UK - Audio Light Systems were picked to deliver a package of audio, lighting and AV that would entertain and educate the students and visitors at Buckie High School in Moray.

The set-up includes 48 ways of Strand dimming. More than 30 Selecon lanterns of different types, truss and internally wired bars were designed to produce a versatile system able to tackle the most demanding of performance.

The audio system utilises QSC AD282s speakers powered by QSC amplification, which gives a clear powerful response. To finish the project off, full drapes and a cyclorama provided a theatre that any school would be proud of, says the company.

(Jim Evans)

Italy - Parla con me (talk to me) is a television show first broadcast in 2004. It is based on an idea by Serena Dandini, who hosts the programme together with comedian Dario Vergassola. It is currently shown late night on Italian state channel Rai 3. The director is Igor Skofic and set designer Maurizio Marchitelli.

The director of photography Valerio Leccese reports, "Parla con me is a weave of different genres, including television, theatre, live show, talk show, and even cinema. The scenery and lighting were therefore designed in synergy, in order to reflect this variety of styles and combine them."

The lighting equipment consists exclusively of Clay Paky lights: 14 Alpha Profile 1200s, 22 Alpha Spot HPE 575s, 22 Alpha Wash Halo 1000s and six CP Color MHs. Valerio Leccese says that he specifically asked for lights made by the Italian company because

Australia - Robe CitySkape Xtreme and CitySource 96 LED wash lights were used to illuminate the picturesque and iconic Hanging Rock, a rare volcanic formation located near the townships of Woodend & Mount Macedon in Victoria, Australia, making an already beautiful natural environmental feature into an extra special backdrop to a concert by Leonard Cohen.

Lighting for the concert - which took place on an open air stage in front of the rock face - was supplied by Melbourne & Sydney based Frontier Touring, who proposed that the rock itself became an atmospheric element of the performance as part of the event's integral lighting scheme.

For this, they needed a high powered lightsource requiring minimal power and with low environmental impact on the surrounding flora and fauna. They decided that the CitySkape Xtreme met all the criteria after a demo and coming highly recommended fo

Brazil - For his recent DVD shoot, popular artist Luan Santana played the HSBC Hall in Rio de Janeiro. The show's lighting was designed by Danny Nolan using two grandMA2 consoles, four MA 2Port Nodes on PC PRO plus two MA VPUs (Video Processing Units).

Nolan stated, "We used the latest version of grandMA2 software for the show and pre-programmed everything using grandMA 3D. Via the MA-Net2 the two MA VPUs delivered the video content to low res panels and Barco Versa TUBEs. The network and multiple consoles were the key to this big show which needed to control many elements and also run completely on timecode from start to finish. It really worked well and allowed for a cue perfect show."

The lighting rig featured, amongst others, 20 DTS XR300 Beam FARs. Polar Films and Spectrum Lighting supplied the lighting equipment. Nolan also worked as programmer and operator for

USA - Behind the Scenes, an initiative of The ESTA Foundation, announces its second annual holiday card student design contest, open to any lighting, set, video or costume full-time design student interested in creating an original design for a 2011 card.

The winner will be chosen by an all-star panel of previous holiday card designers including Bob Bonniol, Beowulf Borrit, Ed Coco, Christine Jones, Scott Pask, Bruce Rodgers, Douglas Schmidt, and Tim Hunter Design. The winner's design will be among the cards offered for sale to raise money for Behind the Scenes, which provides financial assistance to entertainment technology professionals who are seriously ill or injured.

The winner will also receive a free pass to a Live Design Master Class in lighting, sound, or projection (winner's choice) to be held in May in New York City.

"This is an incredible opportunity for stu

USA - Chauvet reports the installation of 100 fixtures inside Bing Bar, an exclusive Microsoft-sponsored lounge in the historic Claim Jumper Hotel, during this year's Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. The festival takes place annually as part of the programmes offered by Sundance Institute, established in 1981 by Robert Redford and his colleagues.

All but four of the Chauvet fixtures were LED-fitted and specified by dealer Justin Chatterton, owner of The Beat of Time located in Clinton, Utah. Bing, the decision engine from Microsoft, created an invitation-only lounge for exclusive film premiere after-parties, happy hours, press junkets and musical performances by the likes of Snoop Dogg, Lil Jon and Janelle Monae.

Inside Bing Bar, every corner and wall were washed orange and blue - the colours of Bing - with COLORdash PAR and COLORstrip wash lights. The Jack Daniels-s

UK - Status Quo lighting designer Pat Marks and production manager Glen Smith continued their long-standing relationship with Bandit in 2010 as the group toured the UK and Europe.

