The Netherlands - PRG-EML Productions, based in Utrecht has recently invested in Robe's new BMFL Spot moving lights. Robe's reporting team caught up with this leading production company, during a recent road trip to The Netherlands, and interviewed general manager Wouter Muurlink.

PRG-EML Productions specialises in delivering lighting, rigging and audio solutions to all sectors of the entertainment and industrial presentation industry and currently has a stock of around 200 Robe products in their wide inventory of moving lights.

The Robe purchases started three years ago with LEDWash 1200s, to which LEDWash 800s, Pointes and CycFX 8s were quickly added followed by most recently, the BMFL Spots. They were the first company in Holland to have the BMFL Spots, an action that set the

Germany / Italy - Fohhn Audio has supplied an extensive range of loudspeaker systems for installation in the German, United Arab Emirates and Kazakhstan pavilions at Expo 2015 in Milan. The Nürtingen-based manufacturer is no stranger to this universal exposition, having previously provided loudspeaker systems for the German, Swiss and China State Grid pavilions at EXPO 2010 in Shanghai.

The theme of Expo 2015, which opened on 1 May, is Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life. One hundred and forty countries and a number of international organisations are taking part. More than 20 million people are expected to visit the 1.1 million sq.m exhibition site before the Expo closes on 31 October.

Music & Light Design GmbH, Leonberg, has installed around 80 compact Fohhn loudspeakers in Germany's Fields of Ideas pavilion, which portrays the country's distinctive field and m

UK - Midas Productions is the first temporary power company to switch on to European fuel Green B+ diesel, a drop-in renewable that massively outperforms both bio and fossil diesel.

Developed in conjunction with, and distributed exclusively by, Green Biofuels, independent tests show that, at 70 per cent of maximum generator load, Green B+ slashes NOx emissions by 27 per cent compared to red diesel and particulates CO, THC and SO2 by even greater numbers. All other load settings showed comparable savings.

Green B+ has indefinite storage life, comparable productivity to gas oil and, containing no aromatics, results in far less maintenance on the engine than both biodiesel and red diesel. It also delivers a 55 per cent reduction in greenhouse gases against red diesel.

Sue Woodward, marketing consultant at Green Biofuels, comments, "The independent results for our fuel have

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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

UK - The Who's Who of kitchen appliance designers congregated at Camden's Roundhouse for the seventh annual rendition of the Neff Master Partner Awards. Hosted this year by the Great British Bake Off TV chef Paul Hollywood, the event serves as a showcase that highlights the best Neff showrooms and designers across the whole of the UK.

The evening ceremony dazzled 450 invited guests with a lavish dinner and elegant vintage-themed surrounds that highlighted the eight award categories. Tasked with creating an equally striking stage design to complement the evening's proceedings, Derby-based Presentation Design Services enlisted the support of their recently acquired Chauvet Professional Nexus Aw 7x7 panels to provide the necessary lighting backdrop for the ceremony.

"All in all, we employed six Nexus Aw 7x7 panels to uplight the custom-covered set panels as part of th

Austria - Blackmagic Design reports that all signal distribution at the event areas for this year's Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), hosted at the Wiener Staatshalle in Vienna, Austria, was delivered via an SDI based live production workflow featuring six Blackmagic Design Smart Videohub routers.

The audiovisual (AV) infrastructure for the annual European wide extravaganza, now in its 60th year, was devised by Vienna based live event specialist Concept Solutions and distributed HD video signals to more than 125 monitors and screens throughout the multi-purpose indoor arena.

As well as the main staging hall, where 60 countries competed for the chance to perform in a live two hour televised spectacular, the ESC also had dedicated halls for media, backstage and catering, the judging panel, VIPs and the official ESC delegation. Each was equipped with a multitude of displays and scre

UK - Working with the National Theatre's video supervisor Matthew Morgans, XL Video is supplying a large semi-transparent LED wall for the current production of Everyman at the Olivier Theatre.

