Poland - The biggest live event in Polish Mixed Martial Arts history, KSW 29: Reload, took place this month at Krakow Arena in front of over 16,000 audience members, with thousands more around the globe tuning into the live broadcast in Pay per View. Lighting designer and director Pawel "Spider" Pajak therefore chose the power and effects of the Clay Paky Sharpy, SuperSharpy and A.leda B-EYE K20 to ensure the tournament packed a serious punch.

Pajak's company Fish Eye was also responsible for the whole technical coordination of the event, with Marcin Szczakiel working as programmer and operator and Tomasz Szwelicki leading the technical department.

Organised by one of the leading MMA promotions in Europe KSW Federation, Pajak specified 40 x SuperSharpys, 32 x Sharpys and 24 x B-EYE K20 fixtures from prominent rental operation Transcolor for the event.

"The key

Arts Education Funding - Youth dance and music schemes will benefit from an increased £109m in government spending in the coming year, after the Department for Education pledged its support for cultural education programmes. A number of projects - including the National Youth Dance Company and the BFI Film Academy - will be granted a share of £4m in the 2015/16 financial year. It was also revealed an extra £1.1m with be spent on In Harmony programmes - which aim to engage children in deprived areas with orchestral music - as well as National Youth Music organisations such as the National Youth Orchestra and Music for Youth's Schools Prom concerts.

The Music and Dance Scheme, which provides financial assistance to applicants for specialist arts schools, has also had its financial support bumped up by £1m - bringing its total funding to £29m. In addit

UK - Brazilian footwear brand Melissa's London store launch attracted a VIP guest list most fashion brands would dream of, so the pressure was on for the store design to impress. The 6,000 square foot store would follow the brand's 'Galeria' concept, found currently in the flagship stores in Sao Paulo and New York, where shoes are displayed alongside art installations and sculpture.

Melissa's brief to Intevi, the Digital Solutions Provider, was to blend their artistic designs with suitable technology to bring their creativity to life. Commenting on the project, Tom Scott, managing director of Intevi said: "We had previously worked with the contractors on another retail project and they knew we could deliver on the very distinctive brief Melissa had produced. In the large entrance hall, visitors would be surrounded on three sides by floor to ceiling LED screens. These screen

France - Award-winning French attraction Puy du Fou has become the world's first theme park to introduce a drone fleet with embedded intelligence to enhance the visitor experience.

France's second most-visited theme park (after Disneyland Paris) allows visitors to witness history being brought to life through over 60 shows - from the Vikings and Knights of the Round Table, to Richelieu's Musketeers and Gallo-Roman gladiator games.

The park's flagship show Cinéscénie - which, at over 23 hectares is also the world's largest night show - provides a look through the ages and utilises the latest advances in technology and artistry. It was for this show that the drone technology was created.

Nicolas de Villiers, President, Puy du Fou, says: "The team was searching for a way to incorporate new heights to Cinéscénie. We wanted to create the biggest c

UK - Lighting designer Ewan Cameron joins an increasing list of LDs to specify Robe's new BMFL Spots. He caught the BMFL fever on UK rockers Status Quo's most recent 'Status Quo Live 2014' tour.

Status Quo's distinctive 'boogie rock' sound has earned them over 60 chart hits and a Brit Award for 'Outstanding Contribution to Music' in a career spanning 45 years. They are still going strong, with more energy than ever, delighting their very loyal original fanbase as well as at least two generations of new - and equally enthusiastic - younger Quo fans.

Ewan took over the LD slot at the end of 2013 when Quo's previous LD - almost as legendary as the band - Patrick Marks - decided to retire after 25 years in the 'hot seat'.

When it came to creating a lighting design for this tour, Ewan wanted to retain a continuity with some of the classic Quo aesthetics that Pat had evolved over

UK - GDS, alongside project partners Haworth Tompkins Architects, Charcoalblue, White Light and Skelly and Couch, were closely involved in the refurbishment of the Chichester Festival Theatre in Sussex.

In refurbishing Chichester, it was essential to preserve the magic and warmth that had cast a spell over audiences for years, whilst at the same time replacing outdated and unsustainable technology. GDS was to address all aspects of auditorium and backstage lighting. The catenary lighting above the thrust stage at Chichester Festival Theatre lies at its very heart and soul and its upgrading, without any loss of original character, was crucial to the entire project.

