USA - After nearly two decades at Walt Disney World and Disney Live Entertainment, Ryan Stumpp has joined Elation Professional as vertical market manager for themed environments. Ryan has designed and programmed lighting for a variety of marquee shows and spectaculars, including the recent redesign of Fantasmic! at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Happily Ever After at Magic Kingdom.
In his role at Elation, Ryan will work to drive Elation product adoption with designers, specifiers and consultants focused on theme parks, cruise ships, hospitality venues, resorts, casinos, museums and other themed spaces.
“Themed environments is a vast and challenging market that spans multiple genres of lighting and applications,” stated Elation director of sales John Dunn. “Ryan’s passion for immersive theatrical shows and storytelling, his years of experience and not least his extensive connections in this key market will help us foster more collaborative technical and creative relationships with designers across themed spaces and we are excited to have him on board.”
Ryan has worked as a freelance lighting designer/programmer for over 20 years - the last 10 through his own company Cue 13 Design. Throughout his career, he has fulfilled a variety of roles in themed environment applications and was an early adopter of IP-rated lighting fixtures for use in outdoor installation environments. Notably, his lightshow design at The Wharf entertainment district in Orange Beach, Alabama, has received widespread acclaim. He is an accomplished stage a

USA - Bandit Lites illuminated the 8th Annual Black Music Honours, a star-studded showcase that celebrates back excellence and trailblazers in music, ranging from gospel to R&B, Hip-Hop and more. This year’s honourees included music legend Missy Elliott, vocal trio SWV, disco and R&B star Evelyn ‘Champagne’ King, R&B/soul singer Jeffrey Osborne, and gospel trailblazers The Hawkins Family. Hosted by singer and actress LeToya Luckett and actor DeRay Davis, the event was taped at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre in Atlanta on Friday 19 May.
Lighting designer Mark Carver and production designer Scott Moore sought to utilise a range of fixtures that would offer the flexibility to build a range of looks for all the genres of music represented.
“We wanted fixtures that can look both retro and contemporary, and fixtures that have a vast colour palette enabling our team to use colour and texture style to differentiate between decades and genres as well as utilize both wash, strobe and hybrid fixtures,” Carver said.
Bandit Lites supplied nearly 300 fixtures including Ayrton Ghiblis, Chauvet Maverick MK 3 Spots, Chauvet Rogue R2X Washes, Chauvet Color STRIKE M, Elation Smarty Hybrids, Elation Color Chorus 12, GLP X4 Bar 20, HES SolaPix 19, HES SolaPix 37, Robe BMFL Follow Spots, Robe MegaPointes, Robe Spikie LED and a Robo Spot System.
Carver used the SolaPix 37 and 19s as colour wash fixtures for toning as well as utilizing their beam and pixel effects. The Maverick MK3 provided band and artist backlights and key lights, i

USA - The creatives behind the stage design for Scotty McCreery’s current 31-city North American Damn Strait tour is creating big, bold, dynamic looks on stage, while still meeting practical considerations, like fitting your powerful touring rig into the allotted trailer space.
Helping them make this happen is a design that cleverly uses rolling carts and upstage downlighting, along with well-placed specials to enlarge looks, along with a potent, yet compact, lighting rig that features 24 Chauvet Professional Rogue fixtures, owned by the former American Idol winner.
“The big thing about this show is we wanted to be able to create ‘WOW’ moments, but also fit everything into a single semi-truck,” said Drew Hornback, Scotty McCreery’s lighting director. “I feel like we’re doing this very well. In addition to being compact, our rig is designed for quick load out, because we often find ourselves in a headlining spot, but, at the same time, we also do some direct support slots. To us, it’s critical that we are able to use the same rig in multiple applications.
“A lot of credit should go to Alec Takahashi and his team at BKD,” continued Hornback. “They bring so much creative input to the table and are great to work with. We have a great collaborative team, including Luke Elrod from BKD, programmer, and Adam Duncan, Scotty’s production manager. Together, we’ve managed to streamline things, but still enlarge the show’s impact.”
In keeping with this goal, Hornback has worked closely with the team from BKD to simpli

