UK - Summer 2008 has been a busy time for programming house grandPA. Following its launch in the spring, the company reports that its programmers have been involved in some major shows over the past months.

Marcus Kromer was seconded to PRG for Madonna's Sweet and Stickytour, responsible for grandMA support for the M-box Extreme video programming.

Tim Routledge spent his summer in Beijing as programmer to LD Durham Marenghi for the London 2012 Handover Ceremony at the closing ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Olympics and Paralympics whilst business partner Pryderi Baskeville had a busy summer between setting up the Bill Bailey tour in Australia, the Charlotte Church Show and Ronan Keating dates.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Stage Electrics has announced the addition of Safex-Flamejett to its portfolio of hire and sales products.

This device produces large flame effects without on stage propane bottles. It produces safe, effective and impressive bright tongues of flame and fireballs up to 4m and is practically smokeless, says the company. Unlike the majority of fire-effect devices the Safex-Flamejett works with an aerosol containing the propellant / fuel mixture.

The 380g aerosol contains enough propellant to produce large numbers of flames and fireballs, ensuring that only a small amount of flammable substance is on stage. For professional use the device is equipped with DMX 512 connections. To operate, three channels are necessary: an arming channel, a firing channel and a flame duration channel. It is equipped with pre-selectable effect programmes and can produce rhythmic tongues of flames

Italy - Aethra has announced that it has signed a new agreement with CVS Hightech for the distribution of its video communications product range throughout Central America.

Based in Guatemala and serving the Central American region, CVS Hightech, develops video and audio projects using state-of-the-art technology to create new opportunities in underserved markets.

CVS Hightech has significant experience in the Central American market and covers the surrounding states of El Salvador, Panama, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, as well as Guatemala itself.

Juan Ramón Echeverría, of CVS Hightech comments: "The Aethra products were selected over other brands for distribution in Central America because of the built-in-streaming capabilities that allow remote areas to participate in distance learning projects, broad compatibility with any other endpoints devices and th

UK - Stagecraft Ltd, the Salisbury-based lighting, sound and AV hire and sales company, went into liquidation on 17 October 2008, LSI Online has learned. Lisa Tapper, the former accounts manager of Stagecraft Ltd, reports that she and other key staff members have bought the assets of the company and are reforming as Stagecraft Technical Services Ltd as of today, 30 October 2008.

The new company directors are Lisa Tapper, Mike Naish (formerly Stagecraft Ltd production manager), Kevin Hughes (former projects manager) and Simon Sketchley, who has joined the company from AJS Theatre Lighting and Stage Supplies, where he was general manager.

Tapper reports that eight key members of staff have been retained as part of the new operation, while a further eight have lost their jobs.

Tapper was also confirmed that all forward orders on Stagecraft Ltd's books will be honoured by the ne

UK - Projected Image Digital has moved to new, larger premises in Chiswick, west London which includes a permanent training and demonstration facility. The new HQ is just 5 minutes from the previous one at 58 B Wellesley Road, London W4 4AD. All phone numbers and emails remain unchanged<

The move was necessitated by PID's proactive programme of hands-on product support and training, which reached the level where it needed its own dedicated space.

"We are now doing regular Catalyst and WholeHog training," states PID MD David March. He adds that the 1000sq.ft demo area is also ideal for them to stage product mock-ups and testing for clients and upcoming projects.

(Jim Evans)

UK - The Diskus has become the latest addition to London's burgeoning conference venue landscape following an inspired and versatile multimedia installation by Design Integration.

Owned by UNITE, the Union T&G Section, and occupying a prime site in the Holborn business district, the independently run Diskus has been able to promote itself as an "advanced conference venue" since the AV specialists carried out a major upgrade this summer using QSC's AcousticDesign Series loudspeakers and CX Series power amplifiers.

Derek Wright, managing director of Design Integration, has frequently turned to QSC components to satisfy his project requirements - and given The Diskus's low ceiling height he was able to deploy multiples of AD-Ci52T and AD-Ci52ST recessed ceiling speakers for the foyer/break out area and main auditorium respectively.

Said conference manager, Francis Wil

UK - 3M reports that Volkswagen UK has installed dynamic wide screen and interactive digital displays using Vikuiti Rear Projection technology in its Chelmsford and Milton Keynes dealerships. Volkswagen is using the displays to play vibrant video that captures customer attention and maximises brand assets to their full potential, says the company.

