South Africa - Nobody, least of all its set and lighting designer Denis Hutchinson, had an inkling that 20 years down the road, A Handful of Keys would be South Africa's most successful musical to date, clinching at least nine international awards along the way.

This year, the much loved performance, featuring two men behind two grand pianos and a mix of comedy and songs from Elton John to Norah Jones, and The Beatles to Alicia Keys, will celebrate its 20th anniversary and will run at the Theatre on the Bay in Cape Town from 9 July to 10 August, and then at Pieter Toerien's Montecasino Theatre in Fourways from 13 August to 5 October.

Hutch, was part of the production team right from the start in 1994. "Bryan Schimmel and Ian von Memerty initially put the show together at the Youth Theatre with Alan Swerdlow directing," he recalls. "We wondered if we could

UK - Lighting control expert, Artistic Licence, has introduced a major upgrade to one of its best-selling DMX splitter products, Rail-Split RDM, with no increase to the list price. Concurrently, a budget-beating sister product, Rail-Split DMX, is now offered for those in need of a reliable, no-frills DMX splitter without RDM functionality.

Long a main-stay of the Artistic Licence DMX splitter range, Rail-Split RDM has an optically isolated DMX input and six independent outputs, each of which is fully bidirectional. The latter feature makes the product compatible with RDM-enabled devices, a powerful feature in many scenarios - not least in facilitating automatic fixture addressing. However, RDM is not always a blessing, in that some DMX fixtures misread the data structure, resulting in a flickering effect.

Rail-Split RDM now has in built-in solution. In its normal mode of opera

Russia - For Tiens Company's annual distributor conference at Moscow's Russia Hall, featuring a combination of official speeches and an original concert programme for 8,000 guests, Martin Professional provided lighting designer Roman Kasaev with a M6 console to control a design with over 100 Martin lighting fixtures.

To ensure the lighting design integrated seamlessly with the conference's theme, Kasaev teamed with Daniel Maneshin, technical director at the Knyazev Agency, who was brought in to design the conference's main concept. Maneshin also developed the conference's business section as well as conceptualized many decorative and informative elements, which featured several LED screens mounted on the main stage.

Kasaev chose 48 MAC 101 compact LED wash lights due to the brightness and colours that complimented the LED screens used at the event. The MAC 101s were mounted on

UK - Eclipse Presentations supplied full technical production, design and equipment - including lighting, sound, video and staging - for the 2014 Catey Awards, the high profile flagship event of The Caterer magazine which was staged in the Great Room of the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.

Eclipse's own winning creative concept for the presentation included an eye-catching set design based around an impressive edge-blended video projection, which included mapped images onto two large scenic replicas of the iconic Catey Award statue flanking both sides of the stage.

Started in 1984, the Cateys recognise individuals, teams and business within the hospitality sector, and are claimed to be the industry's only 'truly independent' benchmark of operational excellence.

It was the first time that Eclipse Presentations has won the contract to supply technical production for the

UK - Verbatim has announced the expansion of its LED range with a family of new easy-to-install luminaires for a broad range of professional lighting applications spanning hotels and restaurants to offices, retail stores and warehouses. Ideal for new lighting installations or upgrade projects, Verbatim's attractive light fixtures offer fast and easy fitting with compact housing dimensions and external power supply. Customers also benefit from improved thermal management and higher lumen output compared to when the lamps and fixtures are separate elements.

Suitable for most suspended ceilings, Verbatim's LED luminaires are far more energy and cost efficient than compact fluorescent or halogen alternatives, says the company.

Verbatim's recessed spotlights, with a choice of 25° or 40° beam angle and an adjustable LED head, are perfectly suited to delivering accent and spo

UK - As GDS enjoys its 10 year celebrations it shows no sign of reducing its ambitious approach to innovation. The launch of ArcLamp, awarded the ABTT 2014 Theatre Award for Lighting Product of the Year, is yet more evidence of the GDS forward march.

ArcLamp is the final piece in the jigsaw toward achieving a total LED auditorium lighting solution. Suitable for any shape, age or size of venue, ArcLamp is a like for like replacement for the standard candle or golf ball lamp in a beautiful LED equivalent and has all of the attributes synonymous with the ArcSystem range.

