USA - Zorro: A New Musical has claimed a lot of firsts for ETC's Eos family of lighting control products. It was the first West End musical controlled by an Eos desk. It was the first large scale show in Paris run on an Eos. And now it's adding another accomplishment to the list: Zorro is the first theatrical production in America to feature ETC's newest lighting control desk, Eos Titanium ("Ti").

The debut of Ti coincided with the preproduction of Zorro at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, so lighting designer Ben Ormerod and programmer Andi Davis deci

Belgium - Luc Peumans of Painting With Light designed spectacular lighting and visuals for the 2013 Jim TV Awards AKA 'The Jimmies', staged at the Ethias Arena, Hasselt, Belgium, which celebrated some of the best musical talent in the country.

Peumans - known for creating innovative and eye-catching all-encompassing visual environments - was called by the popular Jim TV music channel themselves and asked to come up with something eye-catching for the occasion.

It's the first time he's been involved with the high profile event, which features an hour of awards broadcast live, followe

UK - Blackburn-based lighting and visuals specialist HSL supplied lighting, LED screen, a Kinesys automation system and crew to the UK and European arena legs of international vocal group Il Divo's Greatest hits tour, following on from their successful collaboration last year.

For the first time, Il Divo performed with Welsh soprano Katherine Jenkins on the tour, which featured lighting designed by Dave Davey one of the UK's most successful television lighting designers. Davey's work includes high profile shows like The X Factor, which is where he originally met Il Divo'

Romania - A wide selection of Robert Juliat spotlights, profiles and followspots have been chosen for the new lighting installation, following a major refurbishment, of the historic National Theatre Vasile Alecsandri in Ia?i, Romania.

The theatre, which was named after one of Romania's most famous poets and actors, hosts the Ia?i Romanian National Opera and is listed in the National Register of Historic Monuments. It has recently undergone a lengthy seven-year renovation during which time its programme of events was spread out across theatres all over Romania.

"This disadvantag

Sweden - Slovakia's Leader Light was a key official supplier to this year's Eurovision Song Contest, with 160 units of LL stage beam were located directly on the stage.

"For the company this was a new experience which we much appreciate," says managing director Julius Szaraz. "Leader Light constantly tries to improve technology and I think this is an evidence of the quality of our products."

LL stage beam is a LED fixture which is designed for graphic back/front stage lighting effects for the entertainment market. This cool white light is compatible with DMX and

Sweden - A total of 11 x grandMA2 light consoles were used for running lighting and video at the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest, staged at the Malmö Arena, Sweden.

Four grandMA2 light consoles, plus four as backup, were controlling around 1,400 fixtures. The three video grandMA2 light, one as backup, were playing back content stored on 22 media servers via MA-Net2 feeding 28 x Barco HDQ-2K40 projectors. They had 94m video pixels in the show and were running up to 16 video layers on the media servers. 4 x MA onPC command wing were used as well for technical support purposes.

The 2013

China - ADJ has opened a sales and distribution facility in the world's most populous nation. Located in the city of Pan Yu, the new Guangzhou ADJ China will sell ADJ products exclusively to the Chinese market.

According to Toby Velazquez, president of the ADJ Group, the company's move into China was prompted by feedback from Chinese consumers, club owners and concert managers. "End users in China have been exposed to our lighting products in other countries whether in Asia or elsewhere; and have been impressed by their performance as well as by our branding. Over the past few ye

UK - White Light will return to the ABTT Theatre Show this June, exhibiting on stand 133 in the show's Orange Hall. The entertainment lighting specialist will showcase the latest lighting, and effect products for the stage and staff will be on hand to discuss White Light's range of services which include Hire, Sales, Installation, Technical Service, and Events.

Appearing on stand 133 will be White Light exclusive products from manufacturers Altman, Chromlech, CITC, CORE Lighting, James Thomas Engineering, JB Lighting, Look Solutions, LSC Lighting, Rainbow Colour Changers, and Wireless

Indonesia - Clay Paky has unveiled its latest luminaires to major Asian rental companies and TV stations at a demo Jakarta in Indonesia.

