UK - Verbatim has announced the commercial release of Vivid Vision, a directional LED lamp using VxRGB technology developed by Verbatim's parent company, Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation.

Vivid Vision ensures that colours and fine details of objects are rendered accurately through a combination of red, green and blue phosphors applied to a violet, rather than blue, LED die. This type of LED lighting is particularly effective in spaces where small differences in colour hues, tints and textures can have a significant impact, says the company.

Now available within Europe, Vivid Vision is an MR16 VxRGB LED lamp designed to meet specific requirements in professional applications such as prestigious hospitality venues, sophisticated retail outlets and museums where high contrast lighting enhances the unique features of artworks.

"Based on the technology and knowledge of our pa

UK - Philips Entertainment's four premier brands - Showline, Vari-Lite, Selecon and Strand Lighting - are powering up to exhibit their latest LED luminaires and lighting control products for theatre application at this year's ABTT (Orange Hall, Old Truman Brewery, Stand 123).

Following its UK debut at PLASA Focus in Leeds, Philips Showline will be promoting its SL NITRO 510 LED-based strobe, delivering superbright, intense bursts of light and dynamic effects using over 1300 high-powered LEDs. Six unique zones of control allow ultimate flexibility while unique built in chases aid in creativity and simplicity. With over 68,000 lumens of output, the SL NITRO 510 rivals conventional strobes and retains dynamic looks whether washing a stage or pointing directly at an audience.

Sister company Philips Vari-Lite will be demo'ing the recently released Indy software for the VLX Wash lum

Mexico - Luminica Gdl of Guadalajara was one of the first rental companies in Mexico and Latin America to invest in Martin's MAC Viper Profile and had the fixtures out on one of the Carnival season's more festive events in February, Carnaval Mazatlan.

Lighting designer Luis Ernesto Armenta Jiménez has used Martin products since he started in the industry as a programmer and incorporated the new 1000 W Martin fixtures into his lighting design for the festival.

"I chose to use the MAC Viper Profile because I felt it would help me achieve the goal of highlighting a show that was full of cultural juxtaposition as it mixed contemporary dance with orchestral music and pop music, all in the same festival," he said.

Luis lined ground supports with 10 MAC Viper Profiles with colour wash coming from 26 MAC 2000 Washes and 16 MAC 101 wash lights. Twelve Atomic 3000 str

Czech Republic - Martin Professional is a Gold Sponsor of the prestigious Showlight conference 18-21 May in the Czech Republic and looks forward to four stimulating days in ?eský Krumlov among the world's most talented lighting professionals.

"Showlight is an exceptional and unique event in our industry and we are delighted to again have the opportunity to participate as a sponsor," states Martin UK sales director Mike Walker, who will be attending the event along with Martin's newly hired business area manager for its EMEA sales organisation, Matt Hallard."Showlight really attracts the cream of the lighting world and from a networking perspective is unequalled. We very much look forward to it."

Held every four years, Showlight exists specifically to give speakers, designers and attendees time to meet and discuss. For example, stands close during presentat

Sweden - PLASA's first ever networking event in Scandinavia, PLASA Focus: Backstage Malmö, was a huge success, with over 240 delegates attending from across Scandinavia and northern Europe.

Devised in conjunction with technical director Ola Melzig and the production team behind this year's Eurovision, this unique event aimed to combine unprecedented backstage access with seminars, Q&A sessions with key members of the production team and a technology showcase to highlight the cutting-edge sound, lighting, projection, video and control systems in use on a show which will have a television audience in excess of 100m people.

After the event, Melzig said, "What a success! All partners and visitors I've talked with are super happy about the quality of this show, and its visitors. It was really great to share the experience and show what is going on backstage to so many peo

UK - Robe is sponsoring a student bursary run by London, UK based lighting designer Simon Brockwell of design practice SBLD, that will enable him to take a lighting design assistant to work alongside him for the upcoming 2013 Vivid Sydney Festival of Light Music & Ideas in Australia.

Brockwell is presenting his interactive Nocturnal Pianola lighting installation and concept.

Robe's relationship with Brockwell goes back to when he was a lighting design / programming student at Rose Bruford College in Kent. When Nocturnal Pianola was selected as one of the works to be exhibited at the festival, he approached Robe to see if they were interested in getting involved in Vivid.

"Robe has never been about pushing the product - their emphasis is definitely on relationships," comments Brockwell. "As a lighting graduate, I know the importance of students to

Italy - The Spiaggia degli Olivi lighthouse, a historic monument on Lake Garda and the symbol of the town of Riva, was turned off about 40 years ago.

