UK - Viva Forever!, the musical based on the songs of the Spice Girls, had its World Premiere in London's West End on 11 December and has the audiences dancing in the aisles and happily humming the whole way home.

For Lighting Designer Howard Harrison, it has provided a glorious opportunity to juxtapose almost every conceivable genre of performance lighting in one show. Choosing to use two grandMA2 consoles to programme the lights and AV elements was a first for him. "The only restriction to programming with these consoles is your own imagination. As an end user, I have nothing but praise for the possibilities that the grandMA2 provides and that extends to the support we received from Ambersphere's sales director, Phil Norfolk, who has been incredibly helpful in facili

Finland - Veturi shopping centre, Finland's sixth biggest shopping centre, was before its opening 13 September 2012 illuminated with new energy efficient and eye catching LED lighting.

LumenRadio's long-term Finnish distributor Sun Effects together with lighting designer Jari Vuorinen from Olof Granlund Oy, installed 82 Traxon Wall Washers and an e:cue control system with eight CRMX Slim receivers and one double universe CRMX Nova transmitter to light up a special oval-shaped suspended ceiling in the main corridors. Sun Effects also installed an extensive wireless CRMX system, containing one CRMX Slim and multiple CRMX Nova receivers on an advertisement tower located just right outside the shopping centre.

The barrier-free shopping centre is 48,000 m² and has stores from over 80 companies.

"A public project of this magnitude in the presence of thousands of visitors on

France - Working at the 'World's Largest Fashion Show' during Paris Fashion Week, event technical manager Bertrand de Saint Pern needed the right lighting for the extreme runway. As he says, "We fitted each of two lines of truss above the catwalk with 50 ETC Source Four Fresnel fixtures." Seven hundred models eventually graced the 50m stretch of catwalk, which was extended into the street for huge crowds to view.

The Source Four Fresnel combines ETC's HPL lamp technology with the special optics of a traditional Fresnel for far better light output and energy efficiencies than other-brand products. "We were impressed not only by the quality of the lighting provided but with the product itself," says Saint Pern. "It was immensely practical."

Working with ETC distributor Avab Transtechnik France, S Group of Paris installed the 100 ETC fixtures at the

featured content

ETC Halcyon Silent

High End Systems Halcyon Silent builds on ETC’s legacy of fanless automated fixtures by incorporating features from the highly sought-after Halcyon family. Halcyon Silent perfectly balances silent operation with brilliant output of 18,400 lumens and high-impact features. 

For more information visit us at www.etcconnect.com

Theatres of the Year - Shakespeare's Globe and Sheffield Theatres have been named as London theatre of the year and regional theatre of the year in The Stage 100 Awards 2013. Four other categories were also announced. The Union Theatre in Southwark won fringe theatre of the year, Glasgow-based A Play, A Pie and a Pint won producer of the year and ALRA North won school of the year.

Meanwhile, the Unsung Hero award returned this year with two winners. Anne McNulty was recognised for her work as casting director of the Donmar Warehouse, while Chris Isherman was recognised for his work as theatre manager at the West End's Duchess Theatre. The awards will be presented later this month.

Old Gold - Unpublished colour photographs of The Beatles during their first tour of the US are to be auctioned. The 65 slides include many stage shots, including George Harrison with his red R

featured content

New Touring Series by Gravity – Every Scratch Has A Story

When the stage heats up, you need equipment that can keep up without compromise. The Gravity Touring Series has been specifically designed to meet the highest demands – for rental companies, professional musicians, concert organizers, and large event venues. Premium materials, exceptional durability, and impressive longevity make these products stand out. Whether on tour, in constant use, or under the toughest conditions: the Touring Series delivers maximum reliability and performance – every day, on every stage.
FIND OUT MORE >>>

Russia - In November of this year, American entertainer Jennifer Lopez gave performances in Moscow and St. Petersburg that won the hearts of Russians all over the country. Rental company Euroshow not only supplied all of the equipment for the concerts in both cities but gave lighting designer Sean Burke the chance to try out Martin Professional's new MAC Viper Profile.

For the show in St. Petersburg, Euroshow changed the preliminary specification to 1500 W MAC III Profiles and 1000 W MAC Viper Profiles (instead of 1200 W moving heads), as well as MAC 2000 Wash XBs and MAC Auras.