Clay Paky area manager Alberico D'Amato and the Italian LD Giovanni Zucchinali collaborated with Clay Paky's Malaysia-based Asian distributor Acoustic & Lighting System for the show, with their newly opened Indonesian branch, which offered end users in the region the opportunity to experience the company's latest breakthroughs in lighting technology.

On show were Clay Paky's A.Leda K10 and K20, the Alpha Spot QWO 800, the Alpha Spot 700 HPE, the Al

Estonia - Renowned for producing some of the best theatre in Europe, Vanemuine Teater in Tartu, Estonia, launches its new production of Grease directed by Georg Malvius, featuring a vibrant lighting design by Palle Palmé who is utilising over 100 Robe moving lights.

These are part of a new installation at Vanemuine in the theatre's 660 seater Big House venue.

The installation is part of a much wider upgrade programme which has seen all eight Estonian state supported arts and culture venues receive a major lighting refit - with Robe moving lights deployed across all sit

China - The newly reopened Yau Ma Tei Theatre has put a modern twist on traditional Cantonese opera. The historic 300 seat venue in Kowloon, Hong Kong, features the latest ETC technology, with layers of the highest quality conventional and LED light.

Originally opened as a cinema in 1930, the Yau Ma Tei Theatre screened films from a variety of genres until it closed in 1998. Nearly a decade later, the building was saved from being bulldozed when it was declared an architectural and cultural landmark. The government decided to revitalise the area, beginning conservation work to transfo

UK - A substantial lighting rig featuring over 150 Robe fixtures was used by 'house' lighting designer and TV lighting director Tim Routledge to create a production design for the 1xtra / In New Music We Trust Arena at BBC Radio One's 2013 'Big Weekend' event.

The high-profile three day musical extravaganza staged in Ebrington Square, Derry-Londonderry, Northern Ireland, kicked off the UK festival season in style.

The lighting equipment for this stage was supplied by the HSL Group incorporating PSI who provided all rigging and support. The two companies have recently merged offering

UK - Award-winning lighting designer James Thompson is using pure beam Clay Paky Sharpys to throw laser like beams across the audience in his show design for The Script's current sell-out world tour.

Thompson - who was presented with a Knight of Illumination Award in the category of Concert Touring and Events for his work with The Script in 2011 - has praised the impact the Sharpys can have in a lighting design.

The Script show, which has been designed to reflect the name of the Tour - '#3', features a huge video backdrop with three parallel video fingers that reach out into the aud

Brazil - Robe participated with local distributor Newart at the 17th Brazilian exhibition and conference organised by the AES (Audio Engineering Society) in Sao Paulo, taking the opportunity to highlight its latest innovative new products, including the RobinN Pointe, the MiniMe and the MMX WashBeam.

Attracting lighting, sound and video professionals from Latin America and the US, AES Brazil Expo registered a 10% growth in visitor numbers. AES Brazil president Armando Baldassarra stated, "More and more international launches are happening in Brazil which continues to raise the pr

Denmark - Two new Fresnel luminaires in Martin Professional's award-winning MAC Viper Family of moving heads are now shipping.

The MAC Viper Wash and MAC Viper Wash DX with internal framing are full-range wash luminaires capable of performing at the high level you would expect from a professional wash light. Both luminaires feature the same compact form, impressive speed, superior light quality and beautiful colours of the MAC Viper Family and use the same 1000 W HID source.

The Wash DX version houses a unique internal framing system that enables designers to shape and control light

USA - Martin Professional, Inc. is pleased has announced that on 3 June industry expert and long-time industry professional Grif Palmer will join the company as business area manager, rental - US.

Palmer brings to Martin a wealth of knowledge and industry experience, having worked as VP of Sales for High End Systems, regional sales manager for Barco and most recently as VP of sales for LED Source. His roots in the industry stretch back to 1985 when he founded Core Systems, and he has amassed an abundance of key contacts since.

