USA - As one of the largest music festivals held in Colorado, the annual Country Jam features four days of performances by some of country music's hottest stars. With a 2013 festival headlined by Montgomery Gentry, Miranda Lambert, Kid Rock and Rascal Flatts, the event once again lived up to its reputation as one of the premier festivals in country music.

Before the award-winning artists could take the stage, it was longtime festival provider StagePro who oversaw the creation of all the production elements which included an all Vari-Lite automated lighting rig complete with 12 VL3015LT Spot, 16 VL3500 Wash FX, 16 VLX Wash, six VL880 Spot, and 16 VL3000 Spot Luminaires.

"This was a festival rig which was not designed for any one specific band," said Craig Ahneman, StagePro production manager. "As a full service production company, the one thing we fought for on t

UK - With two successful Showlight events and eight years of managing the event's volunteer organising committee, Ian Dow has passed his chairman's baton to John Allen of Northern Light.

Allen has been a member of the Showlight committee since the 2001 event in Edinburgh and his responsibilities have included organising both the visits programme and the conference dinner, the signature event where diners move from one table to another during the course of the evening, ensuring everyone meets someone new - and providing a memorable experience into the bargain!

The next Showlight takes place in 2017; both the main sponsor and the host country have yet to be decided but, says John Allen, "Following the success of Showlight 2013 in Cesky Krumlov, there is already great interest in the sponsorship of the 2017 event and many of this year's exhibitors have already shown interest

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd received a great reception to cutting-edge new technologies showcased on their stand at PLASA London 2013 from the many brands the company distributes exclusively in the UK and certain international territories. "This year's show was the biggest and best yet for AC-ET," says the company. Key lighting, video, rigging and audio product innovations were represented from AC-ET's portfolio of over 200 premium brands and four specialist sales divisions.

There was a great reception to the worldwide launch of the new Vision LED family, which features a 16° Par, a 1 metre batten and a zoomable moving wash each using 10W RGBW Multichip LEDs and delivering powerful and consistent performance. The LED range offers real value for money without compromising on performance, build quality or reliability, and provided dynamic illumin

Belgium - ArKaos Stage server was recently employed to create a spectacular 3D overhead video wall at Belgium's famous Pukkelpop Festival.

The annual Pukkelpop festival, held at Kiewit near Hasselt, is one of Belgium's largest alternative music festivals, attracting over 60,000 festival-goers and second in size only to Rock Werchter.

This 'progressive and contemporary' musical event plays host to around 200 bands on its eight stages over the three-day festival and showcases a wide variety of music that encompasses rock, pop, electronic, dance, hip-hop, punk and heavy metal. The eclectic line up for 2013 included top artists Eminem, The Prodigy and Nine Inch Nails and world-class DJs including Mark Ronson, The Magician and Boys Noize.

The opening night party to the 28th Pukkelpop was the ideal event for ArKaos, Belgian media server and software manufacturer, to show off the p

UK - In the four years since it began, The Great British Bake Off has become one of BBC2's most popular series. Lighting such a show may seem as easy as, well, baking a cake. But the simplicity of the show's concept belies the challenge that comes with rigging a set in the middle of a field, a challenge leading lighting supplier Stage Electrics stepped up to and conquered.

"The first series of The Great British Bake Off travelled around the UK and the logistical challenges involved were considerable," says Stage Electrics project manager Russell Payne, who has worked on the show since the very start. "A company that could handle the logistics of moving tents, lighting, power, etc, was needed. We do a lot of work with the BBC and, as one of only a few companies that have the infrastructure to supply what was necessary, the production company who produ

UK - Entertainment lighting specialist White Light is holding an online auction of surplus new and ex-hire lighting and AV equipment in order to make room for new incoming products. The auction, organised by Sweeney Kincaid auctioneers, includes more than 600 lots of new and used products from manufacturers ArKaos Pro, City Theatrical, Clay Paky, ETC, Martin Professional, Selecon, and many more. With everything from lighting fixtures and accessories to control desks and dimmers, the online sale is offering deep discounts for those quick enough to snap up a bargain.

