USA - Rod Stewart is performing his Las Vegas Caesar's Palace residency show The Hits under the powerful reach of Clay Paky's Alpha Spot QWO 800s and Alpha Wash 1500s.

Stewart's long-time lighting designer Mark Payne - who has worked with Rod for the past 20 years - specified the Clay Paky fixtures from the Caesar's Palace technical department for star's Live the Life tour earlier this year and was so impressed with their capabilities that he requested them again for the Las Vegas show.

With several large video screens onstage and one of the largest LED screens in North Ameri

Spain - Robe moving lights continue to be involved in some of the highest profile international music awards shows, the latest being the 2013 Premios 40 Principales event, where lighting designer Juanjo Beloqui specified 30 Robin Pointes and 30 LEDBeam 100s for the show staged at the Palacio de Los Deportes in Madrid and attended by 15,000 enthusiastic music fans.

Los 40 Principals is Spain's most important and influential music station, and its annual Premios (awards) recognise some of the very best contemporary music in Spain across 15 different categories. The show featured a numbe

USA / UK - City Theatrical will host a free webinar on Tuesday, 7 January 2014 (11:00a.m. EST, 4:00 p.m. GMT) entitled Using Specialized Antennas With Wireless DMX at www.citytheatrical.com.

This is the fifth City Theatrical webinar on the subject of wireless DMX and will teach lighting users how antennas work, as well as how using specialized antennas such as panels and yagis can improve the fidelity of wireless DMX broadcasts by overcoming some of the most typical problems faced by lighting technicians, including long broa

USA - The Carolina Opry Christmas Special, The Christmas Show of the South, at the Calvin Gilmore Theatre in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, has brought the spirit of Christmas to life with music, comedy and dance for over 27 years. Adding a fresh visual element to the stage, and helping to transform the theater into a winter wonderland, is a large backdrop LED video screen made up of Elation Professional EZ6 LED video panels supplied by Elation dealer JR Lighting Design, Inc.

JR Lighting Design president Jason Reberski discussed LED video product options with The Carolina Opry's

USA - Elation Professional recently challenged students and young lighting designers in the US to create a stage or club lighting design using its Capture Polar design software. Winners of the "Designing Vision Contest" were announced on December 20th with Patrick Boozer awarded the top prize, an Elation-sponsored trip for two to InfoComm 2014 in Las Vegas plus Capture Polar Extended Software (a $4,000 value).

Second place went to Mike Berger, who won Capture Polar Basic Software, with third place going to Joason Tollefson, who takes home a Capture Polar Solo Software packag

The Netherlands - Marc Kocks has taken up the position of director at Sales-All in Bemmel, the Netherlands. Kocks, who previously spent over 20 years with the Ampco Flashlight group's sales companies, where he was managing director of TM Audio and Lightco, will be responsible driving Sales-All forward, as well as business development for Sales-All and Fairlight.

His initial goals are to open new markets, expand Sales-All's presence in the Benelux region, its product portfolio, set up an international network for second-hand sales and establish a European working network for private la

Singapore - Fashion TV venues are hyped all over the planet with Singapore recently celebrating the opening of the first Fashion TV Club in late October. German company auxweg.com designed the club and technically equipped it with a state-of-the-art sound and lighting package from ADJ Group that includes Elation Professional lighting fixtures and LED video panels.

The global fashion network teamed with investors from the US and Germany and placed the chic night spot in Clarke Quay at the heart of Singapore nightlife. A complete renovation of a previous club, Elation Platinum Beam 5R E

Austria - Elation Professional EU has announced the hiring of Karl Lager as the company's new sales representative for Austria. Karl, who starts in the new position this month, is tasked with using his extensive industry knowledge and customer network to build a strong Elation dealership structure in Austria.

