USA - It is somehow altogether fitting that Shinedown begins their set on the Carnival of Madness Tour with their raging rock anthem Adrenaline. An adrenaline rush is precisely what the hard rock icons have been serving up to fans on this festival tour with their cranked-up amps, ferocious riffs and frontman Brent Smith's nonstop stage prowls.

Sooner Routhier and Robert Long of SRae Productions have created a lightshow that does more than keep pace with the group's supercharged performance, they've also added an immersive sense of depth and drama to the Carnival of Madness stage with help from Chauvet Professional Rogue R1 FX-B fixtures, supplied by Bandit Lites.

Routhier and Long, who are the scenic as well as the lighting designers for the Shinedown tour, position the five-headed moving Rogue fixtures on seven ladders located upstage behind the set. This arrangeme

South Africa - DWR Distribution has added new members to the team - JP de Vernon and Kevin Stannett.

JP de Vernon has come on board as the sales representative for Africa and started at the company a month ago. He takes over Johnny Scholtz' position who will now handle architectural sales at DWR. Initially JP will have the hardest task, travelling to Africa and dealing with new clients and people he has never met before.

With Dave Whitehouse relocating to the UK, Kevin Stannett joins the team to handle sales in theatres, schools, broadcast, television studios and casinos. "When Dave told me he was leaving DWR and moving back to the UK it broke me," said Duncan. "One evening I phoned Kevin and asked if he would be interested in joining us. I think what is good is that Kevin, a talented lighting designer, has a background to Back of House so he is not trying to sell a produc

UK - Bridge Street Community Church in Leeds, UK, has opened up a new worship building and outfitted the space with Elation Professional stage and broadcast lighting, designed, supplied and installed by Wigwam Acoustics.

The new purpose-built Bridge Community Church is a multipurpose building catering for conferences and live events, as well as weekly church services. The newly completed development provides the church with a comprehensive community centre that includes a 1000-capacity auditorium, café and other facilities.

"We use Elation products on all of our lighting installations due to the finished result and also the price of the units compared to similar products," stated Tim Mortimer, installations manager at Wigwam Acoustics. Wigwam has a well established reputation for work in churches and cathedrals, so was well placed to design, supply and install a com

Israel - Lighting designer Martin Adin of Pyromania presented his stunning Photographia - Painting with Light installation at the 2016 Light in Jerusalem festival of light, which involved projecting onto and lighting a large section of the city's famous 'Old City of Jerusalem' close to Jaffa Gate, one of the main entrances to the old city.

Martin used 12 x BMFL Blades, eight BMFL Spots and 12 x Pointes for the lighting element of his piece, which mixed the mediums of lighting and monumental projection to illuminate a section of the wall approximately 100m long.

The idea was to build a 10-minute animated show that painted the wall with light ... examining the connection between the ancient stone wall and the cutting-edge technology of the lighting fixtures that are bringing it to life in multiple layers. Using this "magnificent historical heirloom as a canvas

UK - Moving light rental specialists, Richard Martin Lighting are going virtual with lighting designer Roger Williams for Go 8 Bit, the UK's next video game TV show from Dave.

Filmed at Fountain Studios and based on a live Edinburgh show, this new series hosted by Dara O'Briain sees team captains Steve McNeil and Sam Pamphilon compete in five rounds of hilarious gaming contests to be crowned the 8 Bit Champion. In each episode they'll each be joined by as celebrity guest with names such as Bob Mortimer, Russell Howard, Rachel Riley and Gina Yashere taking part throughout the run. They'll be competing in video games both retro and current and it'll be up to the live audience and resident gaming expert Ellie Gibson to decide who will come up trumps in the battle for gaming glory.

For this vibrant set, Roger has employed VL1000TS, VL3000 Spots and Robin 600 LED Wash. A

UK - The third and final category shortlist for this year's prestigious Knight of Illumination Awards has been revealed.

The announcement of the TV shortlist follows Theatre and Concert Touring and Events which were disclosed earlier this month. The 2016 TV judging panel is made up of Stuart Gain (chairperson) and STLD committee members John O'Brien, Andrew Dixon and Alan Luxford. The shortlist is as follows:

THE PHILIPS VARI-LITE AWARD FOR DRAMA - Sue Gibson for Death in Paradise, Martin Kempton for Upstart Crow and John Sorapure for Hunderby

THE LIGHT INITIATIVE AWARD FOR EVENTS - Nigel Catmur for Tom Jones and Rob Brydon: One Big Night, Bernie Davis for BBC Proms Season 2015/2016 and Roger Williams and Zac Nicholson for The Sound of Music Live

THE PRG XL VIDEO AWARD FOR LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT - Philip Brines for B

World - This year's Queen + Adam Lambert Summer Festival tour began in Europe and will wrap up in Asia at the end of September. For the tour, lighting designer Rob Sinclair and scenic designer Ric Lipson of Stufish Entertainment Architecture utilized Firefly FloppyFlex LED Neon and Solaris SoLED strobes to accent their cutting-edge stage design.

