UK - Another wave of thought-provoking seminar sessions have been launched in the run up to PLASA Show 2016 (18-20 September, London Olympia). The latest offering includes sessions focussed on 'Broadcast Meets Live Sound'; the Rio Olympics; 'Sadler's Wells: New Technology for the Stage'; and a production masterclass from the team behind the Eurovision Song Contest.

Innovation and collaboration is at the heart of the entertainment technology industry, and is therefore a hugely important element of the PLASA Show. 'Sadlers Wells: New Technology for the Stage', on Tuesday 20 September at 1pm, is a great example of this, highlighting significant improvements of the theatre's systems through technical innovation and collaboration. This session will be presented by Emma Wilson, Sadlers Wells' director of technical production and Christian Wallace, technical manager.

Wilson says:

Europe - SGM has announced the appointment of David Keighley as new executive vice president of SGM, effective 1 July. Keighley has an impressive track record in the lighting industry both as a lighting designer, tour manager and production manager and as executive vice president and chief of operations of Syncrolite, managing director and CEO of PRG Europe and managing director of Light and Sound Design.

Keighley has been involved with the Olympic Games (1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2012) and worked with artists such as Madonna, Rolling Stones, Spice Girls, Billy Joel, Pink Floyd and Deep Purple.

Keighley's primary area of responsibility will be to work with and support designers and architects to ensure the right equipment for the job. He will be based in the UK, but will be travelling to oversee global activities for SGM.

Keighley said, "I am excited to be joining SGM

Europe - Ayrton constantly works to extend the scope of lighting designers' palette by maximising the features and characteristics offered by its products. As part of the raft of new products released for 2016, Ayrton has launched the MagicDot-SX as the next in its new SX range.

MagicDot-SX is a compact, hybrid version of Ayrton's MagicDot-R, which was awarded LDI Product of the Year 2016 in the Effects category. MagicDot-SX combines the qualities of its award-winning cousin with the added features of a zoom capability and Lumen Radio wireless connectivity.

Its newly-developed, revolutionary 8:1 optical zoom has a fixed transmitting lens, no visible moving parts, and delivers an incredible zoom range of 5° to 40°. With its 94 mm diameter collimator positioned close to the transmitting lens, MagicDot-SX delivers a tight beam with up to 75% optical efficiency, while

USA - Chroma-Q has won the Lighting Award category for its new Space Force LED fixture at the 2016 Cine Gear Expo Technical Awards, held in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California.

The list of award-winners, which were selected by a panel of industry experts with an eye toward the latest in technology, were chosen after reviewing and evaluating nearly 100 of the newest technologies submitted and presented at this year's Cine Gear Expo.

Receiving its US West Coast debut at the exhibition, the Space Force is a variable white LED Space Light that is a modern replacement for conventional space lights or soft light sources commonly used in film and TV studios around the world.

Drawing upon Chroma-Q's decade of experience designing and building premium performance LED solutions to exacting standards in North America, the fixture utilises advanced technologies in every area of its

UK - Based in North London, Fourth Monkey Theatre Company offers innovative and inspired actor training for the contemporary world of performance. It is also a repertory theatre company, with productions being performed throughout the UK and overseas. Its original and alternative approach to teaching drama has made it one of the most reputable drama schools in the UK. Last year, the company set up its own premises in Finsbury Park to house both its training and productions. They recently approached White Light who worked with them to supply a range of state-of-the-art lighting equipment.

Fourth Monkey has been running for six years and was formed by current artistic director Steve Green. He comments, "With Fourth Monkey, I really wanted to create an alternative approach to actor training. As a student myself, I found that traditional acting methods were missing something. Ever

USA - No sooner had Fresno's Live Light, Inc. taken delivery of 50 new Clay Paky Mythos fixtures than the company was sending them out the door to the 2016 California State Future Farmers of America (FFA) Leadership Conference. Mythos played a key role in the entertainment component of the annual conference where they upped the excitement quotient for more than 6,000 high school agriculture students attending the event.

Live Light, Inc. offers a full line of equipment sales and rental services as well as complete range of entertainment production services. It has a long history with Clay Paky products and acquired 50 Mythos hybrid spot and beam lights for its rental inventory.

"Mythos is very versatile, and rental inventories have to be somewhat timeless and cover all the basics of lighting," notes Live Light CEO/president, Reggie Rush. "Mythos is a pretty darn good little

Portugal - The creative manager of the agency Newtonlab, Lucio Ferreira, designed and developed the creative idea/guidelines for the world launch of the Pirelli's new high performance tyre range, on the roads of Portugal and at the historic Estoril racing circuit.

