HSL supplied lighting equipment and crew to the most recent leg of UK rockers Thunder's "Bang" tour, LD'd by Ian "Scampi" Bintliff. It's the second Thunder production tour that HSL has supplied, and was managed for the Blackburn-based rental house by Howard Dean.

Scampi states, "It's always a pleasure to work with HSL - their kit, crew and service is second to none, and they also came up with a very good deal!"

His designs are well known for being based on a realistic amount of equipment for the venues and budgets involved, and also for perfecting the fine art of making any rig - whatever size - look far larger than it actually is. With a challenging mix of different sized gigs on the itinerary, this creative philosophy certainly paid off, ensuring that the band had their full show everywhere.

i-Pix's BB4 LED wash fixture won a prestigious Award for Technical Innovation at the 2008 SIEL Exhibition in Paris. The show is France's leading international expo for the professional lighting, sound and video industry.

The BB4 was entered into the ‘Stage & Studio' category by i-Pix French distributor, Paris-based JC Lampes.

The Awards were judged by a panel of 12 industry experts, including Julien Pavillard, artistic director for Lyon's famous festival of Light. They closely examined each nominated product, before conferring and making their final decisions.

The BB4 was selected as the winner for it's intensity, colour mixing capabilities and its homogenised lightsource - all three qualities greatly impressed the judges and make it an ideal fixture for both stage and studio applications of all types.

Gearhouse South Africa supplied full technical production, design, crew and equipment - including lighting, visuals, video, audio, set, staging and power - to the official City of Johannesburg's New Year's Eve 2008-09 celebrations.

For the fifth year running, this was staged at Mary Fitzgerald Square in downtown Johannesburg, and broadcast live on SABC 2.

Unique Design

Gearhouse's Tim Dunn designed a unique new roof structure for the occasion which combined elements from one of Gearhouse In2structures' Dome venues with a StageCo roofing system. The dome structure had fully transparent skins, allowing Dunn to light the stage from above, with lights rigged on the 25 metre Stageco mothergrid above, blasting right through the roof to the stage. This created a vibrant new dimension to the whole show.

Video was used for the first time to project giant images onto the 353 ft high Shell Building on the South Bank of the River Thames for the Mayor of London's 2008-09 New Year's Eve celebrations.

E/T/C London created a projection concept and suggested that they harness the flexibility and power of video for the first time on this event, on which E/T/C has worked for producers Jack Morton Worldwide for the last 5 years. With LG Electronics coming onboard as a new sponsor, they really wanted to up the production values, making the show something extra special and more spectacular this year.

Says E/T/C's Ross Ashton, "It was another milestone in giant video projection for E/T/C London, and probably the UK's largest New Year video installation to date as well as a great opportunity for us to move the company forward."

E/T/C's Richard Porter designed the technical installation, which utilised 24 Christie S+20K projectors, all rigged vertically, and run in 12 overlaid pairs. These covered a 12 zone grid - 3 wide and 4 high - measuring 55 metres wide by 110 tall on the river facing fascia of the building.

Audio Rent Clair, Europe's leading touring audio supplier, and UK-based Concert Sound have joined forces.

Both companies have long histories in the tour sound and contracting segments of the professional audio market and have co-operated on many events in the past, most notably on tours and one-off events with Sir Paul McCartney, Mark Knopfler and Tina Turner.