UK - The hugely successful PLASA Focus Glasgow, returns to the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC) on 18-19 January, 2017, bringing with it an expanded programme of seminars, panel sessions, console training and equipment demonstrations to sit alongside the ever-popular Riggers Forum.

"This is an important year for PLASA and for the Scottish live events sector," says PLASA's events director, Chris Toulmin, "we hope our continued investment in the Scottish market, through our Focus events and its seminar programme will reflect and support the Scottish government and VisitScotland's recently unveiled ten-year strategy to grow this sector."

Taking place across both days of the show, highlights on day one will include: Panel sessions led by audio journalist Phil Ward, who presents Is Point Source Fighting Back? an exploration of the varied applications of p

USA - Wenger Corporation of Owatonna, MN, a global provider serving the performing arts, music education, and athletic segments, has acquired the assets of SECOA, Inc. of Champlin, MN. Wenger, and its subsidiary J.R. Clancy, already provide a superior value proposition featuring the broadest array of quality solutions for the performing arts industry.

"Our strategy is focused on providing superior customer solutions and driving growth in each of our market segments," states Chris Simpson, president and CEO of Wenger Corporation. "The addition of SECOA builds on the momentum we are driving with the J.R. Clancy and Wenger brands to offer the most comprehensive integrated project solutions in the performing arts market.

"This acquisition further complements our integrating manufacturing model by bringing on board some of the key talent who have executed a similar model very s

Germany - Musical theatre production company, Spotlight Musicals has made a significant investment into the visual impact of its stage productions by adopting large scale visual imaging projection technology from Digital Projection.

Spotlight approached German distributor, ETHA, who specified a Digital Projection Titan Super Quad 20,000 lumens 3-chip DLP projection system, as well as two Digital Projection E-Vision Laser 8500 lumen projectors to meet the company's imaging requirements.

Deployed immediately, the Titan Super Quad projected imagery and words onto the main curtain for the musical world premiere of Der Medicus. Staged in Fulda, the town celebrated as the leading centre for German musical productions, Der Medicus is the German adaptation of Noah Gordon's international best seller, The Physician.

The two Digital Projection E-Vision Laser

UK - They say that your life can change in an instant and that is certainly the case in new television show This Time Next Year. Filmed at the London Studios with lighting designed by Roger Williams, supported by moving light specialists Richard Martin Lighting, This Time Next Year offers a glimpse at one year's commitment instantaneously.

The show sees Davina McCall interview people who want to change their lives. Whether that be by losing weight, going on dates or in one case getting control over a debilitating speech impediment. After the interview, the person steps through the 'This Time' door only to step out of the 'Next Year' door immediately having completed their journey. Despite appearances, they haven't taken a trip through the time vortex but the show has simply filmed the pre-transformation interview one year ago to allow them time to meet their goal

Romania - The Bucharest Ladies Orchestra performed with Romanian jazz singer and TV personality, Ozana Barabancea, recently at Bucharest's Aqua Parc Crangasi, when around 2,000 people were treated to a first-class performance.

The event was promoted by the European Cultural Centre (Sector), who once again enlisted Temple Media, the PR Lighting distributors, to provide the technical infrastructure.

The imaginative lighting plot was conceived by Sergiu Ardelean, lighting designer and director of photography at Romanian Television, working with Temple Media. The company provided 20 of PR Lighting's XR 440 BWS, which integrates three features (Spot, Wash and Beam) in a single unit. Using PR patented technology, it combines advanced 440W lamp technology with a superb optical system.

This all-purpose light, which has gained huge worldwide popularity since its launch, is part

UAE - ShowLED was awarded the top gong for a brand new category at the fourth annual Light Middle East Awards: Exterior Lighting Project of the Year.

ShowLED Hybrid Pixels cover a full fa

USA - One of America's top lighting designers for television, Victor Fable, used Elation's new Fuze Par Z120 IP LED wash light as part of a large Elation Professional lighting package on the recent AT&T Audience Network Music Concerts that aired exclusively on DIRECTV and AT&T U-verse.

