USA - Although it has locations across the US, the Red Lion Hotel chain isn't ranked among the giants of the hospitality industry. The Spokane-based chain is, however, second to none when it comes to customer service. This much is evident from the many accolades the chain has won, including multiple Number 1 ratings for customer satisfaction in the prestigious Metrix Hospitality Index.

Since good service depends on motivated employees, Red Lion is also focused on recognizing its team members. This year, the chain's employee appreciation efforts were given a big boost by a giant video wall created by AMP'D Entertainment using PVP X6IP tiles from Chauvet Professional.

Justin Haas of AMP'D used the 6.9m pixel pitch panels to build a 35' long and 7.5' high wall behind the stage at Red Lion's President's Award Ceremony, an annual event recognizing team members for their achieve

USA - With over 90 years of combined experience, Crescent Events is a premier event management company which produces live events nationwide from their offices in Charlotte, NC and Oxnard, CA.

Dedicated to providing exceptional service, technical expertise and a high level of creativity, Crescent Events recently made a decision to bolster their rental inventory with an LED video system that would allow them to offer their clients a complete live event production package. Through this acquisition of the award-winning FLEXCurve 6mm LED video system, Nashville-based PixelFLEX has announced Crescent Events as its newest production rental partner.

"At Crescent Events we have been working with LED video for a few years now and we have begun seeing more of our clients asking about the creative stage design possibilities LED video can create," began Chris Gerhart, Crescent Events

Australia - Jands Pty Ltd and RF Venue, Inc.have announced a new distribution agreement for all Australian territories. Jands will offer the company's full line of RF products for wireless microphones, in-ear monitors, and production communications.

Boston, Massachusetts-based RF Venue, Inc. manufactures products that reduce RF interference and signal dropouts and maximize scarce spectrum resources. Its products include proprietary antenna designs, distribution equipment, RF to optical signal conversion systems, and spectrum analysis software and hardware for audio professionals, broadcasters, and system integrators.

"Over the past few years we have organically built a loyal customer base in Australia and are excited for what Jands brings to local inventory, sales, system design, and support, said RF Venue CEO Chris Regan. "Our team has been extremely impressed with the wi

USA - LumenRadio has announced an OEM partnership with California based Cineo Lighting, a leader in the production of lighting systems available for the motion picture, television and photography industries.

With the addition of integrated LumenRadio CRMX OEM RDM modules to the HSX and HS2 Wave products, users are now able to control and configure their fixtures wirelessly.

The HS product line is highly configurable over RDM, and LumenRadio's RDM implementation means the Cineo Lighting fixtures can now be patched, monitored and configured from a distance.

On a film set where every minute is crucial, saving time during setup can be a huge cost saver. "The choice of wireless provider was obvious to us. Our two companies have a common philosophy in always being innovative and on the forefront of what is possible. We are very proud over this partnership and extremely excit

UK - Live event and technical solutions specialist PR Live continues to expand its video division with an investment in d3 server technology.

With a large amount of LED screen and high powered projection already in the rental inventory, the capacity for doing widescreen, HD, large-format projections and mapped projects required a powerful control solution to handle super high resolution quality video, and d3 was chosen as the best, most flexible and stable option.

PR Live MD Ian Coull comments, "This is part of our planned expansion which will focus on key areas of innovation and building up state-of-the-art technology and expertise so we can deliver imaginative solutions in addition to the more 'standard' conventional options for video packages."

This also follows the recent appointment of Dave Gillett as head of technical at the south London based company. Dave has a

Europe - The ImageCue distributor for Germany and Austria, Lightpower GmbH, reports that the compact and easy to use media server is garnering high customer satisfaction ratings.

The ImageCue is in use on numerous projects. Andrea Wilhelm, owner and CEO of an event management company from Schwetzingen, Germany, has opted to use the device for several of their productions. Andrea says that she finds that ImageCue is useful "for small to medium sized events and corporate meetings. It is a great asset to control images and/or videos with the lighting console. The ImageCue met our expectations and has been used reliably in our accumulated experience to date."

