UK - ETC is showing a range of new and updated products at this week's PLASA Focus in Leeds:

The Source Four LED Studio HD is designed to perform in a high definition production world where people (with varying flesh tones) need to look their best. The fixture combines exceptional light output with an ultra-flexible, variable white light (2700K-6500K), for more accurate colour rendition on camera, and uses the colour technology of ETC's Selador x7 Color System for a more spectrally complete white light that can be finely tuned to the on screen talent.

Source Four Mini is the tiniest Source Four ever, and is designed for small-scale installations, like low ceiling venues or puppet theatres, as well as museums, shops, theatre lobbies and restaurants, or those which need an extremely low-profile fixture that can easily blend into an architectural or artistic design.

The new ES1

Australia - The AUD$135.8m redevelopment of Hamer Hall was part of a larger revitalisation project for Arts Centre Melbourne and the first step in the Southbank Cultural Precinct Redevelopment plan. The project was overseen by theatre consultants Schuler Shook, and designed by architects Ashton Raggatt McDougall.

The heritage listed Arts Centre Melbourne is the largest and busiest performing arts complex in the southern hemisphere; Hamer Hall is the concert hall within the centre. Home to the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Hamer Hall also hosts a wide variety of performance events throughout the year, from theatre to rock and roll.

Jands supplied much of the venue's lighting including 20 Vari-Lite VLX's, 28 ETC Desire D40 Vivid LED Pars, and over 50 ETC Source Fours.

Adrian Sterritt, head of lighting at the Melbourne venue, says his team chose the VLX Wash luminaires followin

USA - Chauvet is gearing up for PLASA Focus Orlando, scheduled for 15-16 May. Built with TRUSST, backed by Chauvet, booth 501 will house a selection of fixtures including Chauvet Professional Legend 230SR Beam moving yoke, Nexus 4x4 tour-ready wash light, Ovation series of theatrical luminaires, PVP S5 high-definition video panel, MVP Ta8 Curve modular video panel, wash lights from the COLORado Series and more. Additionally, Chauvet will present on 16 May the seminar How to Blend LED with Traditional Fixtures.

Chauvet Professional Legend 230SR Beam is a compact, lightweight, intensely bright moving head beam, built for touring, live events, television sets or clubs.

Nexus 4x4 is both a bold eye-candy and a tour-ready wash light that uses RGB COB LED technology, combined with a reflector that delivers a soft and visually pleasing light.

Ovation F-165WW and Ovation E-19

USA - For the eighth year in a row, CAST Software has sponsored the USITT (United States Institute for Theatre Technology) Southwest Student Design Competition, an annual event which recognises young talent in the categories of Lighting, Sound, Set and Costume Design, Stage Management and Scenic Technology.

Each year, CAST bestows the winner of the Lighting Design category with an educational wysiwyg license, and announces that this year's winner is University of Oklahoma student, Leahe Knott, who scooped the prize for her work on Peter Oswald's translation of Friedrich Schiller's play, Mary Stuart. In a review of the production for the University's Routes website, Laurel Dix noted, "The purity and subtlety of Leahe Knott's lighting draws out each brilliant bit of colour from Lloyd Cracknell's sumptuous costumes."

Knott herself explains: "The story of Mar

USA - When the alternative rock band Neon Trees first burst onto the music scene, the four member band had no idea how quickly their lives would change. In February 2013, the group launched their most expansive North American tour opening for Maroon 5, with multiple tour dates across the globe set to follow immediately after.

As the production team prepared to bring the group's latest album Picture Show to life, lighting designer Matt Guminski would be inheriting part of the largest moving light rig they had ever used and they would capitalize on this by using the power and performance of the VL880 Spot luminaire from Philips Vari-Lite.

"I've been out with Neon Trees since May of last year when I joined them during the middle of their previous tour," began Guminski. "On that tour we really only had a ground package with small moving lights and strobes but

South Africa - Alistair Kilbee, managing director of Gearhouse Splitbeam, is proving over and over again that South Africa has what it takes to offer a technical solution for international Broadway production; the latest being Jersey Boys.

This multi-award winning musical is currently running at the Teatro at Montecasino, Johannesburg before opening at the Artscape, Cape Town, on 19 June 2013.

"I work extensively for Showtime Management productions, the SA Producer for Jersey Boys, on most of their productions," said Kilbee. "Showtime started talking about Jersey Boys three years ago... keep in mind that shows of this scale are always a couple of years in the making."