"FloppyFlex is working out great," says Rob Sinclair. "I particularly like the brightness, smoothness and vibrancy of the colours, as well as its versatility. We have about 100m of the RGB FloppyFlex for the stage and backdrop, all driven by ProPlex RGB Drives. Built into individual stage sections and backdrop, it's easy to set up and break down and the system is very reliable. I intend to use FloppyFlex again and am recommending it to other designers."

Brilliant Stages of the UK supplied the lighting gear for the tour, which also

Germany - Robe moving lights - including 65 DL4 series luminaires in the form of 50 x DL4F LED washes and 15 x DL4S Profiles - were again selected as flagship fixtures for the four major entertainment areas aboard Mein Schiff 5, the latest cruise ship to be launched by German based operator TUI Cruises.

These were specified by Chris Moylan of Berlin based Optikalusion, who was the lighting designer and programmer for all the entertainment spaces, amounting to the theatre, AbtanzBar nightclub, the Studio and pool deck stage. This follows up his very successful Robe installation on Mein Schiff 3 in 2014 and Mein Schiff 4 in 2015.

For this latest vessel built in Meyer Turku Shipyard in Finland, explained Chris, the entertainment areas have been expanded. Klanghaus which was previously a very basic 'music chamber' has evolved into a full Studio performance space staging numero

UK - There is something completely different about to happen at PLASA 2016... A new experiment, The Exploratorium, is a maze where the participants show off both their technical expertise and their imaginations.

The simple, interactive, entertaining and educational experiments contained within The Exploratorium prove a concept, demonstrate a principle and wow visitors with a bit of science. There will be axe heads and horns, Virtual Reality and prisms, experiments on perception and even a 'Brain Transfer Machine'.

One highlight of The Exploratorium is The Sideshow, a bit of virtual and magical fun, hosted by Ryan Metcalfe from PreeVue, producers of photo-realistic 3D models for theatre productions and live events using the latest CAD and VR technology. "This is a fantastic opportunity for us to be able to demonstrate this brand new technology in a way that allows vi

UK - The Prolight Concepts Group has released the eLumen8 CYC 500. A powerful 150W quad-colour COB LED (RGBW) allows this Cyclorama wash the ability to deliver rich, even tones across large areas, whilst ensuring perfect colour mixing without any multi-coloured shadows, the company says.

"The CYC 500 is an ideal colour changing flood for studios, stages and theatres that fits within anyone's budget. The flicker free operation and long LED life ensure years of faultless operation," said Andrew Jeffrey, managing director of The Prolight Concepts Group. "The unit comes loaded with features including 5-Pin DMX & PowerCON inputs/outputs and has a built-in four-button control panel with an intuitive, full colour, 180° reversible menu display for easy navigation."

Adding to the CYC 500s multitude of features is the fixtures stand-alone mode: RGBW colour mixing, LEE compatible

USA - American rock band Chevelle, comprised of Dean Bernardini and brothers Pete and Sam Loeffler, have been making music and touring for more than two decades, but they aren't kicking back and looking towards slowing down. Rather than rest on their laurels, the band released their eighth studio album The North Corridor this July and have been touring the country with a lighting package provided by Bandit Lites.

Lighting designer Craig Richter shared the band was looking to change up their look this year, with more set pieces and lighting fixtures, a challenge he was certainly up to accomplishing. "Nothing on the main set piece is symmetrical, so it makes it harder to make your generic positions," he said. "I really had to switch my way of thinking come programming time."

GLP X4s are placed on top of the set pieces to provide the main source of lighting and eye cat

UK - Sector-6 was a substantial new stage and performance area at the 2016 Boomtown Festival in the UK. A brainchild of Dan Borg, the crazy set design was created from several tonnes of reconditioned scrap metal and much ingenuity as a living, moving, breathing industrial sculpture inspired by structural components from steel works, power stations, nuclear reactors, etc. all united in "a post-apocalyptic masterpiece of madness".

