USA - Three new sessions have been added to the PLASA Focus: Orlando 2013 Professional Development Programme, a two-day program of free educational seminars and workshops running alongside PLASA Focus: Orlando, at the Wyndham Orlando Resort, on 15-16 May, 2013.

In Innovation in Disney Entertainment: Technology Meets Storytelling, Matt Conover, vice president at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Creative Entertainment, explains how at Disney Parks Creative Entertainment the story is the foundation to every show. No matter what techniques are used - from cutting-edge high-tech to interactive high touch - everything that Disney Guests experience helps to immerse them in the many worlds brought to life by Disney's classic stories. In this session Conover will discuss the challenges of creating and utilizing the most advanced technologies and equipment without losing sight of the

Eurovision Update - Bonnie Tyler has been confirmed as the UK representative at the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest. The 61-year-old, best known for her 1983 hit Total Eclipse of the Heart, said she was "honoured" to be asked. "I promise to give this everything that I've got for the UK!" she said in a statement.

Tyler will be performing the song, Believe in Me, in front of an estimated 120m viewers in Malmo, Sweden, on 18 May. "I am truly honoured and delighted to be able to represent my country at Eurovision, and especially with such a fabulous song," said Tyler. The UK entry for the 58th Eurovision Song Contest was written by American songwriter Desmond Child with British songwriters Lauren Christy and Christopher Braide.

WWF Earth Hour - For the third consecutive year, on 23 March 2013 at 8.30pm, Birmingham Hippodrome will onc

UK - The PLASA Show, a driving force in the development and promotion of the professional entertainment technology industry for over 35 years, is preparing to launch the most important edition in the show's history this Friday 15th March 2013. Taking place at Excel London for the first time this year, the show will open under its new name PLASA London 2013, in its new dateline of the 6-9 October.

PLASA CEO Matthew Griffiths explains; "PLASA London 2013 reflects a new focus on international visitors, which is the number one reason we moved to Excel. Excel London is just five minutes from London City Airport, which handles 350 flights per day from over 40 international destinations. London is already the best connected City in the world and this October, PLASA London 2013 will take place in one of the best connected venues in the world, and that's a fact."

With seven o

UK - Lighting and visuals rental company HSL is supplying all lighting equipment to the current series of the Googoosh Music Academy, which features a spectacular lighting design by Steffan Jones.

The show, produced by Manoto TV is recorded in Capital Studios, Wandsworth, south London and broadcast on primetime via the Marjan Television Network. It is a massively popular voice competition - Up to 1.3m public votes have been cast per show - inspired by Iranian pop superstar Googoosh, who is also one of the three judges. The judges act as mentors for the ten finalists appearing in the TV series, all aspiring Iranian singers selected from hundreds of hopefuls.

Simon Stuart and Sean McGlone are project managing for HSL. Stuart comments, "We are really happy to be working with Steff again who is one of the rising young talents of our industry. His designs are always fre

UK - Olivier and Tony Award winning lighting designer Mark Henderson has chosen to use Clay Paky Sharpys to deliver his exciting 'concert performance' lighting for the glittering stage production of The Bodyguard, at the Adelphi Theatre on London's Strand.

Based on the original film, made famous by actress and pop diva Witney Houston, the stage version stars Heather Headley who has garnered rave reviews for her interpretation of theatre and music star Rachel Marron.

The stage show combines theatrical dialogue scenes with spectacular 'in concert' drama and 'film award ceremony' glitter. In response Henderson has designed a hybrid theatre / 'in concert' rig in what proved to be a limited amount of space.

Taking up much of the hanging real estate is Tim Hatley's inspired set, which comprises a series of sliders that open and close on all planes. These are used to create

Finland - LumenRadio's wireless CRMX products was for the second year in a row used in not only one, but three new lighting projects called Little Spirits, Emergence and Pink Caravan during the city event Lux Helsinki.

Lux Helsinki is organized by City of Helsinki and LumenRadio's Finnish distributor Sun Effects are responsible for the whole technical production. The event consists of a cluster of unique lighting installations ranging from the spectacle to minimalistic realizations as well as a number of fire circus performances in the centreof the Finnish capital. Energy efficiency and sustainability is a major theme and designers are also encouraged to utilize new and innovate technologies to catch the attention of the public.

