UK - Nick Gray of London-based creative lighting and visual design practice Renegade produced a raw and uncompromising lighting installation in the Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern art gallery in London for brand and live communications agency Mission, who were celebrating their tenth anniversary with a special event.

The Tate Modern - formally Bankside Power Station - is among Gray's favourite spaces to light in the city. He has also worked on several events and projects for Mission and is familiar with the scope and style of their work which give him plenty of ideas about the right ambience to create in.

"I love highlighting the room's imposing industrial architecture - 152m long and 35m high - and bringing it into a new dimension and context using the full height and scale. Most visitors don't immediately notice a lot of the detail, so lighting the space is a big chance

UK - "There's only so much you can say about any one light," began AJ Pen who is running the One Republic lightshow; he then talked non-stop for 10 minutes. The focus of his attention is the new B-EYE from Clay Paky.

The show's designer, Chris Lisle had been alerted to the new light last year, "I had seen a couple of YouTube links of the B-EYE prior to going to LDI last year." He said. "I knew right away that it would be a great fixture to use on One Republic. After seeing it in person, that feeling was confirmed. I had started to get the ball rolling with Dave Ridgway of Neg Earth as soon as I had seen the videos. He asked that I speak to Philip Norfolk from Ambersphere who represents Clay Paky in the UK market: Philip would be at LDI."

"Chris really wanted to try them out," explained Norfolk, "and when he told me One Republic woul

UK - UK - Lighting designer, Matt Veitch has specified Chroma-Q Color Force 48 LED battens to provide vivid cyclorama lighting for colourful live comedy show, Grumpy Old Women Live: Fifty Shades of Beige.

Back by popular demand, Perrier Award-winning comedian, writer and original star of Grumpy Old Women, Jenny Eclair is joined by fellow recruits Susie Blake and Kate Robbins in a new theatrical production based on the hit BBC British TV show.

Matt has been providing the raucous live show's lighting since 2007.

"The lighting had to recreate a number of contrasting scenic environments - from the initial sunny garden, to a torture chamber, a Saturday night TV Strictly Come Dancing-like show studio, a wine bar, and a tea shop, amongst others," explains Matt. "With only one full set, all these environments had to be created with lighting and th

UK - Rock band Heaven's Basement has a reputation as one of the best live acts around. With a heavy touring schedule that saw them play 172 shows across Europe and the U.S. in 2013, and a debut single that reached #11 on the U.S. rock charts, 2014 has all the makings of a break out year.

The band embarked on a seven-week headline tour of Europe in mid-March with lighting designer Trevor Fairclough turning to Elation's Platinum Beam 5R Extreme for the punchy output and speed needed to keep up with the hard driving band.

"Having a speedy pan and tilt really helps with the tempo of the band. Being able to run a tilt effect at 200bpm with no compromises in size really gets the crowd pumping," commented LD Trevor Fairclough, who also handles programming and lighting operation for the band.

The Platinum Beam 5R Extreme houses speedy three-phase motors for quick effect ch

Russia - World-renowned lighting designer Durham Marenghi has used a selection of Clay Paky products, including the new A.leda B-Eye K10 and Sharpy Washes, to deliver a truly spectacular lighting design for the opening and closing ceremonies of Sochi's 2014 Winter Paralympics.

With a stadium audience of over 40,000, plus tens of millions of viewers tuning in worldwide, the Winter Olympics has been a much-anticipated event. Marenghi used a lighting rig originally specified by lighting designer Al Gurdon for the Winter Olympics Opening and Closing Ceremonies, to create a spectacular new design for the Paralympics Ceremonies.

"I was tasked with enhancing the artistic elements of the ceremonies of the Winter Paralympic Games with a lighting design that would thrill both the live audience in the massive Fisht Stadium and at the same time satisfy the TV companies broadcasting t

Spain - Martin Professional has named Barcelona-based Earpro as the exclusive distributor of Martin products in Spain. As a member of Harman's distributor network since 1988, Earpo will expand the sales and distribution of Martin Professional lighting solutions in the Spanish market.

Commenting on the appointment, Miguel Mezquita, managing director, Earpro, stated, "The new cooperation between Martin Professional and Earpro further reinforces the close relationship and commitment that Earpro has had with Harman for more than 25 years. This agreement will undoubtedly benefit the interests of customers and users throughout the Spanish market. With this new setup, they will have access to the most comprehensive offering of AV solutions across the professional sector."

