UK - Guildhall School of Music & Drama has announced a new BA degree in performance design, starting in September 2025. The three-year, full time BA programme will equip students with the practical and imaginative skills required to create designs for stage performances and live events.
Led by stage designer Dr Susannah Henry, the BA in Performance Design is the newest course to offered by Guildhall’s Production Arts department. The Performance Design programme blends studio-based design work with hands-on experience, including collaborating on a wide range of performances

Germany - Power and lighting control specialist LSC Control Systems will launch a number of new products at Prolight+Sound in Frankfurt.
LSC’s Unity, GEN-VI and APS product ranges already provide peace of mind in top-end performance and leisure venues, events and productions worldwide. Now, visitors to Prolight+Sound will be among the first to see the new GEN-X and APS-X products - each offering important new enhancements to the manufacturer’s power management systems. Also on show will be the latest Mantra 4.0software, and the new Nexen Portable, adding further to LSC’s fam

USA - Inspired by the radiant sun, the SŌL I Blinder is the first in a new series of creative LED blinder and effects solutions from Elation that marries technology with artistic ingenuity. With a tiny form factor, IP65 rating, and sleek and modern aesthetic, SŌL I ‘seamlessly integrates into any stage or event setting, offering limitless creative potential’.
Using simple fixture interconnects, threaded adapters, mounts and yoke accessories, designers can effortlessly link SŌL I to other fixtures or devices, exponentially expanding creative options for unique shapes and arr

Qatar - Qatar Vision (Qvision) utilised a wide array of Claypaky lighting for the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023. The fixtures illuminated pre-match ceremonies, the Fan Zone and coronation ceremony at the 18th edition of the cup, a quadrennial international football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation.
Although the event bore a 2023 date, it was scheduled for 12 January to 10 February 10, 2024 due to Qatar’s high summer temperatures. Twenty-four national teams participated with host Qatar the defending champion and, as it turned out, the repeat title winner. Four

Germany - The Adam Hall Group is further expanding its Adam Hall Integrated Systems division. Christian Latzelsberger has been appointed as head of sales - Adam Hall Integrated Systems. In this capacity he is responsible for shaping the strategic direction and overseeing the sales division of Adam Hall Integrated Systems.
Supporting him in the DACH region is Uli Golka, who serves as technical support engineer integrated systems. Product management is handled by senior product manager, Gabriel Alonso Calvillo while Jens Werner assumes the role of junior product manager. The rapidly

UK - The desert planet Arrakis came to life in London’s Leicester Square for the world premiere of Dune: Part Two on Thursday 15 February, with nearly 30 tons of sand shipped to the site for the gala created by Limited Edition Event Design. But the rainy weather during the build-up days leading to the star-studded red carpet affair was anything but desert-like. No matter though, the IP65 rated 3.9mm pitch panels were more than up to the task of handling rain.
“For the actual red carpet part of the event when the stars were there, it was just a little chilly and dark, bu

USA - Scott Chmielewski of DMDS7UDIOS is employing a large rig of Dartz 360 narrow-beam luminaires from Elation to support the mesmerising performances of renowned magician Mat Franco at The LINQ Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Chmielewski addressed an initial refresh of the show in 2021 before undertaking a complete redesign of the entire show, stage and theatre in early 2023, collaborating with director Brian Burke, art director Joe Oneill and Mat Franco himself.
Since headlining at The LINQ in 2015, Mat Franco's Magic Reinvented Nightly has garnered accolades and capti

Italy - Russell Crowe is known for his acting talents, but on the third night of The Sanremo Music Festival he took to the stage as a crooner and sang Let Your Light Shine. Another American, actor, John Travolta, also tried his hand at singing a couple of nights earlier. Such is the musical pull of this five-day event, which celebrated its 74th year this February.
Capturing the flavour of the festival up close was Radio Italia's popular Fuori Sanremo, a programme that featured all of the artists from the festival with interviews and live performances recorded in a st

