USA - Heading into the 2015-16 season, the New York Rangers and their fans had plenty of reasons to be optimistic. The NHL club had earned a team record 113 points the previous year and reached the Eastern Conference finals. Even better things were expected this year, when Rangers faithful gathered en masse at Madison Square Garden's Foyer Court on West 33rd Street in Manhattan for a celebration before the team's opening game. The throngs of fans on hand were able to follow the festivities on a large video wall made of MVP Ta8 Curve LED panels from Chauvet Professional.

"We had the video wall positioned on top of the foyer steps and showed IMAG, interviews with players, advertising messages, performances by bands and break up patterns," said Darren Lussier of Image Production Services, which created the display. "It was a bright sunny day, but all of these images

France - Organisers of the Paris-based trade show JTSE have announced that the exhibition will take place next week as planned, despite the recent terror attacks on the city.

A statement reads: "We want to express our affection to all the families of victims. The International Show JTSE 2015 will take place as planned in Paris on 24 and 25 November 2015 in the Dock Pullman. As Organisers of the show we trust our visitors and our exhibitors for the best running of this event. We are all together!"

(LSi Online)

Austria - This year was the sixth Lake Festival, the biggest EDM event in Austria. More than 100 artists performed on five different stages, including Avicii, David Guetta, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Steve Aoki, Alesso and Tiësto.

Thirty six Clay Paky Sharpys, 34 Clay Paky Mythos units, one grandMA2 full-size and one grandMA2 light were used (along with other equipment) at the festival, which took place at Unterpremstätten on Schwarzl Lake.

The lighting team consisted of lighting designer Daniel Pusnik, and Manfred Nikitser, who dealt with the technical management and MA programming, supported by Otto Schildknecht. Kenny Lippert was the lighting crew chief.

Manfred Nikitser reports, "For the stages, we first of all - of course - followed the headliners' instructions and requests. They were very cooperative and agreed to the idea of having a single lighting design for

UK - The artwork Fogscape #03238 was presented at Lumiere Durham last week. Fogscape #03238 was a collaboration between veteran Japanese artist Fujiko Nakaya and Simon Corder of London.

Conjuring the spirit of St Cuthbert's Mist, Fogscape #03238 was made of 1,500 high pressure nozzles along 150m of 'fog line' placed on the steep bank of the River Wear beneath Durham Cathedral. Nozzles, high-pressure lines and pumps were supplied by French brouillard specialists Dutrie.

Northumbrian Water poured 15t of mains water an hour to keep the show flowing. Two hundred light fixtures were installed by Newcastle based Nitelites - 100 on the banks of the river, 50 lighting the lower wall of the cathedral, and 50 on the roofs of the cathedral to light the towers.

In keeping with the elemental nature of the piece, most of the fixtures were PAR 64 heads. The lights were controlled over a wi

USA - Emulation Touch from Elation Professional is a new generation lighting controller that turns your tablet into a powerful lighting console, says the company.

Easy to use and budget friendly, Emulation Touch is designed exclusively for use with the Cuety app, the intuitive Emulation Touch programmer software. Available now for iPad from the Apple App Store and available soon for Android tablets from the Android app store, the Cuety user interface enables users to take full advantage of your tablet's mobility and multi-touch display.

Two hardware interface versions are available - Emulation Touch 1 and Emulation Touch 2. The Emulation Touch devices contain the powerful engine that runs a show, calculates fade times and renders dynamic effects. A standard cuelist-based system for control of up to 64 fixtures with 64 playbacks and 48 cues per playback, it includes a powerful

UK - Lighting manufacturer GDS won an award at the recent Bristol Post's Green Capital Awards, held at the city's Marriot hotel. In 2015 Bristol became the first UK city to be awarded the status of European Green Capital. This annual award, an initiative of the European Commission, is designed to promote and reward the efforts of cities to improve the environment. The city won the award by achieving high environmental standards, driving ambitious goals for sustainable development and acting as an inspirational role model to other cities.

In recognition of Bristol's achievement, the Post newspaper, with the help of main sponsor Velopost, scoured the city to find the people and organisations who make an exceptional contribution to the green agenda. After considering a host of nominations, each of the eleven categories was narrowed down to three nominees, with GDS triumphant in the

Chile - The opening ceremony of the FIFA U-17 World Cup 2015 in Chile was filled with colour and performances in the National Stadium, honouring the Chilean culture and the new generations interested in the local traditions. W-DMX was one of the stars, along with OEM partner Clay Paky, both brands distributed exclusively by Valook in Chile.

