USA - The New York City Center has given life to numerous Broadway productions and its Tony-honoured Encores! musical theatre series has received the highest accolades possible. Dedicated to making the best in theatre accessible to all audiences, the City Center recently completed their production of Zorba! telling the story of a shy American intellectual who befriends an irrepressible jack-of-all-trades. As lighting designer Ken Billington was challenged to transform the historic stage into an island off the coast of Greece, he found his ideal fixture to make this happen in the VL4000 Spot luminaire from Philips Vari-Lite.

"I have done about 30 different productions with the City Center Encores! with many of the most successful productions moving to Broa

The Netherlands - Gebr. de Nobel (Nobel Brothers) is a new live performance venue located on the busy, animated thoroughfare of Marktsteeg in Leiden, Netherlands, complete with a new Robe moving light rig specified and supplied by Benelux distributor Controllux to the delight of the technical crew led by head of production & technical affairs, Bart van der Smissen.

Owned and funded by the city of Leiden, Gebr. de Nobel has been cleverly designed by architect Ector Hoogstadt to maximize every centimetre of usable space and ensure that it functions practically and efficiently as a bustling entertainment hub.

Controllux's lighting design was evolved with input from leading Dutch LD Nick van Balen, and has eight DLX Spots, 12 x LEDWash 300s, 18 x LEDBeam 100s and 10 CycFX 8s at its core in the main hall, plus 12 x LEDBeam 100s for the small hall, together with a selection of strob

Italy / Iran - Tehran-based Shidco has been appointed by Italian control and amplification specialists Powersoft to handle their distribution in Iran. Set up in 1960 the country traded in electronic music equipment before advancing into leading professional audio equipment as well as instruments. In 2003 they adopted Shidco as a trading company and expanding into lighting.

By the time they were introduced to Powersoft (by long-term supplier FBT), they already had a number of the world's prominent sound and lighting brands in their brand portfolio, according to sales director and technical manager, Amir Fani Saberi.

"As one of the best-known companies in the market, we were already familiar with both Powersoft and its technology, from working with their customers. As a powerful trading company, we required a leading brand amplifier to cover the full range of professional a

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Case Study: Hans Zimmer Live

When award winning film composer Hans Zimmer brought his smash-hit tour Hans Zimmer Live to North America fall 2024, the show's audio team sought out to bring infrafrequency bass to the show to add new depth to the show's audio experience. The team chose Danley Sound Labs.

UK / Turkey - Allen & Heath has appointed Info Muzik Elektronik (Infogroup) as its exclusive distributor in Turkey. With more than 20 years' experience, Infogroup is one of the leading sound and lighting companies in the country, representing other well-known names within the audio industry that will complement the Allen & Heath brand.

"Allen & Heath is one of the best brands in the world and we are very excited to be able to add the name to our portfolio. Allen & Heath's superior and diverse range of products, and our focus on quality customer service, will give us a huge advantage in advancing the brand in Turkey. We are certain our collaboration will see many successful sales and installations," comments Emre Abdurrahman Maras, managing director at Infogroup.

"Allen & Heath is delighted to appoint Info Muzik Elektronik as its exclusive distributor in Turkey.

Chile - W-DMX by Wireless Solution Sweden distributor Iluminación Profesional Valook S.A. in Santiago, Chile has been hard at work with a beautiful variety of projects and installations in South America.

Niclas Arvidsson, CEO of Wireless Solution recently caught up with Francisco Yañez Valdivia, product manager for Valook to hear about two successful temporary installations using W-DMX on the Costanera Centre Tower in Santiago, one of the highest towers in South America.

