Romania - More than 100 PR Lighting fixtures were out in force recently, when Greek superstar Nikos Vertis arrived in Romania for his sell-out concert at Sala Palatului Bucharest.

Part of his Nikos Vertis Tour 2015, with 4,000 people packed into the venue it proved to be the biggest concert of the year - to the delight of local promoters and event organisers, VreauBilet.ro.

Handling the technical production were Temple Media, and the artist's lighting designer, Emiliano Bistri, worked closely with the venue's in-house lighting technician, Temple Media's Cristian Simon, to design a rig based heavily on PR Lighting fixtures.

In order to light up the star and his 38 piece orchestra they deployed 40 x XR 200 Beam, 18 x XLed 1061 and 44 x XR 230 Spot as the mainstay of the production lighting - supported by 36 x Showtec Sunstrip bars.

The production crew included 30 technicians

USA - On their recent tour in support of the Top 40 album Lift A Sail, the unpredictable Yellowcard returned to their hard-edged punk-tinged roots. To complement the more aggressive sound, the band punched up its lightshow with help from the Rogue RH1 Hybrid moving fixture from Chauvet Professional.

"The Rogues turned up the intensity on this tour," said longtime Yellowcard lighting designer Cody James of JDI Productions. "It was a trip back in time in a way, with the band returning to some older songs that were faster and more hard-driving than the new material they've been performing. We wanted a fixture that could reflect this attitude - and the Rogues fit the bill.

"Plus they were compact and easy to set up, which helped a lot on this cross-country tour. The user-friendliness of this fixture, together with the help I got from the guys at JDI Prod

UK - Production design and solution specialist Central Presentations Ltd (CPL) provided full technical production - lighting, sound and video - to Bright Productions for a major global sales conference event hosted by Education First's corporate solutions division. The organisation specialises in the development of language training, educational travel, academic degree programmes and cultural exchange.

The event encompassed a two day conference with two evenings of themed entertainment and was staged in the beautiful and majestic environs of Ashridge House in Hertfordshire. Nestling in 190 acres of impeccably preened gardens and parkland, the impressive stately home was built between 1808 and 1814 on the site of the original Ashridge Priory dating back to the 13th century. It is now owned by the National Trust, and more recently, full business conference facilities were added.

UK - Sky Garden is a space in central London that not only offers a 360 degree view across the capital but also features a landscape garden, the Fenchurch Restaurant and the Sky Pod Bar; all of which play host to various parties and live music events. Run by rhubarb catering group, they wanted to enhance the existing space and create an unforgettable atmosphere for those visiting the venue. As a result, they called on complete production solution specialist White Light to help to achieve their vision.

PB Jacobse, managing director of rhubarb, comments, "Sky Garden is a unique venue as it is one of the few event spaces that offers panoramic, breath-taking views of London. That said, for those visiting the space on an evening, there was no actual lighting set-up. Therefore we wanted to create something which would not only compliment the space and surrounding views but also c

Secondary Ticketing - The music industry has called for action over secondary ticketing sites. Rock band Coldplay and managers of acts including Ed Sheeran, Elton John, Blur and Radiohead signed an open letter to the government calling for action over secondary ticketing sites.

Published in The Times, the letter said fans are being "ripped-off by touts who anonymously exploit fair ticket prices via online ticket marketplaces". It urges the government to put "the public's interests before the touts". A government consultation on the resale of tickets closed last Friday. "As artist managers, we deplore the increasing industrial-scale abuse and insider exploitation of tickets for music, arts and sports events by ticket touts," the letter says. "The consequence in many cases is that fans will attend fewer shows, meaning that the profits made

UK - An Edinburgh company which has designed light installations for the SSE Hydro and Gleneagles Hotel has announced it is to become employee-owned.

The move by Black Light Ltd will see its 21 members of staff given the opportunity to become owners in the business.

Black Light designs, supplies and installs lighting and AV equipment to theatre, architecture, education, entertainment and retail. The company has an annual turnover of £3m.

The business was founded over 30 years ago by Gavin Stewart as a mobile disco. In the years' since it has developed a worldwide reputation for its innovative lighting solutions, with other projects including the Botanic Lights at Edinburgh's Royal Botanical Gardens.