Europe - Music & Lights, the brand owner of Prolights, has received the ISO 14001:2015 certification for Environmental Management Systems. This achievement confirms the commitment of the company to the research of new eco-friendly technical innovation. This certificate joins the already ISO 9001:2015 certification for Quality Management Systems.
Music & Lights has been consistently oriented towards a more eco-sustainable production. The 2021 Best Performance Award of Bocconi University (sixth place in the 2023 FT Global MBA Ranking) has declared the company's excellence on a national level according to the criteria of performance, innovation and eco-sustainability.
Music & Lights has directed its technological offer towards a sustainable upgrade of the productive processes. The company's commitment is to develop and promote on a worldwide scale high-efficiency and eco-friendly lighting technologies.
Moreover, the company has made available for the staff a recreation room and a large green area with a farm and an organic vegetable garden. Additional evidence of the eco-oriented vision, encouraging all company stakeholders to join a more sustainable lifestyle, not only during productive processes but also in wellness areas.
“Our work is focused on innovation, human resources and sustainability.” Franco Sorabella, founder and CEO of Music & Lights, stated, “ISO 14001:2015 certification is for us a new starting point towards an optimization program of all our production processes: a commitment to developing an innovative

South Africa - DWR Distribution has announced Patrick Manicom as the new workshop assistant in Cape Town.
Patrick was introduced to the entertainment industry by his sister, Jade Manicom, a lighting designer. “I first learnt about DWR in 2020 via my sister before she joined the company,” Patrick comments. “She arranged for me to visit their workshop for a week, and that’s where I discovered that I wanted to work with my hands. DWR was happy to have me tinker around and assist with repairs while teaching me about the different equipment. Everyone was so welcoming from the workshop team all the way to the CEOs, and I seemed to have made an impression too as Bruce Riley remembers me from just that week.”
Patrick recently relocated to Cape Town and now works closely with DWR’s Johnny Scholtz and says the experience has been a combination of nerves and excitement as he hopes to help grow the branch.

USA - Alfalite will make its debut at InfoComm with its LED panels for the rental, fixed installation and virtual production markets at the booth of its partner FOR-A.
Alfalite will showcase its Litepix LED panels for rental companies, Modularpix LED panels for fixed installation, as well as the Modularpix Pro VP XR solution for virtual production and extended reality environments.
FOR-A's booth #2023 at InfoComm 2023 will showcase a complete live virtual production ecosystem that will include a four 2.5m Alfalite display with an HDR-compatible FA-9600 multipurpose signal processor, EZtrack camera tracking system, ClassX 3D graphics generator and XR technology, among other solutions.
Satoshi Kanemura, president & COO, FOR-A America, comments: “We’re excited to have joined forces with Alfalite to add virtual studio capabilities to our expanding portfolio. We know our market is looking for a reliable way to get into virtual production and augmented reality. Having Alfalite on our side help us support our customers in realising their ambitions.”
The Spanish manufacturer has just closed through FOR-A its first operations in North America with the sale of 336 Modularpix Pro P3 panels to a church and another 140 Modularpix Pro P2 cabinets to another religious temple. Both operations have been carried out through the integrator Strata AVL.
Alfred Burgess of Strata AVL has this to say about Alfalite's displays: “I have been to many LED factories in different countries, and I went to Alfalite’s factory in Spain with some skepticism

Romania - The Palace of the Parliament is the heaviest structure in the world, outweighing even the Pyramids of Giza, and second in terms of area covered only to The Pentagon. The downtown Bucharest building’s impressive presence has provided a dramatic backdrop for a host of major films. Recently, the 365,000 m2 landmark served as the setting for an international conference when it hosted the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Plenipotentiary Conference.
Although it may have lacked the drama of a Hollywood blockbuster, the three-week long conference had an impact on the way people around the world talk to one another. A specialised agency of the United Nations, the ITU is active in advancing global satellite communication. Underscoring its importance, over 2,000 experts and dignitaries from around the world filed into 25 meeting spaces during the conference.
Preparing the Palace of the Parliament to host this conference was Backstage Production Group International. Working with its partners in the project 360 Revolution and Escape Group, the Backstage team, led by general manager Andrei Popéa, handled building the technological support for the conference from scratch, supplying and installing staging, furniture, AV equipment and lighting. The company also provided 24/7, technical assistance throughout the entire three-week event.
Backstage Production relied on an extensive collection of Chauvet Professional fixtures to provide broadcast, stage and background lighting. The gear used in the meeting space included 12 Rogue R1 BeamWashes f

