USA - "Clay Paky's success this year at the LDI show was resounding from every point of view". Pio Nahum, Clay Paky CEO, did not mince his words to describe their accomplishments at the lighting show in Las Vegas.

After the PLASA Award for Innovation at PLASA in London, the Clay Paky Mythos has received an Honourable Mention at the LDI Award for Best Debuting Product of the Year "for providing a high-quality, feature-rich fixture with great optics".

Nahum stresses that "the secret of the Mythos lies in its ability to do what the most powerful effect lights do in half the space and with half the power". But the Mythos is even more than this: it is today the only light capable of perfectly combining a spot and beam light thanks to a special optical unit created and patented by Clay Paky.

The SuperSharpy and the Stormy also met with great success:

UK - The back catalogue of composer Hans Zimmer reads a little like a review of some the best films of the last 20 years. Academy Award winner for The Lion King in 1994; Grammy Awards for The Crimson Tide and The Dark Knight through to the WAFCA Award for 12 Years a Slave in 2013, the list is quite remarkable. So the opportunity to see the man in action with a live orchestra at a venue like the Hammersmith Apollo is one not to be missed.

Lighting such a special event fell into the safe hands of designer Marc Brickman and it was PRG who were contracted to supply the rig. Part of the spec included units for a strobe effect light; PRG opted to supply the brand new Clay Paky Stormys to fulfil the request as PRG's Rich Rowley explains, "We purchased the units from Ambersphere Solutions and the Hans Zimmer show was their first outing. PRG is always sen

Germany - Every summer since 2007, Wolfsburg, Germany's Autostadt has put on a series of laser and light shows featuring effects staged on the areas of water in the sprawling park's grounds. Following up on the huge success of last year's show, which ran under the Made in Germany banner, this year the United Kingdom was up for treatment. The series of weekly changing shows, entitled Rocking UK which were the world's largest water shows of their kind, ran from 8 August through 7 September and took attendees on an audiovisual tour of Great Britain.

The series' choreography portrayed the history, culture, and lifestyles of the British Isles. The first week's show, which opened on 8 August, focused on the UK's Stars & Legends. Magic & Mystery was the topic 17 August through 23, while Culture & Tradition occupied the foreground 24 August through 30.

Germany - Events become more and more spectacular, and thus the demand for durable laser systems increases. HB-Laser has launched a new IP68 waterproof laser line. These new LightCube 851 show laser light projectors are submergeable up to 3m depth. They are fully graphics capable and equipped with the latest diode laser technology with a pure diode setup. The Apollo ScannerMax scanners (with Pangolin ScannerMax scanners and Apollo driver) run at ca. 45kpps (kilo packets per second) @ 8° and make the LightCube 851 suitable for professional laser show applications.

Multi-media shows with water fountains and water effects as well as normal outdoor laser show installations require water proof equipment - the HB-Laser LightCube 851 is the right choice for these applications. It is available in two different power levels: 3.2W RGB (LC-851 RGB 3) and 5.5W RGB (LC-851 RGB 5.5).

Th

UK - Bristol-based lighting rental company Fineline collaborated closely with creative design agency Immersive to launch Christmas early at the Tesco's Metro store in Wigan, which saw a quirky and spectacular visual extravaganza played out in its car park, culminating in the reveal . . . of the Tesco's Christmas green hat crowning the 'O' in the signage.

The Fineline team, project managed by Rob Sangwell and co-ordinated onsite by crew chief Ruben Pinkney, used over 1.4km of rope lighting to wire up 80 Tesco shopping trolleys, lamp-posts, bollards and other street furniture plus around 60 individual LED festive decorations - Christmas trees, puddings, Santas etc - so these could be integrated into the show.

The backdrop was a striking 80m wide by 7m high LED video screen for which Immersive produced custom content and animations, which together with the lighting effects, was a

USA - For Fleetwood Mac's current On With the Show tour a grandMA2 full-size console has been specified by lighting designer/production designer Paul 'Arlo' Guthrie.

