UK - Show sponsor Martin Professional is celebrating its 25th Anniversary at PLASA 2012 and will be holding a number of celebratory and VIP events at stand 1-F44 including prize draws for the chance to win Martin products.

"We look forward to celebrating with all our friends in the lighting industry and invite everyone to our stand for a chat and a celebratory drink and not least the chance to get an up-close look at the new MAC Viper series and other innovations as well," says Martin UK sales director Mike Walker.

"The feedback we've received on the Viper series has been unprecedented as our pre-sales numbers attest to. It is truly a ground-breaking moving head and contains all of our accumulated knowledge over the past 25 years. It is nothing short of spectacular and we are confident that lighting designers will feel the same."

Martin will be showing a

UK - Following its successful launch of Green-GO Ethernet-based intercom and cuelight system at PLASA and LDI last year - where the system won new product awards at both shows - ELC Lighting will be showing an expanded range of Green-GO products at this year's PLASA.

Since its initial showing at PLASA 2011, the Green-GO Communications digital intercom system over Ethernet has been adopted throughout the world, with a growing population of national distributors taking on the brand. This fully-featured digital intercom system has all the performance of a matrix-style network, but without the complexity, hardware or cost of a central matrix 'exchange'. Each outstation mirrors a copy of the system's complete routing and setup parameters, which eliminates the need for a matrix and has the added benefit of providing backup and automatic patching if new outstations are added or exchang

UK - Philips Entertainment Group brand Selecon is launching a new range of professional LED luminaires at PLASA 2012. Selecon will join Philips Entertainment brands Vari-Lite, Strand Lighting and new range - Showline - in Hall 1, stand BV 1-F50 to show off the latest developments in lighting and control technology.

Debuting at this year's show will be the Selecon PLFRESNEL-1 and the PLPROFILE-1.

Both fixtures are designed to complement Philips Entertainment's existing range of LED luminaires - the Selecon PL3, PL1, PLCYC1 and the Vari-Lite VLX ranges. Together, this comprehensive range of lighting tools will offer a higher level of creative expression to designers working in the theatre, small studio and display lighting sectors, says the company.

"The PLFRESNEL-1, which uses LED source technology combined with a traditional Fresnel lens, produces an adjustable cone of

UK - One of the first LDs in the world to get his hands on Martin Professional's new MAC Viper Profile moving head is UK lighting designer Matt Mawdsley who recently used the powerful 1000 W fixture on the Red Bull Badminton Super Final at Central Hall Westminster in London on 6 August.

Hailing the Viper Profile as the fixture he has been waiting for, Mawdsley covered the venue's dome ceiling and stage in images and patterns. Lighting rental company Stage Electrics supplied the Vipers and other lighting for the event.

"The MAC Viper Profile is really bright and produces perfect colours with really sharp image quality," he says. "I had many people ask what the lights were because of the gobo sharpness and brightness. I've never had that happen before."

Badminton England and Red Bull China hosted the special event, which showcased some of the best amateur b

UK - A.C. Special Projects (ACSP) has supplied a quantity of customised Anolis ArcPad Xtreme LED fixtures and Pharos architectural control, to illuminate the roof structure of the new Western Concourse at London's King's Cross railway station.

Part of a five-year programme to restore and improve the station, the Western Concourse delivers the biggest transformation in the 160-year history of the Grade-I listed station to date, marking the completion of yet another element of Network Rail's plans for the future of rail travel in the UK.

The stunning new roof structure has been cleverly blended with the station's heritage to create a space for passengers that is three times larger than the 1970's concourse, with improved transport links.

More than 47m passengers a year travelling through the Kings Cross interchange will benefit from a raft of improvements, including the new li

Australia - A state-of-the-art black box theatre, complete with retractable seats, motorised truss systems, operable walls, an impressive digital sound and lighting system, recording studio, dressing rooms, and box office are just a few of the features of Redcliffe State High School's new 260 seat blackbox theatre - The Bird's Nest.

The Queensland School will now be able to engage their students through the performing arts as well as through vocational education with students able to complete a Certificate II in live production theatre and events, as well as technical operations, and a Certificate II in set production and prop making.

As a blackbox theatre, The Bird's Nest has the flexibility to host any kind of performance, ranging from traditional theatre set up, theatre in the round, or they can run conferences.

The lighting installation was installed by Macrosphere. The

UK - Avolites Ltd has appointed Koy Neminathan as Sales Director and JB Toby as Technical Director, effective immediately.

