China - Prolight + Sound Shanghai which takes place 17-20 October 2007, will double in size and scale to occupy two halls at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre. Returning for it's fifth annual session, this specialist trade fair is growing alongside China's continuing investment in commercial and cultural infrastructure, say the organisers.

New sports facilities, clubs, hotels, airports, theme parks, broadcasting stations, and entertainment venues are springing up right across the country, creating strong demand for pro-sound, lighting and entertainment products. This is demonstrated by the fact that over 12,000 professional visitors - including retailers, dealers, distributors, technicians, engineering contractors and stage & lighting designers - attended the show in 2006.

China has allocated some US$17 billion in funds to build 42 new airports over the next five year

USA - On the heels of record breaking 2006 financial results for Martin Professional A/S with regard to total revenue, year to year improvement in EBT and operating cash flow, Martin Professional Inc has announced an aggressive, customer-oriented sales approach for 2007 that includes holding a number of customer-centered events as well as participation in several industry exhibitions.

Gorm Teichert, Martin Professional's international marketing director, commented: "We have decided to broaden our communication and marketing scope in 2007 by setting focus on one-on-one customer contacts. In the future, Martin will be approaching customers more actively and promoting new products through greater use of workshops and seminars. There is a worldwide trend toward a more customer-centred approach where customer service and attention to specific customer needs has top priority. We

UK - Le Maitre has announced the launch of the Aqua Visual FX. "We had a brilliant response last week at the RSVP exhibition, with many firm orders to hire this new and innovative equipment for launches, conferences, gala dinners and general events so we were extremely encouraged by the reaction to the one and only curtain of this type in the UK," says the company. "Due to the demand, we have already ordered another 6ft section in order to give us 12ft for any one event, which will be with us by mid-April and we will certainly purchase more as demand dictates."

With the ability to exhibit a visual graphic-rich story of designs, shapes, logos, text and the capability to display custom artwork from controlled water droplets, the Aqua Visual FX is billed as one of today's most innovative notice boards - 'a waterfall notice board'.

The system for showcasing fal

The Netherlands - A design team led by the Dutch architects Mecanoo has won the international competition to design the National Kaohsiung Performing Arts Centre in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

A key team member of the design team, Louis Janssen, from Dutch theatre consulting office, theateradvies bv, was responsible for the design of the up-to-date theatre installations and logistics. The jury was particularly pleased with the interpretation of the programme and design of stage equipment.

The plans includes a concert hall with 2.300 seats, equipped with a flexible stage and all necessary hoisting facilities. A 2,000-seat opera house has a stage floor made up of five double deck elevators that can be moved from -11m to + 2.5m. The surface of these elevators, making up the stage floor, can be tilted and all are equipped with traps.

A 1,000-seat playhouse, a black- box theatre with 200

UK - Lighting designer Dave Davey, working with PRG Europe, lit The Galaxy British Book Awards, the publishing industry's equivalent of the BAFTAs or the Oscars. Calling itself "the glitziest event in the UK book trade industry's calendar", the awards ceremony celebrates the nation's favourite books, authors and publishers. The awards are nicknamed the Nibbies because of the fountain pen nib shaped award.

The ceremony and dinner, which was held at London's Grosvenor House Hotel on 28 March, presented a total of 12 awards, including a lifetime achievement award for John Grisham. The Nibbies are the only awards which take votes both from the public and the Academy of the British Book Industry, made up of publishers, booksellers, past winners and other industry representatives.

PRG Europe supplied some 40 Vari-Lite luminaires and 60 conventionals, including ETC S

Finland - Over 450 Robe moving lights will be utilised in a spectacular lighting design for the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest in Helsinki which is being created by LD Mikki Kunttu.

This follows on from the successful 2005 ESC production in Kiev, which featured 350 Robe fixtures. Once again, the show's technical production manager is Ola Melzig, and the production company is Spectra from Sweden. Lighting equipment for the event, staged in Helsinki's 12,000 capacity Hartwall Areena is being supplied by locally based Eastway Oy, and the Robe units will be delivered directly to the show from the Czech Republic.

The ESC deal was cut with Robe's International sales manager Harry von den Stemmen, who comments, "This is take two for Robe at Eurovision, and it is really very exciting to be working with Ola and the Spectra team again. I caught a glimpse of Mikki's ideas for the show

USA - Color Kinetics has announced a global licensing agreement with Ford Global Technologies, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ford Motor Company, that allows the dynamic personalisation of automotive interiors and exteriors through intelligent LED lighting. Ford will have access to Color Kinetics' complete patent portfolio to incorporate colour-controllable lighting in any of its branded or affiliate vehicles.

