France - The Tree Rings installation on the Champs-Elysées in Paris sees 200 trees each encircled by three specially created rings of LED lighting that add drama, movement and colour to the natural organic form of the tree.

In daylight hours, the inner lights of each ring emit a soft glow of light, and mirror garlands sparkle as they move freely in the breeze. At dusk, vibrant programmed displays begin, using both the inner and outer lights, continuing until 2am. The entire scheme is programmable to create vastly different effects; precise shifts in colour and tempo can be created, to focus on one tree or to create a sequence or group effect, with over 80,000 000 possible combinations of effects per tree.

The Tree Rings installation is scalable, from a lighting effect on individual tree to the orchestration of a light show involving every tree along the entire avenue. C

Czech Republic - Wireless Solution Sweden AB was a sponsor for the recent Scenofest event in Prague. Scenofest is the educational project of OISTAT (International Organization of Scenographers, Theatre Architects and Technicians) and the Prague Quadrennial.

Scenofest, which was held during the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space, included workshops in a wide variety of artistic disciplines; more than 70 artists and professional leaders from all over the world; and more than 1500 participants ? both students and professionals from across the globe.

Visitors to the Prague Quadrennial had the opportunity to enjoy the performances entitled Six Acts transforming locations around the city of Prague into spaces for site-specific performances and installations realized by students under the leaderships of Pavel Štoura?, Roma Patel, Louise Ann Wilson, Rolf Abderh

World - The Red Hot Chili Peppers have embarked on an epic World Tour with four grandMA full-size and a large complement of Clay Paky Sharpy lighting fixtures accompanying the band. The tour comes on the heels of the release of the band's tenth studio album, I'm With You.

Premier Global Production, which serviced the band for their last world tour, has returned as the lighting vendor for the new tour working with lighting designer Scott Holthaus.

Holthaus uses four grandMA full-size, one running video from Catalyst and D3 servers and the other running lighting, two grandMA full-size are back-up. "They are wonderful, powerful machines - I used the grandMA on every tour and they always work great, never a problem," he says. "Of the 275 shows I did on the last tour, I only went to our spare desk once."

He praises the grandMA's "sound operating sy

UK - Ross Ashton and The Projection Studio's Crown of Light projected artwork on Durham Cathedral- created for the 2009 Lumière - is back by popular demand for this year's four-day festival of light event, which is curated and produced by Artichoke for Durham City Council.

Lumière 2011 features the work of dozens of artists, lighting designers and community groups in 35 installations, bringing a "sparkle of magic" to the medieval city.

Says Ashton, "It's a real testament to the piece and very flattering to be asked back with the same show. It's also extremely rare for the same creation to be requested again in its entirety, offering those who enjoyed the experience the first time around the chance to do so again, a new audience the opportunity to see it for the first time plus real value for the producers."

(Jim Evans)

UK -The Buddah Lounge in Romford has been transformed into a vibrant nightclub. Brett Newton of Pro Effects installed 20 Chauvet fixtures to update the once drab location. Eight MiN Spot RGBW moving heads and four Intimidator Scan LED 200 scanners add energy and movement. Two Circus fill the dance floor with multi-coloured effects, piercing the fog generated by two Hurricane 1800 Flex foggers. SlimPAR 56 wash the stage in saturated hues.

Newton faced challenges often found in smaller clubs-low ceilings, which meant little head room for truss and lighting fixtures that are easily touched-as well as a tight budget. He divided the intimate space into four zones, placing two MiN Spot RGBW movers in each. To fill some awkward corners just off the dance floor, Newton utilized four Intimidator Scan LED 200 scanners. The compactness of these fixtures allowed them to remain discreet and

Denmark - The provincial city of Herning in the heart of Denmark's Jutland peninsula is home to Jyske Bank Boxen, which, since opening in 2010, has become one of the country's premiere venues for concerts and events. The 15,000 capacity 'Boxen,' Denmark's largest indoor arena, opened with a Lady Gaga show in October of 2010 and hasn't looked back.

A steady stream of national and international stars has added Herning to their touring schedules. Seeking to support the wide variety of performances and special events, arena owners Messe Center Herning A/S (MCH) contacted Martin Professional Scandinavia about a new night-time lighting design.

