USA - Lighting designer Jason Ayala was understandably excited by the thought of doing an event for the Global Spin Awards at Manhattan's Metropolitan West, not just because of the prestigious client, but also because of the venue itself.

Like many New Yorkers, the LD had a special affinity for the sturdy two story building at 639 W. 46th Street in the city's Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood. Prior to becoming the go-to place for chic events like Versace's NY Fashion Week Runway Show, the 12,000 square foot building had achieved iconic status in the city as the home of H&H Bagel, the world's largest bagel factory, which at one time turned out over 80,000 of the hard circular rolls a day. The closure of H&H facility after its owner was indicted for tax fraud and its subsequent rebirth as a premier event centre only enhanced its mystique.

As Ayala and his production manager Jeffry

UK - The Association of British Theatre Technicians has bestowed its top honour, the ABTT Fellowship, on three outstanding industry individuals, whom the ABTT's Council of Management wish to recognise as having rendered signal service to the technical aspects of the art of the theatre.

David Blyth has been involved in theatre management, in both the commercial and subsidised sectors, for over 35 years.

Between 1983-87 he gained experience with two major West End theatre owners - Maybox Group and Stoll Moss Theatres - before joining Croydon's Fairfield Halls management team as head of operations for the next five years.

He joined The Ambassadors Theatre in Woking as general manager in 1992 and became head of operations for all ATG theatres in 1997.

In 2000, he joined the board of ATG as operations and building development director and in March 2011 he became an e

USA - Altman Lighting has announced the appointment of Pacific Lighting Ltd as its Global Distributor of the Year for 2015. Pacific Lighting is based in Hong Kong with offices in Singapore.

"The entire team at Pacific Lighting are truly delighted to have received the award" said Hugh Chinnick, Director of Pacific Lighting. "It not only represents a great achievement by the company, but also the success of Altman's expansion into the global market."

"Pacific Lighting embodies everything you could hope for in a true industry partner" said Nicolas Champion, Altman Lighting Vice-President of Sales. "The entire Pacific Lighting team has a knowledge and integrity that is unmatched with a true passion for theatre that puts the craft and the art at the forefront."

UAE - Media Interactive Agency, under the artistic direction of Cynthia Chbat Mounir, contacted GDL to turn the presentation of a luxurious Japanese car into a show.

Under the art director's supervision, production director Mirco Resta and lighting designer Emiliano Morgia sought the best possible venue to present the car. They looked for a place that would meet the customer's specifications regarding logistics, and stage and lighting equipment, and found an appropriate venue at Studio City, Dubai.

They chose a completely soundproofed, large, fifty-foot high-room (with net area of 44 x 87 yards), which perfectly met the customer's special request: to put together impressive scenery, lights and video projections.

The venue was technically perfect and there were no constraints as regards the structures Emiliano Morgia wanted to use. This made it easy to create an "eleg

UK - Core Lighting's battery powered LED ColourPoint uplighters and PinPoint pin-spots were the lighting fixtures of choice to illuminate two venues at the 2015 Art Couture Painswick (ACP) event.

Two separate but related elements of the event - themed An Evening With ACP - in Colour - were staged in St. Mary's Church and The Beacon Hall respectively. The Beacon Hall has been recently refurbished and is a community based multi-purpose space in the picturesque Cotswolds, UK village, while the striking St Mary's Church is a grade I listed building dating back to the 15th century.

An Evening with ACP - in Colour is a fundraising event in aid of the village's summer ACP Festival - which attracts over 5000 art and fashion loving visitors to Painswick. It is a small and classy production which includes a catwalk show revealing some of the previous ACP competition winn

USA - Bandit Lites and PULSE Lighting recently wrapped another successful venture with Warren Haynes' Christmas Jam. Held on 12 December, the rock and blues guitarist's annual charity benefit show celebrated its 27th year and donated the proceeds to Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity, which has built 33 houses with donations from the Jam over the years.

Warren Haynes originally organized the Christmas concert to gather musicians together in his hometown of Asheville, N.C. for a marathon of good music for a good cause. This year featured artists such as the Tedeschi Trucks Band, the Doobie Brothers, Electric Hot Tuna, Dawes, Blackberry Smoke and Bruce Hornsby.

