UK - Heathrow Airport and Fisher Productions worked together to bring some Christmas magic to travellers over the Christmas period at Terminal 2: The Queens Terminal.

Building on Terminal 2's vision, in conjunction with Heathrow, The Fisher team have designed and installed a giant vinyl Christmas tree which stands over 90ft high in the covered courtyard to T2, close to the Slipstream sculpture by renowned British artist Richard Wilson.

Fisher have added a very modern interactive touch to this traditional looking tree, overlaying it with festoons of lights that can be triggered to flash and dance by passengers who tweet Christmas greetings to #T2Christmas. After dark the tree will come alive with a gentle wash of light giving it an enchanting glow.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Leisuretec Distribution has selected Chauvet as a preferred supplier and strategic partner, reinforcing the existing relationship between the trade distributor of audio, lighting, video and special effects, and the lighting manufacturer. The announcement comes as a result of Leisuretec's decision to focus on a selection of hand-picked brands with strong customer appeal.

Cliff Dounting, managing director of Leisuretec, says: "What's nice is a manufacturer recognising a true trade distributor. We have a relationship built on strong teamwork, and it's a great pleasure to be associated with such a growing team at Chauvet Europe."

Leisuretec founder director Mike Henden adds: "Having a really good relationship between the key people in each company is fundamental to a strong, long-term partnership."

Leisuretec will continue to offer sales and support for

UK - Applications are being sought by Rose Bruford College for its Junior Ready Steady Light 2015, a lighting design competition which offers teams the opportunity to win an amazing prize - to chance to redesign the architectural lighting of the National Theatre on London's Southbank.

Philips and the Society of Light and Lighting continue to sponsor Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance's hugely successful Junior Ready Steady Light competition for 2015. Rose Bruford College aims to attract eight teams from state schools, further education colleges and art organisations working with young people, made up of five year 12 and 13 students, or those similar in age, to participate in a full day of activities that lead up to the final competition and prize-giving ceremony.

This is an exciting opportunity for young people interested in science, art, design, technology and te

UK - S+H Technical has supplied specialist draping and 'soft' lighting effects lighting to several high profile TV shows recently including Strictly's Blackpool special as well as for the regular weekly show broadcast from Elstree Studios; the main Children In Need telethon studio; popular talent competition Stars in Their Eyes back on air in 2015 after a nine year hiatus; new ITV talent show Get Your Act Together and Bette Midler's first ever ITV special One Night Only.

Another blockbusting Strictly season for the BBC sees S+H working with BAFTA Award winning set and scenic designer Patrick Doherty - a regular client - for whom the Ilfracombe, Devon-based company is supplying around 6000 Pea-Lights for the regular weekly episodes broadcast from Entree Studios. The Pea-Lights are integrated into the set walls of Patrick's impressive ballroom de

USA - Slipknot headlined its own musical festival, Knotfest, on 24-26 October at the San Manuel Amphitheater in San Bernadino, California, and then kicked off its Prepare for Hell world tour, both using rigs that include Elation Professional's new hybrid Platinum SBX luminaire along with Elation Cuepix Blinders and a video centerpiece made up of Elation EPT9IP LED video panels.

The grisly-masked heavy metal rockers are out on an 18-month world tour in support of their first album release in six years, .5: The Gray Chapter, which debuted in October at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart. The tour sees the band playing dates in the US, Japan (at Knotfest Japan), Europe and Australia with more legs expected to be added.

Slipknot plays an aggressive style of music with energetic live shows that have been described as 'choreographed chaos'. Production designer

UK - Masters of metal Motorhead returned to the UK after the festival season for a limited special run of autumn shows. To kick these dates up a notch, lighting designer Caio Bertti started from scratch, devising a simple yet extremely powerful lighting theme, with an ultra-versatile Avolites' Sapphire Touch console as the ace up his sleeve.

Bertti's design is traditional rock and roll, yet with a contemporary edge of LED and moving lights mixed in with ever-faithful Par Cans. Preferring to control the show on the fly, Caio specified the intuitive Sapphire Touch.

"With Motorhead, if you have music in your blood you'll have a great show," says the Brazilian designer. "There's no cue-list, there's no time coding, it's just in my head and fingers. You have to play the board, which is why I chose the Sapphire Touch. It gives me more freedom and I can run through the

Russia - With a style of its own that miraculously intertwined the best traditions of Russian and Soviet culture as well as new trends of the modern entertainment industry, the World Circus Festival - IDOL 2014 took place at The Great Moscow Circus from 10-14 September. Martin Professional fixtures played the main role in creating exciting lighting effects in accordance with the vision of the event.

