UAE - The recent Formula 1 Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi included four nights of post-race concerts featuring Beyoncé, Aerosmith, Jamiroquai, and Kings of Leon. The lighting rig supporting these shows featured over 100 Clay Paky fixtures.

The concerts, produced by Flash Entertainment, were held at Ferrari World on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi and were open only to ticket holders for the race weekend.

The stage's back wall carried the bulk of the lighting along with a giant high-resolution screen, flanked on both sides with 45m wide LED wings with additional effect lighting. Towers placed at the front corners of the stage contained front and side lights.

Forty-four Clay Paky Alpha Spot 1200 and 42 Clay Paky Alpha Wash 1200 were the mainstay of the back wall, with 20 Alpha Beam 300 fixtures placed on the wings for additional effect. Control came from three grandMA full size consoles

Australia - Lighting director/operator Sam Walters selected LSC Clarity as his main lighting controller for the IGA Lord Mayor's Christmas Carols held at the Brisbane Riverstage in December.

Walters commented, "I chose the new LSC Clarity system due to the efficiency in the way it handles Moving lights and LED programming. This was my first real outing with Clarity and although the software is extremely powerful, I didn't find it complicated at all. Actually I would have only looked at the manual 3 tm 4 times during the whole programming session."

Christmas Carols events, held each year in Australia's major cities during the summer month of December, are generally performed on outdoor stages. The events are televised nationally and attract large audiences, both at the venue and at home. Brisbane's event attracted some of the cream of Australia's talent

The Brits 2010 - Lady Gaga, Lily Allen, Florence and the Machine and Pixie Lott go head-to-head at the Brits tonight, leading the shortlist with three nominations each. X Factor runners-up JLS are also up for a possible hat-trick.

Performers at the UK's biggest music awards include Lady Gaga, Kasabian, Cheryl Cole, Jay-Z and Alicia Keys. Prince Harry has recorded a message for the live show, as the ceremony celebrates its 30th anniversary. The awards themselves began in 1977. Comedian Peter Kay will host the event, at London's Earls Court, which will include a duet between Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine and rapper Dizzee Rascal. Robbie Williams will receive the honorary award for outstanding contribution to music, ending the show with a live performance. Two special categories have been created to celebrate the best of the Brits over the past 30 years - the best Brit

Sweden/UK - Wireless Solution Sweden has announced Core Lighting of the UK as the latest OEM partner to build W-DMX into their products. The technology will be installed directly at their London facility.

Core has developed a range of rugged battery-powered LED lighting products for the 'temporary events' market - both for indoor and outdoor use. With the addition of W-DMX, these compact, battery-driven fixtures are completely cable free.

"We are extremely pleased with this partnership," says Phil Ion, president of Core Lighting, "Wireless Solution is the leading manufacturer of wireless DMX tools and the products are widely used in Europe and the USA. We consider ourselves as manufacturers of high quality products and we received nothing but positive comments from our clients on our decision to go with W-DMX."

"This is a particularly interesting par

UK - Hawthorn, working for Shine Television, has recently supplied two of their high resolution 6mm LED walls to Sky TV for the live shows of Got to Dance on Sky 1 HD.

The set, designed by Chris Webster, incorporated two of Hawthorn's LED screens each measuring 4.6m x 2.3m (678Px by 384Px).

Hawthorn worked with LD Mark Kenyon on this project, having worked together on the last series of Strictly Come Dancing for the BBC.

Simon Deary of Poison LED, the leading LED consultants to television commented, "Hawthorn's screen, with its RGB based high resolution, has looked great on HD, it is such a good price and Hawthorn's crew have been fantastic."

2009 saw a continual investment by Hawthorn in their indoor and outdoor LED wall, as well as their new video curtain called Media Surge.

Hawthorn's Media Surge has proved so popular with their customers that

UK - When the Ministry of Sound London commissioned a bespoke Martin Audio stack two years ago it was just one step away from standardising on the brand throughout.

Standing in the way were the old 'Bertha' sub enclosures, whose heritage dates right back to Richard Long's epochal system at New York's legendary Paradise Garage in the late '70s.

Although the subs had been loaded with Martin Audio 18in drivers during that last upgrade, the end game - according to Martin Audio R&D director, Jason Baird - was to provide a complete active low-end enclosure.

