UK - Last year, international auctioneer Phillips moved from their Victoria premises to a new purpose-designed headquarters in London's prestigious Berkeley Square. The move represents another important step in the evolution and growth of the business.

As part of the move they commissioned two new high-spec gallery spaces. Following a comprehensive study of other manufacturers' products they turned to Dedo Weigert Film GmbH, Munich to supply state-of-the-art lighting fittings.

The innovative lighting system was specified in-house by Phillips gallery manager Ian Bell, working closely

UK - Dance music magazine DJ Mag yesterday announced the results of its Best of Britain Awards, with first place in the Best Small Club category going to Audio in Brighton, beating venues such as Stealth in Nottingham and Corsica Studios in London to the prize.

Over the course of the summer of 2014 several promoters hired in Traction rigs for events where they required a superior sound to what was already installed, and the manager Robbie Whishaw and then owner John Holland were won over by the high clarity, big bass and high SPLs achieved from very few boxes. Discussions began

USA - Ward Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Northville, Michigan, has a long history in the Detroit metro area and now a recent lighting upgrade to Elation Professional LED fixtures is heightening the worship experience.

In 2013, in an on-going effort to reach out to more people and at different levels, Ward began to offer four different worship styles in three different venues, all on the same campus. When a contemporary service was launched, Bryan Guelzo was brought in as part of a full A/V renovation.

"When the current building was built about 15 years ago, no one had drea

UK - Central Presentations Ltd (CPL) and Bright Productions collaborated to deliver an elaborate, innovative and fun 'airport' themed festive party environment for 1200 guests in full fancy dress for a leading technology brand.

Hangar B2 at Cotswold Airfield in Kemble, Gloucestershire, UK, a vast space built as a World War II RAF station which also served as a base to the Red Arrows aerobatics team until 1983, it's been largely utilized for storage since then ... was transformed into a gleaming modern airport fantasy world for the event.

Bright developed the design concept and CPL h

USA - Masked rockers Slipknot are making headlines with a fifth album release, the addition of new band members, their Knotfest concert series and the launch of the Prepare for Hell tour - and a grandMA2 console is along for the wild ride.

The band just marked the debut of their fifth studio album, .5: The Gray Chapter which was quickly followed by performances at their own Knotfest in San Bernardino, California. They began headlining the Prepare for Hell tour afterwards.

Trevor Ahlstrand, lighting designer/production designer for Slipknot, is using a grandMA2 f

Belgium - Maverick Belgian superstars Clouseau rocked the first two (of four) spectacular Clouseau Central shows at the Antwerp Sportpalais, complete with stage, set, lighting and visuals designed - to match the profile of the occasion - by Luc Peumans from creative design practice, Painting With Light.

The band last played the Sportpalais four years ago, in a series of landmark multi-date end-of-year shows that had become an annual end of year concert experience. Back in 2014 in some style with a six-month tour, they wanted to end the year with a performance phenomenon that wa

USA - Featuring competition in 36 different sporting events, the 22nd Central American and Caribbean Games were recently held at the Estadio Luis 'Pirata' Fuente in Veracruz, Mexico. To oversee the lighting design for the opening and closing ceremonies, lighting designer David Grill was brought on board and he brought with him a high-powered rig filled with 126 VL4000 Spot, 150 VL3500 Wash, and 50 VL3500 Wash FX luminaires from Philips Vari-Lite, supplied by Solotech.

"When setting up this type of lighting design you really have to be aware of your position and fixture choices,&q

USA - The Eli Young Band has hit the road on its North American tour and recently hosted its 2nd Annual Eli Young Band House Party featuring Clay Paky Sharpy and A.leda B-EYE K-20 fixtures playing supporting roles.

An American country music band from Texas, The Eli Young Band released its 10,000 Towns album earlier this year. During its career the band has had three singles reach number one on the Billboard country charts. The band is currently on a North American concert tour and just finished hosting its popular yearly House Party concerts on back-to-back weekends at Globe Li

USA - American jam band moe. ended 2014 in style with a sold out concert at The Palace Theatre in Albany, NY, where their LD Preston Hoffman once again made Robe Pointe moving lights the centrepiece of his rig.

