Dramatic changes are taking place in the middle of Birmingham. Much of the city centre appears to be under construction, and - as increasingly seems to be the case in such projects - the civic redevelopment has been led by the artistic facilities at its heart: the Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre has recently completed a development project that lasted almost two years.
Following a £24 million National Lottery Award through the Arts Council of England and further support from the European Regional development Fund, Birmingham City Council, donations from businesses and individuals and funds raised through appeal, the project has seen practically every part of the building reworked. The foyers were demolished and re-built providing greatly improved access, including lift and disabled access, together with a restaurant and other catering facilities - all wrapped within a design that feels light and airy. On the other side of the building, the purchase of adjacent land has allowed for the creation of a new complex housing facilities for the Hippodrome, the Birmingham Royal Ballet, which uses the Hippodrome as its home base, and DanceXchange - the national dance agency for the West Midlands.
Expansion back from the stage has also allowed the most useful improvement to the theatre as far as those who tour into it will be concerned: the building has always been blessed with an enormous stage, but unfortunately it is 3.5m below street level, and the get-in has always been slowed by having to use a lift and/or ramp. Now, a new rear-stage extension houses a 15m lift that can c
As part of the second phase of key changes in the strategic direction of the iLight group, Peter Brooks, co-founder and managing director of Zero 88 Lighting, is to pursue other consultancy interests and charity work. He will, however, remain as a director and shareholder in the group. "I have very much enjoyed building Zero 88 over the years and seeing it become part of a group with a multi-million pound turnover and over 100 employees," comments Peter. "Undoubtedly, merging the company with iLight Limited made good commercial and strategic sense."
It was just 18 months ago that Peter oversaw the successful merger of Zero 88 and iLight after recognising the synergy between the two companies. From jointly founding Zero 88 in 1972, Brooks initially set up a satellite manufacturing operation in Wales before moving the whole company there in 1992. He has been a pivotal member of the lighting industry, and has been committed to improving quality and standards within the lighting arena for over 30 years. In following his management consultancy interests, Peter intends to maintain close links with the industry and play an active role in the industry's association, PLASA, where he has participated in numerous committees and served as chairman for eight years.
(Ruth Rossington)
Navigator Systems Ltd have come up with a solution which will ensure that companies who own ‘demo’ stock achieve the best possible return on their investment. Following several months of discussions with sales representatives, Navigator discovered that for some keeping track of the ‘demo’ stock had turned into a logistical nightmare. Items such as mixing desks, projectors, plasma screens and lighting consoles had either been forgotten or simply gone missing.
By adding several new features to its rental management software system RentalDesk, Navigator Systems have now made it possible to search quickly and easily for the ‘First Available Date’ for the ‘demo’ item required. Thus, if a company requests a mixing desk for a five-day period in June, the sales rep can check whether it’s available for that period and if it isn't, give the client the next best alternative date. This will ensure that the ‘demo’ item is being used efficiently and sales stock will not have to be used because of a double-booking that wasn't taken into account. Ex-demo stock will therefore not accumulate and will not have to be sold at vastly reduced prices. The new system also makes it possible to record the exact location of the demo item.
(Ruth Rossington)
When the Leader Group, Taiwan’s top media post-production company, completed its five-year planning and construction project to develop a Hollywood-style studio facility, it insisted on state-of-the-art technology to achieve optimum filming quality - including the lighting.
The new Leader Asia Pacific Creativity Center (LAPCC) - now the largest facility in Taiwan - has thus been equipped largely with ARRI lighting. The studio is situated on nine storeys of office block, of which three floors have been removed to allow construction of three large stages - the first phase of a project which will see two further studios constructed over the next few years. Leader placed the ARRI order - worth in the region of £750,000 - through Cheng Seng Trading Co Ltd, ARRI’s Taiwanese distributor. The company was granted a special licence which offered reduced import tariffs for ARRI's range of luminaires.
Cheng Seng put together the lighting specification in conjunction with a consultant. Each of the three new production stages is equipped with ARRI’s proprietary series, including Daylight, Compact, Arrisun, Pocket Par, Minisun, X-Light, Studio and Arrilite. These were supplied with a full range of accessories, including ballasts, barndoors, filters, transformers and cable. The specification also included Arrilux 21/50 Minisun and Arrilux 125W Pocket-Par Pro kit (with gobo projection and liquid light tube and optic), representing the smallest combination daylight luminaire that ARRI has developed to date.
