UK - Scottish lighting and sound supplier The Warehouse has recently completed a seven-week temporary installation commissioned by the City Of Edinburgh Council.

The project required the illumination of four specially selected 'iconic' buildings in the city centre over the Christmas and New Year periods. The buildings chosen were the City Chambers, New College, The Royal Scottish Academy and St John's Church in the West End.

The brief required the sites to be linked to allow synchronised colour changing using the theme of 'Fire and Ice'. Lighting hire manager and lighting designer Dave Morris chose a combination of Studio Due City Color 2500W, and Chauvet Colorado IP 1s and 2s for the sites. The Warehouse used their extensive stock of Wireless Solutions W-DMX units and aerials to establish the radio links across the City, which performed flawlessly over the entire period. With

USA - A flurry of new exhibitors and a wide-ranging seminar programme are creating a buzz around this PLASA Focus: Austin 2012 (22-23 February), organisers PLASA Events report.

Texas lighting guru Richard Cadena comments, "I have been overwhelmed by the wide range of reasons to visit PLASA Focus: Austin 2012. In addition to the world-class line-up of manufacturers and new products, the side-shows will undoubtedly make this a memorable first event for Texas."

While new audio, staging, lighting and AV products will top the show floor agenda, The Professional Development Programme will see educational sessions from PLASA's partners in the event: The Stagecraft Institute of Las Vegas, The Broadway Green Alliance, Austin City Limits Live, The Production Equipment Rental Group, and the Long Centre for the Performing Arts, among others.

Joining an already packed floor pla

USA - Old news isn't good news, at least not for a TV station's news broadcast ratings. That's why Univision 41 TV in San Antonio recently decided to update the look of its news sets with sleek new furnishings and bright, colourful lighting. The station is part of the Univision network, which is the largest Spanish-language television network in the US in terms of viewership, according to Nielsen ratings.

"Univision's old set had an outdated conservative office look with dark wood veneers everywhere. For their new look, they really wanted to push the envelope and be completely different by having a lot of brightness and color," said Frank Burton of Event Ignition (San Antonio), which designed and installed the lighting in Univision 41's news sets, using LED products from American DJ and its sister company Elation Professional.

The station's management wanted lighting

Sweden - Wireless Solution Sweden AB is starting the new year with a makeover to their W-DMX website, www.wirelessdmx.com, providing the latest material on their line of wireless DMX products.

The revamp has addressed some of the most common items that users look for when visiting their site including an easy to navigate product page with all their latest products in the G4 line including transceivers, receivers, repeaters, antennas, tools and accessories. The site also lists W-DMX OEM partners, a worldwide map of distributors and a current list of upcoming trade shows. Case studies and current news are also available.

Most importantly, the new site has updated and simplified an area to download software, manuals and catalogues, which the company considers important to access on a 24-hour basis. The company also worked with search engines to make this information easy to find

USA - Hip hop kings Jay-Z and Kanye West teamed on a second, eight-week leg of their Watch The Throne North American tour where Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures are playing a key role. The tour, which ended in Vancouver just before Christmas, supported the rappers' joint LP released in August and featured solo cuts from their own catalogues.

Solotech, which is providing all the tour's lighting, rigging and specialty lighting fixtures, supplied 130 Clay Paky Sharpys from its inventory to lighting designer Nick Whitehouse. "The design of the tour is very modern and eclectic," says Richard Lachance, at Solotech, which is headquartered in Montreal. "The lighting, lasers and staging are very different - there's a centre module that's a B stage which is very prominent, and the show is laden with LED products."

Karl Gaudreau at Solotech, adds, "The first time

UK - GDS were recently commissioned to develop a flexible lighting solution in a disused area of London's Southbank.

As part of the Festival of Britain anniversary celebrations, GDS were approached by Roger Hennigan technical Manager at The Southbank Centre, to assist with the redevelopment of disused outside area of the Queen Elizabeth Hall roof. The space was to be part of the centre's redevelopment project, with plans to build a garden and green event space for the festival celebrations.

From April - September 2011, the Southbank Centre site was transformed for the Festival of Britain 60th Anniversary celebrations, celebrating British talent and creativity with the biggest cross-arts festival South Bank had seen since the original festival in 1951.