Marks patented lighting system for 2010 included ACL's, 8 lights, PARs and Source 4 Lekos, Martin MAC 2000 Washes, Clay Paky Alpha Beams, Atomic Strobes, LED PARs and a full on LED screen, all provided by Bandit. Marks worked his magic with the grandMA console speaking to Catalyst Media Servers.

Crew chief Ian 'Mac' MacEwan, technician Tom Crosby and video technician Alain Demy kept the system on the road throughout 2010. Bandit C.E. Lester Cobrin is especially proud of Status Quo and loves working with such a well-oiled, professional machine. "Bandit and Quo are both experienced road veterans, and the marriage is a great one" says Cobrin.

(Jim Evans)

Qatar - PR Lighting fixtures featured heavily in two high profile, but completely diverse events in Qatar recently.

December proved a busy month as nearly 150 of the Chinese manufacturer's flagship products were deployed by local distributors, TechnoPro LLC (Qatar) for the 2nd World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) in Doha.

The three-day event, which was officially opened by His Excellency Sheikh Abdulla bin Ali Al-Thani, Chairman of WISE, in the presence of Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation, was attended by over 1,000 delegates from different countries.

Auditiore designed and managed the production, which was held in eight different ballrooms within the Sheraton Resort and Convention Hotel. They, in turn, tasked TechnoPro with providing a complete technical infrastructure, including audio, light, and video equipment.

The co

Robert Juliat has announced a further addition to its international family of dealers with the appointment of Lighting Bits Ltda of Brazil. Operating out of Sao Paulo and headed by Daniel Ridano, Lighting Bits Ltda will be exclusively responsible for Robert Juliat products across Brazil, and non-exclusively across the wider Latin American market.

"The quality and reliability of Robert Juliat fixtures is unique," states Ridano. "Robert Juliat is a dream product in any project where quality is a must. In addition to this, the technical and project support offered by the Robert Juliat team is superb."

Lighting Bits exhibited Robert Juliat fixtures - Cyrano 2500W HMI, Victor 1800W MSR and Buxie 575W MSD followspots and the full range of RJ zoom profile spots - for the first time in September 2010 at the Lighting Week trade fair in Sao Paulo. "The response was fan

UK - White Light has seen 2011 get off to a busy start, with the company supplying the lighting rigs to major new productions not just in the UK but as far afield as South Africa.

The show travelling south is Dreamgirls, the production which opened recently at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem before touring the USA is now moving to the Teatro at Montecasino in Johannesburg before travelling on to Cape Town. Directed and choreographed by Robert Longbottom and designed by Robin Wagner, the show features lighting by Ken Billington, with whom White Light has enjoyed many collaborations since supplying the London production of Chicago in 1997 - a show the company continues to supply to this day.

Dreamgirls' production electrician Gerry Amies is currently putting the rig together at White Light's London base. It will ship from there to South Africa in time for th

UK - West London-based rental company Entec is supplying lighting designer Mark Wood with a lighting package and video projection package for his tour with Marina & The Diamonds, currently enjoying the success of her debut album, The Family Jewels.

The lighting rig consists of a set of six Clay Paky Alpha Spot HPE 300 moving lights, which are mounted on different height cases and on the drum riser across the back of the stage.

In front of these are four scaff poles approximately 8ft high, onto which are mounted four PixelLine LED battens, covered with two different grades of diffusion filter. These are pixel mapped and also have video run through them.

Four half mirror balls are dotted around the stage - in a randomly organised fashion - used during the grand finale of Guilty, so when they are hit by a number of narrow beamed fixtures from the floor and the air

India - The country's first permanent full moving image son et lumière - ISHQ-e-DILLI - The Love of Delhi, installed at Purana Quila, a 16th century fort founded by Mughal Emperor Humayun in 1533 - was officially opened by India's Vice President, Shri M Hamid Ansari.

Ross Ashton's UK-based The Projection Studio were technical, design and installation consultants for the projection hardware and control elements, and for the creation of the project's show material. Ashton collaborated closely with ISHQ-e-DILLI's creative director and initiator Himanshu Sabharwal of Delhi-based Two's A Film Company.

Ashton specified the first Christie 20K video projectors used in India for a son et lumière application, which are controlled by a Watchout system. The three projectors are housed in special hides and create an image 50m wide by 20m tall on the building. A major tec

Italy - Organisers of the Italian professional entertainment technology exhibition ShowWay have announced that the long-awaited second edition of the event will take place in Bergamo, Italy, from 15 to 17 May 2011.

