USA - Quite a few magical things have happened to Pentatonix since the group won first prize in NBC-TV's hit programme The Sing Off in 2011. They released a YouTube video that garnered 10m views in one week, had a number one hit on the Billboard charts, and performed before sellout crowds around the world. The real magic, though, isn't what happened to this group of five young cappella artists from Texas, it's what they create on stage, says their LD Darien Koop of Darko Design (Nashville, TN).

"It's amazing to watch them step on stage and see how they truly captivate and connect to the audience, making every single person there feel special," said Koop, who has been the LD for superstars like Sara Bareilles, Incubus and Cee Lo Green. "When I took on this project and got to know this group of very special artists, I wanted to create more than a lighting des

UK - Richard Martin Lighting has recently taken delivery of a number of the new Clay Paky K20 B-EYEs, the fixture that has won a variety of industry awards since its launch late last year.

In such a crowded market, packed with products from other manufacturers, why have RML opted to purchase the K20 B-EYEs from Ambersphere Solutions, the exclusive UK and ROI distributors and service suppliers for Clay Paky? Gemma Jaques is RML's marketing coordinator: "We have a long term relationship with Clay Paky and many of the Ambersphere team so as soon as it became clear what a popular fixture the B-EYE was going to be we decided it was essential that we invest in them. We only took delivery of the K20 version a couple of weeks ago and we've already had lots of interest in them - their first job was the Sky Sports Awards and they went out so fast we didn't have time to get them fligh

Australia - Four Robe Robin MiniMes have been supplied for use throughout the Museum of Australian Democracy (MOAD) located at the Old Parliament House Building in Canberra, ACT, by Elite Sound & Lighting, also based in the city.

The fixtures are mobile and are being used for a variety of applications involving temporary exhibitions and small events which are constantly staged in the venue.

Elite is one of Australia's leading rental companies and has a substantial number of Robe products - nearly 300 moving lights - in regular hire stock.

Elite MD Darren Russell explained that they have also enjoyed a close working relationship as the in house audiovisual provider for external clients within the venue but also as a supplier to MOAD, which includes introducing them to new, interesting and appropriate technologies as and when they come to the market.

This is exactly what hap

Sweden - Lighting design for Swedish rock band Kent has again featured a strong SGM package.

LD Uffe Jansson of Hysterical Design has taken on the task of delivering Kent's two festival shows as part of their new concept Kentfest, where the Swedish band, now celebrating its 24th anniversary, provides its vision of how a festival should be.

Kent is the festival's headline act, and Uffe Jansson was determined to create a lightshow that matched their status. "For me the important thing is to accentuate the band's music with lighting to make it a great concert. It is a fine line to use the right amount of effects for each song, when you have about 600-700 fixtures," he informs.

Besides the regular festival rig, Jansson added about 120 P-5 wash lights and 35 XC-5 colour strobes exclusively for Kent's performance. "My goal was to incorporate the entire stage,

UK - When Busted/McFly supergroup McBusted announced that it was going to tour the UK in Spring 2014 the band wanted something visually spectacular, so approached LEDsynergy, via SimS custom guitars, to build five LED encrusted guitars to be a key visual element of each stage performance.

Not content to have dot-marker LEDs positioned on the neck of their guitars, McBusted wanted the entire body of each guitar encrusted as well. The three lead and two bass guitars were developed and tested in around five weeks and delivered well before final rehearsals and the opening performance just prior to Easter.

Ultra compact SMD LEDs were used as they are both lightweight and cost effective; having all the colours within the same thin 'chip-bulbs'. These were positioned just 10mm apart and programmed to not only display a myriad of colours but also produce moving patterns and even full

UK - East Anglia-based CEG productions has added a range of Robe Robin lighting fixtures to its rental stock - with fixtures already out on dry and wet hire across the company's diverse range of customers.

CEG's recent investment from Robe includes the Robin Pointe, Robin LEDWash 600, Robin LEDBeam 100 and Robin CycFX8.

CEG's director Ben Bowles explains, "After embarking on a thorough investigation of fixtures that are available on the market, we picked the Robin range. We already own a small selection of Robe's AT series and so we had experienced the high level of customer support from the manufacturer. It was only natural to extend our product range with these new products.