UK - After 47 years in business, Avolites - a leader in the design and manufacture of lighting and video control products - has announced the company's acquisition by entertainment lighting specialist, Robe Lighting of Roznov in the Czech Republic. The agreement was reached in the UK yesterday.
“The Avolites Leadership team wanted to ensure the best outcome for our employees, customers, suppliers and the brand,” said Avolites MD Paul Wong. “Robe is an ideal home that will enable us to achieve just that, whilst maintaining our core values. Robe is a great fit for everyone associated with Avolites. Robe has a wealth of resources that will aid Avolites to accelerate its ambitious innovation and product development programmes.”
“This is a great acquisition for Robe,” said Josef Valchar, CEO Robe Lighting s.r.o., “Avolites has always been at the pinnacle of lighting control, with products that complement our lighting fixtures; this will add significant value to sales made throughout both companies global distribution networks.”
The acquisition of the Avolites business forms an important part of the strategic growth plan for the Robe business. Avolites will remain based in the UK and under the existing leadership team.

USA - Lil Wayne, Third Eye Blind, Wu-Tang Clan, Nile Rodgers, Babyface Ray, Maren Morris…. There were plenty of stars at Pharrell Williams’ Something in the Water festival on Virginia Beach, but sadly, there was plenty of water too. High winds and rains along the Atlantic coast battered the superstar’s three-day event; a tornado even touched down nearby. Things got so bad, Friday and Saturday’s shows had to be delayed, while Sunday’s was completely cancelled.
But Evan Kirkendall and his team at Harford Sound, along with their collaborator Steve Tanruther’s Rock the House, were able to handle anything Mother Nature dished out, with help from an all-weather rig anchored by 238 IP-rated Chauvet Professional fixtures.
“Thankfully, all of our Chauvet lights were ready take on the storms,” said lead light tech Gabe Odachowski. “Given the size and scope of this festival, along with the weather, it meant a lot that we were able to spend less time stressing over protecting the lights from rain, and more time relaxing in the hotel while we waited for the storms to pass. Evan took a great video during the festival of some Maverick Storm 4s getting drenched, but still performing as if nothing had happened.”
When the storms let up, the 50,000 fans were treated to some unabashedly enthusiastic performances by artists who were just as happy as they were that the wind and rain had subsided, at least for a while. Supporting the performers on stage were searing and intense light shows with aerial beams and crowd effects that turned the festival si

USA - Country singer Brett Young’s Five, TOUR, Three, Two, One Tour swept into LA’s The Greek Theatre in May with an upbeat, colourful lighting design by Luke Elrod. During the show, he enveloped the audience in starry gobo-effects and bright, rich colours using Vari-Lite VL3600 Profile IP fixtures from Signify.
Elrod, who runs Luke Elrod Designs from his base in Nashville, Tennessee, has been Brett Young’s tour lighting director since mid-2022. The current tour visits a wide range of venue sizes as well as festivals, meaning Elrod required an IP-rated fixture capable of producing bright colours and effects using the full 28-strong VL3600 rig or a scaled down version.
“I’d heard many great things about the VL3600s and they checked off all of the boxes for the design,” says Elrod. “I wanted something that was really punchy and could fill a lot of space, while keeping the design simple and fixture count down, and I knew the VL3600s could deliver. Fresh looks and changing effects were key to my design, and the VL3600s made it possible. Everything from their gobos to their tight beamy looks really make them usable for tons of different moments, all from one fixture type.”
Elrod and his team rigged the majority of the VL3600, which were supplied by PRG, up in the air on a US truss, and an MS Truss. A selection of the VL3600s were positioned behind the band with further VL3600 luminaires used as side light.
“The VL3600s did a great job at filling all the space behind the band with rich colours, considering there were so few of them

