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Lighting

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Those masters of rock industry logistics, EST, are once more in the thick of the action over the summer season. Touring with a list of bands that reads like a roll-call of the top aristocracy of the rock music industry, the range of locations and number of vehicles involved is staggering. The tours are all major Arena and Stadium scale and are forecast to be the biggest gross-earning acts of the summer season. 16 of the familiar yellow and purple trucks will provide logistic support to Madonna’s European tour running from the 5 June until 12 July. A further eight trucks will provide transport for the Eagles, starting in Moscow on 29 May and finishing in Glasgow on 28 July. Another 16 EST trucks will accompany Bon Jovi’s European Tour which starts in Stockholm on 31 May with 16 more shows in locations as diverse as Huddersfield, Hamburg and Zurich before ending in Munich on 30

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On March 30-31 over 80 of Scandinavia’s top lighting professionals, including architects, engineers and lighting designers, gathered in Aarhus, Denmark for the annual Nordlys Lighting Seminar. A large part of the seminar consisted of the viewing and evaluation of 11 'lighting experiments', each experiment created by a different lighting manufacturer. For four evenings buildings, monuments, bridges, sculptures and open space were illuminated around the town of Aarhus in an impressive display of the possibilities of architectural lighting. On Friday evening, the 80 participants voted for their favorite ‘experiment’.

The overall winner was Bispehave Tårnet (Bispehave Tower) illuminated by Martin Professional’s local distributor Martin Danmark. Lighting Designer of the winning project was Peer Ostergaard from Martin Danmark who commented about the design, "Be

Doughty - Banner - from 6 June 2025

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Italian lighting manufacturer Clay Paky has unveiled plans for a major new headquarter facility, close to its current base in Pedrengo.

The new HQ not only represents a major investment for the company (you don’t want to know how many noughts were on the end of all those liras), but also a new chapter in what has been one of the major success stories of our industry. And the timing is perfectly cued, for it’s 25 years since Pasquali Quadri first founded Clay Paky, in 1976.

Over the years, the company has grown to be one of the major players in the lighting market and whilst much of that is down to its roots in the club sector, recent years have seen Clay Paky diversify into the wider arenas of TV, theatre, touring and architectural lighting. Central to all this has been technical innovation - GoldenScan did much to establish the company; more recently the launch of new

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Lighting Technology has announced that Valiant Lamps has moved to the Group's New Malden, Surrey Location as part of an expansion and reorganisation programme. In addition, Valiant is already networked to take advantage of the Group's new Corby National Distribution Centre where a new computerised internal order processing system has been installed to mastermind and speed up deliveries to its customers across the UK and Europe. The new address for Valiant Lamps is: 4 Shannon Commercial Centre, Beverley Way, New Malden, Surrey, KT3 4PT, UK. Tel: +44 (0) 20 8949 3070 Fax: +44 (0) 20 8395 3072

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Moving from an office-based position at Lighting Technology’s headquarters at Park Royal, London, Jerry Merrifield has been appointed to take care of field sales for the South West of England. Field sales manager Rob Williamson said: "Jerry is a tremendous addition to the field sales team. With his knowledge, enthusiasm and drive, he is bound to develop new and existing business in the South West. He is a character well known to suppliers and customers alike." Jerry Merrifield commented: "After 10 years with LTG this is an opportunity and a challenge I needed. The growth during my time with the company has been staggering and the move gives me the opportunity to contribute to the future expansion of Lighting Technology’s business in the South West."

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Three European entertainment industry veterans have announced the formation of Ground Zero BV, which they claim to be ‘the first system integrator and show control specialist company in Holland’. The founders of Ground Zero are Sierk Janszen, Rutger van Dijk and Reind Brackman, all well known figures in the worldwide entertainment industry. The company’s main working area will be North-Western Europe and Spain.

