UK - Festival Republic called Midas into Blondin Park, Ealing in December, to provide power for the first Plant to the Beat, a Trees for Cities initiative.

More than 200 volunteers met the challenge of planting a mixture of 10,000 trees in a day, sowing the seeds for biodiversity in Ealing, and Midas provided for Festival Republic's 'Beat'.

The 'woodland village' featured a stage for a choir, drummers and DJs, along with structures providing participants with free vegetarian food, hot drinks and arts facilities for children.

Laura Pando, Festival Republic's sustainability co-ordinator, comments, "We worked with Trees for Cities to make Plant to the Beat a sustainable event and Midas' commitment to 100 per cent biodiesel was a perfect fit."

Buoyed by their Ealing success, Trees for Cities/Festival Republic have big ambitions for the event, in multiple cities, plan

UK - High up in the north east of England, Graeme Sewell first started lighting local bands around the Durham area more than 30 years ago, and after setting up Vortex Lighting was an early investor in 'intelligent' products. Today, Vortex Lighting supplies major hire companies and venues throughout the UK, specialising in concert touring.

In the early Nineties, Graeme developed a relationship with Ian Kirby and Clive Bailey, who now head up SGM UK, and news that Peter Johansen had taken over the Italian lighting company and relocated it to Denmark quickly ignited his interest.

After making an initial investment in X-5 white LED strobes he was soon captivated by the P-5. "It was a combination of the compact form factor and high power output that impressed me and my customers - as well as the quality of the colours," he said. "We use them for up-lighting buildings

Denmark - Elation Professional's new SixPar Series of indoor and outdoor PAR colour changers is providing dynamic colour wash for skate boarders and other street sport enthusiasts at StreetDome, a one-of-a-kind modern skate park in Haderslev, Denmark.

Designed by CEBRA Architects, StreetDome is an open playground and the biggest skating facility in northern Europe with both indoor and outdoor areas for skateboarding, BMX, bouldering, street ball, parkour, rollerblading, street dance, and more. Serving as a social meeting place for kids of all ages, skill levels and cultures, if street sports are your bag then this is the place for you.

Central to the StreetDome complex, primarily indoor activities like skateboarding, basketball and bouldering, is the 1,500 sq.m StreetDome Igloo. Unheated and lit primarily through sunlight during daylight hours, the dome-shaped roof hovers over

USA - Red-hot rapper Machine Gun Kelly lives up to his name with a rapid fire delivery and crackling stage presence that, in the words of one of his trademark songs, get crowds to "lace up", for a spiky, hard-edged experience. Any lightshow at a concert by 'MGK', as the lanky rapper is affectionately known to his legion of fans, better be able to blow past conventional expectations with brain searing intensity, which is precisely what lighting designer Alex Kay delivered for the rapper's recent No Class Tour, a 40 city escapade done with iconic metal band Limp Bizkit.

Kay, who has been working with Kelly since the 24-year-old rapper was doing local shows in his hometown of Cleveland, used a power blasting collection of fixtures provided by 4Wall Entertainment Lighting's Los Angeles office that utilized aerial beams, strobes, colourized foggers and a collection of super

USA - The Austin City Limits Music Festival recently returned to Zilker Park to showcase more than 130 rock, pop and hip hop artists on eight stages, including Outkast, Beck, Eminem, Skrillex, Calvin Harris and Pearl Jam. grandMA2 full-size consoles were on hand to provide control for festival performers. Seth Jackson served as festival lighting designer and lighting coordinator.

grandMA2 full-size consoles were found "everywhere you turned" at the festival, Jackson explained. "It looked like an MA showroom! There were grandMA2 consoles on every stage. We had two at every station, and sometimes the bands brought their own.

"Ninety percent of the artists used grandMA2," Jackson reported, "and they brought their own show files. With grandMA2's networking capabilities people could work on systems simultaneously: Two artists could program their respec

Australia - Indie dance trio RÜFÜS recently embarked on their latest Australian tour, with lighting designers Matthew James Smith and Lynden Gare of Colourblind incorporating some Clay Paky A.leda B-EYE K20s into their production for one of the first times in Australia, wowing audiences with the fixtures' never-seen-before effects.

Smith and Gare's clean, silhouetted design evoked a 'club' vibe, and was based around a 3D, trapezoid-shaped custom LED set piece provided by Eness that was positioned in the centre of the stage. The B-EYEs, supplied by Alive Technologies, were part of the floor package around the piece.

