UK - London-based lighting and visuals rental company Colour Sound Experiment supplied lighting to Festival Republic for several stages at the 2014 Reading and Leeds festivals - Lock Up, Dance, BBC Introducing, Silent Disco 1 & 2, Piccadilly Party, the Action Aid and Oxfam tents plus all of EBCs Bars - plus LED screen for the Dance arena.

Furthermore, 2.5 Km of LED festoon lighting was used to enhance the ambience around the main arena. A team of 10 Colour Sound techs were crew chiefed by the unfazable Andy Melleney at Reading and two artics worth of kit was dispatched from the compan

USA - Clay Paky Shotlight Wash fixtures really rock. In fact, they took to the stage for two back-to-back concerts in May: the MMR*B*Q, the annual show from Philadelphia rock radio station 93.3 WMMR where Rob Zombie headlined, and the WRFF-FM Seventh Birthday Show where Foster the People headed the bill.

John Duncan of Pinpoint Lighting, the festival lighting designer for both shows, says the same rig stayed in place for MMR*B*Q and WRFF's Seventh Birthday Show at the outdoor Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, New Jersey. Ten Shotlight Washes obtained from Main Light Industries in Wil

UK - Elation Professional is exhibiting at the inaugural PRO Show 13-15 September at the NEC Birmingham where the company will launch launch "a truly innovative game changing product that is unlike anything on the market today".

Visitors to Elation Stand G25 will be the first to experience the Sniper, a new type of hybrid multi-effect lighting fixture that gives the creative LD an all-new tool to create stunning light shows, says the company

Visitors to PRO will also be some of the first to see two new LED-based professional moving heads from Elation, the Satura Spot CMY P

UK - The latest addition to the Vari-Lite range, the VL4000 Spot, is set to take this year's PLASA London by storm where it will be showcased on the Philips Entertainment stand L80 at ExCeL exhibition centre.

PLASA London visitors will be able to see the VL4000 Spot in action during the twice daily light shows at the Philips stand, getting to grips with all its exciting features, including its high-resolution optics, which ensure remarkable centre-to-edge focusing and an unprecedented contrast ratio, and a 5:1 zoom covering an amazing 9 to 47 degrees without sacrificing output or clar

UK - West London-based lighting and visual rental specialist Colour Sound Experiment supplied over 550 moving lights plus hundreds of other lighting fixtures, rigging and trussing - including for the video elements - to the North and South open air stages at the 2014 Creamfields EDM extravaganza, staged at Daresbury Estate, Near Warrington.

Colour Sound's team was again led by crew chief Jon Rickets, and they all worked closely with creative and technical production specialists LarMac LIVE to achieve spectacular results as the clubbing event, which sold out to its 70,000 capacity, pus

Poland - Warsaw-based Aram Multimedia delivered multimedia solutions for the opening ceremony of the Volleyball Men's World Championship Poland 2014.

The event took place on 30 August at the National Stadium in Warsaw, and was the biggest sports event organized this year at this venue.

Within the set design by Giorgios Stylianou, 300sq.m of different LED curtains were installed, including 24 multimedia cylinders symbolizing each participating country in the tournament, as well as stage located on the stadium's stand.

Some of the regular LED cabinets has been modified to fit the se

USA - Dimming lighting loads can be quite tricky, especially when it comes to LEDs; many lack smooth dimming transitions and step-through from one level to the next. Testing fixtures and the driver together is an essential - and often overlooked - step to avoid unnecessary headaches associated with dimming lighting loads, particularly when it comes to architectural installations.

Longtime ETC customer and owner of Coventry Lighting John Coventry knew this all too well, which is why he called upon ETC's testing services in the middle of a big lighting installation for the newly redesig

UK - TSL has announced that Martin Locket has been appointed a Director and Shareholder of the company. Martin has extensive experience in the production and rental industries, having previously been MD of Essential Lighting and CEO of PRG-UK. Sam Tamplin and Martin will now be running and developing the company together as business partners.