Products range in condition from new products 'off the shelf' to ex-hire gear 'sold for spares' and could appeal to wide variety of customers including venues, rental houses, and events companies looking to complement existing stocks or end users seeking a particular piece of equipment. Detailed information and photos

Royal Visit - The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh are to visit the National Theatre today, as the institution celebrates its 50th birthday. They will be given a backstage tour by outgoing director Sir Nicholas Hytner and watch rehearsals for forthcoming family show Emil and the Detectives. Their visit marks the anniversary of the first performance at the theatre

Peter O'Toole opened the venue on 22 October 1963, playing Hamlet under the eye of founder Sir Laurence Olivier. More than 800 productions have taken place at the venue in the intervening 50 years, including premieres of plays by Tom Stoppard, Peter Shaffer, Harold Pinter, Alan Bennett and David Hare.

During their visit, the Queen and Prince Philip will enjoy a musical number from Guys and Dolls, which was the first musical staged at the National, in 1982. The royal visitors will also visit the props work

UK - ETC's PLASA stand visitors queued up for demonstrations of the new ETC Source Four LED CYC last week. With the help of a desert scene cyclorama lent by the Design Realisation students on the Technical Theatre Arts programme at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, ETC's fixtures product manager Jim Uphoff and colleagues showed how one scene can be dramatically changed to match different times of day.

Five Source Four LED fixtures with attached CYC adapters at the bottom, and another five at the top, were controlled through an ETC Paradigm touchscreen to produce different colour mixes, each affecting how the scene was perceived.

At London's National Theatre, lighting director Neil Austin used a similar setup on Liolá, using Source Four CYC fixtures to create a very slow fade from cool blue daytime to warm orange evening lighting over the course of up to half an hour.

Els

South Korea - Magic on Ice, the art, magic and conjuring show created by Steve Wheeler, sold out for 10 days at the Blue Square Theatre in Seoul, South Korea, with 20 shows and over 20,000 spectators.

The famous American magician, who lives and works in Las Vegas, started doing his travelling show several years ago to make a name for himself worldwide. Emiliano Morgia, the show's lighting designer in South Korea said, "We met in Dubai, where I worked on one of his shows, and he called me again for this one in the Far East."

The lighting rig included 24 Alpha Profile 1500s, 24 Alpha Spot HPE 700s and Clay Paky Sharpys.

"One interesting aspect of the pre-production was that I prepared everything at home with WYSIWYG. In particular, I connected up remotely with Steve Wheeler, who was also the creative director," Emiliano Morgia said. "We worked t

Belgium - Lighting designer Frederik Heerinckx of BlackBox Design was hugely anticipating his first chance to use Robe's new Pointe fixtures on a show .. and the occasion presented itself for the 2013 Beachvolley Deluxe Championships in Baal.

The annual three day event, which is organised by vzw Beachvolley Deluxe and a dedicated team of volunteers headed by Stijn Saliem, celebrated its 14th glorious year, welcoming over 200 teams and up to 1000 spectators a day ... to enjoy some superlative beach volleyball action. It sold out in 15 minutes.

Baal might be decidedly landlocked, but the spirit of the beach lived on ... complete with a fully sanded venue, volleyball courts and two large beach parties staged on the Friday and Saturday nights, complete with an all-action DJ line up.

Production values are high on the agenda at this event which features a StageCo stage, a speciall

France - One of the most famous monuments of the 'old city' of Lyon (Vieux Lyon), the Palais de Justice de Lyon, recently benefited from a new exterior lighting installation which uses an array of LED lighting fixtures from Ayrton to accentuate its architectural magnificence.

Ayrton, French specialists in intelligent LED lighting products for entertainment and architectural applications, has provided fixed installations for a number of historic monuments, of which the Palais de Justice is just the latest.

Inaugurated in 1847 and often referred to the 'Palace of the Twenty-Four Columns', the Palais de Justice de Lyon was classified as a Historical Monument in 1996 and is one of the finest neo-classical buildings in France.

To show its spectacular facade to its best advantage, lighting designer Jerome Donna from the Public Lighting Department of the City of Lyon chose a select

UK - Last weekend, White Light sponsored the UK Theatre Awards, presented Sunday at the historic Guildhall in Central London. The annual awards ceremony, organised by the Theatrical Management Association, celebrates the impressive individual and collective achievements of the nation's thriving theatre sector.

White Light has long been a supporter of the TMA and its award ceremony, supplying lighting equipment and services to the event for several years before becoming an official sponsor of the UK Theatre Awards in 2012. White Light continues to supply lighting for the event in addition to its sponsorship.

White Light managing director Bryan Raven commented, "We are happy to support the TMA and the UK Theatre Awards. Recognising and promoting the great work of regional theatres is a vital part of strengthening the cultural sector and ensuring it thrives in all areas of o

USA - Two Avolites Media Ai Infinity 8 Servers and one Ai T8 server have powered the video mapping, projection, and LED screens for the Billboard Latin Music Awards in Miami - watched by more than 30 million people.