"The whole idea was to create an arena of international status and capacity and MCH wanted a lighting scheme that would express this while creating a landmark for the entire region," states Anders Birch, sales manager at Martin Profe

In Harmony - The UK government has announced its first ever national plan for music education in response to Classic FM managing director Darren Henley's review of the sector. Henley's review, published earlier this year, made 36 recommendations for the minimum expectations of what any child going through the English school system should receive in terms of an education in music. One such recommendation was that there should be a comprehensive national plan for music education.

Launching the scheme, Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove claimed it "will deliver a music education system that encourages everyone, whatever their background, to enjoy music and help those with real talent to flourish as brilliant musicians" while culture minister Ed Vaizey said that the new resources would help "provide our fantastic creative industries with the next generation

UK - The website for the unique event that is Showlight 2013 has gone live. Whether you are a Showlight virgin, or a regular attendee, this is the ideal place to learn more about this three day quadrennial conference and exhibition, say organisers.

"For the first time, the website contains edited highlights of previous papers, capturing both the serious and the humorous side of Showlight. The clips bring the 2009 event to life for those who didn't attend - and are a great reminder of some excellent presentations for those who did. So, if you've thought about presenting a paper at Showlight, but weren't sure how it all worked, now you can see exactly what others have done!"

If you have an idea for a paper, you can register your interest at www.showlight.org/present If you are interested in being an exhibitor at Showlight 2013 and would like to know more, go directly t

USA - Registration is now open for Focus: Tech, the live event production workshop running alongside PLASA Focus: Austin 2012, at the Renaissance Austin, on February 19-22 2012.

The 4 day hands-on workshop offers a limited number of aspiring lighting designers, sound engineers, and video designers the chance to design and run a live concert, which will be performed in front of Austin's entertainment technology community, at PLASA's first North American regional event.

Beginners and professionals at the early stages of their careers are invited to take part in the event, which will see industry experts Richard Cadena, Brad Schiller, Chad Yeary, and Damon Lang pass on their tips and tricks for success to Texas' new talent, with prizes for the best designs.

Eminent production manager Ola Melzig, who's accolades include the Eurovision Song Contest, will be production-managing th

Indonesia - LumenRadio's wireless CRMX technology played a major part during the opening ceremony of the 26th biennial South East Asian Games (SEA Games) held in Jakarta and Palembang, Indonesia. The games featured athletes from 11 nations competing in almost 600 hundred events in 44 disciplines ranging from well known international sports such as football, cycling, and tennis to regional favorites like Pencak Silat, Sepak Takraw, Vovinam, and Wushu.

The opening ceremony at the Gelora Sriwijaya stadium in Palembang on 11-11-11, the date chosen for its special numerical sequence, was held in front of more than 40,000 spectators in addition to the hundreds of millions viewing the live broadcast. The official presentation of the athletes and speeches by government officials and other dignitaries were accompanied by extensive segments of lively entertainment designed to display the

Germany - Theatre Bonn, a large repertory venue in the former German capital, has taken delivery of 50 of ETC's newest LED fixture - Selador Desire - and 10 Selador Classic Lustr LED units as part of a massive refurbishment project.

The fixtures complement around 900 fluorescent fixtures in various sizes and colours; 900 PAR cans; 70 moving lights, 50 HMIs with shutters and scrollers.

Max Karbe, head of lighting at the theatre, explains,"The first time we worked with Selador products was for the Brazilian contemporary dance company Grupo Corpo. They brought a large number of Lustr fixtures with them; we could see that they worked really well, and were really impressed. We had already decided that we wanted a high output, energy efficient LED fixture for our rig.

"Ludwig Krauss, ETC's regional sales manager for the German speaking area, arranged for us to test 10 Se

Czech Republic - Two of the Czech and Slovak Republic's most talented visual creators - director of photography Philip Havelka and lighting designer Martin Kubanka are collaborating closely to produce a dynamic visuality for Barrendov TV's newest popular live music production, To Je Nas Hit (What is My Hit).

Robe moving lights are the main fixtures being utilised - including Robin 600 LEDWash units - which along with over 100 other new Robe fixtures are among the latest Robe investment by Bratislava, Slovakia based rental company Q-99, which is supplying all the show's lighting, scenic LED and video elements.

The show is broadcast live every Monday night from Studio 2 of the Barrandov Complex in Prague. This is one of the largest film studios in Europe and also one of the oldest and most famous, dating back to 1933.

(Jim Evans)

UK - SGM automated lighting and new generation strobes have been used exclusively to provide the high octane dancefloor effects in a new five-storey leisure complex in Lincoln.

