UK - Lighting and visuals rental company HSL supplied nearly 300 moving and LED lightsources and over 100 generics to a series of Welsh language channel S4C Light Entertainment programmes recorded in a 10 day block at Studio 1 of the NEP Cymru (ITV Wales) facility at Culverhouse Cross, Cardiff .

These were specified by Cardiff and London based Lighting Designer Steffan Jones, who designed lighting and video for the raft of programmes, many featuring live artists. He was working for production companies Boomerang PLC in association with Alfresco TV and Apollo TV, and co-producers Mr. Producer.

HSL's TV and broadcast specialist Sean McGlone co-ordinated the project. He comments, "It's always a pleasure working with Steff. His drive, enthusiasm, imagination and keen visual eye are refreshing and invigorating, and his designs always interesting."

NEPC is the largest OB

Australia - Jands Pty Ltd has been appointed as the exclusive distributor of Aurora in Australia.

"Jands represent leading audio brands such as JBL, Crown, BSS and Shure, which collectively provide a premium solution to audio contractors and installations. Increasingly these systems need control, and further, contractors and customers alike are looking for a one supplier solution to guarantee compatibility and performance. After a long search, Jands is excited about finding the perfect partner in Aurora." said Paul Mulholland, Jands managing director.

"The quality of the product, the integrity of the company, value for money and ease of programming will excite the market. The fact that the company is stronger in video distribution products is a bonus and allows Jands to further extend our solution offering."

The Jands technical team has started to get the

UK - Paul Nulty Lighting Design (PNLD) provided architectural lighting design to the 120sq.m Adventure Bar in Clapham High Street, London.

The bar is the fifth to be opened by the growing chain and lighting once again plays a key role in providing mood and ambience.

Working closely with interior designers, Finch Design, PNLD have produced a dramatic scheme using some simple theatrical techniques and feature luminaires to create a dramatic and inviting space, whilst producing comfortable lighting to booths where customers can drink and relax.

The total expenditure on lighting, including controls, was just £6,500.00 including a lighting control system so the PNLD team had to be very creative with the details and resourceful with regards to the specification of luminaires. Head of practice, Paul Nulty explains, "It was an ambitious budget so we had to think laterally

USA - Country rock singer-songwriter Brantley Gilbert kicked off his Hell on Wheels in late September hitting the road with a complement of Clay Paky Sharpys from Digital Console Rental in Nashville.

Gilbert has released two albums of his own, and his songs have been recorded by Colt Ford and Jason Aldean.

A long-time client of Digital Console Rental, Gilbert asked company president Howard Jones to serve as his tour's lighting designer. Digital Console Rental is handling all of the audio, lighting, rigging and trucking for Hell on Wheels.

Jones chose eight Sharpys from his inventory deploying four in the truss and four wrapping around the top of the set. "We wanted to come up with something that was iconic to Brantley," he explains. "He's big into motorcycles and has a bad boy image. I had the idea to have the truss over the stage be a giant pair

UK - As every good conductor knows, even the most tried and trusted musical score can warrant a revisit from time to time. The same is true of production, as has happened on the latest outing of Classical Spectacular. "We have maybe 80 pieces of music in the repertoire now," said show programmer Tim Routledge. "I have been working with lighting designer Durham Marenghi for several years on this show so when he presented his new design I saw an opportunity to upgrade the control system."

"I have re-visited all the music," said Marenghi. "A new truss shape with a completely new lighting environment: total refreshment. The fact that Tim chose this moment to move from grandMA to grandMA2 seemed entirely logical; even if it was the first time he'd migrated a master show file from MA1 to MA2."

"I did ask him if he was comfortable w

Brazil - Wireless Solution Sweden held centre stage at the 58th Barretos Cowboy Festival (Festa do Peão de Boiadeiro de Barretos), one of the largest rodeo and music events in Brazil, held at the Super Bull arena in the city of Barretos. For 10 nights, rodeo activities were followed by a long lineup of popular music acts, often lasting until dawn.

Lighting designer Francisco 'Pincel' Gabriel designed an enormous cube suspended over the main arena floor for maximum visibility by the entire crowd without interfering with the rodeo activities or blocking any sightlines to the main stage for the evening concerts. The cube held LED screens accentuated with Robe moving lights to allow spectators to view the rodeo events up close.

Because of the location of the cube, high above the centre of the arena floor, W-DMX BlackBox F-1 was used as Transmitter and Receiver to deliver a reliab

Belgium - The first concert staged in the newly refurbished and re-launched Het Depot in Leuven, just outside Brussels, Belgium, featured four days of performance by hot emerging young Belgian singer / songwriter Selah Sue.

