Belgium - Visual Productions are pleased to announce the appointment of Face as their Distributor in Belgium. The intention for this collaboration was confirmed during Prolight+Sound in Germany earlier this year. CEO, Karel de Piere and sales manager Geert Custers visited Visual Productions' stand to place their first order for stock of Cuelux and confirm the deal.

Face is the result of the merger of Ampco Belgium and Candela. Specializing in audio, lighting and video they provide hardware, software and services to the professionals, the project market and their dealer network which are active in the entertainment, communication and architectural markets.

The Face headquarters hosts not only a seminar room but also a try-out theatre: the ideal venue for Cuelux to run Plug&Play alongside the Behringer BFC 2000 MIDI desk also distributed by Face.

Cuelux software lighting contr

Oman - Over 130 Clay Paky fixtures were recently featured during the opening of the 2010 Salalah Kharif Festival in Oman. Held every summer during the Kharif (monsoon) season, the Salalah Kharif Festival is one of the most famous tourism events in this tropical region.

With festivities usually running for six weeks. Attractions include folk music, traditional games, art shows, poetry, children's contests, seminars, awareness campaigns, sports and more. The majority of the celebrations take place at the Lake Amphitheatre, while other performances and activities are held at a number of locations nearby.

The opening ceremony of the festival was held was held on July 15, 2010 at the Wilayats Theatre in the Cultural Village at the Municipality Recreational Centre. It included more than 2,500 performers presenting four operettas under the theme March and Achievement.

To hig

UK - Paperwork is increasingly not 'paperwork' but virtual paperwork carried on laptops - until actually working in the theatre when real paper printouts have often been the most convenient way to access show information while walking around the stage focusing the rig.

Now FocusTrack, the production lighting documentation system, offers Paperwork To Go - allowing you to keep your paperwork in electronic form, and carry it with you on your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch.

With the purchase of one enabler app ($19.99 for iPhone/iPod, $39.99 for iPad), any of the FocusTrack data files - FocusTrack, containing information about the positions used by the moving lights in the rig, RigTrack, containing all of the information about the rig as a whole and the focus of conventional lights, and Cue List, containing the show cue data from the lighting console, along with all of the focus and c

World - With planning for the merger between ESTA and PLASA now in its final stages, the elections for places on the new Regional Boards, and over-arching Governing Body, are coming to a close.

The month-long ballot, which ends on 31 October, pre-empts the New Year merger date when the Associations formally unite under the PLASA name.

Members of both organizations have been actively voting to elect candidates for the new European and North American Regional Boards which will feature representatives from the following groups of members - Dealer/Retailers, Distributors, Manufacturers, Production Services, Professional Services and Rental Companies, together with a representative from both the Organizational and Individual memberships.

The Governing Body is a new concept for PLASA and is designed to ensure continuity of decision-making and strategic consistency. Whilst the Chai

USA - Lighting designer Seth Jackson created an all green lighting solution for Toby Keith's 2010 tour.

Jackson used Bandit 36 Lamp Pods full of hundreds of GRN PAR 3-36's and Versa Tubes for a very heavy metal look. The pods carry the PARs in the centre and are bordered by Versa Tubes. All trussing is the versatile Tyler Green Truss. GRN 6 Lamp Bars carry all the PARs, eliminating 80% of the cable a standard system would require.

GRN 8 Lite units illuminate the audience while GRN Moving Wash 3-120's and GRN Wash 3-36 provide continuous onstage visual arrays.

Jackson used VL 3000 Spots and Coemar Infinities for his hard edge lights. On the control side of things, he chose the Grand MA with an MA Lite as a backup. Jackson used a Grand MA Media Server to control every individual LED in the rear wall of PARs, treating every LED as a pixel. He then pixel mapped them

The Toby s

The Netherlands - When the management of a new auditorium in the City Concert Hall in Leiden required a visually unobtrusive but versatile lighting system, they turned to Lightco, the Dutch lighting sales and installation division of the Ampco Flashlight Group.

While sister company TM Audio were installing new audio systems in both the Great Hall and the Aalmarkt, Lightco was brought in to design and install a highly-specified but low-profile stage lighting system for the Aalmarkt (the name - 'Eel Market' in English - reflects the building's former use).

