World - Canadian singer-songwriter Shawn Mendes shot to fame via a clip he posted to Vine in 2014 and has quickly garnered pop royalty status with a social media fan following of millions. At the pinnacle of his career playing sold-out arenas around the world, Shawn is currently embarking on his Illuminate world tour – and French manufacturer and provider of lighting balloons for the event industry, Airstar, is helping to set the stage with its Pendulair LED product.
The llluminate tour comprises 61 dates in total touching every continent, with Shawn playing some of the world’s biggest music venues. Named after his current platinum-selling second studio album, the show features a set built around a 5m wide Airstar Pendulair LED lighting balloon - known as the ‘Orb’. Providing the main source of the light for fans as they walk into the venue, in an off-blue hue which links the tour to the Illuminate album logo, the ‘Orb’ takes centre stage alongside Shawn for the duration of the concert.
Lighting and stage design for Shawn’s third concert tour and first all-arena tour is overseen by Louis Oliver and James Scott of Okulus, working alongside Shawn’s creative director Paul Caslin, on-the-road lighting director Ryan Nixon and production manager Andrew Thornton at 24/7 Productions (UK).
“With Shawn’s current album entitled Illuminate, we wanted a central piece to the performance that brought this to life visually and set the right tone and atmosphere. Paul took inspiration from the dramatic Solar Equation pr

South Africa - Indian Independence Day, holds a special meaning for the people of Lenasia Township. It was here in the early 20th century that a young Mahatma Gandhi staged a famous protest at the local railway station to advance the cause of civil rights for South Africa’s Indian population. Later, when he returned to India, Gandhi would employ the idea of non-violent civil disobedience that he had honed in South Africa to win independence for his native country, and in the process, change the world.
This year, as India celebrated the 70th anniversary of its independence, Lenasia hosted an array of events to mark the occasion. Among the most moving and colourful was Celebrating India at the township’s Patidar Hall, which featured a performance by the Kashvita Music and Dance Academy. Creating a bright and upbeat background for the spirited performances on stage was a vivid Vikash Maharaj-designed lightshow that featured Chauvet Professional Rogue R2 Spots supplied by JMY Sound and Lighting.
Maharaj arranged six of the 240W moving LED spots across the upstage deck. Drawing on their 16.5-degree beam angle and intense output, he used them to create dynamic aerial effects that energized the Independence Day celebrations and accented key moments in the performance. He also relied on the Rogue’s split color capabilities and dual colour wheels with seven colours to cover the stage and crowd in a rainbow of hues.
“Colour is very important to the overall mood of this event,” said Vishal Nana, president of JMY Sound and Light. “We specifie

USA - Foreigner recently released Forty Hits from Forty Years with an accompanying 40th Anniversary Tour appropriately featuring an old-school lighting design by Dan Lastovka using Elation Arena Par Zoom LED wash lights supplied by See Factor.
Used to create a 70’s rock par can look but with the benefits of a modern intelligent luminaire are 108 Arena Par Zoom fixtures. Lastovka comments: “When I was first playing around with ideas for Foreigner’s 40th Anniversary Tour, I wanted to centre the design around a big par can rig, certainly not the largest that has ever been out, but bigger than has been seen in 10 or more years, and maybe a different look to modern audiences. In the end, whimsy yielded to practicality and a richer feature set, so the hunt for a par can analogue began.”
Lighting vendor on the tour is See Factor, who, working with Elation rep firm Healy Sales, supplied the Arena Par fixtures along with Elation SixPar lights. See Factor worked with the band and Lastovka to bring the classic rock ‘n roll show vision to life produced in-house setups to show the client different looks, for example Arena Pars vs Par 64s, while playing with dimming curves to get the look of conventional par cans.
“We had an open mandate to look for a fixture that could emulate an old par can rig,” stated Mark Friedman of See Factor, who hold a stock of Elation gear in their inventory and is working with Foreigner for the first time. “We did shootouts and the Arena Par Zoom was chosen. It was a quality decision, not a cost decision.”