Germany - Astera will showcase a full range of its powerful and flexible wireless LED lighting solutions on stand B30 in Hall 12.1 at the PL+S next week, including the award-winning PlutoFresnel and LeoFresnel fixtures and the new ProjectionLens for PlutoFresnel.
The contemporary stand design will enable sales director Sebastian Buckle and the team to welcome visitors and highlight numerous current Astera innovations like the HydraPanel, PixelBrick, AX9 PowerPAR and AX2 PixelBar, the smart and neat NYX Bulb and, naturally, the flagship TitanTube family – Titan, Helios, and Hype

USA - ETC has announced the release of Hog 4 version 4.0 software. Enhancements include significant improvements to colour handling and Hog 4’s Color Picker, a new Record Defaults function, and Fixture Builder upgrades.
Senior product manager Sarah Clausen comments, “Ultimately, the new colour system relieves programmers and designers from the challenges in controlling rigs with multiple colour engines. By providing multiple colour input languages through the colour pickers, virtual colour functions and the gels library, and full ‘physical’ function controls linked to the

Germany - Light artist Christopher Bauder has chosen MDG ATMe haze generators and Me2 fog machines as the foundation of his latest installation, Vektor, a personal piece loosely based on his life experiences.
Vektor, Memories in Light & Sound is Bauder’s third installation at Berlin’s Kraftwerk, an old power plant-turned-art gallery in Berlin that Bauder refers to as an ‘industrial cathedral’. The abstract work is a personal ‘memory chest’ using small audio snippets of memories from Bauder’s childhood through to present day: the sound of the sea fr

Slovenia - Popular vocal group Perpetuum Jazzile celebrated their 40th anniversary with a series of high-profile shows at Ljubljana’s Cankarjev Dom, the country’s biggest theatre venue, asking Crt Birsa from design studio Blackout to create lighting suitable for the occasion.
With the assistance of substantial quantities of Robe moving lights, Crt created an impressive visual showcase, working closely with Mark Pirc, brought in as video content creator and co-show director with Aljaz Bastic for these special performances.
Crt has lit the group several times over the la

USA - The diversity which endows fashion with the power to build bridges across cultures was celebrated during New York Fashion Week at Runway 7, one of the renowned event’s premier attractions.
Held at the Sony Hall, Runway 7 was organised around a ‘Made In’ theme that featured designs endemic to different regions of the world. The work of a record 117 designers from 10 different nations were highlighted during the event’s four-day run.
From Anjali Phougat’s blend of Indian and western styles, to Microteje’s Chilean streetwear, Runway 7 showcased a global array

Germany - Follow-Me, manufacturer of remote follow-spot and performer tracking solutions will be to exhibiting at Hall 12.1 D40 during Prolight & Sound this month. The stand is focused on demonstrating the full feature set of the manual system, Follow-Me 3D and Follow-Me Track-iT auto-tracking solution for lighting, audio & video.
Showing for the first time at PLS will be the newly released feature, Proximity that allows Follow-Me to take control of conventional lights based on the position of the performer. Users can customise the radius within which conventional lights

Germany - ChamSys is supporting the collection of MagicQ and GeNetix products it will be showcasing at Hall 12.1, booth E21 in Messe Frankfurt with a robust schedule of educational and training sessions in both German and English, including a keynote talk by Christian (‘Rocketchris’) Glatthor, whose work has included tours by longtime client Rea Garvey, Evanescence, Snow Patrol, and others.
ChamSys’ learning sessions will take place in the Jade Room, located near Hall 12.1. All those who attend a training session will be entered into a draw to win a MagicQ Compact Connect, t

Germany - At the 2024 edition of the Prolight + Sound in Frankfurt, ETC will be showcasing new products and a series of presentations on stand C39 in Hall 12.0.
Throughout the week, visitors to ETC’s stand will have the chance to explore the latest technologies in lighting, control, stage machinery and more. Attendees will get a first look at a new entertainment lighting fixture, new Hog software and a preview of Eos lighting control software with expansion processing on stand C39.
ETC product specialists will also host a series of mini presentations during the four-day tr