Lighting designer Paul Hoffman created a simple design consisting of four snake-like trusses in addition to a loaded front and back truss, while a circle truss hung over the audience. Additional fixtures were placed on

The Netherlands - Neushoorn (Rhino) is a new entertainment venue in the heart of Leeuwarden, a multi-functional locale in the north of the country that opened in October with Elation LED lighting rigs in several of its performance spaces.

Housing two rooms with stages along with a café, exercise and cultural production areas, and rooms for workshops, Neushoorn can host a wide range of events - dance and club nights, rock and pop concerts, and theatre and dance performances. It also serves as a school for developing talent. Its two main stages, the 350-capacity Arena and the venues largest live performance space, The Big Room, feature all-LED Elation lighting rigs, as does a small performance space in the café.

The Neushoorn lighting set-up was designed from a concept created by Klaas Visser, head of audio, video and lighting at the venue. He explains, "The

UK - This year, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew have been transformed into a festive wonderland, with a one-mile sparkling path offering a magical, after-dark experience. Packed with lights, festivities and vintage fairground rides, Christmas at Kew is curated by Culture Creative, who once again approached White Light to provide the lighting equipment. In order to create something unforgettable, WL drew on its extensive range of state-of-the-art lighting technology, which included the SGM G-Spot and P-5 LED Washlight.

This is the third year that Christmas at Kew has taken place and the third year in which WL has provided the lighting. Zoe Bottrell, creative producer at Culture Creative, comments, "Christmas at Kew is a really exciting event for us and we worked closely with Kew Gardens and Raymond Gubbay Ltd to create a breathtaking design within the landscape garden.&quo

USA - For singer-actress Ariana Grande, diamonds are definitely a girl's best friend. Lighting designer Chris Kuroda used a diamond motif for Grande's The Honeymoon Tour, deploying Clay Paky Stormys and A.leda B-EYE K20 fixtures to deliver a sparkling, jewel-like look.

The tour, Grande's first international tour, is playing 88 dates worldwide in support of her second studio album, My Everything. Kuroda, who is also lighting designer for Phish and Justin Bieber, designed the touring rig for the North American and European legs of Grande's tour as well as lighting for individual shows in Asia and South America. VER supplied the fixtures for the touring rig.

Prior to the start of the tour Kuroda sat down with Grande to discuss the feel of the show. "She really likes the look of diamonds," he says. "So we decided collectively to make the thrust diamo

UK - Central Presentations Ltd (CPL) supplied full technical production and design to the high profile Global African Investment Summit (TGAIS) event in central London, which attracted over 1,000 global investors, leaders and captains of industry - including several heads of State - to Africa's premier investment summit for power, agriculture, financial services, capital markets, oil and gas and critical infrastructure sectors.

The two day conference took place in the main event space at Methodist Central Hall in Westminster, a grade II listed building designed by Edwin Alfred Rickards and built in 1905-11 to commemorate the centenary of John Wesley's death, in a premium location opposite Westminster Abbey and adjacent to the Houses of Parliament!

CPL was working for Swindon-based Live Communications who managed the event production for the organiser dmg::events. CPL's proje

UK - This year, White Light has supplied the lighting equipment to more than 40 pantomimes across the UK. Amongst these is the star-studded Aladdin which is currently playing at Derby Arena. The venue, normally used as a velodrome and concert arena, has been transformed into a theatre space specifically for the show. With its strong reputation in theatre, WL was called upon to provide the lighting support on this extremely ambitious production.

Aladdin opened on 7 December and the huge space has allowed for a truly spectacular show, featuring pyrotechnics, special effects, a flying carpet and even a live band.

Alex Marshall was tasked with creating the lighting design. He comments, "Derby Arena is a fantastic facility for the city, offering everything from a gym to an Olympic certified cycle track. The Arena was also designed to provide a large capacity pe

Mexico - Banda La Trakalosa is a large, 20-member Mexican ensemble that turns to the extra impact that Elation Professional's powerful Platinum BX beam light provides when the band plays bigger venues and looks to impress larger audiences.

"The Platinum BX is now a part of the great concerts of this band," stated Edson Rivera of Elation partner Adimsa, who supplies lighting packages for many of La Trakalosa's bigger shows, including Platinum BX beam lights. "When it's a big show they want to up the production value. If it is a venue where there are 10,000 people or more then they look to make a bigger impact and the BX fixtures help them do that."

