Australia - Westfield's shiny new Sky Lobby in the 25-storey commercial tower on Castlereagh Street Lobby is the final part of Westfield's $1.2 billion redevelopment in the CBD, a development that has created a world-class retail environment and which incorporates 75,000sq.m of office space across three buildings. JP Morgan, Allen & Overy and Westfield Corporate are all tenants.

Rising above the retail podium of Sydney, the 25-storey tower is accessed by lifts from the Sky Lobby at the top of the retail precinct. The Sky Lobby also acts as a transition area for access to Castlereagh Street itself and the retail area.

The Sky Lobby has airport lounge-type meeting areas including cafés designed to create an environment where people can interact informally. In fact on any given day up to 3,500 people could be dropping in and out of that area from internal offices plus thos

The Netherlands - Popular Dutch comedienne and singer Tineke Schouten is touring with 24 Robe Robin LEDBeam 100s together with Robe ColorSpot and ColorWash 700E AT moving lights, all of which form the core of a dynamic lighting rig designed by Danny den Bekker.

Schouten is one of the best known and loved comic artists in the Netherlands and tours the country extensively every year, from September to May, playing five or six shows a week - a format that has been highly successful for the last 32 years.

Danny den Bekker has worked as her lighting designer for the last nine years, and technical production and lighting rental company Locomotion from Boxtel has serviced her tours for 26 years.

Den Bekker has been using various Robe products in his designs for about the last seven years, starting with the ColorSpot and Color Wash 575 Series and then the 700 Series ColorSpot and Co

The Netherlands - Rotterdam based rental and technical solutions company Peitsman Licht en Geluid (Light & Sound) has purchased Robe's latest Robin DLX Spot and DLF Wash fixtures, in the process becoming the first DLF users in the Benelux region.

It is also their first investment into the Robe brand, prompted by Peitsman Licht en Geluid owner and founder Hans Peitsman's desire to keep moving forward, thinking of the future and offering his clients the latest technologies.

Peitsman Licht en Geluid was founded in 1994 and now has 15 full time employees. The company supplies full technical production packages to a broad cross-section of industry sectors - live shows and events, B2B and corporate presentations, theatre and television productions, parties and public entertainments.

The order for the new Robe fixtures - delivered by Benelux distributor Controllux's Dutch office -

USA - Alternative metal band 10 Years returned to their roots for a concert that combined new and classic elements for one show. Held on 29 December, 2012, the event featured two sets from the band: an acoustic set with a string trio and the fist-pumping heavy metal portion their fans know and love from their most recent album, Minus the Machine.

Lighting designer Will Twork has been designing concerts for over 40 years, almost 30 of which have been with Bandit Lites. Previous acts heralding Twork's designs include KISS, Aerosmith, Motorhead and Mötley Crüe. For 10 Years' concert at the historic Tennessee Theatre, Twork focused on the music for inspiration, drawing on dark musicality that pervades most of 10 Years' songs.

"I spent a week prior to even setting up any lights listening to the music to formulate ideas in my head," said Twork. "I wanted to a

UK - Entertainment lighting specialist White Light has announced that Sarah Cox has recently joined its sales team as European divisional sales manager. A well-known face within the industry, Cox brings to the role more than 10 years of experience working with stage entertainment technology, having previously held positions with Roland Hemming and TMB. Most recently, Sarah worked as business development manager for Stage Electrics.

"I am delighted to welcome Sarah to the White Light team" said Peter Threadgold, sales director at White Light. "I have known Sarah since her early days in our industry and have seen her knowledge and business acumen develop over the years. I look forward to working together as White Light continues to take up new opportunities for growth."

In her new role, Cox will focus on delivering White Light's innovative products and qualit

UK - Wallington County Grammar School in southwest London kicked off the term brightly following the installation of Philips Selecon PLCYC-1, PLPROFILE-1 and PLFRESNEL-1 LED luminaires in its main hall.

As part of a major upgrade to the school's performance space technology Oxford-based Lancelyn Theatre Supplies has supplied a comprehensive rig comprising luminiares from Philips Selecon's range of performance LED Luminaires.

"We're really impressed with the result," says Wallington's science curriculum support officer, Michael Curran. "We have a number of pupils who are technically creative and I firmly believe that the investment in such a flexible lighting solution provides a worthy match for their enthusiasm. Installing the Selecon PLPROFILE-1, PLFRESNEL and PLCYC-1s is giving students many more creative options than we've had before. In the past we were usin

UK - Buckinghamshire-based rental and technical design services specialist Universal Event Productions (UEP) has added to its already substantial LED lighting inventory with the purchase of i-Pix i-Line 6 fixtures and MilTec MTC Batten 2s.

