Last week DHA Lighting treated members of the ABTT to a backstage tour of My Fair Lady at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Organised by Louise Tester, DHA's UK sales manager, the event attracted over 70 guests, including David Chivers who had employed David Hersey as an electrician at Theatre Projects when he first arrived in the UK! "It's fascinating seeing what David has achieved," said Chivers. Another ABTT member, Dick Walsingham added: "It's always interesting to see what other people have done."

Howard Bird, executive director of the ABTT, opened the session and introduced a number of speakers, plus front of house demonstrations. Bryan Raven of White Light, Steve McAndrew, chief electrician at the Theatre Royal, and My Fair Lady's production electric

Clay Paky and its Mexican distributor Vector 10, in collaboration with Miller Mix, Grupo Communica and Ingenieria Electrodigital, recently organised a professional lighting seminar in Mexico City, held at the Flamingo Plasa Hotel from 31 January to 2 February and attended by almost 300 people. This, say Clay Paky, is the first meeting between the most important Lighting Designers and lighting operators ever to be held in Mexico.

Over the course of the three days, Francesco Romagnoli, Clay Paky sales manager for the Americas, and Jorge Aguirre, president of Vector 10, demonstrated Mexican market trends which are providing some very interesting indications: indeed all sectors are in constant growth, from discotheques, to touring, TV and the architectural sector.

One of the highlights of the seminar was the session conducted by Patrick Woodroffe. During his career, Woodroffe has designe

City Theatrical has announced that technical salesperson Brian Byrne has left to join Kingsborough Community College, in Brooklyn, New York, as a media technician. Byrne joined the company in 2000 and played a large part in enabling CTI to win the ESTA Dealers’ Choice Award for Customer Service for 2001. Gary Fails told us: "We’re sorry to see Brian go, but we wish him well as he moves along in his career." Phyllis Newsome and Lorlyn Sia will staff the CTI sales department while a search for Byrne’s replacement is underway.

(Ruth Rossington)

Proel S.p.A. has established the Proel Lighting division. The operation started with the merging of the lighting manufacturing company M&L s.r.l. of Bellusco (Milan) with Proel S.p.A. This new venture expands the commercial and strategic relations with existing Proel divisions, such as the Sound Reinforcement and the Installation divisions: increased integration with these divisions will allow the company to offer a more comprehensive range of products to the pro audio and lighting market. Product manager of the new Lighting division is Roberto Meggiolaro, major shareholder and founder of M&L.

The official launch of the new division will take place at the Frankfurt Prolight+Sound (13-17 March), Hall 4.1 Stand F31. Following this, the company will be further promoting its Lighting division at SIB International in Rimini (24-27 March). Proel Lighting will feature a Lighting Master Catalo

SoundField has built a large 5.1 reference and demo room, fully equipped with Genelec monitors at its Wakefield headquarters. The five 1030 monitors and a 1092 sub bass speaker will mainly be used for research, development and the testing of new SoundField ‘MAP’ (Microphone Array Pattern) cards, to be installed in the SP451 Surround Processor. Each MAP card can create an array up to eight microphones from the B-Format information generated by SoundField microphones.

Development engineer Pieter Schillebeeckx rigorously tested many different 5.1 systems before deciding to go with Genelec. He told us: "We are developing MAP cards for both two dimensional and three dimensional multi-channel playback. The accurate localization of sound sources is vital in our development process and after listening to a wide variety of program material the Genelec’s came out on top.&q

Jands Australia, in cooperation with Stage Technologies, has been awarded an A$5m (£1.8m) contract for Sydney's new Walsh Bay Theatre. The Walsh Bay redevelopment project, to be completed by early 2003, comprises over 250 prestige apartments and a new theatre on the harbour foreshore in the historic Rocks area of Sydney. In partnership with Stage Technologies PLC, Jands will supply and install stage machinery, power flying equipment and theatre infrastructure services including paging, closed circuit televisions and the stage manager'sconsole. Jands is also supplying and installing Jands HP series dimmers, wired lighting bars and cable reelers, curtains and decorative proscenium surrounds.

Working with French company Serapid, Jands will also supply and install Linklift 100 machines, which eliminate the need for screw jacks and caissons for orchestra pits. The 850-seat theatre will be

Multi-talented Canadian singer Bryan Adams was recently accompanied by three of EST’s familiar purple and yellow trucks for a show in Stockholm as part of his UK and European tour. As well as entertaining fans in his distinctive, gravelly voice, Adams is a highly sought after portrait photographer and was recently commissioned to produce a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II for her Golden Jubilee. Keen EST spotters may recently have seen one of their trucks at Buckingham Palace. Delivering rolls of film perhaps?

Staying on a Canadian theme, French Canadian rock star, Garou is currently utilizing five EST trucks to entertain our French cousins on a tour which runs through to April 14. Meanwhile, the inexhaustible cast of Riverdance has now legged it up to Scotland, hotly pursued by as many as 10 EST trucks. The show runs in Edinburgh until the end of March.

Transport fans will be we

This month sees the launch of PE Consulting, introduced to provide business development expertise to entertainment technology and themed entertainment companies that wish to grow business in new markets and countries.