The lighting for this special one-off - which also celebrated the start of moe.'s 25th year - was designed as a larger version of their recent touring system which had featured 12 x Pointes hung on a custom structure and used to create most of the signature looks.

For the New Year's Eve show, the Pointe count was upped to 24 ... plus a few wash lights and strobes. The additio

Ireland - Co-founder and composer for The Cranberries, Noel Hogan described the addition of Audient's 8 Channel Mic Pre & ADC ASP880, and USB Interface iD22 to his mobile and home studio set up, as "perfect for me".

Despite having painstakingly kitted out his studio with a lot of coveted vintage outboard gear, his work involved so much travelling that it was often left unused. "Finding a set up that I can take with me is what I've been working on more recently," he explains. "I wanted it to be clean, reliable and mobile so I went straight for the ASP880 combin

Germany / Belgium - Belgian-based engineering and automation specialists WIcreations designed the 4m square six-faceted video cube which is the visual centrepiece of the current Record tour by German hip-hop superstars Die Fantastischen Vier.

The striking video feature - which moves on all axes and rotates throughout the show - is at the hub of the spectacular and inventive set, lighting and visuals show created by Gunther Hecker.

In addition to displaying conventional playback video, its different fascias are used as alternative lightsources. In the second half of the show, three l

UK - All Access Staging and Productions Ltd provided onstage risers to Paolo Nutini on his recent arena tour.

Stage manager Nik Rea approached All Access to provide the tour with a riser package. A multi-level riser system was put together with the decks in a diamond configuration which was filled in along the back from our stock triangular decks to produce areas for the band to move around on.

The production also used All Access rolling risers throughout the summer on their festival tour.

The All Access Versa system is designed so you can create the stage you require. Whether it

Austria - The opera El Juez (the Judge) celebrated its world première in the new Festspielhaus in Erl, Austria.

The Festspielhaus was built by STABAG (the general contractor) and designed by Delugan Meissl Associated Architects, Vienna. It seats over 862 people (there are 732 seats in the galleries and 130 removable seats in the orchestra pit area) and has the largest orchestra pit in the world (160 sq.m / 190 sq.yd.). The building covers no less than 7000 sq.m / 8372 sq.yd. Johannes Laugwitz (CA GmbH) from Königsbrunn was called in as technical lighting manager and grandMA2

Mexico - MIXPRO is one of a number of new rental company clients of Robe's Mexican distributor, Vari Internacional who have invested in Robe products in recent months.

The company, based in the lively, colourful and historically significant Xochimilco district of Mexico City, purchased 20 x Pointes which went straight out on tour with Mexican superstar rock singer Alejandra Guzman, whose lighting is designed by Martin Contreras.

MIXPRO's commercial director Ricardo Dabne had wanted to expand the company's lighting division with a new moving light purchase, and so began asking people

Singapore - Clear-Com reports that Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay, Singapore's national performing arts centre has enhanced their production intercom system with Clear-Com digital solutions. The centre has upgraded its existing partyline intercom system with the HelixNet Digital Partyline system, as well as Eclipse HX Median and Eclipse HX PiCo Digital Matrix Intercom Systems. The project was supported by Clear-Com's local partner, Electronics & Engineering Pte Ltd.

Performance communications is an important element in Esplanade's daily operations, ensuring that all show cues are exe

UK - W-DMX by Wireless Solution Sweden AB is now on permanent display at the high end Alibi bar and nightclub in Belfast, Northern Ireland, as part of a new installation of kinetic light structures suspended over the dance floor. The display involves 12 large independently moving triangles, with the sides consisting of 36 Digital Pixel DPPT1000 Pixel Tubes (each tube contains 16 Pixels with 48 channels of control). Lighting Control was carried out by Showcad Artist and eight-way Artnet Device and signal sent via W-DMX.