The company's Video department has been boosted with a new Roland V800 HD vision mixer.

This reflects a steadily busy year, and a particularly active autumn season and festive run up. In 2013 the company celebrates its 15th year of operation, in which time it has established itself as one of the leading single-source technical production service providers for all types of shows and events.

Says UEP's Steve Butcher, "It's been a good year with a constant stream of high quality work, which has enabled us to make several key purchases and ensure our clients benefit from the latest and best technologies and options available in all discip

UK - Lighting and visuals rental company HSL continued its energetic working relationship with lighting / visuals designer Steve Bewley and the band Enter Shikari, supplying lighting and video equipment to the latest shows on their Flash Flood of Colour world tour.

Bewley has worked for Enter Shikari for the last five years. They are among the hardest working artists on the live circuit, bringing their highly adrenalized electro-metal sounds and stage performances to a loyal and enthusiastic international fanbase.

Around 18 months ago, HSL came on-board to supply equipment for their UK and European work after Bewley was impressed by the people, equipment, service and attitude of the Blackburn based operation.

"We needed a complete solutions company for lighting and visuals ... and HSL was a great choice," he states.

HSL's project manager Mike Oates says, &

UK - British rockers Level 42 have been living up to their 1984 album Standing in the Light by performing under a rig of Clay Paky Alpha Spot HPE 700s at London's Royal Albert Hall.

Lighting designer Yenz Nyholm says they form a key element in his lighting design: "We're only transporting 12 spots in the rig, which is not a lot especially when you get into big venues. The output you get with a Clay Paky is really striking for a 700W lamp. The output and the optics were the main reasons for choosing the Alpha Spots HPEs, and also the fact that they move incredibly fast."

The strength, versatility and nimble nature of the Alpha Spots have enabled Nyholm to build a look for the show which really complements the band's image: "The main thing I'm using with the spots is the colour - I use a lot of very slow colour fades. Obviously it's got to be a CMY fixture,

UK - When Bristol Old Vic Theatre School (BOVTS) required an upgrade from their ageing prompt desk they turned to Stage Electrics who have successfully been building stage management consoles for over 30 years.

"When I joined BOVTS I realised that the students were using cue lights that would break and were not easy to programme. I felt the students needed the chance to work with exactly the same systems that they would be using once they graduated. This brought me to Stage Electrics," commented Louise Matthews, production stage management supervisor, BOVTS.

Working closely with Matthews, Stage Electrics designed and developed their new table top stage management console. Ideal for use in schools, touring shows and professional theatres; this flagship portable desk concept is proven to be a popular choice across a variety of venues such as East 15 Acting School and B

USA - More than 200 Chauvet Professional video panels became the central part of an electrifying design for Audible, an EDM event organized at the Convention Center Hall, Al Paso, on 29 December. Audible featured performances by Deadmau5, Chris Lake and Audrey Napoleon.

Provided by Creative Production & Design of Austin, Texas, 114 Chauvet Professional MVP 18 and 96 MVP 12 modular video panels made up for an impressive display, conceived in layers of video walls with a 3D feel. "The versatility of the MVP 18 panels makes it easy to use in many of our applications," said Daniel Wyatt, project manager of Creative Production & Design.

For high-resolution graphics 18 of the MVP 12 video panels worked as the façade for the DJ booth, while a 6-by-13 video wall of the same panels was placed in the background. In between these walls, 11 high columns of one-by-10 MVP 18 vide

France - Martin Professional is back at the SIEL show (February 4-6 at the Grande Halle de la Villette in Paris) and will be showcasing at Stand D 115 a host of new lighting, video, control and smoke products, including the award-winning MAC Viper moving head. Other innovative products on display include a new fixture in the MAC III family, a series of creative LED video products, portable control solutions and a compact haze machine. Martin will also be showing exclusive products in a dedicated "black box" located at MEZ 4-3.

The MAC Viper Profile features over 26000 lumens of power from a 1000-watt HID source and is convincingly brighter than 1200-watt fixtures and also outperforms them in terms of speed and compactness.