The cast of Everyman is led by BAFTA award-winning actor, Chiwetel Ejiofor, in this version of a classic 15th Century morality play in a new adaptation by Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy.

The production is directed by Rufus Norris, with video design by Tal Rosner. Everyman will be broadcast live to over 550 cinemas in the UK and many more internationally on 16 July. Final performance of the show is on 30 August 2015.

The giant 9m wide by 8.4m high curved video screen forms the both the backdrop for the play, as well as creating a semi-transparent dividing wall between the main performers and the on-stage musicians.

The screen towers above the cast, supported by custom c

South Africa - The Pilanesberg National Park was the graceful setting for Amway's 20th celebration dinner. As guests sat around a roaring fire at the Boma at Sun City, the rustic mood was given a modern twist with a significant collection of lighting equipment supplied by Kilowatt AV.

Their client, Red Hot Events, commissioned Kilowatt AV to deliver the full technical and Set solution for the event.

Lighting control was on a GrandMA2 Full Size and the lighting rig featured 48 Clay Paky Sharpys and over 160 Robe fixtures. In addition there were four Robert Juliat Aramis Follow spots, Showline SL Nitro 510 Strobes and Philips Selecon SPX Axial 15-35 ° Zoomspot Profiles.

"We exceeded our client's expectations with our custom set and decor elements, something which I feel Kilowatt AV is very strong at," said Neil Zaayman, national sales manager from Kilowatt AV.

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Strictly FX Highlights

Strictly FX was founded in 1996 by industry veterans Mark Grega and Ted Maccabee. Our expertise and knowledge of the world’s leading pyrotechnic, laser, and flame manufacturers allows us to curate astonishing live events. With over 500+ shows performed a year, there’s good chance you’ve seen some of our work!

UK - Electrosonic, an international audio-visual systems integration and service solutions company, has appointed Gary McQueen and Douglas Walker to join the service team based in the new Aberdeen regional office. The new recruits, both with substantial oil & gas industry and audio-visual experience, will enable Electrosonic to offer an enhanced service to local clients in and around the Aberdeen region.

Douglas Walker, small projects engineer, and Gary McQueen, senior field services engineer, will be working alongside each other to deliver effective service solutions. While Douglas's key focus will be to coordinate the delivery of small works projects, Gary's core responsibility will be to provide support and maintenance for audio-visual systems at client sites.

Walker has been working in the events industry for almost eight years. His last role as a project manager for Full

UK - This year's Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT) show will see J&C Joel unveil a number of exciting new fabrics and drapes.

J&C Joel, one of the world's leading manufacturers of flame retardant fabrics and flooring for the entertainment and event industries, will also use the show to celebrate its rich textile heritage.

Located on stand C41, J&C Joel will be screening an exclusive film about the company's rich UK manufacturing history. The business - thought to have the longest tradition of textile manufacturing in the entertainment industry - has come a long way since its early days, which can be traced back to 1847. At the show the company will be exhibiting a new catalogue, website and rebrand as well as a number of new product innovations.

J&C Joel will use the show to present a fabric rack of new products, including: acoustic drapes, stage velvets, she

UK / Germany - Lighting controls expert, Artistic Licence, received an enthusiastic response to the preview of its new product ranges, Matisse and lightJuice, at recent trade shows in Leeds and Berlin.

The Matisse range of panel controllers combines elegance and sophisticated functionality, offering an affordable, high-quality solution for users wanting to achieve LED effects via a simple wall-mount interface.

The Matisse range comprises two series - mini and moody.

mini takes the form of a seven-fader panel, with options that emphasise control over different aspects of lighting. For example, mini Level provides multi-channel intensity control, mini Colour is designed for cove lighting and mini Hue enables colour control over multiple zones.

moody offers a rotary control panel, with a range of options: moody Level controls DMX output intensity, while moody Colour provides

UK - Four months on from the creation of its dedicated audio department, complete production solution specialist White Light continues to receive much interest in the new range of audio products and services it now offers alongside its renowned expertise in entertainment lighting. This interest coincides with the completion of a number of high-profile audio projects across the event and installation sectors of the market.

