Italy - The Raptor is the latest development in beam fixtures technology from D.T.S. At beam moving head on the market.

Raptor features the FPR system (D.T.S. patent), a breakthrough in moving-head technology. The FPR system allows limitless pan rotation. The Raptor head rotates freely on its vertical axe without interruption, in either direction, never having to go into reverse motion. Raptor's ability to quickly and precisely select any point within its sphere of movement means faster looks and scene changes, offering unmatched creative control to the lighting designer, says the company.

Additionally, new Tri-phase stepper motor technology allows ultra-fast and silent pan and tilt movements.

(Jim Evans)

France - Traveling through France for a two-month tour, singer, songwriter, musician and producer Benjamin Biolay entertains thousands of fans every night, lit up with the help of nearly 2,000 Harman Martin VC-Dot LED's for a stunning backdrop.

For this fast-moving tour, Barcelona-based Dushow and Alabama lighting companies developed a video and lighting system, designed to be quickly installed for efficient execution. Using strings of Martin VC-Dot 9's for backdrop lighting, the product's versatility allows for the use of various lighting arrangements for each number. More than 1,700 VC-Dot 9's shine behind the stage to accentuate Biolay's performance.

VC-Dot 9 is a lightweight string made up of individually controllable LED pixels, designed to create LED video solutions with maximum artistic flexibility and minimum effort. The lighting system was designed with proficiency in

UK - More than 70 substandard or even illegal LED-based products have had to be withdrawn from sale in the four years since Europe began phasing out incandescent light bulbs in favour of higher quality and more sustainable light-emitting diodes (LEDs), reveals lighting firm Osram.

These products, many of them substandard imports, range from individual LED bulbs to complete lighting solutions for industrial, professional and consumer use. They were removed as a precautionary measure by the European Commission (EC) to protect buyers from potential risks including electric shock, burns or even fire.

"LED lighting products have transformed the lighting industry. Genuine, high-quality LED products are up to 90 per cent more energy-efficient and offer lower total cost of ownership," says Jason Ford, UK controls manager at Osram. "However, it can be difficult for custo

USA - The Dave Matthews Band hits the road for an extensive national tour with Clay Paky lighting along for the ride.

The band commenced its 45-date cross-country swing in mid-May and wraps after Labour Day. They will be supporting last year's hit LP, Away From The World.

Theatrical Media Services is providing the lighting gear and consoles for design company and video vendor Filiment Productions. Fenton Williams is the production designer and lighting designer for the tour; Aaron Stinebrink is the lighting programmer and designer.

"The overall concept is to continually augment the look of the show as the evening progresses," says Stinebrink. "Everything is mounted on automated curved trusses that can move around during the show. We also have a large curved LED videowall upstage."

Twelve Clay Paky Sharpy Wash lights hang from the sub grid and shi

Czech Republic - Robe lighting's CEO Josef Valchar and staff at the company's HQ in Valasske Mezirici, Czech Republic, have mobilised to help contribute to humanitarian aid relief in the wake of the worst floods to hit the country in a decade.

The floods which affected vast swaths of the Czech Republic and other central European countries including Germany and Austria, claimed several lives and caused chaos as tens of thousands were evacuated from their homes.

One of the areas affected in CZ was ?eský Krumlov, host to the recent 2013 Showlight conference. Many houses were flooded due to the surging water levels of the Vltava river - normally a small unobtrusive creek which became a raging torrent - with possessions destroyed by the surging waters.

Robe, based in Moravia which luckily escaped the flooding, has formed a close link with ?eský Krumlov in the four years run up

UK - Tring-based rental and technical solution specialist Universal Event Productions (UEP) has invested in 12 of Robe's new Pointe moving lights together with another 10sq.m of Glux-12 LED screen.

This adds to its already substantial stock of Robe moving lights, bringing the total to around 100 fixtures, and to its existing stock of Glux, bringing the current total to 60sq.m.

The Pointes will make their debut on the two-day 2013 Chilfest music festival staged in Tring on 5 and 6 July. The production design will also feature 60sq.m of Glux, which UEP first had designed and built last year.

Chilfest, the first UK music festival to be promoted by an industry rental company, sees UEP celebrate its 15th birthday in style, with two nights of action packed entertainment and fun for the capacity audience of 7,000 people.

