USA - Elation products were again put to work across several stages at the 2014 Coachella music and arts festival but this year also fulfilled a new role as powerful site lighting

Elation gear has become a staple of the Coachella Festival as it has grown to become one of the largest and most successful music festivals in the U.S. This year, Coachella hosted more than 500,000 people over the festival's two weekends with headliners Muse and Arcade Fire, along with a list of surprise guests and more than 180 other acts, delivering another memorable event.

Elation dealers Visions Lighti

USA - Miami's Club E11even is a 24-hour hybrid club, operating as an intimate lounge space by day and a gentleman's club by night with an expanded space, Cirque Du Soleil acts, aerialists, contortionists and interactive theatrical characters. Recently, Miami-based iDesign installed Martin Professional lighting fixtures to be the centre of all parts.

With a total of 38 Rush Profiles (32 - main room, six - day room), 16 Rush Beams in the main room and three Hazers (two - main room, one - day room), Club E11even chose Martin for its power and, most importantly, its reliability.

"T

UK / USA - Le Maitre Ltd, a leader for over 35 years in the manufacture, design and development of pyrotechnics, smoke and haze machines and other special effects, announced that it has hired Bruce Baum as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer.

Baum will be responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of Le Maitre's US operations and the oversight and management of Le Maitre group's financial team. He will be based at Le Maitre's US location in Las Vegas, Nevada. Baum's efforts will be to support the current management team in the development and implementation o

UK - Avolites and Avolites Media's industry-leading range of control consoles and media servers will be available for hands-on demos on Stand 69 at this year's ABTT Theatre Show.

The Avolites team will be exhibiting its 'ultimate in live control' Sapphire Touch and new Wing, offering an additional 30 Motorised Faders and third hi res touch screen. Avolites' hot off the press Titan Mobile Fader Wing - which enables expansion of every Avolites Titan console, giving direct access to extra handy features - will be on stand for demo and hands-on experience.

The entire Titan range, two Ti

USA - Set in the pastoral 'Spirit of Suwannee Music Park' and featuring 15 different yoga and meditation sessions on topics ranging from breath work and mantras to the flow arts of hoop and poi, the Aura Music & Arts Festival is one of the most mellow events on the music fest calendar.

Organisers of the annual gathering, which began in 2010, wanted to convey this uplifting mood on stage. The Design Oasis team helped them do just that, in part by using the MVP 12 LED video panel and COLORado 1-Tri IP LED wash from Chauvet Professional to frame their performance stage with a lush variet

USA - Music City held its annual Grammy Block Party with lighting provided by Bandit Lites. The private event for members of The Recording Academy was held at Owen Bradley Park and included performances by Chris Young, Kacey Musgraves and Martina McBride. Two-time Grammy award winner Jim Lauderdale hosted while cast members of ABC's Nashville mingled with the crowd and even performed on stage.

Lighting designer Mike Marcario utilised Martin MAC 2000 Washes for the downstage front wash, along with Martin Mac Auras and GRN Batten 3-36's for the mid and upstage bars. He also included 8-l

UK - Students at London's Rose Bruford College of Theatre & Performance have used an Avolites Sapphire Touch and Tiger Touch II to stage a concert as part of a specialist module on lighting design for live music.

The students opted to take 'The Concert Lighting Project', offered in addition to their theatre lighting design courses at the college by Rose Bruford programme director and lighting designer Hansjorg Schmidt.

Avolites' head of training Amy Schofield visited Rose Bruford to demo the Sapphire Touch and Tiger Touch II consoles, with specific lighting design for live music tu

Belgium - LumenRadio and Controllux have confirmed a partnership where Controllux will now distribute LumenRadio's wireless lighting controls products in Belgium and Luxembourg.

Commenting on the partnership, LumenRadio's sales & marketing manager Jessica Björk says, "We are delighted to partner with Controllux, a company that shares our strong commitment to providing the best technology, the best support and stands by their customers all the way. Controllux are also a highly respected company within their territories. Their extensive experience both in live productions and inst

South Africa - LD Renaldo van den Berg and production manager Victor Vermaak from Johannesburg based design and technical production specialist AV Unlimited created a spectacular lighting scheme utilising Robe moving lights for the South African leg of the Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone launch.