"It has been an astounding launch", comments Lee Dennison, White Light's head of audio. "From the day we announced our expansion into audio, with a hand-picked team of audio experts added to the team at White Light, more than £300,000-worth of brand new audio equipment from leading manufacturers including Clear Com, EM Acoustics, Full Fat Audio, Shure, Sennheiser and Yamaha available to hire and our appointment as dealers for EM Acoustics,

Switzerland / USA - Barix will introduce the next-generation of its Simple Paging solution for fixed and mobile paging over the IP network at InfoComm 2015, retaining its core simplicity and functionality while enhancing interoperability across greater public address systems.

At its core, Simple Paging reproduces live announcements from a desk or on the move (via a Barix Simple Paging app) with absolute clarity, giving end users an intelligible and flexible paging and communications tool. At InfoComm, Barix will demonstrate integration with emergency notification and background audio systems, bringing additional value to systems integrators who wish to marry multiple IP applications over a common networked platform. Barix will demonstrate these features at Booth 5059 on the InfoComm exhibit floor.

In addition to configurable emergency notification and background music sockets,

USA - QSC, a leading manufacturer of signal processing, digital signal transport, computer control systems, power amplifiers, and loudspeaker products for nearly five decades, has introduced its SPA Amplifier Series.

QSC has developed a powerful yet affordable amplifier series to meet the audio amplification needs in boardrooms, conference rooms, and other corporate spaces where multiple speakers are in use.

"We are pleased to answer requests from our loyal customers for an amplifier solution that brings the power and sensation of our live-event amplifiers into the boardroom," said Joe Pham, President and CEO. "Our SPA Amplifier Series is Energy Star compliant and offers flexibility to integrators with two amplifier solutions. The SPA2-60 offers two channels of Low-Z output into 4Ω or 8Ωs, but it can be bridged to provide 70V or 100V output. The SPA4

UK - Sound Technology, Harman distributor in the UK/ROI, has announced the appointment of Stuart Strachan to the newly established role of live sound project engineer.

With a remit to demonstrate and develop awareness of Harman's new generation of JBL, Soundcraft, AKG, Crown, Lexicon and dbx products for the professional live sound industries, the appointment strengthens Sound Technology's technical team, bringing specific industry technical knowledge in-house, and providing local UK support in addition to Harman's European and Global teams.

Stuart brings experience of live sound projects at some of the UK's most famous venues including Wembley Stadium, Wembley Arena, Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall and the Queen Elizabeth II Olympic Park. His breadth of experience includes music gigs, corporate product launches, West End theatre, sports events and large-scale orchestra

USA - Country music shed its restrained image years ago with today's country artists requiring the same big impact rigs as full on rock acts. A testament to that more upbeat evolution was this year's StageCoach Festival, where production company Visions Lighting dressed the two largest stages in brazen big beam looks from Elation Platinum BX and Platinum Beam 5R Extreme fixtures.

Country music fans from across southern California and beyond gathered April 24-26 at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, for the sold out festival, which featured mainstream country artists Tim McGraw, Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton along with lesser-knowns. A relative newcomer to the country music festival scene yet already one of the seasons' most anticipated events, StageCoach has grown to become the US's biggest grossing country music festival.

Todd Roberts of Visions Lighting supplied

China - Chang'an Dream was the name of a performance held recently in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, to welcome Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A traditional Tang Dynasty welcome ceremony awaited the Prime Minister, where he was greeted by Chinese president, Xi Jinping at the watchtower of the south city wall, before the two leaders enjoyed the specially staged event in the ancient city's gate tower. This was rich in colour from more than 300 lighting fixtures provided by PR Lighting.

