UK - Optikinetics has announced the launch of its first LED projector. With light output of over 650 lumens from a 40W LED module and a high colour temperature, for truer colour projection and image clarity, the OPTI Solar LED is designed for all gobo and effect projection applications.

The OPTI Solar LED appears brighter and whiter than both the OPTI Solar 100C and Solar 250 - with the same optical sharpness at a higher colour temperature, which means truer colours with better edge to edge clarity, says the company.

The projector is supplied complete with an 85mm lens and a 40 watt

South Africa - Experiential agency Tinder-Box, created an elegant farewell dinner for some 60 guests to honour the outgoing president of Volvo South Africa. The full technical for this occasion was professionally catered for by MJ Event Gear and included the new Robe 100 Beams.

Held at the Hilton Ballroom on 21 April 2012, Volvo management along with some of their biggest clients gathered to say good-bye to Anders Lindblad, who plans to relocate back to Sweden. The occasion included performances by Fever Trio, the Volvo Star for Life choir (Star for life is a non-profit Swedish school

UK - Hawthorn, one of the UK's largest suppliers of technical production services, has swelled its projection hire inventory to include six Christie Roadster HD20K-J 3-Chip DLP projectors, from of the newly launched Christie J Series. "This investment is very important, assuring we complete our offering and provide our customers with a greater range of equipment," states Hawthorn's head of video, Oliver Moores.

Moores continues, "We buy Christie because of the people we deal with there. The product is stunning but the relationship we have with them is the most important

Norway - Olavshallen is a multi-purpose venue situated in the north of the city of Trondheim, Norway, close to the river Nidelva. With a total capacity of 1204 seats on two levels, the venue welcomes a multitude of disciplines including touring theatre, live music, dance and comedy.

GDS distributor for Norway, Elektrik Solutions was approached by the technical team at Olavshallen to supply replacement fittings for the venues ageing auditorium lighting system. The brief was to supply a reliable, sustainable product that could be easily installed between performances, so as not to disru

Bahrain - Festivities are underway as Manama, capital city of Bahrain, celebrates its appointment as Capital of Arab Culture 2012.

As part of the festivities the city produced a spectacular opening ceremony, Path of Pearls, which was packed with magical imagery and effects. Responsible for the stage and lighting concept was Belgian Lighting designer from Painting with Light, Luc Peumans, who employed 170 Clay Paky fixtures to light the vast tiered stage, full sized orchestra, aerialists and dancers.

Long-term Clay Paky stockist, Eclipse Staging Services supplied local Bahrain Compan

UK - Chauvet DJ LED Shadow blacklight wash panels featured on Coldplay's recent European tour. Supplied by TMB and specified by Lite Alternative, the fixtures will resume their tour when Coldplay returns to Europe in the fall of 2012.

An element of the live tour performances well suited for a blacklight, are the glowing wristbands - called Xylobands - that concertgoers receive before the show. The bands glow once the music begins - due to the imbedded data receivers - making the audience part of the overall visual experience of the show. This sea of glowing lights surrounds the energe

Australia - The TV Week Logie Awards are the Australian television industry awards, which have been presented annually since 1959.

The 54th Annual TV Week Logie Awards were held at the Crown Entertainment Complex in Melbourne, and was televised Australia wide on the Nine Network.

Performers at the event included British-Irish boy band One Direction, Flo Rida, Tony Bennett and the The Voice mentors, Seal and Delta Goodrem.

Showtech Australia provided all the rigging services for the broadcast and had the opportunity to use its BT280, BT200 winches and Nomad Control Consol that set

UK - Established international lighting distributor, MGC Lamps has announced a new name and a new identity. The business which operates in over 90 countries worldwide, has now become MGC Lighting Group.