Burke got the chance to test the MAC Viper Profile for the first time, using them as main top beam effects and for side wash and audience work. He comments, "When we worked with Euroshow on the advance for the show they told me they had recently acquired some MAC Vipers. I'd not used them before b

Australia - A cast of Vari-Lite VLX Wash luminaires have been installed as part of a massive AUS$136m revamp of the iconic Australian theatre, Hamer Hall.

Adrian Sterritt, head of lighting at the Melbourne venue, says his team chose the VLX Wash luminaires following a shoot-out between the Vari-Lite fixtures and other brands.

"We were looking for a number of aspects from the lighting fixtures; speed, quality of light, operation modes," says Sterritt. "The VLX Wash zoom was better, its quality of light was similar to what we were used to, and in terms of colours we wanted to produce, it was more suited to our desired colour palette. There was also an environmental aspect to the project so 'green' products were favourable."

Harmer Hall is used for a wide variety of events from rock-and-roll concerts to orchestral and theatrical shows, and the VLX Wash lumin

featured content

AZOR® SP2 IP - Compact IP65 Spot Profile Moving Head

Compact design and IP65 protection for indoor and outdoor applications: the new AZOR® SP2 IP is the ideal solution for open-air events and outdoor theatres that require a powerful, weatherproof lighting system. An optimal partner for lighting designers and event service providers looking for a versatile LED show light in a compact housing.

AZOR® SP2 IP – the next generation of robust, weatherproof, and compact lighting for maximum creative freedom, both indoors and outdoors.

READ MORE >>>

UK - TV lighting specialists Aurora Lighting Hire were left fighting over the remote control on New Year's Eve. Aurora signed off "a phenomenal December" by supplying lighting facilities to multiple shows across BBC1, BBC2 and Channel 4.

First up for Aurora was C4's Alan Carr's New Years Eve Specstacular. Aurora supplied LD Chris Rigby with moving lights, set LED and crew. Warming up for the midnight hour, Rigby was back in action this time for the BBC's Graham Norton Show, Aurora was again on hand providing moving lights and crew to this New Year's special.

Completing a trio for Rigby, New Year's Eve finished for him with the end of an era. Aurora supplied an extensive moving light rig to BBC's Jools Annual Hootenanny, the last time this legendary show will be recorded at the BBC Television Centre.

Finishing off the festivities was C4's Hou

Portugal - DPA Microphones has expanded the remit of its Spanish distributor SeeSound to encompass Portugal. The change came into effect on 1 January 2013.

Susanne Seidel, executive vice president of sales and marketing for DPA Microphones, says, "SeeSound has had great success with the DPA brand in Spain and we are delighted to be extending this relationship to cover Portugal. SeeSound offers a solution portfolio for the audio industry and is highly pro active at driving activities such as product roadshows, product seminars and training sessions. This expansion of our sales network will significantly stengthen DPA's position and development in the Portuguese market place and provide excellent customer service and support to our existing and passionate DPA customer base."

Nacho Alberdi, CEO of SeeSound says, "We are very happy to expand our relationship with DP

UK - Devon-based drapes, starcloth, LED and visual effects specialist S+H Technical supplied approximately 15,000 additional Pea Lights and other illuminated effects for the Christmas edition of the BBC's popular hit show, Strictly Come Dancing.

This was staged in studio TC1 and the BBC TV Centre, Wood Lane, Shepherd's Bush, London.

The additional Pea Lights brought the total for the Final to around 21,000. S+H regularly supplied about 6000 Pea Lights to each show in the series which were integrated into the set walls of Patrick Doherty's impressive ballroom design.

(Jim Evans)

UK - OneBigStar has supplied production and equipment for the Chris Moyles Live tour. Moyles recently took to the road with his long-time breakfast show collaborators Aled Haydn Jones and Dominic Byrne, along with house band, Rockaoke.

Working with Accept Management who provided tour and production

management, OBS designed and supplied the scalable set, LED video / mixing, LX and control and mic / IEM packs, along with techs and operators.

The show's format was very much in keeping with the style of the breakfast show and so every night varied in content. Combined with the diversity in in-house

specifications, this ensured that flexibility was a necessity both in pre-production and on the road.

