USA - "The annual CMT Music Awards telecast is one of the best of its kind, and in some ways the best music awards presentation of all. Last night's production proved me right once again,"* enthused media critic Ed Martin about the 2014 event.

This year's star-studded CMT's was lit by Tom Kenny for the fifth consecutive year, and he utilised a variety of Robe fixtures including Pointes, MMX Spots and LEDWash fixtures on his massive lighting rig in the Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, Tennessee.

Hosted by Kristen Bell and produced by Michael Dempsey Productions along with John Hamlin, Amy Johnson and Margaret Comeaux from CMT, the live broadcast received a great response from both the public and media. Thirty thousand country music fans also packed the arena to catch the amazing line-up and witness many live show-stopping performances and unique collaborations.

Kenny a

UK - Leisuretec Distribution are set to host a month of Interactive Days in July for their trade customers, in partnership with Audio-Technica and Allen & Heath.

Starting on 3 July with the subject of Wireless, attendees will cover topics such as UHF and digital technology, frequency bands, regulation, licensing and intermodulation, along with an overview of the Audio-Technica products and features. The session is designed for anyone who regularly uses radio mics.

Installation Products is the theme for the day for 10 July and it's designed specifically for installers and system integrators in order to aid them in their system designs. Microphone technology, polar patterns, IDR overview and programming and Audio-Technica products and applications will all be covered.

The Conference Systems Day takes place on 17 July and is designed to cover in detail, the Audio Technica ATCS-

Sweden / Italy - LumenRadio has announced that another leading fixture manufacturer will include the wireless CRMX OEM modules for some of their products - the Italian based company Studio Due.

With over 30 years of innovation, design and manufacturing experience, Studio Due has been creating lighting solutions to support lighting designers, architects and lighting consultants all over the world. Studio Due's product range, historically composed of moving head spots, outdoor multiray effects and controllers has been diversified introducing new lines of colour changers specifically designed to satisfy the requirements of the architectural lighting market.

"Gianluca and his team are extremely talented and professional. It is a joy to work with a company that's maintaining the highest standards of quality for its equipment and services", says Jessica Björk, LumenRadio'

UAE - Seasoned lighting designer Debbi Fowler made excellent use of an arsenal of of Clay Paky lighting fixtures to illuminate Lionel Richie during his open-air gig at the Media City Amphitheatre, Dubai.

Fowler worked closely with Dubai based hire outfit Eclipse, which recently supplied equipment for superstars such as Justin Bieber and Bruno Mars. For the Richie show Eclipse furnished Fowler with an impressive stock of Clay Paky fixtures.

"When creating a lighting design I like to focus on layering different fixtures to create texture, this means that the fixtures I choose and how I position them is crucial," explains Fowler. "For this design I knew that the extra 'punch' of the Clay Paky would make a real difference. However it was not until the actual show that the lights' performance drove home just how bright they are."

The tour's original lighting d

Germany - The final of Germany's 2014 Next Top Model talent show provided an opportunity for lighting designer Manuel Da Costa to put Robe's Robin CycFX 8 fixtures through their paces. Staged in the Lanxess Arena, Cologne and attended by 15,000 people, it was also broadcast live on German TV Pro7.

Manuel was lighting the series for the fourth time and was also the director of photography, so getting the right mix of lighting for both TV and live elements was crucial. While it's a 'given' for these type of shows that the runway has to be optimised for naturalistic flesh tones and shadow-less illumination of faces, it was also an interesting mix of aesthetics - fashion meets live arena show!

He used 44 x CycFX 8s in total, mostly rigged to the side stage wings and used to wash parts of the catwalk as general illumination and also to create some bold and distinctive effect

Switzerland - Pangolin ScannerMax is a brand new scanner system family created by Pangolin Systems. Scanner systems (Galvos) like these are used for rapidly deflecting a single laser beam to create patterns or effects. ScannerMax scanners are designed for industrial as well as show purposes, so there are a variety of possible applications.

To create spectacular laser shows it is essential to deflect the laser beam extremely fast, so that the patterns, graphics and pictures projected don't appear to be flickering. Laserworld offers Pangolin ScannerMax galvos for many of their professional laser light systems, including most SwissLas and several RTI units. "The quality of the ScannerMax scanners is superior to the standard solution, so more professional users may want to go for the upgrade," says the company.