Dan and Boomtown's production manager Robin Collins asked Dave Whiteoak of Video Illusions to be visual production manager and video designer and to co-ordinate the visual production elements including lighting and video content creation. Dave commissioned lighting designer Sam Tozer from Vision Factory - a regular LD on Video Illusions projects - to add some original lighting magic to Sector 6.

Video Illusions, who work closely with leading UK lig

Chile - A new world record was set for the Guinness Book of Records at the La Florida stadium in Santiago, Chile, on Sunday 22 May. A total of 2,357 players took part in a 120-hour soccer match and broke the previous record held by England, where a non-stop 105-hour game was played.

The match, which was organized by Entel and Huaweii, deserved an equally great closing show, and Clay Paky lights were used under the supervision of local producer Real Audio Sistemas.

At around 7 pm the cup was raised to celebrate the new record, and the show started, which lit up the sky over La Florida. Twenty-four Sharpy Wash 330s were more than enough to colour the entire stage. Despite this, the power of six Alpha Spot HPE 1500s was also added, each with their own visual effects that harmonized with the colours of singer Américo's show. The lighting was handled by Chilean li

UK - Singer/songwriter Gladys Knight recently toured the UK and Blackburn based HSL delighted lighting equipment and crew to the production which was co-ordinated on the road for HSL by Lester Cobrin and designed by UK and Nashville based LD, Neil Scrivener.

Neil has been working for the artist for about two years. Knight tours the U.S. extensively, having previously had a five-year residency in Las Vegas and usually visits the UK and Europe each summer. This year, a high profile appearance at London's Royal Albert Hall was one of the highlights on the itinerary for the seven times Grammy and multi award winning artist.

The PAR can rig used by Knight in the U.S. provided a starting point for Neil's design this year. Taking into account the 13 people who needed to be lit, Neil decided that PAR cans were once again a good base option for the rig as well as adding a touch of

USA - Bandit Lites is once again supplying the lighting for The Band Perry as they tour the nation. The country music super group recently released The Comeback Kid, the latest single off their upcoming album Heart + Beat.

Lighting designer Jay Waddell based the design around an LED neon outlined heart shape, which had originally been a piece of artwork the band had used for branding. LED neon was also placed into stair treads that run the length of the risers for the band, with three steps high and eight sections across of neon in the stairs for 24 controllable steps.

"I love the looks of all the neon; there are really cool FX to run through the heart and stairs," said Waddell of the design. "I also love the backlit looks from the Nitro Strobes; I have two lines of nine units: one at the top of the cart and one at the bottom. The bottom line hits the band ri

UK - For Biffy Clyro's headlining appearances at Leeds and Reading this Bank Holiday weekend, set designer Misty Buckley established a new benchmark to what is possible with transformative stage sets on festival stages.

"The stage is a square walled tunnel, a series of four portals of LED that enclose the full stage, each smaller than the next as you move upstage, and with a large landscape LED screen across the back," was how video director Jack Banks described it.

"Looking at what Misty has come up with you can't just put flat pictures behind the band. This is something entirely different to work with, it was great to get away from the classic 'big slab of telly' look. The portal screens introduce an amazing perspective to the video element and it was a chance to really think about how I could make content travel in and out of the set."

The portals, rear screen, d3 s

Spain - Sonobalance dealt with lighting the all-nighter that Nikki Beach Marbella threw to celebrate the arrival of the summer season. They used 12 Clay Paky Mythos units and an MA Lighting grandMA2 ultra-light desk.

David Calero Vioque was in charge of managing the event lighting and accompanying the festive atmosphere the party-goers enjoyed. He used 12 Clay Paky Mythos units as spotlights and beam lights in his design. The Mythos is the first 470W light with this option in a single device: it produces a well-defined light beam with a 4°-50° zoom. Its optical unit allows you to switch from spotlight to beam light mode with a beam angle of only 0.5°.

All the equipment was supplied by rental company Sonobalance, which provided the Clay Paky Mythos units and the MA Lighting GrandMA2 Ultra-light desk, distributed in Spain by Stonex.

(Jim Evans)

UK - In what is being regarded as one of the biggest productions in West End history, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child recently opened at the Palace Theatre to rave reviews. The play is the eighth story set in the Harry Potter universe and takes place 19 years after the events of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

White Light was approached to provide the lighting for this hugely-anticipated production and this included premium products from GLP.

Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a new play by Jack Thorne and follows Harry Potter, now a Ministry of Magic employee, and his younger son Albus Severus Potter. The lighting designer for the show is Tony Award and Olivier Award-winner Neil Austin.

