UK - Lighting and visuals rental specialist Colour Sound Experiment supplied lighting and LED screens to Vodafone UK's annual conference staged at the Birmingham Hilton Metropole Hotel at the National Exhibition Centre.

It was the first year that CSE has been involved in the event, where they were working for producers, The Red Lodge Agency.

Three main areas needed technical production - the conference sessions in the hotel's Monarch Suite; a gala dinner and awards ceremony in the Palace Suite and then the after-show in the Kings Suite.

Colour Sound's project manager Fletch created a production lighting and visuals design for all three rooms and led a team of 11 technicians and engineers who worked closely on site with Rhys Sion from Red Lodge.

"The main challenges were the scale of the event and a short timescale - as is often the case," explains Fletch. "H

Czech Republic - In 2013, the Showlight Conference was staged in the Czech Republic for the first time, at Cesky Krumlov and with Robe Lighting as the main sponsor.

Nearly 400 visitors embraced the mediaeval town for the three days to enjoy a lively mix of presentations by industry professionals working in all areas of lighting and visuals plus networking opportunities as well as getting a taste of life in and around Cesky Krumlov.

Various fact-finding and sightseeing visits were an integral part of the conference itinerary, allowing delegates to see some of the local commerce and business activities first hand.

This included a tour of the city's famous Baroque Theatre complete with original wooden and rope stage machinery, and other specially arranged visits encompassed pencil and cosmetics factories and a graphite mine.The visit programme also took in the Mestske Theatre,

UK - OMC has announced the launch of its ProfiLED Lightbar product family, which reduce cost and offer an improved appearance, especially in low and medium volume applications.

Unless production volumes are very high, the cost of developing a custom lightbar is prohibitive for most applications. Instead, designers often use several standard square or rectangular units in combination. However, this approach gives rise to high materials and assembly costs, and the finished product has unsightly dark lines where the arrays join.

Using the same approach as it adopts in its ProfiLED Backlight range of LCD backlights, which employ LED edge-lighting and an acrylic lightguide to achieve uniform, consistent illumination, OMC can now offer alternatives to lightbars in a vast range of colours. Devices can vary from 2mm to 7mm in height and can be produced in a huge range of bespoke shape

UK - AED Distribution is the UK Master Distributor for High End Systems and is running a HOG4 training session on 11 and 12 June. There are a few places still available for what will be the first HOG4 Training in the UK run by Frank Schotman AED Distribution lighting specialist.

It is a free course and will provide an essential introduction to the new Family of HOG4 Consoles for all Lighting Professionals. It will be held at the AED Distribution UK Facility in High Wycombe. Those that are interested should contact Sarah Van Havere at sarah.van.havere@aeddistribution.be.

(Jim Evans)

Australia - LSC Lighting Systems and OpenClear have announced the release of Clarity software version 2. This much anticipated version includes a wide array of enhancements, bug fixes as well as updates for full compatibility with the latest versions of the Mac and Windows operating systems.

This release also brings the software in line with the recently released LX range of consoles so that features are common across the software and hardware platforms. The latest software also includes virtual consoles enabling users to operate their software as a virtual LX300, LX600 or LX900.

The software for Mac or PC can be downloaded and tried for free at LSC's website www.lsclighting.com.

(Jim Evans)

Germany - Over 100 Robe moving lights are in action for the sixth series of the popular reality TV show Let's Dance produced by ITV Germany, which is being recorded in Studio 32 of the MMC Film & TV Studios in Cologne

The production lighting designer is Manfred Ollie Olma, one of Germany's best known LDs.

His company, mo2 design GmbH, is also based in Köln, and has executive lighting designer & director of photography David Kreileman taking care of the week-to-week running of the show's lighting. He's working alongside mo2 project managers Sebastian Kirsch and Matthias Allhoff.

They are using 40 x Robe ColorSpot 2500E AT fixtures and 70 x ColorWash 2500E ATs, together with a large generic and white light rig including some 270 x 1K fresnels hung around the side walls for a special tungsten 'starlight' effect.

An important aspect of the lighting is to make the coupl

USA - Using 12 of GLP's versatile impression X4 LED fixtures, Washington DC-based Pulse Lighting recently provided lighting for Slightly Stoopid's special one-off 'Hot Box' show at Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre in Denver, Colorado. The show, which also featured Cypress Hill, was scheduled for broadcast live on AXS TV the same evening.