Lightco project manager Bas van Schelven says, "We spent a lot of time and energy making or proposed design as unobtrusive as possible. For example, the ETC Source 4 Revolution moving lights are partly hidden in coves in the ceiling." As the ceiling is non load-bearing, this proved a substantial challenge in itself f

Malaysia - Clay Paky fixtures shone on Malaysia's top entertainers as they gathered to celebrate the prestigious 24th Anugerah Juara Lagu (AJL) music awards. Held in Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur and organised and produced by local television station, TV3, the show was graced by the presence of celebrities such as Datuk Siti Nurhaliza, Misha Omar, Aleya, Bunkface, Black, Hujan, Aizat Amdan, and Stacy.

Utilizing a theme of Origami, the show successfully catapulted the simplicity of the paper-folding art for its lighting and stage design. For the lighting system, Mr. Siswa Azmi from Mubari Sound Light Sdn. Bhd. picked Clay Paky to illuminate the stage. He said, "For a prestigious and grand event like this, we will usually go for the best brand available. For me, Clay Paky is one of the most flexible and reliable brand out there." In addition to lighting, Mub

UK - White Light has recently helped the Regent's College Conference Centre in central London upgrade its lighting system with some of the latest lighting and control technology.

White Light has supplied the centre with 10 Coemar Parlite LED fixtures in silver. A replacement for the traditional Par Can, the ParLite LED offers three-colour mixing and interchangeable lenses offering beam angles ranging from the standard 12degrees up to a 110degree flood, all in a compact fixture that weighs just 3.5kg. The Regent's College ParLites were supplied with the optional IP65 rear panel kit, which converts the fixture for use outdoors.

The centre also needed a system to control their new fixtures, and opted for LSC's Clarity software-based control system. White Light supplied Regent's College with a single DMX universe system and an Enttec DMX USB Pro interface to output DMX data from t

UK - PLASA is hosting a special update day for members on legislative developments and business issues. The event, which takes place on Thursday 25 November at ETC's offices in West London, will see HR specialist Clive Payne providing members with an overview of recent changes and the implications for their businesses.

In addition to a focus on legislative issues, the day will also feature presentations from Simon Miller of Allan Chapman & James, who will provide an update on recent changes to the insurance market and how members can keep insurance costs down, Krystyna Gibbons of Westfield Health, who will outline the options for a cost-effective alternative to private healthcare and Paul Robson of Medialease who will talk about leasing funding, providing an overview of current market conditions and how members can get into the best possible shape to attract leasing funding when

At The Q Awards - Florence Welch, of Florence and the Machine, was a double-winner at the Q Awards in London taking best female and best track for You've Got The Love. Take That also made their first public appearance since Robbie Williams rejoined them in July. The band, whose comeback single, The Flood, and new album, Progress, are both due out next month, won the magazine's hall of fame award.

Kasabian were named best act in the world. Take That, who were sneaked into the awards to avoid the red carpet, were led on stage by Gary Barlow to collect their award. Another newly reformed band - Suede - picked up the Q inspiration award.

On The Move? - Almost €400,000 has been spent in the search for a new home for Ireland's national theatre, the Abbey - but so far without success, reports newspaper.

Arts minister Mary Hanafin told th

Denmark - Martin Professional has introduced the Ether2DMX8, a DMX router and much more. As a DMX router, the Ether2DMX8 translates Artnet protocol into DMX in/out universes but can also be used as a DMX merger, DMX splitter hub, fail safe device, cue playback, and DMX viewer monitor, says the company.

The Ether2DMX8 uses the Artnet protocol and can therefore be used to interface with any third party product that can interface with Artnet. It can also be used to merge incoming DMX lines with other DMX outputs.

It can store up to 99 cues that can be linked together for playback with fade time and hold time. Cues can be triggered remotely and a cue can be assigned as a fail-safe mode (if the incoming Artnet signal was to be lost, the device would automatically enable the cue). Another helpful use of the cue is to link it to a building's alarm system.

The Ether2DMX8 can be remo

UK - Gearhouse South Africa supplied full technical production to the 2010 Loerie Awards staged at the Good Hope Centre in Cape Town for the second year running.

