Germany - A massive rig of almost 900 Clay Paky fixtures has been utilised to track and illuminate a fleet of BMW's latest car designs for a series of dynamic and fast-paced shows held during the Frankfurt Motor Show 2013.

The ambitious lighting production - headed by Martin Kuhn and Berlin's NIYU media project - utilised a vast array of Clay Paky's latest fixtures, including 115 Alpha Wash 1500s, 24 Alpha Spot 1500s, 25 Alpha Profile 1500s, 18 Alpha Beam 1500s, 28 Sharpys, 8 Sharpys Washes, 131 QWO 800 STs, 28 Alpha Wash 700s, and 504 A.leda Wash K10s.

One main requirement for the lighting design was to be able to dynamically highlight the cars driving around the track. The 504 K10s multicolour RGBW LEDs delivered a full range of vivid colours as well as excellent shades of white. Equipped with a motorised and fully controllable 14°-70° - the fixtures were placed at e

Australia - The Sydney Opera House has recently installed four Robert Juliat Cyrano 2500W HMI follow spots into the Joan Sutherland Theatre (formerly known as the Opera Theatre) in which the Australian Ballet and Opera Australia reside.

The two resident companies had begun to require more output as the previous follow spots could not keep up with the lighting rigs which were continually getting brighter. The Cyrano, with its narrow beam angle suited to long throw distances and unique dimmer shutter, was the obvious choice of replacement.

Normally a follow spot position is located at the back of the auditorium with a traditional follow spot stand but at this venue the follow spot position is actually built into the roof with the lamps mounted on the floor of the Theatres ceiling.

"This presented us with a major issue in getting the operator low enough to operate the Cyra

UK - This year, Fleetwood Mac have been on a major tour of the USA and Europe that encompasses the large arena-size venues with the likes of Jones Beach in Wantagh, NY, the beachside theatre that can require some creative planning from a production team to load-in a full show rig. At the time of writing, the fourteen date leg of the tour in Australia and New Zealand has been cancelled to allow bassist and founder member, John McVie to receive treatment for cancer.

Not for the first time, Chaos Visual Productions supplied the production with the video hardware. As lighting designer, Paul 'Arlo' Guthrie remarks, "Video features in almost the entire set so getting the balance between lighting content and IMAG was crucial. Incorporating video successfully is always something of a balancing act. I feel we have brought a modern look to the visuals without distracting from what ha

USA - Twenty-four Ayrton MagicPanel 602 LED lighting fixtures were used to spectacular effect by lighting designer, Bryan Barancik, at the Opening Ceremony of the 2013 US Open tennis tournament this summer.

The Opening Ceremony, which took place in the 22,500-seat Arthur Ashe Stadium at New York's Flushing Meadows, was lit by Christien Methot. It featured an explosive performance of Are You Gonna Go My Way from Lenny Kravitz who brought in LD Bryan Barancik to design the lighting for his performance.

Barancik chose to relate his design back to the song's iconic music video. The original video, which is still considered outstanding 20 years after it was first released, featured an enormous overhead matrix of light bulbs. Barancik wanted to incorporate a similar aesthetic into the show to tie in with the anniversary of the song. He chose Ayrton MagicPanel fixtures as the

World - When Selena Gomez discussed the ambience she wanted to create onstage for her Stars Dance world tour with artistic director Seth Jackson, she described elegance and style, replete with a touch of classical, shimmering 'star quality' reminiscent of the mystique of Hollywood's golden era.

This was the creative starting point for the acclaimed and highly visual tour production that has evolved, the results of the talent and imagination of a serious creative 'dream team' comprising Seth Jackson, also the show's production designer, lighting designer Nathan W Scheuer and video director Brent Sandrock, together with lighting director David 'Fuji' Covertino at the core.

Jackson and Scheuer specified over 80 of Robe's newest moving lights to be the hub of the lighting action, which were purchased by the tour's US lighting vendors Bandit Lites when it kicked off in Augus

UK - As Academy Music Group (AMG) explores new technology to complement existing in-house production across its venue estate, O2 Academy Leeds welcomes investment from the Group, with brand new, state of the art LED panels.

The 42 LedGo EQ HR Silan 6mm lightweight LED Black Face panels (each 488mm x 732mm) are seamless and easy to build and dramatically transform the stage, in horizontal or vertical designs, in high definition.