Since joining Avolites Ltd in February 2000 Neminathan has become an indispensable member of the core sales team and has been instrumental in energizing the company's longstanding sales success.

Neminathan, whose experience at Avolites encompasses the job of Business Development Manager from 2006 and then as Sales Manager from 2009, succeeds Steve Warren who will remain as an active Director of Avolites Ltd while also acting as Managing Director of fast-growing Avolites Media Ltd - a position he took on in September 2011.

As Sales Director of Avolites, Neminathan will continue to oversee and expand the vast International distribution network and also manage the UK sales team.

JB Toby has an equally strong and proven track record at Avolites Ltd having

USA - Over 100 Iluminarc exterior lighting solutions permanently light five landmark bridges over downtown Tampa's Hillsborough River. The project entitled Agua Luces or Water Lights is part of the Lights On Tampa arts initiative, a joint public and private partnership between the City of Tampa's Arts Division and Friends of Tampa Public Art. The completion of Agua Luces coincides with the Republican National Convention, which the city is hosting 28-30 August 28 -2012.

A few years in the making, the Agua Luces project complements The Tampa Riverwalk expansion with a paved walkway on the eastern side of the river that highlights specific vistas of the city, river and newly lit bridges. Designing the lighting aspect of Agua Luces is Tracey Dear of Chicago-based Dear Productions. Dear, known for illuminating Chicago's bridges, specified the outdoor-rated, LED-fitted I

UK - PLASA 2012 will see lighting solutions provider, Architainment Lighting Ltd, present its largest and broadest range of LED lighting technology to date.

On display at Architainment PLASA stand (1-E47) will be a selection of Philips Color Kinetics and Philips Entertainment Group LED technology - some brand new, some old favourites, and others that bridge the gap between the entertainment and architectural lighting markets.

Among the new fittings on show at Architainment Lighting's stand is Philips Color Kinetics ArchiPoint. iColor Powercore will also make its debut at PLASA. A versatile exterior LED, ArchiPoint has a high intensity output even visible in daylight, and is suited for direct-view applications within both entertainment and architectural installations. It can display large-scale video, graphics, and intricately designed effects, all of which can be managed by ei

UK - ProPlex Devices are high-performance, tour-grade systems for data distribution over fibre/copper. Exclusively distributed by TMB, these signal management systems are built for the road, and suitable for all entertainment production and staging applications. The ProPlex Devices range includes: GBS gigabit Ethernet switches; IQ bidirectional Ethernet-DMX converters; Opto-Splitter isolated DMX/RDM splitters; and RMT remote media transceivers (coming soon).

ProPlex Devices Blue Box enclosures are available RackMount and PortableMount formats of various sizes - designed for desktop use or truss-mounting with optional yoke. RackMount kits are also available for some PortableMount units. Shock-mounted circuitry is designed to perform in extreme temperatures and conditions. Neutrik XLR, fibre and power connectors are featured, plus easily replaceable DVI connectors on the RMT units

UK - It's been 30 years since the first ever Vari-Lite luminaires hit the world's stages. This year, PLASA 2012 (Earls Court, 9-12 September) will see the Philips Entertainment brand Vari-Lite mark three decades of moving light development.

"Live entertainment has changed dramatically since Showco (the company set up by Rusty Brutsché and Jack Maxson in 1970 and which subsequently became Vari-Lite) pioneered the first moving and colour changing fixtures," explains vice president of worldwide sales & marketing for Philips Vari-Lite, Bob Schacherl. "It's hard to imagine that before Vari-Lite, concerts typically demanded up to 3,000 fixtures, each of which had to be manually focused and coloured."

It all began back in the 70s when Showco engineers looked to develop an integral colour changer for a lighting fixture. This resulted in the use of internal d

UK - Manchester-based lighting and visuals rental company dbn has continued its work with ground-breaking theatre and arts companies with the supply of lighting equipment and design for the acclaimed recent production of Cycle Song in the grounds of Brumby Hall, Scunthorpe.

The new large-scale community opera was a collaboration between Huddersfield based theatre company Proper Job and Scunthorpe Cooperative Junior Choir.

Directed by Jamie Beale, it told the emotional and compelling story of Albert 'Lal' White, Scunthorpe steelworker and winner of countless cycling trophies including an Olympic Silver medal in Antwerp in 1920.

dbn's Pete Robinson was asked to create a lighting scheme for the show which took place over two nights to completely sold out audiences. It featured a stark atmospheric distressed industrial set designed by Rhys Jarman, a cast of hundreds and t

UK - In one of the biggest comebacks of recent times, the Stone Roses chose to work with lighting designer Paul Normandale to design a light and video show to complement their highly anticipated reunion tour this summer.

