USA - How do you control 28 four-foot lighted spheres suspended above award winners "fun" at the 2013 Grammy Awards? Easy - with LumenRadio Receiver Cards inside each sphere, and a LumenRadio Flex transmitter located backstage.

Conceived and produced by Moment Factory of Montreal, with content by Hubert Gagnon of Blackout Design, the fun. set was designed and built by Quebec-based Teksho. Featuring illuminated spheres rising from the stage floor like gigantic champagne bubbles in slow motion, the number climaxed with an actual on-stage rainstorm. LEDs inside each of the orbs were controlled by a grandMA2 at FOH, driving an NPU backstage, sending DMX to the LumenRadio Flex Transmitter. The Flex Transmitter sent wireless DMX to each of the frosted-white spheres, with continual control feedback of the entire wireless system.

"Our team imagined a story line for the

Brazil - In Southern Brazil, on the coast of Santa Catarina, sits one of the world's largest Art Deco statues. At the top of Morro de la Cruz (Hill of the Cross), the statue of Jesus Christ stands overlooking the city of Balneário Camboriú, with one arm outstretched, welcoming visitors from near and far, and the other carrying a symbol of the sun.

Measuring 33m in height (including the pedestal) and 22m wide (from fingertip to fingertip), the task of lighting this majestic tourist attraction at first seemed less than straightforward. However, when Mario Luiz Pretto of Cristo Luz (Christ Light) contacted SGM's Brazilian distributor, João Alonso of LBO Lighting Comercio e Importação e Exportação Ltda, requesting a more powerful lighting output than the former installation could provide, João Alonso proposed the SGM P-5 wash light featuring 44 high power 10W RGBW LEDs per u

Argentina - Situated in the city of Cosquin in the Punilla Valley, and attended by around 9,000 people per day, National Folklore Festival Cosquín is the most important festival of folk music in Argentina. Dating back to 1961, it runs for nine nights each January, which are traditionally referred to as the Nine Moons Coscoínas.

Service and distribution company Deligio Iluminación first became involved back in 2006 and this year again rigged the large Atahualpa Yupanqui stage in Cosquin's main Prospero Molina Square - named in honour of the legendary guitarist. Deligio fielded PR Lighting's high brightness/low wattage XR200 Beams, imported by PR Lighting's Argentinian distributor, Martellota, and supplied by Carlos Capra's Audio - Line, alongside XS 1200 Spots, a versatile, bright moving head with rapid beam movement.

"We like the XR200 Beam for its overall performance,

UK - Ayrton reports that all new Ayrton products equipped with a wireless DMX/RDM receiver module will feature award-winning CRMX technology by LumenRadio.

After an extensive testing campaign, Ayrton selected LumenRadio because of its superior quality and reliability. The LumenRadio Coexistence technology allows smarter use of the frequencies by continuously scanning the radio spectrum and dynamically adapting its frequency-hopping pattern to the surrounding environment. This eliminates interference and maximizes performance whatever protocol is in use, whether DMX or RDM.

Ayrton and LumenRadio started working together during the European Motor Show in Brussels where they were faced with the challenge of controlling hundreds of custom LED fixtures using wireless RDM. The result was perfect and Ayrton decided to collaborate with LumenRadio for their entire product line.

The f

UK - Today, Tuesday 26 March, PLASA CEO Matthew Griffiths appeared alongside members of the London 2012 Opening Ceremony creative team to represent the entertainment and installation technology industries before the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee at the House of Commons.

The invitation follows a period of intense political lobbying by PLASA, on behalf of its members, many of whom were dissatisfied with the restriction surrounding the promotion of their involvement in the events. The questions asked will be used by MPs to assess the true extent of the role that the Olympic and Paralympic Games had in showcasing the UK creative industries, and what impact they have had on the sector subsequently.

"Many of our members were disappointed to discover the pervasiveness of the orders set up to protect the sponsorship deals of companies from outside the creative industr

USA - When production for Smokey Robinson presents Human Nature: The Motown Show decided to relocate from the Imperial Palace in Las Vegas to the nearby Venetian Hotel, experienced lighting designer Steve Cohen received a call out of the blue from the show's creative director, David Rudder. "They had already hired a set designer [Andy Walmsley], and were interested in having me light the show in the new space," he recalls. "Although we had never met before, since I live in Vegas, it was easy for me to see the show and see if we hit it off."

