Martin Professional had, as usual, plenty of products to show. The Maxedia digital media composer is the company's entry in the imaging sweepstakes. The units's integrated DMX control provides full control of both lighting and video elements. Also on the control side, the Maxxyz Playback Wing made its US debut. Among the company's new networking products, the Ether2DMX allows users to increase the number of Maxxyz DMX universes and/or easily place DMX universes remotely on any TCP/IP Ethernet network, while the Ethernet Switch expands the networking and operable distance parameters of the Maxxyz console. In addition, Martin's ShowDesigner previsualization program now comes in Gold and Silver versions: the former is the full program while the latter is a streamlined edition. A number of club units were on show, including the Wizard Extreme and Ego X4 effects units and the SCX500 scanner.

Le Maitre's Versa Fan is a flexible mounting DMX addressable fan that is dimmer based and features a ratchet based positive locking system. The company was also showing its EZ Kleen product for foggers, which increases the life of the machines, as well as the lightweight, portable, hand-held Quick Shot Confetti launcher, which will launch confetti up to 50ft.

Italian manufacturer LDR was on the stand of its US distributor, Strong Entertainment Lighting. New from LDR is the Canto 250HR followspot - based on the new ceramic lamp from Philips. The ST250HR lamp offers all the benefits of ceramic technology for applications that until now have been the preserve of halogen lamps, say Philips. Features include a well-defined beam, a large side-handle to control movement and a double microswitch interlock for safe bulb replacement - while the fan-free cooling system makes it ideal for environments requiring a bit of hush. The Canto range now offers a choice of six lamps in the same housing.

Robe Show Lighting showed a vastly expanded product line, beginning with the DigitalSpot 2600DT. Robe goes digital with this moving head units, whose features include two digital gobo layers with a selection of up to 255 videos and images per layer. Also shown were the ColorWash 575AT and Color Wash 120E AT moving-head wash units, the ColorMix 575AT and ColorMix 550AT static colour-changing fixtures, and a line of club units: the ClubSpot 250CT, the ClubWash 250CT, the ClubScan 250CT and 150CT and the Fusion and Funky effects projectors. The company also showed the Fog 1500FT fogger, the Faze 1000FT fazer, and the Haze 400FT haze machine.

Pathway premiered the new RDM Repeater, an opto-splitter that features one input and eight outputs. The output ports are individually configurable for RDM enabled or disabled, and DMX speed, and are available with connectors on the front or rear. Also new, the new Vivetro Translucence Fader is a DMX-controllable unit for use with Electronic Privacy Glass. The Vivetro fades single or multiple panes of up to 32sq.ft, is rack-mountable and features smooth, 16-bit fade resolution.

Philips showed the MSR Gold, a double-ended lamp with 'Golden' lamp caps, designed for stage use. The gold-plated caps allow higher cap temperatures (up to 400° C), reducing lamp and lamp-holder damage. The Golden lamp also features the patented Philips P3 pinch protection, allowing pinch temperatures of up to 500°C. The MSA SA/DE Gold is already available in 400W and 1,200W, and 700W will be out soon.

Strand Lighting introduced the new OneLight Par and oneLight Fresnel. Both are 575W MSR daylight luminaires, with integrated ballasts, for quick set-up applications. Also new was the 2.8.5 console software for Strand 300 and 500 series desks. Key features include extended luminaire attributes to support Catalyst units and a new TrackBack command, among other things. Strand also released new software for its wireless PDA-based remotes. On the architectural side, the new Accent DMX control sations are designed for use with all Strand digital dimmers. Each station can support up to 48 dimmers with two, four, or eight presets. Stations can be linked together to form systemswith up to eight stations in eight rooms. Finally, Strand showed its SST sinewave dimmer module, which provide true silent lamp operation and less than 1% harmonic distortion.

OptiLED showed its Designer Dimmable Series, offering lighting intensity control in a unit with outer dimensions identical to an ordinary halogen MR16. The Dimmable offers full performance at 12V DC or AC and dimming capability from 10V down to a 3V candle glow. The series offers a new snap-on ring mounting for the diffusers and can be used in most indoor and weather-protected outdoor fixtures and applications, including theatres and cinemas, amusement parks, architectural features, landscape accents, retail, museums and hospitality, say the company. OptiLED has supplied its lighting fixtures to a number of recent US installations and projects, including the International Spy Museum in Washington DC, Club Nero at Caesar's in Lake Tahoe, the New Hampshire Capital Centre for the Arts and the Houston Ballet.

Wybron reports good business across the board - in particular with its popular Nexera dichroic colour changing fixtures (profile and wash versions, both now available with a CDM source), which are currently taking the College market by storm in America. Feedback from users has been very positive, the company says, in that increasing numbers of college venues are taking Nexera fixtures for evaluation - and not sending them back! Other news from Wybron is the company's appointment as the US distributor for Lighting Innovations' Super Beam 1200. This fixture, says Lighting Innovations, boasts near 100% light efficiency due to the parabolic and spheric double reflector optics and the use of Phillips' 80V, 1200W tungsten Halogen bulb.