UEP has been buying Robe moving lights for the last 10 year

South Africa - After training and product orientation, the SABC crew were pleased to use their new lighting gear, including Robins, Sharpys, Tiger Touch and Prolyte trussing, on the second season of the television game show, Fan Base.

"This was the very first time they used the equipment they recently bought," said Kagiso Tiro Moima from Blackmotion, who helped specify and supply the gear to the SABC. On this occasion Moima notably wore different hats. As a lighting designer and operator for Fan Base he simultaneously managed to instruct staff on how to rig, patch, operate and safely hang lights.

"I love training," explained Moima. "The more people we have in lighting the better. I don't just want to get a cheque from the SABC for work done. For me it's nice to share knowledge so that the team can sustain themselves and build their own skills.&q

UK - "The client was really surprised about how we totally transformed the room using just six Alpha Spot QWO 800s and four A.leda Wash K10s," comments Presentation Rentals' director, Justin Hammond. "At our very first outing with the new Clay Paky stock we knew that the decision to purchase from Ambersphere Solutions was the right one. The event was The Evening Standard Film Awards and the venue was The London Film Museum so this was a high profile show with a knowing audience in terms of theatricality. The Clay Pakys definitely didn't disappoint."

Presentation Rentals services the ever expanding corporate market from their base in South East London and have recently chosen to invest significantly in the Clay Paky brand as Hammond explains, "A lot of clients and freelance designers are already very familiar with the Clay Paky brand and love worki

India - Pune- based wedding and event specialists Wadhwa Decorators has opened a new lighting division and invested in Robe moving lights - Robin 1200 LEDWashes, MMX Spots and 300 Beams - in order to offer a premium service to their many high profile clients.

The company operates Laxmi Lawns, a large wedding and celebration / party venue in central Pune comprising a selection of different buildings, gardens and exterior spaces with the capacity to stage events with up to 10,000 guests. There is a constant stream of celebrations taking place throughout the year including around 40 weddings and 15 - 20 other events.

Wadhwa Decorators is a well-established and very successful business providing designs ideas and infrastructure for a diversity of productions. With the demands becoming ever more complex, and wanting to be able to offer the best services, it made commercial sense to

USA - Clay Paky lighting fixtures were out in force at the 2013 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, which honoured inductees such as Aerosmith, The Doors, James Taylor, Albert King, Donna Summer, Rush and Quincy Jones at a gala event at LA's Nokia Theatre.

The celebrity-filled ceremony, which was taped for broadcast on HBO, featured 40 Clay Paky Sharpy Wash lights, 28 Sharpys and 7 Alpha Profile 700s controlled by two grandMA2 lights and one grandMA2 full system, all supplied by Atomic Lighting of Lititz, Pennsylvania.

"The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame usually focuses on six or seven performances in the multi-camera show, and the tone was very vibey, not overly glammy," says Kevin Lawson who programmed the lighting with Felix Peralta. Lawson handled the key lights and audience lights for lighting designer Allen Branton while Peralta programmed the scenic lig

London Calling - Punk pioneers The Clash are to be given an honorary award recognising their contribution to the music industry at the Silver Clef Awards next week. Mick Jones, the guitarist and co-frontman of the group which split up almost 30 years ago, said it was a "real honour" to receive the award..

David Munns, chairman of music charity Nordoff Robbins, which organises the awards, said, "The Clash's music has just as much influence today as it did when they first came onto the music scene in 1976." Other award winners to be honoured at the event in London on 28 June include Coldplay, Labrinth, Alison Moyet and Barry Gibb. The winner of the best live act prize will be announced on the day. The Kinks' Ray Davies will get an ambassador of rock award. New York band Vampire Weekend will also receive the international award.

Glastonbury Live - The B

Maldives - When the exclusive World Travel Awards - Indian Ocean Gala Ceremony took place recently at the luxurious Paradise Island Resort & Spa in the Maldives, local event company, Azidon Pvt Ltd used the occasion to introduce its new lighting inventory from the Chinese lighting manufacturer PR Lighting.

Azidon Pvt Ltd sponsored the production for the World Travel Awards - Indian Ocean Gala Ceremony as an event partner. "Our intricate local knowledge of the seas, islands and beaches gives us an edge when it comes to delivery," says Azidon's managing director, M. Fayid Farouk.

In addition, Azidon also offers private and exclusive VVIP event packages in partnership with its sister company, Lets Go Maldives Pvt Ltd.