UK - Lighting and visuals designer Andy Hurst wanted to make a big impact for Chase & Status acclaimed Saturday night headliner set at the 2017 Lovebox festival in London’s Victoria Park - so he designed an epic specials package which was supplied by HSL, together with crew – which was installed under the event’s production ‘top rig’.
The ‘extras’ included 194 x SGM Q-7 LED flood / strobes, used highly effectively for the onslaught that you expect at a Chase & Status gig as well as super-bright floods and audience blinders.
The Q-7s were rigged so they effectively worked together in linear strips, wrapping around the back and sides of the stage, the PA wings and the portrait format IMAG side screens, also integrating these screens into the performance space.
Andy loves creative challenges and is known for his fresh approach. “I wanted this consistency and coherence in the look to put the band right at the centre of the aesthetic, and also bring a structural integrity, depth and a sense of perspective,” explained Andy
Upstage, five trussing towers were deployed – suspended from a truss in the roof and also anchored to the floor on bases, each outrigged with 16 x Q-7s which took care of 80 fixtures and made up an impressive upstage matrix of lights behind the ‘house’ video screen, a 12mm surface from CT – made up from a semi-transparent product at Andy’s request.
This worked perfectly for through-the-screen retina-burn effects and contrasted completely to when the screen content was running, which was

Germany - The annual DPWK Deutscher Preis für Wirtschaftskommunikation (German Prize for Business Communication) gala award presentation took place recently in the casual surroundings of Berlin’s Columbiahalle rock venue (replacing the usual formal ‘black tie’ event).
Known as Der Goldene Funke, the event was expertly lit by locally based lighting designer, Björn Hermann, working in conjunction with phase7 performing.arts, with whom he shares a studio. German lighting manufacturer GLP provided many of the creative tools, including 24 x GT1, 14 x impression X4 and 16 x impression X4 L.
Hermann says he believes it is important to support the City’s institutions, particularly at student level, and GLP were also happy to lend their sponsorship.
Explaining his conceptual mission, the designer states, “It was important to create an ‘Oscar’ type feeling for the students, nominated companies as well as guests, and therefore I attempted to create a dynamic intro for the winners with moving lights that drive through space and other effective scenarios, which then explode with the announcement of the winners.”
The GLP fixtures were used principally as effect and show lighting, and to create a spatial atmosphere for the judging and prize-giving. “All the lights worked flawlessly,” he confirmed.
Working together with the students of HTW Berlin (University of Applied Sciences and Technology) and phase7 performing arts, who designed the stage show, he was given a free hand in the lighting design.
Hermann also undertook the l

Belgium - Tomorrowland is one of the world’s highest profile electronic music festivals, gathering over 400.000 people at the main site in Belgium, and connecting an additional 70.000 people at multiple remote venues through the UNITE event. UNITE are events organised in different countries and connected via a live satellite broadcast with Tomorrowland Belgium.
This year UNITE shared three hours of live HD video broadcast feeds featuring performances from the main stage in Belgium, with remote live parties in Germany, Malta, Dubai, Israel, South Korea and Lebanon. At each location grandMA2 consoles were in control. In Belgium 13 x grandMA2 full-size, eight grandMA2 light, one grandMA2 ultra-light, two grandMA2 fader wing, two MA onPC command wing and one MA onPC fader wing were used.
Up until 9pm Belgium time, every party had their own DJ performances. Starting at 9pm the live video from Tomorrowland Belgium was sent to the different locations for the audiences to watch. In parallel the local lighting rigs - that were smaller than the main stage - were used to reproduce in the best possible way the same colours and strobe effects as were happening in Belgium. All other parts of the lighting were controlled by the local operator at each venue.
Technical designer Mario Hofman evaluated the live images taken from the different venues during last year’s edition of the festival, and wanted to increase the ‘united experience’ for this year. The idea arose of having a virtual operator assisting the worldwide local operators. For the 2017 edition of