ShowCAD's Mick Martin demo'd the latest developments for the company's Artist lighting and show control package - now fully WYSIWYG-enabled. Capable of controlling over 32,000 DMX channels as well as offering full multimedia and timecode support, Artist is a powerful and flexible system. The latest tricks in the pipeline include an impressive matrix facility which allows the simple creation of all kinds of effects and chases in banks of full-colour lighting fixtures - highly effective on any scale.

Look Solutions was exhibiting at LDI for the first time under its own name and not through a distributor. Nathan Kahn, sales for the newly-opened Look Solutions USA, reported that he had so far had a very positive response from show visitors and that many of them were surprised to know that at least 50% of the Broadway shows today use Look's foggers and hazers.

UK - It's been a busy inaugural season for new lighting design company, timroutledge.co.uk. To finish the year before Christmas, LD Tim Routledge recently finished two very different design projects: starting in Battersea Park's famous party venue structure, Routledge created rigs for two music stages for the testimonial of the England Rugby team's illustrious captain, Martin Johnson. On the anniversary of the historic win in last year's Rugby World Cup, this major event was produced in association with Next with all proceeds going to Johnson's nominated charities. Routledge was contracted to produce the lighting for both stages by DW Associates. Two stages were required to cope with the large number of acts, headlined by Lionel Richie.

Hawthorn Theatrical supplied the equipment required to work alongside Routledge's regular lighting team headed up by Andy Hopkins. "I chos

UK - Customers of intelligent lighting controls group iLight are being assured that business remains very much as usual following the company's acquisition by Polaron plc in September. The company says that the new ownership means the group remains intact, while benefiting from the increased resources arising from being part of Polaron's control systems division. iLight group's products will continue to be marketed as before, while new products will benefit from the expanded R&D team. "Customers need have no worries about the future of the iLight brand," said John Thorne, UK sales manager at iLight. "We're still the same iLight that customers know and love, but with the advantage of greater financial and technical backing."

The focus of the enlarged group will be on developing the brands and the business, with the aim of becoming the largest lighting control

UK - This year the ever-popular Barco Showcase event was held at two locations North and South of the country. The first was at The Three Mills Studios in London and the second held at the Magna Science Museum in Rotherham, Yorkshire. LSI visited the Three Mills Studios, which proved to be an ideal location for showing the huge range of Barco products.

(Jane Cockburn)

UK - Details of the programme of 11 RIBA CPD seminars to take place during the ARC 05 exhibition have been finalized. All seminars taking place during the exhibition (14-15 February, Business Design Centre, Islington, London) will be RIBA-approved CPD and will all be related to lighting topics for architects. There are a number of lighting-related CPD seminars available, ranging from office and retail lighting to LEDs and lighting control. A seminar theatre seating approximately 60 people will be built on the exhibition floor and will be promoted by Mondiale Publishing as well as specifically targeted at RIBA member architects.

Joni Tyler, head of CPD, commented: "RIBA is pleased to be working with Mondiale Publishing on this event. We are delighted to be able to highlight the many excellent lighting CPD seminars from our member companies and to be able to bring their tech

UK - Entec Sound & Light is supplying full lighting and sound production for the Bootleg Beatles' current UK tour, continuing a relationship with the band that has lasted for many years. One of the highlights of this tour was a sold-out performance at London's Royal Albert Hall. On this leg, FOH engineer Marc Langley is using Entec's d&b Q Series line array: Entec believes it has perfected the task of designing d&b systems for this challenging space. The Bootleg's show combined the skills and experience of Entec's systems engineers Stefano Serpagli, Tristan Johnson & Liam Halpin with help from John Taylor of d&b - plus the aid of d&b's Q-Calc line array prediction software - to help calculate the optimum set up.

They opted for a left and right array plus two side arrays instead of the conventional centre cluster for two reasons - because it seemed the most logical way to fit th

UK - Compulite's Vector Red and Blue consoles were launched at PLASA 2003, with the system officially available from March 2004, when it was immediately put into service on a number of major TV productions such as Top of the Pops and Friday Night with Jonathan Ross. Vector Green, the smallest in the Vector family, was already in demand way before its launch at PLASA 2004, as many programmers could see the potential of having so much power and flexibility in such a compact console: Stagetec Distribution reports that it has just delivered six Vector Green systems to customers, one of the first to TV lighting director, Bernie Davis.

Davis is one of Britain's most successful TV lighting directors, with a long string of credits to his name. From Robot Wars to The Proms, Royal Variety Performance to the Royal Wedding and many, many more in between, he has a vast

A Flying Pig Systems Wholehog 3 console was put into play in a big way in the newly-released film, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, starring Jim Carrey and Meryl Streep. Scott Barnes, California-based lighting programmer, purchased a Wholehog 3 last year and has kept it working steady ever since. Filming for Lemony Snicket began in summer of 2003 and ran through until May 2004. Barnes used the Hog 3 to control everything from the lighting of interiors and exteriors of the sets, to close-ups of the actors. He also created the daylight, dusk and nighttime looks as well.