Set up by brothers Paul and Preston Hoffman in 2005, Pulse Lighting were asked to light the Californian-based 'fusion' band in their own right for the first time. "The management knew we had experience of the venue, and in running concert lights for broadcast," said Preston.

The day of the event - 20 April 20- was also significant since it is the day when counter-culturists celebrate the love of cannabis, as Preston explains. "With cannabis legalised in the state in 2013, the 4/20 show was historic for everyone involved in that c

USA - Fleetwood Mac is back on the road and Clay Paky Sharpy Wash 330 fixtures have joined the iconic band on the Fleetwood Mac Live 2013 World Tour.

The new tour, which began in Columbus on 4 April and will wrap in Scandinavia in October, marks the first for the band since 2009's sold-out Unleashed tour. 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 LCD panels and 32 Sharpy Washes on curved lighting pipes, some of them on the floor, some on the rigs and some

UK - ETC is looking forward to demonstrating a wide range of new and updated products at this year's ABTT show in London.

Star of the console area will be Eos Titanium (aka Ti), which takes its place as the company's flagship Eos line desk, with new Eos v2.0 software featuring Magic Sheets installed. Eos Ti incorporates new hardware and features that make designing and programming even easier.

Over in the fixtures area of the stand will be the Source Four LED, which comes in a range of models, depending on its intended use, from the powerhouse full colour Lustr+ to the white light specialists Tungsten, Daylight and the new Studio HD version. Staff will be available to show them to visitors, and explaining how they can fit into a mixed rig with conventional fixtures.

Another new addition to the range, and available for a special preview at ABTT, is the Source Four LED Cyc, wh

Germany - Recently, the event location Güterbahnhof (goods station) in Bad Homburg, Germany, invited the Nachtexpress (night train) show to dinner! Five courses of the menu were joined by show acts that fitted the destinations to which the night train was travelling. The night train was a construction that served as a stage as well as a projection area for the virtual journey.

Four MA VPU plus (Video Processing Unit) together with a grandMA2 replay unit and two grandMA2 light consoles were used for lighting and video control.

MedienReich - Gesellschaft für professionelle Eventtechnik mbH was responsible for the technical realisation of the event. Holger Turban worked as lighting technician and programmer, while Chris Pauli worked as video technician and programmer and created the video content.

Pauli commented on his choice of the MA system, "The MA system convinced u

UK - MilTec (UK) Ltd (Stand 60 in the Blue Hall) will be showing a range of audio and lighting products bearing the proud label "Made in Britain".

The successful TP speaker range has now been replaced by the Blakite range, consisting of three mid/tops and four subs. The new range is being built in the UK using high quality materials with custom drivers supplied by Fane.. The new range offers increased build quality, efficiency, power handling, frequency range and a marked improvement in sound quality, says the company.

On the lighting side, the Mini-Map LED screen will be the first MilTec lighting product to be made in the UK. The Mini-Map is a miniature LED screen with 36 tricolour pixels and in a break with convention is controlled via DMX512. It measures just 155mm square and is designed to be mounted individually or in clusters to provide stunning video and graph

Costa Rica - More than 50 high value fixtures from PR Lighting were deployed to support a massive concert in Costa Rica recently, given by French DJ/production superstar David Guetta.

More than 15,000 people turned up at the Autódromo La Guácima, where technical production company LuzArt provided a dynamic infrastructure. This included 18 of PR Lighting's super bright XR300 Beam, equipped with 300W Platinum 15R lamp and convex lens, and 36 compact XLED 336 LED moving heads. These were mounted on the backdrop truss, and on the ground, where they were used as floor FX.

LuzArt has been working with the Chinese manufacturer's products for the past three months and the company's owner, Francis Villalobos, confirmed that they were able to put up a compelling argument to the artist's production team for using the PR Lighting fixtures. "Although they weren't specified on the ri

Sweden - SGM equipped Malmo Arena's main stage with 52 X-5 white LED strobes and 82 SixPack LED blinders for this year's Eurovision Song Contest.