The event was again produced by H-Factor, with a production and set design by H-Factor and The Loerie Awards Committee, to celebrate the most innovative creative talent in advertising, communication design and experiential media from Africa and the Middle East. The two nights of Award presentations is the biggest seated awards show in the country, and a high pressure event in terms of design and technical production, requiring plenty of invention and originality to match the occasion.

The 2010 event energised the skills and resources of Gearhouse's Sound, Lighting, AV, Media, Rigging, Structures and Power departments. Sister company Sets, Drapes,Screens built the set and supplied all the scenic elements, and the proje

USA - At Chicago's United Centre, 16 Martin MAC III Profile spot luminaires play a key role in generating excitement and raising the energy levels for more than 200 sports and entertainment events per year.

Last year, the United Centre production team took a hard look at their ageing lighting gear and decided it was time to upgrade. Brady Tieman, technical production manager at the United Centre, reports, "Eight of the fixtures were a pan and tilt model that was prone to frequent failures; they spent too much time in the shop which resulted in countless hours of programming to come up with workarounds for defective fixtures.

"The other eight moving mirror fixtures were over 12 years old and had become too expensive to maintain. Unlike a touring act, we don't have full time light techs on staff to quickly repair moving lights." The tech team brought their challen

Russia - The Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, national theatre of Russia and home to the Bolshoi Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet Academy and the Bolshoi Opera, is presently closed to its millions of annual visitors while undergoing extensive renovations. The doors were shut to the main building in 2005 and it is scheduled to reopen in a year's time. The Theatre has undergone many renovations in its time, but nothing anywhere near as major as this undertaking which is estimated at US$730 million and is being entirely funded by the federal government.

Early in October, 110 cartons packed with new lighting equipment left the Philips Selecon Auckland factory in New Zealand journeyed halfway around the world ready to take part in this crucial preservation project. In all, 561 Philips Selecon luminaires will grace the lighting rigs for the grand stage of the Bolshoi Theatre when it opens its doo

Australia - Jands has scored at the 2010 Australian Musician Music Gear Awards, being announced as the winner across four product categories. Jands has taken first place for: Best Mixer: Soundcraft FX16ii; Best Speaker/Monitors: JBL EON 515 S; Best Live Microphone: Shure Beta 58A, and Best Studio Microphone: Shure KSM313.

The annual Australian Musician Music Gear Awards is in its second year. The products within each category are nominated by the Australian Music Association member wholesalers, which is then opened to the public for voting.

(Jim Evans)

USA - Edgar Bernal, aka, DJ Etronik has joined American DJ as the new product/sales specialist for American Audio. Bernal recently took the 2010 US DMC DJ Championship title in New York.

Tom Freret, national sales manager of American Audio, comments, "We are very excited to appoint Edgar Bernal, a highly celebrated DJ, to this position. His passion for music and his understanding of our vast family of products really embodies what American DJ is all about. We know we will see great things from him."

(Jim Evans)

UK - Following the positive response to the new products from both Philips Color Kinetics and Sensacell at last month's PLASA show, Architainment Lighting has created a new technical sales engineer position to spearhead the promotion of its lighting products into the entertainment sector, and promoting current employee, Phil Grice, to this position.

Grice, who joined Architainment early in 2010 as a technical services engineer has a strong background rooted in the entertainment side of the business. Prior to joining Architainment, he worked for Dorking Halls.

Commenting on this new role, Phil Grice said, "I am excited for the opportunity to meet potential clients and introduce them to the LED fixtures Architainment can provide and the various benefits and functionalities these fittings can offer."

Managing Director, Nic Tolkien added, "We've been looking at es

USA - Bandit Lites played a key part in an historical event when the Grand Ole Opry House needed to be restored following last spring's devastating Nashville flood.. The day the rains stopped, and before the water started to recede, Opry lighting director Tyler Bryan and other Opry staffers were inside the Opry House in canoes. The entire stage and seating area was under several feet of water. The devastation the floodwaters left behind was unimaginable. One of the first calls Bryan made was to national director of sales & installations Chris Barbee to begin the task of restoring the storied building.

