UK - Avolites is going down the 'size matters' route at this year's PLASA London, showcasing new wings to enlarge its industry-leading consoles, and unveiling a brand new, compact console aimed at the touring market.

The Avolites team will be on stands M10 and M20 at London's ExCel for PLASA, which runs from 5-8 October 2014. First up, they will be offering hands-on demos of the new Quartz console.

"Quartz is the newest addition to the Titan Mobile family, complete with on-board processing and a bright, vibrant 12.1" screen," says Avolites sales manager, Stephen Baird Smith. "Super compact, measuring only 42.5cm wide, the Quartz is positioned as the ideal companion for lighting projects ranging from touring and festivals to clubs and one-offs. It is Avolites' smallest fully-featured console.

"Featuring the same high quality faders and hardware you've

Finland - Finnish pop singer Jenni Vartiainen rose to fame after winning the talent show Popstars in 2002 - as part of a band - and later launched her solo career in 2007. Now she is among the 50 best-selling recording artists of all time in Finland, and by the end of 2014 she will have performed more than 100 concerts this year alone.

Lighting designer, Pasi "Pasu" Koivistoinen, has worked with the artiste for four years. Latest project is her new album Terra, with the live tour that started in November 2013 and reached a staggering 33 summer festival gigs this year.

In early 2013, Pasu first approached local distributor Noretron Communication Ltd and its CEO Timo Kunnas to test some of SGM's fixtures in order to assess his possibilities regarding special strobe effects. These tests influenced rental company Uudenmaan Kiertuetekniikka Ltd to invest in

Poland - As part of the Warsaw Mozart Festival, which has been running for more than 20 years, lighting designer Adam Tyszka this year took on responsibility for an open air performance of the W. A. Mozart opera The Magic Flute. This opera took place in the courtyard of the 17th century Museum of King Jan III Palace at Wilanow, thus using the prestigious façade as a beautiful backdrop for lighting and video creativity.

The concept and location of this event, being open air and using the façade as a backdrop for multimedia content, limited the use of truss. Any type of roof above the stage would cause the truss/construction pieces to obstruct the view of video projections onto the façade. Therefore, the lighting designer relied on the technical crew's ability to protect the equipment located close to the stage.

Owner of main lighting supplier Setlight, Przemyslaw Wrem

Egypt - Media production company HiLights Egypt has specified high grade automated beam movement from PR Lighting for the first season of a new game show franchise, Minute To Win It - originally conceived as an American prime time game show, divided into a series of 60-second challenges.

Screened by El Nahar TV Egypt, and recorded in their studio in front of a live audience, the set features 48 of PR Lighting's XR 200 Beam fixtures, 36 of the XLED 1037 and 24 of the XL 300 Beam.

Lebanese lighting designer, Fouad Hadad, chose the PR Lighting fixtures because of their quality, and the relationship he had with HiLights, who are also the company's Egyptian distributor.

Emulating the set and stage concept seen in other countries, he deployed the XR 200's (housing the 189W Philips MSD Platinum 5R) in equal quantities between the overhead truss, which it shared with the XLED

UK - Adlib supplied lighting, sound and rigging to two main arenas and the Hospitality / VIP area at the 2014 Creamfields EDM festival staged at Daresbury Estate near Warrington, UK.

Working for creative and technical production specialists LarMac LIVE and renewing their long term working relationship with Cream - the brand synonymous with Liverpool cool since its launch as a club concept in the heady rave days 1992 - this was the third high profile Liverpool-centric event for Adlib in as many months. It followed hot on the heels of The Giants Spectacular and the seven-week International Festival of Business.

Creamfields 2014 saw a glittering array of the biggest, best and most popular DJs in the world joining the lineup. Adlib were working in Arenas 04 (hosted by Pete Tong / London Warehouse Events), 05 (Revealed / Super You & Me) and the VIP (Hospitality Audio System).

Lea

Sri Lanka - The island of Sri Lanka recently welcomed its first ever lighting industry networking event as Chinese manufacturer PR Lighting hosted a hugely successful marketing showcase.

Commencing on the evening of 21 August, around 70 key customers from all over the country (along with a media representative) attended the event, which combined a series of product sessions within a convivial social ambience.

The evening was divided into four segments. The welcome and introduction was immediately followed by an opportunity to try out the company's new products; this led into a live lightshow, and finally a buffet.