Mostly installed at the top of the old wall, they were made up from a mixture of the popular XL moving head series, and comprised a combination of XL 1500 Spot; XL 1500 Wash; XL 1500 Wash/Beam and XL 1500 Beam. Ranging from 250W up to the powerful 1500W lamp sources, the series comes with a choice of magnetic or electronic ballast, and boasts features such as advanced

Germany / USA - Just in time for the first infoComm participation of Sommer Cable as an exhibitor in Orlando, FL, the German specialist for professional, high-quality cables and connector technologies has introduced a variety of new products in its Cardinal DVM electronics line.

The increasing demand for larger bandwidths and higher resolutions of AV products was the main driver behind the development of these products. All new devices are fully 4K compatible. The highlight in the new product range is the HDMI Engineers kit with HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2 support.

Peter Rieck, key account & distribution manager at Sommer Cable states, "We look forward to our first-time participation at infoComm as an exhibitor, and will arrive with many new products in our luggage. Together with our North American colleagues Nina Jolly and Martin Ucik, I will be available to interested custome

UK - Lighting control expert Avolites will debut its new Arena console and Optical Titan Net Switch to UK theatre professionals at the ABTT Theatre Show this month.

The new Avolites Arena - which has already caused a buzz at Prolight + Sound and PLASA Focus Leeds - hits stand B34 at Alexandra Palace, 24-25 June.

"With Arena you have the creative tools you need to make your mark on theatrical productions," says Avolites sales director Koy Neminathan. "With 40 precision playbacks, a secondary touch screen with adjacent rotary encoders, six LCD legend displays, and an in-built four-port Gigabit network switch, Arena is ideal for theatres and larger venues."

The theatre-specific features in Titan have been revamped for Version 9, with substantial improvements to the tracking and move in dark tools. Syntax users will find that this functionality is vastly enha

UK - As part of The Royal Albert Hall hall's continued development, in 2013 Richard Martin Lighting (RML) installed a lighting rig to the Elgar Rooms - a relaxed self contained function room that holds 350 people located on the third floor of the building. The room regularly plays host to jazz and comedy nights. It is now so established in it's our right that it holds annual events such as the Bluesfest and Red Christmas Cabaret.

RML has been working with the Hall and its technical team for years and the Elgar Rooms has been a good way to cement this relationship. As the 'Official Sponsor of the Elgar Rooms' RML provides a mix of Alpha Spot and Wash to help enhance atmosphere and enrich the mood of the specific performance or simply as a dining room.

"To be associated with such a prestigious venue as the Royal Albert Hall is extremely exciting and it has been wonderful to

Austria - Rental and production company MartinKames.com has added Elation's award-winning Sniper multi-effect light as well as Elation Cuepix WW blinders to its rental inventory. "We chose to stock the Sniper because we are always looking for new effects as our aim is to offer our clients something unique that has never been seen or done before," stated Martin Kames, owner of the company that he founded in 2009. "In general, we are very sceptical when buying new gear. Elation however offers several innovative ideas which we can relate to while maintaining reasonable pricing."

The Sniper, a hybrid beam, scanner and laser simulator in one, is striking a chord with lighting designers and rental companies who seek a creative new tool to work with. It won a PLASA Award for Innovation last year and is finding service on a growing number of shows and events, as well

Canada - Built for the Commonwealth Games in 1978, Commonwealth Stadium is Canada's second largest outdoor sports venue. Seating 60,000 fans, the stadium hosts soccer, Edmonton Eskimos football and other sporting and entertainment events.

When Commonwealth was built, most stadiums utilized an end-zone, scoreboard-mounted loudspeaker system. However, to minimize neighbourhood noise bleed, consultant Ken Dickensheets of Dickensheets Design in Austin, TX, designed the original system as a central loudspeaker array housed in a unique metal pod. The pod was supported by four large aircraft cables and could be lowered to the ground for service.

This system served the stadium for several decades with voice-range audio. However, modern sports fans and associations like FIFA now expect full-range audio for music and clear announcements that are loud enough to be heard over crowd noise.

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