Denmark - The design goal of The Blue Planet, Denmark's new national aquarium, was to make the aquarium's visitors feel like they had entered the world of the sea surrounding it. Using Rosco's X24 effects projector, lighting designer Jesper Garde Kongshaug created a realistic and controllable water effect to accomplish that goal as he projected that effect throughout the vast concourse areas inside the aquarium.

Aquariums are filled with the ethereal, wavy effect of light shining through or reflecting off of the various pools and tanks of water in their exhibits. Copenhagen's new Blue Planet Aquarium wanted to incorporate those effects into its 'swirling water' inspired design to bring the visitors "into the world of the fish and the life they live under the sea". Lighting designer Jesper Garde Kongshaug knew that, in order to immerse the visitors in an underwater expe

UK - Aurora Lighting Hire supplied full TV lighting facilities to the Robbie Williams One Night at The Palladium on Friday 8 November for a performance of swing songs old and new.

The evening was a one off to introduce his new album Swing Both Ways, which was released a week later.

Nick Edwards, managing director of Aurora said, "Lighting director Oli Richards approached Aurora early on with an interesting concept. Oli had the vision of creating a staggered celling sculpture out of Martin Mac Aura's. The Auras were required to be rigged on individual scaff drops to make 'sleek' 'smart' vertical drops."

He continued, "Aurora worked closely with rigging experts Actus Industries to develop these bespoke custom pipes. Richards rig also featured Martin MAC Vipers, and Clay Paky Sharpies. Aurora were also able to provide some new retro tungsten lights

UK - Manchester- based dbn Lighting are once again supplying an integrated lighting and visual design plus equipment - including lighting and LED screens - to The Warehouse Project (WHP), which has grown in popularity under the curation of founders Sacha Lord-Marchionne and Sam Kandel.

WHP operates for two regular nights each week from September to New year's eve on a timeline coinciding with the new university and college terms. It attracts all the hottest international EDM DJ's and live acts and sells out months in advance. It's the second year the club is operating out of its new Victoria Warehouse venue in Trafford Park.

dbn's Pete Robinson has been involved with WHP right from the start and this year he created the production and lighting design for all three rooms in the space.

In the Main Room he started with a new blank canvass and the intention to make it look total

Germany - At the Volkswagen Group's general meeting, an event that this year marked its fifteenth running and has become a company tradition, which this year was held on the evening preceding the opening of the 65th International Automobile Show (IAA), Frankfurt, tarm Showlaser wowed the crowd of attendees from around the world with a spectacular laser show accompanying the performance by the Pet Shop Boys.

A crowd of nearly 2,000 journalists, VIPs, and group representatives experienced at first hand an extremely complex staging that had been specially developed for the evening's show and individually highlighted every one of the group's ten makes.

(Jim Evans)

Internet - City Theatrical will be hosting the fourth free webinar in a series of five on Wireless DMX on Tuesday, 10 December 10, 2013 at 11am EST (16:00 GMT). This webinar will focus on how to set up a permanent outdoor architectural wireless DMX system using SHoW DMX Vero and Vero Net.

If you would like to learn more about this application of wireless DMX products please register for this event by simply logging on to City Theatrical's website.

(Jim Evans)

UK - XL Video is supplying dance company Sadler's Wells with a projection system for m¡longa, a new work by Belgian born choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, which was inspired by the magical communication of tango dancing the intimate, almost conspiratorial social setting of the m¡longa (social tango dances).

XL Video's Ed Cooper is the project manager. XL Video have worked on several previous projects with Sadler's Wells including recent tours of Russell Maliphant's Still Current and the world tour of TeZukA, another mixed-media Cherkaoui production using the stylised imagery of Japanese Manga cartoons as a starting point.

Sadler's Wells production manager Adam Carrée once again called on the skills and expertise of XL Video to provide a video solution for the m¡longa tour - with the current tour making its UK Premiere at their north London base

USA - The Miss America pageant returned to its Atlantic City origins this year and lighting designer Allen Branton was charged with lighting the cavernous Boardwalk Hall and making sure 53 beautiful women looked their best whenever the TV camera turned their way. He was aided by grandMA2 lighting consoles from Atomic Lighting in Lititz, Pennsylvania.