Southern California-based Kinetic Lighting supplied the new LED wash light for the shows along with Elation's award-winning Platinum FLX hybrid moving head, Colour Chorus Series LED batten, and Elation's Platinum Beam 5R and Platinum Beam 5R Extreme moving head beam lights.

The concert series, presented by AT&T Audience Network and filmed at Red Studios in Hollywood, California, was shot over two weeks in mid-September and featured live performances in a club and recording studio setting. Over a dozen artists across all genres of music including Good Charlotte, Bebe Rexha, The Band Perry, AW

UK - British dance group Clean Bandit has selected Really Creative Media to lead the design of their new stage show content and delivery ahead of the release of their upcoming Sophomore album. The new concept, launched at the band's one-off headline show from the Roundhouse, is a bespoke blend of VJ and time coded content, designed to be varied for each audience.

Jack James, creative director at Really Creative Media described the company's innovative approach to designing the content.

"The content creation approach was driven massively by the band and their vision for the new show. We also took guidance from the show designer extraordinaire, Rob Sinclair, which allowed us to use some really creative visual techniques.

"One trick, for example, saw us using video synthesizers that produce colourful oscilloscope-style patterns, which respond to the flow of the mus

India - With ever increasing demands for events in India, the PRG Alliance has announced a new partner in the region. The new addition to the membership of the PRG Alliance is passionate about great results and meticulous in execution.

DynaMix Media is a company recognized in India for their remarkable contribution to events and entertainment, having introduced the 270 degrees projection format to corporate presentations, and the first 300' wide projection to the local market.

The company has a growing number of immersive projection and projection mapping jobs under their belt. DynaMix Media was founded in 2005 and is led by Mr. Suresh Madan. The company brings to PRG Alliance its vast understanding of video playback and networking systems, and its one-stop rental shop and services across India - offering complete services in video, audio, lighting, trussing, project manag

UK - The Jands Vista lighting & media control system again proved its flexibility and power when it provided control for this year's out of this world Ultimate Fireworks Spectacular - an annual end-of-season event at popular theme park, Alton Towers Resort.

To celebrate the launch of the resort's new rollercoaster fully dedicated to virtual reality, Galactica, the intergalactic show featured an interstellar fireworks display, striking visual effects and lasers that lit up the universe's sky - set to space themed music and the backdrop of the towers.

Alton Towers Resort specified the Jands Vista system to provide lighting and media control for the event, for the fifth consecutive year.

The resort's technical team are experienced Jands Vista users, with a fleet of consoles employed throughout the park for various attractions and venues.

As in previous years, the team

USA - As a leading event lighting designer in the Washington DC area, John Farr has seen more than his share of spectacular celebrations. However, even he was surprised at a recent 50th wedding anniversary celebration in a home outside Baltimore, when TV Hall of Famer and former Tonight Show host Jay Leno made a surprise appearance to provide entertainment.

Farr's event rig, which consisted of 16 Ovation E-910FC ellipsoidals and 24 WELL Fit uplighting fixtures from Chauvet Professional, as well a collection of pin spots, was more than ready to light the legendary comic.

"We created a nice look by using a lot of blues when Jay Leno appeared," said Farr, the owner of John Farr Lighting Design. "The Ovation ellipsoidals create some deep rich blues, which gave the area an intimate feeling to draw everyone in closer to the surprise guest on the small stage."

The "are

USA - Rapper Pitbull hit the road recently with his Bad Man tour in the US which featured a production design by Gabriel Fraboni and Michael Smalley of creative practice Twin Design, complete with 46 x Robe BMFL Spots on the rig which were the main profile fixtures.

Twin Designs has worked with the artist for two years, although this was the first full production design they had essentially created specifically for Pitbull, as the previous tour had been a co-headliner with Enrique Iglesias.

Their brief included creating all the playback video content as well as designing the lighting and video systems and the set. Having control over all these visual elements enabled them to create a streamlined and harmonious show which Michael operated and directed on the road.

