Belgium - Painting With Light headed by Luc Peumans has crafted the eye-catching design for the current Holiday On Ice touring production, Passion, which highlights some of the dreams, trials, tribulations and dedication required by those pursuing ice skating careers.

Playing to enthusiastic reviews and audiences, it's the first year that Genk based Painting With Light has produced a fully comprehensive creative concept encompassing all the disciplines - lighting, set and video - one of many strengths enabled by Luc and his talented team of associates.

This scenario allowed Luc to maintain a complete visual harmony for the work, and also gave the scope to design several new and bespoke lighting elements including wireless controlled LED soles that clamp to the base

USA - Robe moving lights took centre stage along with an eclectic mix of new and emerging musical talent at Hype Machine's Hype Hotel venue during the 2015 SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas.

UK-based lighting designer David Wolstenholme was engaged as lighting consultant for the event by Hype Hotel's production designer / manager Brian Kim. The two previously worked together for Cirque du Soleil production. David helped create the lighting scheme using the Robe fixtures. He also liaised between any incoming artist LDs and his team which included assistant LX Eric Kim and lighting intern, Lila Neiswanger.

Hype Hotel featured two live sessions a day with five artists per session, complete with lightening quick changeovers, so the lighting requirements were extremely demanding. David likened the incredible vibe of this event to the craziness and buzz of the Edinburgh Fringe Fe

USA - Upfront Week in Manhattan may well witness the most intense series of sales presentations anywhere. For a few frenetic days, broadcast and cable television networks pull out all the stops in an effort to convince advertisers to sponsor their programmes. The stakes are high: up to 75 percent of advertising time is sold during these negotiations; so is the glitz and glamour as TV stars appear on stage and at after parties to pitch their shows to potential sponsors.

Any network that hopes to stand out during this ad bazaar had better create a strong visual impression on potential sponsors. The red-hot and rapidly growing Spanish Language Azteca Network did just that, thanks in part to an inspired stage lighting design by Barrett Hall that featured Chauvet Professional Next NXT-1 moving LED panels provided by WorldStage.

Hall used a collection of 12 Next NXT-1 panels to surp

UK - The stock of Olly Murs has never been higher, with the newly appointed X Factor co-presenter's latest album Never Been Better debuting at No.1 and certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry. April and May saw the British singer-songwriter play a 26-date UK and Ireland arena tour, where a full Sennheiser package had microphone and monitor requirements Wrapped Up.

The tour played multiple nights in Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Dublin, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield, with additional shows in Leeds and Liverpool and a four-night run at London's O2 Arena.

"I've used Sennheiser vocal microphones on most things I've done over the last five years or so and have always had excellent results," explains monitor engineer Daniel Kent, who has worked with Murs for the past two and a half years. "You also get brill

UAE - Four years in the making, there was nothing inevitable about the installation of a d&b audiotechnik system into Pacha Ibiza Dubai, the latest and largest in the global franchise that is Pacha.

"When you work in a place where you know the content will all be Electronic Dance Music (EDM), with no acoustic content, everything pure electronic, then you don't want any contribution from the room acoustic," was how Janko Ramuscak of d&b, who led the German design team described the principal demand imperative. "The ideal would be totally dry and direct."

Located next to the prestigious Madinat Jumeirah resort in Dubai, Pacha is spread over three floors. The mix of entertainment experiences, room spaces, VIP locations, and an open rooftop terrace, demanded a complex, zoned solution requiring over one hundred channels of amplification. Drawing on elements from

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ETC Halcyon Silent

High End Systems Halcyon Silent builds on ETC’s legacy of fanless automated fixtures by incorporating features from the highly sought-after Halcyon family. Halcyon Silent perfectly balances silent operation with brilliant output of 18,400 lumens and high-impact features. 

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USA - In the spring of 2015, the University of Southern Indiana opened the doors to its new 300-seat thrust theatre, the USI Performance Centre. With a design by Theatre Projects, the new theatre houses some of the most intricate lighting technologies available today. Wanting a single console that could offer control for all the lighting technologies inside, the design team found their answer in the NEO lighting control console from Philips Strand Lighting.

