UK - After the global success of their take on rhythm and physical theatre, Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas have taken the Stomp concept to a new level. Where Stomp creates rhythm with everyday objects, The Lost and Found Orchestra transforms everyday objects into a plethora of invented instruments. LFO recreates every section of a symphony orchestra, using musical saws, bottles, whirly toys and traffic cones.

PRG's Andrew Strachan worked alongside Jason Culverwell from Stomp Productions as production manager and Paul Emery, lighting designer to supply the lighting and rigging for the show in Paris from 21 January to 9 February.

Within Paul's lighting design he utilised Vari-Lites, Impression X4s & Pixelline with a traditional theatrical generic rig making up the back-bone of the design.

Ian Philips was PRG project manager with Mary Webb from PRG heading up the lighting

USA - Astera LED-Technology has announced that industry veteran, Lori Mehrkens, has joined their US sales team as the sales account manager for the East Coast. Lori comes to Astera USA with more than 25 years' experience specializing in and selling performance and architectural lighting and lamps. She brings a perspective to the sales division as her foundational experience was as a lighting designer in the live music industry of the 1980s.

Lori has worked for some of the leaders in the industry, including Barbizon Electric, where she headed the wholesale lamps division for 15 years. Lori commented on the announcement, "I am looking forward to joining the Astera team as we support our clients with enormous stock, literature and product knowledge. It will be great for our clients to have less time limitations when placing an order. Astera has consistently maintained only the

UK - Arranpaul, Blackpool and the Fylde's largest sales, dry hire and full production company, deployed its recently inflated Chauvet inventory to Blackpool's Christmas Ball, which this year returned to its rightful home at one of the UK's most iconic venues: the 3500-capacity Empress Ballroom in Blackpool's Winter Garden.

The lighting rig comprised six Chauvet Professional Legend 230SR Beams, four Q-Spot 460-LED, three Q-Wash 560-LED, 10 Chauvet DJ COLORband PiX battens, 16 PixPar 24 and two COLORdash Batten-Quad 6, with six Robe 600s and six Mac 250s. Deployed for a colourful haze injection were four Chauvet DJ Geyser RGB effect foggers.

Production manager, Tom Beattie, said, "We knew we could make the venue look fantastic with the Chauvet fixtures we had and we'd just bought some new units so it was an opportunity to use those to their full potential."

The Chris

USA - Inspired by the exterior illumination on Philadelphia's Mann Centre for the Performing Arts, a York, Pennsylvania resident recently pursued his own professional lighting solution to brighten his hilltop property. Walking into local lighting integrator Production Express, Inc. unannounced, this customer aimed to illuminate massive trees lining the driveway approaching his home with a professional solution. Martin Exterior 100 lighting fixtures were installed to meet the customer's high expectations.

"The customer wanted something that would last, and we needed a fixture that would provide high intensity and a long throw distance to cover each of the 80-foot trees on the property," stated Matt DeMascolo, lighting systems manager, Production Express. "Without hesitation, we brought the Martin lights to the location for a demo and the customer was immediately co

Germany - In March, Nexo will partner with PRG Europe to provide the PA and monitoring systems in a state-of-the-art production package for the LEA Awards, one of Germany's premier entertainment awards programmes. Visitors to the Festhalle over the duration of the Prolight+Sound expo (12-15 March) will have the opportunity to hear Nexo and Yamaha in concert; a 24-set STM Series modular line array at front-of-house and a 45°N-12 line monitor system on stage, networked over Dante with a full complement of Yamaha CL Series consoles.

Sponsored by PRG, the Live Entertainment Awards (PRG LEA) reward outstanding achievement in the entertainment industry in German-speaking countries. This year, some 1,300 guests, including many prominent celebrities, will gather in the Festhalle in Frankfurt to enjoy live performances and applaud the winners of the LEA trophies. The gala event also

Germany - Robe moving lights were once again specified by lighting designer Manuel da Costa for the most recent series of the popular TV singing contest, The Voice of Germany (VOG).

The series was recorded at Studio Berlin and produced jointly by a Dutch German collaboration between Taipa and Schwartzkopff TV. It was broadcast on Pro7 and Sat 1 channels where it was again a big hit with viewers.

Da Costa has lit all three editions of VOG to date, and once again he worked closely with set designer Florian Wieder of Wieder Design and Video Content Producer Falk Rosenthal to create an elegant visual environment.