Stefan Krawietz, a freelance consultant for technical and creative services from Berlin also relies on the ImageCue: "For some time I was looking for a simple plug-and-play solution to present images or videos from my cus

Sweden - All Musik based in Skara, is the first rental company in Sweden to take delivery of Robe's VIVA LED spotlight, a fixture which will service their eclectic array of clients covering corporate shows, smaller music festivals and niche events.

The VIVAs are the latest Robe purchase for All Musik which is run by Alf Kjellson, former drummer and big music aficionado who has been in the industry for 37 years - all his working life he emphasises! He founded the company in 1996 and they have been at the current 12,000sq.m warehouse on the outskirts of picturesque Skara since 2012. One of Sweden's oldest cities, it is known for its ecclesiastical and educational history.

The new VIVAs, delivered by Robe's Swedish distributor, Bellalite, join All Musik's existing 12 x DLX Spots from the DL Series and 20 LEDWash 600s which are all constantly working.

Alf first invested in

UK - Artistic Licence, inventor of Art-Net and expert in lighting control, is hosting a dedicated Art-Net stand at this year's PLASA London show. This exciting new initiative - entitled Art-Net 4 Zone (Stand R71) - is supported by PLASA and LSi and seeks to provide expert education and training on the use of Art-Net and related protocols.

Thanks to the support of similar-minded sponsor companies, Artistic's formidable expertise will be complemented by a range of technical experts who are giving their time to make the event a success.

Throughout the first two days of the show (Sunday 18th & Monday 19th September), invited speakers will give 15-minute technical briefings on a range of relevant topics. The line-up has now been confirmed as follows:

Sunday 18 September:

11.00 - Wayne Howell (Artistic Licence) - Introduction to Art-Net 4

12.00 - Geoff Archenh

France - Award winning theme park Puy du Fou located in the Vendée region of western France has invested in Robe's DL series LED moving lights, with eight DL7Ss and 18 x DL4Ss, which are being utilized to light their innovative new show Le Dernier Panache, an immersive fusion of theatre and cinema being staged in their new 19m Euro Le Thé

Mexico - Responding to the rapidly increasing demand for its lighting and trussing products in Mexico, Chauvet has opened a new office, warehouse, service centre and showroom in Lerma, just west of the nation's capital.

Located close to major highway and rail transit channels, the spacious new facility will house an extensive inventory of Chauvet Professional, Iluminarc and Chauvet DJ lighting fixtures, as well truss from the company's TRUSST division.

"The new facility in Lerma represents an important step in our global expansion plans," said Albert Chauvet, CEO of Chauvet. "Working closely with our network of dealers and distributors, Chauvet has been fortunate to build up a very loyal following among Mexican customers for our professional, architectural and DJ products. By expanding our capabilities to sell and service our wide range of products, the new facility will a

UK - LSI Projects has announced the appointment of Richard Bunting to the position of UK business development manager.

With over 25 years lighting industry experience, Richard returns to LSI after taking a career break of a couple of years. Previously he had held the role of operations manager for nine years, looking after the procurement and logistics for the numerous projects that the company installed including Al-Jazeera, BBC's The One Show, Ghana Broadcasting, Saudi TV, and The Prime Minister's Office in Brunei.

Prior to joining LSI in 2005, Richard had worked for AC Lighting, VLPS / PRG, Strand Lighting, AFM Lighting, and Theatre Projects.

Russell Dunsire, LSI's MD commented, "We're very happy that Richard has decided to return to the company, and we expect to take advantage of his knowledge and experience in his new role developing our position as the lea

The Netherlands - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd.'s dedicated Film & TV lighting sales division are at the IBC 2016 show in Amsterdam this week to showcase leading broadcast lighting solutions from Chroma-Q, Fiilex, Visionsmith and Quasar Science.

Chroma-Q's Space Force is a modern replacement for conventional space lights or soft light sources and benefits from cool running, energy efficiency, lightweight design and minimum maintenance. CCT tuneable between 2,800K and 6,500K, and natively single source, the diffuse nature of its output negates the need for silks or skirts.

The Chroma-Q Studio range of LED lighting solutions also features both single and award-winning remote phosphor LED fixtures which produce a beautifully soft light - available in a choice of mains and battery-powered, PAR and washlight, Daylight, Tungsten and Variable models featuring Green

UK - RATstands Apollo Light is manufactured to a professional standard, guaranteeing high quality at a reasonable price. The light clips onto any music stand and with a sleek, slim design the Apollo does not obstruct the view of the conductor.