From Clay Paky there were 24 of the powerful new Mythos moving-heads, with 2 W-DMX Whitebox F-1 units, receiving the data from another WhiteBox F-1 at front-of-house. The setup included 12 dBi antennas on the transmitters and eight dBi outdoor antennas on the receivers, boosting up the signal to more than the total length of the football stadium.

Twenty-four nations participated in the grand opening of the Cup, in a show designed around the theme Colours of Chile. The performance was produced by Esteban Icardi, who was involved with

Mexico - Las Lunas Del Auditorio - Mexican live performance and music industry's most prestigious awards - took place at the 10,000 capacity venue and founder of the event, Auditorio Nacional. For the first time, the event's moving lights were exclusively Robe.

This vast production team from Auditorio Nacional was co-ordinated by Francisco Serrano, producer and director of Lunas del Auditorio, and general manager Salvador Vera Islas.

The striking lighting design was created by German 'Tiffy' Castellanos and the equipment was supplied by LED Project, both based in the vibrant metropolis of DF.

A glittering array of the great, the good and the glorious from the Mexican and Latin American world of show business and entertainment rocked the red carpet, and worldwide industry talent lined up to collect the coveted awards. It is the only event in Mexico to be broadcast live across

UK - White Light was recently tasked with working on two separate large-scale projects at the Barbican Centre, Europe's largest performing arts venue. The Concert Hall needed a major upgrade of its moving light rig and control system whereas the Barbican Theatre required a like-for-like replacement of its current rig, whilst incorporating some additional LED lighting. WL's role was to not only provide the equipment but ensure that this would enhance the performances in each space and provide an unforgettable experience for the audience.

The Concert Hall's moving light rig has to cope with the variety of acts that frequent the space whilst also be suitable for its busy schedule, with a typical day consisting of an orchestral rehearsal followed by a corporate event followed by an evening concert.

Jason Kew, the Barbican Centre's technical supervisor who oversees all of the light

USA - When the CMA Awards come to Nashville, it is a multi-night event for Music City. Country music bombshell Jana Kramer performed under Bandit lighting in a spectacular rooftop concert special.

Designed by Victor Fable, Bandit provided Chauvet RH1 Hybrids, Lekos and Sunstrips for the event, giving the Whiskey crooner a striking set.

"The RH1 Hybrids were necessary to create the Night Penetrating Beam to create a ceiling of light amongst the Nashville skyline," said lighting director Andy Knighton. "The Sunstrips offered a tungsten hue for illuminating people, and was also a rather pleasing toy to provide animation and movement."

The event took place on a roof in Downtown Nashville on Broadway, one of the city's main sources of honky-tonks and live music venues. Bandit's crew worked tirelessly to transport everything necessary for the show

If you're an EDM fan and live in America's desert southwest, El Paso's Sun City Music Festival (SCMF) is likely on your summer festival calendar. Held over Labour Day Weekend (5-6 September), both attendance and production values have grown yearly since the inaugural SCMF in 2011.

This year, some 40,000 EDM music lovers flocked to Ascarate Park in southern Texas to see an eclectic mix of acts, including EDM megastars Armin van Buuren and Hardwell, perform beneath a rig that included effects from Elation Colour Chorus LED battens and Elation Platinum Series moving heads.

The man behind the SCMF production and lighting design was Andrew Gumper of production house AG Light & Sound who turned to Color Chorus 72 LED battens and Platinum Spot 35 Pro moving heads to highlight the set design and create a level of visual excitement that brought festival goers into the experience.

The Main S

UK - LD Oli Richards has delivered a sparkling performance for the exclusive One Direction London Session with Apple Music.

Filmed in front of a live audience, this band interview and performance which was scheduled to tie in with the release of new album Made in the A.M, took place amongst the semi-industrial surroundings of the 'yet to be completed' Collins Music Hall, London.

Challenged with creating a versatile installation that needed to both compliment the venue and handle the differing onstage environments of 'interview' and 'live event', LD Oli Richards chose a variety of automated heads that could keep the action looking lively whilst providing dramatic colour washes and effects across the backdrop.