"Within the past three years, our people have done an amazing job reaffirming Martin Professional'

South Africa - Quite literally MGG Productions have done it again. Thanks to the success of a sci-fi concept they came up for a corporate conference held last year, MGG were asked by their client Eventworx to recreate the entire look for the same event hosted in January 2014.

MGG's newly appointed general manager, Denzil Smith, who joined the company in December, took the production to a new level. With a team of professionals at his side including lighting designer from MGG, Kevin Rieck, and the assistance of system technician, Thomas Peters, the event was technically flawless.

This was no mean feat as the event, which ran off a grandMA2 full size, included close to 150 Robe fixtures, 48 ClayPaky Sharpies (forty more Sharpies than last year) and some 400m of Prolyte Trussing besides a list of other fixtures.

"It ran so well," said a clearly pleased Denzil Smith. H

UK - BBC Daytime Glasgow recently commissioned a new quiz-show pilot to be trialled for BBC Network. The new pilot featured a number of word-based challenges and various other challenges was presented by British Bakeoff's host Sue Perkins.

UK production group Boom Pictures, who recently acquired production powerhouse Twofour Group, produced the show. Lorraine Heggessey, who worked closely on the show, is the executive chair of Boom Pictures Group(The former BBC1 channel controller, and CEO of Talkback Thames).

BBC daytime commissioner Jo Street ordered the non-transmittable pilot, which was recorded in front of a live audience at Studio 1 at The BBC Wales Television Centre in Cardiff, with a view to take the series to Manchester's new MediaCity, should the show be taken forward to series.

The appointed lighting director to the project was Steff Jones, who worked close

South Africa - Keystone Production's Christopher Bolton made 12 Clay Paky B-Eye fixtures the lighting showpiece for the 2nd Annual SA Premier Business Awards hosted at the Sandton Convention Centre on 19 March. Bolton took on the role of production director for the event and was also responsible for the set, AV and lighting design.

Special care was taken to make the SA Premier Business Awards a prominent occasion. "Peter Whale from Outlaw Events, our main client, contracted CAP events to take care of all the artists and entertainment," commented Bolton. The content mostly consisted of collaborations between Lloyd Cele (Idols fame) and The Soweto Gospel Choir.

Outlaw contracted Jonathan Le Roux from Keystone Productions to manage all the production requirements. MGG were nominated as the preferred technical supplier. "As always, we received awesome support from M

Kazakhstan / Serbia - Lighting designers Dmitriy Karabetskiy and Viktor Trifu both specified Avolites consoles for their individual designs for Kazakh and Serbian X-Factors.

For the Serbian series X-Factor Adria Trifu and his partner Arsa Zlatkovic opted for the intuitive feature set of the Avolites Expert Pro to manage the show's vast amount of pre-programming. Whilst over in Khazakstan lighting designer Karabetskiy, a seasoned Avolites user, chose the Avolites Titan Mobile desk with Titan software.

"X-Factor Khazakstan is now in its fourth series and to celebrate this we wanted the show to be a 'spectacular'," explains Karabetskiy. "In terms of technology this has meant that the show is huge. I am using over 300 fixtures, 111 of which are moving heads."

Karabetskiy's lighting design is fast-paced and theatrical with each performer's

UK - UK based drapes, starcloth, LED and visual effects specialist S+H Technical designed and built a custom 'Crufts' LED sign and supplied quantities of its standard RGB LED starcloth for the main show ring of the 2014 edition of the world's most famous dog show.

The event was staged at Birmingham, UK's National Exhibition Centre (NEC)

The Kennel Club initiated the idea of the sign and the starcloth, used for the first time in 2012 by Jon Pope, the show's Lighting Designer since 2009. Having a special, flexible and highly visual 'Crufts' ident in the form of the colour changing sign has been a great benefit to the background aesthetics of all the presentations taking place in the ring.

The main show ring - in the NEC's LG Arena - is the hub of the action for all four days of the event which culminates in the renowned 'Best in Show' competition. It is broadcast on More 4 and

South Africa - DWR Distribution welcomed Andy Duffield from GDS to South Africa for the second time.

"I primarily came out to see new projects and to carry out some training with the DWR sales team," said Duffield. "I should tell you they are excellent, supportive and open to information."

Duffield is particularly fond of the Arc System range. "If you have 15 minutes in front of someone to show them how to get LED into an auditorium, they get it straight away," he explained. Because the Arc System is designed with theatre in mind, LED is made beautiful and relevant to its environment. "It's about understanding what the theatrical experience is all about," said Duffield. This means dimming correctly in LED and getting great colours.