With multiple power options available the Apollo Light can be suited to your preference.

The Apollo Light is an entry level lamp manufactured to a professional standard. This rugged light is constructed entirely of metal and runs off a 24V supply.

A strip of 18 high quality LEDs with a colour temperature of 3000K provide light which is relaxing for the professional musician yet makes for easy reading of yellowed scores, without the tiring effect of the more common cold white LEDs.

The very slim housing does not obstruct the musician's view of the conductor. It provides very sharp cut off ensuring that only the score is illumi

UK - Wayne Howell, CEO of Artistic Licence and inventor of Art-Net, is launching his book Light Bytes - Inside Art-Net and sACN at the Art-Net 4 Zone (Stand R71) at this year's PLASA London show.

The book - a practical reference on the Art-Net and sACN lighting protocols - is timely, given the increasing use of ethernet as a means for transporting DMX512. The publication also coincides with the release of Art-Net 4 at the PLASA London show.

The book has just been published in preview edition, and a small number will be available for purchase at stand R71. This is a great opportunity to quiz the author, Wayne Howell, first hand on Art-Net or sACN!

The press launch will take place at stand R71 at 5pm on Sunday 18 September.

To get your ticket for the PLASA Show, click here!

(Jim Evans)

USA - Bandit Lites has once again increased its touring inventory with even more gear, this time adding Elation's ACL 360i.

Jake Tickle, Bandit Lites director of technical services, praised the ACL 360i as a great compliment to the entire ACL 360 Series. "The included optional 10 and 45 degree frost are great options expanding the use of the ACL 360i," he said. "This fixture is the definition of power in numbers. I feel we have only touched the surface of how creative we can be with the Elation ACL 360i."

The fixtures were recently out on American rock band Shinedown's Carnival of Madness tour, where lighting designer Sooner Routhier used them for accent and back lighting, placed behind Plexiglas. "You do not know that they are there, and then when they come on, they pop through to give more depth to the stage," explained lighting director Carter Fulghum before adding, "I

South Africa - In search of a solution that would cater for their AV needs, a server with multiple output points and one which would accommodate both small and large events, Johannesburg based Solid Rock Event Technical has taken ownership of a new ArKaos Studio Server.

The story began at Prolight + Sound in Frankfurt earlier this year, when Nick Britz from DWR Distribution introduced Solid Rock's Keith Mac Intyre (founder) and Rolley Maphosa (audio engineer) to the ArKaos team. "From what I understand, within half an hour of Rolley seeing the system for the first time, he was already mapping spheres and cubes with the product" explained Andrew Temblett, business development manager at Solid Rock. "So I think the marriage was made there, and when Keith came back to Johannesburg we started looking at the software available on-line. It seemed a very simple solution that would be

USA - After 20 years of performing, 16m records sold worldwide, and eight Top 40 albums to their credit, Hanson have branched out into other endeavours.

This includes forming a company to make their own craft beer, MMMhops, a play on their smash hit MMMBop. No word on whether or not the group's suds were served at Brews and BBQ, an annual Labor Day gala at Rockford Speedway, but Hanson showed that even though they may have a few fingers in other ventures, their heart and soul are still planted firmly in music.

The group delivered a nonstop high octane performance at the speedway turned festival site. Keeping pace with Hanson step for upbeat step during Brews and BBQ was a fast moving eye-searing lightshow anchored by 20 Intimidator fixtures from Chauvet DJ.

Lighting designers Jeff Hinton of 815 productions and Jared Borchardt of JBE, Inc. teamed up for this prod

UK - Cambridge Live has announced at its Annual General Meeting that it is taking over the running of the e-Luminate Cambridge Festival.

e-Luminate joins Cambridge Live's portfolio of events, giving the Festival a stable footing for the future, helping it to thrive and ensuring its growth and development in coming years.

e-Luminate Cambridge Festival was founded in 2012 by Alessandra Caggiano and Hugh Parnell. They wanted to create a festival of light which would bring together the two sides of the city, uniting its technological talent with its cultural and artistic vivacity. Each year, residents and visitors discover the richness and diversity of Cambridge's iconic buildings and public spaces through a range of light installations, family activities, talks and concerts.