"More ScannerMax solutions are in development, but the

Germany - The MA Lighting grandMA2 is renowned for lighting network stability. The existing 1Gbit MA 4Port and 8Port Nodes are ideal for networks where large quantities of frame-syncronous DMX need to be distributed. MA Lighting has announced a matching 1Gbit 2Port Node range which fits into the MA system ensuring maximum performance via the MA-Net2 protocol.

The MA 2Port Nodes are optimised for touring and installations purposes with rugged steel housing for a long life even under harsh conditions. The front panel offers a 2" colour screen as well as current status LEDs. The mains switch and all connectors are located on the rear.

Available with and without control parameters, all MA 2Port Nodes are fully configurable from the grandMA2 consoles or from grandMA2 onPC software. To achieve the highest flexibility, each DMX port can be individually configured as DMX in or DM

Italy - Clay Paky has achieved extraordinary sales results throughout the world in recent years, thanks to luminaires like the Sharpy and the B-EYE, which lighting designers and rental companies have appreciated for their innovation and profitability. This however does not mean Clay Paky may now rest on its laurels. Quite the opposite. Pio Nahum, the company's sales and marketing director, has decided to give a new boost to promotion activities on the field and work with greater commitment to support end-users and distributors.

To achieve this goal, a new position has been created - head of international sales. The job has been assigned to Alberico D'Amato who, as from 1 July, will be responsible for coordinating all internal area sales managers and external regional sales representatives in their dealings with distributors and customers.

Alberico D'Amato has worked as a Clay

Australia - Award-winning Australian lighting designer Flynn Talbot utilised the intense colour of three Philips Selecon PLprofile1 LED luminaires to add another dimension to his latest light installation Primary at the PSAS gallery in Perth.

A three-sided triangular wall installation made from cardboard, Primary explores the three primary colours of light - red, green and blue, with the structure designed to fragment the light and demonstrate how coloured light is mixed.

"For this project I needed intense colour and absolutely pure light," explains Talbot. "The installation is purposefully designed to break up light into many shadows but unless the light source was completely even, the effect and the magic would have been lost. I needed a smooth and colour-rich shift between primary colours, so I chose the Philips Selecon PLprofile1 LED luminaires

Germany - The Turkish-German Cultural Olympics arose from the need to put the existing understanding between the two peoples under the spotlight, and at the same time bring Germans and Turkish relations closer to further promote their inter-cultural exchange. For this reason, the Cultural Olympics are not just a national language competition, but also celebrate traditions and are an opportunity for dialogue and reciprocal cultural exchange for young people and children.

The most recent Turkish-German Cultural Olympics took place in Munich's Olympiahalle. Show lighting designer and operator Chris Schatz (Klinkertorstudios) used an MA system to manage 60 Clay Paky Sharpys and 20 Alpha Spot HPE 1500s. The MA equipment consisted of two full-size granMAs, three Network Processing Units (NPUs), two Network Signal Processors (NSPs) and one 2Port Node onPC. The production was broadcast

Czech Republic - Czech rental company TD Promo supplied Robe moving lights for three popular Czech bands this spring - all of whom toured simultaneously throughout the Czech Republic with some shows also in Slovakia.

The bands were pop rockers Mandrage from Pilzen (LD Tomas Karban); Divokej Bill a well-established folk-rock band from Uvaly near Prague (LD Matej Mantlik) and loud-and-proud thrash metal outfit SKWOR (LD Martin Samecky).

Three very distinct bands embracing three different genres of music, all enthusiastically received around the country at average 1000 capacity venues over two to three months - and three innovative Czech LDs all loving their Robe fixtures!

The Mandrage tour used 14 x Robe ROBIN Pointes, five MMX Spots and eight ROBIN LEDWash 600s; Divokej Bill had eight ROBIN 600E Beams on their rig, while the SKWOR show made great impact with four Pointes and

Belgium - Multi-talented theatre-lighting professional Luc Peumans of creative design practice Painting With Light has produced the set, lighting and video for rock'n'roll feast for the eyes Grease: The Arena Spectacular, specifying the exceptional power of 35 Philips Vari-Lite VL3500 Wash luminaires to flood the stage with stunning and vibrant colours.

Taking place in some of Belgium's biggest arenas, the show was a fresh and contemporary take on the 50s classic high school romance story, injecting it with energetic dance routines and huge visual effects. Peumans therefore needed a wash light powerful enough to hold its own against the video elements, flooding each massive stage with intense colour in a range of stunning hues.