The VIP gala dinner event was staged in a special Super Dome structure built by In2structures and erected adjacent to the Wanderers Cricket Stadium in Illovo, Johannesburg. AV Unlimited was brought on-board to create the technical production design by event producers Mela Events, and Robe moving

UK - The State and Orpheum Theatres in Minneapolis, part of the Historic Theatre Group/Broadway Across America have installed Lycian 1295 ELT followspots. A total of 7 were sold by Monkey Wrench Productions, serving the Twin Cities.

According to the Orpheum's Head Electrician Bill Devins: "Lycian 1295s are considered the theatrical industry standard. We are a Broadway touring house, and are happy to have a product that touring and local personnel will be both be familiar with and be bright enough at 3Kw with our other gear."

Seth Scott of Monkey Wrench Productions says: &q

Turkey - Clay Paky has announced a partnership with Asimetrik Sound, Light and Display Systems. The Turkish company, which specializes in the marketing and installation of technology and systems for show, corporate and architectural environments, said it was delighted to forge a partnership that involves marketing and providing technical assistance for all Clay Paky products.

Asimetrik is based in Ankara and Istanbul and can count on a close network of partners throughout Turkey, with branches in Antalya and Izmir.

This partnership replaces the previous contract between Clay Paky an

Australia - Robe is supporting UK based light artist and creative director of Dark Art London, Simon Brockwell at the 2014 Vivid Festival of Music, Light & Ideas in Sydney, Australia, in the realisation of his bold and innovative light sculpture, Sky Flower.

Robe is working in close collaboration with its Australian distributor The ULA Group and leading Australian Robe rental partner Elite Sound & Lighting from Canberra to supply and coordinate the equipment for Simon's interactive installation which can be experienced live between 23 May and 9 June.

Sky Flower is one of two install

USA - Czech Republic-based LED lighting manufacturer Anolis, the architectural division of Robe Lighting, has appointed Darin Fowler as national business development manager in the US, effective 5 May 2014. Fowler, most recently with Kreon Inc., will be based in New York.

This recent hiring is due in part to increased demand by U.S. customers as business continues to grow under new CEO Bob Schacherl. This is the latest of several new US appointments announced in the past months in order to provide the best sales support and customer service.

"It's exciting to see the level of c

UK - Avolites has announced a restructuring of the board of directors, with managing director Richard Salzedo stepping back into the role of director, and Steve Warren ascending to the role of Avolites Group MD.

Founder shareholders Steve Warren, Richard Salzedo and financial director Meena Varatharajan purchased Avolites from previous owners Carlton TV in 1991. Since then Richard has worked for Avolites as research engineer and R&D director, overseeing hugely successful projects such as the Sapphire and industry changing Avolites Pearl console before moving on to become managing dire

USA - Devoted 311 fans swarmed to New Orleans this year for the ultimate celebratory concert experience on 11March, better known as 311 Day. Showcasing a culmination of eleven albums, including their most recent studio album released earlier this year, titled Stereolithic, Martin Professional Atomic 3000 DMX strobes (10) and M6 lighting console were deployed by Joe Paradise, lighting designer.

311, an American rock band from Omaha, Nebraska formed in 1988, created 311 Day in 2000 when the band played 47 songs straight. Since then, the band has consistently increased its set lis

UK - Relationships that have had a big influence on Gary Barlow's latest tour. Barlow is a master of his genre, as he has amply demonstrated by selling out all 17venues around the UK. His first solo outing onto the arena circuit, show director Kim Gavin along with designer Tim Routledge and production director Chris Vaughan, elected for a minimalist approach to staging, but with an emphatic widescreen approach to video.

Tim Routledge comments, "Gary wanted to keep as close to his audience as he had on last year's theatre outing. At the same time we needed a bigger show to suit th

USA - Alternative rock band The Pixies have made quite the comeback after their revival 10 years ago, and are now on a worldwide tour with a full lighting rig from Martin Professional.

