20 Years Ago . . . LSi January 1995

"The death of lighting designer Robert Nesbitt, known as 'The Prince of Darkness', was our lead news item this month, with an obituary written by Graham Walne. Nesbitt came to prominence a designer in the 1930s, and over the next 50 years was known for his immaculate lighting of lavish revues, many of them at the London Palladium. "His designs for the Talk of the Town Theatre Restaurant . . . and The Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas became the model for many nightclubs which followed," noted Walne."

10 Years Ago . . . LSi January 2005

"Business news included the sale of lighting control equipment manufacturer Lightprocessor and sales and distribution operation Lightfactor Sales to technology group Polaron, which had acquired the iLight and Zero 88 brands in 2004. The two companies were owned by Rossula Ltd, whose majority owner Mick Hannaford would become managing director of Polaron's entertainment lighting controls division. "

This month: The Year of the Cat-5

". . . for any enterprise engaged in audio and media streaming there is suddenly an expensive and inconvenient requirement to make sure there is always rock-solid expertise in IT security readily available."

This month: Tannoy Dual Concentric Drivers

"Sometimes, thinking outside of the box really does mean doing exactly that. Take the challenge presented to sound designer Martin Levan by Andrew Lloyd Webber for the original Phantom of the Opera in 1986: the composer wanted the sound to appear to come naturally from the stage rather than sounding like a bunch of loudspeakers around the proscenium. Levan's solution: to take the loudspeaker drivers out of their boxes and use them naked, open, exposed to the air . . . "

This month: Tour manager and production manager Craig Duffy

"Eventually, I persuaded John Curd to give me a job rather than being hacked off that I was at all his shows and never bought a ticket. Within a few months I was running the stage crew for him and from there to costing and accounting for shows and tours, repping all over the UK to booking and running the Klubfoot in Hammersmith and onwards."

This month: My first time . . .

"My first installation serves as a constant reminder as to how little our clients really understand. If I knew so little after years in the industry, clients must know considerably less - and that is something we sometimes forget."

This month: Freelance Advisor

"So, the new year starts with a timely reminder that you shouldn't let something just sit on your 'to do' list for too long - particularly in the fast-moving world of the internet, where it will likely have morphed into something else by the time you get round to to-doing it! Case in point: a website called freelanceadvisor.co.uk that I've been meaning to write about for a while. "

This month: Introduction to Pandoras Box

"One of the more popular media servers in live event production is Pandoras Box from Coolux. I've had the opportunity to use several different varieties of media server, but until recently, I'd never had the opportunity to work with this one. Last month I travelled to Agoura Hills, California, a suburb of Los Angeles, and took a class on programming Pandoras Box, taught by Sam Kriemelmeyer and Greg Maple. It was a great class, lots of fun, and it was everything I expected and more. I highly recommend it."

This month: Lee Baldock talks to award-winning lighting designer Andy Hurst

"What college taught me is how to use my imagination . . . The course was about problem-solving - which, for me, is what design is."

We've added over 175 photos of the PLASA Show in London from the LSi archives dating back to 1993.

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