Little Spirits was designed by Twinsen Ho from Hong Kong who created a beautiful architectural lighting on an old stone vi

USA - As interest in and demand for ArcSystem trends steeply upwards in North America, GDS in conjunction with exclusive US distributor ACT Lighting, has created a network of authorised dealers who have received specialist training in relation to the products. The Authorised ArcSystem Integrator Programme (AAI) is designed to ensure easier and more widespread regional access to the ArcSystem range, as well us underpinning that access with project support and advice.

In addition to its stockholding, each AAI has demonstration product as well as an in-house projects and installations team. By virtue of its specialist training, therefore, the AAI can consult, supply, install and commission the world's most advanced LED house-lighting system at a local level.

ArcSystem is a range of auditorium LED lighting fixtures that are truly dimmable from 0% to 100% using the wireless ARC Mes

Lithuania - W-DMX by Wireless Solution Sweden was recently used on the Baltic leg of the British rock band Smokie as part of their 2012 tour. The band appeared in Latvia and Lithuania, with Lithuanian based SSGPRO company delivering all lighting, sound, trussing and rigging. The production toured Riga, Latvia and four dates in Lithuania including Vilnius, Klaipeda, Kaunas and Siauliai.

For lighting, SSGPRO used 2 W-DMX F-1 G4 MK2 transceivers and 2 R-512 receivers with 5db antennas to secure a rock solid signal to 12 Vari*Lite VL2202 and 12 Vari*Lite VL2416 fixtures, plus 10 American Pro LED wash, 12 Chauvet Colorado LED par, 16 ACL par and 7 Blinders. Control came from a grandMA2 Lite console. Lighting designer was Gintas Valuntonis.

Viktoras Martusevicius, owner of SSGPRO says, "We didn't have any problems with the W-DMX. It's easy. In this tour we used 2 DMX lines, so

UK - Smoke Factory UK, the London based distributor, is exhibiting at Plasa Focus Leeds (30 April - 1 May 2013) for the second time after a very successful show in 2012. Alongside the full range of Smoke Factory haze and fog machines will be the Kandolite LED range.

The Smoke Factory range will feature the ever dependable Tourhazer 2, the original industry standard for haze machines. Alongside will be the CaptainD, Data2, Scotty2, Spaceball2 and the rest of the Smoke Factory range. Manufactured in Hannover, these machines all have a two year warranty and have been tested by the rigorous VBG (Institute for Statutory Accident Insurance and Prevention) in Germany.

Also on show is the Kandolite range of LED fixtures. These Chinese manufactured units have been built to rigorous European specifications and to a high build quality. On view will be a 4-in-1, LED 8W Par fixture, IP67-r

USA - Described as an "evangelical Christian megachurch" Saddleback Church in Southern California embraces high production values to reinforce its services.

Looking to remain at the cutting edge via an architectural makeover late last year, they took delivery of a quantity of Spot One and Wash One LED moving head fixtures from GLP - commissioned by the then lighting director, Jon Griffin.

GLP Inc president, Mark Ravenhill, recalls: "Jon contacted us about the fixtures when they were planning a lighting upgrade to their main stage - replacing the existing discharge lights they had been running for many years. He had heard about the Spot One and could instantly see the potential of it for Saddleback."

The main sanctuary at their 3,000-seat Worship Centre in Lake Forest has long glass walls down each side and by conducting the demo at the peak of the day in

UK - Ready Steady Light is a lighting competition with around 18 teams of lighting professionals who will have three hours to design and set up a temporary lighting installation in the grounds of Rose Bruford College. The event will be presented at Rose Bruford College on 19 March this year.

The event is run by the students who are studying on the College's BA (Hons) Lighting Design and BA (Hons) Stage Management and provides a platform to develop key relationships with industry professionals.

At Rose Bruford College there are many different areas for the competition such as woodland, new glass buildings and also more traditional architecture to challenge the teams and the public are welcome to view the installations between 6-8pm. There are three awards on offer for competing teams but it's all about the fun in taking part: artistic, technical & a prize voted by competitors t

UK - Ian Hall has been promoted to sales director at Total Solutions Group. Joining the company nine years ago as sales manager, Hall has watched Total Solutions Group (TSG) evolve to engage with the ever growing demands of special projects. "From Slick to Solutions is a heady mix. TSG's involvement in providing specialist engineering skills to the ceremonies section of the London Olympics last summer was the high point in what has been for me, a tumultuous nine years since Slick Trussing first became part of TSG in 2004," says Hall.

