Australia - The iconic His Majesty's Theatre, or 'the Maj' as it is affectionately known, is the only remaining working Edwardian theatre in Australia, and home to WA Opera. This stunning example of Edwardian era architecture is one of WA's most-loved heritage icons.

However celebrating history and all things antique should not stretch to the lighting department who were struggling with their old consoles.

"We had a Strand 550 and a 520i console for years and they were really at the end of their use-by date," commented Matthew Nankivell, head of lighting at His Majesty's Theatre in Perth. "More and more touring shows were coming through that couldn't use their show files with the Strand consoles. One of the main deciding factors on which console to choose was driven by the need to keep up with industry trends. Many of our shows have originated in a venue with an

USA - PLASA has announced eight finalists in the sixth annual Rock Our World Awards, to be presented at the PLASA Cocktail & Awards Reception at LDI 2013. The Rock Our World Awards were created to honour ground-breaking achievement by PLASA members and to acknowledge the genius of both the creator of the technology and the designer or integrator who applies it in a real world environment.

The finalists for the sixth annual Rock Our World Awards are:

GBLOCK - Gallagher Staging and Productions, Inc.

GCT (Guy Cable Tensioner) - Tomcat USA.

Mbox Extreme Media Server as used on Oblivion - Production Resource Group.

TiMax2 SoundHub and TiMax Tracker - Out Board.

AsteraTouch - Astera LED-Technology.

dmXLAN v4 Software - ELC Lighting.

Royal Opera House Muscat - Theatre Projects Consultants.

London Olympics Opening Ceremonies.

W

USA - The bold stage and presentation aesthetics for 2013 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) at the Barclays Centre in Brooklyn, New York, took inspiration from the MTV Moon Man Award statue that received a special 30th anniversary makeover this year by New Jersey street-artist KAWS.

Lighting designer Tom Kenny worked the same style - blurring the lines between fine art and pop art - into multiple areas of the onstage lighting treatment, with 80 of Robe's new Pointe multi-purpose moving light fixtures, a vital element of his rig of over 1000 moving heads. These were supplied to the event along with 32 x Robe Robin LEDWash 600s and 20 x LEDWash 1200s by rental specialist, VER.

Robe's powerful, super-bright Pointes were positioned left and right of the stage and behind the VIP stage / seating area.

"I needed a big beam look and a wash light in the same position," explaine

Brazil - Lollapalooza's return to São Paulo, Brazil earlier this year was made all the more successful by Electralight, in partnership with LPL Lighting Productions, and their use of Lightconverse visualization software. By employing an onsite custom 3D visualization studio at the iconic Jockey Club horse track, located in the heart of the city, valuable design and programming time was saved for a host of designers and operators whose top-talent bands took the stages of the three-day event.

With all three main stages virtually replicated in Lightconverse software running on individual workstations, show elements, including lighting, LED, video, moving truss and effects were made available for the particular stylization of each act much to the satisfaction of all concerned.

The main proponent for the onsite studio was designer Nilson Barros (Xuxa), known for his work on The Vo

UK - West London based lighting and visual rental specialist Colour Sound Experiment (CSE) supplied lighting kit, two Kinesys automation systems and Vector control plus crew to the North and South open air stages at the 2013 Creamfields Festival, staged at Daresbury Estate Near Warrington over the August Bank Holiday Weekend.

Colour Sound's team led by crew chief Jon Rickets worked closely with creative and technical production specialists LarMac LIVE on the event, the UK's highest profile EDM festival. This year's line-up included open air stage headliners Avicii and The Prodigy (Saturday) plus David Guetta and Tiesto on the Sunday.

The North and South Stages were similar in size, supplied by Star Events, with the South stage PA / video wings being slightly wider. Colour Sound's production lighting design for both areas was created with reference to all the requirements of th

UK - Props people, lighting designers, and electricians will be interested to discover that RC4Wireless is now offering specially priced RC4Magic Wireless DMX and Dimming Starter Kits for a limited time. Every new kit comes with three secure digital IDs. Since every RC4Magic user has their own IDs, no RC4 user can ever interfere with another RC4 user's show.

RC4Wireless is also offering a low-cost Wireless LED Dimming Kit for Educators. This affordably-priced kit is ready to use right out of the box. It demonstrates smooth wireless dimming, and includes a bright red-green-blue LED, 6V rechargeable battery, and charger. All you need is a DMX controller to start experimenting with beautiful, affordable, safe, cool-running LEDs.