"We have seen more in the way of LED video coming through our venues with touring productions over the last year, so it's important we remain at the forefront of new technology, ensuring we are offering promoters the most attractive production facilities. We are the only venue in Leeds to now offer a full stage LED screen in house as part of the existing rental package. A video wall can provide the most exciting backdrop as well as video-based elem

Belgium - The annual Les Francofolies summer music festival, held in Spa, Belgium, promotes francophone music and attracts hundreds of thousands of fans over a five-day span. Arto, a Brussels-based production company, handled the festival's production and lighting design, which consisted exclusively of Harman's Martin Professional lighting fixtures. As an integral part of the system Arto deployed 28 Martin MAC Viper Profile moving head fixtures, in addition to several other Martin luminaires.

"I chose to work with the MAC Viper Profiles for many reasons," stated lighting designer Gilles Mathieu. "The colours are very nice. The red especially is a real primary red. The speed and range of the zoom is excellent and it only draws five amps of power. Logistically speaking the Vipers were really simple to hang and we were also able to place them on the floor when necess

UK - Selfridges welcomed Londoners and visitors alike to Oxford Street last week for a spectacular Christmas celebration event which included high profile performances and a 'Destination Christmas' countdown, as well as the switch on of Oxford Street's annual Christmas light decorations.

The event brought in a crowd of thousands, with performances by popular artists Jessie J, Conor Maynard, and James Arthur. Selfridges entrusted entertainment lighting specialist White Light with providing lighting equipment, design, and support for the evening. Creative production company setWorks oversaw the production of the project, which involved transforming Selfridges' prominent Oxford St façade into a full scale live performance space including trussing and staging for the Destination Christmas performers.

"We had the Destination Christmas materials from Selfridges Graphics team a

UK - Turbosound, headquartered at Partridge Green in Sussex, announced today it is relocating to new premises. The trigger for the move was the imminent expiry of the lease on their existing headquarters. As a result of this decision, Turbosound's manufacturing will move to premises owned by Music Group in Kidderminster, which serves as Midas and Klark Teknik's UK manufacturing facility and Music Group's European Care Centre.

Turbosound's research and development activities will relocate to Music Group's research facility in Manchester, which houses over 60 engineers responsible for Midas and Klark Teknik research and development. Existing staff have been offered the opportunity to relocate to the new premises.

Nigel Beaumont, senior vice president professional division commented, "I am very excited about the future of our professional division and Turbosound is an integr

Germany - Water played a leading role at Wolfsburg's Autostadt theme park this summer. The pinnacle of this year's stagings was the water shows, the world's largest of their kind, which the Autostadt produced and choreographed on its own.

Around 350 water systems producing more than 70m-high fountains, more than 130 flame generators producing up to 15m high flames, seven LED screens, eleven full-colour 25 Watt lasers, 20 green laser scanners, plus new light and sound concepts were employed at this year's shows.

Technical implementation of the project was assigned to a team whose collaboration had proven its worth in staging the annual shows for the last few years. Included among the collaborators were the firms of Aquatique Show for the water systems, Leyendecker for the lighting, tarm Showlaser for the laser systems, Entertainment Technology Concepts for the video equipment,

UK - Luminar Leisure enlisted the expertise of Lighting Systems UK's John Richardson - who turned to lighting and video manufacturers Chauvet Europe, supplied by Glastonbury-based Batmink Distribution - to realise its ambitions for the innovative entertainment enhancement initiative The Big Night Out.

The concept was to make one Saturday night per month, at each club within the Luminar estate, different from other weekends. With the Diagio brands soon on board and keen to support a night out that would 'wow' customers and set Luminar apart from the competition, the brief encompassed not only dancers, giveaways and drinks promotions but also substantial extra production and stage sets.

The project was driven by Luminar Group's head of marketing and central operations, Tim Howard, designed and project-managed by lighting designer and Luminar club technician, John Richardson and

USA - Lighting Designer Sean Agosta-Bidleman of Prysm Enterprises chose 96 Chroma-Q Color Force Compact LED fixtures to illuminate the spectacular 100 ft high Library Tower permanent installation at the University of Hawaii's new West Oahu campus.

Prysm Enterprises - a consulting and design/build firm that Creates Solutions for light, technology and production - was brought on-board by the Hawaii State Foundation for Culture and The Arts as project lighting consultants to illuminate the tower's stunning glass architecture, which was designed by Kauai based artist, Carol Bennett.