The new development means that Leader can now deliver comple
Roy Lamb has been Bryan Adams’ production manager for the past three years, ever since Val Dauksts finally decided to wave the road goodbye.
Lamb, himself a contemporary of Dauksts, is rumoured to stick at the job for the love of rock ‘n’ roll and the huge variety of golf courses this career affords him. Which just leaves Adams himself - why does he keep doing it? "This tour has been running pretty much continuously since ‘98, two weeks on, two weeks off," said LD Mac Mosier. "He just loves touring. He said it to the crowd at the last show - I don’t have an album out, I’m not promoting anything, I just enjoy being here."
Beyond my own personal like for the artists’ song writing and his live performance, this proved heartening news. As with Travis, which I’d seen the week before, I polled the audience; for a middle aged rock ‘n’ roller there were large numbers of yoofs at the front. "Why," I asked a teenager, "are you here?" "I got into Adams about four years ago," he said. "But he’s more my generation than yours," I suggested. "Yes, but there’s so much rubbish about I had to look somewhere else for talent." Four of this lad’s immediate neighbours nodded their heads in earnest agreement: "Are these mates of yours?" I asked? "Never seen ‘em before in my life."
It was a similar story elsewhere. Sheffield Arena was bulging - 11,500 people at £27.50 - how does he do it? I quizzed Lamb. "Exquisi
Winner of the 2001 LDI Award for Product of the Year Scenic Effects, and 2001 Eddy Award Lighting Product of the Year, Rosco’s ImagePro is now being launched across Europe. Already hugely successful in America, the ImagePro offers an easy, inexpensive solution for projecting photographic quality images, from the iris slot of an ETC Source Four, Altman Shakespeare, Strand SL or Selecon Pacific lighting fixture.
Projections have already proven to add individuality and effectiveness to an exhibition stand, theatrical production, conference, product launch or film/television production. Anywhere that a temporary projection may be needed is where the flexibility of ImagePro will be indispensable. The image is created on a plastic iPro slide with full colour high quality images printed on high temperature plastic. Rosco has hundreds of images available for immediate use, catalogued on the CD which is packaged with every ImagePro, or we can create your own image which will be shipped to you as an iPro slide, ready for use.
(Lee Baldock)
High End Systems has announced the addition of two key new positions to its executive management team based in Austin, Texas. David Parks joins High End in the role of senior vice-president, product development. With his diverse background in engineering, operations and finance, Parks will focus on maturing the organization's development processes, delivery and design for manufacturing. He will partner closely with Rick Thompson, vice-president of operations, in building cross-functional project management teams.
With Parks in place, HES R&D's vice-president of engineering, Mike Wood, takes on the new role of chief technology officer, focusing on the strategic planning, advanced engineering and selection of all new products and technology platforms. Wood will work closely with High End's Product Development Committee, which drives the direction and product selection of the development pipeline. He will also maintain the Flying Pig Systems organization and act as key liaison with Richard Belliveau on intellectual property strategy.
"It was time to leverage both Mike's overall industry experience and past development knowledge into a more strategic and focused role," comments High End Systems CEO Frank Gordon. "Our industry is very competitive and it takes more resources to maintain a technology leadership position in the market."
John Wiseman, vice-president of worldwide sales, adds: "This plays to Mike's interests and complements his role as President of ESTA and past Chairman of PLASA. Combined with High End's increased focus on product mana
Europe's most popular boy band, Westlife, is out on the road again, touring Europe and the UK with a show that leaves the girls speechless and everyone else breathing easy, despite the use of heavy fog. That's because Westlife production manager Steve Levitt and co-lighting designer and lighting director Barry Halpin, have chosen to incorporate a low lying fog effect from Jem's newest heavy fogger, the Glaciator. The two Jem Glaciators used for the Westlife tour were supplied by Bandit Lites.
The elaborate show is set in the round, with a stage set-up that features a pentagon-shaped staircase centered around a mid-riser. The challenge during one song was to have heavy fog cascade down the staircase from the top of the set on all five sides. The solution was to place two Jem Glaciators in the somewhat cramped staging area beneath the set, each Glaciator fitted with a ducting adaptor to provide six outlets per machine. Heavy fog is then channelled to a specially made five-outlet manifold at the top of the pentagon. The manifold distributes the fog equally from the five outlets and down the steps on all sides - a stunning effect.
