UK - The Backstage Academy's new fast-track foundation degree in Live Events Production, set to be delivered at its training facility in Wakefield, has been formally validated by the University of Bolton.

The 15 month foundation degree, which is the only one of its kind, focuses on the artistic, creative and practical use of technology for live events and will be delivered in partnership with the University of Bolton.

According to Creative & Cultural Skills, the Sector Skills Council for creative and cultural industries, by 2017 there will be a need for 30,000 skilled backstage and offstage technical theatre staff to support live events. The Backstage Academy is aiming to train students who can help meet this demand.

Students will gain hands-on experience at the Backstage Academy thanks to its base at the LS-Live Studios in South Kirkby, Wakefield. The course, which begins i

USA - The Styx/Yes 2011 summer tour features a wall of creative content displayed on a new high resolution LED video screen supplied by Pete's Big TVs.

"It is a nice lighting rig, but the LED screen is visually the whole show," said Pete's Big TVs President Peter Daniel.

The 22-city Progressive U.S. Tour features a 12.5ft high by 48ft wide LED screen made up of 230 Elation EPV15 flex LED panels. Daniel was instrumental in the manufacturing of the 15mm flex panels. Seeking higher resolution, Daniel approached Elation about cutting the size of the 19mm flex panels to just under half a square metre. Thus, the EPV15 flex was born with 1024 pixels. Pete's Big TVs has purchased 600 panels to add to its rental inventory.

"It was a smart purchase," Daniel said. "Everyone on the tour is happy with them."

At 15 lbs. each, compared to 105 lbs. for

UK - Artistic Licence Engineering has announced Multi-Play, a lighting show record-playback unit with "outstanding memory capacity and Ethernet protocol versatility".

The time-saving offered by such a device is in great demand, as demonstrated by the popularity of the company's sister product, Two-Play - a dedicated Art-Net controller capable of recording up to two universes.

Now, Multi-Play takes the concept to a much bigger and broader arena. The disk-based product allows the user to record up to 12 universes from any lighting console running Art-Net. For flexibility, playback is supported through multiple protocols, including Art-Net, ShowNet, KiNet and ACN Lite (E1.31).

"The ability to record from an Art-Net device but then playback to pretty much anything is a unique feature," enthuses Artistic Licence Engineering MD, Simon Hobday."We anticipate

UK - PLASA2011 sees a new industry presence in the form of Ten Thousand Things, a Hong Kong based distribution company for lighting accessories and technology. The company forms the sales arm of the newly created Alderamin Group (Stand1-E32), provider of comprehensive project solutions.

Borrowing a phrase found in Chinese literature referring to material reality, Ten Thousand Things offers sales and support for a wide range of lighting products.

"We offer our own growing range of consumable items - lamps, power and data cables, gaffer tape, gels, connecters - basically all the everyday lighting industry essentials," says Alderamin Group co-owner, Simon Fraser."Our Ten Thousand Things branded range is complemented by three internationally respected franchises. We are the distributor for City Theatrical and Green Hippo in Hong Kong and Macau, and we also sell Arti

UK - The joint fortieth celebrations of Northern Light and White Light are to continue, with the two companies meeting up at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe to raise a glass or two to four decades of success.

Following on from getting the beers in during this year's ABTT Theatre Show in London, Northern Light and White Light are inviting customers to join them on Friday 19 August at the Blue Blazer pub in Edinburgh from 6 pm onwards.

Bryan Raven, managing director at White Light, says,"The last party was in London on our turf, so it seems only fair to continue the celebrations on Northern Light's patch."

Colin Cuthbert, Northern Light's managing director, adds, "Since neither Bryan nor I will see the age of 40 again personally, we might as well make the most of our companies reaching this milestone."

The Blue Blazer is situated on Spittal Street in a prim

UK - Rental company HSL has just taken delivery of 150 square metres of Martin Professional's latest lightweight EC20 20 mm pitch LED screen plus 48 panels of their LC2140 40 mm pitch surface in a major investment with the Danish manufacturer that also included substantial quantities of MAC moving lights, in total, worth close to £3m.

Most of HSL's new screen went straight into action at the 2011 Global Gathering dance festival, staged last weekend at long Marston Airfield, near Stratford on Avon. HSL supplied screen surfaces to the main stage and the Wax:On/hospitality arena, together with lighting for the main stage and five tented arenas plus the Terrace, once again working with lighting and video designers, Electric Fly.

