A review of Prolight + Sound 2007, held in Frankfurt.

Another year and better than ever. The attendance of 108,000 visitors from 120 countries (an increase of 6% over last year) to Frankfurt's International Musikmesse and Prolight + Sound is sensational. With around 38,000 visitors from abroad, both fairs reached a 35 percent degree of international participation.

Besides Germany, it was the European countries Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, and UK who were primarily represented, along with strong contingents from the US, Japan, South Korea and Israel.

A round-up of some the new products on show is given here.

Showcasing the new ultra powerful CSR 18000/SE/HR lamp, GE's range of Showbiz® CSR is now one of the most complete lines for the film industry giving options for creating daylight colour temperatures.

Applications for the new products are in film production settings where maximum light output, reliability and colour stability are critically important.

With the slogan 'one hand, one light, one touch' Osram introduced their Lok-it!® range, which is a turnkey lamp and holder system that allows for one hand lamp replacement within seconds.

The lamps types feature halogen, quartz discharge and ceramic discharge which all fit the 4 holder types - short neck or long neck, with rear load and front load options available.

Philips has probably had the highest number and most diverse range of new products that it has shown for many years, from the FastFit range to the PAR56 and PAR64 with halogen burners that offer increased efficiency and optional hot restrike ignition.

The well known MSR Gold™ double ended range has also been increased with the addition of two 1500w lamps offering either 6000K or 7500K.

If you need to stay cool, the Ceramic ST hot restrike lamps are just for you. Giving a colour temperature of 3200K the 250w and 500w produce four times less heat than halogen lamps and uses less energy into the bargain.

This technical full service provider for events and TV productions specialises in lighting for sports events, whether single or multi discipline, indoor or outdoor, day or night.

Their multi screen stand showed some of the events in which they have been involved from the Olympic Games in Sydney and Athens, the Asian Games in Doha to the Eurovision Song Contest.

Owning one of the largest equipment pools in the world covering lighting, sound, video and rigging they are well prepared to plan and implement demanding projects of any size or complexity.

One of the largest stands at the show, where more than 200 new products were presented with full details available in their 'eMotions' product catalogue.

The DAP-audio and DMT brands are becoming better known in the market, and the Showtech range of lighting includes features everything you need to create a professional lightshow for clubs, disco, events, stage and fixed installations from moving heads, parcans and strobes to blacklights.

This Dutch company strives to be the leading provider of show equipment for consumer and corporate parties and events and now operate directly in 7 countries reaching customers in more than 65 other countries through distributors and export operations.

Electron's LED collection, know as LEDELEC, is a complete series of LED products including tubes, lamps, moving heads and par cans with RGB options and power supplies.

Their Chameleon Controllers are flexible and user friendly solutions for controlling the RGBs and are available in wall mounted or desk top versions.

An excellent display of these products was shown on their stand and capably demonstrated by Penny and Della, the lighting designer daughters of George Hatzi, the founder and President of the company.

Among the numerous moving heads was the new ColorWash 2500 AT, which is the most powerful moving wash light fixture in the Robe range. Featuring the Philips MSR GOLD 1200 FastFit lamps, the fixture comes complete with CMY colour mixing system, variable CTO and 2 colour wheels with combined dimmer/shutter unit. Designed specifically for large stages, big concert halls, outdoor applications and all installations where large colour wash light output is needed.

One of the world's professional lighting innovators, Clay Paky have again racked up the standard for moving heads with their new ALPHA PROFILE 1200. With a patented framing system that offers a 'total curtain' effect made separately by each of the 4 blades giving a 90° rotation of the entire system, it is possible to achieve any effect you desire using a wide range zoom 10-30°. Using Osram's HTI 1200w Hot Restrike lamp there is also a choice of colour temperature - 6000K or 7500K.