Avolites Media Developer Ciaran Abrams worked closely with US-based lighting design and media presentation company DMDS7UDIOS on the 2013 Awards, held at the 7,972-seat BankUnited Center.

"Avolites Media's Ai kit was used to run every bit of video that was seen at the event - including the projection on the triangles and the video mapping for the 4 LED Screens placed in unusual geometry around the stage. We also video mapped MiStrip Led Strips at the back of the stage and several thousand MiPix designed into the set," says Abrams. "There were multiple systems outputting to 10 HD projectors and 4 HD LED setups, all controlled from one lighting desk. T

UK - MGC Lighting has lit up this summer's music scene, providing solutions to Glastonbury, Latitude, Edinburgh and Isle of Wight festivals. The innovative lighting provider, which has a wealth of live performance experience, supplied carefully selected solutions to create a range of impressive effects on- and off-stage.

At Glastonbury Festival, MGC supplied lighting to coordinate car park and campsite areas, providing festival goers with easily-navigable paths and walkways. Here, colour-coordinated Impact LED G45 Golfball Lamps provided bright output with a warm glow, in-keeping with the festival's creative design concepts.

On-stage at Glastonbury GE PAR lamps were used to illuminate a star-studded line-up of performers. Here, bright, single beams were combined with Rosco coloured gels to create an array of dazzling colour effects. Performers at this year's Glastonbury Festiv

UK - Avolites Media's industry-leading Ai Servers and Sapphire Media consoles have exhibited their flexibility and processing power handling multiple live input streams alongside playback of custom designed media content for this year's Secret Garden Party - main and second stages.

Almost 30,000 revellers attended the popular independent music and arts festival in Abbots Ripton, Cambridgeshire, to see headliners including Faithless, 2ManyDJs, and The Ladykillers.

Two Ai Infinity Servers with two black magic capture cards in each were stationed on the main stage (one for service, one backup) and controlled by the Sapphire Media console. A second Ai server was placed to serve the second stage.

"The festival organisers wanted something different from the standard wall of LED screens," says design company Immersive's Ralph Lambert, who was in charge of all main stage v

Switzerland - With the Laserworld Group growing more and more and the fast development in online media, an expert for multimedia marketing was required. In September Sascha Kempter joined the Laserworld Team in Lengwil (Switzerland) as multi-media marketing manager.

Kempter is responsible for parts of the online media management and the digital media approach for the subsidiaries as well as for the parental company. "His knowledge of analytics, graphics and design tools as well as his content management and online media skills make him a perfect fit for our team" says Norbert Stangl, sales & marketing director for the Laserworld Group. "The online media are growing very fast, so it is absolutely necessary for us to intensify our work there."

(Jim Evans)

UK - The First Night Riders charity motorbike and classic car adventure, which raises money to help The Theatrical Guild support backstage and front of house staff, has announced new dates for 2014.

Organisers David and Brenda Edelstein, from track systems specialist Triple E, will be leading next year's event and are inviting riders and classic car enthusiasts to join them from 20-23 June 2014.

Next year will be the fifth time the First Night Riders have toured the UK, setting off from a London location (TBC) and visiting some of the UK's most fascinating theatres and theatre suppliers.

Last year, the intrepid gang embarked from London's iconic Roundhouse and travelled through the Midlands, visiting sites including the Oxford Playhouse, the Buxton Opera House, and Sheffield's Crucible Theatre.

This year's route and stop offs are still in the planning stages but seaside

UK - High Wycombe- based lighting rental specialist Siyan is supplying lighting to the current UK and European tour by chart-topping alt rockers The Editors, which is designed by Colin Ross.

In Europe, the lighting design continues the concept of a large 'specials' package which started during the band's summer festival tour.

It also sees a continuance of the successful on-going working relationship between Colin Ross and Siyan which dates back seven or so years including several Ross designed tours for The Manic Street Preachers, Travis and others.

The Editors 2013 summer festival rig featured lots of Robe LEDWash 600 and 1200s as well as PAR cans and proved extremely versatile, with Ross creating ambience and texturing with the interplay between tungsten and LED lightsources.

When it came to this tour Ross stayed with this provocative, more moody theme of lighting - the

World - Internationally acclaimed lighting designer LeRoy Bennett is exploiting the unprecedented brightness of Clay Paky Sharpys on Beyonce's Mrs Carter 106-date world tour.

