USA - Astera LED-Technology now has an office in the United States of America. The office is designed to better serve Astera's US and Canadian customers, and it offers the full range of wireless products, controllers and accessories.

North American customers will benefit from better customer service and improved payment options. Previously, Astera products were only available through select dealers, but now with the unveiling of their new US office, customers can order from the official Astera brand and have complete peace of mind in doing so. Customers will also benefit from the Astera after-sales service. Repairs and spare parts will be available through their online warranty system, the Astera Portal. Customers will be able to register their faulty product and communicate with their nearest service center to repair the issue.

Tom Meyer, general manager of Astera USA, commen

UK - S+H Technical's new 12 mm lightweight LED screen was specified by video and visuals designer Ian Holmes for the recent UK and European leg of guitarist Steve Hackett's 2013 Genesis Revisited II world tour.

Ilfracombe, Devon-based drapes, starcloth, LED and visual effects specialist S+H has invested in a large quantity of these new LED panels which are very light in weight at just 4.5 Kgs per panel and 9.5 Kgs per square metre, which is made up from two panels. They are also quick to deploy and exceptionally user-friendly.

This multi-purpose 12 mm pitch product has been specially developed for S+H and is manufactured in China to their spec.

Holmes first used the S+H screen last year, just after the first batch was delivered, for the Kim Wilde tour, and was so impressed he decided to use it again when Steve Hackett went out.

The current Steve Hackett tour design

UK - Effervescent contemporary circus troupe, No Fit State, recently welcomed the latest super agile, high performing member to its troupe: The Avolites Tiger Touch. The console combines hands on control with sophisticated cueing. So whether LDs are lighting on the fly or building sophisticated, precisely programmed shows, or even a combination of the two, its now easier than ever.

Originally conceived by lighting designer Adam Cobley, the tour lighting is taken care of by lighting programmer and re-lighter Leif Le Page, who says that fast, on the fly access to the lighting is crucial for this latest production - Bianco.

The show, inspired by José Saramago's novel The Elephant's Journey, is primarily a production staged in the air. Performers make use of all dimensions using everything from trapeze, ropes and tight wires to trampolines. Not only that the s

Romania - With the On Air Music Awards, the Romanian music industry started a new show intended to recognise and reward the best of Romanian music. The award ceremony, taking place in the Great Hall at the Bucharest National Theatre, featured a lighting design by Sergiu Ardelean who used the cost-free grandMA2 onPC software for pre-programming, and ran the show on a grandMA2 full-size. Alin Popa was the head of lighting.

Ardelean commented: "For big and complicated set-ups and productions I always request a grandMA2. The grandMA2 full-size is a brilliant console, powerful and extremely stable. My luck was that Five's, the lighting equipment supplier, owns one. After I saw the stage design and came up with an idea about what I'd use, I did the pre-patching and pre-programming on grandMA2 onPC in conjunction with the grandMA 3D visualiser.

"A visualiser is very helpful

UK - A premier arts and culture club featuring live music, arts events and casual dining, East Village Arts Club in the student district of Liverpool, captivates big crowds with a variety of Chauvet gear.

Converted from the building of the old Royal Institute of Arts & Science, the 700-plus capacity venue is the latest addition to the expanding MAMA Group. Lighting and rigging design company Utopium London permanently installed the Chauvet LED gear throughout the club's four rooms: a restaurant, club space, loft area and chill out room. TRUSST trussing makes up the ground support system on each of the two stages and for the front of house trusses.

"Our main priority was to use lighting technology which bought the re-developed venue into the 21st century. After predominantly using LED fixtures from Chauvet's range throughout the installation, we made a conscious decision t

UK - West London based rental company Entec is supplying lighting and rigging equipment and crew to the UK and European legs of singer songwriter guitarist and music producer Mark Knopfler's 2013 Privateering tour, with lighting designed by the also illustrious Simon Tutchener.

Entec made a major investment in the latest Clay Paky moving lights - buying 38 Alpha Spot QWO 800s and 20 Sharpy Washes - to ensure that Tutchener had exactly the creative tools he wanted for the tour, which plays 72 concerts in 65 cities and has already included a six night sold-out run at London's Royal Albert Hall.

It's the first time that Entec has worked with Knopfler, but Tutchener has designed his lighting since 2000. He and production manager Kevin Hopgood have both used Entec before on various projects and decided that they were the right company for delivering a classy lighting solutio

USA - Wybron, a leading stage lighting supplier has announced that the company will close its doors on 30 June 2013.