The diving board tower, on top of which the historic lake lighthouse was installed, is found at the end of the pier. Thanks to restoration work in the area, commissioned by Lido di Riva, the lighthouse started sweeping the Trento waters of the lake once again with its beam in October 2012. The surprise is that, instead of the complicated original 24 volt mechanism, there is a new Clay Paky Sharpy inside the lantern room, which is not only able to reproduce the brightness of the old lighthouse, but also its movement.

Giacomo Galassi of Iiriti Noleggi explained that "owing to the originality of the installation, Clay Paky was extremely helpful and let us try the light out for over a month so that we could test it in actual use

UK - LEE Filters has announced the appointment of Richard McKitty as their new business development manager for camera and lighting filters. McKitty comes to LEE with six years of experience in the lighting industry and four years in the photographic industry working with dealers and professionals in each market. He will be covering all areas outside the US and South America with a focus on Europe and beyond.

"I am thrilled to be joining LEE Filters. It is a real honour to be promoting the famous LEE brand within two thriving industries around the world. I cannot wait to help expand the business portfolio and meet new and existing LEE customers," says McKitty.

(Jim Evans)

World - Fleetwood Mac are back on the road and a grandMA2 console has joined the iconic band on the Fleetwood Mac Live 2013 World Tour. The new tour, which began in Columbus will wrap in Australia in December, marks the first for the band since 2009's sold-out Unleashedtour. This year is also the 35th anniversary of their Rumours album, one of the most successful in recording history.

Lighting designer Paul "Arlo" Guthrie of Minneapolis-based Toss Film + Design is Fleetwood Mac's long-time lighting designer. "I have to cater to four different personalities (Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks) and bring them together as one team," he explains. "For this show we have four big soft box panels and 32 Clay Paky Sharpy Washes on curved lighting pipes, some of them on the floor, some on the rigs and some in pods that c

UK - A.C. Special Projects Ltd. (ACSP) will be showing a range of projects from their impressive architectural installation portfolio, as well as architectural lighting products at this year's ARC Show (stand P42).

ACSP will be on hand throughout the show to discuss how they can provide bespoke lighting, audio and AV installations to the architectural and retail sectors.

Acting as single supplier, the company has access to over 200 leading entertainment technology brands including Jands Vista, Yamaha, Green Hippo and Columbus McKinnon to name a few. On show at ARC will be a range of the latest innovative architectural LED lighting products from Chroma-Q, Spotlight and Griven.

From Chroma-Q, the new Inspire LED House Light is a powerful multi-purpose creative lighting tool that provides a choice of beautiful whites, soft pastels and bold saturates - all from one fixture. The

Russia - Moscow's Satirikon Theatre opened its 2012-2013 season with a production of Romeo and Juliet directed by Konstantin Raikin. Raikin, the theatre's artistic director, has not staged Shakespeare's timeless love story at the Satirikon since the mid-1990s, and the new production has been hailed by critics and theatregoers alike for its innovative, high-tech, and ultramodern approach. The impressive visual effects created by ETC Russia using Christie projection equipment meld seamlessly and naturally with the on-stage action.

As Ruslan Semenov, general director of ETC Russia, explains, "It took our team a month and a half to prepare the video content for the show. The work was done on stage under the direct supervision of Konstantin Raikin. Daily rehearsals with the theatre company enabled us to achieve unique synchronisation between the video elements and the act

China - Lighthouse Technologies has announced the promotion of Randy Green to the position of chief technology officer.

Green has more than 25 years experience in strategic planning, sales, design and implementation of technical systems for the entertainment, television, sports, digital out of home and live event markets. He also has over 15 years of experience providing technical solutions for sports stadiums, arenas, and exhibition centres of which large screen video display, video control systems and electronic signage are an integral part.

Having joined Lighthouse in 2007, Green has played a key role in the company's success, using his extensive expertise to build positive relationships both internally and externally. This new position reflects both his technical and managerial talents.

"Randy is an innovative and energetic technical management professional," s

The Netherlands - Royal Philips reports that the 300th licensee signed up to its LED luminaire and retrofit bulb licensing programme, which has seen its number of licensees grow by 50% since May 2012. As a result, 300 companies have access to Philips' comprehensive portfolio of patented LED system technologies and solutions.