Supported by local customer The Light House (Pvt) Ltd., PR Night Sri Lanka 2014 was staged at the Hilton Colombo. PR Lighting's Lawrence Mao, introduced the company's new season products, giving visitors hands-on experience before putting the automated fixtures thr

Germany - Held at the former monastery of Haus Hohenbusch just outside of Erklenz in western Germany, the Electrisize Open Air Festival celebrated its fifth anniversary on 9 August with a barrage of electro and House music from an impressive line-up of DJs supported by a lighting and video package that included Elation Professional Platinum Beam 5R effects and EVLED Series LED panels.

Rental company Ton in Ton Veranstaltungstechnik of Erkelenz was full service stage, sound, lighting and video provider for the event which included stage design and technical implementation. Ton in Ton's Frank Zander produced an exhilarating and complementary lighting design after preliminary discussions with the client in which it was decided to let the old monastery buildings provide the distinctive backdrop for the event.

"I developed a stage which was very open," Frank commented, &q

Australia - In his role as Thinker in Residence at Deakin University Motion.Lab, Garry Stewart created Multiverse, a new type of audience experience where visually stunning 3D graphics share the stage with three dancers from Australian Dance Theatre. The production is one of the first 3D performances to be created by an Australian dance company. Viewed through 3D glasses, Multiverse is an extraordinary new work that combines the power of live dance with the wonder of 3D graphics from one of the great innovators of Australian dance.

Multiverse also uses infrared technology; an infrared camera follows the movements of the dancers and an interactive computerised system responds to the data collected. This enables sound, video, and lighting to respond live to the actions of the dancer.

"So wherever a performer moves, you can drop out the background information so the projecte

UK - Bristol-based lighting and visuals rental specialists Fineline supplied lighting, LED screen, rigging and crew to the 2014 Eden Sessions, a diverse series of music performances staged at the Eden Project in Cornwall, UK, one of the most atmospheric and magical settings in the country.

For the second year, Fineline worked closely with Andy Cotton of TAO Productions, who production managed the events and co-ordinated all technical aspects. The Sessions ran over five weeks and featured a star-studded line up including Skrillex, Dizzee Rascal, Katy B, Ellie Goulding, Elbow, The Pixies and others.

Fineline's Rob Sangwell explains that they designed a highly flexible and practical 'house' lighting rig, designed so all the touring bands could come in 'underneath' with their respective touring packages. Lighting for each gig - although based around the fixtures available in the h

The Netherlands - ETC is getting ready for the IBC show in Amsterdam this week, with fixtures, system- and power control to be highlighted on their stand (A62 in Hall 11).

Available for demonstration in the integrated system control area of the stand will be the ETC Unison Paradigm control system. Paradigm provides presenters, technicians and camera operators with the tools to control lighting in all studio situations. It has been used in an increasing number of remote studios, including at BBC News' Westminster studios, where the presenter or reporter can operate the small studio's lighting from a touch-panel on the desk, out of sight of the camera.

Also on display will be the latest Source Four LED Series 2 developments, which are especially suited for broadcast use. Visitors to ETC's stand will get the first glimpse of the new fixtures.

ETC's seven colour LED mixing syste

USA / Europe - Elation Professional's EVLED 20 LED panel takes centre stage on Colorado rock quintet OneRepublic's long running Native tour, forming a focal point of the show's diamond-shaped set look.

Production and lighting designer on the show is Chris Lisle, who created the tour's signature diamond-shaped look together with Scott Scovill, owner of video content and equipment services provider Moo TV (www.mootv.com), who also serves as tour vendor for the EVLED panels.

"Scott and I had both used the EVLED 20 panels on several other tours and worked together with the band to come up with the overall look for this show," Chris states. "With the uniqueness of the design, we needed a product that could mount easily into custom frames and need little maintenance. The EVLED panels are very dependable and look great."

The EVLED panels, a medium resolut

UK - Optoma UK has expanded its LED Lighting business with the appointment of two new regional sales managers, Ian McNeill and Daniel Holden.

Nick Price, Optoma's territory manager, said,"We are delighted Ian and Daniel have joined the team at Optoma to grow our LED lighting business.

"LED lighting was a logical progression for Optoma, which has been producing award-winning LED projectors for numerous years. We have been established in the UK for almost two decades and have a strong infrastructure. I am confident Ian and Daniel will bring enthusiasm and a fresh approach to the lighting industry to make a positive impact on the business."

