Sweden - The stage design for the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest has been unveiled ahead of the grand final in Malmö, Sweden, on 11 May. Lighting and screen content designer Fredrik Stormby from Green Wall Designs and production designer Florian Wieder are the creative team helping to create, design, and deliver a large-scale and spectacular show to a global audience of over 160m. 

The stage and lighting design for the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 will focus on the audience more than ever. With the stage placed in the centre of the arena, viewers

Belgium - Dave Gahan and Martin Gore were never known for their skills on the basketball court, though their group, Depeche Mode did contribute to the soundtrack of the NBA 2K15 video game. However, the English electronic musicians did cause something of a full court press at the FIBA Women’s Olympic Qualifying match between Belgian and the USA.

That contest took place at a sold-out Antwerp’s Sportpaleis on 9 February, just three days after Depeche Mode rocked the arena with their music. This left little time for Bart Aelbrecht and his team at AB Sound to buil

Europe - CAST Group of Companies has announced HUB (formerly KulTechDesign) as the exclusive distributor of BlackTrax in Hungary.

“What initially attracted us to BlackTrax was its ability to create tightly integrated designs and experiences, where the technology blends seamlessly into the background, facilitating a fully immersive and responsive environment where the audience and performers' focus remains in the creative realm. Its outside-in tracking and simple integration with lighting consoles added another level of excellence, which is incredible to witness,

UK - The multi-award-winning musical Hamilton has selected ETC fixtures and control for its UK and Ireland tour. The hit musical – which has already been a huge success around the world – is composed by Lin-Manuel Miranda and tells the story of America’s founding father Alexander Hamilton.

ETC dealer Encore supplied the equipment for the tour which included High End Systems Halcyon Titanium and Halcyon Platinum automated fixtures, Source Four LED Series 2 Lustr entertainment luminaires, and Eos Apex 10, Gio @5, Ion Xe and Ion XE RPU for lighting con

Taiwan - The Taipei Performing Arts Centre (TPAC), which contains three performance spaces – The Grand Theatre, the Globe Playhouse, and the Blue Box, has recently invested in 40 x Robe Spiider LED wash beam luminaires, which will help light an array different of productions staged at the venue.

Production values are high on the agenda at TPAC which has around 150 full time employees, a third of whom are designated to work across assorted technical disciplines, including TPAC senior technical officer Yi-Ming Liu (AKA Birdie), who explained that Robe’s Spiider

Europe - Elation has launched a new range of high-impact beam lights with the Proteus Radius, a compact, high intensity IP66 Beam FX fixture powered by a Solid-State Phosphor-Converted (SSPC) light engine. Elation garnered industry acclaim in 2017 as the first company to incorporate Phosphor source technology into a moving head and now the company has ‘brought the technology to the next level’.

The Proteus Radius delivers a realm of creative possibilities, projecting narrow and intensely powerful beams that reach astounding distances. Its efficient 100W SSPC l

USA - X-Laser recently released its Triton T Series of IP64 laser projectors, the Triton T-5 (five watts) and Triton T-2 (two watts). These all-new fixtures feature a compact housing that enables quick, flexible rigging and maintains IP64 protection in either the upright or the flat orientation. A true “clean sheet” design made specifically for the professional lighting market, the Triton T Series fixtures are the first production-grade IP64 lasers to be fully engineered and built in the U.S, says X-Laser.

Under the hood, the Triton T Series carries full RGB d

Europe – Prolights has introduced the AetherBox LITE, a single-universe wireless CRMX transceiver designed to enhance lighting control in professional installations while staying within budget.

This device provides industry professionals with a practical and reliable solution in wireless lighting control technology. Its compatibility with W-DMX and LumenRadio CRMX protocols ensures steady, interference-free signal transmission, crucial for the success of any lighting setup.

The AetherBox LITE offers various power and signal transmission options, includin

Germany - When updating its auditorium lighting, the historic opera house on Hamburg's Dammtorstraße opted for LED double-focus downlights from Erco, achieving not only energy savings in excess of 80 per cent but also lighting quality and high visual comfort.

