UK - Kings Place is a buzzing hub for music, art, dialogue, social and cultural interaction, events and food and drink in the heart of central London's vibrant Kings Cross area. The multi-purpose venue is ensconced in the contemporary elegance of a large mixed space building designed by architects Dixon Jones backing onto the Regent Canal.

Recently, Robe's DL Series LED fixtures have been installed in its two auditoriums as part of a lighting refit and upgrade.

As well as a leading creative live art and performance forum presenting around 600 arts events a year, Kings Place is a wor

USA - Seattle's Parlor Live comedy club is bringing national headliners like Kevin Hart, Rob Schneider and Loni Love to the city. At the same time, it's also cultivating up-and-coming regional comics by giving them the chance to perform on a spacious stage illuminated by a collection of Ovation and COLORado fixtures from Chauvet Professional.

In keeping with the creative streak that characterizes Seattle (this is the city that gave us grunge, Windows and Amazon), Parlor Live is no ordinary comedy club. Aside from its 200-seat comedy club, this two-story venue also houses a sports bar,

Nigeria - With an audience of over 700,000, The Experience is Africa's largest live concert and possibly the biggest annual, single stage live music event in the world. London-based Subfrantic looks after the complex mixes, with Yamaha CL series digital consoles a vital part of this challenging, all-night production.

Founded and hosted by Pastor Paul Adefarasin since 2005, The Experience is an interdenominational gospel concert which takes place in Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos, every December. So popular is it, however, that an adjacent cricket pitch is also needed.

Featuring many of

South Africa - When Johannesburg based Emperors Palace upgraded their control desk, they decided on a new grandMA2 Lite system. This forms part of an entire revamp as Emperors Palace Theatre of Marcellus has been transformed from a multi-purpose venue to become a complete state of the art, permanent 1,008-seater theatre.

"Basically we redeveloped the theatre from a multi-functional venue to a permanent theatre capable of handling large scale, long running quality theatre productions," said JP de Vernon, entertainment technical manager at Emperors.

After consulting with Dre

USA - Audinate and NewTek have announced an expansion of the partnership to enable Dante support in the TriCaster product line. As part of the new TriCaster Advanced Edition, customers will have the ability to install Dante Virtual Soundcard to enable seamless audio connectivity to other Dante-enabled products.

TriCaster has changed the way producers cover and distribute live events. TriCaster set a new industry standard as an innovative, easy-to-use appliance for portable live production and streaming, it has become the choice for video producers worldwide. TriCaster customers will n

Belgium - Chauvet has opened a full-service subsidiary in Ghent, Belgium. The facility, which follows in the steps of a Chauvet branch in the United Kingdom, acts as the Chauvet distributor in the Benelux area serving dealers of Chauvet Professional and Chauvet DJ brands in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, while supporting Chauvet distributors and strategic partners elsewhere in Europe.

"Given the success of our operations in the UK, it made sense to expand to an inland facility so we can better serve customers not only in the Benelux area but also throughout the continen

UK - The Olivier Award winning play, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time took to the road on in December 2014 for a one year UK tour.

Having wowed UK audiences since it opened at the National's Cottesloe Theatre in August 2012, the production transferred to the Apollo Theatre in March 2013 and is currently playing at the Gielgud Theatre. Keen to ensure the tour is equally successful, Damian Partington, production manager, National Theatre Productions, brought Unusual Rigging on board to help ensure a flawless move between venues and supply a range of rigging equip

Germany - Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands is celebrating five years of Platinum lamps. The range's razor-sharp light beams have revolutionized the entertainment industry in a relatively short amount of time. To commemorate the anniversary, Philips will be exhibiting the range at Prolight+Sound 2015 in Frankfurt.

The first innovative Platinum lamp, the MSD Platinum 5 R, was launched in 2010. Today, in 2015, Philips offers a broad range including the 2 R, 14 R, 15 R, 16 R, 17 RA and 20 R. Platinum lamps have been used at many major events, worldwide. Platinum lamps were des

UK - Live event and installation audio-visual facilities company SFL Group are supplying Shure wireless microphone and in-ear monitoring systems to the HTB family of churches based at Holy Trinity Brompton, South-west London, as part of a rolling programme of upgrades to the wireless microphone and in-ear systems at the churches.

Holy Trinity Brompton Road is the home of Alpha, a worldwide course which allows people to explore the big questions of life, and also the Worship Central movement founded by Tim Hughes, which places great emphasis on music in its endeavours. Holy Trinity Bro

UK - Clocking up a landmark quarter of a century of business in the industry, lighting, rigging and visuals rental company Fineline celebrates its 25th year in 2015, with a schedule that is already action packed with a wide range of work from music tours and festivals to corporate events.

The Bristol based operation was founded by Darren Wring in 1990 as a lighting rental and touring company and expanded in 2004 to include a manufacturing facility for bespoke staging and scenic elements.

Current MD Rob Sangwell joined in 2002 and managed the production lighting and rigging aspects o

UK - As Capital Sound Hire enters the build-up phase to their busy summer season ahead they discuss plans for continued investment in their professional sound equipment hire stock.

