USA - ETC's Source Four Mini - a compact, 23 cm version of the legendary Source Four spotlight - picked up a PLASA Members Choice Award in the Gadget category at the LDI show. It earned the award due to its crisp optics, crystal-clear image projection and outstanding efficiency.

"We're thrilled that PLASA recognised the Source Four Mini," says ETC fixtures product manager Jim Uphoff. "It was a big draw at LDI, and is becoming a popular choice for lighting professionals, because it's so versatile, going where larger fixtures can't. It may be cute, but it's a powerful tool that deserves a place in any designer's toolkit."

In addition to being a product showroom, the ETC stand also served as a functional theatre, staging a series of presentations on lighting fixtures and system design. It was standing room only for the LDI guests who packed the booth to hear E

USA - LDI premier show sponsor Elation Professional enjoyed perhaps its busiest LDI Show ever as the company continued to raise its profile in the industry with a number of key product launches that included the surprise announcement of a distribution agreement with High End Systems.

The agreement, which allows Elation to distribute High End's new HedgeHog 4 and Nano Hog 4 lighting consoles in the US, Canada, Latin America, South East Asia and India, caused quite a stir on the show floor.

"The distribution announcement started things off with a bang and really set the tone for the rest of the show," said Eric Loader, director of sales at Elation Lighting. "This gives us a powerful and intuitive industry-standard lighting control platform and we're thrilled to be involved with it. Customers were equally excited and interest in it was great throughout the show so

South Africa - Like a kaleidoscope with forms constantly shifting and changing, Showgroup orchestrated a captivating production for the Nedbank Top Achiever Awards held at Gallagher Estate in Midrand.

The kaleidoscope theme was the brainchild of Showroup's Johan Els who focuses on the aesthetic and decor elements of an event, and Andries Liebenberg, Lighting Manager.

To create a playful ambience, circle shapes were used from everything in the venue from the ground up. In juxtaposition, the floor of the entire venue was tiled in black and white blocks. The lighting was thanks to a collaboration of various brand including Robe Robin 300 Classics and was run off an Avolites Titan Mobile.

The event included two Prolyte circle trusses with screens as surfaces and a 360° circular screen structure. To project images onto the 360° structure, front projection was utilized by

Australia - Jands has announced its continued participation at Entech Connect 2014, whilst adding a training zone area and becoming sponsors of the 'Staging Technicians Lunch'.

With a prominent stand secured, Jands are returning to Melbourne to not only meet new and existing clients but to showcase many exciting brands that they have to offer.

"After the success from the 2012 show, we are excited to be exhibiting at the 2014 Entech Connect," said Jands' Mallory Harvey. "We anticipate the same quality and quantity of visitors as seen in 2012 and look forward to showcasing the latest technology to the industry."

Entech Connect will also see Jands running an onsite training zone.

"It's fantastic that Jands are really embracing the educational aspect of Entech Connect with their offering of the training zone, which I'm sure anyone from the audio, light

UK - Billed as 'the latest in the exciting tradition of War Horse and His Dark Materials, Emil and the Detectives requires lighting designer Lucy Carter to transform the National Theatre's Olivier Stage into 1920s Berlin, utilising the subtle colours and theatrical grade dimming of Chroma-Q's Color Force 48 and 72 premium performance LED battens.

Lucy - a respected and sought-after lighting designer with an eclectic 20-year career - has specified 12x Color Force 72 1.8m / 72" and six Color Force 48 1.2m / 48" length fixtures to wash numerous scenic elements softly and evenly, evoking the atmosphere of the play's period.

All of the Color Force units are rigged overhead between a series of portals to wash down in subtle colours. They create a full wash and also work in smaller sections to create a 'broken up' coverage.

"For me, the best thing about the Co

South Africa - The DWR Team were invited by Nick Britz to attend a basic Avolites Training course which covered the infrastructure and operational instructions of the console.

The day kicked off with a short briefing from Bruce Riley on his recent travels to PLASA. Then it was over to Nick Britz.

For those who had never sat in front of a desk before it was a great thrill to record their first cue! For the experienced, a few novel tricks and tips kept them interested.

Nick Britz comments, "At the end of the day, education makes our job simpler too as the users have a better understanding of the equipment. In regards to the DWR team, it's so much easier to sell something that you know."