ArcLamp is a compact and robust 4.8W LED lamp available in Candle & Golf Ball in both clear and frosted types. Truly and smoothly dimmable from 100% to Absolute zero, ArcLamp is ideally suited for chandeliers, circle fronts and wall-lights. In replacing tungsten/ incandescent lamps, ArcLamp offers in the region o

Indonesia - Jakarta is Southeast Asia's largest city, and a thriving metropolis with a lively nightlife. It is also home to Colosseum Club and many other venues that strive for the attention of a population of over 10m. Against this background, the ambitious team of 1001 knew that the club had to stand out. The goal was to introduce a sound and lighting design that matches the club's unique and truly colossal scale.

LEDsCONTROL would take on the task to transform the club and propel it to the forefront of lighting design to find its very own spot among other well-known venues around the world. Under the lead of Rebeca Sánchez Pastor and Miquel Clot, a spacious arena that spans over 1,000 m2 with an astonishingly high ceiling of 16 m had to be lit up in completely new ways.

After shipping the majority of equipment, the team worked three weeks to get it all set up. The team inv

UK - Robe will be supplying in excess of 500 lighting fixtures for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Robe is working with lighting designer Tim Routledge on this project, who was the lead lighting programmer for the London 2012 Olympics Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

The Robe fixtures shining bright in Glasgow will include Pointes, CycFX, LEDWash 600s, LEDBeam 100s and the recently released LEDBeam 1000, together with Robe's latest LightWare battery up-lighters.

The Opening Ceremony takes place at Celtic Park Stadium on 23 July 2014 and will feature a cast of 2000 performers as well as 4,500 athletes from 71 nations, with a live audience of over 40,000 and a potential global live TV audience of over one billion.

The Closing Ceremony takes place at Hampden Park Stadium on 3 August.

The ceremonies are being created by global brand

UK - Multi award-winning lighting designer Tim Routledge is using the Clay Paky B-EYE K20 to add extreme definition to his show-stopping stage design for Gary Barlow's latest arena tour Since I Saw You Last.

Routledge combines huge onstage elements such as a 25m wide chandelier made from LED tubing and a 100ft wide video screen for Barlow's high-spec and extremely glamorous show.

"The creative concept behind the show was based around the super wide video screen," explains Routledge. "It's almost twice as wide as normal arena shows. As soon as it was rigged it created a really epic feel with a nice clean line. I wanted the show to be sleek and contemporary, punctuated with innovative effects."

As part of his sleek lighting design Routledge specified 46 of the new Clay Paky A.Leda B-EYE K20 fixtures along with 20 x Sharpy Wash luminaires, all supplie

UK - Four Ai Media S8 Infinity servers provided the cutting edge video mapping technology and 16 HD DVI outputs that powered the ethereal visuals behind Coldplay's much anticipated Royal Albert Hall (RAH) gig in London.

The RAH shows closed what was a short, six date, low key tour that supported their album Ghost Stories. Video director Ben Miles of Mixed Emotions, London, who has been with the band throughout, projected an evocative mix of live and pre-recorded content across the hall's 86 iconic ceiling mounted acoustic diffusion discs - known more fondly as the 'mushrooms'.

"I pushed for the Royal Albert Hall show to be particularly 'special', a stand-out performance from the rest of the tour," states Miles. "For this performance we wanted to combine the intimate setting we had created for the rest of the tour with something very visual and exciting.&q

Maldova - 20 DTS Raptors highlighted the Orange Music White Night event, held on 17 May at the Manej Sport Arena, in Chisinau City, Moldova.

Orange Music White Night - now in its fifth year and still growing - is one of Moldova's biggest music events; a unique show that gathers electronic music fans from across the whole country to dance the night away.

The event headliner was the world-renowned Andrew Rayel, who ranked #28 in 2013's 'DJ Mag's Top 100 DJs' poll. The Orange Music White Night light rig was installed by IvasArt, whilst Ivasco Stefan was lighting designer and operator.

(Claire Beeson)

Belgium - The 14-18 Spektakel Musical in Mechelen's Nekkerhal unites a world class production team including Luc Peumans and Painting With Light to commemorate the death and destruction of the First World War which started a century ago in 1914.

Painting With Light has worked on many previous projects with show producers Studio 100, and the first conversations with Peumans took place about the then very embryonic work around three years ago.

With the venue already earmarked, the idea of using mobile scenery trucks evolved, so Luc suggested simple lighting trickery to conceal these massive pieces when offstage ... by creating virtual wing space with light curtains.

The same concept is utilised to mask off different depths along the 'field of play' / performance space as the seating tribune and the location of the action shifts up and down the hall.