Robe fixtures were an integral part of Selah Sue's show - her lighting designer Joris Vandamme used 12 x Robin 600 LEDWashes on floor stands as a 'specials' package, an idea also being tried out for upcoming shows. He also used eight Robe MMX Spots that have just been installed as part of a new lighting rig at Het Depot along with Robe Actor 600 units.

Additionally, the first of Robe's new MMX WashBeams in Belgium were made available for these Het Depot shows by special arrangement with Robe's Benelux distributor, Controllux.

Selah Sue's material embraces an eclectic mix of styles including soul, R'n'B, reggae and blues. Her rich, deep, raspy voice is ver

Belgium - Legendary Brussels live music venue - the Ancienne Belgique (AB) - has invested in 20 Robe Robin MMX Spot moving lights that have replaced the previous spot fixtures in a major upgrade to their lighting system.

The AB features a 2000 capacity Main Room with full over-stage grid system and a 16m wide stage, plus a smaller club performance space. It is one of the most prominent live music and performance venues in Europe, featuring many high profile artists, staging over 300 live events a year and featuring around 500 bands which are enjoyed by over 300,000 people.

Around 90% of the artists visiting the AB use the in-house lighting system, and approximately 75% of these will bring their own LDs, so it is vital that they stay at the forefront of a constantly evolving world, and are able to offer all the latest technologies.

The decision to invest in Robe moving lights

South Africa - Opened in 1997 by Nelson Mandela, the multi award winning Durban ICC celebrated its 15th anniversary with a Grand Banquet. With 33000sq.m of space available to clients, the Exhibition Centre is the largest flat floor, column-free exhibition/conference space in Africa.

This year the Durban ICC was named "Africa's number 1 meeting and conference centre" by the prestigious World Travel Awards, for the 11th time in 12 years. The ICC has welcomed kings, queens, presidents, actors, icons and entertainers and has hosted some of the biggest, most high profile conferences in the world.

The anniversary project's objective required event organisers to showcase the capacity, versatility and flexibility of the ICC to stage major international events

Makulu Events was awarded the tender to organise the event and with the ICC, invited a number of companies to propo

UK - Channel 5 has chosen to specify eS21 Dimmers, a Palette VL console, a 301 Backup and a number of Selecon luminaires to satisfy the lighting requirements of its new suite of compact studios within London's Northern and Shell Building.

The brief for the new suite was to create a multipurpose studio complex suitable for C5 News, which uses Virtual Reality to generate the on air environment, ready to broadcast from mid-November.

With limited space, designing a system flexible enough to cover all eventualities was the design team's biggest challenge, as Antony Vine, project manager for installation company White Light, explains, "The studio has very limited head room and absolutely no space for a dimmer room. To overcome this problem we've used eS21 Dimmer Bars, with the Dimmers and Relays inbuilt. The modularity of the eS21 bar design is of particular importance as this

UK - Leading nightclub operator, The Luminar Group, has spent £750,000 refurbishing the former Liquid/Envy in Crawley town centre, which has now reopened as Moka.

After being closed for nearly a year, the 1250-capacity venue has been transformed by a dramatic 3D ceiling starburst using 120 of SGM's LT-100 LED pixel tubes, run from a proprietary media server. These have been rendered and pixel-mapped so that the lighting chase sequences can one minute resemble a spectrum analyser, before sending waves shimmering through the 1-metre long rods, which make up the inspired architectural chandelier - all the while offering a 2 x 170° viewing experience.

Right from the outset, Luminar CEO Peter Marks knew the venue was in need of reinvention, and brought in Design at Source to transform it. At the same time he promised, "Moka will have a state-of-the-art lighting rig s

UK - For some years now, comedian Matt Lucas has been a presence on UK TV screens and after the success of his last series, he is back for another with latest project the Matt Lucas Awards.

The entertainment series, filmed for BBC1 at Elstree Studios, is an adaptation of an original format he worked on, on radio - And the Winner Is......

It sees a number of celebrities each episode nominate artists or objects in weird and wonderful categories such as 'Smuggest Nation of People', 'Dullest Pastime' and 'Most Baffling Campfire Song' with the winner receiving a Lucas Award.

Roger Williams designs the lighting show with is provided by Richard Martin Lighting (RML).

