Italy - There was a strong turnout at the convention organized by Clay Paky for their international distributors. No less than 130 representatives from 53 countries around the world met in Bergamo on 3 and 4 February 2015 for an update on the future strategies of the company, which has recently become part of the OSRAM group.

The convention was held in Bergamo, in the splendid setting of the Teatro Sociale, Città Alta. There was a striking contrast between the wooden structures of this ancient theatre and Clay Paky's futuristic computerized equipment.

The Convention's motto was

UK - A stylish and harmonious combination of intelligence and impact was the lighting vibe for the latest UK tour by rising stars Swedish folk rock duo First Aid Kit, of which the final section featured their largest toured production to date. Matt Waterfield is their LD and the lighting equipment was supplied by west London based Colour Sound Experiment.

Matt has worked with the band since 2013, and this itinerary of UK theatres was the latest section in their Stay Gold album campaign which started in May 2014.

As with most tours, the design has developed over the course of

UK - Musician, music producer and DJ Bonobo finished his marathon North Borders world tour with a mix of classical and electro beats - complete with 18 piece orchestra - at London's Alexandra Palace, featuring lightshow designed by Will Thomas. This utilized over 100 Robe moving lights - all supplied by Southampton-based GLS.

The design process for the end-of-tour extravaganza began whilst Will was out in the US lighting Bonobo's DJ set, and he became struck with the difference that good lighting out in the room could make to the whole vibe of the show by involving the audience. So to

UK - Lighting designer Nick Gray of Renegade Design has created an exhilarating and slick show for Kasbian's major UK arena tour. Bringing power, reliability and vibrant colour to the design, Gray uses an array of Clay Paky Sharpys and Sharpy Wash 330 fixtures, which he says never fail to feature in his rig.

The tour has so far visited major venues including Manchester Arena, Belfast Odyssey Arena and London's O2 Brixton Academy. Supplied by Neg Earth, the Sharpys and the Sharpy Wash 330 fixtures are positioned high in the overhead rig to flood the stage with intense colours and provi

South Africa - MJ Event Gear has made a bold step as the first South African investor of 24 Robe BMFL Spots. They celebrated by inviting some of country's top LDs to view the impressive lighting tool.

"It's a big winner," said Mike Jones, owner of the Johannesburg based rental company, MJ Event Gear. "With a bit of time and as more people use it, I believe it will be the number one specified light on riders."

Before making the final purchase Jones did his homework and also contacted a few designers for their respected opinion. "Everyone was very enthusiastic

UK - Bristol-based lighting, visuals and rigging specialist Fineline supplied lighting and rigging equipment and expertise in a series of creative solutions for the world premiere of Walking The Chains, an ambitious circus / theatre production staged in the historic Passenger Shed at Bristol Temple Meads station.

Celebrating 150 Years of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Clifton suspension bridge, its spirit and impact as a landmark of Victorian engineering from conception to completion, the narrative also recalled how the bridge integrated into the community and industrial history of

The Netherlands - Martin Professional announced at ISE 2015 the availability of the Rush Gobo Projector 1, part of Martin's comprehensive offering of new lighting fixtures. The new member of the install-oriented Rush family will be shipping at the end of February.

The Rush Gobo Projector 1 is designed for permanent installation in club, bar, restaurant and shopping mall applications. Gobos can be changed quickly easy adjustment of focus, speed and direction make running the static fixture smooth and intuitive. It's also non-intrusive thanks to its silent operation and compact size, me

UK - If you find yourself in the London area next week, do drop-in to Ambersphere Solutions. Their newly refurbished showroom features all the latest products from Ayrton, Clay Paky, MA Lighting and Robert Juliat. The showroom is open from 16-20 February with snacks and refreshments available throughout.

Highlights include Robert Juliat's latest follow spots, the Merlin and Roxie which are coming straight from ISE in Amsterdam, along with the R range from Ayrton, the latest offerings from Clay Paky in the form of the Mythos, Super Sharpy and Stormys and the full line-up of MA2 Lightin

France - Lyon's municipal council chose to set the opening of the magnificent Schuman bridge on the river Saone to music and lights, and asked the event agency Tetro to deal with the artistic direction.