After graduating from Loughborough with an economics degree, Daniel started his career as a graduate trainee for an electrical wholesaler. He remained in the industry, specialising in lighting, most recently with JCC.

Most r

UAE - Oasis Enterprises Professional Projects Division has appointed Luke Bonner to the position of special projects engineer with responsibility for developing existing design packages in the Architainment segment.

"We have experienced a huge upsurge in demand for our specialised integration service with architainment projects, and Luke's 14 years of experience across the broad spectrum of entertainment, event and architectural lighting in the UAE will add and enhance our existing portfolio of services and demonstrates that we can continue to deliver excellence locally," says David Gray, architainment division manager - Oasis Enterprises Professional Projects Division

Luke previously worked for Production Technology followed by Ruud Lighting Arabia as entertainment lighting designer and engineering application manager respectively.

(Jim Evans)

UK - 'A thin slice of broadcast quality video, in a robust, waterproof package that can form displays of almost any shape you want' - 'LightSlice' is now officially launched and commercially available worldwide.

This dramatic-looking offering from digiLED, the product manufacturing arm of international screen specialist displayLED, was first previewed at InfoComm in the USA this June.

Offering a full video pixel slice with some very practical as well as innovative and creative properties, LightSlice was designed in the UK using Japanese components and assembled in Korea.

In its native form the slice's 10mm pixel pitch allows a true 10mm display surface. But the product really comes into its own when creating variable pitch displays with video effects and organic shapes to complement highly creative stage and set designs.

The digiLED Navigator-NV processor makes sure the co

Denmark - Martin Professional has revealed a new online universe in celebration of passionate people in the lighting industry - the people without whom Martin would not be what it is today.

Wall of Dedication (http://wall.martin.com) is a collection of personal accounts from passionate people across the globe who are involved in the lighting industry. People share their stories of how they got into the industry, their sources of inspiration as well as pieces of advice and pearls of wisdom on a web-based platform. The people featured are a mixture of upcoming and well established, high-profile people and the ones in between with one thing in common; namely passion for their trade and for the industry.

Says the company, "It is clear to Martin that a large portion of the success can be traced back to the dedication of the people in the industry - people like the consumers. M

UK - PRG Nocturne has announced that James Morden has joined their UK team as a senior account manager. With 18 years of video experience in the industry, Morden is eager to help PRG Nocturne continue to expand in the UK with innovative video services, gear, and support for concerts, public festivals, and corporate events.

"A core value of PRG Nocturne has always been to invest in people," notes PRG UK chief sales officer Rich Rowley. "Having James join our UK team underscores that commitment. He will allow us to continue to provide the meticulous level of customer support that PRG Nocturne is known for, especially as our UK operation is rapidly growing."

Morden has demonstrated throughout his career that he shares the PRG Nocturne focus on understanding and anticipating the needs of their clients. "Joining PRG Nocturne is a real honour, their products

UK - Leisuretec Distribution Ltd have confirmed their new trade partnership with Laserworld (Switzerland) AG, manufacturers of show laser systems, effective September 2014.

Leighton Buzzard-based Leisuretec are distributors of professional and commercial audio, lighting, video and special effects to the trade.

Cliff Dounting, managing director, commented on the new partnership, "It's extremely exciting to see your growth plans continue to develop and by adding a whole new product category to our portfolio is fantastic. We are very proud to be partnering with Laserworld and to have the opportunity to provide our customers with a greater choice of products. These are amazing show lasers designed and built to a very high standard and backed by great technical support. We are very excited to be able to provide even greater value and added services to our clients."

Sale

UK - Creative Technology have been involved with the provision of display technology to The Championships, Wimbledon for 15 years. In that time there have been numerous developments and evolutions, perhaps the most challenging taking place in 2014.

Alongside the large screen on the Aorangi Terrace (aka Henman Hill/Murray Mound), CT now provide 28 additional LED displays and a sophisticated production, routing and distribution system.

The four ticketed show courts each have a pair of full colour LED score boards and smaller ball speed indicators. The traditional flip dot displays were upgraded to full colour LED in 2007 to coincide with the redevelopment of Centre Court and the introduction of Hawkeye. Originally employing Barco's O-lite 612 system the displays were enlarged and upgraded in 2013 with Barco's new C8 technology.