Preparation time for the festival was limited as the event grounds had hosted another performance right before, so the technicians had to dismantle the previous installation and create a new rig for IDOL using 64 MAC 101s, 20 MAC Viper Profiles, 24 MAC Auras, 12 MAC III Washes, six MAC III Performances, 10 MAC III AirFXs, 12 Atomic 3000 DMXs with Atomic Colors, two Glaciator X-Streams, a Jem Hydra with 12 heads, and six Jem K1 Hazers with six AF-1 fans.

"The fixture park of Th

Sweden - The Göteborg Opera has become hooked on SGM P-5 technology. Since purchasing their first units 18 months ago, they have kept adding to their inventory and now own 34 P-5 wash lights.

Production lighting manager Kent Hellberg explains, "Since I acquired the first P-5, every production in the house seems to want them."

Currently being deployed for the production of Mozart's Le Nozze de Figaro by lighting designer Giuseppe di Lorio, the luminaires are washing the backdrop as an essential part of the opera. But Hellberg has other lighting designers also queuing up to utilise the P-5s. "Every lighting designer that I've shown the P-5 to has been impressed," Hellberg confirms.

The P-5s have therefore been used for different projects - for instance for a dance company, where the Japanese choreographer wanted a strong even colour output; and that

USA - The Addison Theatre Centre, home of the WaterTower Theatre, has invested in ArKaos MediaMaster Pro 4.0 software which it recently utilised on the WaterTower Theatre Company's production of Bonnie and Clyde.

Founded in 1996, the multi-awarding-winning WaterTower Theatre is a not-for-profit professional theatre company that produces six main stage shows each season alongside award-winning educational and community outreach programmes.

Earlier this year Fred Mikeska and Darrell Barnes of A.C. Lighting (ArKaos' US distributor) took Arkaos MediaMaster Pro to The Addison Theatre Centre where they presented a full demonstration of its capabilities to technical director, Scott Guenther, and lighting designers, Dan Schoedel and Jason Foster. "The team at Addison Theatre Centre was evaluating different media server options that would meet the venue's diverse requiremen

USA - Creative BackStage of Phoenix turned to an Elation lighting and video package as a main element of their visual design for Fear Fest, Arizona's ultimate Halloween EDM festival that took place 1 November at The Slaughterhouse in Tucson. Fear Fest combined high-energy dance music from featured DJ's with the thrills of three different haunted houses, all in one entertaining, spooky-themed festival.

The Slaughterhouse is a well-known haunted house in Tucson and because the event was held on Halloween weekend Creative BackStage wanted to create a design that represented the ghoulishness of the holiday as well as the Fear Fest festival.

"The idea was simple, to use LED video screens for eyes and a mouth with video images that would be of the fear kind with monster eyes and teeth or devilish eyes," explains John Garberson, owner of Creative Backstage and lighting desi

World - Renowned lighting designer LeRoy Bennett has painted Lady Gaga's ice themed ArtRave / Artpop Ball world tour set with beat perfect layers of dancing light and his medium of choice is Clay Paky.

Bennett uses huge banks of A.leda B-EYE K20s and Sharpys to light the set to deliver a wealth of vibrant, multi layered, multi-faceted and lively looks. Supported by lighting director Whitney Hoversten, who has taken the show on the road, Bennett specified 107 x Clay Paky B-EYEs and 83 x Sharpys, all supplied by PRG, to create the show's high octane, rave style atmosphere.

"My first thought when it came to creating the rave style concept was that the audience has to be fully immersed in the show and become part of it," says Bennett. "I chose the Clay Paky B-EYEs for their versatility and unique personality, they are the icing on the cake tools that add all the det

USA - Chart-topping LA-based indie pop duo, Capital Cities, have completed the first North American leg of their In a Tidal Wave of Mystery tour, together with a highly flexible lighting design created by Chris Smith.

For the first time, Smith is using Robe's CycFX 8 moving LED battens, together with 10 x Pointes. He had previously used Pointes on a Fitz And The Tantrums tour, was impressed, and so when this design came up, he immediately specified them again.

The rig had to be scalable to deal with the variety of venues on the itinerary - from clubs to theatres of capacities between 1000 and 3000 - and to guarantee they always had their proper lightshow.

