UK - Lighting and visual rental specialist HSL created the lighting and video design for the 2013 Total Production International (TPi) Awards, and supplied all the necessary trussing, motors, rigging and control infrastructure plus crew needed to rig over 350 Robe lighting fixtures in the Ballroom of the Novotel, West London.

Working for TPi Awards show producers Mondiale Publishing and with event manager Ben Chadwick, the visual design was created by HSL's Tim Fawkes in collaboration with Mike Oates. HSL's event project manager was Spantax.

The basic concept was to make it "Funky, fun and more rock n roll than in previous years," states Fawkes, adding that the biggest challenge was being under pressure to produce something amazing looking to impress all the top industry professionals who were present.

All video content plus the sound track for the opening video wa

b>Sweden - Wireless Solution Sweden has announced a partnership with Music & Lights for the distribution of the W-DMX Micro, BlackBox and WhiteBox systems in the Music & Lights sales network.

W-DMX systems are already OEM installed in several products in the Music & Lights portfolio, including projectors by Prolights and ArchWork, and W-DMX has been recognised as a standard of high reliability and quality for professional performance and demanding environments.

Fabio Sorabella, product manager of Prolights says, "We have been testing many different wireless DMX systems and W-DMX was clearly the best choice for several reasons. Working with W-DMX is a solid guarantee for us and for our customers operating in rental and installation all over the world, since it currently is the most widespread system providing highest compatibility with a wide number of products. We strongly b

France - Robe's innovative new Robin MMX WashBeam moving light won a prestigious Etoile du SIEL (Star of SIEL) Award for Technical Innovation at the 2013 SIEL trade exhibition in Paris - France's leading international expo for the professional lighting, sound, video and entertainment technology industry.

The MMX WashBeam was entered into the Lighting Category. The fixture offers multiple features in one unit, and combining a Philips Platinum 35 lightsource with Robe's advanced optical system, provides an output exceeding most traditional 1200W products.

The Etoile du SIEL Awards were judged by an independent panel of industry experts, including lighting designers, technical and creative directors and representatives from top rental companies.

(Jim Evans)

USA - Bandit Lites is on the road with two of hard rock's top bands as Shinedown and Three Days Grace hit the road for a dual headlining February tour. The tour kicked off 1 February in Moline, Illinois at the iWireless Center.

Shinedown lighting designer Carter Fulghum and Three Days Grace lighting designer Mike Filsinger created two performances filled with throbbing lights that enhanced the high octane music and pyrotechnics.

With both bands co-headlining, Fulghum and Filsinger worked to reconfigure the rig to be more arena friendly, as the rig had previously been designed for amphitheaters. Additionally, fixtures and fixture placements were changed to accommodate both bands.

"Designing a rig for two artists can be a challenge," said Filsinger. "Keeping both bands happy both visually and financially can turn into a full on brawl but luckily in this case, it

USA - Even at the supreme event of the biggest celebration in a city known for its huge excesses, the Ponchartrain Beach float takes bigness to new heights - or lengths. At 330'long, this tribute to the Big Easy's legendary Ponchartrain Beach amusement park is clearly the largest float ever seen in a Mardi Gras parade. Debuting at Endymion, Mardi Gras' premier event, the float is comprised of nine individual cars, each replicating a different historic carnival ride or attraction featured at Ponchartrain Beach, which closed in 1983.

The city's newspaper The New Orleans Picayune declared the float to be the best in the parade, noting that it was "indeed impressive, both for its size and the light display, which bathed the crowd in glorious color." Ray Ziegler of RZi Lighting (New Orleans) used a variety of products from Elation Professional, Acclaim Lighting and A

UK - PLASA's Technical Resource Office announces that the RDM and sACN Developers Conference and Plugfest returns for 2013 and will take place on the 25-27 April, in the UK, at Gatwick Manor, London Road at Lowfield Heath, just south of Gatwick Airport.

This Developers Conference aims to provide a European forum for manufacturers, designers, consultants and prospective users; and to ensure that the adoption of these new standards achieves desired levels of interoperability and reliability.

The conference includes presentations in understanding, implementing and using the published PLASA control protocols suites. Discussions will also embrace the current protocol developments that form part of the PLASA Technical Standards Programme. The past 12 months has seen considerable advancement in the development of RDMnet - with various drafts of BSR E1.33 being offered for public revi

South Africa - A substantial range of Philips Selecon Spots, Fresnels, and Cyc luminaires have been installed at a brand new theatre space within a prestigious private college in Johannesburg.