The light curtains

USA - It's an all too familiar story: a beloved historic theatre slowly falls into disrepair, and where music and dancing used to reverberate off its rafters, cobwebs now hang in silence. And while it may be the end for some theatres across the nation, The Civic Theatre in New Orleans was given a second chance and revitalization, thanks to the Solomon Group and Bandit Lites, in an effort that was recognized with the Seventh Annual Excellence in Live Design Awards for Venue - Theatre.

In what is being hailed as "the first modern historic theatre", The Civic Theatre received an entire overhaul, while still maintaining the historic characteristics that make it so special. The Solomon Group took painstaking care to ensure that no detail, down to the plaster on the balcony, kept the architectural integrity remained intact.

The execution of the design for every aspect of t

Germany / Australia - Astera has appointed Bluebottle as the exclusive distributor of its wireless event lights in Australasia. Bluebottle is based in Melbourne, Australia, and will serve mainland Australia, New Zealand and other Australasian islands. Bluebottle has been working with Astera since 2010 and this partnership will serve to enhance the sales, distribution and support of Astera's wireless event lighting range in the Australian market.

"The addition of Astera to our current portfolio significantly enhances our sales outlook as it allows us to provide an even more comprehensive array of audio/visual solutions to our customers," commented John Salisbury, associate director at Bluebottle. "We are committed to bringing this expanded offering to new and existing customers while also ensuring they receive the same level of service and support that they always

UK - Milton Keynes-based hire company, Impact Production Services (IPS) has invested in Chauvet Professional PVP S5 LED video panels, taking 196 for its hire inventory. IPS had already investigated the LED screen options available in the market and a summer series of confirmed jobs was the push needed to make the investment.

Tom Warden, project manager for IPS, explained the choice of Chauvet Professional. "The most important thing was that Chauvet guarantee all panels go through a rigorous quality control. UK-based spare parts and support made this a safe choice. And the product features were appealing, with the high resolution pixel pitch, intelligent rigging system and easy to use inter-panel connections."

Chauvet's service scored high with IPS at every point of contact, "Chauvet offered a demo and relatively short lead time for delivery to fit in with our pr

UK - The European leg of Arcade Fire's Reflektor tour came to an emotional end at this year's British Summertime Festival, held in London's Hyde Park. Audiences danced to the band's rhythmic indie-rock, superbly magnified by lighting designer Chris Bushell's impressive light show programmed and controlled using an Avolites Sapphire Touch.

Bushell's stage lighting worked seamlessly with the multi faceted set, devised by set designer Richard Stembride, and the on-stage video content. Combined, these factors brilliantly echoed the bombastic mood of the band's art-house electronica with the mass enthusiasm of the crowd.

Nevertheless this show has been no easy ride for the creative team, which has seen them deliver a complex show design capable of fitting into every kind of venue from big US sheds, to European arenas and weekend music festivals, often with limited time and not alwa

Australia - The State Library of New South Wales is one of the major locations on the Sydney tourist trail, having opened in 1910 thanks to funding from David Scott Mitchell. Its location in the heart of Sydney means that as well as housing one of Australia's premier collections of books, it is also the start of many of the cities sightseeing tours.

LumenRadio, working with Enttec and Sylvania Lighting Australasia provided a wireless control scheme to update the building facade lighting and add color controls, wireless monitoring and integration into the building LAN. Enttec supplied the LumenRadio products along with a selection of their Aleph product portfolio to the project, which installed during the heat of the Australian summer.

Steve Furzey, technical manager at Sylvania Lighting Australasia commented, "The LumenRadio products are well constructed, simple to setup,

South Africa - Canadian singer / songwriter Tamia played three dates on her recent South African tour and for the two Johannesburg shows staged at the Carnival City Big Top Arena, lighting was designed by Magz Schoeman who used Robe moving lights at the core of her rig, including the venue's new Robin Pointes.

Schoeman is head of lighting at Carnival City and lights many performers visiting the venue with a schedule that includes a steady flow of international artists.

For Tamia, Schoeman had a free rein to come up with the design, and started with the music, which embraces multi genres including R 'n' B, pop, hip hop soul, neo soul and gospel jazz - and so has a wide dynamic range for lighting as well as the performance.

"R 'n' B / pop suggested to me lots of crystal pastel colours, gobos and texturing and flowing movement so that's the way it went. It was huge fun lig

USA - Country music icon Tim McGraw embarked on his Sundown Heaven Town 2014 tour in May, with Silent House production designer, Baz Halpin orchestrating a typically inventive set that evolves as the show unwinds.