Meanwhile, the Ministry's technical manager Alex Barrand was aware of development work taking place at Martin Audio HQ on a prototype - largely to provide low-end extension for Prodigy front of house engineer Jon Burton - but his interest really went into overdrive when he learnt that an active product would be commercially ava

Germany - The Madrix 2.8 will be officially launched at Prolight + Sound 2010. The upcoming version of the LED control software includes many new features.

Two fresh and creative effects called SCE Metaballs and SCE Drops as well as the much-improved Sound2Light effect S2L Equalizer extend the possibilities. In addition, reorganizing effects by using drag & drop is now possible.

Combining effects has been enhanced by adding new features to layers, such as Copy, Paste, and Insert. The Patch was completely rebuilt and is as user-friendly and fast as never before, says the company.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Over 150 Robe moving lights, including the new ColorBeam 700E ATs, feature extensively on the rig for the current UK arena tour of the hit TV show Strictly Come Dancing Live.

The lighting design is by Mark Kenyon - who also does the TV series, and the lighting equipment is being supplied by Welsh-based Sonalyst. The touring show was programmed onto a grandMA2 light during production rehearsals in Manchester Arena by David Bishop, Roger Williams was the assistant LD, and the touring console operator and lighting director is Alex Murphy.

Sonalyst purchased 31 chrome finished Robe ColorBeam 700E ATs specially for the tour, 28 of which are deployed around the perimeter of the dancefloor. The chrome colour was deliberately chosen to bring a special televisual feel to the live show, which features eight couples shimmying, jiving, tangoing and strutting their stuff, four

New Zealand - Auckland War Memorial Museum celebrated its 80th birthday by turning on its new exterior lighting installation at the end of 2009. The venerable building on Auckland's skyline is made of creamy Oamaru stone and was a perfect subject for François Roupinian's subtle lighting design.

Roupinian had lit some projects in the interior of the museum and was engaged to design and implement the exterior lighting project. Having used Martin Professional fixtures on a number of projects in his native Canada, he was keen to integrate them into this project.

In the end he used a number of Martin Inground 200 full colour mixing fixtures to uplight the main northern portico and also the east and west fountains on the corners of the building. The Inground 200 is a discreet, programmable 150W buried luminaire.

In addition, he used a number of pole mounted Martin Exterior 200 co

UK - The winners of the 2010 Whatsonstage.com Awards were announced at a star-studded awards ceremony held at London's Prince of Wales Theatre last Sunday, 14 February. Run by theatre news website WhatsOnStage and covering all the shows to open in London's West End and beyond over the last 12 months, the awards represent the voice of the theatre-going audience: nominations in all categories come from members of the public, and the public then vote for the winners.

White Light is the sponsor of the Best Lighting Designer award, which was presented to Natasha Katz for her work on the hit musical Sister Act at the London Palladium. Her fellow nominees in the category were Johanna Town for Speaking In Tongues, Mark Henderson for Enron, Mike Robertson for On The Waterfront and Neil Austin for Life Is A Dream and Madame de Sade.<

UK - GearSource Europe has announced the appointment of Benjamin Hollenberg to assist in developing the market for pre-owned lighting and sound equipment in Benelux and Germany.

Hollenberg has worked many years in lighting and sound sales, having previously been sales & investment manager with Focus, Amsterdam. His understanding of the business stems from his earlier 'hands-on' activities as a lighting technician for local Dutch bands and musical theatre.

Garry Nelsson, GearSource Europe's owner said, "I've known Benjamin for several years and had always considered him to be the ideal candidate to expand our activities in the Benelux region and on into Germany. He joins Keith Dale in London, Michelle Morin in Paris and Monica Savio in Milan."

(Jim Evans)

Germany - This year's ProLight&Sound show will see GDS (Global Design Solutions) add a number of new, innovative products to its portfolio, including additions to its successful LiteWare and CueSystem ranges.

GDS will showcase the newest addition to the LiteWare range, LiteWare HO (High Output). Following the success of LiteWare wireless RGB uplighter, launched in 2009, LiteWare HO is a high output version offering 80Watts of LED power. Designed to be completely compatible with the existing LiteWare range, the LiteWare HO product is the same footprint as the standard version and is calibrated to deliver colour-matched output.

Andy Duffield, European sales manager, GDS commented: "LiteWare has achieved enormous success since its launch in February 2009, with over 20 of the leading live events companies in the UK holding inventory and many more units sold worldwide. Buildin

Australia - Robe moving lights once again took centre stage at one of Australia's biggest annual music events, when Parklife 09 officially signalled the start of the summer dance festival season.