Respected lighting consultant and designer Denis Hutchinson specified Philips Selecon Acclaim Axial Zoom Spots, Acclaim 650W Fresnels and Hui Cyc 1 A 500W Symmetrical floods along with Philips Strand 200 Plus 24/48 Lighting Control Desk and Monitor plus a number of six Pack 6/10 Amp Dimmer Packs for the co-educational Herron Bridge College.

Supplied by South African Philips partner DWR Distribution, Selecon and Strand Lighting made up the bulk of the order: "An essential part of the brief was to deliver a lighting system that is easy to understand and operate," explains Hutchinson. "However it also needed to feature a creative capability that surpasses regular school light

UK - Black Light's Open Day is now established as a key event for anyone in the Scottish AV, sound, lighting and stage industry.

"Our Open Day brings together all the latest AV, sound, lighting and stage technology under one roof," says Black Light's head of company development, Phil Haldane. "We're inviting everyone to come along and help us celebrate 30 years in the business."

Black Light has already got over 30 of the biggest names in the industry confirmed. That means that the 2013 Open Day will be the most exciting yet, says the company. It will be a great chance for everyone to come and see the hottest new equipment in action, quiz the experts and, of course, meet friends and colleagues.

The Open Day will take place on 15 March. As in previous years, the event will feature a wide range of exhibitor stands at which visitors will be able to talk to ma

USA - Designed by leading architecture and engineering firm, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, with Corgan Associates, the Dallas City Performance Hall has been described as a 'lyrical and elegant' addition to the Dallas Arts District, promising to be a 'unique and delightful village for the arts' for Dallas audiences.

Located in the Dallas Arts District, the first phase of the venue opened in September 2012 and includes a 750-seat multi-purpose proscenium theatre, public lobby, and support space.

GDS was asked by Texas Scenic Company (TSC) to supply a zoned, DMX-controlled, working light system to be used across the stage galleries, auditorium catwalks and followspot booth to allow technicians access to technical areas under dark performance conditions without drawing audience attention.

Working in conjunction with Schuler Shook Theatre Planners, TSC installed GDS' award winnin

Albania - Eagle Square, at the entrance of Tirana in Albania, was renamed in November of 2012 in celebration of the country's 100 year anniversary. Standing majestically in the city square is a 10m tall, double-headed eagle, the symbol on the Albanian flag. Made of steel and weighing some 12 tons, it was created by Albi Cifligu of Podium Sh.p.k.

Saturating the monument in Albania's national colour of deep red are Exterior 430s from Martin Professional's award-winning Exterior 400 range of outdoor LED luminaires. Eight Exterior 430s, supplied by local Martin distributor Prosound Audio and Light, are used to uplight the eagle.

Lighting aspects of the monument were also handled by Albi Cifligu who turned to the Exterior 430 after a recommendation by Prosound sales manager Kliton Gjika.

"The only lighting fixture that can turn black metal red is the Exterior 430 so I sugges

WarChild Benefit - Muse warmed up for their appearance at this week's Brit Awards by headlining an intimate benefit gig in aid of WarChild UK. The band performed for almost two hours in front of 2,000 fans at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire. Speaking from the stage, front man Matt Bellamy said: "This is a nice vibe, we should do a tour like this."

The concert - an intimate affair compared to Muse's usual stadium-headlining shows - saw them tone down their show to fit the theatre surroundings. Before the gig bass player Chris Wolstenholme told BBC's Newsbeat, "You don't want to be spending all the money on pyramids and flashing lights - that's money that could be going to charity."

Awards News - Opera magazine is to have its first annual international awards, presented at a ceremony in London on 22 April. The Operas, the brainchild of th

Australia - Currently playing at Sydney's Lyric Theatre, Legally Blonde The Musical is lit by Kenneth Posner and Paul Miller with Hugh Hamilton acting as associate for the Australian tour. The set and lighting design for the Australian production comes from the London production of the musical held at the Savoy Theatre.

The rig houses only Vari-Lite moving lights: forty-four VL2500 Spots, twenty-two VL2500 Washes and five VL3500 Spots whilst conventional lighting consists of over 200 ETC Source Four fixtures. It's a fairly straight forward rig that was, according to Hamilton, expertly prepped at PRG, easily hung and there were very few problems to overcome.

"The overhead trusses go spot, wash, spot, wash, spot, wash and the ladders are all VL2500 Spots," explained Hamilton. "It's a great rig because you can put anything you need where you need it, plus it

UK - Philips Selecon's lightweight, smooth colour changing PLCyc LED luminaires are facilitating fiercely felt mood and atmosphere for The Guildford Shakespeare Company's production of Macbeth.