GDS celebrates its tenth birthday in June and Duffield has been with the company for six. "My CV isn

USA - The Pro FS 15R from Elation Professional is a high-output, medium-throw followspot with efficient Platinum source that projects "an exceptionally flat field beam with no hotspot". Useful wherever manual control of an intense lighting beam is required, and ideal for shows and venues of all sizes, it features a sharp 6-10 degree beam that projects effectively up to 150'.

An efficient optical system with anti-reflection lenses combine with a Philips MSD Platinum 15R lamp to produce 13,500 lumens of cool white 8000°K light (6010 Lux @ 20m). The ultra-efficient lamp runs at a max power consumption of only 320 watts and lasts much longer than a traditional discharge lamp. No adjustment or cleaning of the reflector or lamp is required.

The Pro FS 15R comes with seven interchangeable dichroic colours that reproduce perfectly with a variable CTB/CTO filter that allo

Egypt - A massive concert featuring two of the Middle East's biggest music stars took place at Cairo's 100,000-capacity International Stadium in December featuring Clay Paky Sharpy, Sharpy Wash and Alpha Spot 1200s.

Staged to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Hong Kong-based fashion and wellbeing company QNet, which operates in Egypt, the live music show was lit by lighting designer Walid el Hariry of AmazonEgypt (Egypt1).

Performing at the event were Egyptian heartthrob Tamer Hosny - nicknamed the 'King of Generation' by his fans - and multi-platinum selling Lebanese singer Nancy Ajram, described as 'one of the most influential personalities in the Middle East'.

To match the superstar status of the performers, el Hariry wanted to deliver a strikingly impressive lighting design. For this he specified 12 of the Clay Paky Alpha Spot 1200 on account of its brightness and broad

USA - The Moody Blues are continuing their five decades of celestial sound with a tour across the United States. The legendary band consisting of Justin Hayward, Graeme Edge and John Lodge has sold more than 70m albums worldwide and racked up over a dozen platinum and gold discs.

Lighting designer Mick Thornton worked with Bandit Lites to illuminate the psychedelic band using VL2500s, GRN Moving Washes, 2 Lite Moles, Source 4's, Clay Paky Mirage LED Panels and a Grand MA console.

"The design, like most shows, is controlled by budget and truck space," explained Thornton. "We are limited to two trucks for the entire production (half a truck for lights). My aim is to make the design look bigger than it actually is by creative focuses and creative architectural influences."

While some lighting designers may balk at creating a unique lighting design for such a

Russia - In conjunction with the beginning of Russia's longest school holiday, Moscow's famous Olympisky Arena hosted a two-week children's project, Circus of Ded Moroz - 2 (Father Frost's Circus), at the end of December 2013. In order to showcase a stunning, mystical fairy tale light show, Euroshow and lighting designer Alexey Zhuravlev deployed a world-class lighting system featuring Martin fixtures.

Euroshow supplied lighting fixtures for the event surrounding a large Christmas tree which included: 36 MAC Viper Profile, 20 MAC 2000 Wash XB, 12 MAC III Air FX, 48 MAC Aura, 96 MAC 101, five Atomic 3000 DMX, 30 RUSH MH3 Beam and three Jem Ready 365 Hazer fixtures.

The New Year's project for children at Olympisky has gained a traditional status already, but for Zhuravlev, it was his debut. Producers of the event knew about Zhuravlev due to his successful work with numero

UK - Rental and technical solution specialist Universal Event Productions (UEP) has invested in more LED technology - this time from Danish-owned manufacturer SGM - to service their ongoing work and with some elements also specifically earmarked for the 2014 Chilfest event - UEP's very own highly successful summer music festival.

The latest purchase involves SGM XC5 RGB LED strobes, SP-6 SixPack pixel blinders and P-5 outdoor LED wash lights, all of which were delivered by SGM UK.

It also underlines UEP's ongoing commitment to investing in greener technology and using this where possible on shows and events. UEP was an early adopter of LED and digital lighting and around 80% of its lighting rental stock is now LED based.

Says UEP's Steve Butcher, "With events becoming increasingly carbon-conscious for us it makes sense. The core of UEP's work is in the high end corporat

Australia - LSC has introduced a new intelligent dimming and power distribution unit, the GenVI Advanced Dimming System. GenVI is the sixth generation of dimmers to be manufactured by LSC since it first started making lighting products over 34 years ago. "GenVI has to be considered 'best in class' as it is more than a humble dimmer," says LSC. "GenVI is instead really a one-product solution for today's complex lighting and power control."