The band, whose members come from all over northern Mexico, plays a diverse blend of music from traditional to more alternative and is one of the most popular bands in Mexico. Originally only a regular act in ba

Romania - The official Bucharest Christmas Market is a tradition from 2012 taking place in the University Square from end of November throughout December with more than 60 wooden stalls hosted by merchants of handcraft and seasonal foods. To extend the Christmas atmosphere, the market also includes a 15m Christmas tree illuminated by 20,000 lights, Santa's House, daily carollers, concerts, donation of Christmas gifts for the less fortunate while surrounding buildings are illuminated in seasonal colours.

This market offers the visitors a rediscovering of Romanian arts, traditions and customs. This year also features 19 evenings packed with concerts held by renowned artists, children choirs and orchestras.

Ever since this tradition was created, SGM's partner FIVE'S International has been the technical provider of the event which is planned by Bucharest City Hall, organized wit

UK - Robe gets into the great tradition of English Panto this festive season with over 50 fixtures - including the latest in the DL series luminaires which are built for theatre - specified by lighting designer Andy Webb for a lively and colourful production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, produced by UK Productions at Blackpool Grand Theatre.

Andy immediately thought of Robe again after pioneering the large scale use of LED moving and static lighting luminaires in commercial panto for Dick Whittington last year at High Wycombe, when he was approached to light another popular fairy-tale story laced with slapstick humour, hi-jinks and audience interaction.

One of the classic references to this Brothers Grimm story is the 1937 Disney animated musical fantasy film, and Andy "wanted to bring that truly 'Disneyesque' surface optimism and style to lighting t

The Netherlands - Lighting designer Luc Peumans of Painting With Light has cast Clay Paky Mythos and Sharpy Wash 330 fixtures to play a starring role in his design for a Dutch stage production of The Bodyguard.

The musical, produced by Stage Entertainment, opened in September at the Beatrix Theatre in Utrecht. Peumans specified 24 Clay Paky Mythos and 36 Sharpy Wash 330 fixtures from Ampco Flashlight, using them to swing his looks from the intimate during the more tender scenes, to the big and bold for the numerous concert moments.

"The narrative is well known as the 1992 movie, so one of the objectives was to give the show a 'cinematic' feel but also present the story in a contemporary setting using current technologies and high production values," explains Peumans.

Peumans worked alongside set designer Carla Janssen Hofelt, content producer Ad de Haan a

UK - The University of St Andrews is one of the oldest and most prestigious institutions of higher learning in the world, A familiar landmark at this renowned university is the Students' Union of St Andrews, founded in 1885 to give support and provide representation to its students.

Tasked with providing a modern lighting solution for the refurbishment of the Student Union theatre and club - two traditional hubs of student life - Audio Light Systems installed 12 Chauvet Professional Rogue R1 Spot fixtures to award the Students' Union venues with an arsenal of modern lighting solutions.

The central wish of the Students' Union was for both the theatre and club venues to be upgraded with high performing fixtures to give both venues unique looks - a task which initially looked impossible due to budgetary constraints. However, thanks to the lightweight and tour ready Rogue R1 Spo

UK - Ambersphere Solutions will be running free training sessions on the dot2, MA Lighting's new console designed for smaller and mid-sized projects and venues, during PLASA Focus Glasgow at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC).

The sessions will take place in the Morar and Ness rooms at the SECC on Wednesday 20th January 2016 at 11am, 2pm and 4:30pm and on Thursday 21st January 2016 at 10am and 1pm. Upon completion of the 90 minute session participants will be well on the way to running their first show on the dot2 lighting console.

The 90-minute intro sessions will cover all the basic operational features of the dot2 console including an overview of the whole dot2 product range, before diving into controlling fixtures, creating pre-sets and cue lists. Building chases, creating and using effects, managing speed and time, and a host of other features will als

UK - GSA at the University of Surrey is to present a one-day symposium Light Mapping on 13 January 2016 at The Ivy Arts Centre, Stag Hill Campus, Guildford. GU2 7XH.

This event which is in association with White Light, Richmond Theatre and ETC and supported by ABTT and ALD includes demonstrations, events and workshops. These include: Demonstrations of how to run pixel mapping through lights. [am and pm sessions]; The recreation (on a much smaller scale) the epic rig of Parcans that were used for the Kayne West Glastonbury event; Talk and Q & A with Fin Ross (Olivier award winning video designer for Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time); A panel discussion and Q & A with experts on video and lighting design and how they work together.