"We used the B-EYEs in the Shapes mode, with the on-board macros and effects giving us a fantastic way to open the show and the battery-powered menu system making them easy to prep - it's a nice feature that Clay Paky has been doing for some time." says

USA - The Behind the Scenes Happy Hour, hosted by PLASA, was the biggest pre-LDI party of the year, with over 400 guests attending. Twenty-three sponsors donated towards the event, and all proceeds were able to go to the Behind the Scenes charity, totalling over $18,000.

Event co-chair Steven Way, President of ALPS, said, "Our entire committee was very pleased with the new 'happy hour' format for this PLASA event. Our sponsors really stepped up, allowing us to expand the food and drink offerings, reach a wider audience of industry professionals and as important, present the Behind the Scenes charity with a wonderful donation. Many attendees said this was our best event with amazing networking and they look forward to next year."

"It was a terrific night and it was great to see the industry show so much support for the charity. The support was fantastic and I was

Guatemala - Funktion-One has extended its reach around the globe with an installation at Central America's 'first super club'. Blue Box, the company responsible for introducing the loudspeaker manufacturer to Ibiza over a decade ago, has continued its pioneering ways with the first ever Funktion-One installation in Guatemala - at One Club in Guatemala City.

The new 1,200-capacity venue boasts a forward-thinking design that fuses the appeal of an exclusive lounge with a high-energy nightclub. Technology is at the heart of its operation. Along with some of the latest Funktion-One speakers, the club features a video mapping system, which brings colour and movement to its architecture.

Blue Box's Mark Metcalf comments, "Funktion-One contacted me to say they had an interesting project in Guatemala. I have a long standing client in Ecuador and tend to help Funktion-One with new

Austria - Die Große Chance (A Great Opportunity) is one of Austria's leading talent competitions. The 2014 final staged in Studio 1 at national broadcaster ORF's HQ in Vienna was lit in great style by lighting director Thomas Kruder using nearly 300 Robe moving lights.

It was also Kruder's first chance to use Robe's new Bright Multi-Functional Luminaires (BMFLs) of which he had eight on the rig. "It's one of the most powerful fixtures I have ever used," he states.

In addition to the BMFL Spots, he utilised 133 x Pointes and 146 x LEDBeam 100s, all supplied by rental company Supporting Role, also based in Vienna.

Kruder has lit the last two editions of Die Große Chance. In 2011 the original concept of the show - popular throughout the 1980s - was reformatted and presented in a contemporary context, complete with tele-voting to decide on the winner ou

UK - Flightcase Warehouse (FCW) is pleased to announce the achievement of ISO9001 accreditation.

"By demonstrating and verifying our compliance to the requirements of ISO 9001, FCW are actively advertising the company's commitment to quality, traceability and continual improvements," said FCW's Sam Austin.

ISO 9001 promotes the development of continual improvement, customer satisfaction and traceability through the implementation of various management system processes.

"ISO9001 accreditation will drive Flightcase Warehouse forward and assist in constantly improving our quality management systems. This is key criteria in showing our existing clients our commitment to quality management and will assist in convincing potential clients to utilise our products and services," the company says.

Czech Republic - Herbalife, the Los Angeles-based manufacturer of natural nutrition products, held its annual corporate 'Extravaganza' motivational event this year in Prague. A total audience of around 54,000 people attended the event in the city's O2 Arena, a modern multi-purpose facility inaugurated in 2004.

The production of 'Extravaganza' Prague was entrusted to event company Planet Service, long-time partner of Herbalife for its international conventions. Technical manager for the event was Alessandro Giangi; lighting design was by Luca Casadei and Claudio Tappi, and set design was by Emilia Covotta and Raffaele Persico.

The stage included a rotating circular stage, and an automated system to fly in a large chandelier during the launch of a new product line. To illuminate this design, Planet Service installed a lighting system consisting of over 350 DTS fixtures, includin

UAE - Gary Barlow, has premiered a one-off open-air show version of his recent Since I Saw You Last tour in Dubai. For the special event, lighting designer Tim Routledge specified an array of super-bright Clay Paky fixtures, including one of the latest additions to Clay Paky's product line, the SuperSharpy, from leading supplier Eclipse Staging Services.

Routledge specified 55 Clay Paky Sharpys, 12 Sharpy Wash 330s, 36 A.leda B-EYE K20s, 10 A.leda B-EYE K10s, 15 Clay Paky Alpha Profile 1500s and 20 SuperSharpys to deliver versatility and impact to the diverse production by Louder Entertainment.