Lighting designer Declan Randall is harnessing the diverse colour palette and rapid colour changing abilities of the PLCyc fixtures to dramatically enhance the shifting ambience during the production at Guildford's Holy Trinity Church.

"I'm treating the ceiling of church as the cyclorama, up-lighting the roof and using the PLCycs to throw shadows of scenic elements and the cast up onto the roof," says Randall. "The show varies from intense colour to more natural, gentle, skin tones and the PLCycs offer us speedy colour changes and an amazing palette to work with. What's great about the PLCyc LED luminaires is that they deliver both the natural and unnatural colours

UK - Inaugurated in 1886, the old People's Palace, as it was formerly known, was originally built to provide cultural activities to its local population but tragically burned down in 1931. Rebuilt in 1936 to the west of its original site, the new People's Palace is now owned by Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). This historic Grade II listed building has recently undergone a £6.3m facelift to restore it to its former 1930's style interior beauty.

Located in the heart of London's East End and home to the 770 seat Great Hall, the theatre's transformation included a lighting and audio solution supplied and installed by specialist integrators Stage Electrics.

"Queen Mary, University of London is delighted with our newly refurbished venue and we're now getting a huge amount of interest from external hirers and promoters who are discovering this hidden gem in east Lo

UK - Lighting designer Jonny Gaskell has harnessed the laser-like beam of Clay Paky's Sharpy fixtures to deliver a high impact, three-dimensional lighting environment for electronic dance music duo Orbital on their UK tour, which culminated with a spectacular and hard hitting show at Brixton Academy.

Gaskell, of Pinnacle Productions, combined the razor sharp beams of the Clay Paky Sharpys, supplied by rental operation Colour Sound Experiment, with laser bounce mirrors to deliver a three dimensional prism of super bright almost architectural effects around the band. This worked as part of a layered lighting concept that combined evocative video, moody washes and striking effects during the dynamic, content rich show. The result was a dramatically striking, 3D world of light and images that worked as one with Orbital's music but at the same time also reached out and engaged the li

Austria - With a huge opening ceremony the 2013 Skiing World Championships recently started in Schladming, Austria. Associate LD Jeffrey Goes and associate LD Daan Oomen relied for the show on an MA Lighting system, consisting of two grandMA2 light, one grandMA2 fader wing and two MA NPU (Network Processing Unit).

Jeffrey Goes commented, "The grandMA2 offered the best solution in networking and stability for this outdoor event. Especially in bad weather conditions it proofed to be a solid, stable control system. This was essential. Furthermore it offered us a perfect back-up solution as well as great network possibilities."

Daan Oomen continued, "We had to deal with pretty harsh weather conditions. Also some lighting positions were only accessible by helicopter. Furthermore the venue had a quite unusual shape unusual shape and an extremely steep slope. Making a

Canada - CAST Software has announced its 2013 Video Contest, in which users of the brand new wysiwyg R30 are invited to submit their finest lighting designs for a chance to win one of three prizes. The creator of the winning video will land themselves a full one-year wyg membership, while second and third place runners-up will scoop a half-year wyg membership.

In an exciting twist on 2012's R28 competition, the use of consoles WILL be allowed, due to popular demand among previous entrants. Of course, employment of the software's Cue List and Camera Path features is perfectly acceptable and encouraged - Members are simply challenged to create a two-minute video of a stunning wysiwyg design and upload it to the CAST Software Facebook page for appraisal, initially by CAST's hand-picked judging panel, and then by the public who can vote for their favourite video via Facebook.

CAST

UK - Mark Henderson was named Best Lighting Designer in this year's Whatsonstage.com Awards.

The awards ceremony was presented by the Whatsonstage.com theatre news website at a lavish concert on Sunday night. The Whatsonstage.com Awards is the only major prize-giving celebration for theatre voted on by the theatre-going public. The Best Lighting Designer Award is sponsored by leading entertainment lighting supplier White Light.

Henderson secured the prize for his work on Sweeney Todd, which opened at the Chichester Festival Theatre and then transferred to London's Adelphi Theatre. Henderson's was not the only award presented to the show, which also won prizes for its leading performers (Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton), its director (Jonathan Kent), and for the show itself, which was named Best Musical Revival.