Smith wanted to introduce architecture and shape to the stage, as well as develop a concept that worked as a comprehensive floor package in conjunction with any overheads utilized from the venues' house rigs.<

UK - Philips Vari-Lite is currently rolling out training for the industry standard VL4000 Spot, with one of the most recent workshops taking place at London's RADA.

Highly experienced Vari-Lite trainer for EMEA Coral Cooper was hosting the hands on session, where the VL4000 Spot luminaires were disassembled to the sub-assembly level to demonstrate ideal maintenance techniques. Cooper also explained the VL4000 Spot luminaire's broad range of features, informing the end users and potential customers at the session on how to maximise its vast potential.

Among the attendees was James Ashdown, Director at Automated Ltd. "The VL4000 is a multi-featured fixture, with all the tools a lighting designer needs in one," says Ashdown. "I'm very pleased to see that Philips Vari-Lite has included a four bladed shutter module into the fixture without losing any other features.

Australia - Melbourne companies Mint Lighting Design and ENTTEC have transformed the forecourt and main terminal façade at Melbourne Airport with a dynamic lighting installation that provides ambience and entertainment and welcomes travellers to the city.

The landmark project covers 12 individual sites programmed as one to create an intricate, synchronised light show that boasts more than 40,000 pixels and 57 universes to control and schedule them.

In total, 2140 individual products were designed and installed.Key elements include: 14m 'Melbourne' sign in the forecourt; 140m double-sided light projections beneath the elevated roadway; 60m canopy lighting within pedestrian bridges, plus light in shell canopies and trees; interactive 'light shower' that bathes visitors in blue light, inspired by research into its effects on the circadian rhythm.

Specialised programming across

UK - Artistic Licence has launched www.art-net.org.uk, a website dedicated to the Art-Net protocol. Offering a wealth of technical information, practical tips, downloads and registration portal, the website provides the definitive resource for anyone working with Art-Net.

Introduced by Artistic Licence into the public domain in 1998, Art-Net transformed the lighting control market by removing the channel restriction of DMX512. The protocol enabled multiple universes of data to be transported over a single ethernet cable, a necessary development as channel-hungry RGB LED fixtures became widely adopted.

Art-Net has always been non-proprietary and available free-of-charge. As a result, it is now supported by more than 150 manufacturers worldwide.

Offering over 16m control channels with full support for remote device management (RDM), Art-Net is ready for an even bigger, brighte

USA - LDI 2014, Las Vegas saw double-fold excitement around Robert Juliat this year as two booths promoted the latest products from the French manufacturer of followspots, profiles and Fresnels.

Robert Juliat USA's booth displayed popular, well-established brands including its LED profile ranges and a number of its powerful followspots. Simultaneously, newly-appointed US distributor, ACT Lighting, marked its first showing of Robert Juliat products by introducing Robert Juliat's latest followspots, the new Merlin and Roxie.

LDI 2014 witnessed the first viewing on US soil of Robert Juliat's new touring followspot, Merlin. Merlin is the culmination of an ambitious project to produce a powerful, rugged followspot for the touring market.

"America is the home of the megatour, with stadium rock, mega churches and large sporting events an essential part of its culture," sa

USA - Virtually every new club lighting project has its own challenges, whether they involve dealing with limited power draw or trying to accommodate some unusual architectural limitation. For Jay Krause of Sound and Lighting Solutions (Fort Lauderdale, FL), the biggest challenge when working on the city's Hunter's nightclub was getting the ten Rogue fixtures his client wanted in fast enough.

"As soon as our client saw demos of the Rogue R1 Spot and R1 Beam, they fell in love with the fixtures," said Krause. "They wanted them yesterday. They were super excited, because they saw what the Rogues can do in a bi-level club -- which is create added depth plus all of these magical uplifting images in the air."

There are six Rogue R1 Spots and four Rogue R1 Beams in Krause's rig at the club. He positioned the beams midway between the first and second levels. "

USA - Core is establishing a branch office in Virginia Beach, Virginia headed by Martin Lawrence, and will be the exclusive distributor for Core Lighting in the USA and Canada.

Core MD Phil Ion comments: "This shows we are serious about promoting our brand in the American market, which has seen a steady increase in business over the last two years."

In that time, Core has developed relationships with several leading American event lighting companies who are investing in their 'Made-in-the-UK' products which has brought a raft of innovative and successful fixtures like ColourPoint to the events market.

The US operation is also part of Core's overall medium-term expansion strategy, which up until now has been focussed on Europe.

Says Ion: "We're generally experiencing a surge in demand for quality products, and the 'Made-in-the-UK' marque is a real advantage.