Karl comes to Elation from industry trading company Licht-Lager, which he founded along with two partners in 2003. Born into a theatrical family that worked in Vienna's Burgtheater, the Austrian National Theatre, where he gathered a wealth of technical and sales knowledge, his ye

USA - Bandit Lites recently wrapped up another Warren Hayne's Xmas Jam with a two day event that kicked off 13 December and featured performances from Gregg Allman, Widespread Panic, Michael Franti, OAR, Gov't Mule, and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.

Preston Hoffman, who has designed the lighting for the event for three years now, was tasked by producer Joe Dindas to create something spectacular for the 25th anniversary.

"The idea behind the show was to do something that we had never done and that would push the show over the top," explained Hoffman. "This is always

USA - The internationally acclaimed Life In Color tour is aptly named. Aside from featuring some of the biggest stars in dance music like Calvin Harris, R3hab and Steve Aoki, the multi-city EDM tour, which bills itself as "the world's largest paint party" is a freewheeling festival of sights and colours with lavish spray painting of audience members, zip lines, carnival rides, dancing robots and, of course, an intensely bright, colourful and unforgettable lightshow.

The MVP 18 LED video wall panel from Chauvet Professional has been an "indispensable" part of this l

Australia - The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) in Canberra has launched their new Theatrette located in the NFSA's heritage-listed art deco building. The refurbishment included a larger stage, new seating design and new audiovisual technology. The 114 seat Theatrette is an intimate option for screenings, live performances, conferences, lectures, and break-out sessions. It will also allow the NFSA to stream HD content to any venue in the world.

Fredon was called upon to install a performance lighting system the rigging of which was a major challenge. However Allan

Spain - Hoy No Me Puedo Levantar (HNMPL - Today I Can't Get Up) is a hugely successful Spanish 'jukebox musical' from Drive Productions telling the story of two struggling young musicians surviving in Madrid against a backdrop of drugs, AIDS and other social phenomena and chaos in the 1980s and immediate aftermath of Franco's collapsed fascist regime.

Based on the music of 32 hits by Spanish supergroup Mecano, this new second version of HNMPL has just opened in Madrid's Coliseum Theatre, complete with a lighting design by Carlos Torrijos - featuring among others - 24 Robe Point

USA - Elation Professional has launched the Volt Q3 and Volt Q5 - two versatile RGBW LED washlights that run on a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. Their go-anywhere portability, combined with an in-built DMX receiver and all-weather IP65 housing, means the Volt Q3 and Q5 can be used for a large variety of indoor or outdoor applications, say Elation.

Battery life is 8-12 hours between charges, and the units are compact, at only 11 inches high (approx. 28cm. Three (Volt Q3) and five (Volt Q5) 100,000-hour, 15W, quad-color LEDs provide full color mixing capability. Field angle range is

Denmark - A new concept and tradition has been born in Denmark: a light festival in the city of Kolding. With the purpose of presenting a new and different experience for the city, local business people pooled together to add culture, beauty and technology to the public domain.

Project manager from Get Visual, Jacob Elsig, delivered lighting installations to many of the graphic and innovative projects and participated in the creation of the urban attraction together with the festival's coordinator and his lighting designer, Christian Vigs°. With the environment in mind, a key fact

UK - ETC's SineWave dimmers have helped bring silence to the new production of Henry V at London's Noël Coward Theatre - stripping out the filament noise from the eight DHA Digital Light Curtains that formed a core part of lighting designer Neil Austin's rig for the show.

"I've been using the DHA Light Curtains for a long time," comments lighting programmer Rob Halliday, "and while we've always been aware of the noise they make - a combination of the filament ring from six Par56 lamps and the buzz of the transformer driving them - it's never really been an issue

Canada - Justin Timberlake kicked off his 20/20 Experience World Tour in Montreal and Clay Paky Sharpys and Sharpy Washes were out in force. Solotech provided the lighting equipment.

True to its name, the tour is "an experience rather than a show," says lighting director Nick Whitehouse. "It's very visual with lots of projection and lighting and a lot of new technology. We got pretty creative with everything and had fun putting it all together."