Arian Duijvestijn, senior vice president of Philips Intellectual Property & Standards said, "We are thrilled that the LED programme has grown by 50% in the last year. We are delighted that more and more businesses, from start-ups to larger companies sign up to the LED luminaire and retrofit bulb licensing program and recognize that working with us helps to speed up product development, lower costs and advance the industry. We warmly welcome our 300th licensee and are confident the program will continue to attract a wide variety of companies in the comin

Switzerland - Moving lights from Robe's latest Robin MMX and DL Series ranges were utilised by lighting designer Michael Grundner for the world premiere of Moses - The Ten Commandments, a new musical extravaganza by Michael Kunze and Dieter Falk being staged at the Theatre St. Gallen in Switzerland.

The creative brief for Grundner's lighting design was to mimic the style and genre of the show - 'contemporary rock and pop with gospel elements' - for which the theatre decided to purchase the new system of Robe moving lights.

The package comprised eight MMX Spots, two DLS Profile, two DLX Spots and 16 DLF Wash fixtures, all of which were specified by the theatre's head of lighting, Andreas Enzler and his deputy Andreas Volk ... on the recommendation of Grundner among others, and were delivered via Robe's Swiss distributor, Audio Tech.

They decided on Robe because they so

Australia - Concert & Corporate Productions in Western Australia supplies lighting equipment and crew to some of the most prestigious corporate clients as well as national and internationally recognised touring acts. As CCP continues to grow stronger, larger, and to increase their inventory, their equipment choices tend to be driven my market demands.

"As our industry is spec driven we have to go by what people are wanting and most of the specs we've seen in the past eighteen months have requested Vari*Lite VL3000's or higher," commented Sean McKernan, general manager at CCP. "To purchase some was just a natural progression for our path of where we wanted to go."

In February Concert & Corporate Productions took delivery of 24 VL3000 Spots and eight VL2500 Washes which have seen action on a wide variety of events from Celtic Thunder, Neil Finn & Paul Kelly t

USA - Bandit Lites had the privilege of being the first to light a concert at the University of Georgia's Sanford Stadium, where ACM award winner Jason Aldean played to more than 60,000 people. The 90-minute set, which was filmed for a DVD release, included a surprise visit from rapper Ludacris and a virtual appearance from Kelly Clarkson.

Award-winning lighting designer, Aaron Swetland faced the singular challenge of having to adapt his already massive rig for television with an additional 88 Sharpys, 20 Syncrolite fixtures, 34 3500 washes, 20 MAC Auras and 24 Bandit 5x5s. Giant artwork scrims were added above stage right and left with 30ft trusses above them, while a 60ft lighting truss was placed centre downstage from the usual downstage truss for television lighting.

For his inaugural stadium show, Swetland focused on filling the space while being mindful of the challenges

USA - More than 600 business and community leaders gathered on 3 May 2013 to celebrate the finest businesses and individuals in East Tennessee, where Bandit Lites lit the ninth annual Pinnacle Business Awards Gala. The black tie event has quickly become one of the premier social events, complete with reception, silent auction, and a martini bar carved out of a block of ice.

Lighting designer Will Twork created an elegant atmosphere utilizing MAC 2k Profiles, MAC 500 and MAC 600. Framed in the stage set, six 4x30' screen material panels were lit by GRN LED pars.

"It's not a typical stage set-up," said Bandit's general manager, JR Sander. "From the moment people enter the room, we want them to immediately feel they are in a space befitting their status as a member of Knoxville Chamber of Commerce. It's a special night for everyone, and Bandit is proud to both be a

USA - Christie Lites has purchased an additional 200-plus MA onPC command wing from A.C.T Lighting, the exclusive distributor of the MA Lighting in North America. The company's new investment brings its inventory of MA onPC command wing to over 250.

Earlier this year, Christie Lites took delivery of 50 MA onPC command wing to extend usage of the flexible and powerful grandMA2 control system to customers working on location or those who find it physically difficult to fit a grandMA2 console at their venue. With 12 locations in the US and Canada, Christie Lites supplies equipment and services to lighting designers and chief electricians across an extensive client base.

"The popularity of the MA onPC command wing with our customers prompted us to invest in a substantial inventory of units," says Christie Lites CEO Huntly Christie at the company's Orlando headquarters. &

Australia - The new Clarity LX series consoles have proved invaluable for Sydney broadcast lighting director Grant 'Doc' Watson and his operation Strauss Productions.