A 96" 16:9 Vikuiti screen has been hung on the first floor of the newly built flagship Volkswagen dealership in Chelmsford, Essex. A ceiling mounted projector beams streaming video designed to educate, entertain and inform customers of the latest Volkswagen offers and information, which is controlled by Volkswagen UK head office in Milton Keynes. Positioned above an open atrium on the ground floor, the giant screen is intended to catch the customer's eye and drive traffic upstairs to peruse the used car stock.

"We have been

UK - 59 sold out dates and a total audience figure estimated at 400,000 makes the Lee Evans Big Tour the UK's largest stand-up comedy tour of 2008. Taking in arenas the length and breadth of the UK, visual appeal was an important factor right from the very start. A Lighthouse R7-ER LED screen, supplied by audiovisual services company Creative Technology (CT), is at the heart of the set.

A total of 150sq.m of R7-ER configured as a large 16:9 aspect screen formed the centre piece for the stage set, plus two IMAG side screens in portrait format ensured that Evans' visual comedic style reaches each and every audience member.

The average size for the central touring screen is 10.16m x 6.1m (10 panels wide by 8 panels high), which closely approximates the 16:9 format initially specified. The look of the show was transformed at London's O2 Arena - the largest venue on the tour

USA - Entertainment supplier White Light from the UK and lighting manufacturer City Theatrical from the US won the Best Product award in the Special Effects category at this year's LDI Show in Las Vegas, for the White Light Snow Machine.

The Snow Machine represents a new level of collaboration between the two companies, who have been close friends for many years. Originally created in prototype form by White Light for the London production of the musical Billy Elliot, the final version of the Snow Machine is now manufactured for White Light by City Theatrical. It offers variable speed delivery of paper or plastic snow effects under DMX control and is designed to fit into tight spaces and operate with the very minimum of noise.

"White Light has often created special products requested by lighting designers to solve problems on particular shows," commented the c

Germany - Commissioned by Airbus, the Hamburg events agency Kontrapunkt staged the hand-over of the first A380 wide-bodied jet to the Emirates airline with a multimedia show that included elaborate panorama projections for the 500-plus guests gathered on the premises of Airbus in Hamburg. Images of the official hand-over to the Arab airline went all round the world. To provide media support for the delivery of the aircraft, Kontrapunkt engaged the tst Gesellschaft für audiovisuelle Systeme, a company based in Berlin.

For the event, tst provided among other things a 20 x 4m soft-edged panorama projection using purpose four Barco FLM R20+ projectors of 20,000 Ansi lumens each in connection with ten Wings Platinum 3 from AV Stumpfl for the master, slave and redundant computers as well as further equipment. A particular challenge for the tst team was the very short projection dista

USA - Element Labs won two major awards at the recent LDI Show in Las Vegas. One of the company's most recent product introductions, the Helix P1 - a flexible LED pixel string - was named Best Debuting Projection Product, while its Versa RAY Screen, featured prominently at the 15th Asian Games, was awarded the ESTA (Entertainment Services and Technology Association) Rock Our World Award.

Helix P1 is a flexible LED pixel string that allows users to quickly deploy video over large spaces in creative ways. It bends, wraps, drapes, and folds allowing maximum creativity in a wide range of venues. Coupled with flexible processing and the power of RasterMAPPER software, individual Helix P1 strings are merged into one seamless video display that can transform any surface or shape into a work of art. The snap-in diffuser accessory also allows one to mount the Helix P1 to signage, scenery

UK - In response to postings on Internet bulletin boards and "general disinformation" within the industry, PSLL, the new company formed by directors of Presentation Services Ltd (PSL), has issued a statement to the press.

The statement reads as follows:

"A new company has been formed by Gary Davis, Darren Glossop, Paddy Collier, Lauren Steadman and Divyang Mistry which saves the jobs of nearly 100 employees of PSL after adverse circumstances forced the Potters Bar-based event services operation into administration.

"Last month, PSL entered into a legal process called 'pre-pack administration', a routinely-used mechanism recommended by many insolvency practitioners to protect valuable parts of a business. It has strict compliance issues, formal valuations of assets and intellectual property, and requires personal guarantees from the directors. The process

UK - As part of its ambitious plans for 2009, The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust will be opening a new exhibition and visitor centre at Shakespeare's Birthplace. Following a competitive pitch, the Trust has appointed UK creative design and AV specialist Sarner to redevelop the visitor centre and give the Bard a modern makeover.