"Ford's licence of Color Kinetics' patents marks a very exciting milestone - both for the accumulating strength of our licensing programme and the penetration of LED technology into bigger, broader markets," said Bill Sims, president and CEO, Color Kinetics. "We believe that the ability to personalise spaces, whether homes, workstations or even cars, has widespread market appeal, and the opportunity to put this advanced control in vehicle owners' hands is

UK - Bandit Lites continues its long-standing relationship as lighting suppliers to Westlife, currently blazing the live trail with their Love UK and Irish arena tour. Visuals - lighting, video and set - have been designed by Peter Barnes, working closely with Steve Levitt of Production North. Lighting was programmed and is being operated by Lighting Director, Dave Lee.

Bandit UK's chief executive, Lester Cobrin comments, "Working with Steve [Levitt], Peter [Barnes] and Dave [Lee] is always a pleasure. Westlife continue to raise the bar and we are honoured to be part of such an exemplary production."

Barnes' design utilises some clever eye trickery, making the stage appear a lot larger than it actually is. He has dispensed with a front truss to give the impression of as much openness and space onstage as possible, and overhead there are seven architectural st

USA - The American DJ Group of Companies has introduced a new line of cables. Sold under the Accu-Cable brand name, the new cable line is designed to fill a gap in the market for high-quality, affordable audio and DMX cables and extension cords in a wide range of lengths and connector-types, says the company.

Included in the Accu-Cable line are mic, patch, speaker and DMX cables and connectors, as well as AC extension cords. A large product selection is offered within each of these categories.

"We developed the Accu-Cable line to provide a complete cable solution, a one-stop source where audio and lighting dealers and end-users could pick up all of their cable and cord needs," said Scott Davies, general manager of the American DJ Group of Companies. "We were hearing from our customers that it wasn't always easy to find good, quality affordable cables in the leng

USA - Oscar winning actor Jamie Foxx, is currently on an 18 week concert tour in support of his new CD Unpredictable. The Dreamgirls star's show includes songs and stand-up comedy - and special guest American Idol winner Fantasia.

The lighting is a collaboration between lighting director Daunte Kenner and production manager Alan Thompson. The rig includes 12 PixelLine 1044s, 24 PixelArc Rs and a variety of moving fixtures.

It is the first time Daunte has used PixelArcs as floor fixtures and comments, "PixelLines do an excellent job of filling in the blanks of a rig when you are on a tight budget and low on fixtures. They're quick to set-up and require very little labour. They offer multiple services: wash lights, audience abuse, truss warmers, awkward set pieces, cyc lights and you can even pump video through them."

He continues, "Even more valua

UK - Following on from project managing the award-winning Northumberland Lights lighting scheme, White Light's Jack Thompson has taken on the role of technical director of theatre for the Manchester International Festival.

Running from 28 June 28 to 15 July, the Manchester International Festival is billed as the "world's first international festival of original, new work". Featuring over twenty-five specially commissioned productions, performances and projects the Festival incorporates a diverse range of shows from music to theatre, created and performed by artists from around the world.

Jack Thompson's new role oversees the technical production element of the festival's theatre shows. These include Monkey: Journey To The West, an opera featuring 36 Chinese acrobats and 40 musicians conceived and directed by Chen Shi-Zheng with music by Damon Albarn, visuals a

UK - Clifton Suspension Bridge spans some 214m across the River Avon linking Clifton in Bristol to Leigh Woods in Somerset, England. Designed by Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, this Grade I listed structure is a landmark of the city of Bristol and has attracted visitors from all over the world for almost 150 years.

The Clifton Suspension Bridge Trust wanted to update the existing lighting of the bridge with a new solution that would display the immense achievement of the structure. Illumination has long been part of the bridge's appeal, but previously it had focused more on a lit bulb component, rather than lighting the bridge structure itself.

With the bridge a key landmark of Bristol and the surrounding region, the Trust wanted the main elements of the bridge (the deck, the chains and the towers) to be treated with concealed light sources wherever possible. In ad

USA - High up on the sixth floor of the Time Warner Center in New York glows the stunning logo of Jazz at Lincoln Center. The white, teal and red sign is visible from halfway back to Fifth Avenue.