Having worked with Pitbull for two years, they had a good idea of the style and aesthetics he and his team

Argentina - Argentina's national theatre Cervantes National Theatre (also known as National Theatre of Buenos Aires) has recently invested in a grandMA2 ultra-light. Declared a National Historic Monument in 1995, the theatre is located on C

UK - Founded in 1999 by Nick Ratcliffe, Yes Events is an events production company that prides itself on being able to produce anything from a private party or a wedding to a corporate event or a rock concert. The Yes Events team manages all aspects of a production: developing initial concepts through to staging, crewing, tech management and execution of the events. As Ratcliffe maintains, "We never aim to be the cheapest, but we always strive to be the best."

With this in mind, the team has invested in a new grandMA2 Light console and an MA Command Wing control console, which were purchased from Ambersphere Solutions.

Tom Chennells, director of production for Yes Events, explains why they chose the MA kit: "The Command Wing and grandMA2 Light are our first investments in MA Lighting control. Both were chosen after a rigorous selection process, informed both by our knowled

Belgium - Hardcore metal can blend harmoniously with green thinking. A case in point is the Ieper Hardcore Fest, Europe's largest death metal and hardcore punk festival, which attracts fans with a line- up that includes the likes of Jello Biafra, UK Subs and Atari Teenage Riot, while at the same time leaving a gentle footprint on the environment.

In recognition of its efforts, the festival has won the Groenevent Award 2015 for greenest festival in Flanders and the Groene Pluim award of Ieper.

This year, lighting designer Alexander Coppenolle continued the festival's tradition of blending punchy hardcore looks with planet-friendly green thinking by specifying Chauvet Professional Mavericks and Rogues for its indoor and outdoor stages.

"When it comes to lighting the Ieper Hardcore Fest, we're faced with a pretty impossible task each year," commented Coppenolle, who has b

Israel - When two of Israel's biggest singing stars - Yehuda Poliker and Shlomi Shabat - get together and play onstage live, It's a big deal and a hugely exciting performance spectacle that's always well received.

For the occasion, lighting designer Eyal Tavory chose a large Robe orientated rig - including 35 x BMFL spots to give the impact that everyone was anticipating at a recent show at the Rishon Lezion Amphitheatre

The two artists played a major tour last summer for which the demand for tickets was so overwhelming they decided to add a series of extra shows this summer. The Robe reporting team caught up with Eyal and the team and asked a few leading questions.

Eyal has been working on Yehuda Polker's lightshow for 30 years which is a remarkable achievement in its own right. He started off as the lighting operator and became the stage and lighting designer two yea

UK - Colour Sound Experiment is supplying lighting for the current Tom Odell tour, a lively and eclectic mix of dynamics and style created by Jonny Gaskell who has been on-board with the popular singer / songwriter since April this year. The current touring campaign follows the launch of his second studio album, Wrong Crowd.

The tour started earlier in the year and included a festival run, with this leg being the first full on production design tour carrying a full lighting rig for which west London based Colour Sound made some new investments.

The design process started with Tom - who actively contributes ideas - requesting some frames onstage to give a basic form, so three - outlined with Martin Sceptrons - were the starting point of the design. The largest one in the centre is covered in gauze enabling the cheetah head from the album artwork to be projected - ach

USA - Southern rock band Widespread Panic returned to the road for their annual Halloween extravaganza with a lighting package provided by Bandit Lites. The 10-day tour treated the jam band's diehard fan base with both Widespread Panic's own psychedelic songs and covers including Black Sabbath's Paranoid (complete with a confetti cannon) that hadn't been played by the band since 1987.

Each show, long time lighting designer Paul Hoffman faces the daunting task of creating different looks for a band whose set list is famously decided at the last minute, while still putting out recognizable looks that jive with the music and theme of the show.

"I really do it pulling from a decade of experience lighting them - knowing the music beat-by-beat and note-by-note," Hoffman said. "I can use the equipment to compliment the mood of the music, being it hard and heavy or smooth a

USA - Music fans across the country continue to discover the sounds of R&B-tinged indie band Wet, who played dates across North America this fall using effects from Elation Professional colour-changing ACL 360 Bar battens as powerful visual accompaniment. Touring in support of their debut album Don't You, released earlier in the year, the Brooklyn-based trio plays an engaging and increasingly popular brand of music that mixes the genres of R&B, electronic, rock, and pop.