Sierk Janszen has worked as applications manager at Avenger Systems in Belgium for the last six years after he had worked as a sound-engineer for several theatre-companies in Holland. Rutger van Dijk has been the manager of Vari-Lite Production Services Amsterdam since it establishment, before which he worked as technical production manager on many musical productions, Cirque du Soleil Europe and Focus Showequipment. Finally, Reind Brackman is the owner and fou

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The Christie Lites group of companies has announced the addition of Ian Gordon, formerly of Westsun International Inc, to the Christie Lites team. Gordon brings to Christie Lites 15 years’ experience servicing the concert industry in North America and Europe and will be working from the Christie Lites Vancouver office. "I’m extremely excited about the opportunity Christie Lites provides for myself and my family. The owner/operator business structure, combined with quality equipment and multiple offices throughout North America provide me with the desirable tools to service today’s concert marketplace. I have admired Christie Lites as competitors and look forward to being part of their team," says Gordon.

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Enttec, an Australian manufacturer of entertainment lighting devices, has just launched the DMXEtherGate. This new device is a low-cost plug and play gateway between Ethernet, networking commonly used in computer networks and DMX512 which is the industry standard control signal for entertainment lighting. The DMXEtherGate is available in two versions - an IN box to convert DMX512 to Ethernet and an OUT box to convert Ethernet to DMX512. Both have a 10Base-T Ethernet port that can be connected to any Ethernet equipment such as hubs, switches, radio access points. By using Ethernet, the lighting designer or operator can utilise all the existing infrastructure and the readily-available Ethernet hardware.

Thanks to the RLE data compression included in the DMXEtherGate multiple DMX512 universes can be transmitted on a single 10Base-T link. Moreover by using multiple IN and OUT boxes the sy

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James Thomas Engineering, the company that has put the MR16 ‘Birdie’ lantern on the map, introduces the latest evolution for the Par 16 lantern - the Image Plus. Image Plus is a simple and cost-effective focussing device that attaches to the lantern’s colour frame runners, further increasing the versatility of the lantern. The Image Plus 3 takes a standard size E Gobo, enabling any desired image or logo - in either glass or metal - to be projected onto a surface or wall up to four metres away. James Thomas also offers an MR16 gobo rotator that will rotate one or two gobos. Two types of lens are available - for narrow or wide effect options. There’s also a set of four shutters for beam-shaping and masking of the projected image. For the sharpest focus, lamp types required are either E49 or EXT, both of which are 12V, 50W, the Osram Titan 12V/65W or the EYF 12V/75W.

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Navigator Systems recently presented Pascale Lecomte of Britannia Row with a Harrods food hamper for taking part in a research and development project linked to the company’s Hire Track Eclipse rental management software. Britannia Row, which has been using Eclipse since 1999, was chosen at random from a number of companies who participated. Navigator will use the results from the findings to further develop the software.

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Frances Thompson has announced that she is leaving the US-based production industry web venture, Shoptick.com. Launched last year, Shoptick.com offers ‘e-business for show business’ with production resources including online inventory tracking and project management, product and manufacturer listings and crew resources. Thompson, who previously worked for US truss manufacturer Tomcat, was responsible for marketing at Shoptick.com. She told PLASA Media that Shoptick.com was in the process of downsizing in order to concentrate heavily on product development. The company’s Kansas City staff will now handle marketing as well as continuing to provide the level of service already established.

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London-based Optimusic had an interesting demonstration of a potential application for their product at the Frankfurt ProLight & Sound exhibition in April.

Using just one of the company’s OptiBeam units (see L&SI January 2001), the demonstration featured a display window in a booth, in front of which a single light beam projected down onto a reflective floor-sticker. With the OptiBeam in reverse mode, anyone breaking this beam, intentionally or otherwise, triggers one of a pre-programmed sequence of cues, via MIDI.