"The concept behind the design was to create a big, modern and powerful look with vibrant colours that united the video and lighting and fo

USA - While last year's festival may have been soaked in rain, this year's Governor's Ball basked in both sunlight and Bandit's lights. The three day music festival took place once again on Randall's Island, where 150,000 fans gathered over three days for what The New York Times called "A festival with a New York heart."

In its fourth year, The Governor's Ball features a wide variety of musical styles, from electronica, to indie, to rock, hip-hop and Americana. With a line up including OutKast, Jack White, Vampire Weekend, The Strokes, Axwell // Ingrosso, and Foster the People, there was something for everyone.

In addition to fantastic musical acts, the festival also boasts a multitude of hip New York food, a silent disco, photo booths and lawn games.

Founders Entertainment hired Bandit Lites to provide the lighting and rigging for two of the stages. Bandit

UK - The Royal Opera House has recently upgraded its lighting rig with 20 Martin Professional MAC Viper Performance moving head lights, continuing a relationship with the manufacturer that stretches back to 2004.

As Lighting Systems Manager at the Royal Opera House for the past 14 years, Paul Hornsby looks after the infrastructure of the building for performance lighting, including the maintenance, testing, and upgrading of the venue's lighting systems. "We run a continual refit program - a lot of the moving lights we have are 13 or 14 years old now, so we're gradually replacing them," he said. "The latest upgrade was made in summer 2013 when we brought in Martin's MAC Viper Performance moving lights to replace our MAC 2000 Performance fixtures. The Vipers are significantly faster, brighter, and more energy efficient than their predecessor [MAC 2000 Performance].&

France - Chromlech, the French manufacturer behind innovative LED lighting products such as Jarag and Elidy, has gone out of business with the loss of 14 jobs. NKown as an innovator of lighting products, Chromlech enjoyed great success with its Jarag line of LED modules, which sold well for years, and still selling right up to the company's demise. Gleamer, a dimmer dedicated to low-voltage lighting, won a PLASA Award for Innovation in 2011. Then came Elidy, a striking 5x5 LED matrix tile producing warm white beams of light, launched at the PLASA Show in 2012.

However, copies of the Elidy concept, made in China, began to appear on the market with months of the product's release, and Chromlech found itself unable to take legal action to protect their intellectual property. Two patents covered Elidy - one for the technology and one for the design, or form factor. Unfortunately for

UK - The Salamander Quad Pro is the latest flame unit to be launched by Le Maitre and follows on from the successful Salamander, extending Le Maitre's flame family offering.

The Salamander Quad Pro is a larger, more versatile system than the Salamander. A four canister system, it can be operated with each canister being fired independently and the option of multiple colours being loaded to provide a truly stunning visual display from a single machine. Firing the canisters sequentially can also be used to increase the duration of the effect, with up to 120 hits in total and each flame reaching around 12ft/3.5m in height. Alternatively, all four canisters can be fired at the same time to produce a much bigger single flame reaching up to a spectacular 25ft/7.5m - terrific for stadiums!

The new unit also retains a number of key features and benefits from the original Salamander de

UK - Rosco, a leading manufacturer of products for the entertainment industry has welcomed a new member to its EMEA sales team. Canna Gray has been appointed Senior Account Manager focusing on the UK Photographic Market as well as key accounts in the Balkans, Cyprus, Malta and Moldova.

Gray comes with 20 years' experience within the live entertainment, film/TV and photography industries. Originally from Pretoria in South Africa, she started her career in the early '90s touring with various rock and roll, dance and theatre productions in South Africa and Holiday on Ice and Disney on Ice internationally.

During that time, Canna gained tremendous experience working in several areas of the production industry, including: stage and production management, lighting and pyrotechnics. Most recently, Canna spent the past five years successfully looking after business development for the

Worldwide - Controversial popstar Miley Cyrus is performing her world tour 'Bangerz' under the super sharp, vibrantly coloured beams of the Clay Paky Sharpy and Sharpy Wash 330.

Fast becoming one of the most talked about touring shows around, Bangerz features everything from giant tongue slides to flying hot dogs. Lighting designer Rob Sinclair, who has worked with Peter Gabriel, Queen, Pet Shop Boys and may others, collaborated with award winning show designer Ez Devlin to create the show's unique look.

"The creative brief for the show was that it should be fun," explains Sinclair. "We went for big, bold and bright looks. The show required punch after visual punch so we designed a high fashion pop lighting concept with plenty of bright colours and well-timed effects."

