Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025
PLASA Show 2025 - Banner - June-Aug 2025

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Denmark - Around 1025 AD, a fierce 37m Viking warship of the Danish fleet rode the northern waves. Excavated in 1997 from a Roskilde fjord bed, the ship has now been partly restored. A massive steel skeleton has been built around its wooden remains. Roskilde 6 makes a new 'voyage', in the National Museum of Denmark's exhibition Viking, until the end of November. ETC's Source Four LED fixtures, controlled by an ETC Ion console and Unison Paradigm system, bring the vessel to light.

Says lighting designer Hans Henrik Schmidt, "This is the first such use of LED lighting in a museum in Denmark, and exhibition reviews that we've seen which mention the lighting have been overwhelmingly positive."

Schmidt worked with ETC dealer Bico Professionel and the museum's head of AV, Mi

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UK - Even through the peak of the summer, traditionally a quieter period in theatrical production, entertainment lighting specialist White Light is being kept busy by the numerous shows that have chosen the company to supply their lighting equipment.

Down in Sussex, the Chichester Festival Theatre is closed for refurbishment - but the company has created a temporary home for itself in a giant tent pitched in the surrounding parkland. The first performance in the tent is, appropriately, a new production of the circus musical Barnum, presented in association with Cameron Mackintosh. Directed by Timothy Sheader and designed by Scott Pask, the show features lighting by Paule Constable, continuing her regular collaboration with White Light. Constable's rig makes full use of the comprehensive range of equipment available from White Light's rental stock, including the powerful y

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UK - Projection Advertising transformed the appearance of 94 Baker Street, the Grade II listed one-time base for Apple Records and the Apple Boutique, as part of the 31 July event to launch the luxurious new Apple Apartments.

Utilising two 15K projectors to create a light projection, Projection Advertising adorned the building -on the corner of Baker Street and Paddington Street - with a contemporary interpretation of the famous psychedelic-style mural by Dutch group The Fool, which had originally adorned the Apple building in its heyday. The image was projected with the strapline 'another beautiful place for beautiful people' - echoing Paul McCartney's description of the Apple Boutique as 'a beautiful place where beautiful people can buy beautiful things'.

"It was wonderful to play a part in such an historic occasion," explains Tom Burch, managing director of Projec

Doughty - Banner - from 4 July 2025

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UK - As part of the current, continuing development of Wembley Arena, following a major refurbishment back in 2006, contractors Fagan Electrical, in a general technical evaluation, identified the need for significant improvements to the levels of emergency lighting.

The Wembley Arena management asked Fagan to recommend an efficient and sustainable solution. As respected, highly specialised contractors with over 70 years collective experience in the entertainment industry, Fagan recommended GDS' ArcSystem for the job. Entertainment lighting specialists and UK dealer for GDS, White Light, was chosen by Fagan Electrical to supply the new system.

GDS supplied 44 x Arc 8 cell emergency fittings, two TX 1 transmitters, one button panel and one commissioning tool.

Simon Needle, special projects director of White Light, comments, "The Arc fittings brought the safety lighting le

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USA - The Naval Academy Chapel is a historic focal point for the U.S. Naval Academy and the city of Annapolis, Maryland. Dedicated in 1908 and remodelled in 1940, the Chapel underwent an extensive restoration in 2009. Its classic cruciform design centres on a 121-foot-high dome, seats 2500 worshipers and includes a 268-rank pipe organ.

The Chapel's large volume, hard surfaces and large, high dome present substantial acoustical issues. As a result, the Chapel has always suffered from poor speech intelligibility and uneven coverage. In an attempt to deal with these issues, the Chapel tried several different sound systems including a distributed system and a pew-back system. Finally, in 2010, while operating with an unsatisfactory mix of these different systems, the Chapel published an RFP asking for proposals for an entirely new sound reinforcement system.