The citizens of Hamburg take great pride in their opera house, a cultural institution with a lineage tracing back to the original opera house at Gänsemarkt, established in 1678. In 1827, it found its new home on Dammtorstraße. Today, under the leadership of general music director Kent Nagano, the State Ope

USA - British progressive metal band Haken recently wrapped their North American tour with a lighting package provided by Bandit Lites. An Evening with Haken featured the band playing their recent record Fauna in its entirety as well as fan favourites. Lighting designer Harry Merrison of Hazzmo sought to formulate a new lighting design that would be simple yet memorable as well as compact and easily constructed.

“We wanted to create something that could match the versatility of Haken’s music,” explained Merrison. “With the progressive roc

France - The distinctive folded concrete triangular-shaped vaulted ceiling of the CNIT (National Centre for Industry and Technology) building at the La Défense CBD in Paris has been subtly illuminated with Anolis Calumma XL SC LED luminaires.

This new lighting project is part of a modernisation initiative led by architect Jean-Luc Crochon of Cro&Co Architecture who approached BOA Light Studio to create a plan to enhance the underside of the ceiling with lighting.

The scheme is designed to bring a ‘living-breathing’ resonance to the structure, pull

UK - Johnny Marr embarked on his UK tour, The Spirit Power, earlier this month, finishing at Rock City, Nottingham on 14 April.

Lighting designer Ed Warren, of Next Level Lights, put together a compact yet impactful lighting design for the 10-date tour with Ayrton laser-sourced Cobra fixtures playing a key role.

The full rig included 16 Ayrton Cobra rigged on two over-stage trusses with four more Cobra units sited upstage of the band, the latter of which formed the touring floor package.

“We used them as big, bright wash lights with whic

USA - Las Vegas-based OSA International provided Ayrton Huracán LT and Zonda 9 FX lighting fixtures, grandMA3 consoles and MDG TheONE atmospheric generators to lighting designer Aldo Visentin for the North American leg of Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli’s arena tour. Ayrton, MA Lighting and MDG are all brands exclusively distributed in North America by ACT Entertainment.

Andrea Bocelli kicked off his run of US and Canadian dates with a Valentine’s Day performance in Raleigh, North Carolina and wrapped his tour in Detroit on 14 April. OSA International provided t

USA - The 1,500-capacity Showtime Theatre show lounge and central entertainment hub of the 306m long Carnival Magic cruise ship has been upgraded with the installation of 30 x new Robe Painte, 30 x LEDBeam 350 and 12 x miniPointe moving lights, which were installed while the ship was still in operation around Miami.

Co-ordinating the upgrade project was Carnival Cruise Line fleet supervisor for lighting Silviu Ardelean and lighting manager Alexander Nelson, who explained that the refit saw the replacement of the original moving lights.

The three-tiered sho

UK - The recently announced Profile Awards have created much interest within the industry, with sponsorship take up for all the 16 Awards. The Headline Sponsor is Ayrton with the TV Awards being sponsored by ChamSys, ELP, LCR, Light Initiative, Roxxlight and Version 2 Lights. The Theatre Awards are sponsored by Chauvet, Elation, ETC, Fix8, GLP, TSL, SLX and Vari-Lite; the pre-show bar is sponsored by Ambersphere Solutions and the Goody Bags at the end of the evening are sponsored by JLL.

The Profile Awards have been created and are coordinated by Durham and Jennie

USA - On the winter leg of Disturbed’s Take Back Your Life tour, Alex Mungal created a raw, powerful visual dimension that matched the intensity of the music.

Featuring multiple layers of lighting fixtures that projected colours and pixel effects in every direction - and often enveloped the band in brilliant hues – in addition to serving up volcanic eruptions of pyro effects and fog, the production design fused seamlessly with the gripping music to create an overwhelmingly moving and all-embracive experience.