The 1500-watt MAC III AirFX is an extremely bright and highly versatile lighting fixture, a new concept that combines hard-edge, mid-air effects a

Slovenia - Ljubljana based Intralite is a leading Slovenian lighting rental company working in all areas of the industry - festivals, concerts, corporate, theatre and TV - and is committed to offering the very best service and the latest technologies to its clients.

It was established in 2007 by Ales Pirman, who first bought Robe moving lights in 2003 when running his previous lighting company, which was a smaller one-person operation.

The first purchases were 575 XT Washes and ColorSpot 575 ATs which were such a success that he continued down the Robe route after he set up Intralite.

"I needed good value, highly featured moving lights that were reliable and solid rental company workhorses," he explains. "Robe was a lot more accessible than any of its competitors on several different fronts," he comments, adding that the service, support and backup offere

USA - Lighting designer Jason Rothberg has selected the Clay Paky Alpha Spot QWO 800 fixtures for the current tour of indietronica band Passion Pit. Atomic Lighting of Lititz, Pennsylvania supplied the lights, which are garnering raves from Rothberg on the road.

Passion Pit is continuing its national tour after releasing its second LP, Gossamer. More dates are planned for 2013.

"I've never toured with Clay Paky lights, but these have been fantastic," Rothberg reports. "They're different from other lights of this type. They are smaller and brighter, and the zoom is amazing. They can go from a super tight beam to a super fat beam in an instant. They're brighter than anything else we've encountered."

Rothberg, who is also the tour's lighting programmer, had previous positive experiences with Clay Paky 700 fixtures but calls the 800 units "even be

UK - Nick Gray from creative lighting and visual design practice Renegade was commissioned by show producers Bacchus to light the main venue at the British Fashion Council's 'London Collections : Men AW 2013 menswear showcase, staged at the Hospital Club in Covent Garden.

Additionally, Gray lit two high profile off site shows - Aitor Throup's ground-breaking New Object Research at The Dog Eared Film Studio in Covent Garden and Jonathan Saunders' collection at Victoria House in Holborn.

Renegade also sourced and co-ordinated all the necessary lighting equipment and supplied their own hand-picked crews.

The Hospital Club was the official British Fashion Council (BFC) show space at the hub of the event, featuring up to four shows a day .

The space was almost square and surrounded by white walls, seating bays and runway floor. A central 'spine' truss was installe

USA - It may not have looked like your grandma's Empire State Building (ESB), but a grandMA2 full-size enhanced the dazzling pixel mapping of the New York City landmark that launched the building's new lighting system.

The world-famous ESB recently revealed its new, one-of-a-kind LED tower lights with a first-ever light show on the landmark, which was designed by noted lighting designer Marc Brickman. The stunning display featured six Hippo media servers, controlled by a grandMA2 full-size and operated in conjunction with the Philips Color Kinetics (PCK) LSM control system and its associated network. The media servers drove 11,500 pixel-mapped DMX channels to four types of Philips Color Kinetics RGB and white fixtures located on the building's top four tiers where they replaced old metal halide and fluorescent fixtures. All four sides of the structure were pixel mapped making th

New Zealand - Ten years ago, the first of many copies of LightFactory, the PC-based control system, was put on sale. Founder and CEO Martin Searancke developed LightFactory out of a passion for the industry and a knack for writing code. Today, the control system enjoys worldwide success, which is a credit to its power and economy, as well as to the hard work of its founder and employees (one of which is his wife, Helen).

Before LightFactory, Searancke had co-founded a dot com company and then invested the profits in what was then his hobby of lighting design. Before long, the new company was thriving. The motivating factor was his search for the ideal controller. Unable to find an affordable controller with powerful features, Searancke wrote a small application called "DMX Expander," which eventually led to the development of LightFactory.

"I had purchased a sma

UK - The Mayflower, Southampton, has chosen to replace much of its existing lighting stock with Philips Selecon SPX luminaires. The purchase follows an exhaustive testing and comparison process, which saw the SPXs benefit from a grueling 'destruction test' and shoot out against a number of other manufacturer profiles.

Neil Daykin, senior lighting technician at the Mayflower says: "We were looking to replace our old Strand Lighting Harmony profiles and had originally planned to replace them with the same fixtures that we already have FOH. When we received the demo SPX units to try out we very quickly changed our minds and ultimately we unanimously agreed that the SPX route was the best solution for us."