South Africa - Elation Professional's exclusive sales partner in South Africa, The Production Warehouse, took to the road in mid-May to show first-hand to customers an array of its latest lighting products including luminaires from Elation’s popular Proteus, Fuze, and KL series.
While theatre, rental house and broadcast clients took the opportunity to demo products, the tour, which visited Johannesburg 15-16 May and Cape Town 18-19 May, was a chance for the AV distribution company to renew relationships post-pandemic.
Marnus Nieuwoudt, owner of The Production Warehouse, stated: “Being our first major roadshow post-Covid, the roadshow wasn't only about showcasing the latest technology Elation has to offer, it was more about reconnecting and networking with old friends and colleagues, while meeting some new customers along the way.”
Marnus says that, not surprisingly, the market-leading Proteus line of IP65 lights gained a lot of interest from customers, especially the Proteus Maximus, Proteus Lucius, Proteus Rayzor Blades and Proteus Rayzor series. “I believe this stems from how Elation has managed to evolve past the basic IP65 water resistance for temporary outdoor use, but rather to the point of Marine grade specification making it suitable for permanent outdoor installation. This is something that is especially useful in the harsh, unpredictable climates of the coastal South African towns.”
The KL series, including the range of KL Fresnels and softlights, was also a definite hit, Marnus noted, not only among rental and theatrical

Mexico - Myst is a colourful cabaret-style musical megamix encapsulating some of Mexico’s rich and vibrant musical culture and history over two hours - split into two acts - staged at the Foro Totalplay in Mexico City.
At the centre of the show’s lighting since it has been at this venue are 60 x Robe Spikies and 30 x Spiider LED wash beam moving lights. These were specified by lighting designer Juan Ignacio Adriano who is also the technical director of música esencial at Foro Totalplay.
This story began back in 2017 when Myst needed a new resident venue after being forced to move from the previous one, Sala Corona, which was damaged in the devasting 2017 earthquake.
Foro Totalplay, inside the upscale Antara Mall in the Polanco district of CDMX, was designed as a 400-capacity club rather than a theatre or even a cabaret venue, explained Juan Ignacio, but it was available, they needed somewhere quick, and the production moved there within three weeks.
“Obviously we needed to get the lighting sorted quickly,” explained Juan Ignacio. They required small, lightweight, and powerful fixtures to maximise the space and use the low ceiling to their advantage for a lighting design he created in collaboration with Paz Zavaleta.
He immediately thought of Robe’s Spikies and Spiiders. He contacted distributor ShowCo and they were in stock, dispatched and rigged in Foro Totalplay within days, and have been working hard ever since.
The fixtures are key to facilitating the multiple lighting looks and scenes needed to make t

USA - Bandit Lites continues its year of growth with the hiring of Tristan Weaver and Gavin Smith to its world headquarters in Knoxville. Weaver steps into the Integration department as the logistics & inventory specialist, while Smith has entered Bandit’s production team as one of its newest lighting technicians.
Prior to joining Bandit, Weaver worked as an inventory manager. As Bandit’s logistics & inventory specialist, he’ll assist in the daily operations of the Knoxville warehouse including general facilities maintenance, assisting with sales preparation and production prep.
Smith has been hired as a lighting technician, having previously worked as a Dollywood tech where he ran the sound system for the singers and dancers.

Europe - The Arolla Aqua is billed as Claypaky's top-of-the-range weather-resistant light.
Claypaky’s R&D department's challenge was principally to design a high-power, high-brightness fixture with top-level performance while at the same time limiting its weight and size.
The Arolla Aqua fits a white 900 W (7000 K) LED light source, capable of a 40,000-lumen output. This means it can compete with both high-power-range lights (given its output) and medium-power-range lights (given its small size and weight).
Its uniform light beam is another key feature. The high quality of the beam, its density, and the total absence of spurious lights can be appreciated with the naked eye, and its zoom can be adjusted over a linear 5.5°-50° range (9:1).
The Arolla Aqua boasts an effects section consisting of two gobo wheels (one of which rotating) with very high-definition dichroic glass gobos; an innovative animation wheel which brings out some of the most typical effects of this feature, a four-sided prism, a 16-blade motorised iris, a framing system on four focal planes with rotation between +/- 60°, and a separate macro control channel.
There is no light loss or colour shift when gobos are inserted into the beam. The gobos can be swapped and morphed with each other and the animation wheel to create new, exciting textures.
The colour section consists of CMY colour mixing with 16-bit control, linear CTO and a six-colour wheel (including an 88+ CRI enhancement filter). This outstanding moving head comes complete with a soft edge frost f

