USA - Robe Lighting enjoyed one of its "busiest and best" LDI exhibitions to date at the Las Vegas Convention Centre, which saw their stylish, eye-catching all white booth - complete with spectacular lightshow designed by Nathan Wan - win 'Best Big Booth Design' category of the 2013 LDI Awards.

LDI 2013 was the first big US exhibition to showcase the Pointe - Robe's award winning small, super-bright, multi-purpose moving light ... and fastest ever selling product - and this fixture was the centrepiece of Nathan's lightshow, together with other new innovations like Robe's ROBIN MiniMe, CycFX 8, Cyclone, MMX Blade and ParFect 100.

In addition to the products, the other attraction on the stand was newly appointed CEO of Robe Lighting Inc., Bob Schacherl, whose vast contact base and popularity also pulled a significant number of people onto the stand to congratulate him

Ukraine - PR Lighting's new generation LED architectural fixtures have been specified to provide a colour-changing wash of the new PortCity Shopping Mall façade in the city of Mariupol.

CORTMI, the PR Lighting Ukrainian distributor, was able to meet the client's lighting requirements. Explained CORTMI marketing manager, Stanislav Serbin, "The initial task was to offer an energy saving architectural lighting system for a certain part of the façade that would provide minimal luminosity of 200 lux. LED-based fixtures were requested from the very beginning to minimize running costs.

"The choice of the models and optical groups was predetermined by the possible points of installation on the general purpose lighting poles - and in terms of price and features the choice was an obvious one."

The company therefore specified 12 x PR-8802 and seven PR-8800 for the outd

Eurovision Latest - Serbia has pulled out of next year's Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen, citing financial difficulties. The country's broadcaster said the "high costs necessary to participate" had led to the decision. Serbia won Eurovision in 2007 with the song Molitva by Marija Serifovic, but failed to qualify for the grand final in Malmo, Sweden this year. Other countries have also said they will sit out next year's competition, including Serbia's neighbour Croatia. Bulgaria and Cyprus will not be taking part either, with all four nations' broadcasters saying it is too expensive.

Former participants including Slovakia, Czech Republic and Andorra will remain on the sidelines, while Turkey are shunning the competition for a second year in a row, saying they are unhappy with the rules. They have created an alternative contest called Turkvision, whic

Australia - PR Lighting has announced that, with effect from 1 November, Jands will be distributing its product portfolio in Australia.

"We are very excited to have PR Lighting on board as part of the Jands professional lighting range," said Tim Kennard, lighting sales manager of Jands. "PR has been around for over 29 years as a manufacturer of professional lighting products and I think it's fair to say that so far they have exceeded our expectations in every area.

"Prior to signing on with PR we visited their factory in Guangzhou and the facilities are world class with a large, dedicated R&D division as well as first rate Quality Control processes in place at every level. With a great stable of products backed by a strong support team both at the factory and here at Jands we are looking forward to introducing new customers to the PR brand throughout Austra

USA - In one of the New York Stock Exchange's (NYSE) most anticipated days ever, social media giant Twitter rang the opening bell on Wall Street to market its initial public offering on 6 November. A lighting display featuring Martin Professional lighting fixtures, provided by See Factor, brightened the façade of the NYSE with Twitter's globally recognized logo the entire day.

Rental company See Factor designed the system for the NYSE façade with Martin's MAC 2000 wash lights - the standard See Factor uses for events at the NYSE. For most NYSE events, a full crew installs the system with additional generators during the prior evening. However, for the Twitter event, Michal Ahern of Michal Ahern Production Services requested See Factor use three 20-amp outlets in the NYSE lobby, rather than bringing in additional generators, and setting up and breaking down the day of the event

Australia - As part of the week of celebrations for the 40th anniversary of the Sydney Opera House, Crown Prince Frederik and Australian -born Crown Princess Mary of Denmark visited the Harbour City to honour the Danish architect J°rn Utzon's crowning achievement.

In cooperative effort between SBS, the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, the royal couple and the charitable Bikuben Foundation, their Highnesses presented the annual Crown Prince Couples Awards at the Joan Sutherland Theatre, the first time the awards ceremony has been held outside its native Denmark since its inception in 2004.

The awards were established by the Bikuben Foundation as a wedding gift for the royal couple and celebrate Danish excellence in arts, culture and society. The creative teams behind the television series The Killing and Borgen received the Cultural award, while violinist Rune Tonsgaard S&d

UK - Black Light has been busy championing ETC's ground-breaking Source Four LED CYC units. Not only is it the first company in the UK to have the fixtures in its hire stock, it has also recently run a demo day to highlight the CYC's strengths and has hired out a number of the units for their first ever use in a live event in Scotland.