Fortunately for both the show's male vocal group Human Nature and Cohen they did; but since the group wanted to come up with a whole new look for their show, the designer had to choose his fixtures carefully to compensate for the limitations of the room and budget, as well as the existing lighting infrastructure. So

UK - High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire based lighting rental company Siyan supplied equipment and crew to the first UK leg of Indie rockers The Courteeners ANNA tour working with Lighting Designer Dan Hill.

The tour incorporated a string of sold out academy and student union venues culminating at Brixton Academy as The Big London Show and was the band's first proper production tour on this scale.

Siyan's project Manager Jez Johnstone says, "This is the first time we've worked with Dan on a full tour and it's been a pleasure. He knows exactly what he wants to see and is proactive and flexible when it comes to making things work during the prep stages. In terms of the show - the design is solid, his programming is tight and his timing is spot on! I'm looking forward to the next one!"

Hill has designed The Courteeners lighting for three years, and he worked

Olivier Awards - Michael Frayn and Gillian Lynne will be given prizes for their outstanding contribution to theatre at this year's Olivier Awards ceremony. They will both receive their Special Awards at the event, which is taking place at the Royal Opera House on 28 April and will be hosted by Hugh Bonneville and Sheridan Smith. Frayn is best known for writing his 1982 play Noises Off as well as dramas including Copenhagen and Democracy. Lynne has choreographed more than 50 Broadway, West End and international stage productions including musicals Cats and The Phantom of the Opera.

Downsizing - Irish alternative rockers My Bloody Valentine and US singer-songwriter Rodriguez are to headline this year's scaled-down Hop Farm Festival in Kent. Promoter Vince Power said the festival, the sixth to be held since 2008, would be over two days, on

USA - "White is the presence of all colours. ETC wanted to make a white-light LED spotlight that would be worthy of professional broadcast, film, and video production," says ETC's Matt Armendariz-Kerr. So ETC has released the new Source Four LED Studio HD, which utilises the colour technology of ETC's Selador x7 Color System for a more spectrally complete white light that can be finely tuned to the on screen talent.

With a special recipe of LED colour blending, the Studio HD is designed to perform in a high definition production world where people (with varying flesh tones) need to look their best. The Studio HD combines exceptional light output with an ultra-flexible, variable white light (2700K-6500K), for more accurate colour rendition on camera.

A multipurpose tool, the Source Four LED Studio HD is ideal for key, bounce, smooth or textured lighting. And as a Sour

UK - Martin Professional invites lighting professionals to PLASA Focus: Leeds 2013 to be the first in the UK to get an up-close look at the newest members of the award-winning MAC Viper Family, as well as the first fixtures in an all-new Martin product range - RUSH - light in the fast lane!

Join Martin 30 April 30th to 1 May at the Royal Armouries in Leeds where visitors can check out these latest technologies, network with industry professionals and enjoy a relaxing chat with Martin personnel at Booth N-E16.

A host of other new Martin products will also feature: MAC III series luminaires, VC series LED video and smoke and haze solutions.

(Jim Evans)

UK - A Chorus Line, the legendary Broadway musical, has returned triumphantly to London's West End, for the first time since the original production opened there in 1976.

The new production, playing at the London Palladium, is a faithful re-creation of the original Michael Bennett show, staged by members of the original creative team including director/choreographers Bob Avian (co-choreographer of the original production) and Baayork Lee (a member of the original cast, who has re-staged many productions of the show since), set designer Robin Wagner and the late costume designer Theoni V Aldredge.

The show also retains the legendary lighting design by pioneering lighting designer Tharon Musser, who passed away in 2009. For the 2006 Broadway revival and subsequent productions of A Chorus Line, her work was re-created and updated to current lighting technology by award-win

Italy - Visual design company Teslacoop has created the first life-size virtual 3D forest using wysiwyg R30.

The live simulation, originally conceived for a show by a prominent fashion label, was designed to be held within a circular theatre in Milan. The walls of the theatre, usually mirrored, were covered in a 50 by 6m screen, forming a 270-degree surface surrounding the audience and catwalk, onto which was projected a vast 3D video from five 20K Christie projectors driven by a CatalystPM media server and Compulite Vector Green console. The entire production was realised in wysiwyg, using the software's video manager to split the image into five portions, divided equally among the Christie projectors.