Levitt is convinced that the Glaciator is the ideal heavy fogger for the touring market. The use of CO2 was rejected for several reasons, including the fear of filling up the musician’s pit with dizzying gas. Also, obtaining solid CO2 at venues across Europe is no easy task. Moreover, because of the lack of space beneath the set where some 26 technicians work and band members change costumes, the use of dry ice and hot water was rejected. Th
Hull company Tega has recently completed the installation of sound and lighting at Hull University Union’s new venue, ‘Asylum’. The union building, dating from the seventies, has never had a proper venue for events, and until recently the refectory area was pressed into service. This was far from ideal as equipment had to be removed after every event, and the ceiling height was less than 10 feet.
The long-awaited new venue has been designed by Big Blue and features a large stage, sprung dancefloor, DJ booth and bar area with permanently installed sound and effects lighting. Tega have worked closely with the University on many events in the past, and, as a result of their good support service, were awarded the sound and lighting contract. The main sound system uses the Union’s eight existing EAW KF650 boxes, which are flown above the stage on custom-designed frames. The eight SB600 sub bins are located beneath the stage along with two Logic System CS1000SB subs to augment the system’s lower frequencies. In the bar area are eight Mackie ART300 speakers, with a further four providing stage fill. The main system is powered by Chevin Research amplifiers (2 x A1000, 2 x A3000 and 5 x A6000), and the Mackie speakers are powered by QSC amplifiers. The system is controlled using a Peavey MediaMatrix Xframe-88 system which allows zoning of the main and bar speakers, and provides limiting and crossover functions for all speakers.
Chris Ford of Tega selected the Peavey unit because of its flexibility. "The beauty of the Xframe system is that, with
XL Video is supplying chart toppers Muse with video equipment including a Catalyst playback system for the next 17 weeks. This is believed to be the first European tour for Catalyst. Muse’s video system utilises High End Systems’ revolutionary Catalyst image processing system, two Barco G10 ELM projectors and a rear cyc.
Muse’s creative designer Oli Metcalfe was so impressed with the demonstration organised by XL Video’s Des Fallon that he immediately recommended Catalyst to the Band. They then visited High End’s Ealing office, and were blown away with the system’s capabilities. XL’s Mark Hughes is rigging the system, and Metcalf is controlling the Catalyst via DMX from his Wholehog II (with extender wing) console. Metcalf is running a wide assortment of video clips and media via the Catalyst including stunning abstract patterns, water effects, etc. He comments: "The really funky thing about the Catalyst is that I can affect the images quickly and easily from the lighting desk. It’s just so versatile and controllable, and responds just like a light!"
(Lee Baldock)
Vari-Lite Inc has entered into an exclusive dealer partnership with Lightpower, one of the most respected distribution companies in Germany, which will allow the company to offer its German customers direct local access to sales, service and support of Vari*Lite sales products.
"The partnership is important to us commercially, technically, and also from an image standpoint," said Lightpower managing director Ralph-Jörg Wezorke. "Vari*Lite products are much more than multi-functional lighting fixtures. There is a special feeling about using Vari-Lite, from the products themselves to the quality service and support the company provides. Because Lightpower is an experienced and well-structured sales company, we can extend that level of service into the markets we serve."
Lightpower will offer customers in Germany an outlet to purchase the full line of Vari*Lite for sale automated lighting products, including the Series 2000 fixtures as well as the recently introduced VL1000 ERS luminaire, which has received high praise and accolades throughout the industry. The products are expected to arrive and be ready for purchase by mid-May. "The German market is very significant for automated lighting in Europe," said Bob Schacherl, Vari-Lite vice-president of sales and marketing, "particularly with the VL1000 ERS luminaire lending itself to affordable permanent installations. Lightpower is one of the leading dealers in the region and has established a reputation of delivering exceptional service to its customers. The partnership was a natural fit.
April 25 saw Fourth Phase London open its doors for the company’s first product demonstration evening. Over 100 people attended the spring barbeque, hosted to showcase the extensive stock held at the new warehouse in south London.
When guests weren’t tucking into burgers and beer, they enjoyed demonstrations by Fourth Phase staff of moving lights, followspots, control desks, WYSIWYG and CAD, plus PANI large format projectors. Well attended by people from across the lighting industry, from theatre to themed entertainment, as well as event organisers, Alan Thomson, managing director at Fourth Phase, declared the evening a success: "This was an ideal opportunity to show people that we have a vast range of rental equipment and allow them the opportunity to try it out for themselves."