"This was a new construction project which was phase two of the University Center renovation," began Eric Cope, USI assistant professor of lighting design. "In the new space everyone wanted a visually dynamic environment which led to the design of two large LED walls flanking the stage of the theatre that we could use for both performances and educational purposes. To control it, we needed a console that would

France - Matthias Larrieu, a leading member of the Nexo design team has died in a road accident. He was just 30 years old.

The Nexo family is mourning the loss of one of its sons, the talented young loudspeaker designer Matthias Larrieu, who lost his life in a car accident in June, writes Ginny Goudy. In his six years at Nexo, Matthias left a truly impressive mark. A core member of the design team that brought the company's flagship STM Series modular line array into existence, he was also instrumental in the development of other ground-breaking Nexo products, notably the 45°N-12 inline stage monitor and the hugely popular RS subbass cabinets.

His last project for Nexo was the STM M28 compact line array, which, in its first year on the market, is already set to become one of the company's best-selling PA systems.

Nexo's gentle giant, Matthias balanced his genius w

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Create new traditions – Cameo P6 - High Output Full-Spectrum Ellipsoidal

Cameo's P6 is a future-proof LED profiler with a powerful 600 W RGBACL engine and 16,000 lumens. It’s an energy-efficient replacement for 2.5 kW halogen profile lights in theatres and venues. With excellent light quality and natural colour rendering, it fits perfectly in theatres, musicals, TV studios, congresses, and live events.

With an LED life of 50,000 hours and low power use, the P6 cuts energy costs and supports the EU’s ‘Green Deal’ goals for climate neutrality by 2050. It also meets updated eco-design rules for lighting.

www.cameolight.com/p6profile

USA - - At InfoComm 2015, Barco will demonstrate how its industry-leading solutions deliver "dynamic, visual spectaculars and real-time collaboration to drive business success". Emphasizing technologies built for high impact and low total cost of ownership, Barco's projection and image processing, wireless collaboration, LED video wall, video wall and enterprise networking solutions empower companies to connect their worlds, both inside and out, by enhancing connectivity across the enterprise and around the globe, says the company.

In Booth 2529, visitors will interact with a wide array of Barco's solutions designed deliver "a heightened visual and collaboration experience".

Barco corporate solutions unlock the knowledge of an organization by connecting people and information in the most intuitive way. ClickShare empowers content sharing with a click of a b

USA - As LED video wall technology has improved in quality, it's becoming the new standard for displaying video images - in applications ranging from concerts and productions, to nightclubs and sports arenas - thanks to the superior efficiency, reliability and flexibility it offers compared to traditional projection video. Now Chauvet Professional is meeting the rising demand for sharper, more detailed LED video displays with the PVP X3, a modular indoor LED video panel with a high-resolution pixel pitch of 3.9 mm.

In addition to having a tight 3.9 mm pixel pitch, the PVP X3 utilizes SMD 2121 black body Tri-Color (red, green, blue) LEDs to produce the highest in class contrast and exceptional clarity of images. Each panel's 500mm square display surface is densely outfitted with 16,384 LEDs, which emit a standard total illuminance of 1,560 NITS (which can easily be adjusted up to

Spain - Lorenzo Cortés is one of Spain's highest profile composers and producers, with a career of over 20 years of music production for television, radio and the internet. For his newly-upgraded studio, he wanted a production system that would allow him to focus exclusively on the creative process. Yamaha Nuage was the answer.

Lorenzo's career has included composing theme music, library music, jingles and soundtracks for a wide range of clients in over 20 countries. His Zaragoza studio sees him working on projects from composition through to entire productions of audio-visual projects.

With a heavy workload, Lorenzo wanted a system that would be intuitive, seamless and ensure that he could concentrate solely on music creation and production, rather than having to think about the technical side of the process.