USA - Pantano Christian Church already had a good lighting system, when its leaders concluded that "good" lighting wasn't quite good enough when it came to creating the kind of engaging worship experience they wanted to offer their congregation. So they contacted house of worship design/build firm CCI Solutions of Olympia, WA to implement a comprehensive lighting and audio upgrade at their church.

Consultants Duke DeJong and Todd Gathany of CCI Solutions spent two days with the senior leadership and programming teams at Pantano, working with the church to define their vision and walk through their potential new lighting and audio systems, describing how each could help them achieve their goal. For the lighting side of the upgrade, CCI Solutions added a collection of LED stage lighting from Chauvet Professional to the church's system.

"Pantano was already doing s

UK - The first of Robe's new BMFL Spot fixtures to tour in the UK were specified by Boston based lighting designer Jeff Maker for the recent Gaslight Anthem tour - for which they were purchased by Leeds based rental company Zig Zag Lighting.

Jeff - whose CV includes imaginative lighting for several 'alternative' bands including All Time Low - presented his first lighting design for the US punk rockers who kicked off their Get Hurt album campaign. He was recommended for the gig for his creative flair by FOH sound engineer Joe Amato, who also mixes All Time Low.

Jeff has worked with Zig Zag on several previous occasions, and they are his rental company of choice for the UK and Europe.

Zig Zag's Neil Hunt says: "Essentially I needed a super-bright fixture to use on large spec shows that often have a high video or bright LED elements. Various fixtures appear on light

Brazil - Under the wise guidance of jurors Alarico Sanchez, Césio Lima, Daniel Ridano, Danny Nolan, Francesco Romagnoli and Marcos Olívio, the second MA 3D contest was hosted in São Paulo, Brazil.

The first day of the contest started with a grandMA2 Advanced User Training course accompanied by a lecture by renowned lighting designer Danny Nolan in the evening. During the lecture Nolan illustrated his personal approach to designing a show.

The following day focused on the actual contest, starting with the 29 participants presenting their projects which had been programmed using the MA 3D software. From here, 12 participants made it to the second round on the following and final day. Throughout this final day, the contestants could illustrate their show on a real stage equipped with Clay Paky moving lights.

After this final presentation, the winners were announced: 1s

Turkey - Tarkan, one of the most popular singers in Turkey as well as around the World, has met with his fans with nine concerts during September at the Harbiye Open Air Theatre. The spectacular stage was set by Staras, one of the top rental companies in Turkey which has invested in the cutting-edge Clay Paky Sharpy and for the first time they added the DiGiCo SD5. As exclusive distributor of Clay Paky and DiGiCo in Turkey, Asimetrik's expertise and dynamism lead to Staras's sourcing decision.

Staras rents sound, light and audio-visual systems and provide technical production services for events in a diversity of fields with 30 years of expertise. Staras closely follows the global trends and technologies to ensure outstanding events. Staras is already experienced with Clay Paky's spectacular lighting solutions with their previous purchases.

Morever, Tarkan's production team or

USA - This past November CNBC tapped The Lighting Design Group (LDG) to light their 25th anniversary celebration. This year also marks LDG's 25th anniversary. The elaborate event was held at Rose Hall, home to Jazz at Lincoln Centre, in The Time Warner Building. LDG staff designers, programmers, gaffers, and Local One I.A.T.S.E crew members worked to install the affair over the course of two days and within several Rose Hall locations.

The first event of the evening occurred in The Rose Theatre, lit by LDG president Steve Brill. The one-hour, panel show was broadcast live and hosted by CNBC's Jim Cramer, host of Mad Money. "Due to several variables we opted to use VL 3500s for much of the heavy lifting," said Brill. One was the shutter capabilities, which allowed granular control over the lighting of each panelist. "They are also very powerful units, allowi

South Africa - South African audiences were captivated as War Horse, brought to the country by Pieter Toerien and the National Theatre, played at The Teatro, Montecasino in Johannesburg recently. The show then moved to Cape Town at Artscape Opera House from 5 December 2014. Technical support in both venues was provided by Gearhouse Splitbeam.

A truly iconic show based on a book written by Michael Morpurgo, War Horse was only designed to run for a couple of weeks . . . then they did it again and again and again and it's currently in its seventh successful year on the West End in London. The journey has seen the horses redesigned - the life-sized puppets were created and built in Cape Town by Handspring Puppet Company - and the early days saw performers receiving hours of physio every day. As the show was very physical on performers, more actors were brought in to ta

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