USA - Elation Professional recently challenged students and young lighting designers in the US to create a stage or club lighting design using its Capture Polar design software. Winners of the "Designing Vision Contest" were announced on December 20th with Patrick Boozer awarded the top prize, an Elation-sponsored trip for two to InfoComm 2014 in Las Vegas plus Capture Polar Extended Software (a $4,000 value).

Second place went to Mike Berger, who won Capture Polar Basic Software, with third place going to Joason Tollefson, who takes home a Capture Polar Solo Software package. Contest entries were judged on originality, aesthetics and functionality of design.

"We were very excited to offer students and young designers this opportunity and were very impressed with the detail and imagination that went into all the designs submitted," stated Elation sales dire

The Netherlands - Marc Kocks has taken up the position of director at Sales-All in Bemmel, the Netherlands. Kocks, who previously spent over 20 years with the Ampco Flashlight group's sales companies, where he was managing director of TM Audio and Lightco, will be responsible driving Sales-All forward, as well as business development for Sales-All and Fairlight.

His initial goals are to open new markets, expand Sales-All's presence in the Benelux region, its product portfolio, set up an international network for second-hand sales and establish a European working network for private label products, such as CLF. He will also focus on the design, supply and installation of systems.

"I am looking forward to working with this professional team to expand sales at both Sales-All and Fairlight," says Kocks. "The well-structured and very healthy financial position of the

Singapore - Fashion TV venues are hyped all over the planet with Singapore recently celebrating the opening of the first Fashion TV Club in late October. German company auxweg.com designed the club and technically equipped it with a state-of-the-art sound and lighting package from ADJ Group that includes Elation Professional lighting fixtures and LED video panels.

The global fashion network teamed with investors from the US and Germany and placed the chic night spot in Clarke Quay at the heart of Singapore nightlife. A complete renovation of a previous club, Elation Platinum Beam 5R Extreme moving heads, Rayzor Q12 LED lights, Platinum Spot LED Pro IIs, Design Wash LED Zooms and EPV6 LED panels feature prominently in the club's two main rooms.

Auxweg.com was involved every step of the way from market analysis and concept development to opening and operation. Working on a tight

Austria - Elation Professional EU has announced the hiring of Karl Lager as the company's new sales representative for Austria. Karl, who starts in the new position this month, is tasked with using his extensive industry knowledge and customer network to build a strong Elation dealership structure in Austria.

Karl comes to Elation from industry trading company Licht-Lager, which he founded along with two partners in 2003. Born into a theatrical family that worked in Vienna's Burgtheater, the Austrian National Theatre, where he gathered a wealth of technical and sales knowledge, his years of experience working with lighting companies gives him a unique insight into the Austrian market and its key players.

Marc Librecht, sales & marketing manager at Elation Europe, commented on the hiring, "We are very happy to have Karl join the Elation team in Europe and are confident his

USA - Bandit Lites recently wrapped up another Warren Hayne's Xmas Jam with a two day event that kicked off 13 December and featured performances from Gregg Allman, Widespread Panic, Michael Franti, OAR, Gov't Mule, and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.

Preston Hoffman, who has designed the lighting for the event for three years now, was tasked by producer Joe Dindas to create something spectacular for the 25th anniversary.

"The idea behind the show was to do something that we had never done and that would push the show over the top," explained Hoffman. "This is always a tricky subject because every dollar I spend for this show is one less dollar that goes to Habitat for Humanity, so I tend to want to simplify and get the best bang for my buck."

While the US Cellular Centre has what Hoffman refers to as "special eccentricities" (in regards to the

USA - The internationally acclaimed Life In Color tour is aptly named. Aside from featuring some of the biggest stars in dance music like Calvin Harris, R3hab and Steve Aoki, the multi-city EDM tour, which bills itself as "the world's largest paint party" is a freewheeling festival of sights and colours with lavish spray painting of audience members, zip lines, carnival rides, dancing robots and, of course, an intensely bright, colourful and unforgettable lightshow.

The MVP 18 LED video wall panel from Chauvet Professional has been an "indispensable" part of this lightshow throughout the Life In Color Rebirth Tour, according to designer Collyns Stenzel, who has been the Life in Color lighting director since 2010.