(Ruth Rossington)
Having successfully developed the children’s TV character ‘Bob the Builder’ during the last three years, HIT Entertainment recently turned to the Lighting Technology Group to supply and install luminaires and grip equipment for its five Manchester studios.
Andy Dodd, sales manager at LTG, worked closely with Joe Dembinski, one of HOT Animation’s directors, on the project. He commented: "It was great to be involved with someone as famous as Bob the Builder. Lighting plays an enormous role in a project such as this and it’s always a pleasure to be associated with such a successful production."
Joe explained his reason for using ARRI products: "I chose ARRI luminaires because of their reliability and performance. Due to their high efficiency and light weight they have proven to be a good choice when working in miniature when space is at a premium."
Following on from this high profile installation the Lighting Technology Group have notably supplied and commissioned Strand dimmers at Meridian TV. More recently LTG were successful in winning orders for a large number of ARRI Daylight systems and tungsten heads, along with Kinoflo and Kobold equipment, for BBC Scotland’s new Dumbarton project.
(Lee Baldock)
Stage Electrics continues to be busy. For the West End production of We Will Rock You at the Dominion Theatre, the company has supplied the total lighting rig, including the new MAC2000 Performance which is making its debut in the West End. The rig also contains MAC2000s, MAC600 ENTs and High End Studio Colors, plus a large quantity of strobes including 50 Atomic and 500 Egg Strobes.The rig is controlled via a Wholehog 2 and two overdrive boxes over six universes of DMX.
The African Musical Umoja transfers to The Queens from The Shaftsbury where it was playing three months ago. This international success has also opened in Perth, Australia, and producer Joe Theron is currently in discussions with a view to taking the show across Europe. Stage Electrics has supplied all of the lighting equipment including MAC 600s Moving Wash Lights, Source Four profiles, scrollers and a Strand 520 desk.
These two projects illustrate the increasing number of hire projects being handled by the company’s London Waterloo operation. There’s also news on the development front: the retail design and installation team, headed by Anna Western, has been working on the launch of the new Stage Electrics Daylight Projection Screen. A major London retailer has already installed the screen as part of a promotional campaign. All these developments have fuelled the need for more people and the latest recruit to join Stage Electrics is Ian Brown. He will be joining the company in June to work with West End producers and lighting designers. Brown has had a successful and colourful caree
The Jubilee weekend will see the continuation of Vari-Lite Europe’s relationship with the British Airways London Eye through Park Avenue Productions. Park Avenue has been involved in every major milestone event at the London Eye, beginning with the official switch-on by Tony Blair on Millennium Eve. Once again, they have called on the services of Vari-Lite Europe to turn the Eye gold to highlight a charity fundraising initiative over the Jubilee period.
Producer Ajay Parekh and lighting designer Paul Cook specified a rig of 80 VL5arcs at the base of the Eye to create a gold wash capable of dynamic colour and intensity chases in harmony with the many Jubilee beacons being lit around the country. Creative director Simon Tapping commented: "Each time we produce another event at the British Airways London Eye we are reminded of its enormous scale, and the unique challenges which the scale and location impose. Vari-Lite continue to bring a high level of enthusiasm and expertise to these projects, supporting us with numerous tests and client demonstrations to achieve the desired result every time."
Vari-Lite’s account manager, Keith Duncan, commented: "We are very proud to be involved with Park Avenue again lighting what has become one of London’s best-loved landmarks."
The British Airway London Eye will be illuminated between the 31st May and 9th of June.
(Lee Baldock)
City Theatrical and A.C.T. Enterprises have announced that, with immediate effect, City Theatrical’s dealer network will become the exclusive distributors of A.C.T. Enterprises line of lighting accessories including Track Tamers, Tee-Slot System, Safer Sidearms, Vertical Extension Tubes, Pipe End Tail Downs and Single Point Speaker Hangers.
CTI’s Gary Fails told us: "I’ve always admired A.C.T.’s products and they fit well into our catalogue of unique lighting accessories. A.C.T.’s range of accessories for mounting moving lights will now have worldwide distribution through our network and we hope to make them much easier for users to obtain.