From 4 June 4 to 4 July, 2015, Valook worked with customer Icardi Producciones to light the Costanera Centre Tower for America's Soccer Cup. Icardi lighting designer Toni Amoros washed the building with 4kW searchlights displaying the colour of the teams that were playing. Clay Paky Mythos projected a gobo onto the building and when a team scored, they projected the word "GooooaL". DMX signal was s

UK - 2015 marks 10 years since Billy Elliot the Musical first opened at the Victoria Palace Theatre, London. Following its first performance on 11 March 2005, the show has gone on to become one of the most popular and successful musicals in the West End. During the past decade, it has won numerous awards, opened in countries such as Australia and South Korea, and has branched out to nationwide tours across America and Canada. During its entire West End run, the show has only ever had one lighting supplier - complete production solution specialist White Light.

The musical has won four Olivier Awards, including Best New Musical. It also went on to win 10 Tony Awards, 10 Drama Desk Awards and a record-breaking seven Helpmann Awards in Australia. It has transferred to Broadway and earlier this year announced that it will embark on its first ever UK Tour, opening at Theatre Ro

Italy - Every year on 24 June, Turin is crowded with thousands of people - not only from Turin but from other cities such as Florence and Genoa, where it is an annual public holiday. Its purpose is to honour the Feast of St. John (La Festa di San Giovanni).

Shows, games, concerts, sport events and wonderful exhibitions take place, with people dressed in traditional costumes and spectacular fireworks over the River Po - this year watched by up to 200,000 in the city's biggest square, Vittorio Veneto Square.

This is where Martin Audio's technology partner, Corsinotti Sas, had fielded its new MLA Compact system, which was being deployed for the first time. The company has handled this event since 1986, using a Martin Audio W8LC Martin Audio compact line array since 2004. However, Rinaldo Corsinotti, the eponymous rental company owner, said that this year they had made an importan

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BikeFest Spain 2025 - Join the ride!

BikeFest Spain is set to return for its fourth consecutive year, inviting cyclists from across the industry to join the 360km ride towards ISE in Barcelona. From 31 January to 2 February 2025, riders will again rally in Valencia, cycling along the Mediterranean coast in support of industry causes.
For more information and to sign up, visit: www.joinbikefest.com

Austria - Pushing the limits of what can be achieved in video playback, Austria's AV Stumpfl has introduced "the world's first and only triple-stream 4K uncompressed media server, Wings Engine Raw".

"With Wings Engine Raw, we've delivered on user requests for the smoothest possible uncompressed playback system with full timeline control," says Horst Damoser, sales manager at AV Stumpfl. "Built to support a range of applications requiring a high-quality image sources matched to particular display requirements, user benefits include newer, faster and unrivalled installation functionality."

Using a single custom engineered RAID 10 system, Wings Engine Raw is capable of delivering constant data stream of three-channels of true 4K (4,096 x 2,304 pixels) uncompressed video content at 60fps plus up to 16 text and picture layers, and up to 24 uncompressed

USA - Recently, the Zac Brown Band launched their Jekyll + Hide North American stadium tour presented by BAI. Production designers Louis Oliver and James Scott from Okulus worked with Special Event Services (SES) that provided grandMA2 full-size and grandMA2 light consoles. With offices in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and Nashville, Tennessee, SES is marking its 28th year offering full production services, audio, video and lighting equipment. It has been providing lighting for Zac Brown Band for more than five years.

James Scott and Louis Oliver are co-founders of London-based Okulus, a show, lighting and production design group for live music and broadcast. Okulus launched last summer, and its clients include You Me At Six, Chvrches, Passenger and Disclosure. Scott was production designer for the Zac Brown Band last year under the banner of Times Design Ltd.

The brief for Ol

Azerbaijan - Over 670 Clay Paky fixtures amazed two sold-out audiences of 68,000 at the first European Games Opening and Closing Ceremonies, held 12 and 28 June at the Olympic Stadium in Baku, Azerbaijan. The fixtures were the backbone of the lighting design by Bob Dickinson and Ted Wells, assisted by lighting director Travis Hagenbuch. Assistant lighting director was Charles Dabezias. Executive producer was Scott Givens of Five Currents.