Cambridge Live and e-Luminate recognised that they have a shared vision for arts and culture in th

South Africa - Enchanting audiences year after year, the FNB Starlight Pop Opera was hosted at the Chris Saunders Park, Umhlanga in KwaZulu Natal on 6 and 7 August. Headliner Patrizio Buanne, the Neapolitan-Austrian baritone singer, songwriter and producer, along with local South African artists such as Arno Carstens, were accompanied by the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra.

The event is a gift from First National Bank to their top 1,500 clients where all service providers rise to the occasion to provide an extraordinary evening. For the fifth consecutive year, EPH Production supplied the full technical, while lighting designer Johan Ferreira from BF Production Services created tender moments on a grandMA2 light.

The lighting rig consisted of 10 x Robe Pointe, 18 x Robin 600 LEDWash, 12 x Robin 1000 LEDBeam, 10 x Robin 100 LEDBeam, 24 Clay Paky Sharpy and six MAC 401 Dual LED wa

Costa Rica - The Teatro Nacional de Costa Rica, the country's historically and culturally significant national theatre located right in the heart of capital San Jose has made its first purchase of Robe moving lights, choosing the LED DLS Profile.

This important move was instigated by the theatre's technical director, Claudio Schifanni and the eight DLS Profile units were delivered by Mas Musica also based in San Jose, which is a Robe distributor in Costa Rica.

The theatre is both a producing and a receiving house, and stages at least three shows a week. They wanted a 'best quality' LED moving light product and started looking at Robe's DL range which has been specially developed for theatre and performance applications.

They wanted powerful fixtures with lower power consumption and absolutely no compromises in the quality of light output if it was an LED source. They a

UK - Ayrton will exhibit at PLASA 2016 in London's Olympia where it will share a stand (L30) with its exclusive UK distributor, Ambersphere Solutions. Ayrton is also proud to sponsor the Knight of Illumination Awards for the third year in succession. The prestigious lighting awards evening will take place at the Eventim Apollo in West London.

Ayrton released a swathe of new products for 2016, many of which will be seen for the first time in London at PLASA 2016, showcased on the Ambersphere Solutions stand. Amongst these are:

MagicPanel-FX is an exciting new multi-function luminaire with a front face comprised of a 5 x 5 array of squared lenses designed to conjure up a multiplicity of 2D and 3D effects. Marking another step in the evolution of the MagicPanel family, with the same dimensions as the DreamPanel family and MagicBurst, MagicPanel-FX multiplies the creative pote

UK - GoboPlus.com, the one-stop online shop dedicated to the supply of custom and standard metal gobos, glass gobos and all projection images, will exhibit at PLASA 2016 (Stand B2) alongside its sister company, the specialist filter company, CutColourPlus.

GoboPlus.com has added more new designs to its gobo range. These will expand GoboPlus.com's existing collection, which includes Rosco, DHA and GAM gobos along with its own 'Plus' designs, to over 3000 standard gobo patterns.

GoboPlus.com's user-friendly, intuitive website, offers secure payment methods and a fast turnaround, 24-hours a day. Choose from standard gobos, or place a custom gobo order online by September 30 2016 using code PLASA16 for a 15% discount. (Offer opens from day 1 of the show).

Goboplus.com's online shop now features colour filter which is available from stock, by the sheet or roll, for shipping

UK - Philips Lighting will preview a brand new product from its highly popular effects light range Philips Showline, plus showcase the latest innovation from its Philips Vari-Lite, Philips Selecon and Philips Strand Lighting brands, at the PLASA London expo 2016.

One of the major exhibitions for the international live entertainment technology industry, PLASA London will take place at Olympia London between Sunday 18 and Tuesday 20 September. Philips Lighting will be on stand G60.

The first in a new innovative LED range under the Philips Showline brand, the SL LEDSPOT 300, will be available for exclusive preview on the Philips Lighting stand. The SL LEDSPOT 300 is a compact LED, high output luminaire that will offer designers a gamut of vibrant colours from its CMY colour mixing and fixed colour wheel. Not only that, the product can achieve dynamic effects from its rotating

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