Having been approached by production manager, John 'Lug' Zajonc and tour manager Nick Cua, Halpin was soon discussing concepts with the artist himself. "He wanted this show to look unlike anything he had done before - moving away from the traditional imagery of country music and into something more modern looking." He also wanted to display abstract 'light and shape' imagery and integrate the lighting with a multiple LED screen canvas."

To help him implement this, Halpin, in conjunction with lighting director Pat Brannon, selected 134 of GLP's impression X4 LED moving heads to create a highly imaginative lighting dynamic.

Along with colleagues

UK - Utopium contributed to the stunning setting for the inaugural Bristol Summer Series, 25-26 June, 2014, for Metropolis Music when it supplied a comprehensive lighting production, including newly acquired fixtures.

These were the first major music events in Bristol's Harbourside for 10 years: open air concerts featuring Paolo Nutini on 25 June, with The Pogues 26 June and the promoters have since announced their intention to establish an annual Bristol Summer Series event.

The stage was framed by a tall ship, the Kaskelot, where Paolo Nutini played a combination of his hits with tunes from his latest album Caustic Love to a sell-out crowd of 5000, while The Pogues were also a huge hit, attracting 3500 people who danced the night away to Irish punk-folk classics.

Utopium's Colin Bodenham and John Newman combined their skills to design and deliver the stage lighting

Germany - Since July 2014 HB-Laserkomponenten GmbH is a member of the Laserworld Group and underlines Laserworld being the world leader in the field of manufacturing and distribution of show laser light systems.

Martin Werner, CEO at Laserworld, has overseen several acquisitions and new foundations of companies in the Laserworld Group in the past years, where he sees an obvious trend: "In an increasingly difficult niche-market, consolidating is essential to configure in a way to be competitive and at the same time provide products that perfectly meet the requirements of the customers. Achieving this in such a specialized industry like ours is only possible with a strong team of highly qualified individuals; Laserworld provides the ideal framework for this."

The company network already spans the whole world. The various companies maintain their independence, identity

USA - Free registration is now open for PLASA Focus: Austin 2014. Taking place at the Palmer Events Centre on 9-10 September, this will be the second time PLASA Focus has returned to Texas since the launch of the event series in North America in February 2012.

PLASA Focus provides visitors with the opportunity to check out the latest products from some of the biggest names in entertainment technology. Companies already signed up to exhibit include: d&b audiotechnik, Chauvet Professional, TMB, Altman Lighting, Drape Kings, Harrington Hoists, Lightronics, Elation Professional, and Big House Sound, among many others. With many other applications being processed, companies interested in exhibiting are advised to move quickly to secure a spot.

Running alongside the exhibition is the PLASA Professional Development Programme which offers attendees free access to seminars. The program

South Africa - From humble beginnings, JMVR restaurant owner, Mike van Reenen, had the right idea when he opened his first venue, Soccer Shack in Pretoria 15 years ago.

Today he owns and manages five very successful venues in the city, one of which is Europa Night Club situated in Sunnyside. Europa has been going strong for the past eight years and the time recently came for Mike to up his game and upgrade the sound and lighting for the venue, making it on par with international specs.

He started with the audio system and involved Wild & Marr who did what they do best!

DWR Distribution was approached to manage the lighting upgrade. Schalk Botha from DWR worked with Mike and Henno van Wyk, regionaly manager for JMVR, on the solution to highlight the key areas.

After a few meetings and demos the choice was made. Robe's Robin 100 LEDBeams and Robin CYCFX 8's have been install

Australia - When Darlinghurst Theatre Company, The City of Sydney and architects Tonkin Zulaikha Greer set about to renovate and repurpose Darlinghurst's Burton St Tabernacle as The Eternity Playhouse, there were always going to be a lot of technical and physical challenges. The building was originally constructed as a Baptist church in 1887, and now had to be adapted to run lights, sound, power and flybars, as well as accommodate clear sightlines for the audience.

With the Tabernacle's heritage came beauty and workmanship, including the decorative timber ceiling. Intricately worked and carved, the timber inlays are original to the Tabernacle and are a masterpiece of an almost lost art. Beautifully restored, they are a highlight of a visit to the theatre. But how do you run a functional lighting rig and grid without blocking the view of the ceiling?

Working with Darlinghurst T

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