Henderson's fellow nominees in the category were Humphre

UK - The MAC III Wash, the final luminaire in Martin Professional's successful 1,500W MAC III family of moving heads, is now available. A full-feature, full-range wash luminaire with light quality and a colour palette, it excels at projecting an intense yet even field of light and has the added ability of shaping the beam through an internal barndoor system, a unique feature for a Fresnel light, says the company.

The MAC III Wash features a unique internal barndoor system (shutters) that enables designers to shape projection onto stages, performers, scenery, scrims, or any set element with great precision.

The MAC III Wash houses a 1:4 fully linear zoom that requires no lens changes plus the MAC III Wash maintains near full efficiency throughout the entire zoom range with no visible beam jump when zooming from tight to wide and no drop in lumens output.

At over 50,000 lumens

Australia - Over 150 Robe moving lights were spread around multiple stages on Summafieldayze 2013 - the most popular marathon dance music festival staged at Doug Jennings Park, The Spit on Australia's Gold Coast.

Heading up the action were plenty of electronic legends like The Chemical Brothers, M.I.A, Fedde Le Grand, Mark Ronson, Hot Chip, The Faders, Kimbra and many more.

Lighting equipment, together with lighting production designs for the event's three main stage areas, was supplied by Clifton Productions, one of Australia's highest profile rental operations ... and the one with the largest stock of Robe fixtures.

Stage One was based around M.I.A.'s spec and featured 22 Robe ColorSpot 2500E ATs, eight ColorWash 2500E ATs and 18 Robin 600 Beams. The set centrepiece was an extensive upstage video wall.

The second stage was custom designed to accommodate the Chemical Brot

Austria - When TV viewers in Austria tune into ORF 1 to watch weekly TV talent show Die Grosse Chance, one of the first things they notice is 1500 strings of SGM's LB-100 LED Balls festooned across the set. This large display forms the centrepiece of a set design conceived by Florian Wieder (of Wieder Design).

The LB-100's were supplied by production company, Supporting Role, who specialise in the broadcast rental sector, after being impressed by a system demo organised by SGM Germany's co-MD Thorsten Sattler.

Florian Wieder has taken a highly creative approach with the lighting - hanging the LB-100's as a curtain, split into separate sections, and as 'bridges' across the studio (one of which serves as the portal bridge to the stage).

These are fed by moving images from three Coolux Pandoras Box media servers.

Each of the 1500 strings measures 0.85m and contains sev

UK - Chroma-Q will showcase their latest range of innovative LED broadcast lighting solutions at the BVE South show, Excel London, on the stand of exclusive UK dealer A.C. Entertainment Technologies Ltd. (stand C64).

The new Chroma-Q Studio Force Phosphor has been developed specifically for use in film, TV and broadcast studio environments. Utilising innovative LED technologies, the units provide an equivalent soft edge output to a fluorescent fixture - up to 7,000 lumens. There's a choice of standard daylight white (5,600K), variable white (3,200 - 5,600K) and new tungsten white (3,200K) colour temperature versions, with the variable version offering fine-tuning of the green and magenta tints and frequency for camera.

Other features include an extremely smooth uniform wash, extra soft beam, theatrical grade dimming, laboratory calibration to match Black Body Locus, a manual c

The Netherlands - A new theatre in Roermond, south eastern Holland, has decided that energy saving is the way forward - and has been fitted out with entirely LED fixtures.

ECI Cultuurfabriek is a converted former chemical factory which was abandoned in the 1970s. After many years of discussion about the building's future, it was decided to refurbish it - replacing its missing roof and rebuilding the walls - and turn it into a space for the whole community to use. Incoming technical manager Maarten Janssen invested in 30 ETC Source Four Lustr+ and 22 ETC Selador Desire Lustr+ LED luminaires for its 244 seat theatre space, taking advantage of extra funding available for environmentally sustainable projects.

Janssen explains why he chose the ETC fixtures: "I saw the LED demonstrations on ETC's YouTube video library. The fixtures have incredibly smooth fades, which I've never

France - One year after its foundation, the French distribution company, Alterlite, has exhibited for the first time at SIEL with spectacular results. No less than three of its product lines received Etoiles du SIEL Awards at the annual tradeshow in Paris last week.

"We were extremely pleased to see three of the manufacturers we represent receive these Awards," states CEO Lionel Garraud. "Robert Juliat, Chromlech and Darklight are prime examples of the innovative, well informed industry leaders we chose to deal with. We see this as confirmation that we made the right choices in the products we offer and could not have asked for more from our first exhibition as a new company."

Alterlite was established to provide the French architainment and retail markets with alternative lighting products of the highest quality. Its team has expanded rapidly over the firs

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