Wet's fall Don't You tour confirmed their increasing popularity with enthusiastic crowds and a string of sold out shows. Lighting design for the tour was by Erich Meitzner and James Bailey, who used the ACL 360 Bars to stunning effect by creating dense, seemingly impenetrable walls of light that fully complemented the band's special sound.

Their first outing with the band, Meitzner and Bailey, creat

UK - LTP Integration has officially announce a new partnership with Anolis UK.

Anolis is the architectural lighting division of Robe lighting and has offices in Australia, Czech Republic, Dubai, France, Russia, Singapore, Uruguay and the USA. Its UK operations are currently based in Northampton, with expansion plans set to incorporate a new site in London.

LTP Integration will provide design, integration, sales and support for interior and exterior architectural lighting schemes across the UK and Europe. The company now has access to the entire Anolis and Robe product range, offering distribution services into various core markets.

Anolis UK is exhibiting within the Lightspace Arena at Lux Live 2016 which takes place at ExCeL, London 23-24 November.

(Jim Evans)

Spain - Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Madrid is Spain's biannual style statement for the international fashion stage, and a forum in which Robert Juliat's Merlin followspot was able to work its magic.

Entrusted with its high-profile lighting design, Citylight S.L., a leading Madrid-based rental, sales and installation company, boosted its lighting inventory with the purchase of four Robert Juliat Merlin followspots to ensure the country's hottest fashion moments were bathed in light of the highest quality.

Citylight positioned the four Merlin spots front-of-house in the vast Feria de Madrid venue to cover the models as they paraded on the catwalk. "With throw distances of 30m to 40m, it was very clear we required the high quality afforded by the Merlins," Citylight stated.

Designed originally to endure the rigours of touring, the fully-featured Merlin followspots, supplie

Italy - Twelve Robe BMFL WashBeams were utilised by artist and lighting designer Mariano de Tassis in an installation at the mausoleum of Italian patriot and Irredentist Cesare Battisti in Trento.

The installation was produced by Filmwork Factory to celebrate the centenary of the death of Battisti. The original idea of highlighting the mausoleum with 12 powerful beams shooting up into the night sky to match the 12 columns of the monument was Mariano's himself, pitched to the Municipality of Trento. He commissioned photographer Pierluigi Cattani Faggion to document the work.

The mausoleum is located on the top of Doss Hill in Trento and was designed by architect Ettore Fagiuoli and inaugurated in 1935. Its 12 columns are 15m high and follow a circumference of 75 metres. It is visible from all over the city and surrounding countryside.

The BMFLs were placed around the pe

UK - Battersea Dogs & Cats Home's annual Collars & Coats Gala Ball returned for its eighth year, with Hawthorn on hand to deliver full technical production for the star-studded event. Taking place at Battersea Evolution, a venue set in the grounds of Battersea Park, the creative technical production expert provided lighting, sound and video for the four-legged occasion.

To create the paw-fect atmosphere, Hawthorn used the event branding as inspiration to deliver a chic and stylish production design. With black and gold making up the key colours for the evening, 60 linear metres of custom black and gold drapes were incorporated into the main dining space, helping to develop the overall style of the event whilst also creating an intimate atmosphere for the 748 guests.

Wanting to create a completely different environment to previous years, Hawthorn used two truss circles with

Off The Campaign Trail - While the American Music Awards is designed to celebrate the best in US music, many artists instead took the opportunity to comment on the election of Donald Trump. Green Day were perhaps the most vocal group on the night. During a pyrotechnic-filled performance, they turned their track Bang Bang into an anti-Trump song. President-elect Trump has previously declared himself a fan of the punk rock group's work, having seen their musical American Idiot and describing it as "excellent".

Sting took home a lifetime achievement award and his acceptance speech seemed to make reference to current affairs. Rock music is "perhaps America's greatest and most influential export," he said, before saying the genre has been "always open to all colours in the spirit of welcome and inclusion". He added, "A mixing of culture, of rhythm and passion is what

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