Developed by Peter Ed, who, since beginning his career at Theatre Projects in 1978, has worked with some of the industry’s most influential entertainment technology companies, PE Consulting helps its clients towards a clear definition of their objectives and the method of achieving them. "The most successful companies involve everyone pulling in the same direction and all resources having the same end in mind," said Ed. "PE Consulting looks at all aspects of marketing from growth planning and international market development, marketing strategy and product pricing, to internet marketing and customer relationship management, image building and public

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The Many Looks of Zeo

Delivering ultimate brightness and unique looks, Zeo’s distinct face design is defined by a central LED monolith and four reflectors, backed by four RGBW engines. As a blinder or strobe, Zeo promises powerful impact with 30,000+ lumens. With its sheer brilliance and playful effects, Zeo is ready to amplify the energy on any stage.

Crest Audio, the US-based manufacturer of professional audio equipment, has announced new distribution arrangements for its products in the United Kingdom.

Crest Audio UK is a newly formed division of Peavey Electronics Ltd, joining MediaMatrix and Architectural Acoustics. Group marketing manager Dave Bearman welcomes Crest as a perfect fit with the other products. He has also announced the appointment of Andy Simmons as sales manager for Crest Audio UK. Andy has a wealth of experience with Crest products and will strengthen the brand’s position as a leader in the industry.

Crest manufacture a high end range of power amplifiers and professional mixing consoles, together with the Crest Performance series of power amplifiers, speaker systems and audio equipment. The entire range will be available through the new distribution channel. Although Crest Audio UK will be a separate ope

Show Presentation Services has appointed Tim Brewster as its new head of scenic construction, following a review of operations taken in January this year. Brewster joins SPS after working with Set and Stage for three years as a project manager, following 11 years as construction director for Lewis Productions. During his career, Brewster has worked on staging and sets for a huge variety of shows from the Conservative Party Conference and trade union events to exhibitions in Azerbaijan.

He first became interested in set design and construction after building Doctor Who sets, amongst others, for the BBC following a five year apprenticeship as a pattern maker for British Aerospace. "This is a challenging role," said Brewster. "My focus is to integrate our scenic business fully into the rest of the company and to raise the department profile both internally and externally.

Marking 10 years of in-depth industry training courses, another successful Hoist and Rigging Workshop was recently hosted by Tomcat USA in Midland, Texas. Leading instructors were joined by nearly 50 industry professional participants from all over the United States and Mexico.

Instructor, Don Dimitroff from Columbus McKinnon, as well as Tomcat’s own Dave Beard, worked participants through the Lodestar electric chain hoist. Rocky Paulson of Stage Rigging and Morgan Neff of Mine Safety Appliances stressed safety in rigging techniques and fall protection equipment while Keith Bohn, Tomcat design manager, wrapped up with truss theory and design. Participants were treated to not only four days of informative classes, but also four nights of fun and the traditional factory night at Tomcat USA with extensive tours, demonstrations, contests and a graduation ceremony.

(Ruth Rossington)

A new face on the international trade show circuit is Le Mark's Rebecca Lace. She has joined the company as project manager with the task of expanding sales and the product profile of Le Mark’s reusable PAL Roadcase Label and accessory range within the US. One of Rebecca’s first outings came at the recent NAMM show held at the Anaheim (Los Angeles) Convention Centre in January, where Le Mark shared a stand with Penn Fabrication.

Penn has developed a unique range of steel dishes for Le Mark's label range. The dish can be specified by clients and can be built in as original equipment for all new roadcases. It is available on a worldwide basis through Penn and its extensive Dealer network.

(Ruth Rossington)

The official laying of the foundation stone for Martin Professional’s new ultra modern manufacturing facility took place at noon on Friday 15 February 15 in Frederikshavn, Denmark, with a host of top Martin personnel and local dignitaries taking part.

Both Frederikshavn mayor Erik Sørensen and Martin President and CEO Kristian Kolding addressed the large crowd, which numbered nearly 300. Kolding told us: "This ceremony marks an important milestone in our expansion programme and confirms that our new facility will be up and running on schedule later this summer." Geared towards the production of Martin’s most advanced lighting products, the $20 million 12,500sq.m factory is slated for completion in August. Upon completion, Martin will effectively double its production capacity for the manufacture of automated lighting; its current production facility, also located

Just a few days remain before the Institute of Sound & Communication Engineers (ISCE) ISCEx 2002 - an event designed to address those who work in the installed sound sector. The event, which takes place at the Alexander Stadium, Perry Barr, Birmingham this Wednesday (27th February), will combine a one-day seminar programme and a small exhibition. It will also feature the first ever Warren-Barnett Memorial Lecture given by Peter Mapp.

In addition to the Memorial Lecture, the main seminar programme will feature presentations on Audio for Video Conferencing by Jon Raper; Getting the Measure of Intelligibility by Peter Mapp and Helen Goddard; The Future of the VA Standards by Phil Pratt and Teaching an Old Bear Tricks by Helen Goddard and Robert Thornton.