Luca Baraldo, president of Teslacoop explains, "If you normally use an image that is 1024 by 768 pixels, you can't project this onto a 50m by 6m screen, so my graphic desi

Australia - For the last 22 years Her Majesty's Theatre Ballarat has been working with an old mobile scissor lift to move stage sets and equipment from street level to stage level, a distance of 6.3m. Not only was it an arduous task to have to wheel it into position, it was becoming an OH&S concern.

"In order to load it you were reaching above waist level and we had no facility to attach it to trucks so it was very difficult to load from them," remarked Liz Mundell, technical operations manager. "There was always a gap between the lift and the back of the truck. Also if the winds got above 15 kilometres an hour we theoretically weren't supposed to use the lift - and in Ballarat that's a gentle breeze."

Other issues included the size of lift and the amount it could carry so council made funds available for a new lift and the project was put out to tender. Pr

UK - PRG's Scottie Sanderson and Mark O'Herlihy are supporting The Script with a comprehensive lighting, rigging and video package for their # 3 World Tour.

This is the second concert tour by the Irish alternative rock band, launched in support of their third studio album, # 3. Lighting designer Jamie Thompson has taken the album name and developed that symbolism within his design concept to create an innovative and striking experience.

The first thing that strikes you about Thompson's design are the three 'fingers' of truss, each clad with a strip of Nocturne V18 LED, 1m wide by 16m long, running from upstage to over the audience. Three complementary runs of V28 are set into the stage and look as though they are a continuous part of the Nocturne V18 main screen, and in turn the main screen appears to continue through the stage.

All the Nocturne LED has been mapped to

UK - Philips Entertainment Lighting has supplied Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club (CUADC) lighting designer Mitchell Clarke with a selection of Selecon PL3 Wash lights for the respected theatre company's ambitious production of Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida.

"I had recently used the Philips Selecon PLCyc fixtures on the Cambridge University European Theatre Group's (CUETG) production of The Merchant of Venice," explains Clarke "I really liked them. I was particularly impressed with the seamless and intense washes of colour they offered and which I used on the all-important cyclorama that transformed every venue on the tour. So successful was the show lighting that our theatre, the ADC, is now considering purchasing 12 PLCycs for its own stock."

Following his creatively liberating experience, Clarke says he was keen to get his hands

Germany - Prolight+Sound will see Philips Entertainment lighting's recently-launched brand, Showline, exhibit five of its powerful, already in demand, new luminaires designed specifically for the entertainment and touring market.

The vibrant range of luminaires can be found in Hall 11, Stand D73 and includes Philips Showline's 4-foot SL BAR 640 and 6-foot SL BAR 660 linear wash luminaires. Both deliver exceptional light output and can be used as a wash or as a direct-view linear bar.

Joining them will be the SL BAR 520 - a two-foot RGBW linear wash luminaire that produces over 8000 lumens of output with six standard 8° lenses. In addition high-resolution pixel mapping control and a unique locking system allows for quick connecting of multiple units both vertically and horizontally while retaining perfectly even pixel pitch.

Also on stand the SL PAR 150 ZOOM - an LED Par

UK - Fuerzabruta, the Argentine theatrical extravaganza was recently hosted at Camden's legendary arts venue, The Roundhouse. Directed by Diqui James and technical director Alejandro Garcia, Fuerzabruta, meaning "brute force" provided its visitors an immersive theatrical carnival experience.

This fast paced and interactive production required its audience not only to be nimble but standing as they transitioned from being spectators to becoming part of the show. The production presented the audience with iconic images such as a man running the wrong way on a treadmill to a women swimming for survival in a water pool directly above the audiences heads.

For this one month production, the Roundhouse Trust and the Fuerzabruta Company turned to technical events specialists Stage Electrics to supply and install a full event lighting and audio solution.

Stage Electr

South Africa - Durban-based rental company, Insane Sound and Lighting, have been in the limelight as they provide technical for some fantastic gigs over the last few months. They supplied technical for Skrillex as he played at the Wavehouse in Durban and also provided lighting for international DJs including Afrojack, Like Mike & Dimitri Vega, Steve Aioki and Gareth Emery. At the end of last year, Insane also worked on the famous New Years Eve Street Party with Pete Thong and local 5FM DJs Fresh, Euphonic and Gareth Cliff.

"We mainly relied on Clay Paky Sharpies and our new Robe MMXs when it came to beams and Robe LED 600 Washes for colour," said Vimal Rawjee of Insane. "All control was via an Avolites Tiger Touch and power via Avolites Power Cubes."