Designed by Raymond Haeck of Optimusic’s Belgian distributor Demon, the display was a mock-up of a product showcase. The first cue activated the opaque grey LCD glass, revealing the product (a running shoe!) behind it; subsequent breaks of the beam started the product turning on a revolve, triggered a musical soundtrack, switched on a fan to create a backdrop o

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Late March in London saw several industry organisations come together to contribute to an evening of presentations, the theme of which was Entertainment Lighting and its Influences. Members of the Society of Light & Lighting (SLL), the Institute of Lighting Engineers (ILE) and the Association of Lighting Designers (ALD) were present to hear several speakers outline their own particular experiences.

Peter Phillipson of Future Group Lighting Design talked about the differences between the disciplines of theatre and television lighting, compared to architectural lighting. To illustrate his point, he demonstrated the differences between a number of lighting fixtures. He also went on to discuss the critical role of the lighting programmer and introduced Stuart Porter, who had worked alongside LD Andrew Bridge on the production of Aida at the Royal Albert Hall. Dave Isherwood of The Moving L

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An ongoing technical refurbishment at the Salisbury District Council-owned City Hall, which recently saw motorised hoists and rigging improvements bringing it up to Health & Safety standard, has now seen the venue upgrade to new Strand LD90 digital dimmer racks. While the previous analogue dimmer system sat exposed in the gallery, the conversion of a storage room has provided a dedicated area for the six new racks, which offer 144 channels of 2.5kW dimming (with RCD earth leakage breaker options on the power blocks). At the same time ten Strand SL 15/30 Zooms and eight Strand Cantata F soft-edge fresnel lanterns have been added to the lighting rig.

Work at the 953 (seated)-capacity concert venue was carried out by Edinburgh-based Northern Light, who successfully tendered for the specification prepared by technical consultants, Theatretech, and supplied all the Strand equipment. The Sco

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The Adam Hall group has announced its agreement with California-based RPM Optoelectronics to distribute RPM’s innovative new Racklight throughout Europe. Racklight represents a new dimension in glare-free directional focused lighting for rack cabinets. Technical advances incorporated in the ‘Racklight’ provide visually uniform, brilliant illumination unavailable in other products. The unique design of the UV-resistant acrylic light guide provides heat-free, concentrated light with no hot bulbs to handle or change, and is guaranteed for five years. Racklight illuminates one metre of rack space with cool, even light. Built with high quality materials around dependable solid state lighting, ‘Racklight’ is a safe and durable addition to any rack equipment, and is available in a variety of light source colours.

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Industry veteran Fred Bentham died on Thursday 10 May at the age of 90. Though his career was long and distinguished, he will probably be remembered most for his ground-breaking work on the Strand Light Console which he designed to run a light show at the 1932 Ideal Home Exhibition. Unlike the control desks of today, the desk was designed to be 'played' like a piano. The funeral will take place on Thursday 24th May.

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Steve Terry, president of the Fourth Phase Systems Group, will leave the company on May 25th. Terry, one of the original owners of Production Arts, which was acquired by PRG in June 1998, is departing to assume the role of vice-president of professional services at Electronic Theatre Controls (ETC). In that role, he will be able to utilize his skills and experience on a much more diverse range of projects and will work closely with Bill McGivern, director of systems, and Sarah Spencer, director of technical services, to further strengthen ETC's industry-leading position in those areas.

Industry veteran Bill Groener will become the Northeast Regional VP for the PRG companies and will assume responsibility for lighting and audio rentals, large format projection (rentals and sales) and all permanent installation projects. Groener has been with PRG since 1998 and brings extensive experien

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Al Ridella has joined automated lighting manufacturer High End Systems in the role of Northeast Region Sales Manager, and is now based in High End's New York City office. The industry veteran's resume includes years of experience at a number of familiar companies. Most recently he was production coordinator at Fourth Phase New Jersey. His career began straight out of college with Strand. From there he moved to Vanco as head of electronics, then to Bash Theatrical where he handled systems sales. That led to a rental coordinatorjob at Production Arts, then finally to PRG (whose name changed to Fourth Phase while he was there). "High End Systems is a good company," Ridella says. "They take care of their people and customers, and they make good products. I look forward to working with High End's authorized resellers in the Northeast territory."