Sean and his team collaborated closely with Carol to achieve the desired lighting outcome that was the result of taking a theatrical approach to architectural illumination. The tower has become a visual centrepiece on campus, turning the heads of staff, students and visitors alike with its magnificent

Indonesia - After Vietnam, Australia, China and Japan, Outline is enjoying on-going success with the sales of its GTO line arrays, which in fact have been recently purchased by one of Indonesia's most qualified and respected rental firms, Melodia Sound & Lighting Systems.

Founded in 1997, Melodia is also the nation's Outline distributor. Led by a young team of highly qualified engineers, the firm continued to grow and in 2005 entered the rental sector, simultaneously with the purchase of a Butterfly system. Through the years, Melodia has added various systems by the Italian manufacturer, including Mantas, Mini-COM.P.A.S.S., DVS, Eidos 265 and, more recently, GTO.

Thanks to this latest acquisition, the company was called in to handle the audio production for the concert by Italian-American guitarist, songwriter and producer Steve Vai (over 15m albums sold) at Jakarta's Tennis I

UK - Projection Advertising this week helped event specialists Fisher Productions transform the appearance of the Liberty building in London's Great Marlborough Street for the prestigious store's annual Christmas launch event. Fisher was tasked with producing a spectacular light and video mapping display, for 4.30pm on Saturday 9 November. Lighting elements from Fisher will remain in situ for eight weeks over the Christmas period into the New Year.

Following an interactive countdown, beautiful Liberty snowflakes were projected across the building in Great Marlborough Street, culminating in a crescendo of colour and light where elements from Liberty's Christmas range burst across the building which was draped with a visual representation of Liberty print. Great Marlborough Street, which was traffic free for the launch, was packed with crowds watching the Tudor building come alive

UK - Orbital Sound, the specialist supplier to the broadcast, theatre, event and entertainment markets, has supplied the sound system for Joey McKneely's vibrant new UK touring production of West Side Story. Sound design for the show is by Rick Clarke, deploying a sizeable d&b audiotechnik T-Series line array system. Orbital is responsible for supplying the sound equipment and technical support for the tour, which is currently booking through to next July.

Rick Clarke has been using the d&b audiotechnik T-Series since the system made its debut in 2009, based on the combination of the product's configuration flexibility and exceptional sound quality as a compact line array. A central element to Rick's approach for the new production was to preserve the power and vibrancy of the show's well-loved score, combined with a compact and versatile touring system suitable for the w

Spain - Broadway and West End spectacular Les Misérables has taken to the road and is currently visiting 20 major cities throughout Spain, the Canary and Balearic Islands.

The Stage Entertainment España production includes screen projections of paintings of Victor Hugo, the author of the original novel on which the musical is based. Working with Cameron Mackintosh Ltd and Fifty Nine Productions on productions of Les Misérables worldwide, Creative Technology (CT) are providing five Panasonic PTDS10K projectors and a Catalyst playback rack comprised of Catalyst Media Servers. Four of the projectors are positioned on the back wall of the stage while one is front of house aiming at various on-stage positions to project virtual scenery and supporting imagery.

CT has a long and ongoing relationship with Les Misérables, having supported the

Mexico - Leading Mexican sound rental company Tecno Son Espectáculos has deployed its new Nexo STM modular line array system for the Corona Capital Festival, sponsored by Corona beer. Held over two days in October at the Rodriguez Brothers Racetrack in Mexico City. The 2013 festival attracted a larger than ever crowd of 85,000, eager to witness the international line-up of rock and dance acts.

Tecno Son Espectáculos had previously handled one of the festival's smaller stages using Nexo Geo D and CD18 systems. The arrival of the new STM system in early summer 2013 caught the interest of Eduardo Gonzalez, audio technical manager from production and booking company OCESA. Gonzalez took the decision to debut STM on the Corona stage, one of two main stages, along with other components from Tecno Son Espectáculos' existing NEXO inventory.

Acts performing on the Corona stage inclu

UK - When Bliss Events was asked to manage a much bigger than previous Switch-On of the Regent Street Christmas lights, they turned to Star Events Group for a unique set of equipment. The brief called for a substantial stage with full PA and lighting rigging facilities, a fully roofed and raised grandstand for 220 VIPs and a screen support. All easy enough except for the need to close Regent Street on a busy Saturday in November. The road closure order gave just 6 hours to set up and 4.5 hours to remove everything. Star Events Group squeezed in the same mobile stage used for The Olympic Torch Relay, with just inches to spare between blocking the access to French Connection on stage right and the fire lane on stage left.