In recognition of Hall's experience and success, company founder and group CEO Chris Cronin has asked Hall to step up to the role of sales director. Cronin comments: "Since he first arrived Ian Hall has demonstrated a balanced approach to the TSG business. While driving the roller-coaster of special projects with their unforeseen eng

UK - PLASA London launches its first show at ExCeL London today with free entry for the first 5000 people to register via its new website. Taking place on 6-9 October 2013, the new name, new venue, and new autumn dateline aren't the only changes afoot for the industry-owned event.

PLASA CEO Matthew Griffiths explains, "This year marks the first stage of the show's long-term strategic development. ExCeL is located just five minutes from London City Airport, which handles 350 flights a day from 40 international destinations, and ExCeL's seven onsite hotels provide thousands of rooms within walking distance. With increased connectivity to Europe and beyond, as well as new, world-class facilities, we hope to send a clear message about the show's plans for future international growth."

In addition to the new campus-style experience for international visitors, PLASA Events

UK - The opening day of PLASA Focus: Leeds 2013 will finish with a keynote address from Harald Haas, Professor of Mobile Communications at the University of Edinburgh and Fellow of the World Technology Network.

Professor Harold Haas is widely regarded as one of most eminent innovators in communications technology today. His current research is focused on three main areas: optical wireless communications, spatial modulation and interference coordination in wireless networks. A finalist for the world Technology Award in 2011, his work on Li-Fi was featured by TIME magazine as one of the "50 Best Inventions in 2011".

Addressing an audience at an entertainment and installation technology event for the very first time, Li-Fi - Broadband Through Light is a speech that considers the application of using light, specifically light from LEDs, rather than radio wa

Germany - ArKaos has chosen Prolight & Sound Frankfurt to announce the formation of a new division - ArKaos Pro.

ArKaos Pro has been formed specifically to serve the large-scale, professional level show and lighting projects which now dominate much of the ArKaos client base. The new division will operate alongside the existing ArKaos organization.

"We have formed Arkaos Pro in acknowledgement of how ArKaos has grown and developed since its start," says business development manager, Agnes Wojewoda. "ArKaos products have evolved into far more sophisticated solutions over the past years as our software has continued to stretch boundaries and our client base diversified.

"ArKaos Pro will dedicate its time and expertise to the professional lighting market which has expanded exponentially for us in the last few years and now demands greater attention, energy an

USA - Seattle-based rock band Soundgarden's new King Animal tour has hit the road with a grandMA2 full-size console supplied by Upstsaging. The national tour is in support of the rockers' sixth studio album, also called King Animal, which was released last November.

"We designed a show very specific to a theater space," says Justin Collie, production designer with PEDG. "The tour is a high-tech 'old school' theatre production. We used 60 of Chromlech's Elidy-S panels, arrayed as truss fascia. We selected them for the novelty of the fixture and because they fit in very well in terms of the color temperature. They feel like an old-school lamp but have an ultra-modern effect. They give a nice warm tungsten color temperature, and you can map media servers to them. It's very easy to get effects, and we can make specific QuickTime Movies to get very precis

Canada - The new smaller, more powerful BTBeacon for CAST Group's ground-breaking BlackTrax 6D tracking system has earned a Certificate of Conformity by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) and exceeded the rigorous standards required to display the CE Mark. Subsequently, the BlackTrax Solution Version 1 is in full production and the first systems are expected to ship within weeks.

While a fully-functional prototype of BlackTrax won both IABM (International Association of Broadcasting Manufacturers) Game-Changer and PLASA Gold Innovation Awards, the market-ready version of the system is even more advanced, thanks to some ingenious tweaks made to the revolutionary BTBeacon, says the company. CAST engineers have reduced the BTBeacon's thickness by about 50 per cent, making it smaller than an iPhone and less intrusive than a microphone belt-pack, "yet much more powerful

USA - Bandit Lites has revamped its website, www.banditlites.com, with a vibrant, dynamic new look. The website includes updated information regarding lighting tours, special events, system sales and solutions and LED technology.

Galleries showcase photos ranging from concert tours with Garth Brooks to special events such as the Presidential Debate. Additionally, an installation gallery highlights projects including Dollywood, The Hollywood Wax Museum and Pirate's Voyage.

The site will be a one-stop site where people can not only discover Bandit Lites current news and projects, but also find manuals to Bandits' GRN Lite fixtures, apply for employment opportunities, read about the rehearsal facilities and even shop for used gear.

"I feel like we hit the mark on this site, as we updated it to include many of the Internet's best practices such as social media integration,&

USA - PRG (Production Resource Group) has stepped up its use of CAST Software's wysiwyg in the programming of world-class productions, among them, the recent Superbowl XLVII Halftime Show.