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The 46th Eurovision Song Contest at Denmark’s national stadium, Parken, featured one of the largest automated lighting rigs ever assembled for a single show. Danish lighting rental company SeeLite A/S, who recently took over Martin Danmark’s rental division, supplied all the lighting for Eurovision 2001 (subhired through rental company ProCon of Germany). The package included nearly 900 automated, computer-controlled fixtures including over 700 of Martin’s most successful and popular lights, MAC luminaries. The massive rig also included over 1000 conventional luminaries - all in all a 4.2 million watt lighting system. The Eurovision Song Contest has featured Martin lighting for the past several years, including in Israel in 1999 and Sweden in 2000. By comparison, last year’s Eurovision show in Stockholm incorporated just 300 computer-controlled fixtures. Set-up be

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New Malden, Surrey is the new home for Direct Lighting, the latest addition to the Lighting Technology Group of companies. Established over 10 years and under the leadership of directors Ian Moodie and Steve Copping, Direct Lighting is well-known in the industry for the distribution of light sources and related products to independent retailers and commercial end users. The company is already networked to take full advantage of the Group's new National Distribution Centre in Corby where a new computerised internal order processing system has been installed to mastermind and speed up deliveries to its customers. The new address for Direct Lighting is: 4 Shannon Commercial Centre, Beverley Way, New Malden, Surrey, KT3 4PT, UK.

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Bandit Lites Inc has promoted Ben Dickmann to the role of director of marketing. Dickmann joined Bandit Lites in June 2000 as a marketing associate and quickly developed the company’s marketing efforts. He is a graduate of Valparaiso University with a BSBA in Marketing.

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When the switch was flicked on the impressive 400ft high St John’s Beacon tower in Liverpool, it was a bold, dramatic statement to mark the first phase of an ambitious City of Light project being undertaken by the Liverpool Vision organisation.

City of Light is a long-term plan to architecturally light several important landmarks in Liverpool, and is scheduled to unfold over the next five to seven years. St John’s Beacon lies at the heart of Liverpool: its elegant form is one of the most distinctive shapes on the skyline.

Lee Forde, the lighting designer for the project, chose 10 Studio Due City Beam luminaires - supplied to Slough-based Stagetec by Studio Due’s UK distributor Coe-tech. Stagetec also designed and installed the lights and a custom-designed interactive control system, based on radio DMX links and operation via a telephone handset, for the St John&rsq

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ETC Europe has announced today that Mike Lowe will be retiring from the position of managing director at the end of May. Lowe has been instrumental in the continuing expansion of ETC Europe and has been intimately involved in developing the European markets for ETC. As part of the ongoing international expansion of ETC, improvements to operations are taking place to further leverage the extensive resources available in its network of offices worldwide. Bill Gallinghouse, vice-president of business development, assumes responsibility for European sales, and Dick Titus, chief operating officer, assumes responsibility for leading ETC Europe operations. ETC's European offices will remain in London and the company will continue serving its clients with the support of its dealer and distributor network.

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Zero 88 has appointed Rolight Theatertechniek BV as a European dealer. The company, based in The Netherlands, currently distributes throughout the country via six dealers, Lichtpunt Theatertechniek in Groningen, Pulcinella in Arnhem, Aukes Theatertechniek in Amsterdam, Aveq in Den Haag, Rouvoet and Stagelight who are both based in Den Bosch. Mark Beens of Rolight commented: "The market place is very interested in Zero 88 products thanks to their ease of use and competitive price." To increase Zero 88's presence in the Dutch marketplace, Rolight have organised a dealer meeting at the beginning of June. Tim Burt, Zero 88's product manager will be visiting the event to lend a helping hand with product demonstrations.
  1. 1000 DHA Digital Light Curtains
  2. AC Announces Jands Event Upgrade
  3. Catalyst Will Spur Video Development
  4. Fred Bentham: Funeral Details
  5. RML Adds to Clay Paky Stock
  6. Changing the Face of Lighting and Video
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