The newly built 225,000sq.m stadium was embellished with 437 units of Clay Paky Sharpy Wash 330, 66 units of Sharpy and 174 units of Clay Paky Mythos. The fixtures were placed essentially everywhere, from Mythos on the field of play surrounding the stage and lining the top of the stadium to the Sharpy and Sharpy Wash 330 fixtures filling in every level in between.

The inaugural event was broadcast throughout Europe and beyond and featured alm

India - Pixel Projects established local trading entity Pixel AV India PVT LTD in early 2015. The Bangalore office is now fully operational with premises occupied in the Jayamahala Extension.

The new team consists of experienced AV project managers, engineers and account managers from the local area. The Bangalore team also have access to Pixel Projects' departments and resources across the globe including the company's centre of excellence for Design and CAD in the UK office.

The office is manned by country manager of Pixel Projects India, Somit Mukherjee. He has over 15 years of managerial experience in the Indian AV industry in varied roles. His diverse experience provides him with a thorough appreciation of the various stages involved in AV projects as well as clear insight into and understanding of the local business climate, making Somit ideally placed to oversee Pixel P

USA - The Cunard Line was looking for a way to celebrate the 175th anniversary of its first transatlantic crossing, when Kelly Easterling approached the company with an idea that was outside the box - or perhaps more aptly outside the ship! Easterling, the creative director and principal designer at Quantum Theatricals, proposed creating a dynamic lightshow set to music off the side of the 1,132ft Queen Mary 2, the company's flagship ocean liner. Much to the delight of the massive crowd in New York harbour on 14 July, this is precisely what he and his dedicated team wound up doing with help from 50 intensely bright Legend 230SR Beams from Chauvet Professional.

The 230W Legends were the only fixtures used on the ocean liner for the magnificent lighting display. (Four other movers were on shore as part of the show.) Positioned alongside the railings of the port side promenade deck

USA - Nashville-based rental and production specialist Elite Multimedia has made its first Robe purchase. Twenty CycFX 8 fixtures are going out on country star Luke Bryan's new tour as specified by lighting designer Justin Kitcheman from FadeUp Design.

Jason 'Cannonball' Jenkins, Elite's head of lighting, says: "I like the fact that the fixture has a variable zoom, which is more unusual on an LED batten and brings greater flexibility, both as a scenic light as well as for aerial and audience effects."

The Elite team and Justin received a demo from Robe Lighting Inc. to make sure that the CycFX 8 met all the criteria for the tour and then committed to the purchase.

On the tour the CycFX 8s will be used along the front of the stage for lighting faces and also as an audience lighting special.

Justin has been a fan of Robe for some time and comments: "I needed a

UK - A.C. Special Projects (ACSP) have specified, supplied and commissioned a complete LED lighting and visual effects solution for LEGO Friends to the Rescue, an all-new live show spectacular which recently opened at the LEGOLAND Windsor Resort.

The show is set in the resort's new land, Heartlake City, which recreates the fun and colourful world of the popular LEGO Friends toy range. During the show, guests join Heartlake City's five female characters on an action packed adventure which is full of music, dance and special effects.

SGA Productions were commissioned by the LEGOLAND Windsor Resort to enhance the show's live action performances with some of the very latest theatrical-style production values. They approached ACSP at last year's PLASA London show to specify lighting and visual effects solutions which would give the shows a 'wow factor', whilst also being sui

USA - Bandit Lites is providing the lighting for Brian Wilson's summer tour, where he and his band, featuring Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin, continue to play the greatest Beach Boys and Brian Wilson songs.

Lighting designer Chris Stuba looked to Wilson's own music for inspiration in creating an elegant looking show. "I love the man and I love the music," said Stuba. "His band is one of the best out there working today."

Stuba utilized VL500D fixtures as the main wash, with VL3500s as key lighting in addition to four the floor with MAC Auras to light the drapery. MAC Vipers provided backlighting and VL2500s were used as "chin kickers".