As an event partner, the company knew that the set needed to be dressed to perfection and it turned to its recently acquired PR Lighting inventory, whic

USA - Enhancing the overall shopping mall experience for visitors - by creating a unique atmosphere with low maintenance colour-changing fixtures, which can be activated for selective events - is a challenge facing all management companies.

And when Gene Tasche, operations manager of Pine Street Group LLC, the company responsible for the Pacific Place shopping centre in Seattle, contacted GLP authorised dealer PNTA, it was precisely with that in mind.

With the Christmas season approaching, and the annual Snow Show looming, he needed something innovative to grab the attention of passers-by, and give the 15-year-old retail centre a fresh approach. Having worked on other projects at the site previously, the lighting specialists recommended seven of GLP's LED fixture, the impression Spot One, to be installed in each of the mall's seven columns.

Sheldon Warshaw, PNTA's Cus

Sweden - Ulfsunda Slott, situated near Stockholm's city centre in Sweden, is a castle with much history and numerous anecdotes. Built during the Thirty Years' War, and having been used by royalty, the history of this castle is indeed a rich one.

The building has been in the possession of private families, a prime minister, the county council and has now returned to private ownership - furniture designer from Svensk Inredning (Swedish Interior) Torbjörn Blomqvist, who initiated a major renovation upon the acquisition in 1999. Now the 1600's have met the 2000s in an amazing contrast, and the castle is now ranked as Sweden's number one luxury hotel, featuring facilities for art showrooms, conferences and restaurants.

In this special environment, every detail is of high importance. The illumination of the castle by night has been a challenging task for Blomqvist, and for the owne

UK - Vernon Kay is back to present a new series of the ITV show Family Fortunes . Dave Davey designs the lighting rig which is provided by Richard Martin Lighting (RML).

Each show, two teams of five family members (led by a celebrity captain) go head to head trying to guess the top answers in a series of open ended survey questions given to 100 members of the general public. At the end of this, the teams play Big Money. All prize money raised goes to the teams chosen charities.

Lighting-wise, this has seen some significant changes, the main one being the use of LED. Davey uses Robe Robin 600 LEDWash and Robe Robin 100 LEDBeams amongst other units including MAC 500s.

(Jim Evans)

UK - London-based lighting specialists, White Light, have become the first UK company to invest in SGM's new IP65-rated P-5 LED wash light to boost its hire fleet.

The agreement to supply 24 of the high power, low profile rectangular fixtures, was confirmed at this month's ABTT Show in London.

Incorporating 44 x RGBW 10W LEDs, the fixture offers CTC and White Balance control, with just 450W power consumption and LED source life expectancy of 50,000 hours. Stretching the output-to-consumption envelope by providing an overall efficacy factor of 52 lumens per watt (channelled through the 15°, 21° and 43° lens options) the green credentials of the P-5 raise the benchmark considerably.

Said SGM UK's Ian Kirby, "This is a highly significant sale for us as it is the first substantial P-5 rental sale - and to one of the industry leaders. Given that White Light also

Germany - ETC's stand at Showtech in Berlin was busy throughout the three days of the show, with visitors often spilling into the aisles. And regular presentations at the Layers of Light Theatre in both German and English drew large crowds who found out more about how LED fixtures work and how they can work as part of a mixed traditional and LED rig.

Given the 34º heat outside, ETC was keen to proving how cool the LED fixtures run - a plastic gobo would melt in front of a tungsten lamp, but they work perfectly with Source Four LED fixtures.

Visitors to the ETC stand were invited to draw a gobo on a square of plastic, with ETC's Facebook friends deciding which were good enough to win a Source Four Mini. Hundreds took part in the public vote, with Linus Zahn, Lilith Gardell and Elana Siberski the clear winners.

European Promotion & Advertising Manager for ETC GmbH Rosi Marx s

Sweden - The world's biggest song contests - Eurovision and Melodifestivalen (Melody Festival), the annual music competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television and Sveriges Radio, both rely on CAST Software's pre-visualisation suite wysiwyg for their production designs.

As chief LD on both productions this year, distinguished lighting designer Fredrik Jönsson of Eyebrow Designs, employed wysiwyg in order to deliver stunning visuals for the likes of Robin Stjernberg and Emmelie de Forest, winners of Melodifestivalen and Eurovision, respectively.