James David Smith, president and chief product designer at RC4 reports: "Every time we demonstrate smooth wireless dimming with red-green-blue LED d

Sweden / Argentina - LumenRadio has announced a new partnership with TSD Group for distribution of the CRMX brand in Argentina. Run by Daniel Lema, the Buenos Aires based TSD Group has since 1994 been one of the leading suppliers for concert touring, theatres, permanent installations as well as television in Argentina. With an already impressive product portfolio including well-known brands such as Robe, SGM, Chamsys, Chromateq, the most important factor in TSD Group's choice for LumenRadio's CRMX wireless technology was the outstanding reliability. Another important factor was the possibility to offer customers an all-in-one package with products from manufacturers with the state-of-the-art technology.

"LumenRadio's commitment to manufacturing inventive, high quality wireless products is a perfect match for our aim to deliver superior products and support. The CRMX product

Brazil - Brazilian singer Luan Santana had his breakthrough in 2010 with a best-seller album, before continuing to climb the Billboard charts with his second album. Already known for presenting some of the most expansive concerts, there was little doubt that the recordings of his recent show for the Luan Santana DVD would be over the top.

Consequently, lighting designer, Marcos Olivio, was presented with one of the challenges of the year. With the intention of doing a live concert and subsequently an electronic Rave ballad with Santana's band for recording, Arena Maeda in São Paulo was selected as the ideal location. "We believed that an audience of 10,000 people would be a great number for a 'comfortable' party," he says.

Spectrum Design e Iluminação supplies complete technology solutions for large-scale projects such as this, and the company excelled with an unp

UK - Celebrated LD Vince Foster recently employed a battalion of Clay Paky fixtures to honour Queen Elizabeth II's 60 years on the throne. Foster used the Clay Paky fixtures to deliver a striking, yet flexible lighting design for the Coronation Festival Gala.

Held in the Gardens of Buckingham Palace, the event took place over four days from 11-14 July and was the Palace's first commercial, ticketed public event. Technical production company Hawthorn provided the full production services supplying over 150 Clay Paky fixtures including: Alpha Wash 1200, Alpha Spot HPE 1200, Alpha Profile 1500, Sharpys, Sharpy Washes 330, and Alpha Profile 700s for the main stage, while a further 16 Clay Paky Alpha Wash 700 were used to light the Palace itself.

The Gala featured an array of artists including The National Youth Orchestra, The Feeling, The English National Ballet, Katherine Jenkin

India - The Guru Tegh Bahadur Memorial structure in New Delhi has been brought to life with a stunning light show - featuring fixtures from PR Lighting. The newly programmed show is the result of a design from the attraction's lighting director in conjunction with Modern Stage Service's Varinder Wadhwa.

This architectural marvel, situated on the main highway, gives an insight into the life and teachings of the ninth Guru of the Sikhs and the illumination has been described as "world class".

Modern Stage Service (MSS) - PR Lighting's Indian distributor - was brought in as a result of the company's long association with the show director, and Wadhwa specified 16 XR300 Beam and 12 PR-8802's. Mounted on both the ground and the structure itself, they are triggered into action daily after dark from an Avolites Titan Mobile in conjunction with a Dataton Watchout system.

T

UK - Stage Electrics has completed the supply and installation of the lighting and audio infrastructure and stage engineering within the newly-built Caryl Churchill Theatre at London's Royal Holloway University.

Affiliated to the University of London, Royal Holloway University prides itself on its reputation for having one of the UK's leading drama and theatre departments with an international reputation for the quality of its research in many different aspects of drama, theatre and performance studies.

The innovatively-designed Caryl Churchill Theatre, which is due to open in September 2013, replaces the University's pre-existing 30-year old black box 'Studio Theatre' with a new, flexible, future-proof facility that also incorporates two large rehearsal studios, dressing rooms, a workshop and a new foyer.

Its new auditorium offers an increased seating capacity of 178 seats

USA - "Some of most exciting new technology ever displayed together in one show booth," is how Elation Professional's director of sales Eric Loader summed up the company's upcoming exhibit at this year's WFX Show, held in Dallas, 2-4 October, 2013.

Leading the way is Elation's new Cuepix Series of blinders and strip lights powered by advanced COB (Chip On Board) LED technology. Hailed by the industry as the next step in LED technology, COB LEDs provide greater output from a smaller illumination source, more even light distribution, better color homogenization and better heat dissipation, compared to surface mount (SMD) LEDs, says the company.

Elation will also be introducing its first LED ellipsoidal fixture, a new LED Fresnel fixture, and powerful new 100-watt Cool and Warm White LED broadcast lights. These innovative debuts join the company's wide-ranging line of l

Italy - Leading Italian television lighting designer Salvo Perrini used nearly 200 Robe moving lights on the most recent series of Reazione A Catena (Chain Reaction) for national TV channel RAI.