Having looked at different options Lorenzo chose Nuage, wh

USA - Critics have lavishly praised Lana Del Rey's three-plus-octave vocal range and emotive delivery, but within the context of a band on a big stage, the task of ensuring that every sultry whisper is heard can present its share of challenges. Escondido, California-based touring sound provider Sound Image tapped the right tool for the trek: L-Acoustics' K1.

Currently out on her North American Endless Summer tour, along with opener Courtney Love, Del Rey is wowing fans in sheds each night on a K1 main loudspeaker system, with K2 out-fill arrays flown as needed in wider venues.

It's a sizable rig - one well suited to a big band and a rising star on her first headlining tour. But while L-Acoustics' K1 can certainly whomp with the best of them, this system is equally adept at treading lightly, never missing a note nor losing the emotion of a song.

"This is my first time to

Czech Republic - Sixteen teams, 64 games, 17 days, and a record-breaking crowd of nearly 750,000 - high-flying Nexo Geo S12-ST loudspeakers in Prague's O2 Arena provided a quality audio experience for the Ice Hockey World Championship, won by Canada.

The event was another great success for the O2 Arena and its newly-installed Nexo PA/VA systems, following the finals of the Federation Cup in 2014, and this year's European Athletics Indoor Championships.

Flown from the central 'cube' above the ice rink, the Geo S12-ST system, supplied and installed by MusicData, uses a total of 84 x line-array cabinets, with 24 x RS18 subs. Chosen for their long-throw capability, the compact two-way ST cabinets have been developed from the standard Geo S12 design offering the high SPL and enhanced speech intelligibility required for stadium and arena applications.

The 24x RS18 subs - also flow

UK - RSH Audio recently supplied equipment for two high-profile events held within a few days of each other in London. The XL Recordings & Young Turks present event on Monday 18 May and the Arsenal FC Foundation's Night to Inspire on Thursday 21 May both demanded high quality sound, which was delivered by RSH Audio, using Funktion-One loudspeakers.

The company's director, Joe Haycocks, is launching an offshoot called Event Technics, to cover the projects for which he is production manager, as well as supplier. This was the case for XL Recordings & Young Turks present (Event Technics' fifth project), for which it provided all of the entertainment technology. This included full-HD projection mapping, Robe and GLP lighting fixtures and the sound equipment - supplied by RSH Audio via Event Technics.

XL Recordings & Young Turks hosted two stages at The S

UK / USA - How do you turn common but necessary stage gear into an integral part of the set design? Lighting designer Steven Douglas solved the dilemma by creatively mounting Solaris LED Mozarts, the versatile pixel-mapping RGBW fixtures, on key equipment for The Killers lead singer Brandon Flowers' Desired Effects tour.

"We mounted Mozarts on the downstage edge of Brandon's floor monitors," explains Douglas, "as well as attaching them to mic stands and the back line. We used iPad holders to rotate them into a diamond orientation."

Douglas adds, "After using the Solaris LED Flares for The Killers, I heard about the Mozarts and tried them on a shoot for the new Guitar Hero Live video game. I like the superior quality of light and their compact size - we can put them pretty much anywhere!"

The European leg of the tour ends this month, followed by

The Netherlands - Elation Europe will be holding another round of its popular PRO Service Days at its European Headquarter office in Kerkrade, The Netherlands. This is an oportunity to gain hands-on knowledge of Elation products and lighting professionals are encouraged to register while there is still space.

Elation invites technicians and all interested service professionals to PRO Service Days to be held 21 July (beginner) and 22 (advanced). July's PRO Service Days will focus on providing in-depth technical knowledge of Elation's most popular products with a detailed look at technological construction while covering important service guidelines.

A 30€ hospitality fee covers food and drinks and registration is required. There is only room for 15 participants each day so early registration is recommended.

(Jim Evans)

Ukraine - When the American Christian rock band Kutless from Portland, Oregon, visited Odessa in Ukraine on 23 May, more than 3,500 people showed up to enjoy a high-energy rock show. The concert took place in Molodaya Gvardiya amphitheatre, where the modern worship band performed songs from their latest 2014 album Glory.