After an extended, for

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Italy - There was a job to finish: the 2011 tour Vasco Rossi, the Italian rock star from Emilia, interrupted owing to health problems. The seven concerts in two large stadiums (four in Turin and three in Bologna) were all sold out.

Vasco was in great shape on a beautiful stage, which led Roberto De Luca, tour producer for Live Nation Italia, to say: "These are perhaps the most exciting concerts I have seen since I have been working with Vasco- for a good 17 years." The stage was designed by Giò Forma. The layout was inspired by the triangular shape of Vasco's historic logo, around which lighting designer Giovanni Pinna devised the lighting plan.

There was a massive presence of Clay Paky lights, with as many as 40 Alpha Spot HPE 1500s, 20 Alpha Profile 1500s, 20 Alpha Beam 1500s and 18 Shotlight Washes.

There was also a staggering 54 of the omnipresent Sharpys. Gio

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On The Fringe - The largest arts festival in the world, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has got underway.The 2013 Fringe programme features 45,464 performances of 2,871 shows in a total of 273 venues across the city.

Family Affair - A Merseyside festival organiser has said he is "over the moon about getting not one but three" of reggae legend Bob Marley's sons to play. Liverpool International Music Festival's Yaw Owusu said it was a "real coup" to have Damien, Stephen and Julian Marley at the event. The brothers will appear at the Sefton Park event as part of the Ghetto Youths International Crew.The group, which includes Stephen's son Jo Mersa, will play on 25 August.

Face Value - The National Portrait Gallery in London is to host the first UK exhibition of portraits by Bob Dylan. A series of 12 pastel works, a mix of real and fictitious

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Bangladesh - Bangladesh-based Glow Lights & Effects only set up in business in 2011, but by the following year they were starting to service many events out of Dhaka - frequently using the PR5000 Spot and Beam lights from Chinese manufacturers PR Lighting.

Founder, Mukimul Anwar Mukim, and managing partner M H Khokon, along with experienced team members Shamim Ahmed (technical adviser) and chief communication officer, Khundker Hafizur Rahim, first saw the fixtures at the 2011 PALM Expo in Beijing and the team was immediately impressed by the state-of-the-art technology and highly developed optical path. By the following year he was ready to purchase 18 of each fixture for use in the company's inventory.

These were soon appearing on a number of high profile events including the Grameen Phone Tri-nation Mega Festival in the Bangladesh Army Stadium.

Grameen Phone is one of the

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Canada - When Grand Théâtre de Québec decided to update their sound system, Robert Charbonneau, head of sound assisted by Robert Caux, helped conduct over two years of testing on various loudspeaker, to ensure the new system would cover the theatre's diverse needs.

"We had very strict parameters, and wanted to make sure we saw all of our options. Different systems would come in for gain tests, vocal tests and instrumental tests; we would record the results. Then we'd move all around, so we compared the quality of the systems from every seat in the house. Being so thorough helped in the end, because now there is no doubt that the d&b audiotechnik J-Series was the right choice for our space."

Once d&b was selected, regional manager Francois Corbin worked closely with the theatre to provide custom coverage and system design. "After two years of resea

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South Africa - The South African Music Awards (SAMA) could be described as Africa's version of the Grammys. The Sun City Superbowl, situated in the North West Province of South Africa, awakens as the who's who in the music industry and their dedicated supporters witness the unveiling of the best artists and albums of the year.

Dream Sets was the chief technical supplier and an influential creative force on this production, commissioned by VL Productions to supply the full technical for the show, all except for the sound which was taken care by Audio Logic.

"You can create anything you want with the right people," said Robert Hoey from Dream Sets. Dream Sets subcontracted AV Unlimited to supply the video elements of the show including video mapping which played a massive part in this year's awards. MGG supplied additional lighting gear while LaserX worked their magic

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Finland - One of the largest temporary outdoor installations in the Nordic countries, Flow Festival in Helsinki, will for the second year in a row choose LumenRadio's CRMX products to control the lighting.

