Canada - The award-winning W-DMX technology by Wireless Solution Sweden AB was once again used on Canada's prestigious Grey Cup halftime show produced by Electric Aura and featuring famed Canadian performer Justin Bieber.

The Canadian Football League celebrated the 100th championship with the Toronto Argonauts and Calgary Stampeders at Rogers Centre in Toronto. The game, along with the SiriusXM Grey Cup Halftime Show was seen by a live audience of 50,000 and broadcast via TV and the Internet to millions in Canada, the U.S. and beyond, making the event the most-watched Grey Cup and halftime show in CFL history.

Vancouver-based production company Electric Aura was responsible for the design of the show. Production designer Robert Sondergaard and lighting director Jason McKinnon teamed up with producer Patrick Roberge of Patrick Roberge Productions and rental company Christie Lit

Portugal - The first Robe Robin MMX Spots in Portugal have been delivered to Aveiro based rental lighting and sound company, FM Formato Musical, by Robe's Portuguese distributors, NAN.

FM Formato Musical wanted a high output, flexible moving head spotlight with smooth CMY colour mixing that would offer plenty of creative options for producing different and spectacular effects.

They also liked the light weight and low energy consumption of the MMX Spot and the resulting reduction in on-going maintenance costs.

The managing partners of FM Formato Musical said, "NAN offered a product that truly met all our needs, as well as demonstrating the MMX Spots with great efficiency and knowledge ... which greatly contributed to our final decision to buy them."

In the process of updating its rental fleet with the latest and most energy efficient technologies, FM Productions w

UK - Lighting designer Peter Mumford has used ETC's latest generation of LED fixtures - the Source Four LED Lustr+ profile - to light Old Times at The Harold Pinter Theatre (formerly the Comedy Theatre) in London's West End.

Locked away in a secluded farmhouse, the three characters in Old Times reminisce about their early days together in London. But with conflicting memories and underlying sexual tensions, the past suddenly feels vividly present.

"Having 'road tested' individual fixture units previously," says Mumford, "I wanted to try them incorporated as a significant part of my rig design. This is the only real way that one can properly try them out in the context of a production. For Old Times, I particularly wanted to be able to change colour subtly within very long, slow changing cues.

"I used 24 units - in three banks of eight

UK - Marl International has transformed the sports hall at one of the North of England's most prestigious independent schools, Abbey Gate College, Cheshire, by installing LED lighting that improved the hall environment, and provided much brighter and more even lighting that comes on instantly.

Commenting on the installation of LED lights at Abbey Gate College, business manager Andrew Bache said, "The real appeal of Marl LED lights for us is the convenience and improvement in the environment. Though the sodium lights were adequate for football and gymnastics, the hall is also used for examinations and social events. We were able to dramatically increase the light level in the hall, ensuring the corners as well as the central area is brightly lit. The LED lights are much whiter and very much more even, since the output of the sodium lamps degrades noticeably as they age."

UK - Peterborough-based production supplier Pearce Hire has recently demonstrated their significant capabilities in the touring sector. The company provided a three-truss lighting rig and technician for the latest Jools Holland UK winter tour.

Pearce Hire has worked with Midland Sound & Lighting and Jools Holland's production team for several years and this was the second full winter tour for Jools Holland that they have been involved in.

The lighting rig complemented by on-site technical support included 18 Martin MAC 700 Profiles and 12 Robe Robin LEDWash 1200s. Additional fixtures included Robert Juliat Cyrano follow spots and a number of Studio Due CS4s purchased specifically by Pearce Hire to service the tour.

"Over the years we have formed a strong working relationship with Jools' production manager Andy Salmon, and LD Simon Chandler-Honnor," comments John Hu

France - French rental house Phase 4 has invested in 50 of the new VL3015LT Spot luminaires from Philips Vari-Lite. This makes Phase 4 the first lighting rental supplier in Europe to be able to offer the fixtures to its customers.

Paris-based Philips Vari-Lite distributor, CSI, supplied the 50 VL3015LT Spots to Phase 4, which now holds the largest stock of Vari-Lite automated luminaires in France. The substantial Phase 4 investment in the VL3015LT Spots followed a demo to the company's consoles and peripherals manager Georges DaSilva.