The show was recorded at RAI's Auditorium HQ in Naples where Perrini lit the show for the second time, before which it was recorded in Rome.

The game is based on the association logic of words or numbers and allows viewers to test their intuition and mastery of the Italian language. Each episode needed to have a different look and flavour, on which Perrini worked closely with scenic designer, Marco Calzavara.

As each programme built up towards its final section the money stakes increased dramatically ... and the lighting was integral to helping build the tension.

Perrini has worked for RAI for 27 years and has been using Robe products regularly in his work for the last three

UK - ETC is supporting the World Stage Design festival in Cardiff with a series of technical discussions on lighting with LED.

The festival, which runs until 14 September, is a celebration of international performance design from the world of theatre, opera and dance, running alongside which is Scenofest, bringing together live events, including performances, master-classes and hands on workshops.

Presentations will include ETC's technical director Adam Bennette and Steve Terry, ETC's vice president of R&D, who will be chairing a technical discussion on how to set up LED in a lighting rig. Bennette explains: "LED fixtures use power in a quite different way to tungsten - if the rig is set up in the way it would be for tungsten, it can cause all sorts of power issues. So we talked about what the problems are, and how to work around them, then talked about how to mix old and

Super Star - Bruno Mars will perform at next year's Super Bowl halftime show. The NFL confirmed the Locked Out of Heaven star will sing at the game in February. He follows the likes of Madonna, Michael Jackson, Black Eyed Peas, Beyonce, U2, Janet Jackson and Bruce Springsteen. Super Bowl XLVIII will take place at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on 2 February 2014. Mars, is currently midway through his Moonshine Jungle tour, which will arrive in the UK on 2 October starting at Odyssey Arena in Belfast.

Piano Man - Sir Elton John will perform live at this year's Emmy Awards. The musician, will play a tribute to Liberace, the American pianist and vocalist whose life was told in the recent biopic, Behind the Candelabra. The HBO film, which premiered in Cannes this year, is up for 15 Emmys. The awards, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, will

Italy - Mishima is the name of a project that the Brazilian artist Ismael Ivo staged at the arena at the Pietrarsa Railway Museum in Naples, Italy. It is based on the life and creative world of the Japanese artist Yukio Mishima, who committed sepuku (samurai ritual suicide) at the height of his brilliant career.

The performance started at dusk and the Gulf of Naples formed a natural backdrop for a rice-covered, Japanese-rock-garden-like set. The stage hosted an encounter between dancers involved in a ritual celebration representing the contrast between sunrise and sunset and between life and death.

The show was co-produced by the Fondazione Campania dei Festival, the Arb Dance Company and the Accademia di Belle Arti di Napoli. The Vietnamese dancer Khai Ngoc Vu led the performance, accompanied by dancers from the Compagnia Arabesque/Les Danseurs Napolitains, the voice of Angel

Chile - Wireless Solution Sweden demonstrated W-DMX during Chilean distributor Iluminacion Profesional Valook SA's Light Up! recent training sessions and open house in Santiago, Chile.

The Light-Up! show hosted approximately 200 people on 30 July for the open house and over 40 lighting designers for the training sessions on 31July. The training sessions were conducted via the use of visualisation systems such as Light Converse and intelligent lights from Robe.

For the open house and training sessions, all moving heads and DMX fixtures that were used were connected with W-DMX BlackBox F-1, F-2 and R-512. Fabian Cortez Lopez of Illumincion Profesional Valook SA commented, "The W-DMX products are incredibly user friendly and reliable. The W-DMX marketing material helped us a lot to inform our customers about the innovations and products from Wireless Solution.

Belgium - September sees the launch of ArKaos GrandVJ 2, the latest version of the highly successful ArKaos GrandVJ software for VJs, DJs, clubs and musicians.

The new software brings "sparkling new features that answer the demands of customers in the forefront of the action". Two versions are available: GrandVJ 2 and GrandVJ 2 XT which includes a VideoMapper feature.

New Features for GrandVJ 2: new interface; VideoMapper module (XT version); new software activation system; improved performance; new effects plus support for audio files.

GrandVJ 2 comes with a new interface, making it even more user friendly and straightforward, while integrating all the new functionality.