UK - The PLASA Show returns to Olympia London next month for what will be its 40th anniversary. The event will once again present ground-breaking technology and exciting new launches by the world’s greatest designers and engineers. As the technical solutions specialist, White Light will be exhibiting on stand L50 where its expert staff will be on hand to meet customers old and new as well as present a range of revolutionary technology.
WL’s head of business development Lee Dennison comments: “We are delighted to be returning to the PLASA Show after what has been yet another significant 12 months for the company. In that time, we’ve become the in-house technical supplier at Claridge’s Hotel, installed exhibitions at the V&A and Saatchi Gallery, supported the relaunch of Hintze Hall at the Natural History Museum as well as continued to supply the biggest shows in the West End.”
The company has also continued to invest heavily in the latest technology and will be displaying a range of products available on ShopWL at the show. This includes d3 Technologies – for which WL has recently been appointed as a Certified Solutions Provider. Lee comments: “The larger and more ambitious the projects we work on become, the more we have found ourselves drawing on d3 products. As the world’s first integrated video production suite, it really is the ultimate software to visualise, design and sequence projects. We have our own fleet of d3 hardware which we are really looking forward to discussing with customers.”
Interactive Technologies is a w

UK - During PLASA 2017, CLF lighting will present three new lighting essentials, including the Yara.
The CLF Yara is a workhorse for every purpose. The LED fixture has outstanding smooth RGBW colour mixing delivered by 14 high power LEDs with a very punchy 15° beam angle. The specially selected LEDs provide high output with intense colours and an exceptional white balance. IP65 rating makes the Yara suitable for both indoor and outdoor use.
The Ares XS is the smaller brother of the Ares, which has proven to be a lighting essential for many different purposes. The powerful LED wash fixture is designed for illuminating large surfaces both in- and outdoor. Extreme brightness and an extraordinary even projection make the Ares XS a true LED alternative for traditional wash lights. An array of 18 calibrated high power RGBW LEDs is divided in three individually controllable horizontal segments. The Ares XS is equipped with a punchy 21° beam angle, which can be easily adapted to other beam angles, even elliptical, by using the Smart Filter System.
The most recent addition to the CLF product range is the LEDwash XL. This is a wash fixture with two LED segments. The two horizontal LED battens can be manually tilted and controlled separately. Because of the 30° and 55° lens it is possible to use the fixture as wallwash or horizon wash light with both parts complementing each other. Additionally, the fixture can be used to illuminating two different surfaces simultaneously.
(Jim Evans)

Brazil - Rental company LPL supplied over 150 Robe moving lights including BMFL WashBeams to the 2017 League of Legends Mid-Season Invitationals (MSI) competition staged in the Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janiero. (formally the Rio Olympic Arena)
Produced by LoL developers Riot Games, professional regional champions from Asia, North America and Europe met in Brazil and battled ‘live’ to win large numbers of points counting towards the 2017 World Championship title for this popular e-sport phenomena.
The 15-day Group / Knockout games and their Finals in Rio was one of two LoL MSI events hosted in Brazil that featured five team players per game and an eye-catching production including giant LED screens, dramatic lighting and lots of audience interaction, together with colourful and vibrant opening and closing ceremonies, explained LPL’s Caio Bertti, who project managed the lighting elements for Riot Games.
The production lighting was designed by Arnold Serame of LA-based Serame Design and directed on site by Mathew Stovall.
LPL is one of the top rental companies in Brazil. Their relationship with LoL includes previous national events for which they were initially hired by a local agency. Erich Bertti (Caio’s brother) co-ordinated all the lighting requirements for these, and suitably impressed the Riot Games team, resulting in LPL handling much of their subsequent work in the region.
LPL has invested steadily in Robe over the last 10 years and now has a large stock of nearly 600 fixtures, some of which were supplied for the event to me