Amongst the production supplied by OBS, and making its UK debut, was the new Chauvet 7mm PVP SMD LED Panels [12m2 4: 3 format] fed with a Roland V800HD Vision Mixer. Other rental

The Netherlands - Mitsubishi Electric's MDT701S will make its European debut at ISE 2013. The flagship 70" edge-lit LED display is the largest professional LCD monitor ever offered by Mitsubishi, equally suited to both public display or corporate settings, says the company.

"Large format flat panel displays are increasingly popular in public display applications such as signage and point of information, as well as corporate presentation and education. The large, Full HD screen and elegant narrow bezel design of the MDT701S creates an impressive visual presence as well as delivering excellent performance and low cost of ownership thanks to its use of LED backlighting," says the company. "LED illumination means reduced power consumption and slimmer profile, while delivering a 5000:1 contrast ratio and increased colour gamut. Lifespan is also increased and LEDs

Australia - XXXX Island is billed as the ultimate bloke's getaway destination; an island created by a beer company specifically for beer lovers.

XXXX Island is 15 kilometres off the Capricorn Coast at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef. Formerly known as Pumpkin Island, it's been recently leased by beverage company Lion who have naming rights and exclusive use for the next three years.

Currently the only way to get there is through winning competitions run by the beer brand, which it plans to hold regularly over the life of the three-year island lease.

XXXX Island features the type of creature comforts you'd expect, including specially fitted-out cabins such as the fishing shack, the footy shack and the larger-than-life campground; a man-cave filled with bits and pieces to keep guests busy; and other small ingenious touches including a fishing lure vending machine an

The Netherlands - The 10th Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) show sees Yamaha Music Europe GmbH showing a full range of products for the installed audio market.

Exhibiting on Stand 7-M176, a highlight will be products from the Commercial Installation Solutions (CIS) series. Making its first appearance in Europe, the CIS series is a range designed specifically with ease of installation and use in mind, says Yamaha. The CIS series has been devised to provide a complete system solution for situations where there isn't an experienced audio operator available to manage it - for example in restaurants, retail outlets, transport hubs, public buildings, convention centres and function rooms.

The first CIS series products include the MTX matrix processors, XMV multi-channel amplifiers, VXC ceiling speakers and VXS surface mount speakers - all featuring Yamaha's renowned digital technolog

The Netherlands - Later this month, Panasonic will be at Integrated Systems Europe to present a host of new display and projector innovations.

The new video wall display from Panasonic, the TH-55LFV50, will be exhibited at ISE. The LED LCD display is a solution for digital signage as well as for the rental and staging market. The highly energy efficient video wall features a robust design to minimise breakages and the industries narrowest bezel to bezel of only 5.3 mm thickness.

Display solutions for lobbies, airports, showrooms and retail stores will also be showcased at ISE. Panasonic will present new Large LCD displays, TH-70LF50 70 inch and TH-80LF50 80 inch and digital signage LCD displays; TH-42LF5 42 inch and TH-47LF5 47 inch. These new displays boast the utmost attention to design detail, feature narrow bezels and can reproduce Full-HD images. For robust outdoor applic

UK - Flare Audio has launched Space Technology, billed as "a groundbreaking new development ... The technology delivers an immediacy of sound with unbeaten clarity and detail, and is set to open up a new frontier in sound experience for audio professionals through to home consumers".

The company states: "Space is the latest development from UK based audio manufacturing innovators Flare Audio Ltd. Space Technology achieves this giant leap in audio quality by banishing resonance. Where other speaker designs strive to control resonance and internal reflections through enclosure design and dampening; Flare doesn't do damage control. Flare speaker designs are believed to be the first in the world to prevent resonance or internal reflections being created in the first place. No resonance means no rear-reflected sound wave damage, which leads to pure sound, audible exact

The Netherlands - Artistic Licence Engineering will be demonstrating dVnet, its innovative new digital video-to-network converter, at ISE 2013. "Visitors to the stand (8-R232) are guaranteed an exciting visual display as dVnet drives Pixel Pad, the LED array product from Abstract," says the company.