In addition to the fast-paced lighting is the production's giant 40ft LED screen, which

UK - Bristol-based lighting and visuals rental company, Fineline Lighting supplied lighting and rigging including ground support systems to five popular, action-packed stages at the 2014 Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts. This included the Acoustic, Cabaret, Circus, Astrolabe Stages and HMS WOW at the world's largest and highest profile greenfield music and entertainment festival which took place last weekend in Somerset, UK.

The project this year involved over 130 moving heads and over 350 conventional lighting fixtures from Fineline - utilising moving light products from Martin, Robe and High End Systems plus Avolites and ChamSys control and Martin LED products, together with 38 crew, who rocked up at Worthy Farm in Pilton for the week that culminated in four days of fun and nearly 200 full-scale performances lit by Fineline's team.

Fineline has been invol

Germany - Robe moving lights have been installed in the main theatre and club venues aboard Mein Schiff 3 (My Ship), the latest state-of-the-art cruise ship to be delivered from the STX Finland shipyard in Turku to German-based operator, TUI Cruises.

Lighting for the two areas has been designed and specified by Chris Moylan of Berlin-based Optikalusion, who designs touring shows and assorted live and special events as well as currently designing lighting, video and automation for TUI Cruises' new shows and consulting on equipping the key entertainment locations on their new vessels.

He collaborated closely with TUI Cruises' head of technical Torsten Hirche on both these areas on Mein Schiff 3 to come up with a dynamic lighting rig that could meet all the various demands.

In the 1000 capacity theatre, the core of the lighting rig is 47 x Robe ROBIN DLF Washes which are rigged

Spouth Africa - Big Electronic, the electronic music powerhouse collaboration between Big Concerts, G&G Productions and Rusco Events brought South African electronic dance music fans a mind-blowing one-night-only experience. Having already toured much of the globe, The Armin Only Intense World Tour debuted at the Coca-Cola Dome in Johannesburg on 14 June. Acrobats, dancers, singers, lasers, pyrotechnics and world class technical packaging combined to engage all the senses in this one-of-a-kind EDM spectacular.

DJ, Armin van Buuren is known for creating visually extravagant events and this one blew the lid off all expectations. Technical suppliers, Gearhouse SA, Sets, Drapes, Screens, LEDVision and Splitbeam - all members of the Gearhouse Group - provided the technical production for the event including structures, set, lighting, audio, power, rigging and a considerable am

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) has been appointed the exclusive UK distributor for the LumenRadio range of high performance wireless DMX lighting control solutions. With immediate effect, LumenRadio will be available from and supported by, AC-ET to their large customer base of entertainment technology dealers and end users.

Featuring award-winning innovation and ground-breaking technology, LumenRadio's products have been developed to guarantee reliability even in the most technically challenging scenarios. Products are manufactured and tested in Sweden to ensure they meet the most rigorous durability requirements, including withstanding daily wear and tear in the toughest environments.

Operating licence-free on the 2.4GHz frequency, LumenRadio's patented Cognitive Coexistence technology ensures optimum performance even when other wireless systems are operating in

Romania - Robert Juliat sponsored the 21st Sibiu International Theatre Festival which took place from 6-15 June in this historic Romanian town.

The French lighting manufacturer's involvement was double-fold, firstly by sponsoring the festival with the loan of Robert Juliat lighting equipment, and secondly because CEO, François Juliat, was invited to present a prestigious Sibiu Walk of Fame award at the Gala event televised on National Romanian Television.

The Sibiu International Theatre Festival is one of the largest festivals in the world. For 10 days, the city of Sibiu is transformed with 381 events presented in 66 venues by artists from over 70 countries who perform to approximately 62,000 spectators every day.

Founded 21 years ago by an initiative group led by Constantin Chiriac, at that time an actor from Sibiu's Radu Stanca Theatre, the Festival's aim was to restore t

Australia - Greenroom Productions supplies all of the in-house audio and lighting to Canberra's ANU bar as well as other small events around the city. Recently the company purchased a Soundcraft Si Performer 2 console along with a Vi Stagebox as a low-cost expansion option.

"We use the Soundcraft Si Performer 2 at the ANU bar as a foldback console," remarked Garry Peadon of Greenroom.

"Chris Neal at Canberra's Eclipse Lighting and Sound owns a Soundcraft Si Performer 2 and he told me how good it was and that was good enough for me. They know their stuff and if they say something is good, you know it is. It also stood apart from its competitors because you could expand it."

However, when it comes to expressing his initial thoughts on his new Soundcraft Si Performer 2 console, Garry isn't shy in coming forward. "At first I wasn't too sure of it because

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