The attraction, entitled Life, Love & Legacy: A New Introduction to William Shakespeare, is due to open in April 2009, and will see visitors journey through five zones in an immersive experience bringing the history of Shakespeare to life. Set within the grounds of the house where Shakespeare was born, the visitor centre is the centrepiece of the five houses that The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust opens to the public in and around Stratford.

Utilising its in house creative and AV departments, Sarner has designed a fully automated dark 'walk through'

UK - Panasonic is launching the new F300 range which offers a wide range of projectors introducing four new models, incorporating new In-Organic materials for LCD panels and polarizers that will enhance the projector's life and lessen image deterioration and yellowing of the projected image over time, says the company.

Across the range, the brightness specification reaches 4000 lumens on the F300 series and 3300 lumens on the FW300 series. Both feature an upgraded daylight view 5 technology and use common lamps throughout making replacement and maintenance more cost effective.

The F300 also boasts up to 5,000 hours lamp life at full brightness specification and Panasonic backs this with a three year (or 3000 hour) warranty which includes lamps.

The F300 range uses a new Auto Cleaning Filter (ACF) which can extend the typical filter maintenance intervals to 10,000 hours depen

UK - The production of Alvaro's Balcony at London's Landor Theatre employs a grandMA light and a grandMA video media server for lighting control.

Associate lighting designer Jonny Milmer said: "There's never enough time to programme a show of this scale and having two desks connected with different users really helped. I was able to programme the show on the grandMA full-size as the cast rehearsed with Martin (Terry) playing back the show on the grandMA light to keep us in the correct lighting cue."

Technical manager Martin Terry continued: "It's nice to be able to focus on the cue points in the script and music and practise these during rehearsals without having to also worry about cue modifications that were done on a grandMA full-size console which was only used during rehearsals."

"Having such a flexible system meant that I could have my l

Belgium - EML Productions is adding G-LEC's Phantom30 LED video display system to its inventory, with the acquisition of 150 frames.

Based in Belgium, with offices in the Netherlands and Spain, EML is the main supplier for the biggest festivals and concerts in Europe. Dirk Bosloirs, operations director for EML comments: "We know from other people that becoming a G-LEC partner is like joining a family, where everyone supports each other. It is more than just products, it is about 100% back-up and support."

Bosloirs continues: "We have worked with Supporting Role for many years and when we were looking for an LED frame system, they gave us good reports of G-LEC. We investigated further, saw the system in action at Hockenheim in July, and then met up again at PLASA in September. The beauty of the system is its flexibility - you can configure it to any kind of produ

UK - A 48-way Kinesys automation system with Vector control is in action on the current Queen & Paul Rodgers tour, utilised for moving lighting trusses and an 85sq.m horizontal-splitting upstage video screen.

This was specified by lighting designer Baz Halpin, is operated by Barry Branford and supplied through Bandit Lites UK for the UK and European sections of the tour.

The screen is constructed from a combination of Barco O-Lite frames - a solid section in the centre and asymmetrically populated frames radiating outwards, along with 304 ACL bulbs. It is 17m wide and 5m tall, weighs seven tonnes and was fabricated by Brilliant Stages. On the road, it is suspended by 24 half tonne Lodestar motors with Kinesys Elevation 1+ drive units.

12 motors are lifting the top half of the screen and 12 are attached to steel stingers passing through the centres of the bottom panels, picki

UK - XL Video is supplying a substantial projection system, cameras, PPU, Catalyst and Hippotizer digital media servers and crew for the current Coldplay Viva La Vida world tour.

Working closely with Edinburgh-based Pufferfish, XL has also jointly developed six internally projected spheres - and steel cage housings - which are a major scenic feature of the show.

The show's inventive set and lighting was created by Paul Normandale, with video playback content specially commissioned and produced by Justine Catterall, technical support by Richard Turner and live video directed by Andy Bramley. Des Fallon is International account handler & project manager for XL.

Five 2m diameter globes are onstage, three attached to the two rear trusses (which are horizontal ladder beams shaped like waves), and the other two downstage left and right at the sides of stage, flown on two mo

China - The Tennis Masters has returned to Shanghai this month and Lighthouse Technologies (Lighthouse) is providing Qizhong Stadium with nearly 40 m2 of R4 4mm LED screens to bring more viewers closer to the action than ever before.