HSL's Mike Oates explains that they have invested in the screen to satisfy the increasing demands of lighting designers who often now include scenic

UK - Flightcase and speaker solutions specialist Penn Elcom has acquired CLD Distribution, experts in cables, connectors, lamps and LED lightsources, and has completed a successful integration of CLD - which will continue with its own operation, identity and trading contacts - under the Penn-Elcom umbrella.

CLD Distribution was founded in 1984 as a wholesale business dedicated to lamps, lighting, audio and colour components and consumables for the professional lighting and sound industry, and is a leading supplier to installation and service companies. It is still headed by founder Nigel Howes and Sandra Connolly.

Starting in Loxwood, West Sussex, UK, the operation moved to the Penn Fabrication site in Hastings in 2000, when more space was required.

Penn-Elcom has been trading in both directions with CLD Distribution for about 20 years, in a healthy crossover relationship wh

UK - The team behind the UK's National Student Drama Festival are seeking entries and support for the first ever International Student Drama Festival, which will take place next year from the 22-30 June in the UK.

The NSDF12 - ISDF - being presented in conjunction with Sheffield Theatres, RSC, LIFT, The Old Vic Tunnels and Menier Chocolate Factory - will feature a nine-day celebration of young people's theatre featuring the best of British work alongside exceptional student productions from across the world.

The Festival is an opportunity for young people to come together and present their work on the world's stage to an international audience of theatregoers, industry experts and peers. Participants don't have to be studying drama to be a part of it - they just have to enjoy it and want to watch it and make it.

NSDF12 - ISDF will feature over 100 performances of 20 internat

Live Statistics - Box office takings for pop and rock concerts in the UK fell for the first time in more than a decade in 2010, according to a music industry report. PRS For Music said fans spent 12% less on face value tickets than in 2009. Part of the drop was blamed on the fact that acts including The Rolling Stones and Take That did not tour last year. And some major artists, such as Kings of Leon and Rod Stewart, opted to play in arenas instead of stadia as a result of the economic downturn, PRS said.

But the organisation, which collects royalties on behalf of songwriters, said this year's revenues were likely to bounce back thanks to Take That's record-breaking stadium shows and tours by Rihanna, Westlife and Justin Bieber. The report says, "It would be very tempting to look at these numbers and jump towards a knee jerk reaction that the live music bubble has burst. We

The Netherlands - Philips has entered into a patent license agreement with Cooper Industries. The license provides Cooper with full access to the Philips' LED-related patented technologies that Philips makes available to the lighting industry through its LED Luminaire and Retrofit Bulb licensing programme.

"We are very pleased that Cooper has joined our licensing program. We believe having such an open and accessible license program is greatly assisting in accelerating the adoption of LED lighting and fostering the growth of the LED industry", said Arian Duijvestijn, general manager lighting at Philips Intellectual Property & Standards.

This license agreement with Cooper follows earlier agreements between Philips and more than 100 companies, amongst which key lighting players like Acuity Brands, Osram and Zumtobel. Philips' licensing program includes many LED luminai

USA - PLASA Events has announced its first ever PLASA Focus: Tech, a three-day audio/video/lighting workshop and live concert to be held 20-22 February 2012 alongside the recently announced PLASA Focus: Austin 2012 event.

PLASA Focus: Tech will bring together industry experts Richard Cadena (Automated Lighting: The Art and Science of Moving Light), Brad Schiller (The Automated Lighting Programmer's Handbook), Chad Yeary of Portal Designs, Damon Lang of Nomad Sound, and Coolux USA for a hands-on learning programme.

The workshop will include a lighting track with design, visualisation, and programming; a video track with video content design media server programming; and an audio track with audio system design live mixing. Each attendee will programme and/or operate the lighting, audio, or video for a portion of a live concert before an audience on the final night.

Italy - Over 90 Robe moving lights including the new Robin 600 LEDWash are the core lighting fixtures being used on the new series of Reazione A Catena (Chain Reaction), a popular Italian games show based on contestants finding hidden words, which is being recorded at C Cinecittà Studios in Rome for RAI TV.

Lighting is designed by Massimo Castrichella, one of Italy's leading TV LDs, who has an impressive 33 year track record with the country's top TV channel, also making him one of the most knowledgeable and experienced practitioners in the art of TV lighting.

