HSL Group Holdings is exhibiting at PLASA 2006 for the second time in its own right, highlighting its diverse range of products and services.

HSL is one of the fastest growing and most energetic lighting and audio sales and rental companies in the UK. It services a host of entertainment sectors including theatre, live events, concert tours, festivals, television productions, corporate presentations, son et lumières, spectaculars, art installations, parties and special events of all types.

The last 12 months has seen an increase in activity in every market sector for HSL.

The Blackburn-based company has three divisions – HSL Rental, HSL Rigging and HSL Sales & Distribution.

Its reputation has been built on progressive thinking, the provision of innovative solutions, efficient and dedicated service, quality equipment and experienced designers, engineers and technicians and the ability to service a diverse range of projects with passion and thoroughness.

HSL has large stocks of the latest lighting technology – including moving lights and increasingly LED lightsources and media servers - from all the leading industry manufacturers and brands. It also has a vast array of trussing, rigging and ground support systems, plus its own specialist-designed products like the Totem PA, lighting and video tower range.

Items are maintained to the highest standards, and include all relevant certification - PAT testing, Motor Certification, Truss Inspections, Rigging Registry of all Lifting Equipment, Fire Certification of Drapes, current Heath and Safety Policy, Risk Assessments & Method Statements and Public Liability.

On Tour

Recent concert touring projects include Massive Attack’s summer festival tour, which saw HSL investing over £100,000 in new Chroma-Q ColorBlock LED fixtures for their distinct ‘visuals wall’ designed by UVA. They also supplied Robe Robe ColorWash and ColorSpot 1200AT moving lights, PAR cans and scrollers, ZR 33 smokers, two hazers, a technician and a WholeHog II console run by lighting director Rohan Harrison.

HSL also supplied all lighting and rigging to LD Dave Byars for the Beautiful South’s “Superbi” tour, and will be supplying 8 (??) arenas - including the main outdoor stage – of lighting for the 2006 Creamfields festival.

HSL is supplying Snow Patrol’s LD Dave Sherwin with a range of LED products for their summer festival tour. This included PixelLines and SoftLED for the smaller shows and – for the larger shows - 52 Color Kinetics i-Tiles, 74 Chroma-Q DB-4 ColorBlocks, control and a floor lighting system consisting of 8 Robe ColorWash and 8 ColorSpot 1200 AT fixtures. Robin Haddow is the visuals operator

On TV

On the TV front, HSL has enjoyed an extremely hectic time supplying lighting kit to several different productions, and offering a wide range of new equipment including the SoftLED drape, Color Kinetics’ LED fixtures and various moving lights. For ITV’s phenomenally popular “Dancing On Ice” show (LDs Tom Kinane and Svend Pedersen, scenic designer Marcus Blee) HSL supplied over 80 moving lights, 700 LED fixtures – all fed from a PixelMAD server - and 120 30ft lengths of special festoon, plus 117 points of rigging and approx. 300 metres of trussing.

Other recent TV work includes supplying moving lights to the third series of Wawffactor (the Welsh edition of Pop Idol) for ITV and S4C in Welsh (LD Martyn Rourke); the Carling Cup final at Millennium Stadium, where HSL supplied six high resolution SoftLED cloths for the post match celebrations; the BBC’s “Just the Two of US”, where HSL supplied and rigged over 120 Color Kinetics iColor Tiles (LD Mark Kenyon, set Designer Patrick Doherty); and popular Saturday night ITV games show “Family Fortunes”, recently revamped aesthetically including a section of high res SoftLED drape from HSL, used as the backing to one of the stage entrances. (LD Dave Davey).

In the Theatre

HSL’s Theatrical productions have been as numerous as they have varied – highlights include national tours with This is Elvis (LD Ben P Cracknall) and Blood Brothers (LD Nick Richings); West End productions like “Hayfever” (LD Paul Pyant) and “Whistle Down The Wind” (LD Nick Richings) and special seasons like the 2006 Opera Holland Park Festival, which sees 6 high-profile, full-scale productions, each run two at a time in repertory for three weeks, and is promoted by the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea.

Art Works

Recent installation work has included supplying all lighting, rigging and staging for the acclaimed Whiteplane 2 project, a live interactive performance/art installation tour using an atmospheric mix of ambisonic sound and architectural lighting, created by experimental artists Alex Bradley and Charles Poulet. The floor and ceiling each contain 30 JTE PixelLine LED fixtures, chosen as one of the few types of lighting that could be made into a smooth and even floor of light and walked over for 12 hours a day whilst emitting virtually no heat.