Kilbee kicked off Jersey Boys in Singapore in November 2012 and, over the 11 week run, the production received rave reviews. The performances in Johannesburg are enjoyin

USA - Belmont University's annual Best of the Best Showcase honoured Bandit Lites with the 2013 Robert E. Mulloy Award of Excellence. The event took place on Saturday, 13 April in the Curb Event Centre and was hosted by the Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business. Brent Barrett, Bandits' business development officer, accepted the award on behalf of Bandit Lites.

Wesley Bulla, Dean of the Curb College stated, "Bob Mulloy loved creating opportunities for students to experience the music industry first hand through programs like our showcase series. Today, this program has become a rich tradition on Belmont's campus. Without the partnership with Bandit Lites, our students would not have the chance to produce the high-calibre shows we've seen over the past 10 years.

"These partners have not just loaned equipment for shows, the professionals from Bandit have

Sweden - Wireless Solution Sweden AB's W-DMX is currently on tour with Beyoncé for the Mrs. Carter Show World Tour. Pyro, confetti, fire, CO2 and laser effects company Strictly FX is charged with all special effects for the tour and uses the W-DMX BlackBox F-1 along with two Booster B-1000 2.45GHz antenna boosters for a particular confetti sequence in the show.

John Lyons of Strictly FX explains, "We have four confetti blowers in a truss over the crowd. At the end of the song 1 + 1, Beyoncé flies over the crowd from the main stage to the satellite stage. As she flies, she leaves a trail of gold Mylar confetti behind to give a 'pixie dust' look. The confetti canons are controlled wirelessly with the W-DMX BlackBox, making the installation fast, easy and reliable. Due to the location, it just make sense to go with wireless DMX, and 120VAC is suppli

USA - Clay Paky lighting got glowing reviews at the 15th annual Ultra Music Festival (UMF) in Miami's Bayfront Park where they added to the pulsating excitement generated by fans, DJs and electronic musicians under the tent-like Carl Cox Mega Structure.

This year's UMF was the first two-weekend, six-day event in festival history and the most successful to date drawing over 330,000 electronic dance music fans. Over 200 DJs and electronic musicians and emerging artists performed each weekend.

UMF also scored another first with the public debut of the Clay Paky Sharpy Wash 330 in the US. Fifty Sharpy Wash fixtures were featured in the innovative Cox Mega Structure, which was purpose-built for the high-energy festival to showcase DJs and artists on stage and shelter legions of dancing fans. Stephen Lieberman of SJ Lighting designed the Mega Structure with lighting and build by AG

New Zealand - LumenRadio has announced the appointment of Kenderdine Electrical as their distribution partner for New Zealand. Kenderdine Electrical will offer the full product range of LumenRadio's CRMX products focusing on solutions designed for the theatre, live entertainment, studio and broadcast markets.

Kenderdine Electrical is one of the largest distributors in New Zealand with many years track record of distributing top brands such as Martin, Robert Juliat, Philips Selecon, Philips Strand Lighting and Osram.

"We are very excited to be working with LumenRadio", says Ruthe Kenderdine at Kenderdine Electrical. "We believe LumenRadio's innovate and reliable products are a perfect complement to our current product portfolio. With the CRMX products, we can provide turnkey solutions to all our clients. Everyone in our team looks forward to bring the CRMX brand

USA - Lighting designer Taylor Price needed a highly versatile yet compact and bright spot fixture for the large variety of venue types that American country music's Eli Young Band is playing on their current US tour. He found it in the Martin MAC Viper Profile, which he has teamed with another award-winning Martin fixture, the MAC Aura.

"I didn't want the small narrow-beamed fixture that is a one trick pony and way over used these days," states Taylor, who also wears the hats of lighting director, programmer and technician on the tour. "I chose the Viper for several reasons. Because of the wide variety of shows we are doing - headlining and support, clubs, theatres, sheds, festivals, and arenas - I wanted a fixture that was very versatile. I wanted something that is bright, but smaller than most of the 1200 W fixtures on the market because of our limited trailer

UK - In partnership since 1970, one of the longest in the industry, Phil Brunker and Neil Rice, founding directors and shareholders of Optikinetics Ltd, have recently passed ownership of this world renowned UK manufacturer to Rob Stitcher.

Brunker and Rice will continue to serve OPTI as consultants to ensure a smooth transition and customer continuity.

Said Neil Rice, "I am delighted we have found Rob, whose experience in business management will, I'm sure, re-energise and re-focus our future.

"The recent introduction of LED projectors has revitalised that side of our business whilst Trilite continues to be the de facto brand in the exhibition sector."