Although SGM fixtures were also used throughout the EuroVillage, it was in the main action of the contest itself that these FX worked their magic, adding genuine dynamic for lighting designer, Fredrik Jonsson. Along with ESC's experienced technical director, Ola Melzig (working on his 11th Eurovision), he had first seen the impact of these LED solutions on the SGM stand at the PLASA Show in London and later at LDI 2012 in Las Vegas.

According to Melzig, "We fell head over heels in love with them and knew this was something we had to have."

Jonsson first evaluated the X-5 strobes during an X-Factor broadcast he had been involved with back in November 2012. "We rigged a few of them next to other strobes I had in

UK - ADB Lighting Technologies has confirmed White Light as its main distributor for the UK, continuing a long relationship between ADB and the UK based lighting specialist. White Light provides sales, hire, and technical services to the entertainment, presentation, and event industries across the UK, Europe, and worldwide. The company recently supplied ADB Eurodim TwinTech dimmers to the English National Opera for installation at the London Coliseum.

"We are very pleased to add ADB's considerable lighting experience to the White Light Distribution network," said Peter Threadgold, sales director at White Light. "We have seen ADB's commitment to quality and innovation over the years. This matches perfectly with our desire to deliver the best lighting solutions for our customers."

White Light will offer sales and support for ADB's extensive range of high perf

UK - Robert Juliat and Ambersphere Solutions have announced an exclusive agreement that will enable Ambersphere Solutions to represent French manufacturer Robert Juliat throughout the UK. This agreement enables Ambersphere to extend its sales, service, support and training facilities to cover all Robert Juliat products.

Ambersphere Solutions is the exclusive UK distributor for German lighting control manufacturer MA Lighting and Italian moving light manufacturer Clay Paky. "Robert Juliat offer a desirable range of theatrical lanterns and followspots which perfectly complement the existing Ambersphere product range," says Ambersphere managing director Glyn O'Donoghue. "Our Total-Support distribution model is ideally suited to Robert Juliat's exceptional product range."

Robert Juliat sales director Claus Spreyer comments, "Our products are based on optic

Glastonbury Countdown - The BBC has said it is having "ongoing conversations" with the Rolling Stones over how much of their Glastonbury performance can be broadcast on TV. Press reports suggested the band had refused to let their full set be aired. "Discussions with artists are business as usual for this stage of our festival planning," a BBC spokesperson said.

Speaking to The Independent, the BBC's head of music television Mark Cooper said the rock legends were "nervous about how much they should share". The Stones, he told the paper, were "stepping out of their comfort zone". He added: "At this point, I'm quite optimistic we'll get a sufficient amount of music." The BBC statement said: "We're confident that we'll be able to deliver fantastic coverage of this year's amazing Glastonbury line-up." The Rolling Sto

UK - High Wycombe-based lighting rental specialist Siyan supplied equipment and crew to lighting designer Vince Foster for UK rockers' Alt-J's recent nationwide tour.

The band are rapidly commanding respect and building a fan base with their original sounds, and are hotly-tipped for great things since their An Awesome Wave debut album won the 2012 Mercury Music Prize.

Siyan was asked on board by production manager Mark Ward from Proper Productions, with whom they have enjoyed a long and successful working relationship.

Siyan's director Nick Valdez commented, "It's been hugely exciting for us! The band is critically acclaimed, and it's great to be working with someone of Vince's calibre and see him develop a really stylish show."

The rig supplied by Siyan was entirely floor based - and as per Foster's design, completely asymmetrical - forming the core of th

Sweden - Wireless Solution Sweden AB once again appeared on at the Eurovision Song Contest 2013, held at Malmo Arena in southern Sweden.

A sea of kinetic sculptures were hung throughout the entire arena roof, resembling interior design lamps which would raise, lower and change colour for the different performances. The sculptures were hung from custom winches designed by Tait Technologies with the majority hung over the audience and 14 placed directly over the main stage.

Two W-DMX BlackBox F-1 MKII units controlled 70 W-DMX Micro OEM Transceivers (with support of RDM), utilising three channels for an RGB LED located inside the fixtures and two channels for their speed and position. Although independently controllable, the sculptures as a whole were designed in unity, creating wave effects or lowering at the same time to give an intimate feel to the arena. Control came via gra

Brazil - LumenRadio reports that Newart Iluminacao Ltda has been appointed CRMX distributor in Brazil. Based in Sao Paulo, Newart has 14 regional representatives situated across Brazil and has been an exclusive distributor for Robe since 2001.

