USA - Taking centre stage inside the Lakeland Centre, the 2016 Miss Florida Scholarship Pageant showcased 48 contestants all vying for the opportunity to compete for the title of Miss America. Held in conjunction with the Miss Florida Outstanding Teen Pageant, production designer Trenton Dick was once again working behind the scenes at Miss Florida, and was asked this year to build upon the previous pageants LED video design.

So with an expanded budget and some increased expectations, Dick decided to create three LED video walls for the event using FLEXLite Plus 6.9mm and FLEXCurtain HD 12.5mm LED video technology from Nashville-based PixelFLEX.

"We used the PixelFLEX LED video technology for the first time in our 2015 pageant design and the producers loved it so much they really wanted to expand our video design for 2016," said Dick. "With the opportunity to expand the de

New Zealand - Pink Floyd's legacy of bright, visually powerful stage productions lives on today in New Zealand, thanks to a tribute band formed (quite fittingly) by a lighting designer who uses the colour and intenstity of Chauvet Professional fixtures to create lightshows that do the group's legacy proud.

"We want to celebrate the Pink Floyd experience, not just with music but with lights and the entire stage presentation," said Anthony Macdonald, the LD who created the show. "Lighting was essential to the original Pink Floyd experience, so we try to replicate that feeling, but with the efficiency and intensity of today's fixtures."

Mcdonald has two STRIKE 4 multi-formatted LED fixtures in his band's road rig along with 12 Rogue R1 Spots, two Rogue RH1 Hybrids and five COLORado Zoom WW Tour fixtures. The fixtures were provided by Mcdonald's own company, MDR Sound and Ligh

UK - HSL supplied lighting, rigging and a Kinesys automation system for the recent European leg of Chris Brown's "One Hell of a Nite tour, working for production designer and manager Tom E. Marzullo from Out Of Our Minds Creative Services, LLC.

HSL project managers John Slevin and Jordan Hanson co-ordinated everything for the Blackburn- based rental company and ensured that the production design - created collectively by Tom E with input from Christie Lites' Robert Roth and Robert Achlimbari from All Access - was supplied with all the lighting, rigging and automation elements it needed.

The tour's technical director Brian Spett who ran video content for the show and lighting director Charles Ford (also the lighting programmer / operator) additionally had their input, while HSL supplied a top crew chiefed by Simon 'Piggy' Lynch, to ensure that everything ran as smoothly and

Australia - Robe BMFL Spots blasted stunning, crisp, clear images of Australian broadcaster 7 News' logo from 300m away, positioned near the top of the southern hemisphere's highest building, Q1.

The four 24m wide gobo images seared into the sand of the beach at Surfers Paradise right below the 322m high Q1 ... for the launch of the new 7 Gold Coast News operation.

The ingenious optical stunt was one of a number of high impact logo activations created for the event by lighting designer Adam Volz of TLD Services, who was asked by Channel 7 to sprinkle some visual magic and get their logo out there captivating audiences and involving known local landmarks.

Adam and the client decided on the concept of four logos beamed on the sand - the beach is right at the essence of Gold Coast culture and community - covering an area of approximately 100 metres wide as part of the vis

Ireland - Designed to renew and inspire Irish theatre, film and television, The Lir Academy opened in 2011 with a vision to become a centre of excellence for the dramatic arts in Ireland. Developed with collaboration from the Cathal Ryan Trust, and in association with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA), The Lir offers first-rate training for the theatre and related professions. This year, the institution has turned its attention to updating its curriculum for technical theatre and lighting design students, leading to a partnership with ETC.

For several years, ETC's Playhouse at Gypsy Corner has been the education hub for the UK and Ireland, necessitating trips to London for Ireland-based technicians wanting to undertake ETC training. In recognition of ETC and The Lir's mutual interest in training technical skills in theatre to the highest possible standards, the two org

USA - Chauvet Professional introduced its Maverick series at Prolight + Sound this year. The new series features three power-packed tour ready moving fixtures: the MK2 Wash, MK1 Hybrid and MK2 Spot. These fixtures offer a host of performance features including the integration of a W-DMX receiver card in every Maverick unit fitted as standard out of the factory.

"We set out to make a statement with Maverick," said Albert Chauvet, CEO of Chauvet, "Including W-DMX underscores our commitment to putting our customers first, because of its convenience, reliability, and speed of setup. We have had great success with W-DMX in our fixtures since we launched our original WELL fixtures in 2011. Since then, Wireless Solution has been the exclusive wireless DMX provider for Chauvet Professional."