Tens of thousands of revellers gathered in five cities, with a massive line up featuring more music than ever before - including main acts like Empire of the Sun, Tiga, MSTRKRAFT, La Roux and Autokratz, along with local supporting DJs such as Art vs. Science.

Clifton Productions supplied moving lights for the Melbourne event with stage designs by Fuzzy Events and Parklife's national lighting designer, Davyd Williams. This massive production was managed by local production manager Adam Gibson in conjunction with national producer, Josh Chapman. Over 90 Robe fixtures were utilised across four stages, with Parklife featuring its trademark Earth, Wind, Fire & Water themed arenas an

Canada - One of the enduring images of the Vancouver Winter Olympics is likely to be the Sails of Light show, titled Look At The Games. The show, which takes place nightly, is projected on the five 90ft sails atop the Canada Place building and is often used as an iconic background for television images around the world.

The gobos used for many of the projections were created by Moment Factory and manufactured by Rosco.

The designers chose to use custom made glass gobos in Martin 1200 projectors. But they were restricted to using an exact match of the official colours of the Winter Olympics and to design and produce them so they fit the triangular surfaces of the sails, with no image spill off the sails.

Rosco manufactured more than 40 colour glass gobos for this project, as well as nearly a dozen black and white glass gobos.

Anne Hunter, who supervised this project

South Africa - For the fourth year running, Gearhouse South Africa supplied technical infrastructure to the Top Gear Live show on its recent visit to South Africa.

The event was staged in the Coca Cola Dome in Johannesburg and at the Grand Arena at Grand West, Cape Town, with Gearhouse working through technical production company Lucidity for Brand Events SA, the official licensee for Top Gear Live in South Africa.

Gearhouse project manager Michael Lewis worked closely with Lucidity's Paul Newman, technical production manager, and the international Top Gear Live touring production team to ensure that sound, lighting, staging, rigging and 6000 seats (from Havaseat, also a Gearhouse company) were installed into the Dome to create the Top Gear Live arena.

Live arena lighting was designed by Steve Sinclair from the international Top Gear Live team, wh

Good News - Behind the Scenes, the entertainment technology industry charity, has announced it has received a grant of $50,000 from Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS. In his cover letter to the grant, BC/EFA executive director Tom Viola said: "BC/EFA is very grateful to the companies and individuals working in the technical professions - from lighting and rigging to scenery, special effects, audio and more - who have participated in and made so much of BC/EFA's fundraising in the theatre community possible."

Rick Rudolph, chair of the Behind the Scenes Committee, responded: "We are incredibly grateful for this generous grant and the recognition of what Behind the Scenes is accomplishing and the community we represent. We have had an unprecedented number of requests for grants in just the first six weeks of this year and this gift from BC/EFA will ensure we can c

UK - Artistic Licence reports a very successful experience exhibiting at the ARC 2010 show at Earls Court earlier this month and has already booked its place to return to the event in 2011.

Artistic Licence managing director Simon Hobday, says, "We laid our stand out to illustrate some of the key technology prevalent in today's lighting control market and reflected this concept in our new Technical Focus brochure.

"Technologies covered included DALI & DMX, RDM & Art-Net, Colour-Tramp and Interfacing solutions. DALI is a relatively new protocol and there are a lot of technical complications surrounding it as people get to grips with how it works. Our Technical Focus brochure gives more information about DALI and how to avoid common pitfalls when using it, and our customers say the brochure has already proved a useful tool.

"The show proved to us that the

UK - Entertainment lighting supplier White Light welcomed the new year by allowing lighting designers and technicians to explore some of the new lighting technology which will shape the way they work this year and in the coming years in a friendly, informal New Technology Showcase.

The mid-January event presented the equipment in the real theatre setting of the Central School of Speech and Drama's Embassy Theatre. At different times of the afternoon, visitors were able to play 'hands on' with the products, to watch the products in action in mini-shows designed and programmed by students on Central's lighting courses, and to participate in feature-by-feature run-throughs of each product with the ability to ask to see specific actions (slow fades, colour changes), or combinations of products compared side by side.

Included in the rig were some of the latest LED lighting fixtures

Albania - Mumja Club in Tirana has undergone a refurbishment that included a new Martin lighting package of MAC 250 Beam and smartMAC moving heads.