The set is based around a completely spherical auditorium with a small stage and curved seating. The studio walls are white and therefore ideal for colouration and gobo projections from the lighting, and a series of curved ribbon like LED surfaces are threaded around the space. The lighting is rigged on three cir

UK - The LAX series mixers have a natural sound with outstanding parameters and optimal user-friendliness as well as maximum dependability in day-to-day operation on the road. This makes them an affordable solution for a broad range of applications, says the company.

Andrew Richardson, managing director of Adam Hall UK comments, "The DJ mixer series with its built-in preamp stands out because of its outstanding capabilities and complete function that will make any performance incisive and vivid, the perfect partner for your events."

(Jim Evans)

UK - SGM's CC-4 is a four-bank high-powered multiple LED washlight with an enviable power output. With its IP65 rating it is designed for architectural use.

Each of the four chassis contains 44 of the LZ4 RGB Cool White Emitter LED's and thanks to its new light engine it can deliver 21,000 lumens - providing more than three and a half times that of SGM's original Palco 5 LED, which was designed for the same purpose.

The CC-4 offers CTC and white balance control. Power consumption is just 4 x 400W and the lamp life is rated at 50,000 hours.

Housed in a black slim aluminium chassis lenses are interchangeable (via the Narrow, Medium and Wide lens kit) and the fixture boasts eight or 17 DMX channels. Set up is via an OLED graphic five-button display.

Other features include: Simple menu structure; upgradeable software (via DMX); IP65 rated; standard Neutrik powerCON connectors

UK - Batmink Distribution, one of the largest UK distributors of professional audio, lighting and effects equipment, will introduce a number of new products at PLASA 2011. New brands on show include Visage Lighting, Vector Audio, Pro-Flite Flightcases, Pro-Stage Portable Staging and Lumaform LED Illuminated Furniture.

Of particular interest is the Visage LED Multipar RGBAW - a new PAR unit that delivers a truly impressive light output from 18 x 8w LEDs. 12 x RGBW and 6 x RGBA 4 in 1 LEDs produce full spectrum colour mixing and control is achieved through DMX, auto programs, sound to light or master slave functions. The black multipar housing is more robust than conventional PARcan bodies and completes this tough, powerful unit.

Another brand making its PLASA debut is Lumaform. Offering a range of LED illuminated furniture in a variety of styles; Lumaform is at the cutting edge

UK - A new series of the tea time TV show Perfection is about to be broadcast. The BBC2 show is presented by Nick Knowles and filmed at BBC Glasgow

Martin Kempton designed the lighting show, provided by Richard Martin Lighting (RML) and supported by Tony Kennedy along with his team at TSL. The specification includes MAC 500s, VL1000TS, Alpha Beam 700s, 900mm Chroma Strips, Chroma Flood TCs and Stage Zoom 1200's.

(Jim Evans)

Norway - Kaizers Orchestra is recognised as one of Norway's most prominent rock bands and best live acts. On Saturday 9 April, the band played the concert of their lifetime in a fully booked Oslo Spektrum. An audience of 10,000 spectators got to experience a spectacular show.

"As Norway's most important venue, selling out Oslo Spektrum is a huge step for any Norwegian band and we were glad to be there to assist Kaizers Orchestra in making it a truly remarkable evening for everyone in the audience." states Rubicon's marketing director, Nikolai Perminow.

Rubicon is Norway's leading rental provider of Clay Paky and delivered a range of Clay Paky Alpha Spot 1500 HPE, Alpha Spot 700 HPE and Alpha Wash 700s as moving fixtures for the show - alongside conventional lighting, rigging, PA and monitoring.

Neil Solheim, Kaizers Orchestra's lighting designer reports, "The

USA - Tennessee-based rental company Morris Light and Sound reports that it can't keep its new inventory of Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures on the shelves. The company is also doing a brisk business with its grandMA and grandMA light consoles.

"After getting a demo of Sharpy we purchased 24 for the upcoming Xtreme Muzik The Tour, with country duo Big & Rich and Gretchen Wilson," says David Haskell, owner of Morris Light and Sound. "Then we used them on Country Music Television's live Music Builds: CMT Disaster Relief Concert for the victims of the recent storms, floods, and tornadoes. After that, we ordered 12 more Sharpy fixtures for Jake Owen, who's supporting Keith Urban on tour.