USA - This year’s Time For Music concert supporting the 37th annual Camp HASC for Jewish youth was held at the New Jersey Performing Arts Centre in Newark. Supporting the artists on stage and engaging the audience was an evocative lighting design by Ofir Ben-Haim that featured 34 Chauvet Professional COLORado PXL Curve 12 motorized battens supplied by Dynamic Vision.
Ben-Haim positioned fully pixel mappable RGBW fixtures around the main video screen. His goal was to “create a dynamic and immersive experience” for the audience by illuminating the artists and the stage from di

Denmark - For production and rental company Soundwise, choosing to carry Elation lighting products in a market with more traditional preferences is a strategic move aimed at providing special offerings.
“Denmark has traditionally been quite conservative when it comes to entertainment lighting equipment,” shares Lars Thorsager, founder and sales director at Soundwise. He says however that the trend is beginning to turn, albeit slowly. “As the market here begins to realise that there are other innovative products out there that can set them apart, it’s getting a bit easier

Denmark - Lighting designer Mikael Kratt was among the first visiting creatives to use the Royal Danish Opera’s new Robe Forte moving lights in a recent production at the Copenhagen Opera House.
This was for Som I Himlen (As It Is in Heaven) a lively and heartwarming musical adaptation directed by Edward af Sillén of a 2004 Swedish movie telling the story of a famous conductor who returns to his small Swedish hometown in the North of the country to retire and is asked to help with mentoring the school choir.
It was Mikael’s first time using Fortes, 80 of

Canada/Europe - Long standing North America distributors (and fibre network specialists) Optocore NA have been accoladed by the German parent company, who have presented them with this year’s Best Distributor Award.
The presentation to Bill and Brandon Coons was made by Optocore founder, Marc Brunke, during the ISE2024 expo in Barcelona recently.
Optocore sales manager, RadhaMohan Rajani, said: “From their base in Canada, Bill and Brandon have been our longest serving partners, educating and serving the whole of North America. And having enjoyed a record year, they are s

UK - Hosted for the first time by David Tennant, the 2024 EE BAFTA Film Awards took place on Sunday 18 February at London's Royal Festival Hall, and was broadcast internationally on BBC One, iPlayer and BritBox International. With cinema enjoying a strong post-pandemic resurgence, partly thanks to the Barbie/Oppenheimer effect, the BAFTA Film Awards has lost none of its prestige.
Attended by the President of BAFTA, HRH the Prince of Wales, 25 Awards were presented - voted for by over 7,500 BAFTA creatives and film industry practitioners - for categories that included Best D

Italy - Raffa in the Sky is a tribute opera to Raffaella Carrà, a prominent Italian TV personality. It is the story of an artistic career that not only evolved with the changes in Italian society over the last half a century but occasionally inspired them. Through Carrà's extraordinary experience, the work also aims to reflect on the artist's role in society, the value and use of art, and the role of television and other media, not forgetting the songs she performed.
Show lighting designer Alessandro Anderoli comments: "The Fondazione del Teatro Donizetti has been workin

USA - Bandit Lites has announced the hiring of Steven Harman as integration support coordinator, bringing along his valuable expertise and enthusiasm. Harman will provide support to new and past clients as well as Bandit’s own integrators and project managers.
Harman has a background in training, education, and performance lighting. He began working in performance and event lighting in Nashville where spent the next two decades providing lighting and rigging. The last five years saw Harman managing warehouse operations for an entertainment pyrotechnic company.
“We are v

UK - Specialist manufacturer representative 3LR Lighting has announced Simon Needle as its newly appointed director of special projects. Simon, well-known throughout the global lighting industry from his varied career including his former role as international projects director for White Light, begins his new role at 3LR Lighting with immediate effect.
Founded in 2019 by Matt Lloyd, 3LR is an architectural manufacturer representative working closely with ETC, Studio Due and Schnick Schnack Systems and in film & broadcast lighting with Sumolight, offering expert advice on ligh

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