After completing a site survey and taking into consideration the long and difficult cable routs on site, coupled with the inc

Australia - Yiwarra Kuju: Canning Stock Route, a landmark exhibition celebrating the lives and stories of Western Desert Aboriginal people, was held in the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre in October especially for CHOGM.

The exhibition explored the impact of the 1750km stock route on Aboriginal people, through an innovative blend of contemporary art, oral history, photography, film and interactive multimedia.

Clifton's Perth was engaged to supply the overhead rigging and lighting for the exhibition which prompted them to purchase 72 ETC Source Four Juniors which allow maximum field-angle flexibility.

"We chose the ETC Source Four Juniors mainly for their zoom capability," commented Ed Matthews, managing director of Clifton's Perth. "Plus they are a good compact size and sell at a reasonable price. They certainly are the benchmark light in that category.

USA - Five grandMA2s featured in the 12th Annual Latin Grammy Awards telecast live on the Univision Network from the Mandalay Bay Events Centre in Las Vegas.

Pennsylvania-based Atomic Lighting provided three grandMA2 light consoles with three grandMA2 fader wings to control the show's lighting and another two grandMA2 full-size consoles to run 16 universes of Art-Net for the video content. Fifty Clay Paky Sharpy formed part of the lighting inventory. Carlos Colina was the lighting designer of the show.

Since its debut on Univision entirely in Spanish in 2005, the Latin Grammy Awards show has consistently increased its ratings worldwide; it is also one of Univision's highest rated shows as well as the most watched and highly regarded awards event by Hispanics.

Atomic's vice president of operations Brett Puwalski, who has served as the show's gaffer for the last five years, re

UK - The Mayor of London's New Year 2012 celebrations started with a bang thanks to a spectacular pyrotechnic and light show produced by creative events experts, Jack Morton Worldwide. As in previous years, this show featured VariLite VL3500WashFX fixtures in each of the capsules on the London Eye, together with Syncrolite and Clay Paky Alpha Beam fixtures.

Technical event specialists Stage Electrics who have successfully been supplying all the lighting for this landmark event for 10 years proposed the use of Zero Wire CRMX product from Cooper Controls to lighting designer Durham Marenghi as the solution to enable wireless control of each of the 32 pods fitted to the London Eye. Zero Wire CRMX was first launched at PLASA in 2011 and features the CRMX wireless DMX technology designed by LumenRadio.

Stage Electrics approached Cooper Controls together with LumenRadio at PLASA to

USA - Just a block away from The White House in Washington DC, The Hamilton has kick started a creative renaissance and is fast becoming the American capital's hot destination for sophisticated live music and dining - presenting local, national and international bands.

Contracted to provide the production lighting design, Paul Hoffman of Pulse Lighting LLC deployed 18 of GLP's Volkslicht Zooms to help build the atmosphere.

Hoffman first became involved in the project around two years ago to consult on the lighting and other aspects of the technology for owners, Clyde's Restaurant Group.

Having worked with the operators on previous events (and impressed them with their production work for bands such as Widespread Panic and Furthur), the LD knew what was expected.

With a 500-seat upscale restaurant at street level and 400-seat live music venue below - with its own food and b

Hungary - When dance guru David Guetta rocked Budapest's Hungexpo in front of 8000 enthusiastic fans, the producer of anthems like Sexy Bitch, Who's That Chick and numerous others, was illuminated by a rig of Robe moving lights supplied by locally based lighting rental company, Colossal Rental.

The Robes were an integral element of the automated lighting on Guetta's worldwide touring spec, originated by lighting designer Jonathan 'Leggy' Armstrong, and were operated on the night by touring lighting director, Alex 'Junior, Cero who is based in the UK.

Colossal Rental's client was Deadcode Productions, who delivered the show's technical package, working for show promoters Burn. They all collaborated with Guetta's own production team led by production manager Al Green.

The lighting rig featured 29 Robe LEDWash 600s, 18 ColorSpot 1200E ATs and 12 ColorWash 250E ATs

UK - Justin Bieber featured in a Christmas Day special for ITV called This Is Justin Bieber. The special was filmed before a live audience at ITV's London Studios.

Lighting director Oli Richards designed the lighting for the show with support from London-based suppliers Richard Martin Lighting (RML).