The company is best known for transforming entertainment, church and architectural industries with its innovation of cutting-edge lighting products.

"For years, the stage lighting industry has been led by companies with three-letter names," said president and CEO Keny Whitright. "PRG, ETC, ELS, TMB, and BMI are just a few of these. For 35 years Wybron struggled through with the burden of a six-letter name," Whitright said laughing, "We finally realised we have too many letters in the company name. It was time to close the doors."

Whitright said that closing the Wybron manufacturing plant is bittersweet. "I will miss the business that I know and love. But, I am looking forward to scaling back and becoming an FTD man. Fishing,

UK - The London Coliseum Theatre - home to English National Opera and a London base for numerous visiting ballet companies - has just received a new, highly versatile production dimming system, installed by specialist entertainment electrical contractor Push The Button Ltd.

The new dimming system uses ADB's Eurodim Twin Tech modular system that allows each way to be freely switched between being a dimmer and a true non-dim under software control; the 10 racks, housing 894 3kW and 213 5kW DimSwitch modules, were installed over a five week period while performances continued un-interrupted on the Coliseum stage.

"We've been planning this project for a number of years," explains ENO's head of lighting, Kevin Sleep. "From the time our existing dimmers, installed less than 10 years ago, started flashing randomly during a show we knew they had to go, and that we had t

Germany - Martin Professional will be exhibiting at the Showtech exhibition at Messe Berlin from 18-20 June (Hall 1, Stand D65) and featuring a broad portfolio of Martin lighting, video, control and smoke solutions, including the newest members of the award-winning MAC Viper Family of moving heads.

Designed to enhance the theatre, television and stage experience, lighting professionals will want to check out the MAC Viper Wash's superior light quality and colour reproduction; the MAC Viper Wash DX and MAC Viper Performance, both with internal framing; and don't miss the MAC Viper Quadray, a unique, multi-beam effect that adds a whole new dimension to the lighting designer toolbox. The MAC Viper Profile and Viper AirFX will also be on hand.

Martin will also be showing the 1500 W MAC III Wash, a high-performance Fresnel luminaire with internal framing. Martin's VC Family of crea

Australia - The small Australian town of Wee Waa (population 2000) made the headlines last month by hosting the official global launch party for Daft Punk's Random Access Memories at their annual agricultural show. After the pet show, dog-jumping, the crowning of Wee Waa's Miss Showgirl, and a firework display, Give Life Back To Music burst out of the speakers, and the party was well and truly on.

The event was presented but not attended by Daft Punk, whose aforementioned album is set to become one of the fastest-selling in history - although in Wee Waa it played to a crowd of 4,000.

Daft Punk's production house Daft Arts conceived and designed the space, which lived up to its description as a cross between Saturday Night Fever and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind. The eye-popping circular dance-floor, with a giant disco ball hanging overhead, was

Czech Republic - Artistic Licence gave delegates a technology packed experience at Showlight 2013. The conference, held in the ancient town of Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic, involved an exciting programme of seminars, exhibits and social events. Artistic Licence enjoyed a particularly strong presence at the show, in the form of exhibitor, sponsor and (through company CEO, Wayne Howell) contributor to the talks programme.

On the company stand, visitors were given the opportunity to try out Artistic's newest dimming products for eco-friendly lighting: the Phase Detect Dimmer and bladeRunner two.

Visitors were shown how the Phase Detect Dimmer provides an ingenious solution to the challenges associated with LED dimming. LEDs are incompatible with conventional mains dimmers and 'LED replacement bulbs' dim poorly, if at all - often presenting stepped dimming curves. However,

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd. will be showcasing products at the ABTT 2013 Theatre Show from the many leading brands it distributes exclusively in the UK, including Chroma-Q, Jands, Spotlight, PixelRange, LedGo, Green Hippo, Christie Nitro and Columbus McKinnon - on stand 113.

Other leading brands on show include High End Systems, SGM, Philips Selecon, Soundcraft, Sennheiser, Traction Sound, Litec and many more.

The AC-ET stand is lit by various models from the Chroma-Q performance LED range, including the recently launched, award-winning Inspire LED House Light. Entered for this year's ABTT Product of the Year Award, the fixture's multi-purpose, homogenised output RGBW colour-changing capabilities provide designers with a tool to create environments that seamlessly transcend the physical barrier between the stage and audience. The feature set includes a ch

UK - Lighting and truss manufacturer, James Thomas Engineering, and lighting designer, Tim Routledge, have collaborated on a new project to create a range of retro-look lighting fixtures with a modern twist. Combining old school aesthetics with a modern output and build quality, the JTE PATT 2013 is the first of this range to be released.