Branton marked his sixth consecutive year lighting the pageant, which was televised on ABC-TV. After spending a number of years in Las Vegas the show moved back to Atlantic City where "the venue, audience and scenery doubled in size," he reports. "Given the size of the hall and way the show was set in the room, every single element of production had to be rigged from overhead - and there's no permanent rigging infrastructure. So there were 240 individual rigging points for lighting, sound, video, scenery, cable manage

UK - Lighting designer Nick Richings has specified Showline's high-output SL PAR 150 ZOOM luminaires to create a 'jolly', bright wash for the current hit musical tour of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

Richings - who has 25 years' experience working in theatre lighting in the West End and Broadway on hit shows including La Cage Aux Folles and Starlight Express - is utilising 36 of the SL PAR 150 ZOOM luminaires to wash the stage in the traditionally bright musical colours.

"The SL PAR 150 ZOOMs have only recently come onto the market so this is the first time I have ever used them and I'm really impressed with the light output," says Richings. "The lens is great - they go nice and narrow, and they offer really good colour mixing. The warm and cool whites are also surprisingly good."

Richings is using the die-cast aluminium LED SL PAR 150 ZOOM luminaires

UK - Mood, drama, invention and Robe moving lights were at the heart of the elegant, intricate lighting design created by Rich George from 3DL&S for jazz-pop singer and songwriter Jamie Cullum's Momentum tour, which has just completed its first UK leg and now heads to Europe.

George is based in London. This is his second tour with Cullum and his first as LD, where he works very closely with Cullum's Artistic & Visuals Director Nickin Corrigan to produce the captivating live performance aesthetic. This is based around creative, quirky and highly effective use of IMAG camera footage which was George's starting point for the lighting design.

The lighting equipment is being supplied by Leeds, UK based rental company Zig Zag Lighting who have serviced Cullum's live work for some time. His tours have also incorporated Robe products for a while.

For Momentum, the lighting design in

Europe - New York-based psychedelic rock outfit MGMT are at the core a duo comprised of Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser. But live, they are one of those bands that are expansive. And by all indications of reviews from their current global invasion in Europe, that axiom is reinforced nightly with the touring six-piece outfit, bring music from their current, self-titled release to the masses.

Behind the controls at monitor world for the past seven months has been Fabian Quiroga, back on his DiGiCo SD8 desk since his departure earlier in the year from a lengthy stint with The Black Keys. The SD8 was provided by Eighth Day Sound's UK shop.

"After doing a few small tours with the band's previous console, I knew I had to go back to my DiGiCo board," he muses. "When I came into this camp, management wanted the transition of a new monitor engineer to be as smooth

Spain - In Seville, Spain, a Meyer Sound Mica line array loudspeaker system has been installed in the new auditorium at FIBES Conference and Exhibition Centre (Palacio de Exposiciones y Congresos). With its seating flexibility and sonic excellence, the FIBES auditorium is a popular venue for international conferences, major concerts, and musical theatre productions. The audio system was specified by Carlos García-Diéguez Acuña of Seville-based GD Consulting.

"We selected a Meyer Sound Mica solution based on its overall sound quality, high efficiency in compact enclosures, and the availability of strong technical support in Spain," explains García-Diéguez. "For conferences, it delivers high clarity and intelligibility in all seats, while for concerts, it is excellent for all music styles, including folk, classical, and rock."

The Meyer Sound

USA - Lighting designer, Benoit Richard can lay claim to the first use of Ayrton's new MagicPanel 602 fixtures in the USA with his lighting for Carrie Underwood as she performed 'Waiting All Day for Sunday Night', the opening theme song for NBC's weekly coverage of NFL Sunday Night Football.

Richard used 36 MagicPanel 602 fixtures when the opening sequence for the National Football League's weekly prime time show was filmed. Previous years have seen Pink and Faith Hill sing the opening night theme songs, but this year the torch was passed over to former American Idol winner, Carrie Underwood, who made her debut during the first week of the NFL season on September 8th, 2013.

Richard was determined to create something impressive to mark Underwood's debut. "With a new Artist singing the theme song for this year's 'Sunday Night Football' Season, I envisioned that we needed to

USA - LDI premier show sponsor Elation Professional enjoyed perhaps its busiest LDI Show ever as the company continued to raise its profile in the industry with a number of key product launches that included the surprise announcement of a distribution agreement with High End Systems.