This impact of the MVP 18 panels was very much in evidence during the tour's final 2013 stop at a jam-packed Sun Life Stadium in Miami at the end

Australia - The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) in Canberra has launched their new Theatrette located in the NFSA's heritage-listed art deco building. The refurbishment included a larger stage, new seating design and new audiovisual technology. The 114 seat Theatrette is an intimate option for screenings, live performances, conferences, lectures, and break-out sessions. It will also allow the NFSA to stream HD content to any venue in the world.

Fredon was called upon to install a performance lighting system the rigging of which was a major challenge. However Allan Wade, Fredon's ACT manager for Audio Visual Solutions, describes the result as "absolutely spectacular".

"The fact that we got it looking so good in such a challenging ceiling space is a work of art in itself," he added. "Issues with the room meant it would be very difficu

Spain - Hoy No Me Puedo Levantar (HNMPL - Today I Can't Get Up) is a hugely successful Spanish 'jukebox musical' from Drive Productions telling the story of two struggling young musicians surviving in Madrid against a backdrop of drugs, AIDS and other social phenomena and chaos in the 1980s and immediate aftermath of Franco's collapsed fascist regime.

Based on the music of 32 hits by Spanish supergroup Mecano, this new second version of HNMPL has just opened in Madrid's Coliseum Theatre, complete with a lighting design by Carlos Torrijos - featuring among others - 24 Robe Pointes.

This is the first time Torrijos has incorporated Robe products into his work. He states, "I was looking for the best moving head beam light on the market ... and after trying and comparing a few options .. I chose the Pointe."

He explains that the first edition of the production pl

USA - Elation Professional has launched the Volt Q3 and Volt Q5 - two versatile RGBW LED washlights that run on a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. Their go-anywhere portability, combined with an in-built DMX receiver and all-weather IP65 housing, means the Volt Q3 and Q5 can be used for a large variety of indoor or outdoor applications, say Elation.

Battery life is 8-12 hours between charges, and the units are compact, at only 11 inches high (approx. 28cm. Three (Volt Q3) and five (Volt Q5) 100,000-hour, 15W, quad-color LEDs provide full color mixing capability. Field angle range is 7-13° and snap-on diffusion filters allow the user to soften and spread the light when needed. A rainbow effect and auto-programmed chase effects provide added dynamic capability while a variety of other effects are possible via 0-100% dimming, a variable strobe and more.

Both Volt washlights

Denmark - A new concept and tradition has been born in Denmark: a light festival in the city of Kolding. With the purpose of presenting a new and different experience for the city, local business people pooled together to add culture, beauty and technology to the public domain.

Project manager from Get Visual, Jacob Elsig, delivered lighting installations to many of the graphic and innovative projects and participated in the creation of the urban attraction together with the festival's coordinator and his lighting designer, Christian Vigs°. With the environment in mind, a key factor for the festival was to utilise light sources based on LED technology.

"It seemed natural to contact SGM in relation to this festival," says Elsig who was involved in The Spanish Steps, The Train Station Square's installation named The Spider, Hotel Saksildhus and other smaller one-da

UK - ETC's SineWave dimmers have helped bring silence to the new production of Henry V at London's Noël Coward Theatre - stripping out the filament noise from the eight DHA Digital Light Curtains that formed a core part of lighting designer Neil Austin's rig for the show.

"I've been using the DHA Light Curtains for a long time," comments lighting programmer Rob Halliday, "and while we've always been aware of the noise they make - a combination of the filament ring from six Par56 lamps and the buzz of the transformer driving them - it's never really been an issue before, perhaps because we've often used them on loud musicals, or perhaps because they were hidden behind masking. But on this show, with an exposed rig, a hard, curved back wall that seemed to throw even the slightest sound straight out into the audience, and a director and lighting designer dete

Canada - Justin Timberlake kicked off his 20/20 Experience World Tour in Montreal and Clay Paky Sharpys and Sharpy Washes were out in force. Solotech provided the lighting equipment.

True to its name, the tour is "an experience rather than a show," says lighting director Nick Whitehouse. "It's very visual with lots of projection and lighting and a lot of new technology. We got pretty creative with everything and had fun putting it all together."

The tour is in support of Timberlake's third studio album, which has a sophisticated vibe. The singer will play dates in North America, Europe, Australia and South America.

"We did seven weeks of rehearsals," Whitehouse reports. "The gear really got a work out - 20 hours a day." On the tour "the whole rig is hidden behind a scenic back wall and ceiling. We have 80 Sharpys and 130 Sh

Belgium / China - XL Video has announced an investment of more than 15m US dollars in a range of new LED products and accessories to support its plans for growth in 2014.