"The sheer brightness of the fixtures was the main reason for using the SuperSharpys this time around," says Routledge. "As we had moved to outdoors for the first time I needed something to make the show special. Whilst we played in darkness being in the middle of

UK - Lighting designer James O'Neill enjoyed working with rental company Entec so much when they supplied an Imelda May one off St Patrick's Day gig for him at London's Roundhouse earlier in the year that they were his company of choice to supply a dynamic floor lighting/specials package for the latest tour which has been out for six weeks around Europe and the UK.

"When it was clear that we would be taking production on this tour, I went straight back to Entec," explained James, who was delighted to be back working with Entec's Noreen O' Riordan and Pepper (Paul Schofield). "Once again they have been amazing," he declared.

James has worked with the popular Irish singer/songwriter since 2010, in which time her profile and fan base has grown steadily. The starting point for the lighting design on this tour was to make it look interesting and a bit quirky - a

UK - It was announced on Friday that the UK's first government-backed National College for the Creative and Cultural Industries is to be established at The Backstage Centre, High House Production Park, opening in September 2016.

Managed by Creative & Cultural Skills on behalf of a consortium of employers and industry organisations including Live Nation, Royal Opera House, White Light and the Association of British Theatre Technicians, the new National College will provide specialist training in the technical skills needed by the creative and cultural industries. This is in response to significant industry growth, with the creative economy growing at four times the rate of the national economy, and the value of the UK's creative industries exports standing at over £15 billion per year.

Business Secretary Vince Cable said: "The talent which brings plays, operas, and f

USA - Virtually every new club lighting project has its own challenges, whether they involve dealing with limited power draw or trying to accommodate some unusual architectural limitation. For Jay Krause of Sound and Lighting Solutions, the biggest challenge when working on the city's Hunter's nightclub was getting the 10 Rogue fixtures his client wanted in fast enough.

"As soon as our client saw demos of the Rogue R1 Spot and R1 Beam, they fell in love with the fixtures," said Krause. "They wanted them yesterday. They were super excited, because they saw what the Rogues can do in a bi-level club - which is create added depth plus all of these magical uplifting images in the air."

There are six Rogue R1 Spots and four Rogue R1 Beams in Krause's rig at the club. He positioned the beams midway between the first and second levels. "They sort of hang out o

South Africa - Lighting designer Willie Bothma was honoured to once again light the Kings of Chaos on their latest tour to Sun City and at GrandWest's Grand Arena in Cape Town. The full technical was supplied by Gearhouse Group's Cape Town branch and supported by Gavin Taylor, Sean Caie and the team at the Grand Arena.

Kings of Chaos featured special guest Steven Tyler alongside Billy Gibbons, Matt Sorum, Gilby Clarke, Duff McKagan, Robin Zander and Nuno Bettencourt and was brought to South Africa by Andrew Mac of AMP Events.

"It was a great show to do," said Bothma from Gearhouse who also lit the performance in 2013. "The only request was that the band should be seen all times and this was done. At the end of the day it's about the band and that is why people come to the show."

The rig and design were the same at both venues. The main challenge was setti

South Africa - The eighth biennial advanced media and entertainment technology tradeshow, Mediatech Africa, will take place from 15-17 July 2015 at the Dome at Northgate, Johannesburg.

Mediatech is Africa's leading trade show for the live entertainment technology, AV systems integration, broadcast, film, production, post-production, animation and new media, studio and recording and pro DJ equipment sectors, and offers an open platform to showcase new products and technologies.

Stand sales opened at the beginning of October 2014 and the orgainsers report that response from the industry has thus far been "phenomenal", with a host of big name exhibitors have already confirmed. Bose, Sony Professional Solutions, Sound and Light City, Concilium Technologies, Alpha Technologies, Viva Afrika, Peripheral Vision, DWR Distribution, Inala Technologies, Electrosonic SA, Timbre B

USA - The 15th Annual Latin Grammy Awards took place in a blaze of glamour at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, and was attended by some of the biggest names in Latin music and a sold-out audience of nearly 17,000. Almost 10m television viewers - the highest figures to date - tuned in for some or all the three-hour live broadcast on the Univision network.

For the fifth consecutive year, the lighting was designed by Carlos Colina, LD for all of Univision's major shows and events. After using Robe's Pointes for a successful show-stopping 'special moment' last year, he chose Pointes again this year to add extra elements of magic to key moments in an evening of great entertainment, collaborations and landmark live performances, plus a string of Awards.