Says Jazz at Lincoln Center lighting director Zakaria Al-Alami, "The upstage wall of the Allen Room is all glass, looking down at the circle and straight down 59th Street - the perfect visibility for our brand. Displaying a sign of any sort in the window was a tad challenging for a number of reasons. Thenext best thing: use the back wall of the Allen Room. But we still needed something bright, legible, and economical and something that would fit right in with the architecture and aesthetics of the room. Building a light box was out of the question."

The solution was to use an ETC Source Four spotlight fitted with ETC's Enhanced Definition Lens Tube (EDLT) and

Europe - The Bryan Adams world tour continues on its latest European leg, with an Avolites Diamond 4 controlling all lighting. The console was programmed and is being operated by Ewan McRobb with equipment supplied by Siyan. The lighting design was created by Bryan Leitch and Nick Whitehouse.

Adams has been on the road since November 2006 and in that time has toured South American and the USA. For these sections, they toured the Avo console throughout and picked up local rigs for each show.

"You need a board that's totally hands on in this situation" says McRobb, "I need to be able to grab and access looks, scenes and fixtures instantly and to be able to improvise and go with the flow in real time - just as he does."

The rig is based on three trusses and a back wall. The back wall contains 15 Skypans and twenty 4-cell Moles. The rear truss features four N

UK - Production company Congo Blue Design has bought four Robe StageBanner 50 ATs. These were immediately deployed to suspend four rotating scenic doors on the set of the three-times-a-day live catwalk show at the Spring 2007 Harrogate Lingerie & Swimwear Exhibition.

Ben Teale from Berkshire-based Congo Blue provided lighting, sound, set and full technical production for this section of the show for the eighth season. This year he wanted something different to incorporate into his set design which had to be a versatile effect and fit the budget.

The StageBanners were mounted on the top rail of the rear truss above the runway entrance, Four polycarbonate panels with different sized holes cut into them, were suspended below each StageBanner, painted white on one side and black on the reverse. Small spinning bases were positioned at the bottom of the panels, supporting them on th

Europe - Chicago's Fall Out Boy complete a sold out European tour of arena size venues ending in the UK this month. And to cap it all their recent album Infinity on High has just reached no 1 on the American Billboard Charts.

Southampton based hire company, GLS Lighting provided the lighting rig, a large amount of LED VersaTubes, a Hippotizer media server, live cameras on stage and to control it all - a ChamSys MagicQ MQ200 console.

The rigs itself comprised of 20 Robe ColourSpot 1200Ate, 20 MAC600, 14 Atomic strobes with scrollers, 20 ChromaQ Colourblock DB4, 20 LED PAR 64s, 260 VersaTubes driven from a Hippotizer plus a variety of moles, generics and dimmers over four universes of ArtNet.

Lighting Designer, Esteban Caracciolo found the transition to the MagicQ extremely easy and he was particularly impressed with the powerful media and LED control, and with t

Switzerland - PRG Europe, working with design and communication's company Imagination, supplied the lighting equipment and control for the press launch of the new Ford Mondeo at the Geneva Autoshow. On the evening of 5 March, the President Wilson Hotel played host to 200 members of the press, where three new Mondeos were on display.

The full lighting package for the event, which included dinner and a speech by Ford of Europe's president & CEO John Fleming used some 45 Vari*Lite luminaires and over 70 conventionals.

Lighting designer for Imagination Tanya Burns explains, "Our aim was to create a comfortable, relaxed environment, rather like a plush private members club. We used subtle lighting throughout and then highlighted the cars with brighter lighting. By using the more subtle general lighting scheme we were able to let guests eyes adjust to the light so that, for the

USA - Nemetschek North America announced that it has donated VectorWorks Spotlight 12.5 to a winner of theBehind the Scenes raffle held at the 2007 USITT Conference. The Long Reach Long Riders and the ESTA Foundation raised a total of $17,800 for Behind the Scenes at the annual USITT trade show.

Behind the Scenes, an ESTA Foundation initiative, provides grants to seriously ill or injured industry members that may be used for medical care and living expenses. "We were thrilled by the level of support for Behind the Scenes at USITT this year," says Rick Rudolph, committee chair.