USA - Earlier this month, the Lollapalooza Festival rocked Chicago at Grant Park with four days of music and fun. Supplied through LD Systems, High End Systems SolaSpot 1000s helped augment the visuals on the Pepsi Grove and Lakeshore Stages.
LD Systems’ Nathan Brittain served as lead programmer on the Pepsi Stage, joined by Pepsi Grove lead tech Wade Henry, while the Lakeshore Stage was manned by lead programmer Lance Williamson and lead tech William Diven.
Brittain commented: “We recently purchased SolaSpot 1000’s to fill a need in our inventory for a bright midrange hard edge fixture. Being that the stages we were providing for were medium size roofs, the SolaSpot 1000 was a perfect match. Their size, weight, and power consumption fit with our needs for this show.
“We provided two identical rigs for the two stages, and the SolaSpots were placed on the up and mid-stage trusses, six on each truss. They really held their own amongst the other fixtures in the system; it’s often difficult to get a spot fixture to punch around so many bright wash and beam fixtures, but these showed up, even with gobos in use.”
Brittain says his favourite feature of the SolaSpot 1000 is its clean, flat and bright output. “The colour temperature is great, and being an LED source, they all look the same when you turn a group of them on. It’s very pleasing to the eye and easy to look at. I also like the colour mixing; its smooth and I feel like I can produce any colour I’m looking for with the mixing system. A fun addition is the LED source zone con

UK - The Batley and Spen Youth Theatre Company was recently set up to celebrate and pay tribute to the life of the late Jo Cox, MP for the constituency. Its aim was to create a lasting legacy in the town which will benefit young people for many years to come. Its inaugural project was a three-week event led by a West End creative team which included a performance of Jo’s favourite musical Les Misérables</>, using an entire local cast. In support of the project, White Light provided the lighting equipment.
The project was entitled Hear the People Sing and celebrated the values that Jo stood for: togetherness, collaboration, comradeship and equality. The performances of Les Misérables were made possible by Cameron Mackintosh generously granting the rights for free. The creative team included renowned director Nick Evans, producer Donna Munday, musical director Steve Moss and choreographer Julie Hobday. The lighting designer was Tim van ’t Hof, who comments: “I was asked in March to come on board and I didn’t think twice about saying yes! It sounded like a really exciting project, one that I was honoured to be part of, and all for a brilliant cause.”
Tim flew over from New York in April where he attended a week’s worth of workshops as the local cast were selected and put through their paces. Tim adds: “I had never actually seen a live performance of Les Misérables (something I probably shouldn’t admit!). However, it meant that I could approach the show from a completely fresh perspective; something that was id

USA - Artist- producer duo, The Chainsmokers, aka Alex Pall and Drew Taggart, embarked on their first arena tour earlier this year, visiting 36 cities across North America. The multi-faceted show was designed and produced by Miguel Risueño, aka Mike808, and Corey Johnson of Production Club, Los Angeles, with a stunning lighting design from Cory FitzGerald, and production management by Clancy Silver.
Signature to the show’s design were 126 MagicPanel fixtures from Ayrton, with 42 of the new MagicPanel-FX and 84 MagicPanel-R fixtures forming a dynamic, articulated ceiling of light above the duo, and 18 Ayrton MagicDot-R units fronting their DJ booth.
The tour was in support of Memories…Do Not Open, the duo’s first studio album which plays with the concept of a teenager’s ‘memory box’ in which a youngster might hide their precious objects – love letters, tickets, photos etc. The pretext gave the designers the perfect opportunity to explore the idea of using the box to create a stage and to ‘open’ that box of memories for the audience.
“Our vision was that the box would bring the band’s lyrics and stories to life,” explains Mike808, the show’s production designer and creative director. Our design reflected that concept, visualizing the stage as a box through which we unveiled the different memories, both those of The Chainsmokers and of the audience themselves.
“The box allowed us to be more ‘literal’ with the illustrated video content running on the V-Thru screen which wraps around the band; or, at other ti

UK - Sir Elton John is one of a number of acts PRG has had the pleasure of working with for many years. Account director Jon Cadbury explains a little about PRG’s history with Sir Elton’s tours: “We have been working with Sir Elton and his touring team for many years, and we supply lights for most of his shows around the world. I look after them in Europe, together with a fairly consistent, and excellent lighting team, and my colleague Curry Grant takes care of all of the North American and rest of the world shows.”
As part of a wide-ranging tour, taking in numerous countries around the world, Elton played a number of dates around the UK this summer, including the First Direct Arena in Leeds.
Lighting crew chief Lars Kristiansen has worked with the touring production and LD Kevin ‘Stick’ Bye for 14 years, during which time there have been various designs which have been utilised in a variety of venues, from racecourses to rugby stadiums, and arenas to cabaret clubs. “There have been lots of subtle changes to the lighting rig over the years. I think that what we have now is a very good system, it’s multifunctional, bright and we can now get the whole rig in the air in two and a half hours. The main lighting fixtures used are Vari*Lite VL3000 spots, Vari*Lite 3500 washes, Claypaky Sharpy and Beams, and Martin Mac Viper AirFX moving lights.”
One recent change to the touring rig is the use of the PRG GroundControl Followspot System. Lars explained: “When I first saw them in action at an open day at The O2, London last year, I knew