"The Pointe is an in credibly flexible and useful fixture - proving very popular with our growing base of LD clients. We're most excited about the CycFX 8 - although this fixture is a punt fo

Spain - Ibiza superclub Space Ibiza was the first venue to launch its 2014 summer season in style, with a 10 hour party together with a spectacular lighting rig designed by Eduardo Valverde which included 42 x Robe moving lights.

In addition to creating the lighting, video and stage design which incorporated numerous LED elements Valverde also undertook programming and operation of the opening show which featured a multi-DJs line up making the vibes. This was spectacularly high in impact to match the profile of the club and the occasion.

The Robe fixtures comprised 30 x Robe Robin Pointes and 12 x Robe Robin LEDWash 300s, provided by Madrid based ASL Light Solutions.

The party began at 4 pm and ended at 2 am so he needed fixtures that could withstand being worked non-stop - and to the max - for the duration as well as ones that would register in daylight.

The LEDWash 300s

USA - Production Resource Group LLC (PRG) has announced today that Stephen Lambright has joined its executive leadership team as vice president of marketing.

With over 20 years of international marketing and brand development experience, Lambright will be responsible for the company's global marketing strategies, implementation of marketing programs that enhance and expand PRG's industry leadership, and promotion of PRG innovations to partners and clients. As a member of the company's executive leadership team, Lambright will report to PRG's CEO, Jeremiah Harris.

"Steve is a welcome addition to our team," said Harris. "He has demonstrated thoughtful and creative leadership as an executive throughout his career and is a talented marketer who delivers results. Steve joins us at a perfect time to build a global marketing organization within PRG that will support an

UK - ETC has added two products to its lighting control line up: the Nomad software and Nomad Puck controller. Designed for situations when lighting professionals can't bring their consoles with them, Nomad and Nomad Puck allow users to programme and run shows from anywhere.

"One of the best features of Nomad and Nomad Puck, is the ability to run either Cobalt or Eos/Element software," says ETC Eos product manager Anne Valentino. "It's like having two consoles in one - users don't have to choose between the two control platforms." Both Nomad and Nomad Puck can serve as a primary controller, a backup or a client device, and can also be used offline.

Nomad is a tiny device that attaches to PCs running either Microsoft Windows 7 or 8, or Macintosh OS X (Mavericks). It is available in four output counts: Nomad 256, which offers half a universe, Nomad 1024 with

Ghana - PR Lighting's comprehensive portfolio of discharge and LED automated lighting were in full evidence at the recent 15th Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMA), organised by Charterhouse Ghana.

The company's subsidiary, Charterhouse Production, also masterminded the technical infrastructure at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC) for an event that seeks to foster the development of the Ghanaian music industry and reward the artistes, producers, recording labels and other industry professionals. They handled all aspects of the event, provision of lights, stage and set design, full production and event management.

According to Charterhouse Production event executive Eli Tettey the technology was scaled up for this year's Awards. "We used a lot of new equipment from PR Lighting, incorporating LED screens into the set design - and a lot more people attended.&quo

UK - In order to meet demands for larger scale applications, PR Lighting has taken the successful model of its XLED 1037 - but instead of deriving its output from 37 powerful 10W RGBW LEDs (with a lamp life of 50,000 hours) they have added a further 24 sources in developing the new XLED 1061 (PR-8121).

The result is powerful, 4-in-1 bright linear colour mixes highlighted by animation effects, rainbow effects and a pulsing strobe.

Fully featured, in addition to the above functions, the XLED 1061 also offers 0%-100% linearly adjustable dimmer, linear zoom (13°-52°), adjustable speed pan (540°) and tilt (270°) with auto position correction, and linear colour temperature correction from 2700K to 10000K.

Controllable via DMX, other features include: Brightness and contrast adjustable display; Lamp use time display; DMX512 channel value display and Menu Invert func

UK - Top UK amusement park, Blackpool Pleasure Beach, are using Jands' flagship Vista L5 console to control the lighting on their latest production of the world-famous Hot Ice Show ice skating spectacular.

One of the UK's most popular attractions, with nearly 20,000 visitors per week, skaters travel from across the globe to take to the ice in Blackpool for what has become the world's longest running ice show. Included in the impressive line-up are stars from ITV's Dancing On Ice, as well as Olympic and professional skaters.

Hot Ice Show is created, produced and directed by Amanda Thompson OBE and presented by Stageworks Worldwide Productions at the Pleasure Beach's ice skating theatre, The Arena.