Having put the show on ice last year, allowing its exhibitors to "concentrate their efforts on optimising their businesses during the peak of the world recession," organisers feel the time is right for a recovery-boosting show.The show will follow the same format as the successful 2008 debut event, which saw 65 exhibiting companies attend - 60% coming from outside Italy - and 6,783 visitors from 35 nations.

APIAS, the Italian association of manufacturers and importers of equipment for the entertainment industry, which represents some of the most important and distinguished firms in the trade in Italy, confirms its utmost commitment to working together with

USA - Grammy award-winning country music duo Naomi and Wynonna Judd bid their fans a final farewell on an 18-city tour that saw the reunited mother-daughter act performing beneath a large rig that included 17 Martin MAC III Profiles, 22 MAC 2000 Wash XBs, and 20 MAC 700 Wash fixtures, among other automated luminaires, all provided by Upstaging.

Production designer John Featherstone of Lightswitch turned to a classic design, one that reflected the duo's 1980s popularity, yet with updated contemporary elements. The design also fulfilled The Judds' wish to create an intimate setting suitable for more personal narrative, despite the fact the tour played in large venues.

Featherstone's design for The Last Encore tour consisted of curved trusses lined with MAC III Profiles, MAC 2000 Wash XBs and other automateds, with MAC 700 Washes mounted on an array of vertical trusses. A

Qatar - Pearce Hire has been awarded a new contract by QMDI to supply all of the temporary event power for the VIP opening of the Georgetown University School of Foreign Services in Qatar.

Managing director Shaun Pearce will spend a week at Education City, Qatar this February 2010 installing four event generators (2 x 500KVA and 2 x 100 KVA) along with electrical distribution throughout the venue. The temporary power installation will supply outdoor architectural lighting, along with projection, lighting and audio inside the main auditorium and associated conference rooms.

The event's production manager John Adkins brought in Pearce Hire for their "consistently high standard of work and impeccable safety procedures".

"We are proud to be entrusted to supply the event power for this prestigious occasion," says Shaun Pearce. " Pearce Hire is developing

USA - As 2011 begins to take shape, Bandit Lites reports that it has made several strategic investments on a global basis to further the push into GRN technology and to provide their clients with leading edge services. Total expenditures were over five million dollars, says the company.

On the control side of things, Bandit has purchased a large quantity of FPS Road Hog and Full Boar consoles. From the Martin side of things Bandit has purchased several of the new M 1 consoles. Another new addition is the Martin MAC 2000 Beam kit.

Moving into the GRN area, Bandit has double the inventory of GRNLite fixtures from last year. These additions include GRN PAR 3-36, GRN Batten 3-54, GRN Wash 3-36, GRN Moving Wash 3-120 and the newly redesigned GRN 8 Lights 3-96 with RGBW. All fixtures feature 3 watt LEDs and are among the brightest fixtures in the industry.

Finally, Bandit has comm

UK - The fourth Strictly Come Dancing The Live Tour is currently entertaining capacity audiences around UK arenas with lighting designed by Mark Kenyon and run on a grandMA2 control package.

The rig includes over 170 moving light sources plus hundreds of generics and scenic LED sources. The grandMA2 light console - with another grandMA2 light running in full tracking backup - was specified and programmed for the tour by David Bishop, and is being operated on the road by Mike Rothwell.

Kenyon also designs lighting for the popular BBC television series, and Bishop has been involved in programming all the tours to date as have lighting and sound contractors, Sonalyst based in Wales.

The grandMA consoles have been involved from the early days of the Strictly live touring phenomenon, initially with a Series 1 system replacing the original control set up. This was chosen by

Russia - Moscow-based lighting rental company Light Logic supplied Robe LEDWash 600 and ColorWash 1200 moving lights for the Orthodox Christmas Ceremonial Service held at the Cathedral of Christ The Saviour in Moscow on 7 January. People queued all day for the chance to join the service, which was attended by President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev, and broadcast live by leading TV station Channel One Russia to approximately 140m people nationwide.

Lighting for this high profile event was designed by Light Logic's Dmitry Velikanov, who took the opportunity to utilise some of their newly purchased Robin LEDWash 600 fixtures, along with the workhorse ColorWash 1200E ATs.

Just in time for their busy festive schedule, the company took delivery of 50 LEDWash 600s from Russian distributor, Sofitlight.