Full service lighting, sound and rigging rental company based in New York, See Factor, worked with Myles Mangino, lighting designer for The Pixies, to create a rig featuring 15 MAC Viper Profiles, 12 MAC Auras, four RUSH MH3s and three Jem K1 Hazers.

The Pixies, who recently stopped at the renowned Coachella Music Festival after their reunion tour began nearly 10 years ago, needed a versatile lighting

UK - The stars of ETC's stand (number 53) at this year's ABTT show, 11-12 June in London, will be ETC's newest lighting system, Cobalt, along with the Source Four® LED Series 2 luminaire. Stand visitors will also be able to take the opportunity to see a range of other new and improved products that have been designed with theatre users in mind.

The new Cobalt system that will be on display has an all new operating style that allows operators to keep their eyes on the stage and not on the controls. The Cobalt line - which includes Cobalt 20 and its smaller, but no less powerful sib

Sweden - Over 150 Clay Paky fixtures were used on this year's popular Melodifestivalen tour with the Sharpy Wash 330 being singled out as a 'mind-blowing' fixture by lighting designer Fredrik Jönsson.

The Melodifestivalen tour is part of Sweden's national competition to find out who will be representing the country in Europe's annual Eurovision Song Contest. Jönsson had to create a high-spec touring lighting design that captured the imaginations of the contest's live and at-home audiences.

"The brief for the show was to create a visually stunning environment for the performan

Denmark - When Austrian drag act Conchita Wurst was crowned the winner of the 59th annual Eurovision Song Contest in the Danish capital of Copenhagen, it brought to the end a spectacular show, in which SGM's pioneering LED lighting was a clear highlight of the rig.

In a groundbreaking design, the show's creative director, Per Zachariassen and lighting designer Kasper Lange (with whom he has worked for ten years) ensured that content throughout the 26 artistes performing could be delivered to four different surfaces, allowing the stage to be transformed from act to act. This inc

Denmark - 46,320 parameters, 138 universes 1,380 moving lights, 1,500 spot (conventional, LED, effect), 10kms of data cable, 12kms of power multicore cable, 6kms of power cable - numbers like these hint ... that it was Eurovision Song Contest time again.

The 2014 event took place in an old shipyard at Refshaleøen, Copenhagen, Denmark and once again set new standards for production technology and as an eye opener.

Danish lighting designer Kasper Lange relied on seven grandMA2 full-size and two grandMA2 light consoles, 19 x MA NPU (Network Processing Unit) and 9 x MA 8Port Node

Ivor Novello Awards - Fleetwood Mac's Christine McVie has been honoured with a lifetime achievement at this year's Ivor Novello songwriting awards. McVie played with Fleetwood Mac for 28 years and wrote some of their most famous songs, including Don't Stop and Little Lies. Other winners at the ceremony in London included London Grammar, The Chemical Brothers and Nile Rodgers. The annual awards, now in their 59th year, are voted for by songwriters.

Picking up her award, McVie confirmed she had rejoined Fleetwood Mac after a more than 15-year absence and would join them on

UK - As part of their support for education and training in the field of entertainment lighting, the Worshipful Company of Lightmongers (WCL) in conjunction with the Association of Lighting Designers (ALD) are offering an annual award for those who are at the start of their career.

The Worshipful Company of Lightmongers is one of the modern Livery companies and number 96 in order of precedence within the City of London. Being a modern company, it has all of its members involved in the lighting industry through engineering / manufacture, design, architecture, electrical installation an

Italy - Multi-talented Italian superstar Luciano Ligabue - a prolific singer-songwriter, film director and award winning author - played a series of intimate concerts at the start of his 2014 Mondovisione tour which builds up to stadium shows in the summer, with lighting designer Jo Campana including 20 x Robe Robin Pointe moving lights on his rig.

Campana, who has worked with the artist since 2009, first saw the Pointes in action at this year's Sanremo Music Festival in March - where he was also working for the artist. The fixtures immediately caught her attention, so much so,

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