Whilst the television viewer only ever sees the d

USA - The Penn State Nittany Lions play all of their home games at Beaver Stadium in University Park, Pennsylvania. With an astounding capacity of over 106,000, Beaver Stadium is the second largest stadium in the Western hemisphere (after the University of Michigan's stadium) and the fourth largest in the world.

A recent off-season upgrade to high-definition LED scoreboards inspired a parallel upgrade to a new high-definition sound system that relies on Danley Sound Labs Jericho Horns to throw sound from the south end zone clear across to the north end zone - and all areas between - with point-source, horn-loaded fidelity. Coverage is a remarkable ±2dB across that huge expanse, and eight Danley TH-812 subwoofers support the full-range content with honest, musical low end that shakes the stands.

Clair Solutions senior systems designer Jim Devenney designed the system with assi

UK - What have a raven eating a worm on a string, Dynamo the magician throwing Mr Bump at people and a man buying an £80 watch for £4,000 got in common? These were all things that actually happened at UKTV Live on 4 September 2014.

And if that all sounds too crazy for words, the logistics and systems to make this event happen were equally complex. An annual showcase of UKTV's new season shows, the event needed to be slick, exciting and wired with the latest technology. Cue Broadsword, a full service technical event company, who helped UKTV launch its upcoming programmes to the industry for the third year running, partnering with producers Momentum Events.

This year, the event was held at the Phillips Gallery in London. The open-plan venue was the perfect place to offer live stage shows coupled with lounge areas and exhibition booths. Key to this was using the space

Portugal - When the famous Rock in Rio Festival returned to Lisbon (Portugal) this summer, and crowds of up to 350,000 swarmed to the Parque da Bela Vista, they zeroed in on the main Palco Mundo stage, the façade of which was spectacularly lit by 120 GLP impression X4 LED heads.

This provided the setting for top tier acts such as the Rolling Stones, Arcade Fire, Justin Timberlake, Linkin Park, Queens of the Stone Age and many more to perform over the four days.

Having worked with Rock in Rio, one of the largest festivals in the world, for the last decade, lighting design company, bright! GmbH again turned to GLP's successful impression platform.

Thomas Giegerich, who runs the German lighting company with brother Michael, confirmed that they had successfully built on the legacy of the original impression 90s. "We used all the X4 to bring the metal stage structure to lif

Ireland - Chauvet Professional PVP LED video panel technology was specified by Dublin-based company, Just Lite Productions, to illuminate the main stage area at Ireland's Life Festival for the exclusively electronic music line-up, headlined by London's Groove Armada.

The back of stage area was rigged with PVP S7 LED video panels to create a 6-by-2m screen. The PVP S7 is a solid, high definition video panel with black face SMD LEDs and a tight pixel pitch of 7.8mm, suitable for a high-ambiance festival setting where high-resolution graphics and a high contrast ratio are required. The panels achieve equally crisp images in short- and long-viewing applications, as well as in the dark and in daylight.

The front of the DJ box featured PVP S5 LED video panels, providing a contrast with its tighter 5.2mm pixel pitch for shorter viewing distances. Again, the common PVP video technolog

UK - Britannia Row Productions Training is hosting an Open Evening on Tuesday 16 September - 6.00pm - 8.30pm at its Wandsworth Training Centre in London.

Says the organisation, "Learn about the course from the world-class sound engineers who deliver our training, and who will be running practical demos for you. Explore the facilities and hear from students how our training has enabled them to start their careers in live sound. Come along and tell us how we can help you!"

(Jim Evans)

UK - This year, the Bupa Great North Run was the first event of its kind in the world to reach its one millionth entrant. On 4 September both Newcastle and Gateshead Quaysides, along with the River Tyne were transformed into a huge outdoor arena marking the countdown to this year's run.

The stunning opening ceremony included mass choreography, live music, boats, giant floating sculptures, projection mapping, pyrotechnics and more to tell the incredible story of the North East, featuring a creative team who have previously worked on the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympic Opening Ceremonies.

Aurora Lighting Hire provided lighting facilities for the event working with lighting designer Oli Richards, assisted by associate lighting designer, Seb Williams. Working closely with the design team was production electrician John Nowell and Aurora project manager Sam Crook.

Oli Richard

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