The popular music and arts festival will be held on 9-11 August 2013 at the historic Suvilahti former power plant area in the city centre of Helsinki. The music presented at Flow is a strong and varied selection of established artists from all around the world. Using control cabling for this project would have been very difficult, due to an extensive area lighting system involving long distances. It was these requirements that led LumenRadio's finish distributor Sun Effects to specify a wireless CRMX system in order to provide maximum flexibility, reliability and ease of use.

Sun Effects has been responsible for the lighting, video and stage design at the festival for many y

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South Africa - Christie has today announced a deal with MGG, one of the largest rental staging companies in South Africa, for four Christie Roadster HD20K-J 3-chip DLP purpose-built, event-staging projectors. These will be the first of the new J-Series projectors to be deployed in Africa.

MGG has been steadily increasing their investment in Christie Pro-AV systems, starting with LCD and 1-chip DLP, moving to 3-chip DLP, UHP illuminated M-Series and now onto the J-Series digital projectors.

Mark Gaylard, owner of MGG, said, "Over the last couple of years we have purchased a number of Christie products and have been particularly impressed with their quality and reliability, so when we were looking for projectors that could enhance our capabilities and offerings, they had to be Christie."

Gustav Barnard, technical and education manager at Stage Audio Works, added, &qu

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UK - London based technical and creative solutions provider and live communications specialist Eclipse Presentations has invested in four of S+H Technical Support's ShowLED Animation Cloths, which have been added to their hire stock.

Eclipse Presentations designs and produces a wide range of shows and events and has enjoyed a long working relationship with the Devon-based draping and special effects specialist S+H.

The new 6 x 4.5m Animation Cloths went straight into action in VIP Areas for a run of high profile concerts by Bruce Springsteen, The Killers and Robbie Williams at London's Wembley Stadium.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - One of the oldest churches in Northern Florida, Immaculate Conception Catholic Church recently saw an upgrade in gear - the first in three decades - with the addition of about 20 Chauvet fixtures. A selection of Chauvet Professional Ovation E-190WW ellipsoidal-style fixtures, COLORado 1 VW Tour and COLORado 1-Tri Tour PAR wash lights comprise the church's permanent inventory, used for services and special events.

Trinity Audio Video Lighting of Orange Park, Fla., specified and installed the gear. Completed in 1910, the church is built in a late Gothic revival architecture style, featuring a cruciform floor plan, pointed arches, tracery on the windows, buttresses and pinnacles, high spires, and an interior high vault. With the addition of the LED fixture these traditional features are enhanced for a beautiful mixture of old and new.

"The church wanted to change the a

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Australia - As one of the largest auditorium venues in Australia, the Melbourne Recital Centre (MRC) is a bustling live music hub in Melbourne's Arts Precinct, Southbank. Since opening its doors in 2009, the MRC has been operating with DiGiCo consoles, beginning with the DiGiCo D5, then adding an SD8 and most recently, an SD11.

The MRC comprises two auditoriums: the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall (which seats 1000) and The Salon (seating 132). The Elisabeth Murdoch Hall features a 135m2 stage as well as an optional 51m2 extension when required. This has made it suitable for chamber music and orchestras alike and this is where the D1 and SD8 are most utilised. The Salon is a completely configurable space that can be tailored as required and both auditoriums feature highly engineered acoustic treatment, both internally and externally.

The MRC, located on the very busy Southbank strip, i

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USA - Electric Forest is a music festival held in Rothbury, Michigan that features an electro-themed set of concerts that take place on six stages over the course of four days.

Burst Sound & Lighting Systems, based in Detroit, was tapped to provide sound reinforcement systems for the main Tripolee stage as well as The Observatory, one of the smaller stages at the festival.

"We rolled out a complete E15 line array rig for the Tripolee stage," explains Scott Ciungan, operations manager for Burst. "The system was so clean, it's like listening to a pair of studio monitors at 130 dB - absolutely pristine."