Tamplin, TSL's founder, commented: "Martin increasing his involvement with TSL coincides with our relocation into 12,000sq.ft of new warehouse and production space at London Gatwick this month. These developments are the foundation of our pl

Czech Republic - In an online broadcast this morning, Robe has revealed the first details of its brand new product, the BMFL - which stands for 'Bright Multi-Functional Luminaire'.

Broadcasting from the company's showroom in the Czech Republic, Josef Valchar, CEO of Robe, described the BMFL as "The best fixture we have ever made".

"We have listened to the wishes and needs of lighting designers, rental companies and technicians from every corner of the industry, all around the world. We really believe we have created a product that will deliver both good short- and lon

Tax Relief - The government's forthcoming theatre tax relief scheme will help to revive regional theatre and ensure the industry's success is felt across the country and not just in London's West End, Chancellor George Osborne has said. Speaking at Theatre Royal Brighton ahead of the tax scheme which came into effect yesterday (1September), Osborne said he hoped the initiative would put a stop to the decline of regional theatre and touring productions by making it easier to put on these shows.

Osborne said: "Regional productions have dropped off over many years - even though the

UK - Long time Avolites user and master lighting designer Yenz Nyholm ran the Main Stage lighting at Coventry's Godiva Festival this year from an Avolites Sapphire Touch, with a host of visiting LDs using the console as their acts performed.

More than 75,000 people attended Godiva 2014 to watch headline acts including Happy Mondays, Lightning Seeds, and Buzzcocks.

"The Sapphire Touch works well on a festival due to the many faders and easy to read touch screens," says Nyholm. "It's very intuitive, so any LD can use it within a few minutes of turning up. The many fader

Russia - German fibre network specialists, Optocore, has appointed Audio Solutions to distribute their products in Russia.

According to manager of the Pro Audio Department, Igor Kovalev, the 12-year-old Moscow-based company will be providing Optocore solutions to their two core markets: sound reinforcement (theatres, concert halls, live events) and broadcast.

In addition to their formal distribution arrangement with Optocore, Audio Solutions say they are also working on a major project, using sister company BroaMan solutions for delivering scalable customised solutions for clients r

UK - PLASA Media, sponsor of the PLASA Awards, has announced the shortlist of nominees for this year's prestigious Gottelier Award. The winner will be announced at the PLASA Show in London (5-8 October, ExCeL London).

Named in honour of the late Tony Gottelier, the industry innovator and commentator who passed away in 2006, the Gottelier Award is for our industry's product developers who have made significant and sustained contributions to the advancement of entertainment, presentation or installation technology - whether in audio, lighting, rigging, staging, or any other related fiel

The Netherlands - A production of The Passion was attended by thousands in the northern city of Groningen earlier this year to see Dutch actors taking on the roles of Jesus, his disciples and others in the Easter story. Staged at the Viskmart in the heart of the town, the production began with a 6m long white neon cross carried from the Groningen FC soccer stadium all the way to the square.

Handling the lighting for the project was PRG EML Productions in Utrecht. Under direction of production manager Martijn Roosen, W-DMX was used to create a wireless link between the Viskmart

Indonesia - Indosiar Visual Mandiri (Indosiar) is an Indonesian national television station, operating in West Jakarta since 1994 that employs around 1,550 people and is a member of PT. Elang Mahkota Teknologi Indonesia (Emtek) - Indonesia's second largest media group. Currently, Indosiar is fully owned by Emtek's subsidiary, Surya Citra Media.

The station has a strong focus on cultural programming, such as a programmes dedicated to specific types of performance like wayang puppet theatre. Recently it has been broadening its horizons with reality shows, talk programmes and drama serie

UK - The library that supports Stardraw Design 7.1 has reached a new milestone, now containing more than 70,000 symbols representing products from over 700 manufacturers.

Stardraw's symbols library has been a work in progress for over 20 years. Since the advent of the Symbols Request service in 2002, Stardraw's specialist symbols department has received almost 13,000 product requests, of which 95% have been published. On average, the company receives around 100 product requests per month.