Lighthouse LED panels are appearing at more and more sports venues around the world. "The Macau and Bahrain Grand Prix, Rugby Sevens in Hong Kong, stadiums in US, Australia, Italy, Denmark, Holland, Austria and London just to name a few, as well as the famous Lord's Cricket ground in London have all been excellent examples of how Lighthouse LED screens are creating dramatic impact at major sporting events around the world," said Peter Chan, general manager of Lighthouse Technologies.

"We are also extremely proud to be the LED screen provider for the 2008 Tennis Masters. The R4-S screens we have installed at Qizhong Stadium reflect o

Hong Kong - October was a busy month for TAO Group's personnel with events in Canada, Croatia, Dubai and latterly Hong Kong - providing production management for the AsiaHedge Awards 2008.

The event, held in the Grand Ballroom of The Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong, acknowledges the achievements of the Asia-Pacific hedge fund industry; bringing together both international and Asian managers and investors to celebrate the best performing Asia-Pacific hedge funds.

TAO were contracted three weeks prior to the awards by Matt Stowe of London based design agency NewSubstance to provide production management and consultancy for the event.

TAO's Managing Director Andy Cotton started by liaising with the hotel's supplier, Simon Lam of Hong Kong based company Base Create, and hotel events manager Samantha Chow. The set was designed as all white with a central 12' x 9' rear projection

Italy - Artemio Franchi Stadium, home to Italian premier division and UEFA Champion's League club ACF Fiorentina, has recently seen the installation of a new Lighthouse P12-ER LED screen to provide added interest for the club's supporters and visiting football fans.

Measuring six panels wide by six panels high (9.60m x 7.20m), the 12mm visual resolution P12-ER screen is being used as a scoreboard and to show advertisements during matches. It serves as a medium that can support new and interesting content and provide a valuable additional revenue stream for the club.

Lighthouse handled both the sale and integration of the screen. "P12-ER is an enhanced resolution product, which means more detailed information can be displayed on the screen than with a standard 25mm pixel pitch screen," says Alessio Giagnoni, Lighthouse's sales support manager for Southern Europe. &quo

Italy - Singer-songwriter Elisa, a multi-platinum award winning star in her native country - recently delighted 20,000 fans at the Arena di Verona, with a debut performance of her Mechanical Dream show - before embarking on her first tour of the USA and Canada.

32 PixelLine 1044s featured in show designer Mamo Pozzoli's lighting rig, hung side by side in groups of two - creating a giant frame around the whole set. The show infused many art forms including dance, cinema, poetry and music - resulting in a stunning performance portraying the two aspects of the name of the tour - mechanical and dream.

Pozzoli explains: "I needed a powerful LED fixture that would help me transpose the lighting language of the two souls of the show concept. The 1044s have got that unmistakable industrial character and that brilliant personality - able to combine fast graphi

USA - Dirty Dancing - The Classic Story On Stage has opened in Chicago where Lighthouse Technologies and its rental partner Sound Associates, installed 50 pieces of Lighthouse's P10 10mm LED video panels for the production. The panels have been assembled into a single LED video display, 8ft high by 20ft wide, which serves as the backdrop.

The record-breaking production is lit by 200 moving lights and includes more than 200 automation cues with surround sound. The LED video display is the centerpiece of the production - projecting true-to-life images and live video feedback of the production with frequent opening and closing to allow actors and stage props to enter and exit the stage.

Jon Driscoll, video and projection designer for Dirty Dancing says: "My reputation is built on my ability to put on a technically flawless show every night," said Driscoll.

Canada - For Tina Turner's rock n roll tour, pyro company Pyrotek Special Effects designed a number of visual displays for the spectacular production.

Vice-president Lorenzo Cornacchia collaborated with LD Barry 'Baz' Halpin bringing a variety of effects to highlight Tina's stage presence. The implementation of the pyrotechnic designs was coordinated with Halpin throughout the four-week rehearsal period.

Pyrotechnic crew chief John Arrowsmith introduces the effects in each show, which includes everything from Dragons, Gold Flitter Mines, Red Mines with Glitter, Aqua Mines, Blue Mines as well as an all-fire cue of 20 X 20 Gerbs firing upstage concluding Tina's hit song, Her. "It's a real powerful song and we focused on adding a barrage of distinctive looks that truly highlight the heavy riffs," commented Cornacchia.

The first leg of the North America tour wil

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