Operating under the 'Home' umbrella, the new complex boasts six different trading themes (and two outside smoking areas) - starting with The Lounge Bar & Kitchen, a ground floor restaurant / bar with all-day trading. But it is on the second floor - in the space which originally served as a NAAFI Ballroom - that six SGM Idea Scan 250, four Idea Beam 300 and six Idea Wash 575 heads have been imaginatively designed into the overhead rig by SGM UK's Ian Kirby and installed by Over Audio of Liverpool.

These are joined by four of the new SGM X-5 LED strobes about which resident LD Richard Whiteley comments, "I couldn't wait to get my hands on these - and I can see what all the fuss has been about. This p

UK - Entertainment lighting specialist White Light recently welcomed two new companies to the White Light Family of exclusive manufacturers - Core Lighting and Interactive Technologies.

Core Lighting manufactures a range of fully weatherproof, battery-powered, wirelessly controllable LED uplighters designed to allow rapid deployment by removing the need to run cables to fixtures, as well as removing the ugly clutter and safety hazards of those cables.

Core's fixtures range from 1200 lumen to 2500 lumen output using efficient LED light sources - either red-green-blue-white for a vibrant range of colours, or white only when the maximum possible light output is required. The fixtures use lightweight but powerful lithium polymer batteries and integrate wireless control with Wirelesss Solution W-DMX systems; water resistant to IP65standard, they are suitable for parties, weddings,

UK - Blitz is sponsoring the UK Event Awards, to be held at Wembley Stadium tonight (30 November). The awards are now in their second year and aim to recognise and reward the very best event organisers, industry suppliers and event marketers in Britain.

On the night, guests will also try and break the Guinness World Record for The World's Longest Relay Cheers!

Blitz is supplying all the event technology including sound and lighting, G-LEC LED wall, and ViewLite modular set system complete with custom graphics panels.

Munir Samji, Chairman at Blitz, commented, "As one of the UK's leading Staging and AV Rental Companies, we feel that recognising and celebrating excellence in our industry is important and we are proud to be sponsoring the UK Events Awards. It looks set to be a great and fun-filled evening."

(Jim Evans)

Czech Republic - When the Czech hard rock band Kabát toured to promote its latest studio album Banditi di Praga, the band continued their long association with Clay Paky and used the Alpha Beam 1500 and Alpha Spot HPE 1200. The rock show was built around a 360-degree circular stage, which toured the Czech and Slovak republics.

The centerpiece of the stage was a massive industrial chandelier constructed from 192 par cans. Positioned around the edge of the circular stage were 15 Alpha Beam 1500s dispersing massive beams of light like spokes from the hub of a wheel. Also part of the rig were 20 Alpha Spot 1200s, while Shadow 1200 long-throw followspots were used to track the band on stage.

Lighting designer Petr 'Panki' Volek from Prague-based production company Pink Panther has been with the band for 12 years and knows their requirements. He explains the reasons why the

UK - London-based hire company, Neg Earth included Robert Juliat spots in its inventory of lighting equipment on a number of large-scale musical events across Europe this year.

Take That's well publicised Progress Live Tour, designed by Es Devlin and Kim Gavin, spent two months on the road with no less than 10 Robert Juliat Lancelot followspots. Specified by lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe, the 4kW HTI Lancelots were chosen for their ability to handle the size of the stadiums and the long throw distances involved.

Two more Lancelots from the Neg Earth stock accompanied George Michael's Symphonica: The Orchestral Tour on 45 shows across 35 European cities before Michael's severe illness forced the cancellation of this year's remaining dates. Designed by Bas Halpin and Ken Watt, the tour included songs from George Michael's 30-year career, re-worked and re-arra

Poland - At the Musical Theatre in Gdynia, where the hit musical Shrek recently opened, green is much more than just the colour of the lovable ogre's skin. It's where Philips Selecon's distributor for Poland, TEATR, completed Europe's largest permanent installation of Philips Selecon energy efficient, high output PL3 LED luminaires.

The triple light engine PL3s have been installed specifically for the Broadway production of Shrek, which premiered at the Musical Theatre on 8t October 2011. These were complemented by a number of Vari-lite VLX LED fixtures (the moving head version) for LD Peter Kuchta's recreation of Hugh Vanstone's original lighting design.