DWR's Duncan Riley believes consistent industry training is imperative. "I think we take a lot for granted thinking people know the equipment," said Riley. "It's real

Italy - Following Peter Johansen's takeover of SGM in February 2012, the company and brand have undergone a complete revamp. This process remains ongoing, with the latest activity being a new distribution channel for the Italian market provided by the SGM subsidiary, SGM Italy s.r.l.

Managed by Mario Radice as CEO and Giorgio Radice as commercial director, this recent initiative, effective from 1 November 2013, has been put into place to ensure the highest level of service for SGM's Italian partners.

Says Peter Johansen, "Moving all activities to Denmark has not caused us to neglect either SGM's origins nor our valued and loyal Italian customers. We have been planning this set-up and now the timing is just right."

Mario Radice is no new face to SGM and the lighting industry. Having working closely with Peter Johansen since 1992, the two passionate lighting enthusia

Australia - Royal Randwick's $152m five-star grandstand opened in time for the Sydney Spring Carnival season. Stretching 110m alongside the track and towering five levels above the finishing post, the handover of the grandstand from builders Brookfield Multiplex to the Australian Turf Club was a momentous occasion.

The grandstand not only features a 4500-capacity amphitheatre surrounding the Theatre of the Horse parade ring, but eight new restaurant and dining spaces, and four undercover terraces on each level facing west over the Theatre of the Horse.

Brookfield Multiplex chose The P.A People to deliver the networked television distribution and audio systems. Required acoustic performance criteria for each space and an indicative number of zones were nominated, along with an overview of functional requirements and environmental constraints. A 1000 port Ethernet network specif

UK - Live music lighting designer Rod Clay is making good use of the colour rendering technology of Philips Vari-Lite's VLX3 LED Wash luminaires to provide key light for Bryan Ferry during his An Evening with Bryan Ferry tour.

Ferry remains the ideal combination of mystery man and rock star and Clay's flattering and restrained lighting palette artfully reflects this. Conjuring up an intimate, smoky jazz club feel on the show's opening, half way through he seamlessly segues into dynamic concert style lighting backed by bright video imagery.

Clay's fixture palette, supplied by technical and creative production company One Big Star, includes Philips Vari-Lite VLX3 Washes for front, face and key lighting and Philips Selecon Rama Fresnels make up much of the cross lighting floor package.

Clay discusses: "We wanted a tungsten/jazzy feel for the opening of the show so t

UK - Henry V, the last of the five plays forming the acclaimed debut season of the Michael Grandage Company, recently opened at London's Noël Coward Theatre - with entertainment lighting specialist White Light supplying the lighting once again, as it has done since the season began last December.

With a cast led by Jude Law as the English King, Henry V follows Privates on Parade (which featured Simon Russell Beale), the world premiere of John Logan's new play Peter and Alice (featuring Judi Dench and Ben Whishaw), The Cripple of Inishmaan (featuring Daniel Radcliffe) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (featuring David Walliams and Sheridan Smith). The productions have all been directed by Michael Grandage, formerly artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse, and designed by Christopher Oram. One of the main aims throughout the season has been

USA - Carlos Colina, lighting designer for the 2013 Latin Grammy Awards, staged at the Mandalay Bay Events Centre, Las Vegas, USA and produced by Univision, decided to make a point for Ricky Martin's live appearance at the event... utilizing 18 of Robe's new Pointe multi-purpose moving lights for the superstar's acclaimed rendition of Más y Más together with singer songwriter Draco Rosa (who won Album of the Year).

The show was broadcast live across the Univision network with a staggering 9.8m viewers tuning in to all or part of the three hour telecast, which also generated record levels of interactive social media activity.

Colina has lit the Latin Grammys for the last seven years, and each year he and set designer Jorge Dominguez collaborate to produce a stunning visual concept for the action-packed line up, which included 21 live performances and the 13 Awards pres

The Power of Advertising - Lily Allen has returned to the top of the UK singles chart with her cover version of Keane's Somewhere Only We Know. The song, used in a festive television advert for department store John Lewis, is tipped to be Christmas number one.

Critics' Choice - Three artists have been shortlisted for this year's Brit Critics' Choice award, won last year by singer Tom Odell. Chloe Howl, Ella Eyre and Sam Smith are in the running with the winner to be announced on Thursday 12 December. Howl has been compared with Lily Allen, while former Brit school student Eyre scored a number one as the vocalist on Rudimental's Waiting All Night. La, La, La, Smith's collaboration with producer Naughty Boy, also reached number one in the UK singles chart.