Colina worked closely with set designer Jorge Dominguez to create the aesthetic for the show. They took full advantage of t

USA - The Audio Engineering Society is set to bring the AES139 International Convention to the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York City, NY, from 29 October to 1 November 2015.

Following highly-successful conventions in Los Angeles (2014) and New York (2013), which saw increased attendance as well as the development of expanded attendee and exhibitor offerings including the Project Studio Expo, Live Sound Expo and High Resolution Audio sessions, the 139th AES Convention will bring together the world's largest gathering of audio professionals for four days of audio technology, information, and networking, says the Society.

From recording and production, to broadcast and streaming, game audio, live sound, post-production, sound for picture, product design and more, attendees will have the opportunity to hear from top audio industry figures while immersed in the latest research an

World - Since the beginning of the Arctic Monkey's last global journey in May 2013, lighting director Sam MacLaren estimates he must have had his hands on over 50 different grandMA2 consoles from rental sources across the world.

So he must have been a regular grandMA2 user before then? "Well, actually that wasn't the case," says MacLaren. "I used the MA1 a few times but more recently have been using a few boards from other manufacturers, all of which have had some issues with reliability. So when we were deciding on the specification for this tour, the choice of console was obviously high on my list of priorities. I knew I would be picking up boards from local companies as well as touring closer to home with a full rental rig so my choice had to have reliability and availability at the top of the tick list. Integral to the decision was the knowledge that we would

UK - Teatime quiz show Eggheads is currently filming a new series. The show, hosted by Jeremy Vine, sees two teams going head-to-head through five rounds of gruelling questions and brain teasers. The Eggheads teams consist of highly regarded quiz and game show champions, (rotating each episode) against a series of teams of five 'challengers' who in each episode attempt to 'beat' the Eggheads.

Lighting designer Martin Kempton continues to originate the show, supported by Richard Martin Lighting (RML) and features their latest purchase the VL4000 Spot. The VL4000 Spot includes all the tools needed to create dynamic and useful lighting on any stage. Every aspect of the luminaire has been designed with performance in mind. To go with the rest of the set Martin chose MAC Auras, Chroma Banks and MAC 250s.

The show for 12 Yard Productions is filmed at the Pacific Quays, Glasgo

UK - A.C. Special Projects Ltd (ACSP) have supplied, installed and commissioned the LED lighting and control system for a high-profile Christmas holiday season display surrounding the iconic Eros statue at the heart of Piccadilly Circus in London's West End.

Based on a concept designed by Wildstone and approved by Westminster City Council, Wildstone developed an eye-catching 'Box of Christmas Presents' to surround the statue of Eros at Piccadilly Circus. Each side of the octagonal box features a 2.5m by 2.5m high definition LED screen promoting pre-Christmas marketing campaigns from a number of high-profile brand sponsors associated to West End retail.

ACSP were approached by Wildstone to tender for the supply of lighting fixtures used to light the 'Christmas Presents' boxes, which surround the figure around the top of the display.

Due to the harsh environment - which requir

South East Asia - DPA Microphones has reorganised its distribution channels in South East Asia by appointing new distributors in Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Taiwan. The appointments reflect the company's ongoing commitment to develop new business channels and support DPA's influential customer base.

The new appointments include AV United in Malaysia, Vision One Co. Ltd in Thailand, Pro AVL in Vietnam, Promedia in Indonesia and Shin Lee Sheng Music Corp. (SLS) in Taiwan. "Sales in virtually every APAC country are showing growth as the market recognizes the quality and breadth of DPA's product range," says Ken Kimura, DPA's general manager for the APAC region.

Francis Lai, DPA's regional sales manager, adds: "With our new distribution channels in place, we are now better able to promote DPA's microphones and increase brand awareness in many industry

UK - Since launching earlier this year, Yamaha's QL digital consoles have become favourites with education, the flexible facilities and familiar ease of use ensuring that students are given the best training for a job in the entertainment industry. One of the highest profile installations is at Tonbridge School in Kent.

Established in 1553, Tonbridge is an independent day and boarding school for boys aged 13-18. The school still occupies its original site, albeit with many new buildings constructed over the centuries. One of the more recent is the EM Forster Theatre, built in 2000 and named after the famed novelist and Old Tonbridgian. When another former pupil, James Mitchell, took up the post of chief technician last year, one of his first priorities was to upgrade the 370-capacity theatre's audio system.

Drama, theatre and technical live production are key parts of the scho

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