USA - The 2023 CMT Music Awards moved from Nashville to Austin this year. The three-hour event, which was broadcast on CBS, radiated a fresh, vibrant energy that instantly captured attention with its distinctive colour schemes, boldly outlined stage, and dramatic catwalks.
Tom Kenny, who created the lighting design for the event at The Moody Centre, credits the change of venue with inspiring him, production designer Ann Brahic, and the rest of their team to reach deep into their creative wells to come up with their bold, and highly original, looks.
“The whole process of moving to the hip city of Austin gave us all a big hit of adrenalin,” said Kenny. “Everyone jumped in to have fun and worked hard at getting the show into a great place. We began the week outdoors, at the stage off Congress, with a big show by Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban that put the whole city in a extra intense music mood.
Working closely together, Kenny and Brahic focused on designing looks that were massive, but also clean and direct. To do this, they built their concept around linear arrangements of lights and video walls, displaying carefully selected and uncomplicated colour palettes.
A defining element of the design was the configuration of variously shaped video walls, mostly rectangular strips. Arranged vertically and horizontally, these walls displayed a variety of colours, often bold, vibrant hues like fuchsia, to reflect the personalities of the performing artists. Adding to the impact of the walls were Chauvet Professional COLORado PXL Bar fixtures, wh

UK - 3LR Design has announced the addition of consultant Ziggy Jacobs to the team.
"No challenge is too large for Ziggy," says Josh Allen, global director of design for 3LR. "Designer, trainer, programmer, lecturer - Ziggy does it all. Her extensive experience on a global scale, along with her keen eye for detail and unwavering commitment to excellence, make Ziggy a perfect fit for our team.”
“Her CV includes technical systems in hundreds of installations around the world, and she has been an ETC certified and trained programmer and commissioning technician since 2008.”
Based in London, Ziggy will be instrumental in developing systems designs and bespoke training programmes, ensuring that systems programming requirements which 3LR has specified are met during the construction administration and commissioning phase to close out successful projects. Her credits include a broad range of work - programming West End productions, The British National Opera, The English National Ballet, BT Sport, Royal Albert Hall, Formula One racing, Theatre Royal Bath, Netherlands Opera, British Fashion Awards, Cairo Opera, lighting and programming for the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, and much more.

Germany - Robe will be exhibiting at the two and a half-day 2023 Showtech entertainment expo next week, staged in Halls 1 and 3 at Station in Berlin, at the heart of the German capital adjacent to the Potsdamer Platz.
Robe has participated in the predecessors of this event and was delighted when the DTHG (German Theatre Technical Society) decided to stage it again, this time as an independent organiser. The company’s German subsidiary immediately secured a premium spot with stand 1.19. A selection of the latest technologies will be showcased, focussing on the T Series products, like the recent TX1 PosiProfile and T11 series, plus the popular T and T2 series’ and manual and remote follow spot systems, together with others suited to stage and performance applications.
“With the focus on theatre and performance lighting and production, we expect a very high quality of attendees from all over Europe,” commented Robe Germany’s marketing manager Julian von den Stemmen. “This also allows us to tailor our booth to the interests of the visitors, not only in showing products, but offering an on-site live workshop experience with international theatre lighting designer Andy Webb, who presents his perspective on using Robe Lighting’s numerous solutions.”