Following the purchase of their Martin Audio MLA loudspeaker system in 2012-14, comprising MLA, MLA Compact and MLA Mini, the London-based professional live sound equipment hire company have recently undertaken a new investment programme to focus on their infrastructure, maintaining and upgrading all elements of their professional sound equipment hire stock to ensure that it meets clients' needs in terms of

On The Campaign Trail - Labour has confirmed its commitment to the arts in the party's manifesto ahead of the general election, declaring they should "belong to all and be open to all to take part in". Earlier this year Labour leader Ed Miliband vowed to place arts and culture "at the heart of the government" if the party came to power in May. In its newly published election manifesto, the party promises to work with public bodies to tackle the regional imbalance of arts funding. Labour also pledges to strengthen creative education in schools and after school clubs,

USA - Boston USA based lighting designer Jeff Maker relished the chance to use 135 Robe moving lights including 18 x BMFL Spots for a super high profile and very special one off / DVD shoot show at Wembley Arenafor lively US punk rock band, All Time Low.

The gig - their biggest ever to date in the UK - sold out in just a few days and was preceded by a short seven-date jaunt around Europe. It also came just a month after All Time Low finished a double headline UK arena tour with You Me At Six, so, with the proximity of this still in fans' minds, Jeff designed a completely new overhead

UK - Aurora Lighting is supporting lighting director Oli Richards on the new ITV Saturday sporting comedy panel show Play to the Whistle.

Played out in front of a studio audience at Fountain Studios, Play to the Whistle features host Holly Whillouby presiding over team captains, Bradley Walsh and Frank Lampard.

Produced by Hungry Bear Media for ITV, the show pits two celebrity teams against each other with the aim of working out who sports the best knowledge of all things sporting. Helping to keep order, comedian Sean Walsh also joins the show in the guise of comic ump

UK - XL Video's UK operation has expanded the warehousing and distribution for its LED department, with the opening of a new 20,000sq.ft warehouse near to the company's existing Hemel Hempstead location.

The 50% increase in total warehouse space enables XL Video to create a dedicated space for preparation and dispatch of the company's wide and varied range of indoor and outdoor rental LED screens, and other creative LED products.

This expansion into the new LED facility also creates additional much-needed space in the main XL Video warehouse to allow for the growth in inventory of X

UK - Fisher Hires has invested in new lighting and AV stock following a major investment programme to the tune of £500,000. Fisher Hires is sister company to the prestigious event productions agency Fisher Productions, which this year celebrates its 30th birthday.

Fisher Hires supplies lighting, AV and technical expertise for all Fisher Productions events, and was launched as a separate company last year with the aim to widen the business and offer a full dry hire service.

Responding to client demand, Fisher has purchased a number of products from Clay Paky, MA Lighting, Avoli

Europe - Steven Wilson, four-time Grammy nominee, celebrates the launch of his new album Hand. Cannot. Erase with a UK and European tour in March and April 2015. The tour and album follow his runaway success of his third solo album The Raven That Refused to Sing and his sell out shows at London's Royal Albert Hall in 2013. The UK gigs kicked off at Cambridge Corn Exchange and continue on throughout his 10-country European tour until heading off to the USA and Canada.

Steven Wilson wanted to create "a show that I hope will raise the bar both musically and visually fr

Belgium - The most recent tour by Belgian girlband K3 featured a lighting and video design by Painting With Light's Luc Peumans which was based on the bold, bright, poppy and positive vibe that has characterised the band's remarkable 16 year career.

K3's impressive longevity - achieved without airplay on MTV and other standard music channels - was led by proactive direct marketing through youth and children's TV channels.

Luc has been involved with K3's live performance visuals for 12 years. His team from Painting With Light on this tour included programmer and lighting operator on

USA - In six weeks, the highly regarded PLASA Focus events series will open at the Kansas City Convention Centre, 20-21 May. Once again, over two days, PLASA Focus will offer hands-on, up close views of products and services from over 35 leading manufacturers, distributors, dealers, and industry leaders and offer over 15 top seminars, including hands-on training, all completely free to attend.

Says PLASA Events show manager Laura Hoepker, "As a trade organization by the industry and for the industry, PLASA looks forward to another successful Focus show in Kansas City and providin

UK - Bookings have opened for The Theatres Trust's annual Conference, taking place this year on Tuesday 23 June 2015 at Milton Court Theatre in London, part of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

What value do theatres bring to regeneration, commercial development and mixed use schemes?

Conference 15: Valuing Theatres considers ways in which we can work with the property sector to achieve shared cultural, social and economic returns and create new partnerships with developers to build and protect the theatres of the future.

How do we engage with developers who are playing an in

South Africa - The Ultimate X festival was staged for the first time this year at the Grand Arena in Cape Town, South Africa's GrandWest Casino, two days of adrenaline-fuelled, gravity-challenging, hi-energy stunts encompassing three breath-taking xtreme sport disciplines - FMX (freestyle motocross), BMX (bicycle motocross) and skateboarding - featuring the best athletes from around the globe.

The event, produced by Old School Productions, was staged in the round and lit by Sean Caie, the venue's head of lighting, using an all Robe moving light rig including BMFL Spots.

It was the f

UK - Following the positive feedback from last year's show, PLASA 2015 is set to move forwards with the introduction of a number of new propositions, as well as the return of a popular feature from previous years.

Part of the new programme is PLASA's sector specific seminar offering, which will see an increase from two to five theatres. Additionally, existing demo spaces are being built on; key networking spaces, such as the show bar and zones in the sector hubs, are being reintroduced; and the show will open late on its second day.

"PLASA 2015 has a progressive new approach, a

UK - Star Events has published CDM Ready! the first event industry specific interpretation of the updated Construction (Design & Management) Regulations, written to complement the recently released Code of Practice document.

Introduced on 6 April, the revised regulations mean all events with structures must have a client who in turn appoints both a principal designer (PD) and a principal contractor (PC). The PD's primary role it is to ensure that health and safety is planned into a project from the design stage through to the start on site, while the PC takes charge of, and man

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