Equally at home in the lighting, sound and video markets, for portable or permanent installation, the new GenVI Advanced Dimming System allows any of its outputs to be configured as an 8 bit or 16 bit dimmer or alternatively as a direct power relay channel. This TruPower technology, introduced to the market by LSC over 5 years ago, enables the user to set some channels on the GenVI to dim traditional lamps and others to powe

USA - Czech Republic-based lighting manufacturer Robe Lighting has appointed John McDowell as regional sales manager of the Central United States, effective 7 April.

McDowell, based in Austin, Texas, was most recently with Creative Stage Lighting as Western regional sales manager.

Due to higher sales volume and a wide range of popular products, Robe Lighting is expanding its reach in the U.S. under new CEO Bob Schacherl. This is the second new sales appointment to be announced in recent weeks in order to provide Robe clients with the excellent sales support and enhanced customer service that is expected.

McDowell has more than 25 years of industry experience in sales management with two automated lighting manufacturers, High End Systems and Vari-Lite. He also helped establish the North American distribution arm of special effects manufacturer Le Maitre, serving as president

Sweden - W-DMX by Wireless Solution Sweden AB is now coming OEM installed in the new W-DIM4 and W-DIMm3 by RC4 Wireless.

The next-generation W-DIM4 and W-DIMm3 wireless dimmers are the latest dimmers from RC4 Wireless, maker of award-winning low-voltage dimmers, for use with Wireless Solution W-DMX systems. The W-DIM4 is a four-channel wireless DMX receiver with four dimmers integrated into one small device. The W-DIMm3 is a wireless DMX receiver and three dimmers housed in a miniature device measuring only 80mm x 40mm x 20mm.

The W-DIMm3 is a miniature wireless DMX receiver and three-channel DC dimmer for use with Wireless Solution W-DMX transmitters. Its small size (80mm x 40mm x 20mm) is ideal for use in props, practicals and costumes. A comprehensive RDM implementation is accessible when RDM functionality is enabled in the host W-DMX system.

Each dimmer channel handles u

Switzerland - Phoenix has released a new update for its Phoenix4 software with extended hardware support, major improvements and many new features.

Phoenix4 Showcontroller is a solution for professional control of lasers, lighting and special effects. The versions Phoenix LIVE (for live laser operation, Laser Jockey) and Phoenix PRO (for professional time line synchronous shows) have been updated to version 4.2 - a major update, that adds support for new hardware, like the MicroNET network laser control interface, and several new features.

There were also some improvements in terms of output quality and compatibility for the existing USB Interfaces, especially MicroUSB V2. As many customers requested extended support for SMPTE timecode synchronisation (important for large scale multi-media shows), Phoenix added optimised support for Motu MicroExpress interfaces (or similar). P

Germany - tarm Showlaser GmbHhas updated its web site (www.tarm.de) . In addition to its more modern appearance, the update provides users with clearly structured, intuitive, navigation tools. For example, clicking on the 'Work' menu item calls up an extensive collection of HD-videos and high-resolution photographs of the company's projects that provide users with an overview of recent laser shows the company has presented on behalf of key clients and insights into its work.

The site's updated home page also features links to the various social-media networks.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Stage Electrics has supplied a selection of the new ETC Source 4 LED Lustr+ profiles and LED Cyc's to the Courtyard Theatre, Hereford.

"The theatre wanted a lantern that could be used quickly in any space and directly connected to a lighting console. Because of all the control electronics being built in, the chosen fixture had to be able to match the white balance with their existing tungsten lanterns so everything was homogenous. After test driving the unit in their theatre and seeing how simple and quickly the Source 4 LED Lustr+ and Cyc's slotted in with their existing lighting - they knew this was the perfect unit for them" commented Neal Tomlinson, business development manager, Stage Electrics.

The Source4 LED Lustr+ can be positioned at low level safely due to the reduced amount of heat omitted. With added flexibility and easy setup, with no additional len

Royalties Record - Musicians in the UK earned £665.7m in royalties last year, according to PRS for Music. The organisation, which pays musicians when their songs are played on radio, or in concert, said revenues had increased 3.7% in the last year.

A rise in international demand for UK television shows and streaming services helped 2013's increase in revenue across Europe, North America and Australia. Online revenues reached £61.2m in 2013, an increase of 18.3%, which was helped by new and renewed deals with the likes of Deezer and YouTube.

The Last Time - The final Monty Python reunion show at the O2 Arena in London on 20 July will be "the last time we'll be working together", Michael Palin has said. The comedy troupe will not go on tour and will go their separate ways after 10 London performances, he said. Palin told the BBC, "20 July will b

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