All of them drew on their previous VOG experiences to produce a different aesthetic from the last series, and within that framework, to ensure that each of the artists would receive a diversity of visual treatments that ensured that they all looked different, and

UK - Free registration is now open for the PLASA Professional Development Programme, running alongside a sold-out PLASA Focus: Leeds 2014 on Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 April 2014, at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds.

The Professional Development Programme provides visitors to this popular trade event with free access to over twenty seminars and demonstrations delivered by some of the industry's leading experts, and provides an opportunity to learn new skills and have questions answered.

Kicking off on the Tuesday, a panel of representatives from the Association of Lighting Designers (ALD) will address how we talk about the artistic side of lighting design for live performance, what is meant by "good" or "outstanding" lighting design, and find ways to talk about this most ephemeral of art forms, in a discussion entitled And The Award For Best Lighting

USA - Chauvet Professional has elevated one of the industry's most popular classic effects - the strobe light -- to advanced levels of performance and functionality with its new LED-driven Strike strobe series. Combining the powerful output of SMD LEDs with rugged, roadworthy die-cast casing, the series features two models -- Strike 324 and Strike 882 - that are designed for touring and production applications.

Designed to fit a wide spectrum of rigs and venues, the Strike 324 is shaped like a low-profile par can and contains 324 white 1-watt SMD LEDs, while the Strike 882 is configured like a panel and equipped with 882 white 0.5-watt SMD LEDs. Thanks to the power and efficiency of their 6,400K LEDs, both models produce incredible brightness while consuming significantly less energy than conventional strobe lights of comparable output, offering the ability to run on standard vo

USA - Appealing to large-scale event and production professionals, Paul Braile, BlackTrax expert at CAST BlackTrax Ltd and Michael Wells, executive director of operations at Trinity Fellowship Church, Texas will present the Lights. Camera. Tracking! seminar at PLASA Focus: Nashville 2014 at room Mezzanine 27 at The Nashville Municipal Auditorium, TN from 12:00 to 13:00 on Tuesday, 18 and Wednesday, 19 February.

Trinity Fellowship Church in Amarillo, Texas utilized BlackTrax motion tracking system in its 3,750 seat auditorium integrated with live performers, lighting, sound, multi-media and video for its 2013 Christmas Program and beyond.

"Visitors will walk away from the seminar with an in-depth understanding of how our production has deployed BlackTrax bringing significant ROI as well as lighting, logistical and creative benefits," explained Michael Wells, ex

Europe - Le Maitre is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its renowned G300 Smoke Machine - an industry standard around the globe which has been widely adopted by theme parks, theatres, cruise ships and the emergency services for breathing apparatus training.

The G300 was Le Maitre's second generation high powered smoke machine, following on from the Smoke Processor 3 series, and at the time of its launch was commented on by competitors as setting the standard by which all other machines would be judged. Le Maitre's goal at the time was quite simply to make a machine that was better than anything else on the market. This has clearly proved to be the case with sales still going strong and many of the unique features still not being able to be emulated by other manufacturers.

Le Maitre came up with and patented its 'Layered Block System' called Genesis - hence the 'G' of G300. T

South Africa - When 4U Rage Festival hits KwaZulu Natal at the end of each year, an event aimed at students who have finally completed school, its party, party, party for the next two and a half weeks. If you have young children of your own, there's still time to save up and entice them to go on a family holiday to Europe instead.... now that's a mother's thinking for you! If not, it's likely they will be asking to go to Balito, where an estimated 80 000 kids visited the area in December 2013.

The festival provides students with access card to various venues and clubs, all kitted out with top sound and lighting, and entertainment by great artists. While daytime is usually reserved for beach volleyball, soccer, surfing and tanning, this year saw revellers in gumboots and rain would not stop the fun!

Hirezone supplied the technical for the main dance floor at the Sound Factory i

USA - The world of Gospel music convened in Nashville under the illumination of Bandit Lites' gear for the 29th Annual Stellar Awards, the premier Gospel event that recognizes and honours African American artists. Daytime Emmy Award-winner Sherri Shepherd and Ricky Smiley hosted the event at the Metro Nashville Municipal Auditorium on 18 January.

With the awards being broadcasted to millions on the UP Network, lighting designer Mark Carver created a look for the show that would translate well both on television and for the live audience, in addition to relaying the emotion of the performing artists.

"Gospel Music has a very emotional and spiritual quality," Carver explained. "The lighting needs to try to help convey this emotion and engage both artist and audience."