NewArt headed by Francisco Pinheiro has been involved in the moving light market since 1995 and maintains a head office as well as a workshop space in San Paulo. The new cooperation got off to a flying start at this year Prolight+Sound Show in Frankfurt and the complete CRMX product range will now be available in the Brazilian market.

Francisco Pinheiro says, "We always go with the best products on the market and LumenRadio's product range will be a perfect complement to our current brand portfolio. The introduction of the CRMX product range underlines the importance of not only supplying great quality products, but also backing thi

Brazil - Wanessa Godoi Camargo Buaiz, also known simply as Wanessa, is a Brazilian pop singer-songwriter. In 2009 she released her first single Fly, featuring American rapper Ja Rule, for the album Meu Momento. The song became the most played in the country, and was nominated for Hit of the Year at the MTV Video Music Brazil Awards. DNA is her seventh studio album, and the DVD shoot for this album in HSBC Hall Sao Paulo was equipped with an MA control system consisting of one grandMA2 light console, one MA onPC command wing, one MA NPU (Network Processing Unit) and two MA VPU plus (Video Processing Unit).

Marcos Olivio, lighting designer and photographic director, stated, "We used the grandMA2 system due to its reliability. The past years working with MA products have given us a lot of confidence. The whole system offers so many benefits and it is easy

Italy - Chromlech, French manufacturers of the award-winning Gleamer low-voltage dimmer, the Jarag range and the new Elidy LED matrix projector, have announced the appointment of Clay Paky as its new exclusive distributor for Italy.

With immediate effect, Clay Paky is solely responsible for the distribution of the full range of Chromlech products across Italy, backed up by comprehensive technical and after-sales support.

"The distribution of Chromlech in Italy is a great opportunity for both companies," states Pio Nahum, Clay Paky CCO. "Chromlech products are of excellent quality, and are well suited to the image of our brand. The target markets are very similar, but we have the advantage of offering different and complementary products. In this way, we can suggest to our clients creative solutions, mutually reinforcing both company proposals."

Chromlech

USA - Just six days. That's how long it took Blake Shelton's benefit concert for Oklahoma tornado victims to go from idea to live televised event.

North American rental company Christie Lites had even less time when they got the call to help. And it was during a holiday weekend. But thanks to Christie Lites' business model, they were able to quickly prep equipment and do their part in pulling off the show.

Shelton's Healing in the Heartland: Relief Benefit Concert featured a coming together of performers and concert production vendors to help raise money for those affected by the recent storms. The telethon aired live 29 May on NBC from the Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City.

Christie Lites provided the complete lighting and rigging package for the concert. Christie Lites Rental Rep Robert Roth said, "When we were asked to step up and help in this humanitar

UK - The show, which is made by 12 Yard Productions and filmed at BBC Glasgow, Pacific Quay, sees four players, known as 'usual suspects' compete for a £1,000 jackpot by achieving absolute perfection. All they have to do is separate fact from fiction.

Richard Martin Lighting (RML) provides the lights for the show, designed by LD Martin Kempton. As part of an ongoing relationship, the show is supported (whilst in Glasgow) by Tony Kennedy and his team at TSL (Technique Systems Limited).

The rig includes MAC 700, MAC 500, VL1000TS, Stage Zooms, Alpha Beam 700s, Chroma Strips and Chroma Banks.

Perfection was an instant success after it first aired in January 2011 and has now become a day time favourite in many homes.

(Jim Evans)

Turkey - Organizer - a versatile, high profile event management, planning, production and technical solutions company based in Ankara, Turkey - has just made a substantial investment in new Robe moving lights ... involving 150 fixtures.

The company has a reputation for excellence, quality and delivering imaginative shows and events and this is their first purchase of Robe.

The units were delivered by Robe's Turkish distributor Atempo, and will be used to service Organizer's vibrant client base on a wide variety of productions in Turkey and internationally.

In keeping with the company's reputation for innovation and forward thinking, they wanted to invest in cutting-edge technologies that offered the most inventive and flexible possibilities both now and in the future ... "So we chose Robe," state directors Sermurat Kucukgul and Yildiray Yildiz.

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