USA - City Theatrical was named the New Jersey Small Manufacturer of the Year by NJBIZ Magazine in partnership with the New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program, at the fourth annual New Jersey Manufacturing Day ceremonies on October 2, 2015.

Over 400 manufacturing industry professionals attended the event in Somerset, New Jersey. U.S. Manufacturing Day is a national event with local activities designed to expand and improve the public's knowledge and perception of the manufacturing industry and its value to the U.S. economy. At the New Jersey event, attendees and panelists discussed issues pertaining to manufacturing in New Jersey including: recruiting, challenging and retaining new generations of employees; the importance of cross-training; the importance of continuing education; and creating awareness of the various grant programs, talent networks and professional associate

USA - Programmer Martin Weeks' ETC Gio console still looks brand new. You would never guess it had seen action on a few hundred episodes of the US TV series Castle. "I love my Gio, but most of the time I turn it on in the morning and off at the end of the day. The real work is done by the Magic Sheets, which have dramatically changed my workflow," explains Weeks. The Magic Sheets allow the operator to create a separate touchscreen showing all the fixtures and their levels without using the faders or submasters on the main desk.

Now in its eighth season, Castle is shot on two standing sets at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood. Their level of scenic detail is masterful. Using ETC Net3 Gateway, Weeks has fingertip control of light levels in the New York City police precinct and Castle's loft apartment. "The sets are big - 23m by 7.5m - so it took some

World - Folk rockers Mumford and Sons are currently traversing the globe in support of their latest number one album, with lighting designer Ed Warren employing the bold bright wash and LED effects of 16 Clay Paky A.leda B-EYE K20 fixtures to deliver "some of the most impressive moments of the set".

The Wilder Mind tour has seen the British four-piece play sold-out dates across the USA, Canada and Europe. Warren specified the B-EYEs from Neg Earth to complement the rockier sound of the band's new material.

"For this tour, my concept was about updating the usual Mumford aesthetic whilst still retaining their signature vibe," explains Warren. "The graphic effects and brilliant colours from the B-EYEs complement the more traditional looks from a large wall of Par Cans."

Warren is using the B-EYEs for backlight. Eight are positioned behind th

USA - Created by music lovers for music lovers, Kaaboo is a three-day event that combines rock-n-roll, world-class art, and the finest culinary cuisines to appeal to all five senses. Located in Del Mar, CA, it is described as the ideal live music event that takes place in a wonderland off the shores of the Pacific Ocean.

For the 2015 Kaaboo, lighting designer Chris Lisle was brought on by production manager Jim Dorroh, and he worked with Solotech to create a powerful and expansive rig using 36 VL4000 Spot, 41 VL3500 Wash and 12 VL3500 Wash FX luminaires.

"While this was my first year working with Kaaboo, associate designer Erik Parker and I knew that we needed to provide a rig that would be easy to clone to/from the touring artists normal show file," began Lisle. "A good mixture and placement of wash, spot, and beam fixtures is always critical, and since I've us

USA - For those who live in the warmer southern latitudes of the US, the outdoor festival and show season extends well into the fall. Two examples are the Life is Beautiful Festival, which took place in Las Vegas in late September, and the Victoria's Secret PINK Nation Game On! Bash that stormed the University of Texas San Antonio campus on 28 October. Production for both events was handled by AG Light & Sound, who supplied lighting packages that included Elation Colour Chorus LED battens and Platinum Series moving heads.

With a life-affirming name like the Life is Beautiful Festival and an opening night that featured a performance by Stevie Wonder, it's no surprise that the third incarnation of the music and arts festival was a success. Held 25-27 September in Downtown Las Vegas, the three-day festival focused on four cultural elements: food, art, learning, and of course, music

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

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