The band launched the 40-city North American tour 30 September and, after playing to packed houses, added at least 28 more dates in a second leg, which will begin in January 2015. On With the Show marks the first full-member tour for Fleetwood Mac since 1997.

"Designing for Fleetwood Mac is always a challenge since you're dealing with five different personalities," said Guthrie. He began by giving them "the biggest, cleanest, most open stage set up I could, so every single seat in the house gets a clear view of the stage. I made sure to remove clutter so everyone can see the band members."

Guthrie opted for a grandMA2 full-size console to run all the lights, media servers - even

Slovenia - Popular Slovenian singer Magnifico gave a special performance at the Krizanke venue in Ljubljana, featuring an innovative collaboration with the Serbian Army Orchestra which was completely sold out.

The show was part of the annual Druga Godba Festival which features numerous local and international artists and is known for spawning some unique and interesting onstage partnerships - like this one.

The Robe moving lights used were 20 Pointes, 12 LEDWash 600s and eight ColorWash 575 XTs, supplied by rental company Festival Novo Mesto who are the regular contractors for the 4000 capacity venue and have supplied lighting to the festival for at least 10 years.

For Magnifico's lighting designer Crt Birsa, it was his first show for the artist as well as the start of a tour with him which also visited Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia plus other cities in Slovenia. Krizanke has a

Sweden - Wireless Solution Sweden has introduced the latest product to its award-winning W-DMX line, the UglyBox MK2. This is a compact new wireless signal tester, which is a valuable tool for users of wireless products, providing proof of a solid signal and peace of mind in the absence of visible cable.

The UglyBox MK2 is housed in an attractive compact body, resembling a gaming control with a 4.3" Touch LCD Screen. It supports 2.4GHz, 5.2GHz and 5.8GHz and is a transceiver solution, which means that it can be used as both transmitter and receiver. It has a complete DMX tester that provides all data in live format directly on the screen.

It also has a built-in DMX Controller as well as an RGB Fixture to simulate LED fixtures on the LCD Screen for quick testing. In history mode you can also see over time that you have a stable signal over a certain period.

The unit runs

Europe - LD Mark Wynn-Edwards is blazing a trail across Europe with UK electronic duo Lamb and a lighting rider comprising 11 Robe Pointes. Robe's live reporting team caught up with him at the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels - where he also had the luxury of using the house's MMX Spots.

The Pointes were lined up along the back of the stage alternated on two levels - five on the bottom and six on cases forming the upper row - and created all the drama and atmospheric compliment needed for the band's 80-minute set. Their sound fused elements of triphop, d'n'b and jazz into compelling harmonic compositions with haunting vocals.

Mark explains that inspiration for the style of lighting he's evolving for this tour came from the stark monochromicity and 'reality' of black and white cinema, and much of the set is lit in white. With the Pointes, there are so many variations in how you ca

Europe - This summer saw industrial rockers Nine Inch Nails (NIN) on their first European tour in six years, with an array of Clay Paky Sharpy and Sharpy Wash 330 fixtures delivering striking brightness and moody colours to help bring the band back with a bang.

Lighting designer Paul Guthrie specified the Clay Paky fixtures, supplied by Ampco Flashlight, to hold their own against the elaborate production, and provide maximum impact.

"With Nine Inch Nails, we wanted to give the audience an incredible show, that went from dark, moody and soupy to face-welding annihilation," explains Guthrie. "We see it as: if they're not convulsing afterwards, we're not trying hard enough. The Clay Paky fixtures allowed us to achieve this with their rapid movement and intense brightness."

"The Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures were specified by LeRoy Bennett for the original d

UK - Impact Production Services (IPS) has joined the growing list of top-flight hire companies who have added SGM's powerful P-5 wash light to their inventory. Owner James Mason, who set up the Milton Keynes-based company 16 years ago, took the decision after sub-hiring in some of the high output heads for a project, which also gave him the chance to evaluate them. As a result, he placed the order for 24 P-5 RGBW fixtures with SGM UK.