Martin MAC Auras and Viper Performances were mixed with Quantum Wash and Stagebars to deliver intense, precise colour throughout the venue and stage, the Viper Pe

UK - The gaming market is undeniably a huge part of the 21st Century entertainment industry but, until now, the graphics nature of the format meant there was little crossover between it and the live entertainment sector. All that is about to change. Between October 2014 and March 2015, lighting designer Steven Douglas was busy lighting a live stage at the Backstage Centre in Purfleet and also at LH2 as part of the new Guitar Hero Live! game, which uses live action footage as the gameplay.

Douglas explains the process in more detail, "The game has been designed to break away from computer style graphic style music games and be the first to integrate live action footage as the gameplay. The player's first person perspective is that of being on stage with an audience of up to 100,000 reacting to your performance. We filmed live bands with a real audience of 200-400 extras on a

UK - Drapes and rigging expert, Blackout, has helped transform Covent Garden Market into a Christmas wonderland through the installation of over 42 giant hanging mistletoe chandeliers.

For the past five years, Blackout has rigged the renowned bauble decorations which are famously hung from the glass roofs of the market's two main isles within Covent Garden. The decorations, produced and managed by production company Sculptivate, were redesigned for Christmas 2015 and the traditional baubles were replaced with over 40 large stems of mistletoes. There are two sizes of mistletoe, the smaller is 2.5m and weighs 90kg, the larger is 3.5m and weighs 110kg, along with 60kg mirror balls. In addition, the mistletoes are decorated with nearly 700 glowing berries, which transform each sprig of mistletoe into an impressive hanging chandelier.

Over 320m of garlands unite the chandeliers and

South Africa - The Joburg Theatre has invested in a new MA Lighting dot2 core console which was specified by technical manager Enos Ramoroko and delivered by MA's South African distributor DWR via System Solutions, the integration and installation division of the Gearhouse South Africa Group.

The Joburg Theatre Complex, (originally called the Civic Centre) was built in 1962 and has four primary performance stages presenting a lively mix - around 70 a year - of received and produced shows and performances including many famous West End and Broadway musicals.

The main Nelson Mandela Theatre already has a grandMA2 full-size console for lighting control - it was the first theatre in SA to actively adopt the platform - so when it came to choosing something for the smaller Fringe stage, it was logical to look to MA again, as everyone was happy by the power, stability and reliability

Czech Republic - The host country won its fourth Fed Cup women's tennis title in five years in the 2015 final staged at Prague's O2 Arena in front of a capacity 14,500 audience and Robe was one of six sponsors.

Robe moving lights were also used for the high energy Opening Ceremony (OC) spectacular show designed by Milan 'Mejla' Fronek from Lightneq, which prepared everyone for plenty of on-court excitement to follow. The installation and technical support was co-ordinated by Prague-based AV Media.

Milan has created high impact lighting schemes for numerous other top sporting events including the World Ice Hockey Championships held in the Czech Republic in May, the Sochi Olympic Park installation at Letna Park, Prague, during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and for the award-winning Czech House during the 2012 London Olympics.

For the Fed Cup final, Milan had some of Robe's ne

The Netherlands - Astera has appointed Keylight as the dealer of Astera's wireless event lights in The Netherlands. Keylight, a leading Dutch sales and rental company, has been specialising in providing professional wireless LED solutions to venues and events since 2012.

Commenting on the dealership, Gary Yates, lighting designer and owner of Keylight, said, "As a company specialised in wireless lighting, the Astera products are a great addition to our wireless collection. We love the way Astera's products are thought through in every detail, and made very accessible and consumer-friendly by the ease in control from the AsteraApp. In The Netherlands, these products will appeal to a wide spectrum of users from AV vendors, event organisers to wedding planners and caterers."

Sales & marketing director at Astera, Sebastian Bückle, adds: "We are expanding our Europe

UK - A new series of BBC Three's Live from the BBC began filming last weekend at Broadcasting House. Filmed in front of a live audience, the show is designed to showcase some of the Industry's latest talent including James Acaster, Dane Baptiste, Sofie Hagen, Adam Hess, Tez Ilyas, Nish Kumar, and Felicity Ward.

Martin Kempton is the lighting designer, with equipment provided by RML (Richard Martin Lighting). He has chosen to use Pixel Par's, Stage Bar 54's, X1TC Battens and a Followspot.