The LED investment has been made with a range of suppliers including Shenzhen-based Unilumin Group Co and its subsidiary Radiant Opto-Elec Technology Co Ltd to purchase a series of LED products based on the latest technologies. In total more than 1200 m2 of LED products for the XL Video rental business will become available from February onwards.

The LED investment covers amongst others: State of the art 2.5mm high contrast LED; Super lightweight 3.9mm Utile LED; 18mm Magic Cube outdoor and indoor LED; 7mm blackface Magic Cube outdoor and indoor LED - the first of its kind in this segment; The latest innovation of 18mm Hybrid LED which combines LED screen with LED spotlights in the same panel. This invention

Finland - One of the most dynamic startup ecosystems on the planet, Slush, took place on 13-14 November, 2013 at the Cable Factory in Helsinki, Finland. Slush is the leading startup conference in Northern Europe and Russia. LumenRadio's Finnish distributor Sun Effects was responsible for the whole visual design and supplied the wireless CRMX Slim products, which played a key role for the two-day event.

"Slush was a really prestigious project for us and there was no room for any mistakes. When you do projects like this, it is extremely important to consider what kind of equipment you're planning to use and how to use them. Sun Effects has a reputation in Finland to only deliver high quality equipment that works, even in the most demanding environment," says, Riku Sourama from Sun Effects.

Slush is a nonprofit, two-day technology and startup event where the most promis

South Africa - Magnetic Storm is a technical solutions provider and rental company based in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The company has been running successfully for 33 years servicing a wide range of high quality corporate clients and live events, and is the oldest established and also the largest such operation in the Eastern Cape region.

Magnetic Storm originally invested in Robe moving lights - the 575 series - some years ago, which have proved reliable and solid for many years done dealing with Magnetic Storm's busy schedule of events.

When the time came to upgrade with the latest technology, they decided to go with LED and purchased four Robe DLS Profiles and four DLX Spots from Robe's South African distributor, DWR.

LED was chosen because it's good value, longer lamp life, lower ongoing maintenance and expedient power consumption made good sense economically and env

USA - ARRI CSC, the largest full service equipment rental group in the United States, has announced that Chris MacKarell has been promoted to digital workflow manager. He will continue to oversee ARRI CSC's digital workflow and on set activities for New Jersey and Florida facilities while at the same time contributing to ARRI Rental Group product development and Technical Marketing.

MacKarell's extensive experience in digital media spans 15 years in the post sector. Starting out as manager Mmedia illusion support for Avid Technology Inc. he then worked for NBC Peacock Productions. In 2010 he joined Deluxe where he managed special projects, rolled out infrastructure improvements and new workflow designs. As senior engineer/ workflow architect for Technicolor he then designed, tested and implemented project-specific workflows. Chris MacKarell joined ARRI CSC in 2011 as digital wor

Germany - Robe moving lights were right at the heart of the lighting action on the main stage in front of Berlin's historic Brandenburg Gate, one of the largest public New Year's Eve celebrations worldwide.

Robe Pointes were also used to illuminate elements of the 'Fan Mile' covering five major roads in and around the event site as part of a lighting design by Lars Murasch, and were supplied together with other lighting equipment for the event by rental company TLT Event AG.

The show's glittering international artist line up included the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, The Overtones, Scooter, Adel Tawil and TVOG winners from 2012 and 2013 Ivy Quainoo and Nick Howard respectively plus many others. It was attended by nearly one million revellers and watched live by over 4m on Germany's national ZDF TV channel, culminating in a spectacular fireworks display to welcome in 2014.

Twenty

USA - Now in its fifth season, The Voice on NBC has become one of the most watched reality talent competitions worldwide. Throughout the run of the production which features three stages of competition concluding with live performances, the pressure placed on the competitors to showcase their talents is rivalled only by the pressure placed on the crew to make sure the show is both technically sound yet exciting to watch.

Behind the scenes, lighting designer Oscar Dominguez and his lighting crew have accomplished all this winning the 2013 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for Variety Series using a rig that relies heavily on VL3015LT Spot, VL3515 Spot, VLX Wash, VL3500 Wash, VL3000 Spot and VL550 Wash luminaires all supplied by Illumination Dynamics.