The agreement, which allows Elation to distribute High End's new HedgeHog 4 and Nano Hog 4 lighting consoles in the US, Canada, Latin America, South East Asia and India, caused quite a stir on the show floor.

"The distribution announcement started things off with a bang and really set the tone for the rest of the show," said Eric Loader, director of sales at Elation Lighting. "This gives us a powerful and intuitive industry-standard lighting control platform and we're thrilled to be involved with it. Customers were equally excited and interest in it was great throughout the show so

South Africa - Like a kaleidoscope with forms constantly shifting and changing, Showgroup orchestrated a captivating production for the Nedbank Top Achiever Awards held at Gallagher Estate in Midrand.

The kaleidoscope theme was the brainchild of Showroup's Johan Els who focuses on the aesthetic and decor elements of an event, and Andries Liebenberg, Lighting Manager.

To create a playful ambience, circle shapes were used from everything in the venue from the ground up. In juxtaposition, the floor of the entire venue was tiled in black and white blocks. The lighting was thanks to a collaboration of various brand including Robe Robin 300 Classics and was run off an Avolites Titan Mobile.

The event included two Prolyte circle trusses with screens as surfaces and a 360° circular screen structure. To project images onto the 360° structure, front projection was utilized by

Australia - Jands has announced its continued participation at Entech Connect 2014, whilst adding a training zone area and becoming sponsors of the 'Staging Technicians Lunch'.

With a prominent stand secured, Jands are returning to Melbourne to not only meet new and existing clients but to showcase many exciting brands that they have to offer.

"After the success from the 2012 show, we are excited to be exhibiting at the 2014 Entech Connect," said Jands' Mallory Harvey. "We anticipate the same quality and quantity of visitors as seen in 2012 and look forward to showcasing the latest technology to the industry."

Entech Connect will also see Jands running an onsite training zone.

"It's fantastic that Jands are really embracing the educational aspect of Entech Connect with their offering of the training zone, which I'm sure anyone from the audio, light

USA - The Open Control Architecture (OCA) Alliance, the industry collective developing a standardized media networking system control architecture for professional applications, has added Focusrite and RCF Corp. to its fast growing roster of members.

The organization also has completed and released OCA version 1.2 of its base specification, and forwarded it to the Audio Engineering Society (AES) for review as part of the X210 standardization of OCA. OCA Version 1.2 continues the development roadmap and schedule. It enhances OCA's ability to work with different media transport technologies, and incorporates significant feedback from early adopters.

"We are very excited to announce the issuance of Version 1.2 of the specification and to welcome our new members to the OCA Alliance," said Morten Lave, OCA Alliance vice chairman and CEO/managing director of TC Applied Tec

UK - Billed as 'the latest in the exciting tradition of War Horse and His Dark Materials, Emil and the Detectives requires lighting designer Lucy Carter to transform the National Theatre's Olivier Stage into 1920s Berlin, utilising the subtle colours and theatrical grade dimming of Chroma-Q's Color Force 48 and 72 premium performance LED battens.

Lucy - a respected and sought-after lighting designer with an eclectic 20-year career - has specified 12x Color Force 72 1.8m / 72" and six Color Force 48 1.2m / 48" length fixtures to wash numerous scenic elements softly and evenly, evoking the atmosphere of the play's period.

All of the Color Force units are rigged overhead between a series of portals to wash down in subtle colours. They create a full wash and also work in smaller sections to create a 'broken up' coverage.

"For me, the best thing about the Co

South Africa - The DWR Team were invited by Nick Britz to attend a basic Avolites Training course which covered the infrastructure and operational instructions of the console.

The day kicked off with a short briefing from Bruce Riley on his recent travels to PLASA. Then it was over to Nick Britz.

For those who had never sat in front of a desk before it was a great thrill to record their first cue! For the experienced, a few novel tricks and tips kept them interested.

Nick Britz comments, "At the end of the day, education makes our job simpler too as the users have a better understanding of the equipment. In regards to the DWR team, it's so much easier to sell something that you know."

DWR's Duncan Riley believes consistent industry training is imperative. "I think we take a lot for granted thinking people know the equipment," said Riley. "It's real

Italy - Following Peter Johansen's takeover of SGM in February 2012, the company and brand have undergone a complete revamp. This process remains ongoing, with the latest activity being a new distribution channel for the Italian market provided by the SGM subsidiary, SGM Italy s.r.l.