The line arrays consisted of 24 E15 boxes - 12 per side - with 24 T21 subwoofers stacked two high and 12 wide in front of the stage.

"The arrays were hung behind scrim on scat bays constructed to the left and right of the stage," Ciungan adds. &q

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UK - With their main theatre building in darkness during a two year, £22m refurbishment project, Chichester Festival Theatre have turned to event production company Entourage Live to oversee the construction and delivery of their temporary theatre-in-a-tent venue for the summer of 2013.

The state-of-the-art 1,400 seat venue has been built to provide an alternative space whilst the main theatre building is redeveloped as part of the Chichester Festival Theatre 'RENEW' project.

The Theatre in the Park venue plays host to Cameron Mackintosh's Barnum. "This is a great project to be involved with" commented Entourage Live managing director Andy Bartlett. "It's key that we work with all parties and stakeholders on a project of this size. We're working with the tent and site designers, production management, company management and the show's producers.&quo

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UK - Over the last few months several high profile venues have adopted the National Rigging Certificate as it becomes the clearest way of benchmarking the skills and experience of riggers in the entertainment industry. The importance of this for venues and producers is being recognised and now ACC Liverpool, the NIA, LG Arena, Phones 4U Arena Manchester, Manchester Central and NEC have become full endorsing venues, while ExCeL London has committed to supporting the NRC and is working toward full endorsement.

"The endorsement by venues of qualifications such as this will help to further improve competency and safety standards across the industry. The NRC is another step towards meeting the rigging industry's aspirations of consistently high levels of competence and safety," says Nicky Norman, senior production and technical manager, ACC Liverpool, home to BT Convention

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UK - Respected lighting designer Rob Sinclair is using Clay Paky's compact yet super bright Sharpy Wash 330 as the workhorse fixture for the lighting of the visuals-led Pet Shop Boys Electric World Tour.

The new Sharpy Wash luminaire - a 330W washlight with the luminous efficiency, graphic and optical performance of a 1000W fixture - is providing a lightweight yet powerful solution for Sinclair as the tour travels from America to Europe and the Far East.

"We specified the Sharpy Washes because I needed an extremely bright workhorse light that was small enough to travel with us on the numerous plane journeys around the world," says Sinclair. "They're working great, and we're very happy with them."

The tour is projection-focussed, jam-packed with dynamic visuals throughout, which are beamed onto an enormous Venetian blind-style screen. This requires

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South Africa - In March earlier this year, Kilowatt AV raised R35 000 for the charity Songo, besides supplying the full technical support, at The Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle Tour.

"Every year Kilowatt AV chooses to back a charity," commented Dillon Jearey, managing director at Kilowatt AV. "We feel that by doing this we can add significant value with cash and services donations. We look for charities that do not facilitate basic life needs but rather focus on inspiring people and helping them get excited about life and the awesome opportunities it presents. For the last two years we have supported Songo, a charity that uses cycling to inspire and uplift a community."

Kilowatt AV's main drive for their charity is entering a team into the Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle tour and then raising money through suppliers and other friendly companies. DWR Distribution w

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UK - Howard Smart has joined Turbosound as senior technical support specialist. Having started his pro audio career with Sussex-based Blue Box Company and worked with many of the UK's top production companies, Smart has a wealth of experience of both national and international concert touring spanning more than 20 years. Learning much of his audio engineering skills at the sharp end of the electronic dance music boom of the 90s, he quickly progressed to become a freelance engineer for Capital Sound, SSE, Entec, RG Jones and Audile.

, Smart was instrumental in taking Leftfield's seminal dance music studio albums on the road in 1996 and again in 2000, and has mixed monitors for Ian Brown, Moloko, Tata Young, Ed Harcourt, Massive Attack, Apollo 440 and Badly Drawn Boy.

Latterly, Smart was project manager and systems engineer for new rental company and early adopter of Turbosound'

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