The warm lighting rig includes Robe Robin 600 LEDBeam, Stage Bar 54, Chroma Bank, Alpha Spot 575 HPE and Source 4. The lights help enrich the lounge room feel of the show, which is designed to look like

UK - Ambersphere Solutions has had a busy year, serving the needs of their regular customers whilst getting involved in many of the high profile 2012 summer events that took place across the UK. And with Christmas just round the corner, they are pleased to announce their Christmas Open Day!

The company has recently extended their premises to meet the increasing product and training demands of their customers, and have some exciting expansion plans for 2013. There is an expanded show room, and increased training facilities, a larger warehouse, and bookable programming suites.

There will be a sneak preview of the new Clay Paky Sharpy Wash, the Clay Paky A.LEDA range and the new MA onPC fader wing.

There will be plenty of Christmas snacks and drinks to get the party going. New and existing customers are invited to join the Ambersphere team from 2pm-8pm on Wednesday 19 December.

UK - Rental company Entec Sound & Light supplied lighting and audio production for award-winning Taiwanese Mandropop superstar Jam Hsaio's show at Wembley Arena.

Entec offered a flexible, cost-effective, quality technical package and illustrated how thorough planning can enable a high profile and ambitious one-off to be delivered to the best standards in a single day.

The show was the latest in a series of Asian megastars visiting the UK and Europe that have used Entec. Sound

Entec's sound department was crew chiefed by Ed Hammond, They drew on their vast experience of producing similar shows in Wembley combined with the spec from Jam Hsaio's engineers David Wang (FOH) and Alvin Kuo (Monitors).

A d&b J-Series was supplied comprising 10 x J8 speakers with two J12 down-fills per side for the main hangs plus side hangs of six V8s and two V12s, the latter being at the top of t

Germany - SGM Lighting has boosted its penetration in key territories with the formation of SGM Germany.

Spearheading operations for the Danish lighting company will be the experienced Michael Herweg and Thorsten Sattler, who were previously managing director and sales manager respectively of SGM's German distribution company, dB Technologies Germany.

The formation of SGM Germany is a joint venture between the two partners and the parent company. Explaining the rationale, SGM CEO Peter Johansen described the move as an important strategic development. "We have already enjoyed a good deal of success in Germany, and having the experience of Michael and Thorsten on board will leverage sales of our wide portfolio of unique LED solutions into even wider market applications."

Michael Herweg agreed. "This development will speed up the already impressive market growth

Sweden - Respected lighting designer Per Sundin of Sundin Designers has used 170 Clay Paky Sharpys to light a star-studded, concert that celebrates the launch of the newly built, 67,500-capacity Friends Arena, Stockholm.

Shown live on Swedish TV channel SVT, and on the net via SVT play, experienced lighting designer Sundin knew the show lighting would have to make a dramatic impact both on the live and TV audiences as he explains: "Since the arena is the focus of the celebrations and because the show was performed in the round in the centre of the football pitch I chose to make my rig design as focused and efficient as possible," explains Sundin.

Using 10 hanging towers, each with four levels of truss pods, plus three truss rings Sundin had limited lighting positions available. The dynamic, 90-minute, music-driven, fast paced event, featured revered Swedish performin

South Africa - Opened in 1997 by Nelson Mandela, the award winning Durban ICC celebrated its 15th birthday anniversary with a Grand Banquet.

With 33000m2 of space available to clients, the Exhibition Centre is the largest flat floor, column-free exhibition/conference space in Africa.

This year the Durban ICC was named 'Africa's Number 1 meeting and conference centre' by the prestigious World travel Awards, for the 11th time in 12 years. The ICC has welcomed Kings, Queens, presidents, actors, icons and entertainers and has hosted some of the biggest, most high profile conferences in the world.

The project's objective required the event organiser to showcase the capacity, versatility and flexibility of the ICC to stage major international events.

Makulu Events was awarded the tender to organise the event and with the ICC, invited a number of companies to propose designs and

USA - An architectural staple and great example of greenhouse design, the Jewel Box in Forest Park, St Louis, turned into a giant gem for a surprise birthday party, lit by 58 Chauvet Professional fixtures. Listed on the National Historic Register, the art deco-style building has a glass structure and is a popular choice for various events.

"With all the glass, steel and plants that make up this greenhouse, we simply wanted to let the building glow like a jewel," said Stace Napper, lighting designer for Ironman Sound Industries, a full-service production company that provided the fixtures. "It was all about highlighting what was already there and making the structure stand out."