Niclas Arvidsson, CEO of Wireless Solution also expressed enthusiasm for the OEM relations

USA - The nightclub 1015 Folsom in San Francisco recently underwent a massive remodel to commemorate its upcoming 30-year anniversary.

The vast 20,000sq.ft venue is one of the longest running EDM nightclubs on the West Coast of America and is known for hosting big headliners. And with huge acts scheduled for Super Bowl 50 weekend, 1015 Folsom owner, Ira Sandler, got a jump-start on the renovations. He called on Eric Bernstein of Intelligent Lighting Services in Austin, TX once again to upgrade the club's lighting and video system with gear from Mega Systems Inc., the PR Lighting distributor in USA.

Bernstein kicked off the project by taking Sandler and his technical director Scot Peterson to the LDI Show last November. There they determined the new equipment that would be used in the nightclub.

Above the stage in the main room, Bernstein installed a number of LED displ

France - DuShow is a high profile French technical production company headquartered in a purpose built office and warehouse facility near to Charles de Gaulle airport (CDG) in Roissy just outside Paris - and a stone's throw from Robe's French subsidiary, Robe lighting France SAS.

DuShow is the result of the fusion of three different French market leaders - Caméléon, Arp

USA - A radio station that includes the name of the most iconic music festival in history in its own moniker has got to be steeped in rock tradition. Such is the case with WDST/Radio Woodstock. Located just a few miles from Max Yasgur's farm where the original Woodstock festival took place, the station has been at the forefront of progressive rock music for over 30 years, an accomplishment that has earned it three Billboard Magazine Station of the Year awards.

In 2005, the station celebrated its anniversary by creating its own festival, Mountain Jam. Though not nearly as big as Woodstock, Mountain Jam has become a musical force in its own right, drawing enthusiastic crowds to hear groups like Michael Franti and Spearhead, Widespread Panic, The Black Keys, The Allman Brothers Band, Gov't Mule, and more. This year, the four-day festival continued to roll with virtual nonstop mus

Europe - Bram de Clerck has joined Robe as business development manager for touring, TV & live events.

Bram is already well known to many in the world of entertainment technology lighting. Based in Belgium, his character, communication skills, quick wit and extensive network of contacts have helped establish him as an industry 'personality'.

This coupled with an intense passion and commitment to the Robe brand in recent years will make him "a great asset to our international team" says Robe CEO Josef Valchar, adding, "We are very pleased to have Bram on-board, his energy and enthusiasm is infectious and his experience is very valuable. We and the whole Robe distribution network welcome him and look forward to many positive results working together."

The scope of Bram's work at Robe will include developing the expanding and dynamic Robe community, liaising with clients,

USA - Following up on the success of its STRIKE 4 multi format warm white fixture, CHAUVET Professional has introduced the STRIKE 1, a versatile single pod light that serves as a blinder, strobe, wash and flood.

The newest member of the STRIKE series, this fixture is more than a scaled-down version of its forbearer, says the company. With a 230W warm white LED source (each of the four pods in the STRIKE 4 is 100W), the STRIKE 1 has a blisteringly bright and intense output. An outdoor-rated fixture, it is ready to add eye-popping looks to festival stages and open-air events, as well as to arena and music hall concerts.

Another key feature of the STRIKE 1 is its emulated red shift, which warms the colour temperature of the light as it dims to replicate the look of an incandescent fixture. The fixture's 16-bit dimming control also enhances its performance by allowing perfectl

USA - Pennington Entertainment, led by industry veteran Shawn Pennington, has announced a partnership with stage design and production company 44 Designs, headed by concert and event production expert Jeff 'Lava' Lavallee.

"Having worked with Jeff and the 44 Designs team extensively in recent years, I can tell you that there is not a more creative brain trust of individuals in the stage creative space in Nashville," says Pennington. "Every production that I have seen them produce, or been involved with has blown my mind every time! We could not be more excited about this partnership and the ability to deliver amazing production and event services in an affordable manner to the Nashville music community, and beyond."

Nashville-based 44 Designs enters the partnership with over 25 years of experience in lighting, touring and production. As a 360

UK - Performance and visual arts venue, The Lowry, in Greater Manchester's Salford Quays launched its first festival of arts, Week 53, earlier this year.

