Romania - Every year the Romanian city of Ploiesti, situated 60 miles from Bucharest, celebrates the arrival of the new year in style with a concert and firework display in the main town square. Local company (and PR Lighting partner) Temple Media are contracted by the Municipality of Ploiesti City to create a dynamic show on the 16x14x10m outdoor stage - testing the artistry of freelance LD Cristian Simon.

This year he and Temple Media CEO Dan Chiorcioiu created a new lighting design and video set-up for the event, lighting the stage with nearly 100 LED fixtures. These comprised 20 x XR 200 Beam, 10 x XR 230 Spot, 16 x XLed 1061 Wash, 16 x XLed 2007 Beam and 30 x XLed 3007 Wash. They also added some other effects on the side wings, all under Resolume control.

The XR 230 Spots and XLed 1061 were located on the upstage centre and downstage trusses, and the XR 200 Beams were r

USA / Europe - Electronic metalcore five-piece Bring Me The Horizon recently completed a tour of the USA and Europe in support of their latest album That's The Spirit with a high-impact and punchy lighting design by Ben Inskip using Philips Showline SL Nitro 510C LED strobes.

Inskip - who has served as lighting designer for the Sheffield band for the past five years - employed the strobes to cut through the brightness of the show's significant video element.

"In terms of output the SL Nitro 510C is great," says Inskip. "It is bright enough to still have impact during the video heavy parts of the set. In addition, the strobes' great color mixing meant that they worked well with the content on the video wall to create an overall look instead of fighting to be seen."

Inskip positioned 12 units upstage tucked in between video strips that made up the

Europe - The new Holiday on Ice show, Believe, directed and choreographed by Olympic and world ice skating champion Christopher Dean, takes the concept of ice musicals to a new level of production and presentation.

Belgian design practice Painting with Light has created the set, lighting and video designs for this vibrant show, a contemporary take on Romeo and Juliet. Painting with Light's Luc Peumans imagined the set, working alongside his talented team of Paco Mispelters who created the lighting and Michael Al-Far who designed the video.

"It was a fantastic opportunity to show what Painting with Light can do as a full live show production resource," commented Luc, whose original ideas for the scenic were chosen from a competitive pitch.

Luc and Painting with Light have worked on previous Holiday on Ice productions for Dutch producers Stage Entert

USA - The inaugural KAABOO Festival launched in Del Mar, California this September with Clay Paky Sharpys and A.leda B-EYE K20s.

KAABOO was held at the Del Mar Racetrack & Fairgrounds over three days, with 100 musical acts filling seven indoor and outdoor stages. Festival lighting designer Chris Lisle was tasked with delivering unique looks to each stage. "We had a lot of fun playing with architecture," he says. "We created ambience and environmental looks across the site."

The main stage, Sunset Cliffs, featured over 50 active Sharpys layered throughout the rig to give big visual punch. The EDM (Encore) stage used 24 B-EYE K20s in the design, primarily shining toward the audience for big effects and visuals. "The B-EYEs were used in shapes mode," notes Lisle. "We took advantage of a lot of the great built-in macros. They performed great, a

UK - Specialist rigging and chain hoist service and inspection centre, The Hoistpital, recently hosted an official EXE Rise Training session at their premises in Bedford for the maintenance team from Neg Earth, which owns a substantial quantity of EXE Rise chain hoists in both 1120kg and 2000kg Capacity.

With EXE Rise Hoists now being used on many of Neg Earths major shows, the team were keen to have official training to enable them to properly service and maintain their growing fleet. The Hoispital handle the annual inspection and certification for all of Neg Earth's motors and have recently serviced nearly 200 EXE Rise hoists, ready for a long stint of touring work coming up over the next 12 months.

The training session was presented by Adam Beaumont from Area Four Industries UK, Fabio Prada from Area Four Industries / Litec Italy and Giovanni Rebeschin from RWM Italy, and

Singapore - A Meyer Sound Constellation acoustic system has been installed in the upgraded school auditorium of The Singapore American School (SAS), fixing a sound issue that was preventing performers from hearing each other clearly. The system now gives students the opportunity to learn about active acoustics technology first hand, while also providing a customizable sound experience for community productions.

"As a school, we have a bold vision to be a world leader in education, cultivating exceptional thinkers, prepared for the future," says Dr. Chip Kimball, superintendent of SAS. "Constellation allows us to be that world leader; it truly is the epitome of excellence. Our students and our staff are tremendous performers and talented individuals, and they work very hard to perfect their craft. The acoustic system shines light on their art. This auditorium is a

UK / Ireland - Irish lighting designer Conor Biddle has been turning to Elation lighting for several years now, from acts as diverse as renowned House DJ MK to Irish country singer Nathan Carter's recent UK tour.