Newtonlab developed all the architectural solutions needed to organize the interior spaces together with its creative manager: the reception, meeting, conference, lounge, exhibition and product presentation show areas. It was a début in grand style, which required much technical effort.

Newtonlab gave the task of illuminating the various areas assigned to guests and international press representatives to lighting designer Giovanni Pinna, who also designed the lighting for the show. Clay Paky's Sharpy lights performed like true stars on this occasion.

"The audience arrived, aboard three helicopters, at

UK - Philips Lighting reports that Peterborough's Key Theatre has replaced its existing tungsten Fresnels with 36 energy-efficient Philips Selecon RAMA LED Fresnel luminaires to save on power and breathe new life into the popular venue's lighting system.

The new fixtures were supplied and fitted by entertainment technical specialist Stage Electrics, with whom the Key Theatre has a long standing relationship. Stage Electrics' technical sales consultant Andy Elsegood recommended the RAMA LED Fresnels as a crisp, white LED solution for the theatre's range of stage lighting requirements.

"We specifically wanted LED Fresnels with a clear white light," explains the Key Theatre's technical manager Gary Linley. "The Philips Selecon RAMA LED Fresnel seemed to be the only luminaire on the market specifically designed for that purpose."

The majority of the RAMA LED Fresnel fixtur

USA - Jam bands expect their lighting designers to be ready to punt at the drop of a hat and come up with a fresh look for a new guitar riff that just pops up in the middle of a set. At the recent Domefest, however, funk rockers Pigeons Playing Ping Pong asked their LD Manny Newman to go a step further. The popular group, which started the annual three-day jam festival in 2010, wanted Manny to create a flexible punt-ready lightshow for an eclectic mix of over 20 bands.

Manny and lighting tech Danny Katz met this challenge with a lightshow that seemed to unfold effortlessly over an extended weekend of jam and funk music, serving up ever more opulent, colourful and free flowing looks. A big help in accomplishing this feat was provided by a powerful and flexible rig that featured a collection of Rogue fixtures from Chauvet Professional, supplied by 4Wall Entertainment.

"This

New Zealand - When the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo came to the Westpac Stadium in Wellington, New Zealand in February 2016, production supplier, MJF Lighting, decided the scale of the production warranted new followspots and invested in four Robert Juliat Merlin 2500W HMI followspots specifically for the spectacular show.

"There were no quality 2kW HMI followspots available in New Zealand to match this event, with all previous shows of this scale and high production standards having relied on units out of Australia," says MJF's CEO, Michael Farrand. "It was time for a change."

Farrand had previous experience with Robert Juliat followspots on the AC/DC tour, which UK-based Neg Earth had supplied with 4kW RJ Lancelot followspots. "I had the opportunity to talk to the touring tech, and find out first hand just how reliable the RJ product was," Farrand says. "Feedback from

Council Concern - Arts Council England has admitted it is "hugely concerned" about the future of artists' free movement within the EU following the Brexit vote last month. National director of communication Mags Patten said the council was "really, really worried" about the issue following the UK's vote to leave the EU, and confirmed ACE was preparing to lobby the government in favour of free movement. Speaking at a London Writers' Week event about the state of the theatre industry, Patten said ACE was uncertain whether UK arts organisations would still have access to European culture funds. She stated, "The other area which really really worries us is freedom of movement. It's a huge concern to us that that is clearly not guaranteed at the moment...We have to be open, we have to be international in our outlook, and the free exchange of artists and ideas is absolutely critical to

USA - Here Come the Mummies, an eight-piece funk band from Nashville is touring the US beneath a lighting rig of Elation Professional effect lights.

Lighting designer/director and programmer Thom Roberts has been working with the band for the past three years and is out on their current LoveFest tour, which runs until the end of October.

The band has been playing dates across the US since February, mostly weekends and mostly in large clubs and theatres with a few festivals and casinos on the schedule. Augmenting house or local lighting systems at each gig is an Elation lighting floor package of Rayzor Q7 LED moving heads, Sniper 2R multi-effect lights, Cuepix Blinder WW2 white light LED blinders, and Protron 3K strobes.

"The role of the Elation gear is to bring the 'wow factor'," says Roberts. "But there are specific features on every fixture we have that are important

USA - At Eastern Kentucky University, home of the Colonels, the list of special spots now includes a most unlikely edifice - the pedestrian bridge (aka Pedway) that crosses Lancaster Boulevard to join two sections of the sprawling 675-acre campus.