Bennett's fast paced, dynamic design uses the pure, laser-like beams of an extraordinary 208 Sharpys, which successfully cut through more than 1050 individual luminaires.

Bennett cites Beyonce herself as the inspiration for his design. She'd requested a lighting-driven show that would deliver epic results. Bennett specified 446 SGM X-5 LED Strobe early on, which contributed considerably to making the Mrs Carter show the brightest ever measured (in lux output) on a concert stage. From the beginning Bennett knew he needed a luminaire that would cut through these super bright strobes and the Sharpy was the answer.

"I love the Sharpy's incredible brightness, beam size, and speed," Be

World - Singer-songwriter Bruno Mars has been getting rave reviews for his Moonshine Jungle Tour, which will continue to play dates around the world through March 2014. The tour is accompanied by Clay Paky Sharpy and Sharpy Wash fixtures.

"We were tasked with creating a world for Bruno and his band to inhabit," says lighting designer Cory FitzGerald who codesigned the tour with Roy Bennett. "Bruno has a lot of sounds and pushes past a lot of genres, so he needed an environment that would accommodate all his music. The lighting fixtures help a lot with that. We have 42 Sharpy Washes and about 80 Sharpy beams and we're very happy with the rig." VER supplied the tour's gear.

The versatile Sharpy Washes are "used for everything," he says. "They're the main wash for the show, and we have 36 overhead and six on the floor. We built a ceiling,

Maldives - Premium fixtures from PR Lighting have been used on a key Maldivian political programme televised by local broadcaster, TVM (Television Maldives).

Siyaasath was a one-on-one prime time interview session conducted by presenter, Liza Laurella, with the four candidates representing the major political parties: MDP (Maldivian Democratic Party), PPM (Progress Party of Maldives), JP (Jumhooree Party) and Dr. Waheed (an Independent Candidate).

Part of MBC (Maldives Broadcasting Corporation), TVM sourced quantities of XLED 1037 and XR-300 Beam from local events company, Azidon Pvt,and these were designed into the stage set by Abdulla Shamin.

Azidon's Ahmed Hamzoon explained: "These were selected because a powerful beam effect was required in the colours of the respective parties. They were primarily used for effects to complement TVM's Studio Lights."

(Jim Eva

USA - Crowds turned out in record numbers for the 19th annual Essence Festival in New Orleans. A-list artists including Beyoncé, LL Cool J, Jill Scott, Tamia, Janelle Monáe, and others packed venues throughout The Big Easy. The festival was staged by Essence Communications and produced by Solomon Group, a New Orleans-based entertainment production company, which supplied various equipment including Clay Paky Sharpy lighting fixtures to eight stages across town.

Francesco Romagnoli, Clay Paky area manager for North and Latin America, comments: "This is a very high profile and exciting event to be involved in and we're proud to be a part of it. The Solomon Group is a very talented company and we're proud to be working with them."

"With great some support from VER, Solomon Group supplied gear to several stages, including five in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome,

UK - Illuminate Design has recently upgraded the Foyer and Bar lighting for Colchester's Mercury Theatre. One of the region's most respected theatres, the Mercury has gained a reputation for encouraging ground-breaking new writing alongside established classics, and contributing to the wider regeneration of the region.

The Theatre was first opened in 1972, and following a number of upgrades in the intervening years, it has now invested in a complete new lighting system for its Foyer and Bar Areas, as part of wider improvements to the theatre's energy use and audience experience.

As the system needed to be both discreet and environmentally efficient, Illuminate Design specified Chauvet energy-saving LED lighting, which will not only reduce the theatre's running costs, but its maintenance costs also. As ease of control was important, an iLight Controller was installed pre-progra

USA - America's Got Talent, NBC's hit reality television show, has taken its collection of acrobats, magicians, singers and the like on the road. Lighting designer Seth Jackson worked with Bandit Lites to illuminate the variety show, taking into account that show would be transitioning from television to a touring act.

"The biggest decision I made when looking at the TV show was to go completely in the opposite direction," said Jackson. "This design focuses on crafting a look that celebrates the feel of the show, but has its own identity."

Additional measures were taken to ensure that the differing artists were given varying looks: Musical artists require the feel of a concert, comedians, a television special appearance, and acrobatic sequences were lit like a dance piece.

One challenge to designing the show came from the fact that truck space was

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