(Jim Evans)

France - In late 2012, Michel Sardou began a four-month Les Grands Moments tour across France, revisiting his biggest hits in a truly energetic show. Lighting designer Jacques Rouveyrollis used just one type of spotlight on stage throughout the tour - the MAC Viper Profile.

A total of 93 MAC Viper Profiles, supplied by the Dushow Group (who currently have 160 in total), were installed, 56 equally spaced over three gantries and 37 on the floor spread across four levels.

No traditional spotlights were used - a rare occurrence for such a show. The simple lighting plan acted as the sole stage design element and provided the performance area with structure by offering a wide variety of effects. At front of house, six MAC III Performances were installed behind the control desk for extra punch.

The MAC Vipers enabled Jacques Rouveyrollis to design several different lighting

Grand Opera - Russia's Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg has opened a new ballet and opera house with a gala ceremony attended by 2,000 guests. The new building sits beside the historic 19th-Century Mariinsky Theatre, the birthplace of ballets such as Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty.

At $700m (£450.5m), it has divided opinion, with some criticising the modernist architecture and cost. President Vladimir Putin said it had "everything you need for a theatre". Addressing guests, Mr Putin paid tribute to the "boundless energy" of the theatre's ambitious director Valery Gergiev, whose 60th birthday coincided with the opening night.

Hop Farm Cancelled - The Hop Farm music festival has announced the cancellation of this year's event because of poor ticket sales. The festival had been due to take place in Kent on 5-6 July. It was due to be hea

UK - Building on an unparalleled figure of pre-registrations, PLASA Events welcomed a record number of visitors at the Royal Armouries last week as PLASA Focus: Leeds 2013 opened its doors for two days of unique access to the newest and most innovative products on the market.

As the sun came out in Leeds, visitor numbers broke all previous records, hitting a total of 2376 over the two days - an increase of nearly 12% on 2012 - demonstrating once again the size, strength and enthusiasm of the entertainment technology community in the north of England.

Amongst the many companies unveiling new products to the UK were Martin Professional, showing the first luminaire from RUSH, their new effects lighting product range, and White Light presented the latest CORE Lighting ColourPoint LED uplighter, whilst Artistic Licence premiered their new range of smart modular dimmers, sunDial alo

UK - PLASA returns to 195 Piccadilly - the iconic home of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) - on Thursday 30 May for its 2013 European AGM. Over 200 members and guests are anticipated at the event, which will include a review of the achievements of the last 12 months and an outline of PLASA's aims for future development.

The AGM is of great significance to the Association and the ideal occasion for every member to ensure that his or her voice is heard. It is this feedback that enables PLASA to react positively to the changes and challenges that members face in order to act effectively on their behalf.

Important decisions were made through 2012 to support and safeguard PLASA's future including moving the PLASA Show to Excel London, investing in new software which will provide members with new self-service features and enable much easier participation in As

South Africa - The South African State Theatre in Pretoria has added more Robe LED fixtures to its lighting inventory ... specified by Head of Lighting Simon King.

The latest purchase includes 12 x MMX Spots, four DLX Spots and four Robin 300 LEDWashes and follows quickly on the heels of 40 x Robe LEDForce 18 PARs and eight new ColorSpot 250E ATs.

The Theatre also now has a total of 36 x LEDWash 600s, the first batch of which were purchased in 2011 from Robe's SA distributor DWR, after being specified by King who was keen to embrace the many advantages of LED stage lighting.

The State Theatre - housed in its distinctive and imposing building in the heart of the city - has five main performance spaces, the largest two being the 1300 capacity Opera Stage and the 650 capacity Drama Stage - and a fantastic reputation for excellence in multiple genres. It also likes to keep movin

Germany - After last year's highly successful shows in Germany, Canadian rock quartet, Billy Talent, returned to play another two sold out indoor concerts in late April, to warm up for the summer festivals that will come up soon.

For these gigs the conventional strobes that were originally specified were replaced by 12 of SGM's X-5 LED strobes - the first time lighting designer Dara Guiney had worked with them.

"Bernd [Wittenberg] from Go Audio Rental asked me if I would be willing to try them out and I loved them right away. Since most of my strobe effects are blinding effects, I was concerned if they would deliver the same impact - and they were perfect! They are really responsive - the white is amazing and not blueish at all. I am dying to try them in 7-channel mode next time, and use all the pixel effects."