The 11-day festival, which brought together contemporary dance, visual arts, music and theatre in interactive installations, exhibitions and performances, featured more than 200 international artists, and will be held annually for the next three years with a view to extend into the future. The occasion was marked by the procurement of a new ATMe haze generator to complement The Lowry's 15-year-old MDG Atmosphere.

MDG's ATMe is an evolution of the Atmosphere which is a long-term industry standard. ATMe has an added degree of controllability which attracted the attention of The Lowry's head of technical services, Dave Woodward, and was supplied by MDG UK complete with a portability kit.

The ATMe was brought into use for

Australia - The Adelaide Convention Centre has expanded its already impressive fleet of High End Systems consoles with the purchase of two Full Boar 4's and six Road Hog 4's, bringing their inventory to four Full Boar 4's and 10 Road Hog 4's in total.

The purchase is part of the plan for the anticipated mid-2017 opening of their new Plenary Building, a multi-purpose venue built on the site of the original 1987 Convention Centre, with a capacity of up to 3,500 seats. Local production and installation company AJS were selected to fulfil this government tender, and have developed a close working relationship with the ACC.

"This was all part of the Convention Centre's tender process for stock replenishment and the new Plenary Building," relates AJS's Luke Hattam. "We contacted Australian High End Systems distributor Lexair Entertainment for guidance. We were successful in our

Switzerland - Winkler Multi Media Events in Canton Aargau is one of the leading Swiss event solution providers for multimedia and three-dimensional live communication. They were recently entrusted with providing the equipment for the opening ceremony of the Gotthard Base Tunnel.

With a construction period of almost 17 years, and extending to 57k in length, the world's longest tunnel is regarded as the "Swiss project of the century", and has attracted many superlatives.

The construction, which is 7k longer than the Eurotunnel, is the heart of the new Railway Link through the Alps and connects the cantons of Uri in the north portal Erstfeld in central Switzerland to the south portal in Bodio (Canton Ticino). As a result, the travel time from Zurich to Milan has been reduced by one hour to about two hours 40 minutes. For freight transport, the new Gotthard tunnel brings great

UK - Avolites' lighting consoles, dimmers and media servers once again delivered robust, festival-proof performance to shows across Glastonbury's vast and varied musical programme.

For nearly 40 years, Avolites equipment has been found surviving the mud in each corner of the Worthy Farm takeover. This year the British manufacturer's consoles and media servers were not only used on the main stages such as the Pyramid, which was also powered by Avolites ART2000 dimmers, the Other, John Peel, West Holts and the Acoustic Stage but also Arcadia Spectacular and The Temple immersive dance environments, and afterhours areas such as the Unfairground art field.

Lighting designer Andrew Liddle, whose recent portfolio includes OMD, The Charlatans and La Roux, has been working with Avolites consoles for the past 35 years. Like Avolites, Liddle is a Glastonbury stalwart, hitting the fes

UK - DPL Production Lighting has recently chosen to invest in the newest moving light fixture from Clay Paky, the Scenius. Managing director Darren Parker explains why. "As a company that supplies equipment to all sorts of different events, from those looking for a single followspot or a couple of washes up to a full festival lighting rig with all possible bells and whistles on it, we have to maintain the very broadest range of stock in the warehouse.

"We already have a solid relationship with Clay Paky's UK distributors, Ambersphere Solutions and have invested in Clay Paky before with great success so it seemed the obvious way to go.

"We needed a new 'Big' output versatile fixture to replace some of our older technology and the Scenius simply ticked all our boxes. We did a shootout at a local theatre; the beam width and the optical quality were more than impressive. The s

USA - For Gwen Stefani's appearance on the Today Show's Citi Concert Series, lighting designer Peter Greenbaum wanted to do something special to accent the onstage magic. He provided this extra pop by beefing up his Rockefeller Plaza rig with 20 of the new Chauvet Professional Rogue R1 FX-B moving LED fixtures, supplied by WorldStage.

"Gwen is one of the most charismatic performers you'll find anywhere," said Greenbaum. "We wanted to create the most dynamic lightshow we possibly could on a stage of this size for her appearance, not only for our TV audience but for all the people who came out to see her live."