Regarding WYG's involvement in the production design for Melodifestivalen, Jönsson remarked, "Well, it's all we use! wysiwyg is the backbone of the lighting production, we use it for all aspects: CAD, lighting design, pre-production, technical specs and drawings. I use it as a tool for the presentation o

UK - West London based lighting and visuals rental company Colour Sound Experiment has invested £350,000 in the latest Robe moving lights - to up its stock and service its busy on-going work schedule.

Forty LEDWash 600s, 40 x LEDWash 300s and 35 x MMX Spots, all from Robe's Robin range, have joined Colour Sound's rental inventory which now features over 250 Robe moving heads - as well as a few hundred more from other brands.

Colour Sound's Haydn Cruikshank remarked, "These particular Robe fixtures are appearing with increasing frequency on band and LD specs, so we need to have them on board", adding that they are "light, bright and excellent value".

(Jim Evans)

UK - Ambersphere Solutions have announced the dates and venues of their upcoming open days.

The Ambersphere Open Days offer customers a localised opportunity to meet the team behind Clay Paky, MA Lighting and Robert Juliat products in the UK, and spend some time familiarising themselves with the latest products available from each of these highly respected brands.

The Midlands Open Day will be held on Tuesday 9 July at the Swan Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon, followed swiftly by the South-West Open Day later that week at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School on Thursday 11 July.

And hot on the heels of the announcement that Ambersphere Solutions has become the exclusive distributor of Robert Juliat in the UK there will be plenty to see and talk about with the team.

"There really is no surer way of understanding the quality of any piece of equipme

UK - When searching for the right spot luminaire system to enhance Vive Forever the West End musical based on the songs of the Spice Girls, lighting designer Howard Harrison held a light shootout. The Martin award-winning MAC Viper Profile was chosen to light the stage.

"The Viper is a very good unit, very bright. It's as simple as that," Harrison says. "We use Vipers in every scene - they are the workhorses of our lighting rig for 'Viva Forever.' Throughout the show's running they've been reliable and have maintained their brightness very well."

Harrison's rig places the Viper Profiles on the stage's overhead truss with additional units at the FOH position. White Light, the London-based lighting contractor, supplied the Viper Profiles. The company debuted MAC Viper in the West End in late 2012 on another Harrison-designed musical, Loserville.

Denmark - Martin's new line of affordable lighting effects, Rush, will be starring in a series of YouTube videos aptly titled, Films in the Fast Lane. With a complete demonstration of the technology's capabilities, each video will showcase the range of features and benefits each Rush product offers.

Subscribing to the RUSH by Martin YouTube channel by visiting http://www.youtube.com/user/RUSHbyMartinPro, viewers will be in the driver's seat, able to discover new and creative lighting deployments using the Rush lighting series.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Atlantis Nightclub, situated at the end of Eastbourne Pier, has recently undergone a full re-fit complete with brand new audio and lighting systems.

Christos Stylianou, general manager of Eastbourne Pier and Atlantis Nightclub commented: "I wanted to use 3D LED tubes to maximise the impact of the arched ceiling. In addition to this we required moving heads, architectural highlighting and a complete sound system. All of this was needed on a budget."

Christos approached Ian Goacher from Accord Audio, based in East Sussex, to specify and install the equipment. Ian has a very long working relationship with the venue and understands their requirements perfectly. He sourced the majority of the equipment from MilTec (UK) Ltd, based near Maidstone in Kent.

The Miltec lighting equipment comprised of 172x 3D-PixelTubes and 4x EPW2 LED moving heads. For the architectural

Germany - A hundred and twelve Robe moving lights were used by set designer Valentin Lüdicke of Heidelberg based design practice Atelier Kontrast to light Floor 2 of the 2013 Time Warp EDM event at the Maimarkt-Areal Arena, Mannheim.

This saw 15,000 revellers party hard to some of the best dance music on the planet including Ritchie Hawtin, Sven Väth, Dubfire and many more.

Valentin's imagineering followed the dynamic architecture of the specially designed 'Tri-Arc' curved roof structure, constructed from a series of interlocking triangles, which, combined with some clever lighting trickery, created an infinity perspective.

He chose 56 x Robin LEDBeam 100s and 56 x Robin MMX Spots to be at the hub of the lighting rig, together with a smattering of LED-PARs and a bunch of strobes, working closely on the lighting elements with programmer / operator Matthias 'Lumpy' Vollrath.

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