UK - Entertainment lighting control system rental specialists, Illuminate Lighting, has acquired the lighting control and data distribution hire business of Lighting Productions with a mission to expand the console brands they offer and the services the company currently provides.
The combination of resources will allow an enhanced provision of services to Illuminate Lighting's growing client list with everything from basic dry hire to a full lighting control solution.
"Illuminate Lighting can now offer three of the leading console brands in the industry - Avolites, Hog, and MA Lighting alongside all the accompanying data distribution equipment," says Jonathan Pask, founder of Illuminate Lighting. "There's a real synergy between our two business inventories. This enables Illuminate Lighting to provide everything from individual consoles to entire networked systems tailored to an individual client's project or brief."
Pask and founder of Lighting Productions, Jonathan Dawson-Butterworth, both have extensive experience of lighting design on tours, events, film and television.
"The Illuminate Lighting team can deliver tailor made systems combined with knowledgeable, experienced and friendly on-site technical support," says Pask.
Based in Production Park in Wakefield, Illuminate Lighting offers facilities to designers, programmers and operators for training and previsualisation purposes. Clients and freelance designers are welcome to use the facilities anytime for pre-programming purposes or to familiarise themselves with the company's wide

USA - Eggshell Light Company of Honolulu, which has handled professional lighting needs on the Hawaiian Islands for decades, continues their reputation for innovation by taking delivery of Elation Professional’s new IP65-rated Proteus Hybrid multi-functional moving head.
Bob Harmon, CEO and president of Eggshell Light Company, commented on the addition of the award-winning hybrid lights to Eggshell’s rental inventory. “We often put moving lights outside for a number of events, always with the caveat that if it rains we have to shut them down. On a few occasions that was indeed the case but now we don’t have to do that thanks to the new Proteus in our rental fleet."
Designed for outdoor production applications, Eggshell’s new weatherproof Proteus Hybrid units made their Hawaiian Islands debut at the infamous Waikiki Shell in Honolulu earlier this month for a pair of Jack Johnson performances. Harmon describes the challenges the iconic venue poses with regard to lighting. "One of the inherent challenges when doing shows at the Waikiki Shell is the lack of a front truss position,” he says. “Also, the in-house spot positions are low and dead-on, so artists complain about not being able to see their audience. With fixtures being off to the sides, the Proteus solution gives us a proper stage wash and solves that spot issue.”
Harmon also explains that at the base of the venue’s house poles are outlets that they had never used before because comparable lights in similar output required 220v. “Now I can plug the Proteus in directly to 12

The Netherlands - Podium de Vorstin is a purpose-built live music venue right in the heart of ‘media city’ Hilversum in the Netherlands. Its interesting modern neo-ecclesiastical steel architecture was created by Architekten Cie, and ensures that it stands out as an aesthetic landmark as well as a popular entertainment venue.
Production assistant Robin von Zijl and technical manager Michael Sakkers were part of the team who chose Robe Spiider LED wash beams and DL4S Profile luminaires – 16 of each – in a recent technical upgrade. This replaced their previous moving lights, which were from a competitor brand and dated back to 2010 when the venue opened, built on the site of the former De Tagrijn youth centre which burned to the ground.
Vorstin’s action-packed production schedule includes at least three or four live gigs every weekend utilizing its two performance spaces – of 850 and 300 respectively – which can be set up in a number of different configurations to stage a mix of bands, dance shows, stand-up comedy and cabaret and also includes regular radio and TV broadcasts.
There were two main reasons Robe was selected following a shoot-out just to underline that they were making the correct decision. The first was that Robe is now is on numerous band / artist lighting riders as the moving light preference, and the second is their excellent working relationship with Benelux distributor Controllux.
The majority of the 16 x Spiiders and 16 x DL4S Profiles are in the main room’s overhead rig, with four of each type reserved for fl