"Philips Vari-Lite is a strong brand," comments DaSilva. "In addition to its powerful output and its incredible zoom, the VL3015LT Spot maintains the same well respected color quality that has set the standard for the profession. All the customers that attended demonstrations have reported being hugely impressed with the VL3015LT f

Belgium - Lighting designer Pim Elberse of PimmerPacK specified 100 Clay Paky Alpha Beam 700s to deliver bright beam flexibility for the 15th anniversary show of Dutch rock band Within Temptation.

Elberse, who worked along set designer Ignace d'Haese from Arf & Yes, used the Alpha Beam 700's fast moving ability to generate some stunning and dynamic mid-air and onstage effects. The result was a light show to remember at the 18,500-capacity Antwerps Sportpaleis in Antwerp, Belgium.

Supplied by PRG / EML Belgium, 50 Alpha Beams were placed on the floor in between the orchestra and band, and a further 50 Alpha Beams were flown on trusses. Each of the flow fixtures were rigged on an individual drop-arm that could drop 10 metres creating a dramatic, multi-dimensional environment for the band to perform in.

"The Alpha Beam 700s don't just feature Pan and Tilt," explains E

USA - North American entertainment technology reseller, A.C. Lighting has announced the appointment of Greg Russell as South Western regional sales manager.

Based in Phoenix, Arizona, Russell's new appointment will see him promoting A.C. Lighting Inc.'s extensive range of exclusive entertainment technology brands throughout the South Western United States.

Russell has been working in the production entertainment industry for over 25 years providing lighting, sound, rigging, design, installation and production management to a range of clients including high profile artists, venues and television shows.

A.C. Lighting Inc.'s vice president of US sales and marketing, Fred Mikeska comments, "Greg's vast experience in the entertainment production world, coupled with his technical product knowledge will be extremely valuable for our growing customer base... We are very pleased

UK - Highlite International BV has announced that from 1February 2013, David Swindlehurst will join the Highlite UK team as UK & IE Sales Agent for their Artecta range of architectural lighting products .

Swindlehurst comes with years of experience of LED Lighting, having worked within the Entertainment & Architectural industry & has dealt with many blue chip companies.

(Jim Evans)

Mexico / Italy - LDR continues to reinforce its global distribution network with, the appointment of Vari Internacional as its exclusive distributor for Mexico, representing the whole LDR range.

LDR's Fabiano Besio comments: "Italy and Mexico have never been so close and I am glad to have Vari to represent LDR's products. We share the same passion for professional lighting and attention to the customers' needs . . . we are committed to provide quality products and fast service in Mexico."

Founded in 1985, Vari Internacional is one of the leading suppliers to the cinema market for Mexico and Central America: to keep up with the sweeping changes in the cinema industry, Vari is now specialising in offering a full AVL solutions for the professional industry. Ing. Hugo Patiño Cuellar, general manager at Vari, said: "LDR is a great addition to the existing portfolio

Australia - The Lightmoves Group of companies, which includes Lightmoves, Resolution X, Balanced Technology and Browns Precision Welding, has successfully completed the acquisition of the stock, assets, and hire assets of Lots of Watts (LOW), and is now trading as Lots of Watts Australia. Operating from the existing LOW premises at 22 South St Rydalmere, many of the existing staff has joined this new company.

Speaking after the acquisition was completed, sales director of LOWA and managing director of Lightmoves Braham Ciddor said, "We are excited that we have been able to successfully conclude this acquisition, as Lots of Watts has been a company that we have always considered as being an organisation with a very similar pedigree, ethics and expertise to our own. To have the opportunity to harness LOW's expertise and position in the NSW market along with the Lightmoves Gro

Czech Republic - It was the proverbial 'match made in heaven' when lighting designers Ladislav Ho?ák and Zden?k Mácha chose to use Robe moving lights at the core of their design for legendary singer Karel Gott's recent tour.

The tour played arenas throughout the Czech and Slovak Republics including Prague's 18,000 capacity O2.

Gott is the Czech Republic's most successful and best known singer. His impressive and dynamic international career spans six decades during which time he's been at the forefront of many new and innovative musical trends, including being a pioneer of emerging Czechoslovakian pop music in the early 1960s. His numerous recordings have sold millions worldwide.

Lighting equipment was supplied by Prague based rental company Audioblue Productions SRO, who have serviced Gott's live shows for several years.