Amongst other fixtures sharing the stage with the Mancunian band were Clay Paky Sharpys, with the entire show being controlled by the grandMA2 full-size.

"The Stone Roses are a band that focuses on the impact of the music, rather than big production going on around them, and so our challenge was to create a light show that doesn't overwhelm the music but allows the audience, and the band to 'feel' the lighting design connecting to the music," noted grandMA2 programmer Glen Johnson of Lite Alternative.

"We would describe the Stone Roses show as a 'busk show' - it isn't completely pre-programmed. Using the grandMA2 allowed Paul [Normandale] to r

UK - Devon- based drapes, starcloth, LED and visual effects specialists S+H Technical Support has supplied 8000sq.m of its ShowLED Animation curtain to the new series of Sky's popular dating games show, Love Machine, currently being recorded at Pinewood Studios.

The Animation curtain was specified by set designer Patrick Doherty, for whom S+H have supplied many other projects, including the inaugural series of Love Machine last year.

It is being used to wrap around the entire back of the set and create spectacular patterns, texturing and other ambient effects - for which is it a highly cost effective solution.

S + H is also supplying a substantial quantity of its ShowLED Chameleon RGB Starcloth to the series, which is being utilised to mask around the back of the live audience.

The package is completed with a selection of black drapes.

In combination, all t

Brazil - With the annual TV show Criança Esperança (Child Hope) Brazil's biggest TV channel TV Globo collects funds to support social projects assisting children's development across the whole country. This project started in 1986 and has to date collected over 200m Reals (100m USD).

In the past, lighting for the show - staged in Rio de Janeiro's HSBC Arena this year - was controlled using a grandMA series 1 console. However this moved to two grandMA2 light for 2012 with two MA NPU (Network Processing Unit) and four MA 2Port Node onPC PRO.

Lighting designer and director of Spectrum Design e Iluminaçao Marcos Olivio commented, "The grandMA2 system was chosen a long time ago. As most shows we are working on are DVD shoots, live and corporate events, the system has to be flexible and stable. The real time control, the easy and comfortable programming and overall fu

UK - Following a highly successful summer, SGM's two LED-based strobes will arrive at PLASA 2012 (on stand #1-G28) where they will join a suite of other innovations.

These 'world first' X-5 (white) and XC-5 (RGB) LED strobes have redefined the art of the lighting designer this summer, says the company. From the Hacienda's historic 30th birthday in Manchester, where X-5's provided an explosive, low-level 'white out' (resting in cable trays in an underground concrete car park) to rocking the 25,000 who attended Mayday Festival in Dortmund, clubbers and LD's alike have been seduced by the creative options and low energy draw of a product which is traditionally power-hungry.

The XC-5 colour strobe utilises 1200 RGB Welly Power LED's, boasting just 360W power consumption (with 6W standby power) and a lamp life of 50,000 hours. Housed in a black, slim aluminium chassis, it co

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd., a leading one-stop provider of cutting-edge new and used professional equipment to the entertainment industry, showcases a selection of lighting, audio, rigging and video solutions available from its vast range of premium brands on Stand E10, Hall 1 at PLASA 2012. Teams from all of AC-ET's specialist product divisions will be there to discuss the multi-million pound stockholding of over 200 leading brands available from AC-ET's High Wycombe and Leeds offices for worldwide dispatch to over 80 countries

AC-ET's Lighting Division

The Lighting division of A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) will showcase the new

SGM P-5 LED washlight, X-5 white & X-C5 RGB LED strobes, and Six-Pack RGBA LED blinder high brightness, energy efficient solutions; the award-winning Spotlight Green Line range of high-efficiency LED performan

UK - displayLED will open their inaugural showroom this September, featuring the latest in innovative LED displays from leading manufacturers.

The Pixel Depot; a state of the art showroom and industry resource designed to be 'Europe's most comprehensive collection of LED video displays', will be launched pre-PLASA. Open days are being held on 4 and 5 September from 10am-4pm at the company's headquarters near Dorking, Surrey (UK), with anyone interested in finding out more about LED technology welcome.