Australia - Lexair Entertainment has been appointed the exclusive Australian and New Zealand distributor for American followspot specialist Lycian Stage Lighting.
“Lycian is proud to announce it has established a relationship with Lexair Entertainment to distribute Lycian followspots in Australia and New Zealand,” said Steve Lerman, director of sales for Lycian Stage Lighting. “We believe Lexair will aggressively market Lycian followspots and are happy to join their growing stable of entertainment products. I look forward to working with a company that is dedicated to customer service because that is our root belief.”
“Lycian is the most reputable followspot manufacturer in the world, and we’re very happy to be working with them,” stated Alex Mair, managing director of Lexair Entertainment. “Their product quality and excellent reputation directly aligns with our ethos of representing only the best brands into the Australian and New Zealand markets.”
(Jim Evans)

USA - As Clean Bandit continue their touring progress towards a transatlantic sojourn in the USA in the fall, it seems an appropriate moment to consider the merits of Rob Sinclair’s production design. In particular, the constructions that inhabit the upstage area from left to right, manufactured by specialist show and event design house, Specialz Ltd. These pods are four metres high with eight VDO Sceptron 10 fixtures in each pod. Each one is rigged on a stand that enables the pod to be rotated 360° to be either facing downstage or at 45° degrees making them all but invisible to the audience.
Sinclair elaborates on the basics: “The idea was to have the mirrored pods located behind a black mirrored riser - lots of reflection – with neon edges. They needed to be able to turn so we could choose to see or obscure a video screen upstage. From that original concept we fired ideas back and forth between Specialz, myself, our lighting designer Liam Griffiths and our rather excellent PM, Tec Beint. The choice for the Sceptron LEDs strips – we opted for the 10s with a flat diffuser – was simple; it needed to be something reliable, easily rentable, not too expensive and above all, effective.”
“Rob and Liam had a very clear idea of what they wanted to achieve,” opens Specialz MD, Dave Smith. “We balanced the mirrored conceit with the more prosaic demands of weight and logistics by using laser cut mirrored acrylic to resemble a mirrorball, but much lighter. This was to be a festival package and had to move on and off stage quickly.

UK - “This was our first ever Claypaky purchase,” opens Kieran Marklew of Marklew Productions. “We had been looking to invest in some new fixtures and one of our clients had specified the K20 B-Eye so we thought it was time for us to investigate.”
Marklew Productions has been in business since 2007 and has built up a very healthy clientele, from local Birmingham businesses opting for dry hire to those looking for a full production service alongside an extensive number of college and university customers and requests for weddings or special event lighting.
“We contacted Ambersphere Solutions and spoke to Thor Andre from Ambersphere Sales. I was so impressed with the fixture it wasn’t a difficult choice to make. I especially like the added feature of the front lens rotation. It gives an amazing vortex effect which is totally unique to the B-Eye. The colour palettes are the best I’ve seen, making the fixture perfect as an open white fresnel if required; flexibility is always an important factor when deciding whether to invest. We had looked at a couple of other brands but the K20 was the number one choice, pure and simple.”
The first few jobs for the B-Eyes are a good example of how flexible they need to be. “The first show was a Strictly Come Dancing style event at the ICC Birmingham in Hall 3. We needed something that would be the centre piece of our light show. We used drop-down bars off the centre square truss which facilitated the perfect hanging position and gave a great eye candy effect towards the audience and also th