"MGC Lighting Group better reflects the market areas we operate in and reinforces that we are the lighting distributor of choice for our customers," said managing director James Greig. "We have worked hard over the last 30 years to establish a good reputation. Although the old name has served us well, we needed a facelift to reflect that we are a large, modern company wi

UK - When Nissan's luxury car marque Infiniti set about expanding its presence in Europe, it wanted to engage with potential buyers in a new and unusual way. The result was a digital art competition, the finalists of which have their work featured at the opening of the new European showrooms. Essential to presenting the artwork are BrightSign digital media players, providing each event with a dramatic visual focus.

Distributed in the UK by Pixels, seven BrightSign media players were used at the opening of Infiniti's new showroom in Stockport in late 2011. The event was devised and man

UK - For the second year running, entertainment lighting specialist White Light supplied the lighting rig to the Olivier Awards Ceremony, which rewards the best of London theatre created during the previous 12 months.

The awards ceremony was held this year at London's Royal Opera House, with the lighting designed once again by Ben Cracknell.

"It actually feels a bit like the perfect gig for us," comments White Light's managing director Bryan Raven. "It celebrates theatre, with which we have a long historic involvement - many of the shows nominated this year use lighti

UK - Electronic dance group Chicane were back on form last week when they played to a massively 'up for it' crowd at Koko. The much anticipated show was to launch their new album Thousand Mile Stare .

Richard Martin Lighting (RML) supported LD Pip Rhodes in his choice of a simple yet striking rig including Martin LC2140 panels. The vibrant and bold images used with the screen help compliment the psychedelic trance tunes of the Ibiza favourites.

The LED based video screen has a semi transparent design with easily connecting panels that allow for area coverage of up to 14m in h

UK - The new Canada Water Library in London's southeast Docklands is an impressive and striking building, with artistic ambitions that take it way beyond the standard repository of books, CDs and IT services.

Stage Electrics was brought in by the electrical contractor, Inviron, who in turn worked for the main contractor, ISG Jackson, to create a highly flexible ground floor performance studio space, capable of hosting anything from art exhibitions through to music concerts. Added to that, the massive dock doors, which open out on to a courtyard, act as a proscenium for an audience sit

Singapore - Wireless Solution Sweden AB Singapore distributor Laservision recently delivered the award-winning creation of Wonder Full - the largest light and water spectacular in South East Asia. This breathtaking multimedia spectacular is currently on display at the doorstep of the Marina Bay Sands, Singapore.

Wonder Full is the story of water and light creating life, told with cutting-edge water and light technology. This free 13-minute show is a water, land and sky based 360-degree experience unlike anything seen before. A three dimensional fantasy showcases the medi

USA - Chauvet has announced the debut of two new compact moving spots, Q-Spot 460-LED and Q-Spot 360-LED at InfoComm 2012, in Las Vegas. The eco-friendly, cost-effective fixtures are designed for smaller entertainment and hospitality venues or any space that demands a steadfast, stress-free performance.

Both fixtures include a highly efficient patented optical system, a 16-degree beam angle, an easy-access gobo door, and shutter and strobe functions. Lightweight and easy-to-hang, Q-Spot 460-LED and Q-Spot 360-LED operate quietly and have a fast, precise pan and tilt movement complemen

Germany - Deutschland sucht den Superstar (DSDS), the German equivalent of The X Factor, the international talent show franchise, has now reached its ninth year and is attracting great interest as always. Over 35,000 aspiring singers performed in the casting calls that took place in 35 cities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The lighting designer Manuel da Costa has accepted the challenge of staging the nine live evenings, which will be broadcast from the MMC Studios in Cologne-Ossendorf, after the preliminary casting calls and recalls.

When choosing the lighting equ

Czech Republic - Robe lighting has implemented LumenRadio's award-winning wireless CRMX (Cognitive Radio Multiplexer) wireless technology on all its current Robin series products, and this will now become a standard feature of all future Robe products.

In addition to the Robin Series, CRMX is used in Robe's LED Series including the popular CitySkape Xtreme fixture and the brand new CityFlex 48. It is also available as an option for several other Robe product lines and as a standard accessory for the LEDWash 1200.