For an MK show at Olympia Theatre in Dublin, Conor used an all-Elation rig as energy-inducing visual support for a catalogue of house tracks. Having worked on previous MK shows in Ireland, Conor worked with Session Hire Dublin to design and operate the show with Session Hire providing crew and supplying all of the lighting.

"I have worked with Session Hire for many years as a freelance designer and together we have provided lighting to MK's previous Irish tours in several venues in Dublin over the years, as well as Cork and Galway," Conor stated of the relationship. "For MK's Olympia Theatre show, we used Elation's compact Rayzor Q7 LED moving head as

USA - As New Yorkers celebrated the arrival of 2016, several thousand EDM fans rocked out at Big Week NYC, a series of concerts produced by RPM Presents and staged at Pier 94 and Pier 36 in the city's famous waterfront area. Performances by international artists like Rudimental, Nicky Romero, Knife Party, Future, Travis Scott, local heroes Chainsmokers, and young Dutch rising star Oliver Heldens were illuminated by Robe fixtures selected by Kevin Mignone, owner of New York-based KM Productions.

Kevin, searching for a new look to the lighting and a change from the moving light brand that had been used in the past, decided Big Week NYC was an ideal chance to give Robe's BMFL Spots and Pointes a centre stage position for all the action.

He credits lighting designer Michael Gionfriddo with the high-energy display featuring Robe BMFL Spots and Pointes that accompanied the truly a

World - Madonna's Rebel Heart Tour employs a pair of DiGiCo SD7s under the control of the tour's FOH engineer Andy Meyer and monitor engineers Matt Napier and Sean Spuehler. Meyer and Napier are both using SD7s with Napier's console featuring an EX007 fader expansion where Spuehler mixes Madonna's vocals and effects.

"Madonna likes her live sound to be as close as possible to the album," says Napier. "To accomplish this, Sean focuses on mixing her vocal effects and delays, which are then bussed to the FOH console so - in theory, at least - the audience hears exactly the same vocal sound that she does."

Madonna is an artist who still likes to push the boundaries with her live production, and an arena tour features many elements that can present several challenges.

"Every Madonna tour has its unique aspects," Napier continues. "The main on

USA - Jack U, Steve Aoki, Zeds Dead, Flosstradamus, Big Sean and other EDM heavies are headlining the current Life In Color 'Kingdom' Tour, which is selling out venues in the US and UK. The set features a large replica of a lion, 56ft wide by 43ft tall, towering over the stage, with bright, blinking, moving eyes that are animated by Chauvet Professional's video panels.

"The eyes make the lion come alive and touch everyone in the audience," said Daniel Bouchard, production director of Life in Color, the popular festival, which this year is featuring the lion as part of its Kingdom theme. "We gave the lion a personality and a spirit, if you will, through the eyes. These are eyes that move and blink and change colours, so regardless of where you are, you feel their presence."

Bouchard and lighting designer Collyns Stenzel gave the lion its lively eyes by usi

China - The renowned Martha Graham Dance Company recently toured China, giving audiences new insight into 20th-century American culture.

For performances at the Shanghai Grand Theatre (SGT), lighting designer Nick Hung added a new dimension to Graham's classics by using numerous Source Four LED fixtures controlled by a Gio lighting control system. ETC's Chinese dealer, Hangzhou YiDaShi Lighting Equipment Co, also played a significant role in the event, by providing technical support for the show.

The programme at SGT, Three Masters of 20th Century Art, featured several of Graham's most prominent dances, including Chronicle, Deep Song, The Rite of Spring and Lamentation Variation. She created the pieces as a symbol of opposition to fascism and war. They blend three elements - lighting, music and dance - in a nod to artistic masters Pablo Pic

UK - Allen & Heath's new dLive mixing system appeared at London's O2 arena recently, with King Charles supporting Mumford & Sons on their UK tour.

King Charles front-of-house engineer Jon Lewis employed a dLive S3000 console with an A&H DM64 mixrack for FOH, with an Allen & Heath GLD Chrome mixer handling monitor duties. Powerful beyond its diminutive size, the 20 fader, 12" touch-screen equipped S3000 allows for up to 120 fader strips and extremely fast workflow.