Louisville-based lighting company Lumenation transformed the utilitarian glass, concrete and aluminium structure into a beautiful reflection of school spirit and campus pride with help from some colour-changing fixtures from the Iluminarc division of Chauvet Lighting.

"The Pedway has become one of the favourite sites on campus since we added coloured light to it," said Lumenation's Alex Moore, who served as the manager of the project. "It really stands out from your average run-of-the-mill pedestrian bridge." Indeed, the colourful pedestrian bridge has become so iconic at EKU that the school has used it as the subject of a campus

UK / Malllorca - Aurora Lighting hire has once again been cast away to work with lighting designer Gurdip Mahal, adding some illumination to the latest season of Love Island for ITV2.

Liaising closely with LD Gurdip Mahal, Aurora project manager Joe Marter dealt with lighting lists and logistics to create and despatch a full location package to the island set - including an extensive selection of automated and fixed light sources along with location power and all relevant distribution and control equipment.

The project also required the team to create a variety of bespoke electronic installations and LED set pieces that were integrated throughout the islanders home environment.

Commenting on the project, Gurdip said, "I'd just like to thank Aurora for their support on Love Island. Being so far away from home it was great to have reliable equipment and the

Germany - When he is on stage, Sascha Grammel makes his puppets dance in the true sense of the word. His new show debuted earlier this year, and has now been produced for TV at the Theater am Marientor in Duisburg. It has been recorded on DVD too. For the lighting, P2 Veranstaltungstechnik relied largely on Lightpower, Clay Paky's distributor for Germany.

P2 Veranstaltungstechnik provided 16 Clay Paky B-EYE K10 Easy units, 54 Clay Paky B-EYE K20s, one grandMA2 light and two grandMA2 full-size lighting desks, two MA plus MK2 Video Processing Units (VPUs), and two MA Network Processing Units (NPUs).

P2 Veranstaltungstechnik's CEO, Ralf Thiemann, explained, "We have dealt with Sascha Grammel's shows for more than six years. In this project, we had to transform the tour production into something suitable for the TV, at the same time considering the requirements imposed by choo

UK - Stage Electrics has rebranded its Hire & Events division. The new SLX brand has been inspired by the expertise and experience of 35 years in the industry. Focusing all its energy in hire and events the former Stage Electrics team of technical and creative staff continue to provide solutions to its theatre, broadcast and event customers.

Operating from a new facility, located just down the road from its previous Bristol premises, SLX has committed to continue its investment programme with several million pounds invested in hire equipment, technology and infrastructure in the last year alone.

The new warehouse provides pre-show and production facilities whilst a dedicated fleet continues to deliver to our customers throughout the UK and Europe.

The former Stage Electrics branches in London and Exeter are now operating as part of SLX.

Trevor Smallwood, executive

The Netherlands - Three hundred and sixty Robe moving lights caught the action at the Philips Stadion in Eindhoven for four sold out concerts by Dutch singer, songwriter and superstar Guus Meeuwis, part of an eye-catching lighting spectacular designed by Marco Driessen from creative lighting and visual design practice, The Art of Light.

Meeuwis plays multiple shows at the 34,000 stadium around about the same time each year. It is home to the Philips Sport Vereniging (PSV) football team of which he's a keen supporter, and there is a completely unique look and feel to the stage year-on-year, originated by set designer Ronald van den Bersselaar of BEEO.

This year's theme featured a carnival-esque appearance based on the famous orange flag for Netherlands which was recreated using a combination of scenic and LED elements.

Marco has worked with the artist for 16 years and,

USA - The new 4.8 mm pixel pitch VIP F4 Video Panel from Chauvet Professional is equally at home in the rental and integrator markets. Featuring cable-free magnetic LED modules and a removable control/PSU box, the new video panels are fully serviceable from the front or rear. The panels can be removed easily from the front using an MT-03 tool, making it practical to install the F4 flat on a wall in permanent installations. At the same time, the ruggedly designed panels also come with road cases for touring applications.

Running Chauvet Professional's VIP Driver 43Nova Novastar Controller, the F4 offers user-friendly convenience, whether it's used at a permanent installation or on a tour. The Novastar feature takes video input and outputs it over an Ethernet control system. This allows the video wall to be mapped without a computer. The Novastar protocol can be used to scale vi

USA - Elation Professional's SixBar 1000 LED batten is now available in a fully weatherproof IP65 version that gives the versatile colour-changing luminaire application in all types of outdoor events and weather including dust-blown environments.