Rawjee has been impressed with the Robe MMXs. "It's an awesome fixture and especially with the air kit,

Serbia - Avolites' compact yet fully-featured moving light control system Titan Mobile has powered an inspired light show in Serbia to mark a year of celebrations marking 1700 years of the Edict of Milan.

Avolites' Serbian distributor Studio Berar Projekt, based in the city of Novi Sad, supplied the Titan Mobile for the opening ceremony, which featured a dynamic lighting design beamed onto the façade of the Serbia's National Theatre in the city of Nis.

Serbia will mark 17 centuries of the Edict - a document on tolerance and religious equality signed by Roman Emporer Constantine - over the course of the year with theatre performances, exhibits and concerts. The Opening Ceremony offered a reading of the Edict of Milan and a gala concert of spiritual music attended by Serbian President Tomislav Nikoli? and hosted by Russian Ambassador in Belgrade Alexander Chepurin.

"Avol

UK - Le Maitre is launching two new machines at this year's PLASA Focus: Leeds 2013.

Le Maitre's HazeMaster is their most advanced and powerful hazer yet. With its massive output capacity, high power variable fan and low power consumption, it really is a class act. Add to that the rugged construction and you have a true professional hazer engineered to withstand the rigours of the road when on tour.

Le Maitre have taken all their experience from HazeMaster's predecessors, the renowned Stadium Hazer and the MVS Hazer, and designed a completely new machine with a host of new features and benefits. Le Maitre's acquired knowledge and original investments have enabled them to produce a much more competitively priced unit, despite using higher quality, longer lasting parts.

The first thing that strikes you is the sleek modern design and robust steel casing, underneath which lies a

UK - The nominations for the Olivier Awards with MasterCard - the most prestigious event in the UK's theatrical calendar - have been announced, and The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time leads the list with eight nominations, followed by Top Hat receiving seven, and the West End transfer of Chichester Festival Theatre's revival of Sweeney Todd in close competition with six. Other stand-out nominations include The Audience and Kiss Me, Kate receiving five each, and Constellations, The Bodyguard and Twelfth Night with four.

In the design categories, the White Light Award for Best Lighting Design nominees are Paul Anderson for The Master And Margarita; Paule Constable for The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time; Lee Curran for Constellations and Mark Henderson for Sweeney Todd.

The B

Sweden - Chalmers University of Technology Students' Union in Gothenburg, Sweden has invested in 12 new Robe LEDBeam 100s to add to its existing stock of Robe moving light fixtures.

The university focuses on research and education in technology, natural science and architecture and has 12,000 students, all members of the Student Union (SU) which has a modern multi-purpose building on the main campus with several performance and event spaces.

The SU stages anything from huge dance parties with nine dancefloors four or five times a year to concerts, dance and comedy shows, exhibitions, trade fairs and conventions in a busy schedule keeping their lighting and sound equipment in use every week.

The equipment is also available for dry hire to various student groups organizing their own events, and so it's important that they have kit which is very flexible and robust.

The SU's

Germany - Visual Productions will be launching two new products at Prolight + Sound in Frankfurt this year, CueluxPro software lighting control and the B-Station, networked button interface. These two new products complement and enhance the current Visual Productions product line.

CueluxPro is an advanced and scalable software lighting control application. The software is designed to control medium to large lighting installations, for both architectural and live entertainment situations. CueluxPro works in combination with the CueCore and IoCore as its DMX and IO interfaces and with the new B-Station user-interface.

As with the popular Cuelux software, CueluxPro is cross-platform for Windows, Mac or UbuntunLinux, works with an industry-standard Cuelist system and is 100% touchscreen compatible.

CueluxPro is a scalable system. You can start by using a single CueCore and expan

Germany - Philips Vari-Lite is offering visitors to Prolight+Sound Frankfurt the opportunity to experience first -hand the creative potential of the extremely bright output of the new VL3015, VL3015LT and VL3515 luminaires.

Also on show will be the newly released software for the popular VLX Wash luminaire. This enables individual cell control of the seven powerful 120W RGBW LED light engines inside. Sparked by the success seen in the VLX3 Wash, the software update is applicable for all existing VLX fixtures and now gives lighting designers the creative freedom to deliver stunning multi-coloured effects with unique output capabilities, easily programmed from any lighting controller.

"Lighting designers really loved the individual LED cell control feature of the new VLX3 Wash and began asking for it to be available in the original VLX Wash," explains Brad Schiller, pr

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