With credits including Roni Size, The Feeling and Clean Cut Kid, Lewis is a fast-rising UK FOH engineer, with extensive experience of Allen & Heath's existing iLive mixing system. And he describes the dLive as being "on another level. From the build quality to the GUI to the flexibility of the console, everything's taken a huge step up. But it's also extremely intuitive - we only had a day's rehearsal wit

UK - TG Baker (Sound) has carried out a complete overhaul of the PA system at New York Stadium in Yorkshire, home of Rotherham United FC (aka 'The Millers'), using a Harman stadium sound solution comprising of JBL loudspeakers and Crown amplification. Although the stadium has only been open since the start of the 2012-13 season, various shortcomings with the sound system were identified which had led to complaints in relation to the system's overall quality and intelligibility.

A new tender document was drawn up and TG Baker (Sound) bid successfully. Director, Jason Longworth explained, "We conducted a complete system health-check, following which we were then contracted to replace the entire control system with four separate networked rack positions, using a dual redundant copper backbone, together with the upgrade and replacement of all of the main bowl and concourse lou

UK - Award-winning acoustics and theatre consultants, Sound Space Design and Anne Minors Performance Consultants have combined to form Sound Space Vision. The move formalises their long-standing working relationship and will continue to build on their success in performance, education and assembly spaces, as well as broadening their reach within the built environment.

Sound Space Vision enhances the rapport between performers and audiences, combining excellent spatial and technical design by AMPC with superb acoustics from SSD. Popular with audiences and operators, their performance environments are held in high esteem by artists. The creative, dynamic team includes specialists in acoustics, lighting, sound, stage engineering and audio-visual design to provide a complete acoustics and theatre consultancy service that touches all the senses.

Anne Minors Performance Consultant

UK - A ground-breaking new degree course in live sound production has been announced by Britannia Row Productions Training (BRPT), the skills training operation set up by one of the UK's leading audio rental houses, Britannia Row Productions. This unique degree course will give students an intense and comprehensive guide to everything they need to prepare themselves for a career in live sound production, the company says.

The programme is the result of a long period of discussion and planning between BRPT and South Thames College (STC). The Course will be run by STC and validated by the University of Northampton, with BRPT's industry professionals delivering the master class lectures throughout the course. Validation is scheduled for the end of March 2016. Student loans of up to £9,000 per year are available for the course to meet course fees. Students can apply now for places o

Germany - The German Rock & Pop Music Association's annual Rock & Pop Award competition, supporting Germany's young musicians, has been hugely influential for over three decades. This year the 33rd edition took place at the 4300-capacity Siegerlandhalle in Siegen.

PR Lighting's German partner, Focon Showtechnic, was brought in by technical production company, BST Becker Studio Technik, to provide PR Lighting's PR5000 Spots and Beams to add further impact to the show. These met the requirement of the light designers, Claudia Cronauer and Christian Conrad. Focon product manager, Jens Ottenhus says: "They were looking for powerful moving heads, with an accurate and sharp projection that also delivered a good all-round performance.

"The PR 5000 Beam, which formed an important part of this lighting design was extremely bright, and did a great job. It delivered high outp

UK - Lighting designer James Bawn has employed the Clay Paky SuperSharpy to play an instrumental role in a range of recent architectural projects, including projecting light over vast distances from the iconic Victoria Tower in Huddersfield and a special one-night installation at the Halifax Transmitting Tower.

Yorkshire-based roofing company Ploughcroft commissioned Bawn to create a stunning light show at the Halifax tower to celebrate reaching a huge milestone in energy saving for homes, schools and businesses across the county. Named Ploughcroft Eco Northern Lights, the light show saw the 45.7m (150ft) tower illuminated in vibrant hues and stunning textures.

"I added the SuperSharpys, which were sub-rented from Dry Hire Lighting via HSL, to deliver an aerial dynamic to the design," says Bawn. "The fixtures didn't disappoint - everyone was very please

On The Campaign Trail - Adele has issued a statement to distance herself from Donald Trump, after he used her music at his rallies. The Republican presidential candidate, whose slogan is "Make America great again", has recently been playing Adele's hit Rolling In The Deep as his "warm-up" music. "Adele has not given permission for her music to be used for any political campaigning," her spokesman confirmed.

It is not the first time Trump has been criticised for appropriating pop songs. Lawyers for Aerosmith star Steven Tyler sent Trump's campaign a cease-and-desist letter last year, after the politician played the band's hit single Dream On at numerous rallies around the US.