Up until the final series of 2011, Watson was lighting the Australian productions of The Biggest Loser and My Kitchen Rules on a series of LSC maXim consoles. With the shows growing in size, The Biggest Loser saw the largest maXim XXLP console loaded to its limits with moving lights and dimmers.

With the need for a platform upgrade in mind, Watson was able to assess Clarity software on his Mac notebook and realised just how easy it was to use in the 'live' environment most of his productions demand. Rarely are the shows shot in a broadcast studio with some being produced in disused military buildings and naval dock yards, agricultural sheds, community centres and bare walls studios.

The key

Australia - Sir Cliff Richard OBE returned to Australia earlier this year with his hit-packed Still Reelin' and A-Rockin' tour and with him was his long-time lighting designer Derek Jones who was touring an impressive rig that held close to 90 moving lights.

Jones has been a champion of Jands Vista consoles for many years and so it was no surprise to see him travel here with his own Vista S3 and Vista M1, part of a larger family of Vista consoles that he owns.

"The Vista consoles are easy to operate and easy to programme," he notes. "I also like the support that you get from Jands as they will actually listen to your ideas and feedback, coming up with real solutions to help achieve what you need."

Jones also favours the 'mix and match' ability offered by owning a few Vista consoles as well as their portability.

"The surface is flexible, smal

Kazakhstan - An impressive range of Clay Paky fixtures, including the Alpha Spot QWO 800s, Sharpys, A.Leda Wash K10 and K20s, and Alpha Profile 800 STs are lighting up the X Factor as it debuts in Kazakhstan.

Lighting designer Andrey Kuznetsov is utlising 16 Alpha Spot QWO 800s, 32 Sharpys, eight A.Leda K10s, eight A.Leda K20s, 16 Alpha Profile 800s and two Shadow QS-LTs to create a winning combination for the launch of Kazakh X Factor, which follows a similar format to the UK show.

"I was impressed by Alpha Profile 800 - the Profile System is unbelievable, it made it very easy to make designs and to highlight the set and the performers," says Kuznetsov. "To have so many functions and capabilities in a single compact fixture is truly amazing. A.Leda impressed me with the wide range of fantastic colours it can deliver. They are fast, super bright l

Sweden - Robe Robin LEDWash series fixtures continue to prove a popular choice for theatre installations in Sweden.

The 503 seat Skövde Stadsteater is another venue that has invested in LEDWashes, taking delivery of eight Robin 600 LEDWashes that were supplied by Swedish distributor Bellalite via locally based rental company, Sound Star.

The decision to purchase the latest fixtures for the theatre - an integral part of the first purpose built Cultural Centre (Kulturhus) in Sweden in 1964 - was made by head of lighting Fredrik Ekström. He sought an LED moving light and looked at the various options.

He specifically wanted one with a bright output, a smooth homogenised lightsource, silent running and a good zoom range. The LEDWash 600 ticked all the right boxes and he describes them as, the "perfect" fixtures for the venue.

He also remarks that the variety of

Portugal - ETC has proved that Source Four fixtures aren't just for theatres - by supplying Source Four HID luminaires to Museu da Eletricidade (Museuem of Electricity) in Lisbon.

"We first worked with the museum's managers about two years ago," says Vitor Paiva, commercial director at ETC dealer Luzeiro, "when they bought tungsten ETC Source Four luminaires. They were impressed, and asked to look at other models in the Source Four range. Key to their specification was that they need low maintenance and high light output."

So at the end of last year, the museum supplemented its exhibition lighting with 24 ETC Source Four HID fixtures, which were immediately put to use on a display by Portuguese painter Vitor Pomar.

These were deemed such a success that the managers ordered a further 34 to light the World Press Photo exhibition, which runs throughout May.<

UK - Only Men Aloud came to prominence back in 2008 when they won the BBC's Last Choir Standing competition. Formed by conductor and musical director Tim Rhys-Evans, the 15-strong choir have re-invented the old Welsh Male Voice Choir tradition, by adding choreography, showmanship and humour to what was traditionally a very static art form.

In 2012, Rhys-Evans became equally as successful with Only Boys Aloud, comprising of over 180 boys on ITV1's Britain's Got Talent winning a respectable 3rd place on the talent, and off the back of the success of the show went on to sign a record deal with Sony Music. Recently they have added Only Kids Aloud to the family.

For the Aloud brand's Aloud at Christmas tour lighting director was Steffan Jones, brought on-board directly by Rhys-Evans to work on a show that would aim to fit a choir of up to 400 men, boys and chil

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