between them undertook responsibility for the architectural, theatrical and club lighting design.

Button, who masterminded the stage lighting design, had no hesitation in choosing the SGM solution over conventional strobes, stating, "In terms of power, this fixture not only outperforms a standa

UK - The Bristol Old Vic, one of Britain's most historic theatres, founded in 1766 by 50 merchants, lawyers and politicians, has been given a spectacular £12.26m makeover in the first phase of a major redevelopment.

Originally designed by the Bristol architect James Saunderson, the theatre is believed to be the oldest working theatre in the UK. Stage Electrics was awarded the contract to design and install a completely new technical infrastructure and production lighting, audio and communications systems. The project has been headed by consultants Charcoalblue with design by John Stevens and project management by John Woodley; architect Andrzej Blonski and builders Galliford Try.

The refurbishment includes the raising of the stalls and gallery to dramatically improve sightlines throughout the Georgian auditorium, a new, flexible thrust stage format, conversion of the pai

South Africa - South Africa was the destination for a roadshow with Robe, Avolites and LumenRadio from 30 October - 2 November 2012. The event was put together by DWR Distribution and demonstrations were held in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town.

The UJ Theatre, The Playhouse Company and the Baxter Theatre were the hosting venues.

Overseas representatives promoting their latest equipment were Robe's Josef Valchar and Harry von den Stemmen, Phil Blue from Avolites and Peter Kirkup from LumenRadio.

"I feel like I'm coming home every time I come to South Africa," commented von den Stemmen. "When we do demos like these we never arrive with an average mix of products but choose novelties to show clients something different."

Robe focussed on the Robin DLX, DLS and DLF which are versatile and of equal interest to television studios, clubs and just about any

UK - ETC's latest lighting control console, Gio, has seen a surge in sales since it was introduced just a few months ago, with many of the company's UK-based dealers buying them for sales and hire stocks.

The first Scottish delivery was to the Dundee Rep Theatre, supplied by Blacklight, where deputy chief LX Alastair Phillips specified a Gio for their 450 seat performance space. "We were looking to upgrade our existing desk," he explains, "and decided we wanted more hands on control than an Ion offered out of the box. An Eos, on the other hand, was too big to bring out of the control room each time we wanted to program. So, when Gio was introduced, it seemed like the obvious choice."

Gio is one of four current lighting consoles in the Eos family - each with the same application software and operational syntax but with different packaging and physical contro

Denmark - The recently formed Matrix Group has taken on the exclusive Danish distribution of PR Lighting's automated discharge and LED lighting portfolio, with immediate effect.

Established in early 2011 to harness and strengthen the respected companies, Nordic Sales & Staging, Signal Audio and Moto Audio Sales, Matrix Group provides a powerful distribution partner for many international manufacturers. From a base in pro audio it has expanded this year into lighting distribution and sales - with PR Lighting becoming its latest acquisition.

Commenting on the move, Matrix CEO Kenneth Bremer, said: "As part of our strategy we wanted a brand that had a broad and well-made range of lighting products - that was both affordable and had professional specs.

"I asked several people for recommendations and we were introduced to Cui Lin at PR Lighting. We quickly realised the

Colombia - Robe's new Colombian distributor Codiscos SA recently staged hands-on technical demonstrations followed by a rock concert in the city of Medellin - all designed to illustrate first-hand the capabilities of Robe's latest technologies to potential clients. The event was co-ordinated by Codiscos's Sebastian Ochoa and attended by Robe's Regional sales Manager for Latin America, Guillermo Traverso.

The first day was dedicated to showing existing Codiscos clients, particularly those in the rental and staging markets, the newest Robe technologies now available on the Colombian market. The featured products were Robin 600 and 300 LED Washes, MMX Spot, the Robin 600 Beam, CitySkape Xtremes and 48s, the LEDForce PAR 18 and a selection of Robe hazers.

Sebastian Ochea remarks that the power saving and efficient running made possible using Robe's products, built to their 'smalle

UK - Entertainment lighting specialist White Light has recently welcomed industry veteran Lester Cobrin to its growing team as head of concert touring. Cobrin brings to the role more than 20 years' experience in the lighting and live production industry, having worked previously with Samuelson Concert Productions & Theatre Projects, LSD/PRG, Bandit Lites and, most recently, XL Video.