(Ruth Rossington)
Avolites has announced the appointment of two new distributors - in Portugal and in Turkey. Electrosound is a sales company based in Lisbon, Portugal. Avolites’ Steve Warren explains that Avolites chose Electrosound because of their focus and emphasis on moving light control, their high levels of support and their enthusiasm for the Avolites product range - which has enjoyed enormous success in Portugal.
Portugal’s very high proportion of Avolites equipment followed on from the Expo in 1998, when 26 different Avolites consoles were specified for various pavilions and stages site-wide. Since then, most Portuguese lighting designers have had a very close working relationship with Avolites equipment. This trend looks set to continue with Electrosound, who have already placed orders for four new consoles for a major Portuguese rental company for their busy summer schedule.
In Turkey Istanbul-based Telesine are now the Avolites distributor. Avolites had enjoyed a close working relationship for some time with Laurent Ferron (LouLou), who recently joined the Telesine sales team after many years in the lighting rental business. "LouLou is enthusiastic about the product and the production industry in general," states Steve Warren. "This was a major factor in our decision to go with Telesine. The industry needs focused and energetic people with positive attitudes, and we wanted to take full advantage of LouLou’s experience of the industry in Turkey." Again, sales have already been confirmed to Turkey since the deal was sealed at the beginning
Le Mark has further expanded its accessory section and now offers rental facilities to both trade and direct users alike. Le Mark has launched this new service with the unique GAM Torch, a hand-held real flame accessory.
One of the first clients to take advantage of this new service was Philip Wright, technical manager with Chelmsford Theatre Workshop who hired two GAM Torches from Le Mark for Chelmsford Theatre Workshops production of King Lear at the Old Court Theatre. Wright commented: "It’s an excellent product - the Crew and Cast found them very easy to use. Gloucester’s entrance searching for the King was spectacular! The fact that the fuel pellets are virtually smokeless and odourless was very important as the production was in the round in our small Theatre [120 seats]."
Mark Gibbons, who has both developed and overseen the rental project, commented. "It’s been a strange story. We entered the rental market with reluctance, so many customers saw our show demo’s and then asked ‘where can we rent the GAM Torch?’. Our own Dealer network was reluctant to put such an unusual item in its hire stock. To prove we had confidence and it would be viable for a Dealer - we did it ourselves! We felt that it was such a waste to have a unique product like the GAM Torch ‘on the shelf ‘ and not be able to make it available to clients that wanted to use it.
Le Mark plans to launch full GAM equipment rental details during the ABTT Show next month.
(Lee Baldock)
BML Stage Lighting & Productions Inc, located in Raritan, New Jersey, have recruited Marc Malamud as Rental Account Manager. Marc, formerly with BASH and PRG, brings a wealth of Broadway, off Broadway and industrial experience to the BML team. His duties will include overseeing the expansion of the rental department, in addition to his sales function.
(Ruth Rossington)
March 6th marked the grand opening of Chasing Rainbows, the new interactive museum at Dollywood. Located in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, Dollywood is a magical theme park inspired by the life and accomplishments of country musician Dolly Parton. The new museum houses a collection of items from Dolly's career.
In the fall of 2001, the creative team at Dollywood contacted UV/FX Los Angeles with the idea of designing a finale room for the museum; a space which would serve as the culmination of the visitors' experience at the museum. The folks at Dollywood wanted a space that physically replicated the Smoky Mountains landscape, and that was conceptually inspired by Miss Parton's song ‘The Light of a Clear Blue Morning’.
The basic idea was that visitors would enter a nighttime environment, which would subsequently evolve into sunrise over the course of the song's playback. The space was to be a combination of painted and three-dimensional scenery. Armed with reference materials supplied by Dollywood's creative team, UV/FX designer Jon Craine began sketching concepts. Early in the design process, Craine traveled to Dollywood to experience first-hand the space in which his design would be implemented. Still under construction, the space was roughly a box 25ft tall by 30ft wide by 30ft deep. Included in the space were recently completed three-dimensional scenic elements: a waterfall, boulders, rock outcroppings and 25ft tall pine tree trunks.
Craine then returned to LA with the task of creating a scene that lead the audience to believe they were standing on a ledge wi
After exhaustive market research conducted by the Australian National Broadcaster, ABC TV, to find a suitable lighting desk for their recently-digitised Studio 31 in Melbourne’s Ripponlea complex, an order was placed for a Vision 10/ST console from ADB-TTV in Belguim. The desk will be supplied by ADB’s Australian distributor, LSC Lighting Systems of Melbourne.