GDS's award-winning LED ArcSystem was installed for all aspects of house lighting, including emergency lights (around 200 fixtures in total). In this case fully wired and dimming seamlessly from 100% to zero, this aw

Australia - Light Tonight has launched on YouTube as a video news magazine for the English speaking professional lighting industry worldwide. The show runs less than 30 minutes, is "fast paced and loaded with news, reviews, interviews, techniques and equipment".

Produced by CX Network, the show caps 25 years industry publishing experience for the network which until now has produced publications and internet TV in Australia.

"When we started CX-TV in 2010, YouTube had a seven minute clip limit and was standard definition," CX chief Julius Grafton said.

CX Network established several successful internet TV shows, including Gearbox, CXtra and most recently The Hump. They have been broadly viewed on the website cx-tv.com and are specific to the Australian market, whereas Light-Tonight is intentionally global.

A team of presenters from

UK - A series of music insert packages with Welsh singing sensation Caryl Parry Jones and her band were recorded on the grounds of the St Donats Castle in the Vale of Glamorgan, in South Wales recently. The Caryl inserts were recorded and packaged to be inserted into a variety of transmissions and programmes shared across BBC Wales and S4C broadcast. Boom Pictures and Alfresco TV produced the Caryl series, which engaged their regular lighting director Steff Jones onto the project.

As the packages were to be used and to be fitted in a multitude of formats and programmes, the brief was to keep it simple, and to create a "stripped back" cozy look, which was also unbranded.

The set consisted of a simple four towers of Barco Mistrip, rigged vertically, with even spacing between each. The Mistrip had been used to create low resolution abstract moving graphics in the

UK - dbn Lighting provided lighting, visual design and equipment for the most recent season of Manchester's famous Warehouse Project (WHP 2014).

Among the UK's most popular club experiences, a line-up including Richie Hawtin, Alesso, Annie Mac, Jamie XX, Fatboy Slim, Fac51 The Haçienda, The Martinez Brothers and literally hundreds more top artists, made the beats move and groove back at WHP's spiritual home, the Store Street arches underneath Piccadilly station

dbn's own WHP team was project managed by Pete Robinson.

The company has provided lighting design and equipment to the WHP phenomena since it first hit the scene nine years ago. The Store Street venue has a capacity of 1800 and the entire season from October to New Year's Day usually sells out in a matter of minutes.

The biggest technical challenge as always was getting all the production ready in the three hour ti

Brazil - UK based lighting designer Sam MacLaren was happy to be using Robe moving lights on his rig for two high profile back-to-back shows in Brazil which concluded the UK indie rockers Arctic Monkeys AM world tour, which had been on the road for 18 months.

Robe fixtures were supplied for the shows - Anhembi in Sao Paulo, an open air space famously utilized for their Carnival, and Rio's HSBC Arena - by leading Brazilian lighting rental company LPL, project managed for them by Erich Bertti.

Robe has been one of the 'preferred manufacturers' on the Arctic Monkey's rider throughout this tour which was originally designed by the innovative Paul Normandale, and has been lighting directed on the road by Sam.

Sam has also worked with LPL before - first on a Placebo tour and most recently at the start of 2014 with David Guetta.

"Knowing the high quality of the Robe products

USA - Emmanuel Baptist Pastor Wade Burleson described the results of Paragon 360's recent renovation project at his church in Enid, Oklahoma - by saying "Paragon hit a homerun with this one". To extend the baseball analogy a step further, one impressive result of that renovation is that Emmanuel Baptist can now make the transition from a traditional service with a choir to a band-led contemporary service in about the same time it takes Major League teams to complete one innings of play.

Springfield, MO-based Paragon 360 accomplished this feat at the 35-year old-church by adding new architectural elements and upgrading the audio, video and rigging system, in addition to installing an impressive collection of lighting fixtures from Chauvet Professional. As a result of these changes (and the hard work of church staff) Emmanuel Baptist is now able to change its sanctuary s

UK / The Netherlands - Lighting and visual control expert Avolites has appointed South Holland-based Improve as its new Digital Media Reseller in The Netherlands.

The announcement comes just weeks before Avolites and Improve team up at the Amsterdam tradeshow Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) to exhibit Avolites' range of control consoles and servers and unveil the new features of its Ai V8 software.

In May 2014, Avolites appointed Fairlight as its sole distributor for The Netherlands, and they will also be represented at ISE by Menno Appelhof, who will be on the Avolites stand. Improve will act as Avolites' exclusive Dutch dealer.