Daykin explains the reason for the change of heart: "We were surprised to discover that optically the SPXs are far superior to other fixtures. They are ideal for

Germany - Robe CitySkape 48 and CitySource 96 and Anolis Inground 12 RGB LED fixtures have been specified and installed to illuminate an eye-catching collection of art and sculptural works by Volker-Johannes Trieb in an area including a huge garden, a gallery, an event location and the renovated old Railway Station in Sutthausen near Osnabrück, Germany.

The whole area is called Iktomia and consists of several beautiful and engaging art works in the grounds of the newly refurbished station complex. Many of them are large and constructed from ceramic and rusty metal, including a wall built from 20 tonnes of residue iron.

These are skilfully integrated with the natural attractiveness of the gardens, creating a series of scenes and industrial interventions with which people can interact as they pass through - be it for a meditative wander to appreciate the gardens or to visit the

Denmark - Clay Paky Sharpys have helped Denmark celebrate its finest music with a stunning lighting design for the Danish Music Awards 2012 by Kasper Lange.

Lange specified an army of powerful, pure beam Sharpys to create an array of effects, including a semi-circle surround of bright, red beams to envelope Danish singer Aura as she performed her hit In Love with the World.

"The Sharpy has been my favourite profile fixture ever since it was launched, and has been in my designs for all my TV shows ever since then," says Lange, who has worked on many of Denmark's most high profile music events. "I needed a small profile fixture that was able to cut through the massive number of wash lamps and videoscreens, and the Sharpys are very stable, aggressive little work-horses. They deliver the best beam in the business - every lighting designer's dream."

The

UK - The most creative and experimental use of new generation products is often found at the hands of indie/dance production designers. This has been proven recently by Rob Stanley, of ZEROdB Live, who has been using the entire inventory of 44 SGM XC-5 LED strobes newly purchased by Haydn Cruickshank's Colour Sound Experiment (CSE).

Formed three and a half years ago, and famed for their work in the Drum 'n' Bass and more experimental corporate sectors, ZEROdB Live have continually been placing SGM's low-profile, high output platform on their "dream kit list" for gigs since they became part of the CSE stock.

The XC-5 RB strobes debuted on ZEROdB Live gigs at Mint Festival, Leeds and award winning Hospitality Brixton in September. "They have not been off our kit list since," confirms Stanley. "We do BIG shows, and the XC-5's are right on the money."

UK / The Netherlands - Artistic Licence Engineering is set to launch sunDial, a range of modular lighting controllers for smart illumination, at ISE 2013 (stand 8-R232). The display will highlight the mix-and-match versatility of the sunDial range, using DMX and DALI controllers to drive various sources, including mains-powered lighting and the latest in LED technology.

The landscape of lighting is evolving towards a greener future, but the introduction of more eco-friendly sources such as LED is just part of the story. Only by using and controlling fixtures in a more intelligent manner can we harness the full potential of the smart approach to lighting, says the company.

Artistic Licence Engineering's sunDial range provides the technology to make this happen. To ensure maximum versatility, the MC80-DMX and MC64-DALI controllers respectively accept DMX512 and DALI input data.

UK / The Netherlands - MilTec (UK) Ltd will be exhibiting at the ISE exhibition in Amsterdam. On show will be a selection of LED stage lighting and professional audio products, all designed by Miltec at their headquarters in Kent, England.

On the stand will be the highly successful LEDHead Batten2 which has become a major hit with installation and rental companies in the UK and Ireland. Fitted with 18 x 8W quad-colour LEDs it can be used as a conventional batten, pixel-mapped for stunning visual effects or employed as a cyclorama wash using the 'Cycwash' diffuser option.

Making its debut will be the LEDHead 3DPixelTube. This is a three-dimensional LED matrix system made up of LED tubes hung from a ceiling or truss. Each LED can be pixel-mapped to allow spectacular 3D effects.

Also featured on the stand will be a multi-function speaker cabinet which can be used as a single so

- Alan Titchmarsh is back with a new series of his ITV tea-time chat show. Roger Williams designs the lighting show, with equipment provided by Richard Martin Lighting (RML).

To enhance the warm and homely feel of the set, Williams' specification consists of Alpha Spot 575, Alpha Spot 300, Martin MAC Aura, James Thomas PixelPar 90s and LED Par cans.

In each daily episode, Alan approaches topical news and debates. He also cooks meals with resident and celebrity chefs, chats to celebrity guests and enjoys music numbers.

(Jim Evans)

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