The tour is in support of Timberlake's third studio album, which has a sophisticated vibe. The singer will play

Belgium / China - XL Video has announced an investment of more than 15m US dollars in a range of new LED products and accessories to support its plans for growth in 2014.

The LED investment has been made with a range of suppliers including Shenzhen-based Unilumin Group Co and its subsidiary Radiant Opto-Elec Technology Co Ltd to purchase a series of LED products based on the latest technologies. In total more than 1200 m2 of LED products for the XL Video rental business will become available from February onwards.

The LED investment covers amongst others: State of the art 2.5mm high

Finland - One of the most dynamic startup ecosystems on the planet, Slush, took place on 13-14 November, 2013 at the Cable Factory in Helsinki, Finland. Slush is the leading startup conference in Northern Europe and Russia. LumenRadio's Finnish distributor Sun Effects was responsible for the whole visual design and supplied the wireless CRMX Slim products, which played a key role for the two-day event.

"Slush was a really prestigious project for us and there was no room for any mistakes. When you do projects like this, it is extremely important to consider what kind of equipment

South Africa - Magnetic Storm is a technical solutions provider and rental company based in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The company has been running successfully for 33 years servicing a wide range of high quality corporate clients and live events, and is the oldest established and also the largest such operation in the Eastern Cape region.

Magnetic Storm originally invested in Robe moving lights - the 575 series - some years ago, which have proved reliable and solid for many years done dealing with Magnetic Storm's busy schedule of events.

When the time came to upgrade with the l

USA - ARRI CSC, the largest full service equipment rental group in the United States, has announced that Chris MacKarell has been promoted to digital workflow manager. He will continue to oversee ARRI CSC's digital workflow and on set activities for New Jersey and Florida facilities while at the same time contributing to ARRI Rental Group product development and Technical Marketing.

MacKarell's extensive experience in digital media spans 15 years in the post sector. Starting out as manager Mmedia illusion support for Avid Technology Inc. he then worked for NBC Peacock Productions. In

Germany - Robe moving lights were right at the heart of the lighting action on the main stage in front of Berlin's historic Brandenburg Gate, one of the largest public New Year's Eve celebrations worldwide.

Robe Pointes were also used to illuminate elements of the 'Fan Mile' covering five major roads in and around the event site as part of a lighting design by Lars Murasch, and were supplied together with other lighting equipment for the event by rental company TLT Event AG.

The show's glittering international artist line up included the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, The Overtones, Scoo

USA - Now in its fifth season, The Voice on NBC has become one of the most watched reality talent competitions worldwide. Throughout the run of the production which features three stages of competition concluding with live performances, the pressure placed on the competitors to showcase their talents is rivalled only by the pressure placed on the crew to make sure the show is both technically sound yet exciting to watch.

Behind the scenes, lighting designer Oscar Dominguez and his lighting crew have accomplished all this winning the 2013 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lig

UK - Colour Sound are deploying the the new Robe CycFX 8 fixtures that they purchased off the stand at PLASA London 2013 on the current White Lies Big TV tour with lighting & visuals designer Matt Waterfield.

Colour Sound is supplying all lighting and LED screen for the tour where Waterfield is working closely with laser designer and camera mixer Matt Buttons to produce a spectacular visuality for the tour which has helped win them sand the band plenty of rave reviews!.

Waterfield wanted to introduce some architecture into the design and also have the flexibility of the rig b

USA - London-based event design and production specialist Eclipse Presentations designed, produced, specified and co-ordinated all the technical production elements - lighting, video - including creation of all content, audio, staging, rigging, etc. - for the 14th annual Platt's Global Energy Awards in New York.

The high profile event, considered the 'Oscars of the energy industry' and presented by CNBC news anchor Amanda Drury, recognises and honours excellence in leadership, innovation and performance in the highly competitive world of energy. It was staged in the famous Grand Ballr

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