The latest addition to ALE's Rack Pack range, dVnet is aimed squarely at retail and architectural applications in which a media facade or light sculpture is to be controlled by video, and the complexity of a media server is not required.

dVnet is all a user needs to convert a video creation to light, says ALE. The digital video input is in HDMI format. "Configuration is simplicity itself, with less than ten mouse-clicks required to render video to a media wall."

dVnet can also play-back video clips manually loaded onto its internal hard drive, or via the incor

UK - Event, production and communication company, R&B Group, is celebrating its 21st year in business and a 25% increase in sales on the first half year compared to the same period in 2011.

The company head office is located in Newcastle and a further branch in Yorkshire, however R&B Group reports that new work is coming increasingly from outside of the region.

Despite tough market conditions R&B Group has expanded its national profile and grown the business. The company believes that competitive rates make them an attractive option for national event organisers. The return to growth at R&B Group follows a three-year decline in sales.

"The enforced increase in efficiency which the downturn brought is now paying dividends, as activity levels return to pre-2009 heights," says R&B Group Customer Service Manager, Kate Lambert.

R&B Group believe there is a lag in reco

UK - London based creative and technical solutions provider Presentation Rentals (PR) has invested in new Clay Paky Alpha Spot QWO 800s and A.LEDA Wash K.10 moving lights - in both black and white.

This reflects a busy autumn and run-up to Christmas for the company, which provided technical production for a full range of shows and events.

Thirty CP units were purchased in total - 16 Spots, eight in each colour - and 12 washes, eight in black and four white. They are the first white versions of both types of fixtures in the UK.

(Jim Evans)

UK - A.C. Special Projects (ACSP) has supplied Brand Pilot Limited, a strategic marketing consultancy based in Oxford, UK, with a complete touring audio and lighting solution for the promotional stand used at race circuits across the UK supporting Tesco's sponsorship of the MG KX Momentum Race Team.

The 10 x 15m structure has been appearing throughout the 2012 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) racing season, including visits to the Brands Hatch, Donington Park and Silverstone circuits.

The all-new MG Motor UK team main sponsors are Tesco's Momentum fuel and KX Energy Drink. The team is piloted by double BTCC champion Jason Plato. Completing the all-British line-up, the team's new MG6 GT five-door fastback is the first new MG in 16 years, designed and engineered at MG Motor's UK plant in Birmingham.

ACSP's Project Manager, Lance Bromhead and General Manager,

Denmark - DK-Technologies has appointed Uffe Kjems Hansen to the position of product marketing director, with responsibility for promoting the company's entire range of audio and video metering and monitoring products, including the award-winning DK Meter family.

Kjems Hansen joins DK-Technologies from digital processing manufacturer TC Electronic, where he held a number of positions over a 17 year period, culminating in vice president, business management and marketing. As a key member of TC Electronic's management group he was instrumental in driving the company's international growth through market and product focus, aligned with strategic marketing and communication.

Karsten Hansen, CEO of DK-Technologies, says, "Uffe has extensive business experience and this, combined with his in-depth knowledge of our industry, makes him the ideal person to assist DK-Technologies w

Poland - In cooperation with Polish cities, the Warsaw-based radio station Radio ESKA organised a live concert tour called Letnia Scena ESKI (Summer Stage of ESKA) featuring a wide range of national and international talent. In 2012, in the course of a tour lasting several months, ESKA visited 15 Polish cities bringing acts such as Feel, Blue Cafe, Kayah, Piasek, Lzy, Afromental, Robert M., the DJs of Wet Fingers and the French duet The Nycer and Eddy Wata to a wider public. With thousands attending in every city visited, the recently concluded tour was an undoubted success.

The production company responsible, Promotor United Entertainment (ZPR), delegated its technical implementation to the Polish rental company Magtex - Technika Sceniczna, while Dynacord partner Tommex Zebrowscy Sp. J. stood by to offer technical support to Magtex. In view of the diverse requirements of the 15

Latest Issue. . .

Save
Cookies user preferences
We use cookies to ensure you to get the best experience on our website. If you decline the use of cookies, this website may not function as expected.
Accept all
Decline all
Analytics
Tools used to analyze the data to measure the effectiveness of a website and to understand how it works.
Google Analytics
Accept
Decline
Advertisement
If you accept, the ads on the page will be adapted to your preferences.
Google Ad
Accept
Decline