Richards' spectacular lighting rig comprised of well over 100 moving lights, with Clay Paky Alpha Beam 700s and Sharpys chosen to help transform the studio into a live concert environment.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Entertainment lighting specialist White Light has confirmed its appointment as an Authorised Philips Vari*Lite Service Centre. The appointment was confirmed on 7 December and became effective immediately.

As an Authorised Service Centre, White Light now offers service and support of all Vari*Lite automated lighting fixtures, from the long-established yet still popular VL500 andVL3000 families to the VLX range of LED fixtures. The company's technicians can now carry out routine maintenance and servicing or repair work, including warranty repairs, for other Vari*Lite owners across the UK and Europe. White Light's staff has already completed extensive training, and the company has $100,000 of spare parts on-hand allowing most repairs to be carried out immediately.

"We are delighted by this appointment," comments Dave Isherwood, White Light's technical director. &qu

Brit Awards Nominations - Singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran is leading the field at this year's Brit Awards, with four nominations, followed by Jessie J who is up for three awards - best female, breakthrough act and best single for her hit Price Tag.

Organisers have also announced that Adele will perform live at this year's ceremony next month. It is her first confirmed live performance since recovering from throat surgery. The singer is also nominated in three categories - best female, best single and best album for 21.

The trophies - including a lifetime achievement prize for Britpop band Blur - will be handed out at the O2 Arena on 21 February.

Yellowbrick Road Block - A performance of The Wizard of Oz at the London Palladium had to be called to a halt last week after the production suffered technical problems. Star Michael Crawford apologised when the mus

UK - The Rococo Gardens in the heart of the English Cotswolds are a significant tourist attraction, with stunning Rococo architectural features and large scale avenues of trees all crying out to be lit during the dark winter months. Due to planning regulations and preservation of the original theme, installed electrical power is barred, thus preventing any night illumination and meaning early closure especially during winter months.

Core Lighting, with its headquarters nearby in the Cotswolds, was contracted to supply their battery-powered and Wireless-DMX (WDMX) controlled architectural lighting systems. For an evening Core added a splash of colour into the canopies of the trees and the houses. The avenues of trees and Exedra with its water feature were brought alive. The whole scheme was lifted through the mist and drizzle of the evening; also thanks to the waterproof capabili

USA - Robe Lighting, Inc. will showcase several new products from its Robin series of products on Booth 201 at the upcoming PLASA Focus event at the Renaissance, Austin in Texas, 22-23 February 2012.

The Robin series of products is in tune with the company's ongoing 'Think of the Future - Consider Nature' commitment to producing genuinely more sustainable and greener technology.

Highlighted will be the Robin 1200, 600 and 300 LEDWashes and the all new Robin MMX Spot.

(Jim Evans)

The Netherlands - HA Rental purchased a number of Philips Selecon Pacific and PL3 LED luminaires from Philips entertainment brand VAR (Value Added Reseller) for the Netherlands, Rolight, in order to create a dramatic lightscape for the first edition of the Ice Sculpture Festival in Zwolle.

This year the theme was decidedly nautical. Festival directors Ten4 Events and Joor Events invited more than 40 ice sculptors from around the world to wield chainsaws, chisels and cutters and fill a 2000sq.m thermal tent with a stunning display of ice and snow carvings. Sculptures included naval heroes, sea animals, ocean monsters, and ghostly ships alongside spacemen, superheroes and fairytale characters.

Lighting designer for the Festival was Jasper Schimmel, whose brief was to bring sparkling dimension, shape and dynamic colour to the crystal clear, glass like figures and frosty snow scul

UK - For the second year in a row, Black Light is acting as a leading sponsor for the Federation of Scottish Theatre's (FST) Technical Winter School. This takes place at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre between the 21 and 23 February 2012. The company is supporting the high-profile event both financially and practically and has teamed up with a number of its key suppliers to deliver three days of technical training.

"We are delighted to be able to support this exciting event," says Black Light's customer relations, manager, Claire Södergren who is going to attend the event with colleagues Phil Haldane, Black Light's head of company development, and Craig Collin, the company's technical manager. "This is a really exciting opportunity for us to meet old friends and to help people in the industry get to grips with some of the most exciting new technology around."