The Vision desk provides 1024 control channels on 1024 DMX output channels expandable to 2048, 48 submasters over two pages, full A/B playback facilities, moving light control module, special effects module, standard outputs for keyboard, mouse, SVGA monitors, MIDI, audio, IR or HF remote control units, printers and worklights. The desk can also be expanded for ethernet connection.
The Vision fulfilled a number of key criteria that the ABC were seeking. "The ADB Vision certainly provided what we were looking for in a desk - intuitive, predictable operation with fast on-the-fly recording of memories and separate channel and memory keypad modules. This is essential for our fast-paced TV production, often using freelance console operators . . . and of course it fell within our budget."
ADB-TTV is a wholly-owned Siemens company and has developed an enviable reputation in Europe, South America and Asia for their high quality lighting control systems, hoists, suspension systems and luminaires. Their reference list reads like the who’s who of major theatres and Television Studios throughout these regions. LSC Lighting Systems was appointed the Australian Distributor in an effort to establish
The unique gobo animation wheel system in the Martin MAC 2000 Performance has been further enhanced with the launch of a set of six new animation wheel designs giving lighting designers access to an unparalleled range of artistic effects.
Six new design wheels provide new effect possibilities, including snow and 'flurries' of movement; swaying tree branches, the rhythmic undulations of sea waves, high speed turbines or passing trains, a flickering lantern, rough sea, flames, psychedelic effects and more.
Since its launch in early 2002, the Martin MAC 2000 Performance has already found worldwide success with installations such as the National Theater in Prague, Hannover Oper and Palermo Theater. It has also found its way to Broadway and the West End in shows such as Hairspray and Mamma Mia.
(Lee Baldock)
With the arrival of the ProWash 575 LX, Coemar have inserted the final piece into the LX Series jigsaw. The 575 helps to complete Coemar’s comprehensive range of moving head fixtures, designed to meet the specific requirements of a broad spectrum of market sectors, in both fixed and rental application.
The fixture is a 575W MSD moving head fresnel, offering 385° pan and 260° tilt movement and 16-bit beam positioning, in which movement and blackout effect can be synchronized. With 14/16 DMX control channels, the ProWash 575LX features a built-in mechanical, electronically-controlled dimmer for complete adjustment of light output from 0 to 100%, and a strobing effect, with adjustable flash rate (synchronized or random), fade pulse effect, blackout and programmable chaser effect with adjustable speed. Infinite colour possibilities can be achieved via a CMY colour mixing system. Six colours (plus white) feature on the additional colour wheel, which also provides rainbow and multi-colour effects, CTO and CTB filter. Colour changes can be synchronized with the blackout shutter. For par effects, there is also a rotating beam shaping filter.
Coemar’s ProWash boasts a progressive zoom - from 9.5° to 23° (half peak angle) and from 19° to 34° (1/10 peak angle) with a maximum beam angle of 44°. The zoom effect is facilitated optically by an anti-reflection coated plano-convex lens and 185mm fresnel lens. Other features include: DMX signal reception indicator and feature display; micro-step driven stepper motors; four menu/function buttons for selecting the operat
High End Systems' award-winning Catalyst system will be prominently featured in the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest, with finals taking place May 25 in Tallinn, Estonia. Lighting director Per Sundin of SVT has specified 15 Catalysts - the largest installation of Catalyst systems on any Catalyst project to date - along with a number of x.Spot automated luminaires in the production.
SVT is providing much of the technical support for Estonian TV. Spectra+ of Stockholm, Sweden is the lighting rental company supplying the event. Lang Audio Vision of Germany is supplying the bulk of the Catalysts along with other video equipment. Video Unlimited of Stockholm is also providing video services as well as some video projectors.
In a separate announcement, Spectra+ has altered its name and logo to reflect recent changes to the services it provides, with the introduction of a complete entertainment package service to the industry. The company can now offer lighting, sound and video equipment as an integrated package. Spectra+ (previously Spectra, Prisma and Chroma), established in 1989, has grown to become on of Scandinavia’s largest suppliers of lighting equipment to the entertainment industry. Based in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmoe, the company has 40 employees and a turnover of 48 million SEK.
As official lighting supplier to The Eurovision Song Contest in Tallinn 2002, Spectra has invested in High End Systems’ Catalyst as the first step towards providing integrated lighting and video.
(Lee Baldock)