The lighting designer Yves Caizergues and musician Christophe Goutes produced an astounding show with a lighting system consisting of 30 Clay Paky SuperSharpys provided by Magnum and expertly managed by the lighting designer himself.

The aim was to let all the citizens of Lyon know in no uncertain terms that there was a new bridge and strongly enhance the construction's image.

Yves

Czech Republic - Robe has announced that it is a sponsor of team Czech Republic in the 2015 Fed Cup tennis - the premier international women's tennis team championship.

Continuing its theme of 'Working With Winners' - first embraced with the Olympic spirit of 2012 - Robe is one of five major sponsors to the Czech team who are the defending champions, and have been hugely successful in the tournament, winning the Championship an impressive eight times.

Currently some of the Czech Republic's women's tennis players are ranked among the best in the world, and the quarter finals of the 2

USA - The Lightconverse and High End Lighting Challenge continues until 31 March 2015.

The organisers comment: "We truly believe that the most creative and advanced lighting specialists deserve to be recognized and awarded for their hard work. In order to do so, we have created the Premier Challenge contest in which you can submit a video of your work created in Lightconverse.

There is no particular theme for the Premier Challenge except that the design must be original.

First prize is a High End HedgeHog4 N console and Lightconverse Unlimited; second prize is Lightconverse T

USA - There were plenty of good reasons for the people at NBC to feel good about Super Bowl XLIX: the ratings were astronomical, advertising sales were record breaking and the company's onsite party directly across the street from the University of Phoenix Stadium was nothing short of spectacular, thanks to some inspired event planning by Angel City Designs and a stylish lighting rig by James Schipper of Kinetic Lighting.

Schipper called on a plethora of LED fixtures from Chauvet Professional to strike a visually pleasing sense of casual sophistication at the NBC pre-game party tent.

Australia - Sydney's Luna Park has a new ride that raises you 50mabove sea level for a bird's eye view of the magical city before unceremoniously dropping you over 80 km's an hour back to earth via an edge of your seat, white knuckle experience. Appropriately called the Hair Raiser, the ride has been lit in spectacular style acting as a beacon in the night sky.

Luna Park approached Show Technology for some ideas to light the ride in an innovative and creative manner, rather than just flood lighting the structure.

"They were also interested in the possibility of integrating the

Russia - London-based creative technology expert Realtime Environment Systems Ltd (RES) has provided the know-how for a spectacular visual event to mark one year since the Sochi Winter Olympics.

The ambitious event at Sochi's beautiful Ice Palace featured a dramatic ice show and was staged by Russian TV company Channel One.

RES co-founder and project manager Mark Calvert and established freelance Ai technician Martin Harvey used two S6 Ai Media servers to bring pixel mapping, video playback and realtime generative patches for LED screen media, with one DVI output controlling 70848 P

Singapore - Martin Professional reports that the MAC Viper family is now widely available throughout Southeast Asia via several of the region's largest rental houses. Singapore-based companies CSP Production, Trio AV and Highlight Systems as well as Malaysia-based Orange Events have added more than 170 MAC Viper fixtures to their portfolios, putting the latest in intelligent lighting at the fingertips of lighting designers throughout the region.

Designed for use in a wide variety of events and entertainment productions, Martin's MAC Viper family is a complete series of high-performanc

UK - The UK's Lighting Industry received a boost this week as the Lighting Industry Association received a share of the Government's Regional Growth Fund to further develop its laboratory services (LIA Laboratories) and new Lighting Training Academy.

The funds will help the Lighting Industry Association create a new Lighting Testing Laboratory to cope with increased demand, which will house a unique R&D centre that will be available for UK manufacturers to use and develop new lighting products.