"We had been looking at various IP-rated outdoor washes and P-5 had come up a few times on specs," he explained. "For us it's the next generation; it's compact, neat and you can use it indoors, whereas other IP-rated washes are often big and bulky."

In order to get the maximum impact from the fixtures he purchased 21° and 43° lens options.

Mason said the decision to back the Danish brand followed the recognition that

Canada - Nestled in the heart of the city of Camrose, in Alberta, Canada, is the Jeanne & Peter Lougheed Performing Arts Centre (PAC), a 4,100sq.m multi-venue building. Equipped with nearly 100 ETC Source Four LED Series 2 Lustr luminaires - the largest number installed anywhere in the world - the venue earned a prestigious level four Green Globe distinction for its energy efficient building design and commitment to green technology before its doors even opened in October 2014.

Camrose is home to a blossoming arts community, and the city desperately needed a new, large-scale performance venue. "There weren't any venues within a 45 minute drive of the city that could accommodate touring Broadway shows and large scale dance or theatrical productions," explains Nick Beach, technical director and operations coordinator of the Jeanne & Peter Lougheed PAC. The primary goal f

USA - LDI 2014 in Las Vegas lived up to pre-show expectations for LDI premier partner Elation Professional with an extremely busy booth, a Best Large Booth accolade and more industry recognition for the award-winning Sniper.

"We expected a busy show based on our pre-show appointments and it certainly didn't disappoint," said Elation sales director Eric Loader, who split his time between a busy Elation booth and a just-as-busy demo room. "Our booth was crowded from start to finish and based on the quality leads generated it gave us a lot of opportunities to continue our growth."

Like at the PLASA show one month earlier, the Sniper was recognised as an innovative product at the show, this time receiving an honourable mention as Best Debuting Product presented at an awards ceremony on Saturday, 22 November on the LDI show floor. The company also won the Best L

USA - Against Las Vegas' glittering backdrop, Ayrton's display of technical innovation on the booth of its exclusive US distributor, Morpheus Lights, shone as brightly at LDI 2014 as in any casino or show on the Strip.

Ayrton exhibited a plethora of new products from Ayrton's new Radical and NandoBeam series, videos of which were already causing excitement on social media. Many of these were presented for the first time to the American market, exciting visitors who were treated to spectacular lighting displays which caught the eye and fired the imagination.

Ayrton's Radical Series, consists of WildBeam-R, MagicPanel-R, MagicBlade-R, MagicRing R9 and IntelliPix-R, with MagicRing R1 being the latest addition to the Series.

The Radical Series, which takes its name and inspiration from the world of high-performance vehicles, exhibits a honed and streamlined appearance, a very na

Denmark - For the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's gathering in Copenhagen, Greenpeace saw an ideal opportunity to emphasise the need for the world to change into 100% renewable energy in the future and demonstrate how this is actually possible.

While the panel wrote and published the latest research on impact of human made climate changes, and their solutions how to mitigate and counter these impacts, Greenpeace launched a highly visible and eye-catching campaign, projecting the official Danish targets of 100% renewable energy by 2050 onto four wind turbines, with the assistance of AF Lighting and SGM's G-Spot LED moving head.

Greenpeace's project leader Esben Sloth explains: "We wanted the light projection to be very accurate, with sharp lines and figures, in order to make the wind turbines look like a graph."

ÅF Lighting were optimistic in their acce

USA - The first annual New York Festival of Light (NYFOL) came alive 6-8 after dark in Dumbo, Brooklyn, attracting crowds so large that the family event had to turn away people Saturday night. NYFOL utilised numerous Clay Paky fixtures on the main stage under the Archway of the Manhattan Bridge, and Clay Paky's new Supersharpys created the spectacular Beacon installation at The Pearl Street Triangle.

NYFOL offered visitors a curated collection of lighting installations created by local and international lighting designers, performance artists and technologists - all working with the medium of light. The event was presented by The New York Festival of Light Organization, a non-profit art group. Its vision is to create and provide a unique and delightful experience for residents and tourists by enhancing New York City's architecture through interactive, static and projected lighti

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

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