USA - Over two million visitors come to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History every year to view pieces of American culture, from the original Star Spangled Banner, to iconic McDonald’s signs, to a pair of Mohammed Ali’s boxing gloves. It is pure and simple, one of the most concentrated celebrations anywhere of the American spirit and creative innovation.
For one night in July, not all of that famed “Yankee Ingenuity” was on display in the museum’s exhibits. Eric Hertsch of John Farr Lighting Design also exhibited some impressive resourcefulness in the museum, as he overcame a limited power supply and tight schedule to transform sections of the building into a sparkling red, white and blue colour scape with a rig made up entirely of Chauvet Professional and Chauvet DJ fixtures.
As soon as visitors entered this private donor event, from the National Mall, they were greeted by a stunning visual of the Abstract Flag. An impressive sculpture made up of mirrored polycarbonate ribbons, the flag reflected brilliant blue hues created by the WELL Fit uplights. Hertsch positioned 36 of the battery powered RGBA fixtures around the flag and the surrounding wall.
Adding to the patriotic atmosphere were the five-point stars projected throughout the room that housed the flag sculpture. Hertsch created these images with 16 Ovation E-910FC colour mixing ellipsoidals that he positioned on truss towers in the mezzanine overlooking Flag Hall.
On the rooftop deck of the five-story building, the patriotic mood was set by red,

Germany - GLP’s new JDC1 hybrid LED strobe delivers power in excess through a versatile and highly creative design. Already adopted by some of the world’s leading LDs, it has been “flying out the door and into rental facilities across the globe” since receiving its world premiere at Frankfurt Prolight+Sound in April.
Fundamentally, the JDC1 has been designed in three sections, which can be controlled independently or as a complete synchronised unit.
The fixture itself contains a traditional single tube element with an incredible clear, bright, white output, derived from 216 white LEDs, and then combines that with a surrounding, format-filling full face of RGB LED power, utilising 1,320 high quality LED’s. Whether running independently, or together these elements offer the brightest output unit its class with retina burning output.
Adding versatility to the design options, the two RGB plates can be divided into six separate ‘pixel’ sections on each plate and then operated with full pixel mapping control. This alone creates stunning effects, whilst the LED tube can pop through with high intensity flashes.
The JDC1 also allows pixel mapping of the LED tube, which is broken down into 12 individually addressable sections. This enables the tube to create motion effects, either when forward facing or through shadow play behind a performer. Whilst the tube is operated in this mode, the RGB plates can give a solid background colour to strengthen the effect.
he JDC1 also offers dynamic movement, with a 16-bit, 185° tilt range, all

UK - With a broad stock of event production and AV equipment, production company SXS has launched a dry hire service.
Available equipment includes arena-scale PA, high-resolution LED video walls, outdoor video screens, staging, marquees and one of the largest stocks of blackout drapery in the UK.
“We now have one of the largest and definitely the broadest of stocks of AV and production equipment in the UK. The equipment we are using is high-end, industry and standard and typically rider friendly,” says SXS project handler Nathan Dunbar who will be heading up the dry hire customer services with assistance from production executive Lucy Payne.
“I’ve been with SXS a while now and have been blown away by how well our team maintains some of the highest standards I have seen in every discipline in which we work. SXS is a genuine one-stop shop with technical and safety standards as good as or better than the specialists in each field.”
(Jim Evans)

UK - ChamSys has named Aziz Adilkhodjaev as the company’s international business development manager. In his new role, he will be responsible for expanding and strengthening the international distribution network of the brand, as well as improving international customer support and training to enhance the user experience.
Chris Kennedy, ChamSys managing director, comments: “With his detailed knowledge in the field of lighting control, Aziz will assist in taking the MagicQ MQ500 and MagicQ software to a new level, and his expertise in international distribution will also help ChamSys to expand into new markets.”
Aziz states, “I am really excited about the MQ500. It’s an extremely powerful product with up to 200 universes from a single console and many unique functions - it can really deliver a punch. I am looking forward to playing a major role in its evolution. With ChamSys’ quick turnaround on new software features, which is second to none, I’m sure we’ll see even more ChamSys consoles in the front of houses and venues around the world.”
Tony Cameron, sales director, adds: “We are very pleased to welcome Aziz to the growing ChamSys family. His appointment comes at the perfect time with our new and exciting MQ500 Stadium range and our continued expansion of our distribution network.”
Aziz will be overseeing distribution in the Middle East, Africa, Asia - Pacific regions and Russia.
(Jim Evans)