USA - Las Vegas-based Show & Design Group (SDG) has made its first investment in Ayrton lighting fixtures with the purchase of 24 Diablo S units. ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of Ayrton products in North America.
SDG offers live event production and lighting rentals; a complete trucking division, SDG Logistics, Inc., is targeted at expedited entertainment logistics.
“The purchase of 24 Diablo S fixtures is our introduction to Ayrton, although we have been aware of the brand since they launched MagicPanels,” says project manager, Lew Aronoff. “Our core business is trade shows and corporate theatre, and we’ve seen Diablos become very prevalent in the cross-rental market. Our B2B partners run short of 20K lumen fixtures on a regular basis, so we decided to invest in Diablos since we needed more fixtures of that size. Their size and weight-to-output ratio really attracted us to the unit.”
Ayrton Diablo is a compact, versatile and feature-rich 300W profile luminaire. Featuring an output of 19,000 lumens, framing shutters, rotating gobos and an iris, the Diablo is remarkably lightweight at just 48 pounds.
“We expect our acquisition of Diablos will open us up to more live entertainment work, as well,” says Aronoff. “The current plan is to add about 100 Diablos to our inventory within the year. As we get into more markets that specify the use of particular fixtures we’re also considering adding Ayrton Perseo Beams, Huracans and the new laser-source Cobras.”
Aronoff expects SDG’s Diablos to make their d

USA - Lynn Ahrens-Stephen Flaherty’s musical comedy Seussical, based on the works of the famed Dr. Seuss, is filled with an abundance of exuberant characters, from Yertle the Turtle and Gertrude McFuzz, to Sour Kangaroo and the Wickersham Brothers, The Cat in the Hat, and The Grinch.
Lighting such colourful characters is fun! Ask Christopher Robin, who used layered effects and a variety of light angles to bring them and their imaginative costumes to life at a recent West Hempfield High School production of the play.
“This was just a really enjoyable experience,” said Robin. “The costumes were magnificent, and the set was beautifully painted. Within the set itself, the whole spectrum of colour was used. The giant story book on stage gave me free reign to use any colour to capture the palette on the pages of Dr. Seuss’s many children books.”
Helping Robin create this colour-scape was a collection of Chauvet Professional fixtures that included 10 COLORado 72 Battens and four Maverick Storm 1 Wash units.
Robin originally wanted to place his RGBWA strip lights near the Cyc, but limited pipes and positions for rear projections, which created by Jesse Madden, made it necessary for him to locate the fixtures on a pipe about five-feet downstage from the Cyc.
“This wasn’t ideal, and I was nervous of how they were going to play, but I was pleasantly surprised,” said Robbins. “I actually was able to use the COLORados as face lights and lighting the Cyc, which was actually Dr. Seuss’s Story Book painted upstage. The behav

UK - Through a mix of live performances and puppetry, The Peter Rabbit Easter Adventure is an immersive theatrical experience that brings to life the stories and characters of Beatrix Potter.
Taking place at London’s Covent Garden, audiences are transported back in time as they help Beatrix herself rescue Jemima Paddle-Duck from the clutches of Mr McGregor, with the help of Benjamin Bunny and Peter Rabbit. The show features a lighting design by Sean Gleason who approached White Light (WL) to supply his lighting equipment.
When it came to lighting the show, Sean comments: “My role on The Peter Rabbit Easter Adventure was mainly to bring found and adapted spaces to life, help set the scene, as well as bring focus to certain moments. The play has a mix of actors interacting with puppets and puppeteers so light needed to play a large role in not only creating magical settings but also helping to distract and hide what we didn’t want the audience to see.”
As this show was set in Covent Garden as opposed to a more traditional theatre space, did this change Sean’s approach to the project? He explains: “My creative approach was pretty much the same. The play had previously been set at Blenheim Palace so the framework to the design was already in place, but the location and settings on this occasion were completely different and this obviously influenced my process.
“For this latest version, the full creative team, including our writer Callum Finlay, were all back in the room, which resulted in the piece continuously evolvin

USA - Last fall, Darkroom Creative enlisted Elation Smarty Hybrid moving heads on Walker Hayes' Glad You’re Here Tour as a multifunctional workhorse on the country star’s first headlining arena tour. Currently out on his follow-up Duck Buck Tour, the design firm has again turned to the compact moving head as the only hard-edged fixture in the rig.
“It met all the needs and continues to carry far more of a workload than you think a fixture of that size could accomplish,” stated Seth Jackson, partner at Darkroom Creative, of the CMY colour-mixing hybrid moving head. Darkroom Creative is again handling lighting design, set design, video production and content for the 2023 outing with lighting supply by Bandit Lites.
Limited in both crew and truck space on last fall’s tour, the set and lighting rig for Glad You’re Here was understandably restricted. Now, however, it was “time to do a show”. Following consultation with management, Seth says it was clear that they didn’t want to limit themselves to a single environment. “This time it had to keep evolving.”
Duck Buck includes much more production, including multiple screen surfaces and an upgraded lighting approach that brings the audience completely into the show. Nate Alves, Seth’s partner at Darkroom Creative, was tasked with creating a different 3D visual environment for each song, including moment-to-moment changes to I-Mag, “to keep things moving and present a much larger stage picture than was actually there.”
Seth and Nate enhanced the rig to add impactful effec