Napper used 32 COLORado 1 Tour fixtures within the planting beds to discreetly uplight the ferns and trees. Taking into consideration the limited walking space around the tables, Nap

China - In a country renowned for the grand scope and lofty ambition of its performing arts centres, the new Grand Theatre in Tianjin adds yet another architectural gem to the country's cultural landscape. It is also another major location for which ADB Lighting systems have been chosen, including fanless, silent WARP luminaires and the company's latest control desks and dimmers.

Tianjin Grand Theatre is the hub of the Tianjin Cultural Centre, located in the landmark district of the city - just 29 minutes from Beijing by high speed train - and close to the city hall of Tianjin Municipal Government. The Centre covers a total area of about 90 hectares and is comprises the Tianjin Grand Theatre, Tianjin Museum, Tianjin Natural History Museum, Tianjin Library, Tianjin Art Gallery, the Youth Activity Centre, shopping centre and the city's underground traffic hub.

The Grand Theatre

Canada - CAST Group of Toronto has announced the arrival of Vivien 2013 - Virtual Event Designer which is available now to download for members only.

Vivien 2013's new features include:

Drawing Purge: If in the big event plans your Vivien files become very large and heavy, by using Vivien 2013?s powerful Purge tool, users can clear the drawing of old imports, renders, library custom items and more characteristics (you aren't relying upon) to make the file smaller in size and easier to move around. No need to waste time pulling huge files from the server anymore; this keeps you truly mobile," says CAST.

Layer Merge: "For dealing with an enormous file from a client or a convention centre with lots of drawing layers, Vivien 2013 allows users to merge some of those layers together so you can to better manage the drawing and make things less confusing," CAST adds.<

UK - Clothes Show Live returned to the NEC, Birmingham in December for another season. Once again the centrepiece of this annual expo was a spectacular 45 minute catwalk performance featuring the latest fashion collections.

There was certainly a lot to pack in in 45 minutes - 350 outfits, eight scene changes, and dozens of models and dancers. And all this took place seven times per day for five days.

Lighting designer Nigel Catmur, now in his fifth year of lighting the show commented, "This has been the smoothest and best executed production to date. It's always a very intense schedule but this time we managed to pre-programme on Wysiwyg and therefore arrived on site with a lot of the show already in the desk. We used my Wysiwyg studio for two-three days before arriving on site and that made a wealth of difference.

"The show is a multimedia production with LED wall

USA - Chauvet Professional Nexus 4x4 wash lights performed next to top singers such as Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber during the two-day Jingle Ball concert produced by KIIS-FM radio station at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles. As preeminent fixtures in the show, 16 Nexus 4x4 bold, eye-candy wash lights accompanied artists like OneRepublic, Ne-Yo, Ellie Goulding, Jonas Brothers, Ke$ha, Sammy Adams, Flo Rida and more.

"It was a turntable stage, which rotated back and forth," said Todd Roberts, owner of Visions Lighting, a premier lighting, staging, video and production company that provided the fixtures. "Normally we would have turntable walls, but instead we built a truss arch over the centre of the turntable and we mounted eight Nexus 4x4 fixtures on each side, thus becoming predominant lights."

Every time the table rotated, there was a Nexus 4x4 light beh

Kuwait - Kuwait's 50th Constitution Day celebration featured over 235 Watts of laser power, plus lighting, audio, effects, and a record-breaking 77,282 firework in a single hour! Two weeks of setup, plus three tons of gear, culminated in the breathtaking gala witnessed by over a million people.

ER Productions of London, the event's laser and effects specialists, used the landmark Kuwait towers as the show's centrepiece. The towers featured elegant laser mapping which could be seen five miles away. Twenty large mirrors were positioned atop the largest tower, sending laser break-up effects to a three-mile stretch of the city's beach.

To control the massive array of lasers and effects, ER Productions used both wireless and fibre optic data control. Key to the system were multiple laser towers on the beach, firing not only to the Kuwait towers, but also to five 25m display cubes b

UK - A substantial cast of Clay Paky Alpha 1500 HPE Spots and Profiles have been dazzling young audiences on the Ice Age Live! ice show extravaganza.

Respected lighting designer Luc Peumans of Painting with Light specified a large number of Alpha Profile 1500 to provide special effects along with even more Alpha Spot HPE 1500, many of which incorporate bespoke made gobos for both projection and masking to prevent spill when projecting onto the set.

Peumans choice was based on the extensive tests he had done last year, while designing the popular Holiday on Ice show: Speed, which will be touring the UK this year. He decided then that Clay Paky fixtures were "the best fixture for the challenging and fast paced environment that is a stage made of ice! They give a lot of output for the wattage; they have excellent projection quality, great frost functions

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