The SixBar 1000 IP features a six-color LED multi-chip that provides a creative colour boost to the lighting designer toolbox. Useful as a wash light, uplight, wall/cyc wash, accent lighting, direct view pixel strip and more, its high-power single lens RGBWA+UV LEDs offer an expanded palette of colors, including stunning ambers, true whites and even an ultraviolet effect. And it's all protected by a rugged die-cast aluminum exterior.

The fixture houses 12x 12W LEDs and spreads light at a 25° beam angle. Individual LED control allows for greater design possibilities and the fixture is capable of smooth dimming from 0-100%. The

Italy - The Champions League final in Milan was not just a sporting event for soccer fans. During the UEFA Champions Festival 2016, from 26 to 29 May, there was a whole host of entertainment, including meetings, exhibitions, shows and events. There was everything you can imagine before the final kick-off at San Siro.

The Opening Ceremony took place on the evening of 26 May with a gala event in which some great past champions also took part. During the Champions Festival evening shows, Clay Paky took the field with its lights: 28 Alpha Beam 300s and 15 Alpha Spot HPE 700s.

The Champions Festival stage set up in Milan's Piazza del Duomo was illuminated thanks to the work of lighting designer Massimo Gasbarro from BOTW. Jerry R. Romani dealt with the programming. The events began with a gospel choir, and went on with a selection of DJs, like Benny Benassi, and much loved sing

UK - More than 130 of the Chroma-Q Inspire LED house light have been installed in the Royal Scottish National Orchestra's (RSNO) new, purpose-built facility in Glasgow, to provide light quality for both the orchestra and the audience.

The new 600-seater home for Scotland's symphony orchestra, constructed in the centre of Glasgow, is described as a 'world-class' venue which has been acoustically balanced to very strict standards. Opened in late 2015, it was built with funding from a number of public and private sector organisations.

The RSNO approached professional technology equipment reseller, A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd., to propose a lighting solution for the new venue, with quality of light being a key element of the requirements.

"We were asked to deliver a solution that would be suitable not only for the audience, but also the orchestra, with thei

UK - Illumination specialists LED Creative has been working closely with set designer Patrick Watson on the annual interior re-fit to the Big Brother House with a set of newly introduced products.

As part of the annual style make-over given to the infamous Elstree residence, LED Creative has supplied almost 1500m of its new Alpha 60 LED System, which has been woven throughout the stylishly flamboyant interiors, adding intense colour and crisp highlights to the modern design.

To take care of the kilometre and a half of LED, the company has also provided 45 of the newly introduced BIT400 RGB Controllers. Featuring four outputs, each capable of handling 100W of RGB, the units are simple to set up and free from complexity; DMX controllable, silent, flicker free and ultra-compact, making them perfect for discreet placement and allowing flexibility and precise control throughout

Germany - Much is written of large arena and stadia production tours, but how does the LD manage with a small 300-800 capacity club tour, with limited budget, limited infrastructure, limited space in the van - but still with the expectation to deliver plenty of 'bang for the buck'?

Simply ask Berlin-based freelance LD Rick Kay, who recently went on the road with '80s cult artiste Anne Clark, the British poet and spoken word performer.

Armed with video, lasers and an inventory of low-mass / high output LED heads from GLP he realized he could operate all the lighting from a single 13A socket.

"We were travelling in a van, and in the six weeks we were on the road the GLP X4 S and X1 really came into play," he admits. "LDs should consider these when they have to decide how much gear they can get into the available 2sq.m at the back of the van."

Having initially decided

UK - Lighting rental specialist HSL supplied lighting and rigging equipment and crew to the UK leg of the recent tour by US rock band Heart whose career spans five decades.

The shows started with a special gig at the Royal Albert Hall where Heart - known for the brevity and dynamics of their rock based music - was accompanied by the 67-piece Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO). The same gig was filmed for release as a live DVD.

Says HSL MD Simon Stuart, "It was an honour to be involved in a unique collaboration like this at a magical venue, as well as to supply the rest of the Heart UK dates."

The tour was project managed on the road for HSL by Lester Cobrin and back at base in Blackburn by Sean McGlone, with Lester liaising directly with Heart's production manager Dale Doucette and lighting director Gabrielle Scheff who has worked with the band in various lighting capa

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