USA - The ESTA Control Protocols Plugfest, the event where manufacturers and developers test their lighting products for interoperability, is scheduled to take place from 5-8 October 2023 at the Marriott Dallas/Fort Worth in Westlake, Texas. This is the 19th instance of this informal testing laboratory. Attendance is free for both ESTA members and non-members.
In response to feedback from last year’s event, the Control Protocols Working Group (CPWG) and Plugfest organisers have announced that Plugfest 2023 will expand from three days to four days. The CPWG’s task group meeting schedule now provides additional time for evening Plugfest activities.
ESTA’s Plugfest is an opportunity to connect your lighting products with those of other manufacturers to test and resolve compatibility challenges. Attendees from around the world bring controllers, intelligent lights, control protocol analysers, and other network-connected components to improve their product experiences.
An informal kick-off presentation will be given each morning at 9am. First-time attendees are especially encouraged to attend this orientation event. Event Information is available at http://tsp.esta.org/tsp/news/plugfest.html

UK - Tim Routledge, lighting designer for Eurovision Song Contest 2023, utilised a large complement of 194 x Claypaky Sharpy-X-Frames, 126 x Scenius Unicos, 40 x Hy B-EYE K25s, 12 x Sharpy Plus Aqua and 12 x ReflectXions to illuminate the set, whose embracing design had special significance this year.
The ESC took place in Liverpool after Ukraine, the winner of the 2022 contest, was unable to meet the demands of hosting the 2023 event. The three live shows, two semi-finals and the grand finale, were presented by British and Ukrainian hosts and featured 37 participating countries.
The stage design by New York set designer Julio Himede was based on “the principles of togetherness, celebration and community”, a sentiment with poignancy considering international solidarity with Ukraine. The stage was 450 sq.m and featured 220sq.m of independently rotating LED screens and more than 700 LED floor tiles.
"The X-Frames were used in the main architectural look of the show - the huge scenic arms designed by Julio Himede that extended out into the audience as a ‘hug’ to the world,” explains Tim Routledge. “This was one of my most important lighting positions to give the show dynamic and mind-bending architectures of light and extend the look of the show right down the arena in a volume of light beams. From tight beam curved architectures to the most stunning rainbow look for a major part of the show, the X Frames gave us a bold and colorful punch."
A completely hybrid, multi-function fixture, the Sharpy-X-Frame delivers beam effects and act

UK - SLX has announced that applications are now open for its 2023/24 Lighting Programme. SLX’s Lighting Programme exists to nurture creativity, drive collaboration, build connections and break down the barriers that prevent new talent from entering into the industry.
Built upon SLX’s Student Bursary scheme, this programme provides hands-on training, exclusive workshops delivered by leading manufacturers and exposure to on-site client projects with industry professionals. Now in its fourth year, the Lighting Programme provides students with an even deeper understanding of the technical aspects around event lighting, production and operations.
As part of the programme, students also gain access to a like-minded community of professionals comprising this year's cohorts, and also established specialists from within the industry. With networking set as a key pillar of the programme, students will be able to take full advantage of SLX's extensive industry connections, opening doors to potential placements and freelance opportunities; thus, providing students with an even richer learning experience whilst setting the stage for long-term professional success and growth.
Led under the guidance of SLX business development manager, Ruari Cormack, and dry hire manager, Katy Lowe, students will have the opportunity to work alongside SLX's experienced and knowledgeable team of professionals, who will provide guidance and support throughout the programme and into the start of their careers.
“We are extremely delighted to announce that our 2023 Light