"We're among the first to take delivery of the lights, which are pretty impressive for their size and punch. For television, their most impressive feature is how quiet t

UK - PLASA 2011 will mark the official debut of the newest control desk in ETC's award winning Eos line - Gio.

Gio is designed to fill the mid range position in the Eos family, sitting between the Eos and Ion. It will offer the power of full Eos functionality, in a tidy footprint. Features include integrated, articulating multi touch displays, helpful backlit buttons and unique tactile response direct selects and encoders.

The look of the desk itself is elegantly polished and minimalist. ETC is set to release further in depth information in early September, as part of the international product reveal. Initial response from ETC's CUE end user conference attendees - who were the first to have a sneak preview in July - confirms that it will be a popular draw at the PLASA stand.

ETC is also showing for the first time at PLASA its new ultra bright, high colour, energy efficient S

UK - PixelRange has announced that in addition to its major presence on the stand of master European distributor, A.C. Entertainment Technologies , the company will also showcase its new SmartRange of Intelligent LED fixtures at the STLD-hosted LED Shoot Out which is a central feature of this year's PLASA Show.

The Society of Television Lighting Designers (STLD) has arranged a 240sq.m space where LED lighting fixtures can be directly compared across three different areas. The first lighting shootout area features a specially built 8m-wide cyclorama, the second a practical hands-on 'mini TV studio', and the third section is a lecture and presentation theatre where LED fixtures from different categories are compared side-by-side with their traditional Tungsten or Discharge equivalent.

PixelRange will demonstrate three newly released lighting fixtures - QPar, PixelSmart and Smart

UK - Peugeot UK decided to preview their new midrange saloon and estate range at the ICC in Birmingham in order to give their dealers a chance to view the new 508 series models first hand before the public launch of the car.

Production company AddingValue were given the brief to produce a spectacular reveal for the car and turned to Martin Professional's compact MAC 101 moving head wash. The reveal was to be followed by an on stage presentation by various Peugeot senior staff and would include interactive demonstrations and video presentations.

Production Manager Guy Ferguson from AddingValue contacted LD Paul Moorhouse and asked him to design the lighting for the dealer launch, having worked with Paul on previous projects for Peugeot. The brief was to create a Top Gear style studio look on stage, with lights visible to the audience, and to light the reveal of the car i

UK - The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff has recently installed a grandMA2 light console in its new 160 seat courtyard style Richard Burton Theatre, one of two performance spaces in a £22.5m landmark building development.

The College stages up to 18 drama productions a year and numerous music events, including student works and commercial shows. The College has owned a grandMA 'series 1' for three years, and so is well aware of the capabilities of MA Lighting's control platform and its superb reliability.

The grandMA2 was specified by senior technical lecturers and the technical operations department following detailed discussions about training and operational needs. The decision was fully endorsed by the College's technical operations manager Simon Denman-Ellis, who took up his new post at the College after 15 years as technical stage manager at Cardiff

JB Lighting will be showing its new A8 which, like the company's A12, features a newly developed optical system and shares its wide zoom angle of 8° - 48°.

The A8 uses a total of 37 RGBW multi-chip LEDs, 15 Watt each, as a light source. In combination with an efficient optical system they create both saturated and pastel colours as well as white with what the company describes as "an impressive brightness". The A8 has hexagonally formed exit lenses which produce a uniform luminous field.

The "inner values" of the A8 are hidden in the compact housing and include three-phase stepper motors, silent additional fans and a receiver module for JB-lighting Wireless DMX. 3-pin and 5-pin DMX connectors and Powercon In/Out for easy handling.

With the A12 8°-48° zoom BeamWash, JB Lighting has implemented what it describes as its own expectations of the perfe

Visual Productions, which specialises in lighting control products including hardware solutions and cross-platform software lighting control for Mac, Windows, and Linux, will be showing its CueCore Solid-State Control, aimed at addressing the issue of maintenance in installations.

Maintenance required to keep the lighting and its control system working well over time, observes the company, must be keep to a minimum in an installation. In many, the computer proves to be the weakest link and is the main cause for maintenance - including instances such as a broken fan, dust on the heatsink or a defective power supply. However, with CueCore as part of an installation, no computer is required.

The CueCore is a lighting controller for permanent installations in museums, themed venues, parks, architectural lighting projects, bars, clubs and other projects.

The device is completely solid-s

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