"I'm excited to put VectorWorks Spotlight 12.5 to use, as, having worked with earlier versions of VectorWorks in the past and SoftPlot, I find VectorWorks to be much more robust," says USITT raffle winner Jayson Adamsen, technical director, Rhino Staging.

Czech Republic - Robe Show Lighting held its 2007 International Dostributors Conference in its home town of Roznov pod Radhostem. The event was attended by over 130 representatives from the company's worldwide dealer network. Robe capitalised on the close proximity of Frankfurt's ProLight + Sound show, choosing the date so attendees could combine their trip to the exhibition with that of the Distributors' Conference.

The day started with a tour of Robe's 10,000sq.m factory in Valasske Mezirici. This employs 300 people and produces all Robe's current ranges of digital, LED and moving light fixtures. All processes - from the raw metalwork to the final assembly - are contained within the building, ensuring that Robe's uniform quality standards are applied across the entire production process.

The conference section of the event was staged at the Relax Hotel in Roznov. Robe's CEO

USA - Lorenzo Cornacchia, VP of Pyrotek Special Effects once again worked with the Grammy Awards in designing a number of productions including Chris Brown, The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Christina Aguilera.

Chris Brown's quick pace hip hop style included effects such as cryo jet heads, a 20ft high gerb chase which led to an all-fire cue of 24 gerbs and a final 18 flashes with bang. Also, included was a confetti snow-like effect for the Red Hot Chili Peppers performance Snow.

Pyrotek provided Christina Aguilera's performance with a low-lying fog effect for her tribute piece to the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, It's a Man's World.

(Jim Evans)

USA - In a move to provide integrators with a clear understanding of power distribution and grounding of audio, video and telecommunications equipment, Middle Atlantic Products has announced that its newest industry resource, Integrating Electronic Equipment And Power Into Rack Enclosures is available for download from the company's website, MiddleAtlantic.com.

The result of a collaboration between Bob Schluter, president and chief engineer, Middle Atlantic Products, Bill Whitlock, president, Jensen Transformers and Neil Muncy, president, Neil Muncy Associates, this new white paper provides installers with a basic understanding of effective power distribution while offering tips and tricks for avoiding common problems, says the company.

Commenting on the announcement, Schluter said, "The intent of this paper isn't to teach integrators how to be electricians. Rather

Denmark - A range of front end accessories is now available for Martin Professional's MAC TW1 Tungsten washlight that expands the optical possibilities of the fixture. The accessories have been developed by City Theatrical of New York and include a Top Hat, Top Hat with Louver, and Color Frame. Additional accessories will be available in the future.

The holder for the accessories, developed by Martin Professional and easily attached to the front of the fixture, features three static runners with a fourth spring mounted clip. Inserts are constructed of silicone rubber to ensure that the already quiet fixture does not give off any extra noise if moving with accessories mounted. Up to two accessories can fit onto the holder.

The Top Hat and Top Hat with Louver are devices used in theatrical lighting to shield the audience's eyes from the direct source of the light. They are speci

UK - Registration to attend the 29th ABTT Theatre Show (13-14 June, Royal Horticultural Halls, London) is now available via www.abtt.org.uk/theatreshow.

Already sold out, this years show will play host over 100 exhibiting companies filling all three halls to capacity. With several new exhibitors, including ChamSys Consoles, Sunbaba Fabrics and Northern Stage Services, the event presents a comprehensive range of products and services for professionals and non technical users involved with equipping, refurbishing or up-grading their drama studio, theatre, auditorium or multi-purpose performance space.

One of the show's aims is to illustrate all aspects of performance technology and offer practical advice from leading suppliers about the enormous value that can be added by investing in technology.

Also illustrating the Show's commitment to education, drama schools from around t

UK - Adlib supplied full lighting production and - in conjunction with Capital Sound - PA for the recent Kelly Jones tour. The Stereophonics front man's high profile solo tour sold out in minutes, visited a series of high profile theatre and concert hall style venues, and has been hailed as a massive critical success.

Jones played his acclaimed Only The Names Have Been Changed album in its entirety, and wrapped the set up with a small selection of acoustically re-worked Stereophonics classics. He was accompanied by his guitar, his voice and ample charisma, and backed for some of the set by a string trio and keyboardist Tony Kirkham.

Adlib came onboard through tour manager Neil MacDonald. Adlib project manager Phil Kielty says, "It's been great working with an artist of Kelly Jones' calibre. The show looked and sounded stunning, featured some great teamwork (both cr

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