Visit to register your interest at www.surrey.ac.uk/arts/theatre/light-mapping

GSA has built an international reputat

USA - Following an award-winning 2015, concert lighting company Bandit Lites rounded out the year with its annual angel tree tradition and warm wishes to all its clients and Bandit Family.

"This has truly been a landmark year for Bandit," said chair Michael T. Strickland. "From a wildly successful festival season, winning Lighting Company of the Year, to millions blown away by tremendous lighting; we could not have done it without all the support of our world class employees, our loyal clients, and friends throughout the industry."

In gratitude for all good fortune Bandit has experienced, the world headquarters in Knoxville looked for a way to pay it forward to those in need. Now, what originally started as a toy drive at the annual holiday party more than 20 years ago has grown into a delivery of goods ranging from toothbrushes to toys to a local charity

Europe - Lighting designer Amy Barnett approached Entec to provide a lighting equipment package for the recent European tour by Chris Norman. It was the first time she'd worked with the west London based lighting rental specialists which she chose because, "after a few initial phone conversations I had complete confidence in the company to deliver what I needed, and they were very helpful and friendly".

Project manager Noreen O'Riordan commented: "It was actually our second tour with Chris Norman as a supplier and our first working with Amy, which we found really interesting. We love to see new and up-coming LDs doing well, and share our many years of knowledge and experience in assistance. We will all be hearing a lot more of Amy."

Chris Norman initially found fame in the 1970s with UK soft rock band Smokie, known for their many hits and distinctive thre

Canada / Japan - Parasol Systems has announced that its patented dynamic rigging system, the ACS (Autonomous Carrier System) will be used for the first time at a live event this month in Tokyo, Japan.

The ACS system was first developed as a prototype in 2006, and functions much like a train on tracks. The ACS has 'Paracarts' which move intelligently, wirelessly, and independently along a predetermined track. Mounting moving lights and lasers onto the moving Paracarts allows lighting designers to create never been seen before visual effects. Utilising precision robotics technologies, the Paracarts are always in the right place at the right time.

This is not just the debut for the Parasol ACS System, but also for the Rizin Fighting Federation, a new global MMA promotion designed to feature the best MMA fighters at one world-wide tournament. This premier event is called the Riz

UK - Yes Events has strengthened its video offering with a significant investment in a 3.9mm ProLights video wall, supplied by the specialist video sales division of distributor, A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd.

The new screen comprises 90 panels of ProLights Ultra 3+ along with appropriate rigging and processing. Ultra 3+ is the latest LED screen solution from the ProLights brand, which is distributed exclusively in the UK by AC-ET's video division.

Ultra 3+ boasts black-faced SMD LEDs for amazing contrast and colour consistency across panels. Each panel has an auto-calibrate facility allowing 'mix and match' of tiles from different batches or run times, to make seamless screens.

Tom Chennells, production director for Yes Events, says this purchase is a logical next step for the company. "Video is becoming an ever increasing part of our offering here at

UK - The hit musical and family favourite, A Christmas Carol, is arguably the indisputable Christmas classic. Charles Dickens' evocative tale, with its exuberant dance sequences and magnificent settings recreating streets, graveyards and buildings of 19th century London, excites and appeals to audiences of all ages.

Tasked with bringing the tale of Christmas to life at Blackpool's 3,000-capacity Opera House - a venue which also boasts one of Europe's largest stages - Arranpaul's Up & Coming LD, Oliver Wilkinson opted to include a selection of six Rogue R1 Spots and 16 Q-Wash 560Z-LED moving wash fixtures from Chauvet Professional, as well as Chauvet DJ PiXPars into his lighting design.

"The fixture plot I created allowed me to light any area of the stage with Chauvet's R1 Spots, PiXPars and 560Zs," said Wilkinson, who also handled video and audio for the pro

USA - Chroma-Q Color Force 12 multi-purpose LED fixtures were recently specified by lighting sales and production company, E2i Design, for its seasonal White Christmas show at Michigan's Brighton High School.

E2i Design's Josh Holowicki passionately supports the school's theatre in a number of ways - as chairman of the board of directors, as volunteer technical director and scenic designer, and as producer. As the technical director, he's responsible for all audio, video and lighting.

Irving Berlin's White Christmas is a classic holiday show, based on the famous movie. It follows an army private and captain who were stationed in Europe during WW2 in 1944. They are performers and entertainers who do their best to keep up the spirits of the 151st division during the holidays. The show ran on the first two weekends of December 2015 at the school's 900-capacity Bri

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