In order to accomplish such a seamless, expressive design, Carver turned to Bandit who pro

UK - Monthly magazine 'The Fly' celebrated their 15th birthday last week by hosting their first Awards ceremony at the Kentish Town Forum. Started back in 1997 by the team behind The Barfly, Camden - the Awards nights celebrates the best innovators, risk takers and true originals of modern music.

Sponsored by its official partners XFM, the night was hosted by Keith Murray and Chris Cain from band We Are Scientists. It included performances from acts such as Bombay Bicycle Club and Wild Beasts.

Richard Martin Lighting (RML) were approached by LD Matt Button and HDO Productions to provide lights for The Horrors performance. Closing the show, they wanted to do something extra special in support of their accolade for 'Outstanding Artistry' which was presented to them that night.

Matt chose Sharpys and strobes to create maximum effect. This look was in keeping with their festival

Italy - Lighting and show designer Francesco de Cave has a penchant for sculpting fluid, imaginative and stylish shows and this very much underpins his lighting and visual design for the current Greatest Hits world tour by singer and international superstar Laura Pausini which is no exception.

The tour has just completed its latest European leg, and Francesco included 50 x Robe Robin LEDWash 300 moving lights as a core element of the lighting rig.

Grammy award winning multi-lingual Pausini is one of the most successful Italian artists of all time and has sold over 70m albums worldwide.

Francesco is one of Italy's best known and most prolific designers in the live and concert touring sectors and for music-based television shows. His lighting career started aged 14 and has continued on a massive upward trajectory. Lighting is something that he's absolutely passionate ab

UK - The Guardian reported in early 2014 that Doncaster's new 'cultural living room' was a bustling, buzzing success story. Funded for the most part by Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council this £22m theatre and arts centre was recently held up by The Stage as ' a triumph of municipal good sense' .

Opened in September 2013, Cast replaces the town's old Civic Theatre, which closed in March 2013, with a 620 seat main space, adaptable smaller second space and further dance, drama and meeting spaces. The development of the theatre is part of a wider £300m scheme to regenerate the urban centre of Doncaster and if the early evidence of its popularity is anything to go by, it stands every chance of vindicating the Authority's bold move to pursue such a project in tough economic times.

Cast's vision was to play host to the widest possible remit of the arts.

USA - Viewers of the 56th Annual Grammy Awards got to see glittering recording stars, plus one of the most remarkable TV commercials in memory, both accompanied by some dazzling light from the Nexus 4x4. Aside from sizzling on the main stage during the award ceremonies with the likes of Beyoncé and Jay-Z, the high output LED panel from Chauvet Professional shined brightly during the Pepsi Grammy Half Time Show, a two-and-a-half minute commercial that may have rewritten the book on big event TV advertising.

Filmed at the LA Sports Arena, the commercial featured pro football legends Terry Bradshaw, Mike Ditka, Deion Sanders and Shannon Sharpe. The tongue-in-cheek spot was based on the simple premise that since music stars entertain fans during football game halftime shows, it's only right that football stars return the favour by entertaining the TV audience during th

UK - Manchester based lighting and rigging specialist dbn has designed, supplied and installed a highly effective production lighting rig for the Albert Hall in Manchester - a new 2000 capacity venue in a former Methodist meeting hall dating back to 1910 in the heart of the city.

The space - original features including double height windows with stained glass detail and a magnificent organ fully renovated with pipes left exposed - has been lovingly restored to its former splendour and opened as Manchester's live music and event space by independent owners Trof.

Trof have a penchant for discovering found spaces and turning them into buzzing entertainment hubs, and the Albert Hall is no exception as it gears up for full operation with promoters and private clients clamouring to book it for bands, comedy and cabaret shows, club nights, parties and corporate events.

dbn's Stephe

Estonia - Swedish lighting designer Palle Palmé returned to the Big House at the Vanemuine Theatre in Tartu, Estonia - one of the country's most important producing and receiving houses - to light their current production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit musical Evita which plays until May and is directed by Georg Malvius.

Last year, Palmé was the first person to take full advantage of the new in-house Robe lighting rigs that were installed across all three of Vanemuine's venues, when he lit a very successful production of Grease, also in the Big House.

This year with Evita, he again utilized Robe's products to upgrade and revitalize the production's lighting which was originally staged in Turku, Finland in 2008.