Politicians using songs by musicians who do not support them has been a thorny issue for decades, since Bruce Springsteen castigated President Reagan for plann

Canada - Chroma-QColor One 100 premium performance, IP65-rated LED PARs have provided a powerful yet energy-efficient lighting solution to beam bold colours, soft pastels and stunning whites onto the massive exterior façade of the Toronto Power Generating Station - playing against the background of the national historic site at Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada.

, with millions of sparkling lights making up beautifully illuminated displays. Recently, the organisers have made a concerted effort to utilize only power-saving LED technology for their lighting designs.

Shear Display was the contractor responsible for the design and implementation of the installations along the Winter Festival of Light. One of the major elements of the Festival was a sound and light show on the exterior of the Toronto Power Generating Station - a majestic building adjacent to the Niagara River, fash

Italy - The ancient Roman amphitheatre in Verona was the magnificent setting for Intimissimi on Ice, a sumptuous evening of music and dance on a vast iced stage that covered nearly half the arena floor. Designed in the classical amphitheatre style, the two-thousand year old stone structure is elliptical in shape, with the outer walls standing about seventeen metres in height. The audience was seated in the remaining half of the arena floor and on seating built into the steeply tiered bleachers of the original structure. Beautiful and atmospheric certainly, yet presenting quite a challenge for sound reinforcement.

Why was d&b ArrayProcessing deployed here? Davide Carlotti, Education and Application Support at d&b audiotechnik Italia explains. "To begin with, ArrayProcessing was chosen for its help with performances in this sort of environment. It was the first time f

UK - Set on a 30,000sq.ft industrial site in High Wycombe, Rush UK's first Trampoline Park incorporates a series of jumping activities - with wall-to-wall interconnected trampolines, climbing challenges, two dodgeball courts, two basketball hoop lanes, a gigantic foam pit and a ninja challenge course.

Combined with children's birthday party rooms, corporate events, teenage disco nights and fitness classes, all activities function under a roof supported by Martin Audio's new CDD (Coaxial Differential Dispersion) premium installation loudspeakers.

This solution was recommended by the AV integrators, Penguin Media Solutions. Their director of operations, Dylan Thompson, said it was vital after seeing other sound systems struggling for clarity in similar environments, that this lively, reverberant hall - with 16,000sq.ft of net usable space - was installed with products fit for

The Netherlands - Audinate has announced that 275 manufacturers have now adopted Dante, the industry-leading audio over IP networking solution, and that more than 675 Dante-enabled products are now available worldwide. This represents a dramatic 145% increase in the number of commercially available products since ISE last year.

To celebrate this unprecedented growth, Audinate will bring its popular #DanteEverywhere social media contest to ISE, giving attendees the chance to win a variety of prizes by finding Dante partners exhibiting at the show. To participate, attendees just take photos of the "Dante Spoken Here" signs at any of the over 80 Dante partner booths and post them to Twitter, Facebook or Instagram using the hashtag #DanteEverywhere. Prizes include free Dante T-shirts, Dante Via software and Bose QuietComfort 20 acoustic noise-cancelling headphones. Get mo

UK - TSL Lighting has acquired London-based rental company Point Source Productions. The move will see both companies' teams and rental equipment combining at TSL's premises during February 2016. Point Source's rental, projects and operations staff have also joined TSL. Customers will retain the same point of contact, levels of quality, service and value for money, say TSL.

Hire manager John Beer comments: "This is a huge step forward for our customers, myself, Ian and all the team joining TSL from Point Source. The operational systems, warehouse space and extra products available are a huge advantage to the markets and clients that we serve. We will continue to provide dry-hire, projects and trade rental, locally and nationally."

The owners of TSL Lighting, Sam Tamplin and Martin Locket, added: "We are pleased to welcome the staff and customers of Point Sourc

Finland - International theatre consultancy practice, Theatreplan, has recently completed a major reseating project for the Finnish National Opera House in Helsinki. The original seats were installed in 1993 when the opera building was completed. After meetings with the Opera and inspection of the auditorium, Theatreplan's Neil Morton recommended a full reseating rather than refurbishment.

The ergonomics of the original seat were designed for a relaxed seating position with a seat height lower than normal for theatre seats. This resulted in the sightlines from the seats at the front of each of the three tiers being less than ideal. Furthermore, after more than two decades' service many of the seats were beginning to show signs of wear and tear; the foam on many of seat pans had collapsed and several of the components were loose including the frames so that the seats were no lon

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