The Robes were positioned all around the second level galleries of

USA - After nearly 60 years in the same building, Orlando's Edgewater High School's roof and walls were crumbling. A massive chunk of the school's auditorium ceiling had actually caved in. So in January 2011, Edgewater's students made a long-overdue move to a new $83m building, designed by CT Hsu + Associates (Orlando), on a sprawling 45-acre campus adjacent to the original school. A sharp contrast to the antiquated structure it vacated, Edgewater's new facility encompasses 345,000sq.ft of space and is loaded with modern technology, including a full TV production studio and soundproof practice areas for the band.

Edgewater's 400-seat theatre is outfitted with LED fixtures and DMX moving heads from Elation Professional, which are operated wirelessly via Elation EWDMX wireless DMX transmitters and receivers. The lighting system, which includes some 170 fixtures, was sold and insta

Finland - Martin Professional Scandinavia has appointed Finnish company Studiotec as its new distributor in Finland. Effective 1 February 2011, Studiotec will serve as the exclusive representative of Martin Professional products across the country.

Located just outside Helsinki in the city of Espoo, and founded 30 years ago, Studiotec is one of Finland's leading distributors of lighting and sound equipment to the entertainment industry.

"We are pleased to have Studiotec as our new representative in Finland," commented Jonas Stenvinkel, head sales manager at Martin Scandinavia. "Studiotec is a well-established company in this industry and is devoted to supplying the highest quality lighting equipment available. We are confident that they will provide a solid partnership for Martin in Finland."

Studiotec CEO Peter Stråhlman added, "We are thrilled to

World - PLASA is pleased to announce the launch of its Facebook pages. Visitors to PLASA Focus, The PLASA Show, members of PLASA and anyone interested in the industry can join (or "like") the Facebook pages from today.

Members of the pages will be the first to find out about industry news, PLASA news and show news and content Plus, PLASA 2011 is offering the first 1000 members the chance to win a pair of Sennheiser HD 380 Pro collapsible high end headphones! To be in with a chance of winning all you have to do is "like" the PLASA 2011 page, then a winner will be picked at random.

To view the PLASA Facebook page, click here.

For the PLASA Focus page,

UK - Bandit Lites was lighting vendor for Squeeze's 2010 tour dates. Production manager Steve Martin and lighting designer Daniel Bocking worked with Bandit C.E. Lester Cobrin in 2010 to assure the quality of the lighting was "the highest possible".

Bocking chose VL 3000 spots, VL 3500 washes, Clay Paky Alpha Beam's, Thomas Pixellines, PARs, 4 lights, 8 lights and the usual array of support equipment to paint the visual pictures that Squeeze vocalize about. Video screens in the rear featured historical band footage as Bocking crafted the show on a FPS Full Boar console speaking to a Catalyst Media System.

(Jim Evans)

Germany - Newly purchased Robe Robin LEDWash 600 moving lights were one of the attractions for the seventh Circus Roncalli Christmas season, staged at the Tempodrom Möckernstraße, Berlin. The venue becomes one of the largest circus arenas in Europe for the 17-date run of seasonal performances by the famous German circus in a show directed by Paul Bernhard.

The Circus already owns its own lighting equipment including eight Robe ColorWash 575E AT Zooms and eight ColorSpot 700E ATs which were purchased earlier in 2010 from Robe's Germany distributor LMP.

Robe was specified by the Circus's lighting designer Markus Weitkamp and the fixtures integrated into their ongoing touring show. For the Festive Season shows in Berlin, he wanted some additional magic in the lightshow, so checked out the LEDWash 600s. Almost immediately after the demo from LMP, he took the decision to purchase

Brazil - W-DMX from Wireless Solution Sweden made Christmas a colourful event for the Caixa Econômica Federal Bank in Brazil during a special installation running 10 December, 2010 through 10 January, 2011.

The challenge: to send a reliable DMX signal to three different buildings at a distance of more than 300m. The solution: Two W-DMX BlackBox S-1 transmitters, one BlackBox R-512 receiver and one BlackBox Micro. The lighting installation included 24 Martin MAC 2000 Beam XB, eight PR Lighting XL 700 Spot, 32 PR Lighting Design 150, 3200 Micro Strobes, 64 Canais DMX dimmers, 24 Martin 3000 Atomic Strobes, 24 PAR 64 #1 and four Fine Art Outdoor Moving V2033 4K fixtures. The lighting rig was supplied by Veritas from Sao Paulo.

Lighting Bits, the Wireless Solution distributor for Brazil based in Sao Paulo, supplied all W-DMX equipment. Daniel Ridano of Lighting Bits said, "T

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