For Greenbaum, the Rogue R1 FX-B fixtures provided a natural fit for the Stefani performance. "I like the intensity of the five moving heads on this fixture," he said. "They provide a great pop to the daylight stage. Because we can create so many different look

USA - A good fog machine effect not only evokes strong moods among the audience, it can also fire up members of the band. Tim Creedon, lighting director for chart-topping country star Canaan Smith, knows this first hand. Not long ago, he was running the board at one of the crooner's shows when, just before the band played the platinum No. 1 single Love You Like That, one of the guitarists came over the talk-back mic and said, "Tim, I want you to go nuts with the Vesuvios for this song!"

The LD happily obliged. Turning up the Chauvet Professional Vesuvio RGBA foggers in the rig, he shot plumes of LED coloured fog high in the air over and all around the stage. "Audiences really love this effect," said Creedon. "Screams of joy, wide eyes, and open mouths are very common in the crowd when we turn them on, but the band gets just as caught up in the excitement."

Creedon a

Italy - Vasco Rossi is back. He kicked off his new summer tour with a zero date at the Lignano Sabbiadoro stadium on 18 June. The "unauthorized exclusive preview" announcement arrived in a post on Vasco's Facebook page. After the long 2015 tour that stopped off in Bari, Milan, Bologna, Padua, Messina, Florence, Turin and Naples, Live Kom 2016 arrived in Rome with a new, powerful, exciting show, a new line-up, and new stars on the stage: Clay Paky Spheriscans.

The four unmissable evenings on 22, 23, 26 and 27 June 2016 were lit by lighting designer Giovanni Pinna. "The stage and most of the set-up are the same as those used for the 2015 tour: totally unconventional scenic solutions with elegant, simple, clean lines and materials. They were designed and developed by Gi

Indonesia - Jakarta-based Lemmon Productions has purchased 54 x Robe Pointe multipurpose moving lights, which started work immediately for broadcaster Trans7 on their popular live improvised comedy show, Opera van Java (OVJ)'s Sahur Lagi show, which aired every night during Ramadan, drawing massive ratings.

The OVJ show is based on the concept of 'wayang orang' dance performances in a modern setting, with sketches inspired by a wide range of narrative concepts from Indonesian folklore, celebrity biographies to different genres of fiction or popular culture. The 'Sahur' edition aired in the small hours of the morning, just prior to the pre-fasting breakfast.

Lemmon Productions - founded by Lemmy Ibrahim - run a studio complex in Jakarta and the company is focussed on providing the complete facility for rental with all the technical packages in place, so TV production

USA - Tomcat, the largest truss and support structure manufacturer in the Americas, has established a new office in Miami, Florida responsible for Central and South America - Tomcat / James Thomas Engineering Latin America. The office will be led by 27- year entertainment industry veteran Jose Luis Rosche, president / owner of Roc-Off Productions.

Tomcat is now able to offer its old and new Latin American customers convenient access to high quality Tomcat products with industry-leading durability and working strength. Through its education and training programs, customers will fully benefit from Tomcat's deep well of experience and acquire valuable information on how to work safely and effectively with its high quality products.

Says the company, Tomcat looks forward to creating a strong partnership with its Central and South American customers, and providing them with inn

New Zealand - Lexair Entertainment has announced a joint venture with New Zealand based Entertainment Lighting Solutions. The new venture, Lexair New Zealand, combines the strength of Lexair's Australian-based distribution operation with ELS's established and well-respected business as a value-added distributor and integration specialist in New Zealand, providing local customers with proven sales, service, support and training for products from leading manufacturers High End Systems, Elation Professional and TMB.

Alex Mair, managing director of Lexair commented, "Nick Abel and I have worked closely together for years and he shares our vision of creating a truly value added distribution business that keeps prices internationally competitive while providing unparalleled service and support. We now have the opportunity to bundle the strengths of both companies and to offer New Ze

USA - Every two years in Madison, Wisconsin, ETC hosts Workshop, an educational event used to train and share new information with industry dealers, reps, and distributors. This summer, for the first time, the event was opened internationally. The week-long event started 12 July, and brought 313 dealers, reps, and distributors from 34 countries to the ETC headquarters.

"Workshop is ETC's best opportunity to bring our sales family together. This was definitely ETC's most successful Workshop ever," says Patti Tuttrup, ETC marketing events specialist.

A day of international sales meetings and tours of ETC's Wisconsin-based manufacturing facilities in Middleton and Mazomanie kicked off the event. For many of the international attendees, this was the first time they had seen the ETC factories in person. They were able to see where the products they sell come from and meet the p

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