Exhibitors at the event include AMS-Mapp Acoustics, Baldwin Boxall Communications Ltd, CIE Group Ltd, Communication Technology Ltd, D

Artsitic Licence has launched an update to its award-winning Micro-Scope technology. Micro-Scope 3a, which is now shipping, provides a host of new features, many aimed at the forthcoming DMX512-A standard. Terms such as Text Packet, System Information Packet, Alternate Start Code and Network Test will be added to the lighting technician's dictionary when the new standard is launched and Micro-Scope 3a supports them all!

Micro-Scope 3a also provides a range of new features derived from customer feedback. A complete show patch can be downloaded from the new version of Mic-Edit. This allows Micro-Scope 3a to identify each and every channel by both lamp and function. The new version of Mic-Edit also provides a range of new features, including the ability to output DMX via Micro-Scope 3a. This feature alone will greatly speed the task of entering lamp personalities and test patterns. Mic-Ed

Hels Australia Pty Ltd will now be handling the transtechnik Lichtsysteme range of professional lighting systems for television studios and theatres in Australia. The appointment is recognition of the increasing importance of the markets in the Pacific region. Hels, which is based in Templestowe (a town in Victoria, not far from Melbourne, the state capital), will handle both the Australian market and the entire south-east Asia region. In addition to sales, the company will also work with companies in the planning stages.

Hels is run by Zoltan Seles and Tomas Bardos. The two businessmen have been working together since 1998, supplying technical equipment and services to the television and theatre markets.

(Ruth Rossington)

Central Theatre Supplies in Birmingham were the hosts of a Lighting & Sound Workshop held at Solihull Arts Complex in Solihull on 2 February. Almost 250 people from amateur theatres, drama groups and schools attended the day and were given a full insight into stage lighting and sound. Exhibitors including Zero 88, Selecon, Audio Technica, Strand Lighting, Celestion, HW International, Doughty Engineering, Stonewood Audio and Prolyte were in attendance to demonstrate their latest products and services.

The first session of the day - entitled ‘Lighting from Scratch’ - was led by Jason Larcombe of the White Light Group. This was later followed by a demonstration of effects by Ian Knight, hire manager for Central Theatre Supplies. This offered those in attendance an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the recommended practices when working with pyro. Ian also demonstrated

AC Lighting has announced three new appointments at its corporate headquarters located in High Wycombe. The Special Projects Division has been strengthened by the appointment of Ray Dolby in the role of project manager. Dolby has worked in the lighting industry since leaving school, firstly as resident theatre technician at a Birmingham Arts Centre, then as lighting designer at the Leicester Haymarket and subsequently at the Derby Playhouse, where he lit 34 shows, covering everything from plays to musicals and pantomimes. Ray then joined Stage Services in Loughborough as general manager before progressing his career with Lighting Technology Projects in London. He worked on many projects whilst there including the design and installation of lighting schemes at the Lakeside and Bluewater shopping centres, numerous major corporate headquarters in London, airports, railway stations, colleges

XL Video UK, the touring and live event video specialist, has just completed a purchase that makes it the owner of the biggest and brightest fleet of Barco DLP projectors in the UK. The order gives XL 16 of the new ultra-bright Barco ELM R18 17,500 lumen projectors and four of the new, smaller, SLM R8 projectors (7,500 lumens) which will be added to their rental fleet.

It’s the first order for ELM R18s in the UK and adds to XL’s already extensive stock of Barco projectors which currently includes Barco ELM G10s ELM G12s and SLM G5s, plus assorted smaller projectors. XL Video’s Lee Spencer comments: "Having access to such a diverse fleet of projectors allows us to offer our clients the latest in projection equipment. It also means that we can be highly competitive and still give our clients the best service whether the event is large or small, conventional or lef

Vertigo Rigging - specialist in the art of events and entertainment rigging – has now completed on its new, larger, high-tech premises in Deptford, London. Sited between Surrey Quays and Greenwich, Deptford is ideal for accessing central London and the West End. The premises consist of 14,500sq.ft of purpose-built warehousing. Vertigo has specially designed offices for project management and administration, and staff amenities have been given a priority, to account for the ever-increasing requirement for the provision of out-of-hours rigging services.

Vertigo Rigging director Rebecca Loughran is delighted with the new premises, and comments: "We now have the capacity to expand our equipment inventory and hold the largest stock of quality truss, motors and associated rigging in the UK. This will allow us to offer clients more choice and flexibility in the world of increasingl

North London-based Powerhouse Audio were the first production company in Europe to stock the new EAW SM84 wedge monitors. Powerhouse, who handle a great deal of the high profile corporate production work in and around London, count some of the capital’s major names among their clients. These include companies such as Virgin Records, Channel 4 Television, BBC Radio 2, The BAFTAs and The Financial Times - to name just few.

Nigel Winer explains: "We worked on a TV dance programme, 'Flava' for Channel 4. We were responsible for the production of the studio sound for guest live acts. TV producers try to keep wedge monitors out of shot where possible. One of the advantages of the SM84s is the fact that they are so low profile. We had one in shot and the rest at the other end of the studio. The beauty of the EAW wedges is that the sound is there when you need it. Hence none of the

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