"For me, the Vari-Lite luminaires are the backbone to this lighting rig,"

UK - Colour Sound are deploying the the new Robe CycFX 8 fixtures that they purchased off the stand at PLASA London 2013 on the current White Lies Big TV tour with lighting & visuals designer Matt Waterfield.

Colour Sound is supplying all lighting and LED screen for the tour where Waterfield is working closely with laser designer and camera mixer Matt Buttons to produce a spectacular visuality for the tour which has helped win them sand the band plenty of rave reviews!.

Waterfield wanted to introduce some architecture into the design and also have the flexibility of the rig being as floor based as possible, so he started with five upstage trussing towers, which Colour Sound designed and had specially fabricated by James Thomas Engineering.

These measure 1.2 by 1.2m wide / deep and are 3.6m high in full-height mode, but designed to break down into two sections at 1.2 a

USA - London-based event design and production specialist Eclipse Presentations designed, produced, specified and co-ordinated all the technical production elements - lighting, video - including creation of all content, audio, staging, rigging, etc. - for the 14th annual Platt's Global Energy Awards in New York.

The high profile event, considered the 'Oscars of the energy industry' and presented by CNBC news anchor Amanda Drury, recognises and honours excellence in leadership, innovation and performance in the highly competitive world of energy. It was staged in the famous Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, one of the city's landmark venues, and attended by top international executives from the leading energy companies worldwide.

A production team of four from Eclipse Presentations was led by Robin Purslow who says, "We have worked on this event for the last 14

Australia - Clay Paky Sharpys and Sharpys Washes have formed an integral part of a spectacular projection, lighting, and fireworks event in Sydney harbour to celebrate 100 years of the Royal Australian Navy.

Pioneering creative agency Imagination Australia created an impressive show, lighting up a fleet of naval ships and Sydney harbour landmarks, which was watched by millions of people, both in the city and around the world. Imagination Australia designed and produced every element of the most complex, highly choreographed, fireworks, projection, lighting and live action show ever seen in Australia.

Lighting designer Mark Hammer specified 132 Clay Paky Sharpy and 108 Sharpy Wash 330s, which he positioned around the harbour and on the ships themselves. Hammer combined and blended the light from these various sources to create depth filled texture and rich colour despite the gu

USA - Atlanta's Full Circle Lighting & Productions has invested in 24 Clay Paky Sharpy Wash lights for its inventory.

Full Circle is a full-service theatrical lighting and production company serving corporate and association meetings, trade shows, product launches, press conferences and TV and video shoots with a staff of experienced professionals from the theatre and film industries.

"We knew after we got our Sharpy beams that the Sharpy Wash would be equally amazing," says Noah Hammer, president and senior designer at Full Circle. "We love their colour saturation, size and incredible brightness. We also love the zoom and fantastic colour correction capabilities."

Hammer says the company has used Sharpy Wash fixtures on "a lot" of corporate events and on the new comedy TV series, Stand Up for Family. "Our clients love them," he

USA - With artists like Matthew West, Big Daddy Weave, Jeremy Camp and Natalie Grant on stage, the Impact New Year's Eve concert at Lipscomb University's Allen Arena in Nashville featured some of the biggest names in Christian music.

Broadcast online to churches and youth centres around the world, the five-hour celebration of music and entertainment also represented what many are calling the largest faith-based global gathering ever assembled in one evening.

Such an event required a powerful lighting statement, which is why LD Mark Carver of Mark Carver Designs in Nashville selected 28 Legend 230SR Beams from Chauvet Professional for his Impact New Year's Eve rig.

"We chose the Legend fixtures because we knew that their hard sharp beams would help us create the right energy level for the audience at the arena and the millions viewing the broadcast of this event," h

Israel - Rising Star's ratings tell a clear success story: The show debuted to a 38 percent of market share in primetime on Israel's Channel 2 network. The concept of Rising Star is broadly similar to Idols, The Voice or X Factor: A group of unknown artists compete to be the 'best' singer. The twist comes in the voting. Instead of call-in votes that are tallied over the course of a show with a winner announced at the end, audiences for Rising Star vote live on the air during a singer's performance, and their decisions play out in real time for the audience and the performer to see.

For lighting and video control, lighting designer and operator Ronen Najar relied on an MA System, consisting of one grandMA2 full-size, one grandMA2 light, one MA onPC command wing, one MA NPU (Network Processing Unit) and one MA NSP (Network Signal Processor

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