The result is that Stardraw's symbols portfolio represents the largest, high-quality graphical

India - On the occasion of the 10th Anniversary of the launch of the Genelec 8000 Series, KJ Singh, one of India's foremost audio engineers at work in the film and music industry, pays tribute to this popular monitor range.

One of the distinctive features of Indian cinema is the importance given to song and dance in the plots - it is what gives the films their unique flavour and a primary reason for their popularity. Maintaining this popularity requires continuing excellence in sound track and background score production of which the audio engineering process is a key element. One of

UK - Taking its inspiration from the 2013 Pukkelpop Festival in Belgium, which saw the first deployment of Blueprint Events' SGM LT-200 3D mappable LED pixel tubes, Chris Morgan's company has now delivered what he believes to be the largest SGM tube matrix ever seen in the UK - at the high profile Creamfields 2014 in the north of England, over August Bank Holiday weekend

Working for The Events Company UK, who handled the rigging and design, Blueprint decorated Size Records' Size Matters 10-pole big top with 400 x LT-200 SGM tubes and 130 x ILD controllers - spread over three separate

Japan - New ELE Tokyo nightclub ELE has installed a lighting system featuring CHAUVET Professional used in a stunning fashion by LD Michael Meacham ofMIami-based iDesign Productions.

ELE instantly distinguished itself by offering what one reviewer described as "a classy alternative" to the typical late night club. At the same time, though, the club sizzles with EDM energy, featuring world class DJs and appearances by celebrities like Lady Gaga. Meacham's lighting design manages to highlight the elegance of the two-story club's architecture as well as its gold and silver deco

Denmark - In 2011, Danish waste management company Kara/Noveren set out to replace two furnaces with a state-of-the-art waste-to-energy incineration line. Three years later the incineration line, or more popularly referred to as The Energy Tower, stands tall on the skyline of the Danish City of Roskilde, ready for its opening this week with Martin Professional lighting fixtures.

Increasing demands to reduce Co2 emissions from fossil fuels calls for alternative energy production, and implementing a modern facility will allow Kara/Noveren to utilize the energy resources from residual wa

Latvia - This summer saw lighting designer Paul Normandale team up with Latvian rental outfit Company NA to specify 24 VL3500 Wash and seven VL3015LT Spot luminaires as the lighting solution for Kings of Leon's sold-out open-air show in Riga.

Taking place in the 20,000-capacity Mezaparks Stage, the show was Kings Of Leon's debut in the region, with a design centred on a vast 21.6m by 10.8m LED video wall which displayed a mixture of pre-made content and live camera feeds.

"As the Kings wanted a large video element I needed to consider which luminaires would be able to stand up

Germany - After recently introducing a new series of 1Gbit Network Nodes, MA Lighting is now launching wall mounted PoE (power over Ethernet) versions of the 1Gbit MA 2Port Node and MA 4Port Node, allowing the conversion of Ethernet data into DMX or vice versa. These latest Network Nodes fit into the MA system and its high speed MA-Net2 protocol, ensuring maximum performance and network stability.

Optimised for installations applications, the wall mount (WM) nodes feature a rugged steel housing for long life even under harsh conditions. A 2" colour TFT-Display can be found at the

Denmark - Martin Professional has released one of the biggest software releases ever in the new M-Series, version 3.4. This latest version of the M-Series software brings a lot of new features as well as tons of improvements to make the entire system faster, more accurate, responsive and more efficient, says the company.

One of the biggest changes is the introduction of the next phase of MaxNet. This custom designed network protocol allows full workstation synchronization and can be programmed and played back from any M-Series console or M-PC client on the network. MaxNet is a plug an

UK - Swamp-dwelling ogre Shrek and his ensemble of friends, enemies and fairytale characters are currently beguiling audiences throughout the UK and Ireland on an extensive tour of Shrek The Musical Stage Electrics is ensuring that green is not the only colour . . .

Coming direct from London, where it was seen live on stage by nearly a million people, Shrek The Musical UK and Ireland Tour opened in July at the Grand Theatre in Leeds and is currently on tour until September 2015. Stage Electrics has supplied lighting equipment for the tour, which has to achieve West End r

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