R&B star Beyoncé's performance for the show was watched by over 70,000 people at the New Orleans Superdome and broadcast to 108m viewers, with its breathtaking visual design by Al Gurdon, known for his work with Madonna and The Who. It was Gurdon's fourth year on the Superbowl and the fifth for wysiwyg, however, this year, around 90 per cent of the design was programmed virtually using the latest release of the suite, R30, more than a month in advance of the show, at PRG's purpose-built pre-visualisation studio in London.

Lighting director Rich Gorrod worked with Gurdon to design a system in AutoCAD, before uploading it to wysiwyg with the help of previz expert, Chris Burnage, and pat

Germany - At the upcoming ProLight&Sound 2013, Ayrton will show a range of products including the NandoBeam 302 - an elegantly designed, compact 300W LED moving head providing ultra bright, concentrated beams and the possibility of concentric circles, individually controllable for special effects. NandoBeam 302 uses 19 RGBW 15W Osram light sources coupled with an ultra fast 8° to 40° zoom (beam angle). An innovative and advanced optical system allows bright, very concentrated beams to travel far and wide, with deep and colourful wash capacity, says the company.

The WildBeam 302 benefits from a large colour screen, an internal battery to run the unit when without access to power distribution and new Neutrik PowerCON True One power connectors. The internal structure is made of steel and aluminium which makes the WildBeam 302 road ready, says Ayrton.

Also showing will be

UK / Ukraine - Devon-based drapes, starcloth, LED and visual effects specialist S+H Technical Support (S+H) is again supplying its innovative LED Video Floor product to the latest UK series of BAFTA Award winning games show, The Cube - via producers Objective Television.

Presented by Philip Schofield, Cube contestants can win up to £250,000 of prize money by completing straightforward tasks within a 4x4m Perspex cube, which becomes extremely challenging with the addition of disorientating visuals and sonic effects coupled with the pressure of performing in front of a live audience.

The video floor is an integral element of the show's overall concept

S+H also supplied the same quantity of 36 x Video Floor panels making up a 3.6sq.m surface area to the latest Ukrainian series of The Cube, which has now finished being filmed in Kiev. It is the fourth series

Finland - SGM has made an important breakthrough with its revolutionary LED products in Finland, notably with Jaakko Peltomäki Ltd. After the Helsinki-based events company saw the Danish company's impressive display at Prolight+Sound 2012 Jaakko Peltomäki himself made the decision to invest, after being particularly impressed by the LB-100 LED Balls.

"We were looking for some new ideas for our productions - and these were perfect," he said. Seeing how they could be formed into curtains to deliver alluring 3D spatial effects, they invested in 550 strings, each containing seven 34mm Balls, 20 TLD-612 pixel drivers to run it ... and some extension cords.

The 21-year-old company has a versatile work roster, ranging from fashion shows to retail, and they have full turnkey capability, with sound equipment, trussing, video and LED screens. "In fact I was looking for

Slovenia - Ljubljana's Top 6 night club has just had a complete refurbishment and technical lighting upgrade which features the first Robe Robin DLX Spots and LEDBeam 100s in a club installation in Slovenia.

It was a "Logical" move for Ljubljana based specifiers and installers MK Sound Light to suggest some of Robe's latest Robe moving light technology for this installation explains project manager Dean Karov.

Apart from hosting the beautiful people in the metropolis, the venue has stunning views across the centre of the city and up to Ljubljana's historic Castle from the glass fronted lift that whizzes seamlessly up and down the six floors to the top of a high profile downtown apartment store.

Top 6's owner, local entrepreneur Anthony Tomzin, asked MK Sound Light - who also supplied the sound system - to come up with 'something special and cool' for his 700 capaci

Austria - Wireless Solution Sweden AB, manufacturer of the award-winning W-DMX wireless DMX technology, worked with Ampco Flashlight Rental, based in Utrecht the Netherlands, to use the new Wireless Solution W-DMX G4 system to control dozens of moving lights, LED fixtures and conventional lighting fixtures at the FIS Alpine Ski World Championship 2013 Opening Ceremony in Schladming Austria on 4 February 2013.

Lighting designers Frank Lischka, Daan Oomen and Jeffrey Goes from The Unit Showcontrol placed lighting fixtures over a very widespread area along the ski slope and the finish area. Some of the many lighting positions were only accessible by helicopter. W-DMX transmitters and receivers were placed in distances from 50m to 500m of each other. W-DMX allowed the lighting team the opportunity to get DMX512 at places that were impossible to get to with hard-wired connections.

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