Czech Republic based Robe lighting has chosen to partner with LumenRad

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) provided two one-day Jands Vista v2 'masterclass' seminars to students taking the Lighting Module of Backstage Academy's Foundation Degree in Live Events Production.

The 16-month fast-track intensive course, led by chief operations officer Robin Watkinson, provides students with the core practical skills needed to pursue a successful career in the professional events production industry. The invitation to participate underlined the fast growing popularity of the Jands Vista system in live events.

AC-ET's Andy Mahaffey conducted the traini

Australia - Gasworks Arts Park is a vibrant arts precinct producing a range of high-quality arts programs, workshops and activities for every age, ability, interest and audience. Situated in Albert Park, Melbourne, on the site of the former South Melbourne Gas Plant, Gasworks is just three kilometres from the CBD and the precinct houses four hectares of park, two theatres, three gallery spaces, a café, as well as function and workshop spaces.

According to Michele Domonkos, operations & human resources manager, it was desperation that led her to purchase ETC Source Four Fresnels

Norway - Manchester based lighting and visuals specialist dbn has specified and installed a custom LED lighting and control solution for the new set of the Norwegian National Lottery which is operated by Norsk Tipping AS.

dbn's project manager was Nigel Walker, and they were working for UK based Stage One Creative Services, with whom Walker has enjoyed a long and successful working relationship. Stage One in turn was commissioned by producers Fabelactiv, to deliver a set for the high profile show which is broadcast from their HD studios in Hamer via national TV channel, NRK.

Stage O

Qatar - Doha based event design and production company Kenkaato produced a spectacular of epic proportions for the formerly named Qatar National Hotels (QNH) Company, now Katara Hospitality, which involved fully co-ordinated large format projections onto four of the group's stunning buildings in central Doha.

The event ran live for three evenings, celebrating Katara Hospitality's announcement of a complete rebranding exercise and the official launch of a new corporate identity, together with new acquisitions. It also coincided with the heavyweight three day Arabian Hotel Investment Co

USA - A.C.T Lighting Inc, the distributor of Clay Paky lighting in North America, has named George Masek as vice-president, Automated Lighting. He will be based in Dallas, Texas.

CEO Bob Gordon said: "We are delighted to welcome George to A.C.T Lighting. George strengthens our knowledge base on automated stage lighting and brings with him first-hand knowledge of the history of automated lights. He knows how to take care of lighting professionals and how to provide exactly what they need to be successful. He has more than 20 years' experience in the lighting industry and we expect

Australia - Visual and lighting designer Nick Gray of UK based design practice Renegade has created a video art work which is one of the highlights of the international Wool Modern exhibition, just aired in Sydney, Australia following successful shows in London and Berlin.

Gray was commissioned to create the piece by curator Charlotte Lurot. The exhibition, supported by HRH The Prince of Wales, focuses on the modern, innovative and avant garde use of wool in creative industries.

Gray's video and sound installation is fully interactive - visitors listen to a soundscape through

UK - Chauvet Europe will showcase a spread of Chauvet Professional fixtures at the ABTT Theatre Show 2012.

MVP 12 is a lightweight, tri-colour SMD LED modular video panel designed for high-resolution graphics and live action video. Featuring a semi-transparent design, MVP 12 allows lighting and elements to pass through while maintaining high resolution and clarity. MVP 12 video panels easily interlock for dramatic displays. The Legend 412 is a pixel-mapping moving yoke wash fixture featuring 12 quad-coloured RGBW LEDs controllable in quadrants.

As seen on the popular television show

South Korea - Christie, official content sponsor for Expo 2012, Yeosu, reports that the Organising Committee for Expo 2012 has selected Christie Roadie HD+35K projectors for its signature multimedia night show. Set against the natural backdrop of the Yeosu Sea, the 47m high Big-O is the world's largest water curtain and the landmark installation at the expo.

Designed and directed by France-based ECA2, who were involved in shows such as the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1998 World Cup in France and the Eiffel Tower Millennium Show, the 'O' stands for the ocean and resembles the

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