"Lester's appointment comes at a very exciting time for White Light," said Dave Isherwood, hire and technical director for White Light. "Over the last 40 years White Light has become renowned for a high level of service, and recent years have seen us expand our horizons, bringing our enthusiasm, quality and attention to detail successfully into the corporate and event sectors.

"With Lester on board we are very much looking forward to continuing our diversification into the conc

USA - CAST is pulling out all the stops for PLASA Focus Stamford with not one, but four new products, plus an educational seminar. PLASA Focus will be held 12-13 November at the Stamford Marriott in Stamford, Connecticut where CAST will be exhibiting in Booth 121 and will demonstrate their newest products, BlackTrax, wysiwyg R29, Vivien 2012 and Vivien Online.

Jim Hutchison, product manager wysiwyg and Vivien, will present the seminar entitled, The Birth, Childhood, and Apparent Adolescence of Lighting Design Technology as part of the PLASA Focus Professional Development Programme. The seminar will be held on Monday, 12 November from 1:30-2:30pm and again on Tuesday, 13 November from 12:30-1:30pm in the Massachusetts Room.

Hutchison's session will take trip through the last 75 years or so of lighting Design technology, from its birth with paper and pencil through the ab

France - Wireless Solution Sweden has confirmed French manufacturer United Light as its newest OEM partner, with its latest product, WiPLUG, using W-DMX technology.

United Light says: "The frequency hopping technology (AFHSS) used automatically adapts the band and the transmission channel in relation to the detected radio traffic, allowing interference-free coexistence with other systems like WiFi, wireless microphones, or intercom. It's easy to use and easy to implement."

"United Light has a very innovative range which aims to make your job easier," says Niclas Arvidsson, CEO of Wireless Solution, "When we first met regarding the implementation of W-DMX into the WiPLUG, we both knew we were on a path to success."

(Jim Evans)

Australia - Floriade, Australia's biggest celebration of spring, is held every year for 30 days during September and October. It showcases one million flowers in bloom, set in Canberra's Commonwealth Park and attracting over 400,000 visitors.

For five of those nights, Floriade comes alive after dark with NightFest, when garden bed designs, pond waters and trees are shown in a whole new light amid dazzling light shows.

Designed and created by Mandylights, this year's NightFest made extensive use of the Martin MAC 301 Wash LED moving head with powerfully fast zoom and impressive zoom range.

A total of 48 MAC 301 fixtures, positioned in groups of six, took care of lighting the largest part of the site; the main vista comprising six different garden beds that occupy 200m x 50m of the park.

"It's the iconic view of Floriade that they use in all of their marketing," ex

USA - After opening in Scottsdale, AZ's Old Town section in June 2011, Wild Knight quickly became one of the city's hottest nightclubs, thanks to an all-star lineup of electronic music DJs from around the world. Along with beats from such EDM icons as Zedd, Thomas Gold, Skrillex, and John Digweed, the 4,000sq.ft club offered a sophisticated interior décor, bottle service amenities, and an advanced sound and lighting system. Yet, despite this overnight success, Wild Knight's owners felt that some much-needed energy was missing from the club.

After considering many different options, they decided that the solution would be to supplement the DJ booth with an LED video screen display. They felt the addition of a video wall would enhance and intensify the performance of the featured act, adding a powerful visual element that would serve as a commanding focal point in the club.

UK - Pulsar has welcomed a new addition to its sales team, with Chris Penney appointed to the role of architectural business development manager. "After 14 years in the lighting industry, Penney brings a host of contacts, knowledge and experience that make him a valuable asset both to Pulsar and our specifiers," the company says. He will be visiting and supporting distributors, architects, planners, and local authorities to develop business together.

Penney joins at a time when architectural projects are increasing their importance in Pulsar's project portfolio, the company says, adding: "Chris's work with this sector will help to ensure Pulsar's continued growth and success in these longer-term schemes."

At the same time, Pulsar has also announced the promotion of Simon Cox to head of sales after his previous role as UK sales manager and Snowy Johnson taki

UK - Le Maitre Events provided a stunning roof-top finale to the Harrods Christmas lights switch-on this year.

In total, over 650 effects from large scale comets and mines to the Fairy Godmother's wand were fired as Harrods unveiled their magical Disney-themed Christmas window displays which will run until January.

Couture houses including Valentino and Versace created a range of stunning dresses for each Disney princess.

(Jim Evans)

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