Gavin Stewart, managing director, Black Light, said, "I was looking for an exit strategy that allowed the firm to continue to grow and flourish. A sale to the employ

Secondary Ticketing - The music industry has called for action over secondary ticketing sites. Rock band Coldplay and managers of acts including Ed Sheeran, Elton John, Blur and Radiohead signed an open letter to the government calling for action over secondary ticketing sites.

Published in The Times, the letter said fans are being "ripped-off by touts who anonymously exploit fair ticket prices via online ticket marketplaces". It urges the government to put "the public's interests before the touts". A government consultation on the resale of tickets closed last Friday. "As artist managers, we deplore the increasing industrial-scale abuse and insider exploitation of tickets for music, arts and sports events by ticket touts," the letter says. "The consequence in many cases is that fans will attend fewer shows, meaning that the profits mad

Belgium - A crowd of over 200 lighting professionals marked the grand opening of Chauvet's new branch office in Ghent, Belgium, as well as the company's 25th anniversary, by enjoying an evening of festivities, product demonstration, music and a breathtaking lightshow. The invitation-only event, which drew guests from a variety of countries, also featured a cornucopia of food as well as beverages, including a sparkling special edition Chauvet branded champagne.

As Chauvet's second European facility, the Belgium office will cater to demand in the Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg regions. In conjunction with Chauvet's UK branch, the new office will also play a key role in servicing and supporting distributors elsewhere on the European mainland, with particular emphasis on France, Germany and Italy.

Among the highlights of the evening was a lightshow of epic proportions that

UK - Cambridge based alt-rockers Mallory Knox have been rapidly gaining fans and critical acclaim from their energetic live shows and rousing festival appearances this summer running on the back of their second album Asymmetry released in late 2014.

Right in the thick of all the Mallory Knox live onstage action is lighting and set designer Jordon Cooper who has worked with the band since 2013 after initially being asked to light a one off gig which they liked.

On the previous tour, Jordon has used Robe Pointes, and for this one as a floor package he chose 24 x Robe LEDBeam 100s which were supplied by north Yorkshire based R&M Productions together with four strobes and some LED battens. They hooked into the house overhead rigs at each venue.

R&M additionally built the set which was designed by Jordon and the band and inspired by the Asymmetry album artwork.

With

UK - The Tony Award-winning musical In The Heights will stand out from the crowd on a custom printed stage floor produced by Le Mark Floors. With a design printed and produced specifically for the production, the floor is set to endure months of performances. Even more so since the show has been extended due to popular demand.

With heavy foot traffic throughout every performance, both the stage floor and the printed design needed to be incredibly durable yet still provide a comfortable surface for the performers themselves.

"We explained what we needed and Le Mark were quick to provide a quality product. They were professional all the way: from placing the order right through to delivery. It was exactly what we needed for this musical." said Tristan Baker, producer at Runaway Entertainment.

The bespoke design was printed on to Le Mark's most popular floor

Slovakia - The Malá Fatra mountain range in the north-west of Central Slovakia is both a national park and a popular winter sports area.

In this beautiful scenery, Hotel Impozant is situated in Valca Valley. The hotel owner has for a long time sought the nearby creek illuminated by a light source which could be hidden under the bridge. His intention was to increase the attractiveness of the site to a new and higher level. Therefore, he turned to Milan Ondisko, sales manager of City Light Slovakia s.r.o., who quickly arranged a demonstration on one summer evening during sunset.

"The hotel owner preferred two strong quality lights instead of several smaller fixtures. Once we turned on the light, no more words were necessary. The SGM P-5 talked for itself and proved to be the perfect tool; plenty of rich coloured light output to illuminate the creek with its banks and sur

UK - Edinburgh-based lighting and sound theatre rental specialists Blue Parrot has bought the West End to Glasgow having taken delivery of its new Meyer Leopard Line Array system. With only one day to check and test the system it was straight out to Glasgow Kings Theatre for The Pantheon Club's production of Legally Blonde the Musical.

Head of sound Mike Somerville explains: "It's a very busy show for sound and having Leopard for our sound reinforcement was the ideal solution to deliver the best overall sound possible. With nine Leopards and 2 900-LFC subs each side I've never heard anything in that theatre sound so good. I was extremely impressed by the way the sound was very even across the entire frequency range as you walked both towards and away from the arrays. It was a much smoother progression, in both level and consistency of frequency response. To me this

USA - Shaping Sound, the contemporary dance company founded by Emmy-nominated choreographers Travis Wall, Nick Lazzarini, Teddy Forance, and dance visionary Kyle Robinson is back on the road with Bandit Lites, bringing their energetic and visually compelling story that is part pop show, part traditional dance, and part rock concert to stages all across North America.