Reopened in December of 2009, Mumja is a 600 capacity club that features DJs from all over the world and also hosts live music. The new Martin gear was supplied by Martin's Albanian distributor Prosound Shpk and also includes a Magnum 1200 fogger and a PC-based LightJockey for lighting control. Lighting design was by Armand Dosti of Prosound.

"The club wanted high quality lighting but something other than the usual moving heads, so we suggested the MAC 250 Beam which has very good aerial effects," says sales manager Kliton Gjika of Prosound. "It can also be used to highlight the live bands using the fixture's frost effect."

The 250 Beams are the first for any club in Albania and Mumja Club is happy with them.

Switzerland - Swisspor, a leading manufacturer of insulation and sealing technologies for the building and construction industry, celebrated inauguration of its new building. The launch included two gala events at the headquarters of Swisspor in Steinhausen near Lucerne.

The events were attended by approximately a 1000 people. They also included a dinner and a show by the Pepe Lienhard Orchestra.

Matthias Kern of Kernfusion Design, based in Switzerland was responsible for the lighting and media design, operation and programming. Kern used a Compulite Vector Blue and Vector motorized playback wing for the event.

At the back and to the sides of the stage were three scenic elements constructed from different Styrofoam shapes, suitable for lighting and projections. Kern used two of the DigitalSpots 7000DTs positioned each side of the stage to throw projections onto the two 15m S

Denmark - ETC's Selador Series of LED fixtures received their first major European outing at the COP15 Climate Change summit in Copenhagen in December 2009. At the end of the summit, the attending world leaders were invited to the Royal Danish Theatre for a performance of the ballet Napoli by August Bournonville.

In among the house rig of ETC Source Four Revolutions and Vari-Lite VL3500Q moving lights, lighting designer Mikki Kunttu used Selador Vivid for sidelights and cyc lighting and Selador Lustr for lighting set pieces. He comments, "When we first started planning the show lighting, we talked a lot about how to make the production as 'green' as possible. We even considered getting rid of conventional lighting completely, but this proved to be impossible. Using LED for sidelights was something new for me and they worked really well - I was very impressed.

"I was

China - Barco once again deployed its technology in bringing Chinese Central Television's annual New Year's Gala 2010 to life.

The spectacular gala event is broadcast annually on the eve of Chinese New Year by state-run China Central Television (CCTV). It is estimated that this year's show, held on 13 February, captured some 96% of the Chinese television viewing audience on the mainland and had more than 700 million-plus viewers worldwide, including large numbers of people watching the show live via the internet.

The CCTV Spring Festival Gala, which has grown into a genuine cultural phenomenon since its inception in 1982, runs more than four hours and features a colourful assortment of diverse entertainment, including pop songs, dances, crosstalk, stage comedies and drama, acrobatics and other folk arts.

For this year's show, CCTV deployed a High Definition LED

UAE - The Mubadala Development Company, sponsor of Etihad Airways' Scuderia Ferrari Formula One in Abu Dhabi, recently held its signature dinner at the Emirates Palace. The dinner was arranged inside the world's largest freestanding Dome Truss, built from Eurotruss elements. For control, lighting designer Paul Smith chose a grandMA2 system consisting of one grandMA2 full-size console and one grandMA2 light console, two MA NPUs (Network Processing Unit) and grandMA2 onPC software.

Mayar Abbas, managing director of Dubai Artistic Innovation, who delivered the lighting equipment together with InHouse Productions reports: "The grandMA2 was chosen as the lighting designer felt it was the best console for the job. The advanced programming functions were extremely useful, as well as the networking, allowing the grandMA2 light and grandMA onPC to become full tracking backup console

USA - Touring artists, production managers and lighting designers can now get a hands-on look at dozens of the newest lighting and control products from Elation Professional at Music City Lab, courtesy of Theatrical Lighting Systems (TLS, Inc.). Located in downtown Nashville, Music City Lab was started by video screen manufacturer XL Video to give industry professionals the opportunity to view cutting-edge video, lighting and audio gear to help spark their creativity in designing tours and production events.

As a lighting partner in Music City Lab, TLS created an Elation showroom at the facility, featuring some of the lighting supplier's leading products and technologies. Included are Elation's EWDMX wireless DMX control system, Impression RGB LED moving head, Platinum Spot 5R with Philips MSD 5R lamp technology, Design Beam 300 spot/wash/beam projector, and Opti Tri Par RGB LED

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