With Westminster City Council insisting that only mobile structures could be used (due to the need to re-open the road on time) and no mobile grandstand being bi

UK - The Firtash Foundation - a Ukrainian foundation promoting Ukrainian arts recently held the Days of Ukraine festival across three days in London.

The culmination of the events was a family festival of music, dance, food and handcraft demonstrations held in Potters Field Park, next to Tower Bridge. XL Video, working for producers, EventPM Ltd, supplied LED screen and camera system for the festival.

The 15sq.m LED screen needed to be suitable for outdoor use and possible inclement weather and be lightweight for rigging from a small truss. For this purpose XL's project manager, Mark Rooney, specified Pixled FX-11 LED. The screens on the main stage showed a combination of pre-recorded content and IMAG footage from XL's camera system.

XL Video supplied five Sony HD cameras - four HXC-100s and an HDC-P1 on a remote 10m track which covered the entertainment on the main stage fr

USA - The construction on the One World Trade Centre in lower Manhattan, New York City, began in 2006. After years of development the project has been completed.

Last May the gigantic 124 m high spire was secured to the top of the skyscraper, bringing the entire building to a height of 1,776 feet (541 m) - a clear reference to the year of the declaration of independence of the United States.

It also makes the building the tallest in the Western Hemisphere and the third-tallest in the world. The entire spire is composed of 18 parts and weighs over 700 tons.

D.T.S. Delta projectors light the spire - around 80 x DELTA 8 B fixtures have been installed by Strong Lighting on six different levels along the pinnacle to create a seamless even graded wash.

The spire has become an iconic beacon seen for miles around. This is another example of how the Delta series projectors are used

Spain - The Barcelona Bridal week is a significant national and international event which attracts the most prestigious firms in the sector from across the world. In May 2013 the week culminated in one of its undoubted highlights, the Pronovias show, which took place at the spectacular Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. The magnificent Oval Hall of the MNAC was the setting for what Bridal Magazine described as a "breathtakingly beautiful show." GDS technology was on view in the shape of 28 LiteWare HO (high output) up-lighters.

Notable lighting designer David Monguet was responsible for lighting this spectacular fashion show and engaged Moonlight Illuminacion to supply the equipment. Moonlight are a valued customer of GDS' Spanish distributor Entertainment Equipment Supplies. The concept behind GDS LiteWare could hardly have been more fittingly applied than in this sit

UK - RCF loudspeakers have become an increasing feature within the UK's burgeoning No Saints nightclub and leisure portfolio.

Via system integrators such as Cosmic Electronics their sonic solutions have found their way into a number of the themed 'Wonderland' and 'Wonderworld' brands - but this Autumn a more muscular RCF system was installed in the newly-opened Faces, in the heart of Wolverhampton's city centre on the site of a former Oceana.

Having stood empty for around 19 months this landmark building has now reopened after undergoing a £750,000 refurbishment.

In common with earlier themes, Faces contains two main dance rooms split across two floors (one called Tomorrow, the other Yesterday) and the sound and lighting systems have been completely replaced and upgraded in each.

General manager Mark Hickey, who had presided over the final days of the old Oceana, des

China - The National Day of the People's Republic of China (PRC) is celebrated every year to commemorate the founding of the world's most populous sovereign state. The holiday is observed throughout Mainland China, as well as the nation's Special Administrative Regions of Macao and Hong Kong with a variety of government-organized events including fireworks and concerts.

Recently, the organizing Committee of Compatriots in Hong Kong presented a cultural show at the Hong Kong Coliseum for this year's 64th Anniversary of the founding of the PRC. To ensure a lighting display worthy of the national holiday, the Committee turned to Tom Lee Engineering Ltd., who deployed several Martin Professional lighting fixtures, controlled by Martin's M6 lighting console.

The event featured performances by the Military Band of Chinese People's Liberation Army Hong Kong Garrison, the Art Troupe o

USA - Developed by High End Systems, the HedgeHog 4 is the newest member of the Hog family of lighting consoles. To ensure that this breakthrough product will be available to the widest possible segment of users throughout the industry, High End Systems has entered into a distribution agreement with Elation Lighting.

Beginning at LDI this week, Elation Lighting will distribute the HedgeHog 4 in North and South America, as well as in India and Southeast Asia. "The HedgeHog 4 is blazing a new path in this market segment, so naturally we're thrilled to be involved with it," said Eric Loader, director of sales at Elation Lighting. "The feature set and power of this console is ideal for many of our customers' applications"

Featuring the familiar programming and command line interface and user-friendly ergonomic control surface that have made the Hog series so wi

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