"Our experts have scoured the world and tested products, including the latest technology from China, to find the most innovative, effective and user-friendly options currently on the market," explains Managing Director Graham Burgess. "Recognising the growth of LED technology and the wide choice available to customers, The Pixel Depot will provide a unique opportun

UK - Robert Juliat will be exhibiting at PLASA 2012 on Stand 2-R18 in the White Light Zone. PLASA marks the official launch of TIBO and ZEP, Robert Juliat's latest LED profiles which enjoyed a successful preview at Frankfurt's Prolight+Sound show earlier this year.

TIBO LED is a high intensity 75W LED profile with a choice of two zoom ranges in one single unit (30°/45 and 15°/ 35°). Plastic, glass or metal M-size gobos can be projected and benefit from the easy alignment afforded by the 360° rotating lens tube. Three colour temperatures are available: Warm White (3000K), Neutral White (4000K) and Cool White (6500K). TIBO LED is supplied with a separate, flicker-free power supply which makes it versatile as it can be used in film, television and studio environments as well as in conventional theatre. The cool running LEDs make it suitable for use in listed venues,

UK - Philips Entertainment will debut the latest in lighting control technology, the Strand Lighting ML250 moving light control console, on stand BV 1-F50 at PLASA 2012.

In addition, Strand Lighting will introduce the dynamic, new iPad controls for the complete family of Palette lighting control consoles. PLASA Show visitors will be able to see this in action as part of a full dynamic Philips Entertainment lighting system that embraces all its premier brands - Vari-Lite, Selecon plus new stand-alone brand - Showline, which will be debuting its exciting range of feature rich LED luminiares aimed at the touring and TV markets.

The Strand ML250 is an evolution of the popular Strand Series 200 console. It features four encoders and an LCD display screen for quick and easy automated lighting and LED control. Along with all the standard features found on a preset desk, the ML250 con

Australia - As part of the new Darling Quarter precinct and in a collaborative effort between Lend Lease and Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority (SHFA), a new state of the art children's theatre and performance space has been created. Lend Lease and SHFA jointly selected Monkey Baa Theatre Company as the resident company for the new Lend Lease Darling Quarter Theatre. The venue houses the company's office, as well as facilitating rehearsals and performances.

The theatre is the only purpose-built performance space for children in Australia and the first major addition to Sydney's arts infrastructure since Carriageworks, which opened in Redfern in 2007.

The technical fit out of the theatre is a turnkey project Jands completed in partnership with The PA People. Rob Mitchell of RTM International was the theatre consultant engaged by Lend Lease.

An ETC Ion 1000 console with radio

UK / Spain - LS-Live has created a custom triple size DJ booth to boost the visual performance of A-list DJs for live music/dance hotel brand Ibiza Rocks.

Unveiled at new electronic dance night We Are Rockstars (W.A.R!), which kicked of the summer season of events on 8 June, the performance platform is a pioneering adaptation of the LiteConsole product which is used by Zane Lowe and Magnetic Man, who said it would "work perfectly". Example & DJ Wire, Major Lazer and Doorly also enjoyed playing on the console on the opening night.

The 3m long DJ booth features a front wall of LED panels, which from an audience perspective, merges visually with the big LED screen behind the DJ meaning the artist become immersed in the show.

Said Ibiza Rocks group director of live events, Mike Darling, "The custom console gives DJs at the two venues a great visual presence

Sweden - Ranking among the coolest venues in the world, Dalhalla is located in a 60m deep former limestone quarry, seven kilometres north of beautiful Lake Siljan and the town of Rättvik in central Sweden.

The 4000 capacity open air theatre was opened in 1995 and presents a summer season of around 30 performances - from operatic and choral works to full on rock 'n' roll.

This year's festival production lighting design by Anders 'Hebbe' Herbertzon from High Voltage Designs includes Robe MMXs and LEDWash 600s which were recently purchased by locally based lighting rental company Park Brothers, and delivered by Robe's Swedish distributor, Bellalite.

Hebbe has lit the Dalhalla Summer Season for Park Brothers for the last three years - also using Robes - including ColorWash 1200E ATs and ColorSpot 2500 and 700E ATs.

The Dalhalla design is based on two 17.6m long trusses hung u

UK - PR Lighting has announced the promotion of one of its long-term employees to international assistant sales director.

Sasha Xiong joined the company eight years ago as sales manager, with responsibility for the Asia Pacific countries.

Commented international sales director, Ernie Armas, "We strive to build long term relationships not only with our customers but also our employees. It is just as important for us to mentor and develop the talent and skills of our sales force, as it is a key asset to everyone's success. I very much look forward to working with Sasha in her new role."

(Jim Evans)

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