Improve's core business is the design and implementation of integrated lighting and video concepts for the corporate and cultural events market, sourcing industry-leading control consoles and media servers push the boundaries of what can be achieved

Switzerland - The merger between the HB-Laserkomponenten GmbH and Laserworld (Switzerland) AG, which concluded in mid 2014, has been awarded Deal of the Year for Europe by Acquisitions International, a magazine specializing in the analysis and evaluation of company mergers and acquisitions worldwide.

"We're very happy to have received this award," says Norbert Stangl, sales and marketing director of the Laserworld Group. "The potential that arouse from this deal for the whole company group is huge and we already see the significant synergies and benefits.

"The Laserworld Group is continuously expanding, and there are more deals to be expected in our industry soon. There are already many other companies where Laserworld is involved in one or another way, especially the US market which has high potential."

(Jim Evans)

Mexico - Elation Professional's Mexican partner, Adimsa, is involved in a large variety of projects throughout the course of a year and often turns to Elation products to fulfill the demand for dynamic lighting. Recently, dimsa has supplied Elation LED lighting fixtures to several top clubs in Mexico including Republica-DF in Mexico City and Press Club in Monterrey.

Last fall, Adimsa supplied and installed Elation LED lighting in one of the bustling city's newest hotspots, Republica club. The 800-capacity club, inspired by the old house design of the Republica age, features a colonial style with chic explosions of colour, yet with delicate touches. Architect Filipao Nunes designed the space with the interior concept completed by Javier Díaz Ceo from Fortuna Lab in cooperation with Adimsa. Adimsa's's Edson Rivera was responsible for the lighting design.

One of the club's outst

Australia - UK based folk singer / songwriter Passenger's recent Album tour campaign, Whispers, is drawing to a close with the acclaimed penultimate leg of the tour in Australia, featuring a show design by James Scott of UK based visual design collective Okulus, a new collaboration with LD / Visuals designer Louis Oliver.

In Australia, James was able to take advantage of Robe's latest BMFL Spot moving lights for the first time as part of the rig, which were supplied by MPH Australia, a leading lighting rental specialist. The rig contained 22 x BMFL Spots and 12 x Robe LEDWash 600s.

The BMFLs were used extensively throughout the performance for key and back lighting, with some positioned on the floor for eye-catching 'aerial sculpture' moments.

It was the first time that James had used BMFLs on one of his own shows - having first seen them demonstrated by Robe UK's Amy

Russia - Every year, farmers, milk lovers and music fans flock to Ufa - the dairy capital of Russia - to celebrate the Milk Music Festival. Festivalgoers can learn about the dairy industry, interact with farm animals, take a spin on amusement park rides, and - of course - enjoy locally sourced dairy products. One of the biggest draws to the festival is an open air stage featuring folk singing, dancing and musical groups. This year, the lighting for the performances was controlled by an ETC Cobalt 20 desk.

The Cobalt console was supplied by Kilowatt Rentals and Staging, who thought the desk's exceptional busking capabilities would be perfect for the Milk Media Festival. It controlled a rig full of moving lights, LED luminaires, audience blinders and strobe lights.

The festival was the first time that lighting designer Yan Prokofyev had used a Cobalt desk. ETC console trainer Vl

France - On the banks of the River Seine, between the bridges Pont de la Concorde and Passerelle de Solférino, and close to Musée d'Orsay, lies a part of Paris that is always buzzing with pedestrians, day and night, and known as Berges de Seine. In this urban centre, Mairie de Paris (Paris City Hall) organised a special Christmas lighting installation, which ran from mid-December until the end of January.

Lighting designers from LightLab were looking for a solution evoking a permanent vertical flow, to create a special 'city life' impression. They introduced rental company, Lumière et Son, who last year brought the Hermès flagship store at Champs Elysées to life during Christmas using LB-100 LED Balls from SGM. Their suggestion to create a 3D graphic volume to inspire city movements was met with great enthusiasm by the client.

Lumière et Son prepared a

UK - Registration for the fifth European RDM and sACN Developers Conference and Plugfest is now open.

The event will run Wednesday 22nd, Thursday 23rd and Friday 24th April 2015, in the UK, at Gatwick Manor, London Road at Lowfield Heath, just south of Gatwick Airport.

The Developers Conference provides a European forum for manufacturers, designers, consultants and prospective users to discuss and learn about the various control protocol standards emanating from the PLASA Technical Standards program, and aims to ensure that the adoption of these new standards achieves desired levels of interoperability and reliability.