Mungal and the design team were ab

USA - Altman Lighting has announced the appointment of Ethan Aberg as the new regional manager for the western region of the United States.

Ethan Aberg brings over 20 years of experience in the lighting fixtures and controls industry with a proven track record at Martin Professional where he contributed to the development and execution of the annual sales strategy and objectives for the Martin by Harman Professional lighting division for the installation market. As the North American brand ambassador he contributed to supporting relationships with regional sales t

Europe - Lighting designer and programmer Jimmy Olausson was with his client, Avatar, on their European tour, when the metal band suddenly released a new song, Make It Rain, and asked him to programme looks for it.

“Normally, I prefer to do my programming in my office where I can focus on the details, so creating the lighting for Make It Rain during the tour was a challenge,” said Olausson. “But it turned out to be a fantastic addition to our set and gave me the opportunity to think outside the box, crafting a visual style for this song tha

Spain - The growing Avolites team has welcomed aboard Gonzalo Herranz Gutierrez as a senior product specialist, who will be based in Madrid, and will be providing comprehensive support related services to Avolites customers and distributors focusing on Europe and Latin America including training new users and their own sales and support staff.

Avolites MD Paul Wong stated, “We’ve worked with Gonzalo for many years and are absolutely thrilled he’s joining the Avolites global team.

“He brings long lasting relationships, a strong knowledge of the mark

USA – Harman Professional Solutions has introduced the Martin MAC Viper XIP, the next-generation Viper-class fixture that integrates Viper performance, Martin’s patent-pending XIP weatherproofing technology, and the most robust feature set Martin has ever developed. Drawing on features that defined the renowned Viper lineup, MAC Viper XIP sets a new standard for all-in-one performance, innovation, and reliability. 

Integrating powerful lumen output, XIP water and dust ingress protection, and whisper-silent noise levels, MAC Viper XIP is not only designed for

France - The renowned Théâtre de la Renaissance is the latest venue in Paris to choose ETC gear to upgrade its lighting. ETC dealer So What & Co supplied High End Systems Halcyon Titanium fixtures for the Parisian theatre.

Well-known spaces across France including the Bordeaux Opera, the Théâtre National Populaire, the Comédie Française and the Grand Théâtre de Provence have all recently selected Halcyon automated fixtures to light their spaces. In the heart of the 10th arrondissement of Paris, the Théâtre de la Renaissance also made the same choice

Slovenia - Writer, actor and TV personality Lado Bizovicar presented the 2024 Slovenska Muska extravaganza, staged at Ljubljana’s Stožice arena, the first time in the venue’s history that a 360-degree show had been presented, which bumped up the capacity to 13,000, with every seat sold.

The production and lighting design was created by Crt Birsa of design studio Blackout and Greta Godnic and recorded for broadcast. Crt utilised 355 Robe lighting fixtures in the 500+ luminaires on the rig, from the high-powered Forte to the scenic Patt 2013 plus seven other ty

Argentina - Singer and former YouTuber María Becerra made history as the first Argentine female artist to sell out River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires, the largest venue in Argentina, for two consecutive nights, 22-23 March 2024. A large complement of Claypaky fixtures illuminated the show designed by creative director Julian Levy and lit by lighting designers and programmers Pablo Martinelli and Joaquin Boerr from Gou Studio.

A leading voice in Argentina’s urban pop movement, the 24-year-old Becerra began her career at the age of 12 on Facebook then created he

Australia - Novatech Creative Event Technology of Adelaide, the first production company in Australia to hold stock of Ayrton’s IP65-rated Domino Wash fixtures, invested in 48 units, supplied by Ayrton’s exclusive distributor for Australia, Show Technology, and immediately put them to work on the Adelaide Festival.

Domino Wash is an all-terrain luminaire developed specifically for resisting hot or cold weather, wind, rain, hail, sand or dust.

“We’d been looking for a high-powered moving wash light with a Fresnel lens for more theatrical uses, as we

Latest Issue. . .