Brian Friborg, president of Martin US, commented,"G

UK - Entertainment lighting specialist White Light is pleased to announce its streamlined White Light Distribution network, focused on business to business sales and support for exclusive products and brands.

The enhanced distribution network will provide sales and support of White Light exclusive products to dealers in the UK, with some products available throughout Europe and worldwide. The new structure allows UK dealer access to products from 13 exclusive lighting, rigging, and effects manufacturers including ADB Lighting Technologies, Altman, ArKaos Pro, CORE Lighting, Chromlech,

UK - Lighting and visuals rental specialist Colour Sound Experiment supplied lighting and LED screens to Vodafone UK's annual conference staged at the Birmingham Hilton Metropole Hotel at the National Exhibition Centre.

It was the first year that CSE has been involved in the event, where they were working for producers, The Red Lodge Agency.

Three main areas needed technical production - the conference sessions in the hotel's Monarch Suite; a gala dinner and awards ceremony in the Palace Suite and then the after-show in the Kings Suite.

Colour Sound's project manager Fletch create

Czech Republic - In 2013, the Showlight Conference was staged in the Czech Republic for the first time, at Cesky Krumlov and with Robe Lighting as the main sponsor.

Nearly 400 visitors embraced the mediaeval town for the three days to enjoy a lively mix of presentations by industry professionals working in all areas of lighting and visuals plus networking opportunities as well as getting a taste of life in and around Cesky Krumlov.

Various fact-finding and sightseeing visits were an integral part of the conference itinerary, allowing delegates to see some of the local commerce and b

UK - OMC has announced the launch of its ProfiLED Lightbar product family, which reduce cost and offer an improved appearance, especially in low and medium volume applications.

Unless production volumes are very high, the cost of developing a custom lightbar is prohibitive for most applications. Instead, designers often use several standard square or rectangular units in combination. However, this approach gives rise to high materials and assembly costs, and the finished product has unsightly dark lines where the arrays join.

Using the same approach as it adopts in its ProfiLED Back

UK - AED Distribution is the UK Master Distributor for High End Systems and is running a HOG4 training session on 11 and 12 June. There are a few places still available for what will be the first HOG4 Training in the UK run by Frank Schotman AED Distribution lighting specialist.

It is a free course and will provide an essential introduction to the new Family of HOG4 Consoles for all Lighting Professionals. It will be held at the AED Distribution UK Facility in High Wycombe. Those that are interested should contact Sarah Van Havere at sarah.van.havere@aeddistribution.be.

(Jim Evans)

Australia - LSC Lighting Systems and OpenClear have announced the release of Clarity software version 2. This much anticipated version includes a wide array of enhancements, bug fixes as well as updates for full compatibility with the latest versions of the Mac and Windows operating systems.

This release also brings the software in line with the recently released LX range of consoles so that features are common across the software and hardware platforms. The latest software also includes virtual consoles enabling users to operate their software as a virtual LX300, LX600 or LX900.

Th

Germany - Over 100 Robe moving lights are in action for the sixth series of the popular reality TV show Let's Dance produced by ITV Germany, which is being recorded in Studio 32 of the MMC Film & TV Studios in Cologne

The production lighting designer is Manfred Ollie Olma, one of Germany's best known LDs.

His company, mo2 design GmbH, is also based in Köln, and has executive lighting designer & director of photography David Kreileman taking care of the week-to-week running of the show's lighting. He's working alongside mo2 project managers Sebastian Kirsch and Matthias Allho

USA - Using 12 of GLP's versatile impression X4 LED fixtures, Washington DC-based Pulse Lighting recently provided lighting for Slightly Stoopid's special one-off 'Hot Box' show at Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre in Denver, Colorado. The show, which also featured Cypress Hill, was scheduled for broadcast live on AXS TV the same evening.

Set up by brothers Paul and Preston Hoffman in 2005, Pulse Lighting were asked to light the Californian-based 'fusion' band in their own right for the first time. "The management knew we had experience of the venue, and in running concert lights f

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