He comments, "My main aim for the show was to create something magical. With Ha

UK - DL7S LED Profile luminaires from Robe made their UK debut at the Coliseum in London's Covent Garden, as part of the lighting rig for the highly acclaimed English National Opera (ENO) production of Wagner's Tristan & Isolde directed by Daniel Kramer.

Lighting was designed by Paul Anderson, set and scenic elements were created by influential sculptor Anish Kapoor and the video was designed by Frieder Weiss.

The DL7Ss were chosen because an LED source was required to complement the video images that did not interfere with the infra-red light source illuminating the stage for a series of IR video cameras, also used onstage.

It was felt that the particular qualities of LED light would work best in this context.

The DL7Ss were supplied by technical production specialist White Light, who purchased them specifically for this production.

The six DL7S Profile

UK - As soon as the Starlit Dance Floor Systems landed at Prolight Concepts' HQ, many were instantly shipped out to the company's customers including 'Light The Way', who have already used the system for two events, with many more pencilled in over the coming weeks. One of the installations was for a wedding organised by Kudos Music, a leading Asian Wedding and Events company.

Light The Way, a leading dry hire company, has expanded into wet hire with the purchase of a 20ft x 20ft White Starlit Dance Floor System. The LEDJ portable, Starlit systems have been designed to offer rental companies, installers and users alike the flexibility to create different sized dance floors.

John Edwards of Light The Way comments: "With the immediate success of the dance floor system we will be looking to purchase another four in the next six months".

With interlocking panels and cool w

UK - The 2016 Festival drew to a close after three weeks of action in and around the city, offering over 50,000 performances in over 300 venues showcasing thousands of shows.

Zero 88 lighting control was once again right at the hub of this vibrant experience.

Over 280 technicians were trained during the 2016 Festival Fringe, from around 130 performance spaces all running Zero 88 consoles. Products included the new FLX, Solution, Jester and even the Fat Frogs which have been running Festival Fringe venues since the turn of the millennium.

Eaton provided advice during the early planning stages for several larger venues, and Zero 88 product specialist Paul McEwan and product manager Jon Hole were onsite for the build and throughout the festival period to provide venue training and to support companies with more complex plotting requirements.

While performers returned

Through The Past Darkly - The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) is hoping to replicate the success of its David Bowie exhibition with a major retrospective of Pink Floyd. The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains, marking 50 years since the release of the band's first single, will include a laser light show and previously unseen concert footage. The "immersive" show will feature 350 objects and artefacts, including instruments and original artworks. It will run from May to October 2017.

The V&A promised "an immersive, multi-sensory and theatrical journey through Pink Floyd's extraordinary world" which will "chronicle the music, iconic visuals and staging of the band, from the underground psychedelic scene in 1960s London to the present day". The exhibition will also include items from stage performances, as well as instruments, handwritten lyrics, architectural drawings a

USA - Christmas concerts are a highlight on the calendars of many churches. However, although they're exciting, these events often involve elaborate stage productions and appearances by guest artists, both of which can create new sets of challenges for a church's tech team.

Chauvet Professional is addressing this issue at an upcoming WFX Conference panel session that looks at Christmas concert lighting from two different perspectives: the lighting designer's and the technical director's. Taking place at demo room SWC102 at the Kentucky Exposition Centre from 4:30 to 5:30 pm on Wednesday 21 September, the session will feature lighting designers Andy Rushing and Craig Rutherford, along with Bobby Dennis, technical director of The Heights Baptist Church in Richardson, Texas, outside Dallas.

Rushing is the fulltime lighting designer for two Grammy Award winning Christian music

Australia - Every year for the past seven years, Sydney's streets and skyline have come alight with the beautiful, inspiring, interactive festival that is Vivid Sydney. The lights and installations of Vivid Sydney illuminate some of Sydney's most iconic landmarks, including the Sydney Opera House, Customs House, Maritime Museum and The Star casino.

For Vivid Sydney 2015, The Star temporarily installed 44 Clay Paky Sharpys and 10 Mythos fixtures onto their roof as part of an installation entitled Mission Control. The resulting light display was so stunning and popular, the venue realized there was potential beyond Vivid Sydney.

To celebrate Vivid 2016 a total of 36 Clay Paky Supersharpys were chosen for their enhanced optical design. Famous for its powerful beam, the Supersharpy produces clearly defined mid-air effects even at long distances. The Supersharpy's beam a

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