Turkmenistan - On New Year's Eve, a large laser projection appeared on the facade of the 175m high Anayasa tower in Turkmenistan. As part of the projection a laser counted down the last seconds of the year and the gathered crowd cheered as 2012 arrived and magnificent fireworks erupted.

At the same time, a giant permanent laser installation was launched. Scheduled for continuous operation in January 2012, the installation connects the highest towers of the Turkmenistan capital city Ashgabat with "dazzlingly-bright" laser beams in the national colour of green. Display lasers (used for building projections) are used as part of the project, seen for the first time on New Year's Eve.

Officials of the International Laser Display Association (ILDA) believe that it is the largest permanent display laser installation in the world.

According to reports, the president of Tur

USA - Three new sessions have been added to the attractions already on offer during the inaugural PLASA Focus: Austin 2012, taking place at The Renaissance Austin, on 22-23 February 2012.

Alongside 50 exhibitors and a two-day programme of free professional development sessions, visitors can now book a place on a very special discussion presented by world-renowned lighting designer, Peter Morse. From Madonna and Michael Jackson to Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler, Usher, Prince, Christina Aguilera and Janet Jackson, Peter Morse has worked with some of the biggest stars on some of the biggest tours in history. Peter will talk us through his inimitable personal style, and share some of his experiences in this very special session; Lighting the Big Stage with Peter Morse.

Another major scoop is Advanced Mapping Techniques with Hippotizer Media Servers, presented by TMB

UK - The lighting division of UK live event and communications agency, DRP Group, has made its first investment in Chroma-Q products with the purchase of 24 Color Force 48 LED battens.

DRP is a single source supplier to a multiplicity of corporate presentations, live events, festivals, awards shows, parties and charity works. Their HQ is in the Midlands; they also have offices in London and Manchester and work all over the UK and internationally.

Richard (Rikki) Parmenter, DRP's head of lighting explains that they specifically wanted an LED batten fixture that would light walls, cyc, banners and architectural features with a smooth, linear wash.

Since buying the Color Force fixtures, they have been in demand for a diversity of projects. The Color Force 48 version also happens to be the same width as DRP's standard modular set panels, which are 4 x 10ft. When used for lightin

USA - High End Systems is hosting an Orlando, Florida area open house on 26-27 January 2012. This event will allow customers to see and experience the latest technology from High End Systems.

Sales and technical professionals from High End Systems will be on-hand along with intellaspot, Technospot, trackspot Bolt, DL.3 and Road Hog Full Boar consoles.

Over the course of two days, experts will demonstrate the capabilities of the latest products while also allowing plenty of time for hands-on experience and education. The relaxed atmosphere of the open house ensures attendees plenty of time to learn about High End Systems' products, says the company.

(Jim Evans)

USA - Atomic Lighting of Lititz, Pennsylvania, the exclusive lighting supplier for the second consecutive year to the Latin Grammy Awards, recently provided the show with 50 Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures.

Latin music's most prestigious awards telecast, the 12th Annual Latin Grammy Awards was sent live on Univision Network from the Mandalay Bay Events Centre in Las Vegas. Since its debut on Univision in 2005, the show has consistently increased its ratings worldwide; and is the most widely watched awards show among Hispanics.

Atomic's vice president of operations Brett Puwalski, who has served as the show's gaffer for the last five years, introduced lighting designer Carlos Colina to the Sharpy at the Premio Juventud awards show on Univision last summer. "He loved the tight beam and how bright it was for its small size," says Puwalski. "Carlos has said he can never h

UK - Vortex Lighting Ltd was recently commissioned to provide the lighting for a Carols of Light concert in one of Britain's favourite buildings, Durham Cathedral. The aim of the concert was to raise funds for both the Durham Cathedral Music Endowment Fund and The Sunderland AFC Foundation. Lessons were read by HRH The Countess of Wessex GCVO, Sir Tim Rice, The Rt Hon David Miliband MP, Kate Adie OBE, Steve Cram MBE and Channel 4's George Clarke while the concert included performances by Joe McElderry, Rick Wakeman, Alan Price, Barbara Dickson OBE, Sir Thomas Allen, Clare Teal and Kathryn Tickell.

Durham Cathedral is a very busy building, so the time available to rig and programme the equipment was somewhat limited, but Vortex's crew of just 4 installed all of the equipment, including the stage in just over three hours and removed in less than two hours, says the company.

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