Lighting designers Dave Charman & William Barrett of Liteworx AV L

USA - Named after a legendary football coach and home to the Conroe Independent School District's numerous High School athletic teams, Buddy Moorhead Stadium continues a proud tradition of Texas high school football with a modern facility seating over 8,400 fans.

The stadium's artificial turf and competition track were recently upgraded, but for several years, its sound system had been unreliable and fans often complained about intelligibility.

In 2014, the Conroe school district chose TASC A/V to provide a new sound system. TASC designed a system based on Community R6-51 high-outpu

Germany - Robe fixtures played a major role in lighting the massive New Year's Eve celebrations in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, closing a year that celebrated 25 years since the momentous 'fall' of the Berlin Wall in November, and that looked forward to 2015 with lots of positive energy and great hopes and ambitions.

Lighting designer Lars Murasch of TLT Event AG used nearly 100 Robe moving lights on his rig this year - 64 Pointes, 16 x MMX Spots and 18 x MMX WashBeams. The event featured all-action performances by Tony Christie, Tokio Hotel, Laith Al Deen, star violinist

Spain - LitecC has announced that Bofill&Asociados S.L. has recently become its new distributor in Spain. "B&A is a well-known company made of highly skilled professionals, specialised in providing advanced technologies in the entertainment sector since 1990. They offer a wide range of high quality products from relevant brands and operate in several markets such as the entertainment, architecture, exhibition, TV and theatre among the many, complying with the current strictest regulations," the company says.

B&A is located in Madrid, with warehouses in the outskirts of the c

USA / UK - The Chroma-Q premium performance lighting brand's North American and UK resellers are showing their support for the industry by making a contribution to highly deserving industry charity, Behind the Scenes, for every Chroma-Q Color One 100 LED Par sold.

The PLASA (formerly ESTA) Foundation's Behind the Scenes charity has been assisting industry members in North America since 2006, providing financial assistance to entertainment technology professionals, or their immediate family, who are seriously ill or injured.

Originally modelled on the UK-based Light Relief charity, B

USA - All three ETCP examinations will be held at USITT in Cincinnati, OH on the morning of Saturday, 21 March, 2015. Candidates who wish to take more than one exam should contact ETCP. USITT members and employees receive a $100 discount on examination fees. Interested applicants must submit their application, along with supporting materials and fee, to the ETCP office no later than February 28, 2015. The ETCP office is located at 630 9th Ave, Suite 609, New York, New York, 10036.

Candidate information, including eligibility requirements and applications, is available on the ETCP webs

UK - Working with video designer, Andrzej Goulding, XL Video are supplying projection and media control for the Theatre Royal Bath production of Saturday Night Fever, which is currently touring UK theatres.

The show, which is created in association with the Robert Stigwood Organisation, and is based on the classic 70s disco film of the same name, is directed by Ryan McBryde and choreographed by Andrew Wright.

This new production includes a multi-surface set which moves and changes throughout the show creating an ever-changing projection canvas. Andrzej Goulding's design calls

USA - From the moment he rose from below the stage on the back of a black pickup truck surrounded by flames, until he closed some two hours later with the provocative hit Country Girl (Shake It For Me), Luke Bryan gave the sellout crowds at his That's My Kind Of Night tour everything they expected from the red-hot country superstar.

There was the non-stop energy, the down-home rapport with the crowd, the dazzling pearly white smile, the exhilarating dance moves, the hard driving music and, to set an appropriately powerful visual tone for it all -- a dynamic lightshow that inclu

UK - Blackburn-based lighting and visuals rental company HSL supplied lighting plus all necessary trussing and rigging for no less than 21 pantomimes across the UK during the 2014/15 festive season for premier panto producer, Qdos.

Project managed for HSL by Lee Farrell, this year's clutch of productions saw HSL working with a host of talented theatre lighting designers, including Nick Richings, Ben Cracknell, Matt Clutterham and others.

Some intense logistics included dispatching 23 trucks from HSL containing approximately 1013 moving lights, 838 generics, 74 standard strobes and o

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