The moving lights comprised 22 x Robe Robin MMX S

USA - In his first headlining tour, American Country Music Award-winner Luke Bryan is already selling out venues throughout the United States on the "Dirt Road Diaries Tour". Out on the road with the tour, FadeUp Design Group lighting designer Justin Kitchenman took this opportunity to significantly expand the productions lighting rig with 60 high-powered Vari-Lite luminaires including the new VL3015LT Spot luminaire from Philips Vari-Lite.

"Luke really wants to be able to see the entire room and the fans when out on stage," began Kitchenman. "Because we would be headlining in larger venues this year, I knew that our automated lighting would have to have tremendous power and zoom capabilities to cover as much of each venue as possible. One of the things that I love most about Vari-Lite luminaires is that you get incredible zoom ranges along with great in

USA - Christie Lites has just taken delivery of their first 50 MA onPC command wing from A.C.T Lighting. With 12 locations in the US and Canada, Christie Lites supplies equipment and services to meet the needs of lighting designers and chief electricians across their extensive client base.

MA Lighting's MA onPC command wing is a portable and small control solution offering realtime control for 2,048 parameters in combination with grandMA2 onPC. Designed as the hardware expansion to the grandMA2 onPC software, the MA onPC command wing enables the look and feel of the software to be as close as possible to a real grandMA2 console.

"We purchased the MA onPC command wing units to extend usage of the flexible and powerful grandMA2 control system to customers who need portability on location or find that it's physically difficult to use a grandMA2 console," says Christie L

UK - Ministry of Sound in London has made its first investment in SGM's XC-5 LED strobes as part of the club's major annual upgrade.

Chris Thoms, production manager at the venue, placed the order for ten units with SGM UK after seeing a demonstration at the 2012 PLASA Show in London. The strobes were installed in the venue's two main club rooms, the Box and 103, during the three week closure for refurbishment in January.

This year Thoms and his team focused their attention largely on reconfiguring 103 (effectively Ministry of Sound's second dance room), adjacent to the Box - deploying four strobes in the former space and six in the main club.

"We wanted to bring the clubbing experience in 103 in line with that of the main room and create a party atmosphere," explained the production manager. "At the same time we needed an adaptable space that we could put a he

France - Brittany-based lighting manufacturer, Chromlech, has been awarded an 'Etoile du SIEL' ('Star of SIEL') during the annual award ceremony at SIEL 2013 in Paris. The Award was given for the Chromlech Elidy, billed as the world's first LED matrix fixture able to produce volumetric light graphics.

Launched at PLASA 2012, Chromlech Elidy is a matrix of 5 x 5 very high power LEDs, driven by state of the art electronics to provide the world's first LED wall capable of projecting light. Specific optics and high-output, warm white LEDs combine to generate extremely narrow beams that far exceed the intensity of LED screens, says the company.

Elidy is modular in form, based around a single projector of 25 LEDs (1 sq.ft), which can be assembled to form up to 225 LEDs (1 sq/m) and arranged into screens, columns, or even angled forms.

The current Award is the second Etoile du SIEL

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd have announced their continued sponsorship of promising young UK racing driver, Jack Goff, who is taking his career to the next level this year by competing in the Dunlop MSA 2013 British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season with Team HARD.

GOff's debut in the BTCC follows his triumph in 2012 AirAsia Renault UK Clio Cup, which saw him crowned Championship Winner after a gripping title fight down to the deciding last race of the season.

AC-ET have supported 21 year old Jack whilst he competed in three successive Renault Clio Cup seasons, helping him to attain the goal of winning the Championship last year.

(Jim Evans)

South Africa - Netcare hosted their 13th Night of the Stars Awards at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand at the end of last year.

"From the beginning our pitch to Netcare (a private hospital network), was to celebrate a caring family and to acknowledge the names of those who save lives," said Lloyd Wild from Monster Productions and Events who provided the full concept and production for the event; contracting the Gearhouse Group of companies to provide all the technical aspects such as staging, audio visual and cameras, rigging, power and set as well as supplementary lighting, trussing and audio elements. "The client requested a classy affair that would give recognition to these deserved care givers"

Especially for the event, Monster purchased 12 new Robin 100LED Beams. "The fixtures were great with their quick movements, beams and brightness,&

UK - The Knight of Illumination Awards 2013 for outstanding achievements in lighting design has launched with an appeal for submissions.