Kuchta used the PL3s and the VLXs for a number of effects as he explains, "The fixtures were used as the sidelight and overhead washes. I'm in love with these fixtures; they are now replacing standard halog

UK - The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh has recently completed the upgrade of the historic Great Hall. RCPE called in Audio Light Systems as they could provide audio, lighting & AV all from under the same roof. The brief was to install lighting, system control & audio in extremely sensitive surroundings.

The audio system is primarily for conference work, but is also used for foreground music at functions. QSC Acoustic Design speakers were installed as they are compact in size while still being horn loaded. The Acoustic Design subs were also discretely installed in existing wall cavities.

A Crestron processor is controlled wirelessly with an iPad or iPod, which gives user flexibility while also giving a great library of music. The Crestron processor controls the iLight lighting & QSC audio system (via an Allen & Heath DSP) using both presets and individual channel con

Russia - Summer 2011 has seen the rise of the new Green Centre in the city of Orël in Russia, a multi-purpose building that aims to be a major point of congregation for the city.

The structure is designed to accommodate sporting events, concerts, exhibitions and theatrical performances. Therefore the lighting had to be versatile to adapt to different types of events.

The technical requirements of the client regarding the lighting design, foresaw several important points that had to be met. The choice of equipment was carried out through a careful selection, comparing various brands of projectors, made available by the Russian retailers.

The choice fell upon Coemar products, including 20 Infinity Wash XL 1400W, with zoom range from 5° to 84°, to ensure a uniform illumination throughout the hall; 12 Infinity Spot M, which scored the highest in the weight, compactness

USA - At this year's LDI, TMB's exclusive North American distribution of Schnick Schnack Systems was formally confirmed, with the two companies' CEOs shaking hands over their signed distribution agreement. TMB will offer the entire range of Schnick Schnack Systems' products plus full technical support.

Coinciding with Schnick Schnack Systems' North American TV debut on Season 13 of ABC's Dancing with the Stars, the agreement ensures that American designers and installers will have full access to, and expert 24/7 support, for one of Europe's most popular LED accent lighting systems.

"We are very happy to have TMB as our distribution partner," says Erhard Lehmann, CEO of Schnick Schnack Systems GmbH. "Their team has considerable expertise and shares the same customer driven philosophy. We both expect our unique and user-friendly LED systems to be well recei

USA - Upstaging supplied a large Martin Professional MAC rig for the summer US leg of Def Leppard's current Mirrorball tour, a classic rock 'n roll rig that included MAC 2000 Wash XB, MAC 2000 Beam XB and MAC III Profile moving heads along with MAC 101 LED fixtures.

Lighting designer and lighting op for the tour worldwide is Kenji Ohashi. He stated, "I have used Martin products a lot and they are very trustworthy. That is why I chose Martin. The Martin equipment I used on this tour was all new to me but it all worked well and I was very satisfied. Particularly the MAC 101 worked great and reflected marvellously in my lighting design."

Ohashi's design incorporated 50 of Martin's compact MAC 101 wash lights, 36 of which were mounted on 12 ladders behind upstage screens with 14 on band risers. "They were a big boost for my lighting design for this tour,"

UK - The Theatres Trust, The National Advisory Public Body for Theatres, has announced its sixth annual conference, 'Delivering Sustainable Theatres' - on the challenge of achieving the triple bottom line.

Taking place on 12 June 2012 at Stratford Circus, next to the Olympic Park in East London, the Conference will explore how theatre buildings are managing their building's resources and addressing their future sustainability. The Conference takes place the day before the ABTT Theatre Show, allowing attendees and sponsors to take full advantage of these two London events.

The Conference will address the question of 'Delivering Sustainable Theatres' looking at how theatres are addressing the sustainability agenda in these rapidly changing times, and how they are providing a catalyst for social and economic recovery in the communities they serve. Conference speakers, sponsors an

USA - Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures are gaining in popularity in the USA with extensive exposure on Simon Cowell's music talent show The X Factor as well as the recent MTV Video Music Awards (VMA) telecast.

Sharpy is currently on tour with Usher, the Foo Fighters, Peter Gabriel, Keith Urban, Gretchen Wilson, Bruno Mars and others. Now, Sharpy is being recognized by the TV production community for its small footprint, fast response and laser-like beam.

The much-anticipated X Factor, whose franchise originated in the UK, marks the return of Simon Cowell who created the high-stakes singing competition's format and is one of four judges who each mentor a finalist in a particular category while judging contestants in the other categories.

Lighting designer Tom Kenny travelled with lighting director Brian Klunder and programmer Dirk Optende as the new show made talent st

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