Alongside the new laboratory, the Lighting Industry Association will also build a Lightin

Sweden - Lighting company Aura Light has acquired Zobra, a Swedish lighting company that develops and manufactures luminaires for public areas. This acquisition is an important step for the company to become a complete supplier of energy efficient lighting solutions.

Zobra develops, manufactures and markets luminaires for public areas. The company offers a wide range of luminaires and focuses on innovative product design. Zobra's head office is situated in Vimmerby in Sweden where they also have their production. The company has been growing rapidly the recent years and has received e

China - The 135 year old Shanghai Symphony Orchestra now has a new home in the Shanghai Symphony Hall, which celebrated its long awaited grand opening in September. The Hall has a full complement of ETC equipment, including a Sensor 3 Power Control system with ThruPower modules, Source Four PAR fixtures, and an Eos family lighting control system.

The venue contains two separate performance spaces: the Main Hall with 1,200 seats, which serves as a performance and rehearsal space, and the 400-seat Chamber Hall, which is used for recording and broadcasting.

ETC Sensor3 power control ra

USA - Masked rockers Slipknot are making headlines with a fifth album release, the addition of new band members, their Knotfest concert series and the launch of the Prepare for Hell tour - and Clay Paky Stormys are along for the wild ride.

The band just marked the debut of their fifth studio album, .5: The Gray Chapter which was quickly followed by performances 25 and 26 October at their own Knotfest in San Bernardino, California. They began headlining the Prepare for Hell North American tour afterwards.

Trevor Ahlstrand, lighting designer/production designer for Slipknot, is

UK - Sheffield metalcore rockers Bring Me The Horizon played a one-off show at London's Wembley Arena closing a phenomenal year, celebrating the conclusion of their 18 month global Sempiternal album cycle ... and their 10th anniversary.

The band's lighting designer Ben Inskip chose 70 x Robe moving lights as the backbone of the show - because he knows the products and knew they would deliver the results he wanted. He needed multi-purpose lights that could perform several tasks and that all balanced well together as an integrated package.

Ben has worked with the band since 200

USA - When designers are faced with the biggest lighting challenges they turn to the industry's brightest lights. This is just what Dall Brown Lighting, with the support of Chroma Designs, did when given the task to light the exterior of the University of Phoenix Stadium for this year's Super Bowl. Dall Brown and Troy Eckerman teamed up to tackle the job of bathing the aluminium skin of the stadium in colour for the NFL's annual week-long celebration and season finale.

As has often been the case Syncrolite LLC was the company relied upon to meet the huge task at hand. This year, for S

USA - Katy Perry's glittering halftime show at Super Bowl XLIX in the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona was an eye catcher. Lighting designer Bob Barnhart of LA-based Full Flood chose a large array of amongst others Clay Paky Sharpy, Mythos and A.leda B-EYE K20 fixtures for the 12-minute show. Jason Rudolph, the lighting director in charge of the video system, used a grandMA2 light console to control the projection and inflatable, illuminated orbs.

Super Bowl XLIX marked Barnhart's seventeenth big game and his fifth as the primary or sole lighting designer. He served

UK - To mark the end of 2014's F1 season Sky Sports created a film called The Ballad of the Duelling Drivers that told the story of the intense battle between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. To enhance this special project, lighting director Richard Bowles chose Clay Paky Mythos and Alpha Beam 700 fixtures to deliver stunning effects and sharp beams of light throughout.

Bowles specified three Mythos and eight Alpha Beam 700 fixtures from Richard Martin Lighting for the film, which was created and directed by Sky Sports F1's Alex Rodger, performed by talented composer and piani

France - The World Heritage Centre, UNESCO's headquarters in Paris, was bathed in light from SGM for the two nights of the opening ceremony of the International Year of Light.

Finnish lighting artist and designer Kari Kola prepared a full concept design including light, video and music for a spectacular display at the iconic Fontenoy building during the ceremony. This launched an initiative intended to raise global awareness about the importance of light for the future and for the development of society. 1500 people attended this ceremony including leading diplomats, scientific societ

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