To create the production's dynamic and highly theatrical feel, a spectacular light show, explosive pyrotechnic fire effects and a dramatic music soundtrack comp

Poland - SGM has announced the appointment of LTT Lighting & Theatre Technology as its new sole Polish distributor.

LTT, Poland's leading, and longest serving distributor of professional lighting fixtures, consoles and other technology, say they are excited to be offering products from what they describe as "one of the world's most promising LED fixture manufacturers".

The relationship between LTT and SGM's CEO Peter Johansen, in fact dates back to 1997, and the latter states, "I have always enjoyed a fruitful relationship with the company and I look forward to working with them once again in this new era."

LTT say that the main attraction to them has been the speed of SGM's evolution. "To stay relevant in the market requires the ability to anticipate future developments in technology and customer needs," says LTT commercial director, Pawel Mroz

USA / UK - Having completed the first European leg of her Prismatic World Tour and now starting dates throughout North America, Katy Perry invites her audiences into a visually stunning concert experience. "Everything with Katy is larger than life so the design needed to reflect that. The stage itself is a statement," points out show director and designer Baz Halpin. Helping Halpin and Perry make that strong visual statement is PRG Nocturne.

Supporting her album, Prism and calling the tour the Prismatic World Tour, Perry had a vision of where to start in the look of the show's design. "She wanted a large triangular LED Video screen on a triangular stage," explains Halpin. "That was the basis of the design - the shape. Everything else plays into that." Halpin conceived the enormous 70' wide by 34' tall automated tracking triangul

Malta - W-DMX by Wireless Solution Sweden once again helped pull off the impossible at Malta's 10 year anniversary celebration of joining the European Union. Malta's accession to the EU in May 2004 began a new chapter in the island's history and it was a common goal to make the anniversary a truly spectacular event.

The celebration would not have gone on as planned without Wireless Solution delivering a system setup of 8 W-DMX universes to span Malta's Grand Harbour to four points with up to 1000m distance - and all delivered within three days.

The main focal point, the walls of historic Fort St Angelo, were lit up with a stunning light display followed by a glittering array of fireworks that worked their magic over the Grand Harbour at midnight, all to the delight of thousands of spectators. Nearby Senglea Point and Villa Bighi served as additional backdrops for the audiovisu

UK - Manchester-based lighting specialists dbn Lighting specified Clay Paky fixtures when designing a lightweight and versatile rig for the renovation of the city's Grade II listed, multi-purpose Albert Hall.

The early 20th century gothic chapel underwent major renovation to convert it into one of the city's most happening music venues. Stephen Page of dbn Lighting was called upon to design a lightweight and versatile lighting solution that could take care of all genres of entertainment lighting.

"The weight capacity of the Albert Hall's roof is limited so we couldn't use anything too heavy," explains Page. "I also wanted the equipment to be as discreet as possible so size of fixture was also important. The reliability and compact build of the Clay Paky fixtures was therefore key in my decision to use them."

Page specified the Clay Paky Sharpy, complement

UK - Critically-acclaimed indie pop four-piece The 1975 have been driving fans wild on their world tour, including a sold out show at London's majestic Royal Albert Hall where the power and brightness of 12 Philips Vari-Lite VL3500 Wash FX luminaires provided spectacular illumination for the Manchester-born boys.

Show and lighting designer Tobias Rylander, of design house Seven Design Works, worked alongside lighting designer Darren Purves to specify the VL3500 Wash FX luminaires which complemented the remarkably physical design's clean lines and epic style aerial projection. This concept was inspired by Rylander's passion for architecture and art, particularly the artist Anthony McCall, who is renowned for his work with forced perspective, glass and prisms and bouncing light off of reflective surfaces.

"The band had a very distinct graphic design in the album artwork,&qu

Romania - Viva! magazine recently celebrated its 15th anniversary at the picturesque Mogosoaia Palace in Bucharest. As the most anticipated glossy event of the year in Romania, the party was attended by 1,200 local show business celebrities, the ladies marking the glamorous red-carpet garden party by wearing long gowns and gentlemen showing up in tuxedos.

SGM's local partner, production company FIVE'S, supplied the lighting equipment for this high-class venue and incorporated the versatile SGM range into their design. The company witnessed SGM's product presentation at Prolight+Sound earlier this year, and instantly knew that this was the LED range that they were seeking.