The dance team that can be seen in Carrie Underwood's Something in the Water and So You Think You Can Dance? created a show that is immaculately choreographed, requiring lighting designers Seth Jackson and Nathan W. Scheuer to create a rig mainly comprised of VL 3500 Spots.

"We needed the framing shutters, the zoom, the iris, all of those elements to lock in with the incredible specificity of the choreography," said Jackson. In addition to the Spots, Bandit provided Impressions for wash f

Sweden - W-DMX by Wireless Solution once again played an important role in the recent Lights in Alingsås event in Sweden. The event is Northern Europe's largest lighting workshop in public spaces, this year attracting a record 87,622 visitors.

Once a year, leading lighting designers and companies are invited to Alingsås to demonstrate their expertise, attend networking events and hold workshops. For five weeks, the dark evenings of Sweden are transformed into beautiful lighting installations around the town.

The theme for Lights in Alingsås 2015 was The Evolution of Light, from the big bang to the present age, with a specific focus on how new technologies such as LED can help reduce the environmental impact. W-DMX was used to demonstrate the elimination of excess cable.

Lighting designers Bertil Göransson and Johan Moritz from the company Luxera were responsibl

Austria - The Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage (CIE) have published a position statement on their intentions to develop a new and improved colour fidelity metric that would update the CRI (Colour Rendering Index).

The CIE have also accepted that the CRI has several significant sources of colorimetric inaccuracies and accept that it should be updated with the latest well-accepted formulae and an improved set of test samples. CIE's own Technical Committee (TC1-90) is in the process of developing a new improved colour fidelity metric that can update the CRI. The CIE also recognises that the colour fidelity metrics including the CRI do not assess other important aspects of the colour qualities of light sources, in particular, those related to colour preference.

CIE TC 1-91 is developing a Technical Report on this subject, which will be the groundwork for developing colou

USA - It was last year in Italy while touring with Jethro Tull, singer-songwriter and frontman Ian Anderson began to toy with the idea of a stand-alone show around the real life exploits of the band's namesake.

Using lighting provided by Bandit Lites, lighting designer Mark Wheatley took his knowledge of Anderson's lighting preferences (no haze, no 'mad flashing lights' and dislike of follow spots) to compliment Jethro Tull - The Rock Opera, which features both earlier hits and newly written songs.

"The workhorse fixtures are Martin MAC Viper profiles, GLP Impression X4s on mid and back truss, Mac Auras on front truss and pros booms and Sharpys on back truss and floor," said Wheatley. "We also use Showtec Sunstrips as blinders and effects on floor towers and back truss. An 18k HD projector on the show is rigged either on the front or mid truss depending

New Zealand - The chic, the cool and the beautiful rocked up in Auckland to check the latest Kiwi fashion trends and catch the insatiable buzz of New Zealand Fashion Week (NZFW) 2015 at the main show-space in the ANZ Viaduct Events Centre (VEC) located in the city's vibrant Waterfront area.

Simon Garrett from Oceania Productions lit the show-space which is also known as 'The Runway' by NZFW fans. Simon has been involved with the event for many years, but this was his first using 12 x of Robe's powerful BMFL Spots, which were rigged on a spine truss above the 30m polished concrete presentation runway.

Fashion - and its increasing penchant for drama and theatrical presentation - is demanding more thought, imagination and lateral thinking - when it comes to lighting, in addition to the pressure to replicate those camera-perfect flesh tones for the massed photographers and video

UK - Lighting designer Jip Nipius controlled the lighting for a special 'cinematic' two-part show by English rockers Suede at London's Roundhouse in November using an Avolites Tiger Touch II for the first time.

Nipius has been working with Suede since the late 1990s and was asked to create a lighting design to complement the band's 'experiential' new shows, which were performed to launch a new concept album and short film.

For the first half of the show, lead singer Brett Anderson and his bandmates performed behind a partially transparent screen, onto which their movie - a 'dark and dramatic tale of love and despair' - was projected. For the second half, the screen was pulled up to reveal the group as they played a selection of Suede classics.

Avolites' exclusive Netherlands distributor Fairlight supplied the Tiger Touch II to Keylight's Gary Yates after inviting him and

UK - For Blyth Fireworks & Lighting Spectacular 2015, DTS Raptors and Evo fixtures brought the skies of Northumberland alive with stunning results for the 18,000 strong crowd awaiting the display.