"When you do a film, you never know what you're going to have thrown at you: whether it's adding last minute lights or creating spur of the moment effects, as the movie changes from one set to another," Barnes explains. "Hog III makes me prepared for anything. It's the better

Czech Republic - Robe Show Lighting's new ClubWash and ClubSpot 250 CT range of fixtures is now in full production, following its launch at PLASA and LDI 2004. The new Robe Club range has been specifically designed for club and discotheque applications and builds on the huge popularity of Robe's XT Series in this market. The Club Series combines the latest technology with plenty of creative scope and Robe's unparalleled reputation for "affordability without compromise".

It's also been developed after listening to feedback from VJs, lighting designers/operators and owners and operators active in this demanding, fast moving environment - which has enabled Robe to deliver the products they really want. Both Wash and Spot fixtures carry a comprehensive range of fixtures and are keenly priced, say Robe.

The ClubSpot 250 CT offers a gobo wheel with 10 static gobos includ

Finland - Robe ColorWash 1200 fixtures demonstrated their cool at a recent gig in Lapland which saw them exposed to temperatures as low as -31°C - excluding wind chill. The fixtures were run for three-and-a-half days, and worked continuously, say the company.

UK-based lighting rental company Siyan was asked to design a lighting scheme for Lynx Base 24-7, "the ultimate dating challenge", a surprise 24-hour party staged at Kiruna in the Arctic Circle, Northern Sweden for 300 lucky Lynx competition winners. Bryan Leitch devised the lighting scheme and Siyan supplied equipment and crew to production company Cake and also worked closely with TV Production Company Done & Dusted, who recorded it for a Channel 4 broadcast. Live performances included Faithless, The Thrills and Shaznay Lewis, plus an assortment of DJs, and Leitch was lighting it for the live event as well as f

USA - Super Vision International recently announced that it has signed license agreements with Illumination Management Solutions (IMS) and LED Power, both of Irvine, California, for its Variable Colour Lighting System patent # 4,962,687 and its recently acquired Laidman Technology. Illumination Management Solutions is known for it advanced applications of LED technology for the production of LED light engines for industrial and commercial applications. LED Power produces LED lighting systems for commercial applications including aerospace, automotive, commercial signage, marine, traffic control and utility control systems.

Greg Rhoads, IMS's chief technology officer, said: "It is clear to us that the Super Vision "687" Patent provides the earliest and broadest coverage in the industry for networking multiple colour changing lighting fixtures using addressable and

UK - AC Lighting recently supplied leading event lighting design company, DBN Lighitng, with a Jands Vista lighting console and 80 Chroma-Q Color Block LED fixtures for use on in-house production rentals. In addition to servicing conferences, exhibitions and corporate parties, DBN is also involved in live music events and large scale public arts projects, and in the last 12 months has undertaken projects on four continents.

AC says that DBN was not actively looking to purchase a new lighting desk, but upon reading about the Jands Vista thought it was the first really interesting desk in a long time and therefore warranted a demo to their team of lighting designers. According to DBN, the whole team was excited by the Vista, feeling that the ground breaking desk offered a new type of user interface which would allow them to either make significant savings in show programming time

USA - Color Kinetics Inc recently introduced its Video System Manager an integrated software and hardware solution designed to produce Video With Light in wide-ranging entertainment lighting applications.

Video System Manager addresses the increasingly broad intersection of lighting and video, where the disciplines of architectural and entertainment lighting converge to create dynamic visuals and backdrops for a diverse range of venues, including theatres, tradeshows, casinos, theme parks, concerts, corporate events and exterior facades.

Video System Manager allows video-based, Ethernet control of Color Kinetics' intelligent solid-state lighting systems, facilitating the reproduction of complex effects in a lighting installation. It converts standard live video signals from a variety of media sources, including media servers, DVD players, camcorders, and personal computers, a

UK - Bandit Lites UK is supplying lighting equipment to Production North for the current Busted arena tour. No rock 'n' roll testaments are left unturned in this show, which is big, bold and Loud in every visual and sonic parameter! The Busted contract is being handled by Lester Cobrin from the UK office. "It was fantastic to be awarded the contract for this tour especially amidst stiff competition" states Cobrin. Cobrin has previously serviced Busted and Production North on the band's 2003 theatre tour and their spring arena tour. Bandit also worked with the same team on the recent McFly theatre tour.

Busted's LD Graham Feast has been with the band since they started. The overall visual equation was a tripartite collaboration between Feast, Peter Barnes, who created the video playback visuals, and production manager Iain Whitehead, who developed the set concept.

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