The JTE PATT 2013 is a 750W tungsten softlight housed in a beautifully sleek spun aluminium body which maximises its curves to look as good on stage as the performers it illuminates. "We purpose-designed the PATT 2013 as 'eye-candy', intending it as neither key light nor beam light, but simply to look good both on stage and in camera," says Routledge. "It provides a big round circle of light within a beautiful circular yoke - it's a really elegant piece of design.

"The current fashion for retro-look lighting fixtures is ve

UK - The annual Edinburgh Festival Fringe is always a busy time for lighting manufacturer ETC, and the company is already gearing up for this year's event, with more lighting and control desks in use than ever before.

The festival, which runs each August, has almost 300 venues which can vary as widely as upstairs at a pub or a conference room to an otherwise disused store room and a shipping container in a car park. In addition to independently run venues, there are also companies such as Pleasance, which hires 21 rooms that are normally part of Edinburgh University's student association.

This year, Pleasance has teamed up with dealer Black Light to install ETC lighting and control in every one of its spaces - including 26 ETC control desks. Pleasance's head of lighting Dom Knight explains, "Our venues range from the 50-seat Cellar and Hut to our flagship Pleasance Grand,

Switzerland - Within five months of taking on the distribution of SGM in Switzerland, the long-serving ASL Electronic has already introduced another stalwart company, Winkler Multi Media Events, to the new LED culture of the Danish lighting company.

According to ASL's CEO and founder, David B. Scherz, "It was a strategic decision to take on SGM at the end of 2012 and we are delighted by the initial response.

"Due to our long term relationship with many customers in Switzerland we introduced the brand via a selective private roadshows and are now holding weekly workshops all over the country as well as sending out sample units."

One of the first companies to see the new product showcase was Winkler. "It was the first company we visited and they were immediately interested in the X-5 [white strobe] and P-5 [high-powered washlight]," reports Scherz. &qu

USA - The progressive Lifegate Church in Omaha, which was founded back in 1975 as Trinity Church Interdenominational, is a growing organisation, with an average congregation of 1900 people attending its weekly services.

With its theological roots in the Christian and Missionary Alliance, and a sanctuary that seats around 1350 people, Lifegate's technical production values need to match that of a concert like atmosphere.

Currently in the process of moving to a multi-site model on a new campus, the church recently took the decision to remodel its existing stage and lighting, and upgrade its video delivery system from SDI to HD.

This included the installation of state of the art Spot One and Wash One LED moving heads from GLP in an investment driven by the Church' Executive Director, Creative Communications and Technology, Robert Wilson.

It was local GLP dealers Heartland Sce

Germany The Mega Rave Party in Dortmund integrated 48 SGM XC-5 RGB Colour Strobes into the main arena lighting design

Some 23,000 dance fans partied all night long to the sounds of more than 54 internationally renowned DJs, including top names such as Paul van Dyk, Armin van Buuren, Carl Cox and Sven Väth.

Production company schoko pro installed more than 360 tonnes of audio visual equipment for the party, designing a four-fingered Truss-Claw and a Monster-Mirrorball as the major centrepiece from the ceiling. A special trick was the ability to move and tilt the Claw above the audience's heads, to create permanently changing lighting effects.

Lighting designer Thomas Gerdon, who was responsible for the design of the main floor for the second time, knows the key ingredients for such mega techno events and how to enthuse the masses. However, a lot of restraint and sensitivity

Belarus - When Russian pop rock band Zveri played in front of between 3,000-4,000 fans at Minsk Sport Palace recently Blackout Studio (part of FE Belimlight) were appointed by the tour promoters to provide the lighting.

Given a fairly open rider, and based on their successful experience with PR Lighting fixtures in the past, they created an exciting show based around 25 XL1500 Wash and Spot fixtures; these were deployed as overhead effects.

Drawing heavily on the fixtures' library of gobos, and making creative use of the zoom and dimmer effects, they were able to deliver an exhilarating stage show.

FE Belimlight's Igor Piotrowski said: "These products offer great feature-sets with good colour rendering and are easy to rig. They proved very popular with the artists' production and tour promoters."