Voting for the 2014 Brit Awards opened for members of the music industry last week. Their shortlists fo

Denmark - For Danish pop and R&B singer-songwriter, Medina, this fall has been dedicated to her extensive Danish tour Tæt På.

Medina's lighting designer, S°ren Peglau, selected both variants of SGM's LED tubes for his design creation: 150 pcs 1-meter LT-100 and 50 pcs 2-meter LT-200, specifically acquired for this tour by rental company Comtech.

Peglau's vision was to place the tubes in various heights and depths to fill out the stage and make it seem random and unintentional. "The effect I was looking to achieve was for the lighting to drizzle down over the musicians. For this, I created content that moved vertically in a slow mode," states the designer, who for other pieces of music also produced a slow-running fire effect for the tubes.

Also the audiences were invited to become 'immersed' in the setting, with tubes hanging over their heads, for whic

UK - Buckinghamshire rental company Siyan supplied a floor lighting package for the recent UK and European leg of a tour by American psychedelic rockers MGMT, who are promoting their eponymous third studio album, to complete an eye-catching lighting and visuals design by Ben Silverstein.

Siyan's Tom Grant explained that Ben's spec did not originally contain Robe products, but as this is one of Siyan's main moving light brands, he agreed to the suggested substitutions and use Robe for the first time.

"It was a very positive experience all round and Ben was happy with the fixtures," comments Tom, who saw him craft a high impact show from the floor rig with six Robe LEDWash 600s and eight MMX Spots at its core.

For the larger UK shows, Siyan boosted the overhead rig with additional fixtures including 20 more MMX Spots.

A twin 22k video projection system was also sup

UK - When the University of Roehampton Drama Department decided to upgrade their stock of theatre lighting, White Light was the university's first choice as supplier. Jonathon Wilson, technical manager for Drama at Roehampton, wanted to drastically increase the university's lighting capabilities while also complementing their existing equipment.

With a tight budget and a very broad range of equipment needs, Wilson was looking for a supplier that could deliver a large selection of products, excellent value, and superior service. He found all three at White Light and worked with business development manager Jonathan Haynes to put together a working list of products for demo at White Light's base in Wimbledon. "I was able to see similar units side by side and properly evaluate them. That resource was invaluable in making informed choices about products," said Wilson.

Th

UK -Richard Martin Lighting (RML) which has been involved with Top of the Pops for many years, was asked to be involved in the annual Christmas and New Year specials.

This year the shows were filmed at Riverside Studios where all three stages were packed full of vibrant set pieces and lights, as well as some of the leading acts around right now. These include Rudimental, The Saturdays, One Republic and Chase and Status.

Dave Gibson was also reinstated as LD making it even more nostalgic. The vast lighting rig included Sunstrips, Sharpys, Alpha Beam 300's and 700's, Robin 100 LEDBeams, MAC 500's, 8 Lites and MAC Auras.

A show of such magnitude, with so much going on throughout, means that it is an ideal opportunity for LDs to try out some of the newer fixtures that are now available. Dave saw this opportunity and took it with both hands using both the Chauvet Nexus 4x4 and th

UK - Utopium supplied the full event production for guests to get into the swing of things at Nokia's 1920s themed Christmas party held at Colston Hall.

Transporting guests back to the glamorous era, Utopium provided over 200 lighting fixtures to create the perfect ambience for the evening. This included Chauvet Well Uplighters, which were strategically placed throughout the venue to enhance its art-deco furnishings and original architectural features.

The evening's entertainment was held in the venue's main auditorium where Utopium designed and installed a complete stage lighting package to accommodate the various performances. Acts included two live bands, a DJ, hula hooping and swing dancers. The team also supplied a 9m x 3m rear projection screen that enabled custom graphics to be displayed, as well as a feed from video DJ Cheeba.

Throughout the venue Utopium used Showte

UK - Production Resource Group (PRG) worked with the production team for popular cockney comic, Micky Flanagan, to upscale his summer theatre show - 'Back in the Game'. Equally successful as an arena tour, the show impressively sold out at 35 UK arenas, including three shows at London's Wembley Arena and seven at The O2.

Although not involved with the Theatre Tour, the PRG team quickly responded to the increased lighting, rigging and crew requirements, while helping to maintain some of the intimacy and atmosphere of the original theatre show.