The annual KOI Awards, which this year celebrates its sixth anniversary, is now accepting submissions from lighting designers working in the UK for exceptional lighting design in the sectors of TV, Theatre, and new for this year: Concert Touring and Events (previously titled 'Rock').

"The KOI Awards is the premier industry event that celebrates the outstanding creative achievements of lighting designers working on productions in the UK," says KOI's Concert Touring and Events Award chairperson Sarah Rushton-Read. "Over the last six years we've forged closer ties between the world of lighting design and the lighting industry as a whole and provided a platform for really great lighting design to be recognized and celebrated by the

UK - One of London's iconic live music venues has invested in an Avolites Media Ai Media Server to recharge its visuals.

Camden's Electric Ballroom has installed an Avolites Media Ai T4 Media Server and is using it to serve two separate areas of the main room: the 3x2m lo-res LED screens which hang either side of the DJ booth, and the DJ box itself.

"Recently, the owner wanted to install a raised DJ box area in the main club, and discussed the idea of investing in a cutting edge visuals solution," says the venue's technical manager Steve Waterhouse. "I'd seen the electro-house producer Deadmau5 using an Immersive projection system, and needless to say was impressed with how it looked, so as soon as I heard Avolites Media had bought the media server l8 from Immersive and launched the Ai Media Server I knew that was the solution for the club.

"I have the D

UK - Lighting and visual rental specialist HSL created the lighting and video design for the 2013 Total Production International (TPi) Awards, and supplied all the necessary trussing, motors, rigging and control infrastructure plus crew needed to rig over 350 Robe lighting fixtures in the Ballroom of the Novotel, West London.

Working for TPi Awards show producers Mondiale Publishing and with event manager Ben Chadwick, the visual design was created by HSL's Tim Fawkes in collaboration with Mike Oates. HSL's event project manager was Spantax.

The basic concept was to make it "Funky, fun and more rock n roll than in previous years," states Fawkes, adding that the biggest challenge was being under pressure to produce something amazing looking to impress all the top industry professionals who were present.

All video content plus the sound track for the opening video wa

b>Sweden - Wireless Solution Sweden has announced a partnership with Music & Lights for the distribution of the W-DMX Micro, BlackBox and WhiteBox systems in the Music & Lights sales network.

W-DMX systems are already OEM installed in several products in the Music & Lights portfolio, including projectors by Prolights and ArchWork, and W-DMX has been recognised as a standard of high reliability and quality for professional performance and demanding environments.

Fabio Sorabella, product manager of Prolights says, "We have been testing many different wireless DMX systems and W-DMX was clearly the best choice for several reasons. Working with W-DMX is a solid guarantee for us and for our customers operating in rental and installation all over the world, since it currently is the most widespread system providing highest compatibility with a wide number of products. We strongly b

France - Robe's innovative new Robin MMX WashBeam moving light won a prestigious Etoile du SIEL (Star of SIEL) Award for Technical Innovation at the 2013 SIEL trade exhibition in Paris - France's leading international expo for the professional lighting, sound, video and entertainment technology industry.

The MMX WashBeam was entered into the Lighting Category. The fixture offers multiple features in one unit, and combining a Philips Platinum 35 lightsource with Robe's advanced optical system, provides an output exceeding most traditional 1200W products.

The Etoile du SIEL Awards were judged by an independent panel of industry experts, including lighting designers, technical and creative directors and representatives from top rental companies.

(Jim Evans)

USA - Bandit Lites is on the road with two of hard rock's top bands as Shinedown and Three Days Grace hit the road for a dual headlining February tour. The tour kicked off 1 February in Moline, Illinois at the iWireless Center.

Shinedown lighting designer Carter Fulghum and Three Days Grace lighting designer Mike Filsinger created two performances filled with throbbing lights that enhanced the high octane music and pyrotechnics.

With both bands co-headlining, Fulghum and Filsinger worked to reconfigure the rig to be more arena friendly, as the rig had previously been designed for amphitheaters. Additionally, fixtures and fixture placements were changed to accommodate both bands.

"Designing a rig for two artists can be a challenge," said Filsinger. "Keeping both bands happy both visually and financially can turn into a full on brawl but luckily in this case, it

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