"I needed a range of flicker-free LED fixtures that I could use along with the lights that are built in to this unique venue," says Martin. "The production brief was to create a warm, sophisticated look that was not 'light entertainment' but enhanced the beautiful art deco architecture of the room. We had very little time to rig so it was essential that the kit was reliab

USA - Elation Professional's hybrid Platinum FLX moving head luminaire has received more industry recognition, winning a Worship Facilities New Product Award in the Best Moving Light category at the WFX Show.

The award, which recognizes the best new technology products for the church market, comes on the heels of a PLASA Award for Innovation and a Best Debuting Product honourable mention at the LDI Awards, both held in October. The Best Moving Light Award was chosen by the editors of Worship Facilities and Church Production magazines, the WFX Advisory Board, and WFX management.

"We're thrilled to have won another award for the Platinum FLX which has again been acknowledged for its unique innovation," stated Elation sales director Eric Loader. "It's a truly versatile hybrid that has raised the quality level of multi-functional lights and the respons

USA - Having the Ovation ED-190WW honoured with two awards at the WFX Conference and Exhibition was especially gratifying for the Chauvet Professional team. The church lighting designers and technicians who attended the annual conference were two of the main groups that motivated the company to develop this breakthrough fixture, which won the 2015 WFX Best Lighting Product Award as well as the Best LED Product Award.

The dual honours were in recognition of the impact that the LED ellipsoidal, which was introduced earlier this year, is having on church lighting. Unlike typical LED fixtures, which operate and dim only on a constant power and DMX source, the Ovation ED-190WW also works smoothly and efficiently with conventional direct power dimming sources. This is a unique ability among high-powered LED fixtures, and it allows the Chauvet product to be used with equal results in e

UK - Celebrating UNESCO's International Year of Light, a new festival of light and sound art - Enlighten Manchester - is set to bring a programme of world premieres, award-winning installations and international artists to the city.

From 10-12 December contemporary artists will transform the public spaces inside Manchester Central Library and The Bridgewater Hall, offering visitors an immersive, cultural celebration amidst the festive hustle and bustle.

Visitors' imaginations will be sparked by birds soaring across piano strings to create musical scores; a chandelier of sparkling earrings and a cutting edge sound and light installation that is felt not seen. With more than 15 installations, performances and talks confirmed - many of them free - the festival will be a vibrant hot bed of light, sound and literature, say the organisers.

Confirmed artists include award-wi

China - Olivier Award winning lighting designer Paule Constable is using Clay Paky Alpha Beam 700s to add drama to the Chinese production of the successful stage play War Horse.

Constable is lead lighting designer for the production, alongside associate Karen Spahn and programmer Blake Garner.

The production is part of the 2015 UK-China Year of Cultural Exchange. National Theatre Live is collaborating with the National Theatre of China to bring more productions to the country with the support of the British Council. The Chinese production of War Horse debuted on 4 September.

"We first tried the Alpha Beams for the US tour version of War Horse and they worked really well, giving us added control," says Constable. "In China, they are proving to be a great augmentation to the show - I love the narrow, parallel beam which can also be softened

USA - Dutch company Highlite International has appointed Techni-Lux of Orlando, Florida, as the US distributor for its Showtec range of lighting products.

Techni-Lux displayed and demonstrated a few selected Showtec products on their booth at the recent LDI Trade Show in Las Vegas-NV with great success.

Luciano Salvati, Techni-Lux President and CEO. comments: "We are very pleased to be starting a partnership with Highlite. The company ethics and way of dealing with dealers is very similar to the Techni-Lux philosophy and they are also still a privately owned business, as we are."

Alex Gonzalez, Executive Vice-President of Techni-Lux added: "Highlite offer a wide range of products, which help us fill the gaps within the Techni-Lux product portfolio. Furthermore having Malcolm [Burlow] acting as the brand manager for our company, shows us the commitment that Hig

UK - The Burlington Arcade Annual Christmas Lights Switch On, took place on Wednesday marking the start of the 2015 festive season.

Twilight Trees installed 18 3m lollipop LED cherry trees raised on bespoke planters to transform the arcade into a fantasy world to mark the 150th anniversary of the first publication of Alice in Wonderland.

"We were so thrilled to be asked to work with Burlington Arcade. It's an iconic London landmark and the trees really helped it to come to life. It was a very proud moment when the lights were turned on and the feedback we had was incredible," said Susie Reid Thomas owner of Twilight Trees.

(Jim Evans)

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