Five DTS Raptors were mounted on a large commercial ship's helicopter pad, while Blyth's historical lighthouse was highlighted with help from a single Raptor. Full advantage was taken of the limitless pan rotation to create an unforgettable sight. Back on firm ground the DTS Evo fixtures delivered stunning effects across the bow of the ship and along the starboard side with rotating gobos and colours. The EVO fixtures provided bright and crisp beams.

"The DTS fixtures delivered stunning aerial displays of light across the skies of Northumberland and out into the North Sea," says David Thompson of Steadlands Lighting & Sound. "It was very impressive to see the incredi

Italy - ETC Italy's Daniele Peroni and Davide Gabbani have moved into new management positions, following the untimely passing of Fulvio Cotogni, ETC's longtime regional manager for Southern Europe and the Middle East. Peroni will step into the role of Southwest Europe regional sales manager, while Gabbani will take on the title of Southeast Europe regional sales manager.

In 2002, Peroni graduated from the film and television school, Institut des Arts de Diffusion (IAD), in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, where he studied lighting. Following his graduation, Peroni began working for television studios in Rome, then joined Link S.r.l., an entertainment-product manufacturer based out of Italy. There he served as a project manager for the American market. In 2011, he began a new job at Luxemburg's Codex Events, serving as production manager for events. Then in 2013, Peroni joined ETC as

USA - Country superstar Miranda Lambert's Roadside Bars and Pink Guitars tour reprises the name of her first headlining tour in 2010. It follows her Certified Platinum tour earlier this year and features an all-female line-up.

"This is a 13-city tour playing a lot of the markets that Miranda hasn't been able to hit in recent years," notes Nashville-based production designer Chris Lisle. "The design of the show is pretty straightforward with three overhead trusses and a floor lighting package. We also have some soft goods and scenic pieces that play heavily into the design. Miranda wanted to keep this one simple, so there are no video elements. She just wanted to go out, have fun musically and do a 'bad ass light show.'"

Lisle selected 20 Clay Paky B-EYE K20s for the rig. Ten each are in midstage and upstage trusses alternating with spot and beam fi

Spain - Wireless Solution recently participated in the performance Sama-Sama - Live Experience for Cirque du Soleil. The project invites the audience to immerse themselves in a parallel universe where they will follow the story of a mysterious community known as the Samis, who have built a unique space for creativity and inspiration, bringing people together through the joy of creation in a way never experienced before. They call this place Sama-Sama, which means "together" in Filipino.

The Samis (performers) danced and sang in the middle of the crowd holding and juggling a long light pole, designed by interactive experience's designers Rafael Mizrahi and Mickey Martin - the object was made of telescopic aluminium poles and 3D printed plastic parts, making it lightweight for the performers. "Wireless Solutions provided the most reliable wireless technology

UK - Robe continued its support of lighting designer Yaron Abulafia's book, The Art of Light on Stage - Lighting in Contemporary Theatre published by Routledge, with a UK launch at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London.

Around 100 people rocked up to the event which took place in the foyer space of the Linbury Studio Theatre at the Royal Opera House, preceding the evening's three provocative performances staged by the Leeds-based Phoenix Dance Theatre, which were lit by Yaron.

Yaron was delighted with the turnout and interest in the book, which received its world premiere at the 2015 Prague Quadrennial in June, also supported by Robe.

The book presentation followed a similar format to that of the PQ, with a three-way conversation between Yaron and Nick Moran, senior lecturer in lighting for live performance, BA Theatre Practice course team at London's Centra

UK - PLASA Focus Glasgow 2016 returns to the SECC with another distinguished seminar programme that will deliver two days of free pro audio and lighting presentations discussing the latest technologies for the live entertainment technology industry.

Thought provoking speakers include Grant Anderson, the Scottish Lighting Designer, in collaboration with lighting, AV and sound specialists Black Light who designed the popular Botanic Nights - 2015, a unique night-time experience. Grant Anderson explains how the light installation evoked an emotive reaction from the audience.

Anderson comments: "In Scotland, it's often said that you can experience four seasons in one day. Visitors to Botanics Lights have been able to experience four seasons in just one night. It made perfect sense to me to combine nature and light with seasonal changes as the three are inextri

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