Four days after the water receded, Barbee and John Jenkinson toured the facility with Bryan to evaluate the damage, create a plan for the renovation and provide cost estimates for the work. The planning and decision making time were critically short as the Opry's 85th birthday cele

USA - When Scott Chmielewski, president of Digital Media Designs, put a pair of grandMA2 full-size consoles through their paces at Virgin Mobile's FreeFest, a day-long music and dance extravaganza, he deployed the grandMA2's new 2.0 software.

FreeFest attracted some 40,000 fans to the Merriweather Post Pavilion and surrounding grounds at Columbia, Maryland where headliners included Joan Jett, Lucacris and Chmielewski, whose Digital Media Designs served as the designer, programmer and production provider for the event and was responsible for the dance stage and one of the two primary stages.

"Everything went exceptionally well," he notes. "I was able to previz the show about a week before the event and, with the use of grandMA 3D, I was able to have most of the show done before we ever loaded in. Running the software on my MacBook Pro I never saw a

UK - Richard Martin Lighting continues to support lighting designer Martin Kempton on the latest series of Harry Hill's TV Burp. The four-time BAFTA winning ITV show uses a small and selective amount of lights to create a bright yet 'homely' look to compliment the set.

The rig comprises of Mac 250's, Mac TW1's and Pixel Par 90's on the floor. It also includes Alpha Spot 575 HPE's.

"The rig is very low indeed so it was important that they were silent. Secondly, being tungsten lamps, they are very good at the warmer colours - reds and ambers," says Richard Martin.

(Jim Evans)

Spain - As the 2010 FIFA World Cup Championship team from Spain returned home, they had waiting for them one of the largest public celebrations ever to be held. A crowd of more than 2m ecstatic fans would gather to celebrate their first World Cup title with an evening filled with congratulatory speeches and a concert headlined by multi-platinum artist David Bisbal. Behind the event, lighting designer David Gavilan and Mario Ortega were ready to tackle all challenges with the assistance of 122 VARI*LITE luminaires.

"We first became involved with the World Cup celebration through the Spanish Royal Federation of Football who we had worked with previously on a few other events," says Gavilan.

"When we were putting the initial design together we had to take into consideration three main elements; with the number of members of the audience being around 2m, we would ha

UK - Coemar's Infinity M range of moving heads feature strongly in London's West End at present.

Flashdance, The Wizard of Oz, Love Never Dies and We Will Rock You all employ the Infinity M moving heads.

"Their reduced size makes them easy to transport and easy to handle during the setting up phase," says Coemar. "While their modular construction facilitates maintenance work. From a technological viewpoint, the Infinity M models have artnet control, digital ballast, and a display that can be commanded by remote control via a dmx 512.

"Above all, they use the multi-lamp patent to assemble 700W and 575W fast-fit lamps, without distinction."

(Jim Evans)

UK - Pedestrians passing through one South London street should remember to look up later this month, following the installation of an innovative new lighting feature.

Located under the arch of the Clink Street tunnel on Bankside, the installation has been programmed to create a subtle firework display effect, running along the brickwork and bridge walls.

The lights react to the volume of pedestrians passing underneath them, with the illuminations changing in intensity according to the flow of people.

The quiet phases will be marked with a twinkling star effect and when the area becomes busier, the firework effect will build up momentum reaching its most striking display in times of increased activity.

Councillor Fiona Colley, cabinet member for regeneration at Southwark Council, said, "Southwark will become famous for the way it has transformed spaces that were previ

UK - Entec Sound & Light supplied sound and lighting equipment and crew for Steve Miller's recent UK and European tour, showcasing his latest Bingo album.

Entec won the contract after being recommended to production manager Brett Enzensperger by Milwaukee based Clearwing Productions, the company that supplies technical production for all Steve Miller's US based live work, and with whom Entec also has a close association.

They wanted an operation that could deliver a competitive all-in production package for sound and lighting. Says Enzensperger, "I asked Clearwing's Gregg Brunclik who I should use for production in Europe, and Entec was the clear choice. Gregg knows the standards I expect from a rental company, so I knew that Entec would fit the bill - and also that account manager Noreen O'Riordan would put up with me."

Steve Miller's show was designed by N

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