Thus, the new G-Spot moving head made its Romanian debut, with six units lighting up the red carpet corridor together with six SixPack blinders. Marketing Developer, Titus Percea, explains: "We were happ

UK - London College of Fashion (LCF) has upgraded to an energy-efficient, full LED lighting and control solution in its main, multi-purpose auditorium featuring Chroma-Q, Jands Vista, Spotlight, Robe and GLP technologies - specified, supplied and installed by A.C. Special Projects Ltd (ACSP).

The prestigious LCF, a constituent College of the University of the Arts London, offers courses and business training in fashion, journalism, beauty therapy, and lifestyle industries. Their main Rootstein Hopkins auditorium space at Oxford Circus is used for a variety of fashion events, including catwalk shows of students' work and big-name celebrity guest lectures.

ACSP were chosen by LCF from a number of theatre & drama installations companies to work on the project, which aimed to dramatically reduce lighting power consumption and provide a modern, easy-to-operate, permanent in-house

UK - Reading-based event lighting specialist, Blinding Light has announced the addition of Dominic Sheerman to its in-house project management team. With 30 years' of experience in the lighting industry and 16 years specialising in the provision of lighting and rigging services for the corporate and special events market, Sheerman is a valued edition to the growing Blinding Light team.

During his extensive experience in the sector, Sheerman has worked with major brands and production companies servicing a number of sectors including automotive, technology, finance and pharmaceutical across Europe and North America.

Over the last two years, the Blinding Light team has gone from strength to strength and Sheerman now joins over 20 colleagues based at the company's Reading offices and warehouse facility. The addition of Sheerman enhances the line-up of industry stalwarts at Blindi

USA - As one of country music's most popular artists, the three-time Grammy Award-winning Zac Brown Band has sold over six million albums worldwide and produced 11 number one singles. So as they prepared for their 2014 Great American Road Trip tour, the design elements of the production needed to be as big and bold as the artists themselves.

With tour provider Special Event Services (SES) once again ready to support, show designer James Scott was brought on board to create the dynamic design and he did so using 20 VL3500 Wash, 60 VL3000 Spot and 22 VLX Wash luminaires from Philips Vari-Lite.

"In looking at the automated luminaires side of the design, I needed fixtures that were 1200W or more to really give me the power and ability to create bold looks, and this criteria pointed me towards the Vari-Lite Series 3000 range. SES is a large Vari-Lite house so we truly b

Israel - Channel 9 broadcasts news around the clock from their studios in Modi'in as well as talk shows, current affairs programmes, series, original productions, telenovelas and more. The channel has two studios, a large 900sq.m space and smaller one of 350sq.m. A new lighting system was installed with grandMA2 control with the move into the new facility.

Chief lighting designer Michael Schwartz explains the selection of the grandMA2: "I chose MA due to my experiences with the MA system in the past and because of the great reliability and many possibilities which are perfect for television studios."

For the large studio, Schwartz selected one grandMA2 light and one MA command wing and for the small studio he chose one grandMA2 ultra-light.

Sagi Lamay, project manager from A.B. Electronics, explains, "The request was for a closed system with a full backup for

UK - It's always great to be involved in projects that are challenging and different, and when Caroline Jones of production company Miss Jones and Co evolved the concept of the world's first sensorial wine tasting 'Colour Lab' at the four day Streets of Spain Festival staged along London's Southbank ... she required some inventive input from lighting designer Simon Honnor.

They in turn approached rental company Entec to supply the equipment needed to help realise the idea of enveloping a complete space in saturated colour to see if it made a difference to how people's taste altered when their environment changed.

The Colour Lab was one of the biggest single attractions of the four day Festival, with over 3,500 people participating.

The idea - developed in collaboration with Oxford University Professor Charles Spence, an expert in experimental psychology - was to showcase a s

Australia - Ms Collins is the new inhabitant of the grand sandstone building on the corner of Melbourne's Collins and Market streets, which in its previous incarnation had been home to Silk Road.

The latest venture for established hospitality group Roar Projects, which also owns Alumbra in the Docklands, Ms Collins includes seven bars all of varying sizes and ambience is capable of holding 800 patrons. It's a vast black, multi-level structure daubed with a riot of pink and white paint and neon lighting, with intimate spaces tucked in every corner.

Designed by Blackmilk Interiors and inspired by French socialite 'Ms Collins', the elaborate venue evokes glamour and sexiness with the use of bold, opulent colours and a luminous material palette featuring high tech fabrics that are capable of changing colour with light.

As well as thought provoking signage and daring use of colou

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