The Big House lighting system includes over 100 Robe moving lights including 56 x Robin LEDWash 1200s, 20 x Robin MMX Spots, 24 x Rob

Shipping Bulletin - Sting's musical about shipbuilding in the North East of England has found a home on Broadway. The Last Ship, which is inspired by the singer's own childhood, will open at the Neil Simon Theatre on 30 September. The cast will include New York stage star Michael Esper and Irish singer and actress Rachel Tucker. It will also star fellow North East star Jimmy Nail, who Sting has previously said "gave me the courage to carry on" with the project. "He said 'this is very important, you have to do this, this story needs to be told,'" the musician told BBC News.

Sting has already released an album called The Last Ship, with music that will feature in the show. The musical will be directed by Joe Mantello, who has won two Tony Awards, for musical Assassins and stage play Take Me Out.

Welsh Boost - Film com

Brazil - When Brazilian Latin Grammy Award-winner Ivete Sangalo recently celebrated her 20th anniversary in the business, she did so by recording a DVD called IS20. This took place at the large Arena Fonte Nova stadium in Brazil's first capital of Salvador, which with its capacity of 52,048 will also be hosting some of the FIFA World Cup matches later this year.

Spectrun Design e Iluminacao was in charge of the design concept and execution, and to fulfil the task of illuminating the grand stadium, they selected a large-scale package of SGM lighting equipment, including 200 X-5 white LED strobes, 66 P-5 RGB wash lights, 40 SixPack blinders and 24 Giotto Synthesis 700 Wash.

Accommodating Ms Sangalo's audience of 40,000 people, while at the same time illuminating the stadium, was the challenge facing Marcos Olivio from Spectrun Design e Iluminacao when developing his desig

UK - MilTec (UK) Ltd recently began production of their new Mini-Map miniature LED screen. The Mini-Map is just 155mm square and has 36 tricolour pixels, controlled via DMX512. Manufactured at MilTec's HQ in Kent, England, each tile has been designed to be deployed quickly and efficiently with Powercon and XLR5 inputs & outputs. A central M10 mounting point provides a wide range of rigging options when combined with Miltec's custom mounting bracket.

The first batch was purchased by Light Fantastic Production Services Ltd, based in London. Rob Myer, managing director of Light Fantastic commented, "The Mini-Maps are so versatile and compact, the applications are endless. They're perfect for building into stage fascias & set pieces as well as using as eye candy on stage or around a room. They're also great to use in large numbers as a low res video display - The viewer's brain

Germany - Ayrton continues to focus on the development of fixtures that provide lighting designers with powerful and exciting new tools, creating products that expand the possibilities of Light in Action.

Prolight + Sound 2014 will prove no exception as Ayrton chooses the show as a forum to launch three new products. The first of these products is NandoBeam S6 which will be on show on the Ayrton stand, Hall 9.0, Booth E70.

Twice as powerful as its little brother, NandoBeam S3, Ayrton NandoBeam S6 is a very compact, ultra-fast moving head. Equipped with 37 RGBW LED emitters, NandoBeam S6 shares the S3's same lightweight optical system and ultra-fast 5:1 zoom.

Designed primarily for use on concert stages and in television production, NandoBeam S6 exhibits quick, dynamic movement along with Ayrton's fabulous saturated colour palette and a powerful 8° to 40° beam spread.

USA - Robert Juliat Tibo 533 75w LED Profile lighting fixtures have been installed in a new newsroom at KTMD-TV by project lighting designer/director Bruce Aleksander. KTMD-TV is the Telemundo owned-and-operated station serving Houston.

Aleksander did a complete digital solid-state lighting installation for a new studio layout he designed that's dedicated to news programming. "Everything was predicated on energy-efficient lighting from the start," he explains. "Since it was new, we were able to build out the studio without the traditional heavy support for cooling down the lights and the full dimming load normally necessary for an incandescent approach. We used all fluorescent and LED lighting."

Aleksander evaluated a number of fixtures then concluded that "for hard-edge, profile fixtures, the best bang for the buck came from the Robert Juliat Tibos.&q

Germany - ETC is offering lighting designers, operators and students the chance to win a Nomad controller at this year's ProLight+Sound show, 12-15 March in Frankfurt.

The Nomad dongle gives you access to the powerful features of ETC's lighting control consoles on your computer, so you can take it with you anywhere. You can program and play back your show at the computer, or use it as a backup to any of ETC's lighting desks.

To enter, simply go to the ETC website at www.etcconnect.com/Prolight2014 and register; entrants can choose one of four one-minute music tracks. The site charges a small fee - less than 1€ or £1 - to download a song, but it is free to listen to, with no obligation to purchase. Using the free (Windows-only) visualisation software on the ETC website, you can simply program a one minute light show to go with the music.

Everyone who enters will get a

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