Production Manager Adam Scott called on Scottie Sanderson and his team, to help ensure the tour design would work within the budget and could be managed within the time restrictions as he explains: "Micky's show escalated almost overnight. He started the year with a 90+ date theatre tour using local production, but that quickly rampe

Russia - High End Systems has announced the launch of a new support, service and Hog community portal for Russian speaking markets. The portal can be accessed by going to WWW.HOGHOG.RU.

The portal will be a place for Russian speaking Hog users to find information about software releases and new products as well as a place to share ideas and network. Hog release notes and news will all be translated into Russian, allowing the user to get closer to the Hog family.

The HOGHOG.RU team is a community of professional users from the countries of the former USSR. This project gives the chance to share knowledge and to provide an extra level of support for the HOG4 operating system.

"HOGHOG.RU has been created with the help of several leading pros in the industry for sharing their knowledge and experience for the next generations. It's a sort of a practical wikipedia for HOG use

France - Leading French television lighting designer David Seligmann-Forest used a selection of over 100 Robe moving lights - LEDWash 300 and 600s, LEDBeam 100s and MMX Spots - to light the studio elements of the latest Retour de Terre Inconnue programme.

Broadcast on France 5 and the France 2 network, the show was originated and is presented by Frédéric Lopez. It involves taking a celebrity to an unknown destination and meeting unknown people, with the aim of discovering distant people whose culture, traditions and lifestyle are threatened by the advance of 'modernity', in the process re-discovering a 'different' celebrity when they are dealing with a completely new and different environment.

The studio section of the show - recorded at Studio Deux Cent Dix, St Denis, Paris - takes on a talk-show format and follows on from the location movie. The most imp

USA - As New York's Grand Central terminal celebrates its 100th anniversary, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Metro-North Railroad decided to create a beautiful lighting design for all travellers and New Yorkers to brighten up their holiday spirit. Partnering with Toshiba, a concept for a light show filling the west windows of the terminal was created by designer Michiru Tanaka, displaying coloured patterns and images during the evening hours. Bestek Lighting & Staging, Inc. deployed an impressive lighting system in the historical building featuring more than 350 Martin Professional lighting fixtures.

There were numerous challenges facing Bestek's team on the project from the start. Not only is Grand Central Terminal a historical, high profile landmark in New York City, but it's also a very active transportation hub, with 250,000 or more travellers and visitors pa

UK - Winchester's 75-seat Chesil Theatre has invested in Philips Selecon's PLprofile1s, PLfresnel1s, and PLcyc1s in an upgrade to LED following an extensive shootout comparing results with its existing tungsten rig.

The Chesil Theatre, home of the 150-year-old Winchester Dramatic Society and housed in a medieval building, has installed three PLprofile1s, five PLfresnel1s, and five PLcyc1s to reduce power consumption and simplify colour changing and control.

Peter Vincent, Lighting Manager at the Chesil Theatre, specified the LED Selecon fixtures. "The theatre has a good conventional lighting rig of about 70 lanterns, built up over many years," says Peter. "Selecon's PL range was a logical next step to replace some stock, and complement others. For us, they behave like proper theatrical lanterns with a common RGBW engine, user interface, and dimming curve."<

UK - Lighting designer Will Dart is using the rapid response Avolites Tiger Touch Pro to control his cinematic lighting concept for Indie rock band Bastille on their worldwide Bad Blood tour.

Scaled up from the spring and festival tour, Dart is using the Tiger Touch Pro console in conjunction with the Avolites Titan7 software to control a mix of cue to cue lighting states and moody live effects. Dart uses front projection onto an upstage backdrop screen augmented by wing drapes, which double up as both projection and up-lighting surfaces to give the show design a deep, moody feel.

"The brief we had from the band was to create a mix tungsten effect lighting and video projection," explains Dart. "The original concept was to have something quite theatrical and cinematic going on behind the band. We've used a lot of footage from the band's music videos and th

UK - Devon- based drapes, starcloth, LED and visual effects specialist S+H Technical has supplied products to several high profile TV shows in recent weeks, including the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing special at the Tower Ballroom in Blackpool, The Royal Variety Performance at The London Palladium and the record-breaking 2013 BBC Children In Need telethon's main studio at Elstree.

S+H were commissioned by Patrick Molony, production manager for hit West End musical Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, to produce a custom starcloth for the cast's special performance at the 2013 Royal Variety Performance (RVP), at the London Palladium theatre.

The starcloth backdrop was the idea of Charlie's set designer Mark Thompson who wanted something quick and easy to rig that would bring a unique look and feel to the special medley performed for the RVP, which was attended

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