Go Audio will be rigging almost all major festivals in

UK - UK - Peter Barnes has designed a fresh and diverse pure-beam show for the current X Factor Live tour, using 54 powerful Clay Paky Sharpys.

Barnes - who has designed lighting for some of the world's biggest artists and events including the Spice Girls' Spiceworld international tour and the Live 8 benefit concerts - specified the Sharpys, supplied by HSL, to cut through the brightness of the staging and create dynamic scenes.

"The Sharpys' thin powerful beams cut through against the LED screens without the need for too much smoke," says Barnes. "Everyone loves the Sharpy for the bright beams that help create a dynamic show, especially with the extensive use of video in most pop shows these days. The brightness of the beams can easily be seen against the brightness of the LED screens."

With seven different acts from the X Factor 2012 performing

UK - Opened with a glittering black-tie reception on Thursday 2 May 2013, the new extension to the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) showcases a range of the services that Northern Light supplies to venues across the UK.

The opening event featured an impressive entertainment line-up, including top impressionist Jon Culshaw and singer Laura Mvula, both of whom utilised technical equipment provided by Northern Light.

The Northern Light team have been on-site at the venue since July 2012, providing the specialist electrical installation of technical systems for the £80m Lennox Suite project. Northern Light was responsible for designing a building-wide, integrated lighting control system, in addition to the installation of cabling infrastructure and stage lighting, sound and communications systems for the new 2,000sq.m of additional conference and event space.

UK - When Chris Lessani and partner Gary MacCulloch took over the former Boho Club in Glasgow's city centre at the end of last year they wasted no time in renaming it The Sanctuary.

In order to stamp a new identity on the popular location, they travelled extensively looking for lighting ideas that would dazzle the dancefloor, and set it apart from other venues in the area. This would form the centrepiece of a significant interior upgrade this spring.

Having seen a particular domed LED lighting effect while in London, they brought in long-standing Aberdeen based installers, Blinding Light, as a specialist contractor to work alongside the general fit-out team.

They were in turn introduced to SGM UK's Ian Kirby and as a result specified no fewer than 730 LD-5 (LED Domes) for use on the club ceiling. Measuring just 80mm in outer diameter, up to 35 domes can be run in a single ch

Sweden - Scandinavia's leading contemporary circus company Cirkus Cirkör from Stockholm have purchased Robe MMX Spots and LEDWash moving lights for their current touring schedule, which presents their latest work, Knitting Peace.

Under the artistic direction of Tilde Björfors, Cirkus Cirkör mixes elements from street theatre, rock videos, theatre, dance and film into its shows. The company tours extensively worldwide and is based in Alby, south of Stockholm.

Lighting is an integral element of Cirkus Cirkör's work. It's used to emphasise the drama, the seat-edge acrobatics and sheer physical power, emotion and aesthetics of the performance.

Lighting for Knitting Peace is designed by Ulf Englund, and the new Robes - five MMX Spots and 16 LEDWash 600s - were specified for this show by him and Cirkus Cirkör's technical producer, Stefan Karlstr&

UK - Cambridge University's ADC Theatre recently sought a versatile solution for cyc lighting as part of the CUADC's production of Elton John and Tim Rice's musical, Aida. The theatre, the oldest University playhouse in the country, turned to entertainment lighting specialist White Light for advice. White Light's Jonathan Haynes worked with lighting designer Mitchell Clarke to decide on the right solution: the Spectra Cyc 100 - a 100 watt LED cyc fixture from American manufacturer, Altman Lighting.

For the ambitious production, flexibility was key. Clarke needed a fixture that could achieve many different looks on the curved cyclorama, which encapsulated the abstract set. The Spectra Cyc delivered with a complete range of vibrant, smoothly blended colours, thanks to Altman's patented LED lens. Clarke explained, "I couldn't get the variety of colours needed from our e

UK / USA ETC has introduced the Selador Desire D40XTI luminaire. It has the same colour mixing system that Selador luminaires are known for. Using the x7 Color System - which combines up to seven LED colours in one unit - the D40XTI has the most flexible colour rendering possible, says the company.

The D40XTI features the Selador family's professional-quality dimming capabilities. The D40XTI can fade to black smoothly, without the telltale steps demonstrated by other LEDs.

"The D40XTI was designed with the installer in mind," explains Jim Uphoff, ETC fixtures product manager. "It can be set up in minutes with a few simple connections. It has just two cables: one for power and one for both data in and thru. The DMX/RDM cable simply plugs into an included data board, and the power cord can be permanently wired to a junction box."

A tough, rugged luminaire,

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