Conference sessions will cover the use and implementation of the published RDM, sACN and ACN standards, together with other projects in the current PLASA Technical Standards Program such as "E1.33 : RDMnet".

The "Plugfest" is a hands-on o

UK - School Stage, the performing arts installation company offering exclusive provision to schools, colleges and universities - recently completed a project using Chauvet Professional fixtures to add colour and 'wow' factor to a multi-functional assembly hall in the newly built Lees Brook Community School in Chaddesden, Derby.

The new school building was commissioned by the Education Funding Agency (EFA) because, in direct contrast to the high standard of teaching, the school buildings were in poor shape - described by officials as being in the worst condition in the city.

However, no provision had been included for sound and lighting systems in the multi-functional assembly hall or drama studio. With the budget already stretched and sensing this was a real opportunity to create the hall as a spectacular performance space, the school's former head teacher came out of retireme

USA - When you have only one trailer for a high-profile tour, every fixture you load into it had better count. Butch Allen, the 2014 Parnelli Award Lighting Designer of the Year who has toured with a long list of superstars from Van Halen and Jennifer Lopez to Metallica and Usher, demonstrated this principle in stunning fashion recently when he created a maximum "bang for the inch" rig for the sold-out Dancing With The Stars Live! tour.

"We had to fit everything - and I mean everything -- from costumes and props to the show's famous mirror balls into a single trailer for this tour," said Allen. "Ray Woodbury of RK Diversified Entertainment did an amazing job helping me put together a rig that delivered all the lighting punch we needed, while not taking up an inordinate amount of space in the trailer."

The "workhorse" of this rig,

UK - With Colette Carter having recently joined Stage Electrics as sales manager with responsibility for developing growth in hire, Colette has been swift to act by restructuring the customer facing hire team.

Based at the company's headquarters, Colette brings a wealth of experience to the Stage Electrics London and Bristol operations, having worked for more than 20 years within the engineering and distribution industries.

Previously, Colette was branch manager at Buck and Hickman, one of the UK's leading distributors of tools, maintenance and health and safety equipment. Prior to that she had moved up 'through the ranks', holding a number of key management positions.

On joining Stage Electrics she was tasked by Adrian Searle, head of technical & hire operations to re-focus the company's hire sales team.

"My background is predominantly in people management and develo

Australia - Melbourne Airport welcomes over 30m travellers each year, with that number set to grow over the next few years. A team of visionaries at APAM (Australia Pacific Airports Melbourne) decided that these travellers, and those who come to greet them, deserved a better experience.

LumenRadio's long-term OEM partner, ENTTEC together with Mint Lighting Design, was brought on-board to provide custom lighting solution to realize the vision and design proposed for Melbourne Airport.

Mint Lighting Design and ENTTEC transformed the forecourt and main terminal façade with a dynamic lighting installation. The project has 12 individual sites programmed as one to create an intricate, synchronized light show with more than 40,000 pixels requiring 57 universes of control. The project involved more than 2,140 individual components.

In order to distribute DMX data to the difficult l

USA - When it comes to big stages, there are few with as many operational complexities as the annual Super Bowl. Months before knowing which teams will play in the game, teams of production experts are busy planning all of the technical aspects of the event. This year the Pro Bowl and Super Bowl played on consecutive weekends at the same stadium, adding to the logistics issues. Having worked with the Super Bowl decor teams since 2005, Dall Brown knows as well as anyone about the challenges of this year's event at the University of Phoenix Stadium.

Wireless Spectrum Challenges

NFL Frequency Coordination - controlling who uses which radio frequencies, when, and for what purposes - is carefully planned and enforced. This is to accommodate varied technical requirements of everything from hundreds of two way radios, wireless microphones and cameras, to ticket processing and

UK - SGM's award-winning LED technology can be found in a diverse range of applications around the world - with its eye-catching 3D pixel tubes typically found zipping across dancefloor ceilings.

But in a completely unique deployment, 68 of the LT-200 2m tubes now form a pulsating sculpture in a brain science institute. This is at the heart of designer Bob Crowley's set for the new Tom Stoppard play, The Hard Problem at the Dorfman Theatre, part of the National Theatre on London's South Bank.

It was a YouTube video of a spinning cube that first set Crowley's creative juices flowing, and faced with the task of emulating this effect in order to represent brain pulses, the theatre's lighting operations manager, Marc Williams and control supervisor, Daniel Murfin tracked down SGM's 3D pixel tubes after visiting the PLASA Show, and seeing them displayed on the website of Madrix LED

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