Managed by Mario Radice as CEO and Giorgio Radice as commercial director, this recent initiative, effective from 1 November 2013, has been put into place to ensure the highest level of service for SGM's Italian partners.

Says Peter Johansen, "Moving all activities to Denmark has not caused us to neglect either SGM's origins nor our valued and loyal Italian customers. We have been planning this set-up and now the timing is just right."

Mario Radice is no new face to SGM and the lighting industry. Having working closely with Peter Johansen since 1992, the two passionate lighting enthusia

Australia - Royal Randwick's $152m five-star grandstand opened in time for the Sydney Spring Carnival season. Stretching 110m alongside the track and towering five levels above the finishing post, the handover of the grandstand from builders Brookfield Multiplex to the Australian Turf Club was a momentous occasion.

The grandstand not only features a 4500-capacity amphitheatre surrounding the Theatre of the Horse parade ring, but eight new restaurant and dining spaces, and four undercover terraces on each level facing west over the Theatre of the Horse.

Brookfield Multiplex chose The P.A People to deliver the networked television distribution and audio systems. Required acoustic performance criteria for each space and an indicative number of zones were nominated, along with an overview of functional requirements and environmental constraints. A 1000 port Ethernet network specif

The Netherlands - The 2013 MTV European Music Awards (EMAs) enjoyed all the usual spectacle of one of the music industry's highest profile events. But amongst this, the sound department was enjoying a quiet revolution of its own thanks to Sennheiser equipment - notably the new Digital 9000 Series microphone system, which was making its MTV debut.

Taking place at Amsterdam's Ziggo Dome on 10th November, the EMAs included performances by Eminem, Miley Cyrus, Bruno Mars, Icona Pop, Katy Perry and Kings of Leon, all of whom used Sennheiser 2000 series in-ear monitors and a combination of Sennheiser 5200 or 2000 series wireless microphone systems, except Kings of Leon who opted for MD 431 wired mics.

Two of the biggest challenges for sound designer Derrick Zieba were the amount of RF channels needed and that the presentation podium was at the far end of the Ziggo Dome from the perf

UK - Soundcraft Vi series digital consoles may now be prevalent around the world - but few single venues can boast as many as five (plus a vintage Soundcraft analogue console) regularly operating in a single space. But the multi-room Manchester Academy, run by the University of Manchester Students Union on the city's Oxford Road, can boast just such a feat.

Having historically hired front line sound for its main 2500-capacity Academy 1 from Liverpool-based Adlib Audio, this summer the Union began to upgrade its technical capabilities considerably to ensure that all four rooms were rider friendly.

The catalyst has been technical manager Stuart Wright, who was brought in 13 months ago to mastermind the refit. "The venue was very set in its ways and everything needed upgrading when I arrived," he said.

Although the main room remains on long-term rental - with a Soundc

UK - Live music lighting designer Rod Clay is making good use of the colour rendering technology of Philips Vari-Lite's VLX3 LED Wash luminaires to provide key light for Bryan Ferry during his An Evening with Bryan Ferry tour.

Ferry remains the ideal combination of mystery man and rock star and Clay's flattering and restrained lighting palette artfully reflects this. Conjuring up an intimate, smoky jazz club feel on the show's opening, half way through he seamlessly segues into dynamic concert style lighting backed by bright video imagery.

Clay's fixture palette, supplied by technical and creative production company One Big Star, includes Philips Vari-Lite VLX3 Washes for front, face and key lighting and Philips Selecon Rama Fresnels make up much of the cross lighting floor package.

Clay discusses: "We wanted a tungsten/jazzy feel for the opening of the show so t

UK - Although starting out more than 20 years ago in the Welsh village of Cwmaman, it wasn't until 1996 that Stereophonics secured management, a record deal (with V2) and embarked on a world tour in support of their first album Word Gets Around.

Enter front of house sound engineer Dave Roden, sound rental company, Capital Sound Hire and Martin Audio. That three-way relationship with the band has remained intact from day one. Seventeen years on, Kelly Jones and Co. have just completed another successful arena tour to give some exposure to the recent album, Graffiti On The Train, as well as old back catalogue favourites like Dakota.

Roden retains a fierce loyalty towards Capital Sound and has never been let down by their recommendations. "I started with the old [Martin Audio] F2," he remembers fondly, "and then moved on to Wavefront technology, the W

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