Odessa-based rental company, Grand Master, was brought in as technical partner of this event, providing stage, light, sound and special effects as well as control of light and sound. Previously acquired rental stock from SGM's distributor ART-R was put to use, when implementing no less than 20 x SixPack blinders, six X-5 LED strobes and 16 x Idea Moving LED 300 to ensure a special atmosphere to accompany the band's performance.

General director and owner of ART-R, Mr. Sergey Rusnak, informs, "I would like to emphasize that this dynamic lighting sho

UK - Conference and events specialist Saville Audio Visual is responding to increasing demands for its AV facilities and staging services in the UK and overseas. At their conference facilities hub in Leeds, the company has invested in extra workspace, new jobs and major additions to its stock of audio, lighting and display technology - already one of the largest in the UK.

Prompted by a record trading year and £40m turnover for 2014, the company has taken on a third building in Leeds, expanding its important Central Resource Unit. The growing CRU team supports Saville's national network of AV hire branches with a large stock of staging and display technology plus a highly skilled team of creative designers and technicians.

The company's confidence in the live events industry is reflected in a significant new commitment to sustainable LED technology, including large forma

South Korea - The Busan Exhibition and Convention Centre(BEXCO) has dramatically extended the versatility of its exhibition space with the installation of two steerable Meyer Sound CAL 32 column array loudspeakers. Formerly suited only for hosting floor exhibits, the room can now accommodate a variety of meetings, lectures, presentations, and performances that demand controlled coverage and highly intelligible audio reinforcement for both speech and music. CAL will be demonstrated live at InfoComm 2015 in the Meyer Sound demo room 203A.

Prior to the renovation, the large open space of Hall 5A had a reverberation time in excess of eight seconds at 1 kHz. With acoustic treatment of the walls reducing reverberation to a more manageable 2.7 seconds, CAL has proven to be a far superior solution compared to its former ceiling system.

"With its precise beam steering technology,

Spain - The ability of Roland video products to adapt in a multi format live environment was recently put to the test at the L.E.V Festival in Gijón, Spain. This multi venue festival (L.E.V. stands for Laboratorio de Electrónica Visual or, in English, Laboratory of Visual Electronics) forms a part of the International Festival of Audiovisual Creation, now in its ninth year. The festival is internationally renowned for pushing audiovisual boundaries based on four themes: the natural synergy between image and sound, the live presentation, the relationship established between audience, artist connection and public space, and the new artistic trends.

The Roland XS-84H multi format AV matrix switcher operated as the main 'hub' for the numerous visual configurations for live performances on the main stage in the Laboral Theatre throughout the festival. The XS-84H was used to control

USA - Lighting designer Mike Lurz provided the artists with the various looks needed for their individual performances at the M3 Rock Festival, utilising VL4000 BeamWash and VL4000 Spot luminaires from Philips Vari-Lite.

"I've been involved with the M3 Rock Festival since 2009 and putting the design together for this type of event is actually two parts," began Lurz. "First, we use the Merriweather Pavilion house rig to give the bands as many lighting options as possible with profile and wash fixtures, colours, patterns, etc. Then, for this particular genre of music, we need to look at providing a lot of contrast and movement to make the rig look big through the layering of beams. To accomplish this, versatility in your lighting instruments is essential and that's where the VL4000 BeamWash and VL4000 Spot luminaires truly excel."

As Lurz began to put togethe

UK - Hylec-APL, the specialist supplier of electrical and electronic components, enclosures and rack systems, has announced the Techno TH392 waterproof connector with X-Dry technology. All cables are hydroscopic to some degree and will therefore absorb moisture that can collect inside the cable sheath, moving along its length and even crossing terminations in the cable. The X-Dry technology blocks moisture transmission across terminals, protecting electrical and electronic equipment.

"The special barrier prevents moisture condensation, which runs through the cable, from entering the connector, protecting the system in critical conditions of use," said Mark Severn, director of sales for Hylec-APL.

The connectors have screw or piercing terminals and can accept cables with diameters from 8 to 12mm; maximum cable cross section is 4mm2 for screw terminals and 0.5 to 1.5mm

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