The company has also been using PR Lighting fixtures on the second

Qatar - The Doha-based Creative Communications Group (CCG) has invested in its first Robe moving lights - 48 x LEDWash 600s. CCG, headed by Jalal Dudin, is one of the leading lighting and sound rental companies in the Gulf region and is renowned for its high quality equipment, crew and service. Over the years, Jalal has invested heavily and regularly in innovative premium brands. The deal was coordinated by Elie Batah, Robe's regional sales manager for the Middle East, following several demonstrations.

"I needed a good quality LED wash light for rental stock and Robe has the best fixtures," confirms Jalal, who considered several options before making his choice. He adds that the LEDWash 600 is now on virtually every technical rider that they are seeing when it comes to specifying a moving LED wash light. "They are reliable, lightweight, the output is amazing and t

UK - Lighting and visuals rental specialist Colour Sound Experiment kicked off what's set to be a spectacularly busy 2013 summer season, with a weekend supplying lighting to major festivals and two high profile EDM events plus a plethora of specials packages for specific artists performing around Europe ... as well as a major corporate event.

The festivals were Run To The Sun in Newquay, Cornwall; Field Day and As One in The Park at Victoria Park, Hackney, east London; We are FSTVL, a brand new 15,000 capacity dance music festival at Damyn's Hall Aerodrome in Upminster, Essex ... and down on the Brixton frontline at the O2 Academy, offering the best of drum 'n' bass, was Hospitality.

Over 700 moving lights were deployed by CSE across the weekend - mix of Robe, Martin, Clay Paky and GLP plus others - together with around 200 strobes and an eclectic bunch of other effects

UK - The Anvil Concert Hall in Basingstoke, Hampshire is something of a regional gem that serves the leafy southern Home Counties. With performances that range from stand-up comics like Jack Dee, through to the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Sir Andrew Davies and Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells 'For Two', the in-house lighting system needs to flexible to say the least. The venue has been designed to transform into various configurations: as an orchestral concert hall it has 1400 seats and when it becomes a theatre with a proscenium arch, an open stage or a flat floor extended stage it can accommodate up to 1150.

Ian Jones is head of technical services at Anvil Arts says: "When we made the decision to purchase Clay Paky and MA Lighting products, our primary aim was to raise the bar for our house production lighting and take the first steps toward future proofing th

UK/USA - Manchester based, Lumonic Ltd, the designers and manufacturers of the ilumo range of LED lights have confirmed StageLight as distributors. StageLight, which is based in the mid-south of the USA, became distributors following a successful launch of ilumo LED fixtures at the USITT conference in March.

Mike Edwards, Director of Lumonic Ltd comments, "We are delighted that Jerome Dunn, president of StageLight, has chosen to take our products in the US. StageLight is a long-established, very successful company with four branches in three states in the mid-south of America. They pride themselves on their service and desire to offer new technology, allowing their customers to stay ahead of the game. This exciting development for both parties coupled with our new product development plans fits beautifully with StageLight's future business aspirations. We look forward to a

France - Ayrton's latest products to hit the market are the new MagicPanel 602, NandoBeam 302 and MADesign luminaires.

"Our new products generated a fantastic amount of interest at Prolight and Sound 2013 which turned out to be the best trade show ever for Ayrton," says Ayrton's export manager, Valère Huart-Gyors. "Word is spreading as Ayrton develops as a company with more and more distributors across the world. It is not so common to be innovative in this industry and people like our unique concepts and projectors like the RollaPix, VersaPix and MagicPanel. MagicPanel 602 is really an eye catching projector which many lighting designers and rental companies are extremely keen to use.

"For the show we used a bank of 25 MagicPanels on the rear wall of the stand alongside 65 Nandobeams, and a floor constructed of 126 DreamPanel Floor HD18 tiles. The lightin

UK - The Knight of Illumination Awards 2013, organised by Clay Paky, ALD, STLD and Ambersphere Solutions, has announced this year's sponsors as Chroma-Q, Hawthorn, MA Lighting, Robert Juliat, OSRAM, and XL Video.

"Over the past six years, the Knight Of Illumination Awards have become much coveted and respected amongst UK lighting professionals," says Glyn O'Donoghue from Ambersphere Solutions. "The prestigious nature of these awards are truly reflected by the high calibre of our generous sponsors this year."

For six years the KOI Awards has celebrated outstanding achievements in British lighting design in the sectors of TV, Theatre, and new for this year: Concert Touring and Events (previously titled 'Rock'). And this year it is even better than ever. In recognition of the huge creative impact video now has on show design KOI has launched a new category acr

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