"The VL500D is still my favourite wash fixture," explained Stuba, "and while it does have some limitations in the blue and green range, the red range and the tungsten all make up for it. It is very

UK - At the start of 2015, Current RMS became an Add-On Partner for cloud accounting software Xero. Now the system has just released a seamless, real-time integration with QB Online, another popular cloud accounting software in the AV, Production and Events industry.

"Post invoices and credit notes from Current directly to QB Online and effortlessly keep you customer data in sync, reducing duplication of data and time spent updating multiple systems - streamlining the rental cycle that one step further," says Current RMS.

"Using cloud solutions to manage your business processes, instantly allows you to become more agile and versatile, responding to customer requests at the drop of a hat. Your cash flow and the management of your accounts is vital to the growth of your business and by moving your accounts into the cloud, you are provided with real-time visibility

UK - Prolight Concepts has released the V1.5 software update for the popular LED Master 64 DMX controller from Transcension. The update allows the user to patch a virtual dimmer for any fixture that does not feature its own onboard dimmer channel (i.e. 3 DMX channel RGB fixtures). The virtual dimmer gives control over intensity for all functions of control including manual colours, fades and chases.

Users can download the V1.5 software from the product page of Prolight Concepts' website and load onto the controller using a standard USB stick (2GB max.).

USA - At the mid-year mark, Christie Lites reports a busy and successful 2015 for its new Chicago rental office, which officially opened in January. The full-service, 50,000sq.ft warehouse in the suburb of Woodridge, Illinois, marks #13 for this North American stage lighting and rigging rental company.

Said Christie Lites CEO Huntly Christie, "I have always considered Chicago the sister city to my home town of Toronto. We both enjoy great history, architecture, water, food, sport and wonderful people. Christie Lites is pleased to complete this sibling connection with the opening of our new warehouse in Woodridge. We can now provide local service and support in the home of the largest convention centre in North America."

"The calendar has been active primarily with corporate events," said Christie Lites operations manager Eric Eaton, citing the city's large

South Africa - Three years ago, Martin Professional held a lighting competition to showcase their lighting design software and controllers around the Frankfurt Pro Light and Sound Show in Germany and in Russia. Entrants submitted videos of their designs, set to a pre-determined piece of music and let the public vote on the best submission and contestants then won prizes from Martin Professional.

Electrosonic SA decided to take this concept to the next level: Why not invite entrants to design their own show, to their own music, and then perform the show to a live audience?

"A year ago the Electrosonic SA Lighting Team pitched this idea to the organisers of Mediatech Africa in the hope of hosting the competition at the 2015 trade show. Claire Badenhorst (general manager) and Simon Robinson (exhibition director) liked the idea and we were all confident it would prove a drawc

USA - Her farewell tour is called Rock This Country and country icon Shania Twain is doing just that as she bids good-bye to her fans from coast to coast. More than 300 Clay Paky lighting fixtures are along for the ride, selected by lighting designer Mark Butts who also serves as the tour's coproduction designer with Raj Kapoor.

Last year, when Twain was in her residency at Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas where Kapoor was her show director, Butts conceived a "big, edgy, modern rock 'n roll look" for her farewell tour. "I wanted a big lighting rig, big pyro, lots of automation - the biggest possible system that we could easily move around the country," he says. "And that led me to Clay Paky."

According to Butts, "The only way to implement a rig of this size was to use super efficient small, high-power lights with a ton of features. There was

Europe - Clay Paky's award-winning hybrid fixture, the Mythos, has joined Brandon Flowers on his European tour, with lighting designer Steven Douglas making full use of its multi-functionality for the majority of the show's stunning looks.

Playing across Ireland, Germany, Italy and the UK, The Killers' frontman was out in support of his The Desired Effect solo album campaign.

Douglas has been working with Flowers and the Las Vegas-based rockers for over 10 years, building design ideas from scratch for each of their highly successful tours. For Flowers' run of solo dates, Douglas' design was centred upon defined beams of light to create an architectural feel, employing six Mythos as the workhorses of the floor package.

"My idea for this tour was to move away from using wash fixtures and to use dark space to accentuate beams," explains Douglas. "We found

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