Simple colour coding (orange for layers, blue for cells) makes editing faster and more intuitive. Existing features, such as panel locks, have been moved and grouped under the mixer for convenie

Germany - Studio Hamburg Newcomer Awards have been presented since 1997. German-language films made by students who are studying film-making at institutions of higher education compete in the Best Production, Best Short Film (Audience Prize), Best Director and Best Screenplay categories. The Günter Strack Television Prize is also awarded during the gala night to the best up-and-coming actress and actor, as well as the Hamburg Murder-Mystery Prize (since 2008).

For this year's ceremony, the lighting designer Andreas Rinne used eight Clay Paky Sharpys, 30 Clay Paky Alpha Spot HPE 300s, 10 Clay Paky Alpha Spot HPE 700s, 16 Clay Paky Alpha Beam 300s and a grandMA2 light, as well as other equipment.

"My experience of Clay Paky products in the last few years has been very good. For this reason, these lights were crucial to the lighting concept," said Rinne. "Clay Pak

Denmark - The Roskilde Music Festival has brought together some of the world's most popular artists since the early 1970s. On this year's Orange Stage, Metallica headlined the festival, with performances from many other globally acclaimed artists, including Rihanna and Slipknot. Designed by veteran lighting designer Kasper Lange, the Orange Stage featured a vast amount of Martin lighting fixtures for the Metallica set.

The Orange Stage included 68 Martin MAC 2000 Wash XB's and 34 MAC III Profile moving heads, along with 65 MAC 101's and 10 MAC Aura LED moving heads. Thirty-four Atomic 3000 strobes with Atomic Colors scrollers were deployed for blinding punch effects. Copenhagen-based rental company Litecom, supplied the gear.

Martin lighting, which has graced Roskilde for years, also played a role on several other stages at the 2013 festival including the Pavilion Stage, featu

Germany - Over 2000 Robe LEDWash fixtures are in action on a series of high profile stands - including Audi, BMW, Mini. Opel, Porsche, Seat and Volkswagen, at the Frankfurt 65th International Motor Show (IAA).

One of the world's leading auto expos, IAA 2013 is being staged at the Frankfurt Messe, 10 - 22 September 2013.

The different stands have been designed by some of the leading creative practices in the country, and the fixtures supplied by a number of the primary German rental and dry hire companies.

The preparations started months ago with Audi constructing its own temporary exhibition Hall - Agora - especially for IAA; and Mercedes Benz building a three-level high showroom into the famous Frankfurt 'Festhalle', more usually a host to large scale concerts. The Frankfurt Motor Show - powered by the prestigious German Manufacturers - is also a leader in innovation and te

UK - Creative & Cultural Skills has announced plans to host a series of one-day masterclasses this autumn for young people embarking on careers in technical theatre.

Supported by the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, the Technical Masterclass Series will be held at The Backstage Centre over three days, with each day accommodating a different age group.

The events will take place on 29, 30 and 31 October, and will be aimed at key stage 4 students, further education students, and higher education students respectively.

The masterclasses are designed to supplement classroom learning for students who have a keen interest in backstage theatre, and to provide a valuable networking and training opportunity for technical theatre students and young professionals.

Attendees will be able to participate in one masterclasses from the following options, and will benefit from practical lea

UK - Lighting design and rental company Siyan chose Avolites consoles for this summer's Lovebox musical extravaganza in East London's Victoria Park. This year saw the company step up to the Sapphire Touch and Tiger Touch Pro for the main and second stages respectively.

"Historically, Avolites consoles have been Siyan's first choice at Lovebox," explains project manager Jez Johnstone. "For the past few years we've used the D4 range for FOH at the main stage, with the Expert on the smaller stages. With technology moving forward, it was a natural progression to spec the Sapphire Touch at main and the Tiger Touch Pro at stage 2."

At the controls of the Sapphire on the main stage was lighting designer Paula Trounce, taking care of artists including headline act Azealia Banks as well as Tinchy Stryder, Jurassic 5, D'Angelo, Rudimental and Charlie Wilson, among ot

UK - This September the Hospital Club in London unveils the Oak Room, a new 100-capacity performance space in the heart of Covent Garden. Designed by the award-winning Russell Sage Studios, the Oak Room will serve up an eclectic range of outstanding entertainment for members, from DJs and live performances (featuring some of the UK's best music acts) to high-end comedy, cabaret and jazz nights.

Sue Walter, CEO said, "It is not often a new event space opens in Central London which has literally never been seen before. The Oak Room will be integral to The Hospital Club's ethos of showcasing and supporting emerging talent. We are excited to have secured such a diverse range of new and established acts to help launch the space throughout September, with many more lined up over the coming months to give members, artists and guests a uniquely Hospital Club experience."

RML

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