"We love breaking new ground," says Black Light's head of marketing, Barclay Dakers. "It was fantastic to see these unique units in action and to give our friends in the industry the chance to get their hands on them and see just how well they work in a full-sized theatre environment."

The Black Light CYC demo day was held in conjunction with ETC at Edinburgh's King's Theatre on 14 November. Key lighting designers and theatre technicians from across Scotland came to see 18 of the CYC units in a full theatre set-up. They also

South Africa - Every year thousands of predominantly Afrikaans speaking South Africans embark on a two hour drive from Johannesburg to Sun City's Superbowl to attend Huisgenoot Skouspel where some of the best Afrikaans artists are heard and the most popular artists of the year are honoured. This year was no different as fans either stayed at Sun City for the weekend, or commuted on the day, to see their favourite performers on one stage during October 2013.

The production strongly embraced a theatrical feel, with carefully selected songs and nostalgic video content stirring emotions. A combination of fixtures were used to create clean looks, as lighting deisgner Joshua Cutts painted in colour. For lighting control he used 1 x grandMA2 light, 1 x MA onPC command wing, 2 x MA VPU plus (Video Processing Unit) and 1 x MA NPU (Network Processing Unit).

Cutts from Visual Frontier ha

UK - Lighting designer Andy Hurst created a completely new lighting, set and visual design for the latest Chase & Status UK Arena tour which started off their campaign promoting their new album Brand New Machine.

HSL has supplied Chase & Status with equipment right from the start of their touring career, and production manager Michael Clegg once again sourced all lighting and LED screens from the company, where they were looked after by project manager, Mike Oates.

The design involved over 150 moving lights plus substantial quantities of Martin LC and EC LED screen.

Hurst's starting point for the stage aesthetics was that the 'Brand New Machine' album featured a slightly more clubby and commercial sound than their previous works of more hardcore drum 'n' bass ... so he created a contemporary look to the stage but laced it with throw-backs to the most specular classic

USA / Canada - Electronic rock and art fuse in the eclectic sound of Phantogram as the duo from New York State are currently enjoying the crest of a wave of anticipation.

Lighting designer Ed Warren - known for his stylish and inventive stagecraft - was asked to create lighting for their latest US and Canadian tour which was out for a month playing a variety of venues between 800 and 1500 capacities to sold out audiences and receiving rave reviews.

Warren chose eight of Robe's tiny LEDBeam 100s to be a key part of the toured lighting rig - which had to fit into a trailer being towed behind the bus with all of the band's backline. They were chosen for their compact size and ability to help showcase the original lighting concept.

Warren received a brief from the band which referenced some of the artists they had seen recently including The National, Flaming Lips, Beach House a

Latvia - LumenRadio and Company NA have announced a distribution agreement whereby NA Company will serve as the distributor for the CRMX brand in Latvia.

"Company NA gives LumenRadio a strong partner in the Latvian market," says Jessica Björk, sales & marketing manager at LumenRadio. "With their excellent sales presence, technical support and strong brand awareness, I believe we are heading towards a really successful business relationship."

Company NA, founded 1994, is one of the leading professional companies in Latvia, with a wide range of light equipment, light system control and management equipment for theatre and stage use. Company NA has provided equipment to some of the largest installations all round Latvia, including the Eurovision Song Contest in Riga 2003.

"We are extremely proud and thrilled to be part of the LumenRadio family," e

USA - The Miss America pageant returned to its Atlantic City origins this year and lighting designer Allen Branton was charged with lighting the cavernous Boardwalk Hall and making sure 53 beautiful women looked their best whenever the TV camera turned their way. He was aided by Clay Paky Sharpy and Sharpy Wash fixtures from Atomic Lighting in Lititz, Pennsylvania.

Branton marked his sixth consecutive year lighting the pageant, which was televised on ABC-TV. After spending a number of years in Las Vegas the show moved back to Atlantic City where "the venue, audience and scenery doubled in size," he reports. "Given the size of the hall and way the show was set in the room, every single element of production had to be rigged from overhead - and there's no permanent rigging infrastructure. So there were 240 individual rigging points for lighting, sound, video, scener

USA - High End Systems chose the LDI trade show to debut four new products that spanned the categories of control, digital, and automated lighting. The expansion of all product portfolios comes on the heels of what has been a very successful 2013 for the company.

Following the HOG4 family of console products launch, High End Systems launched a new breed of Hog at LDI, the HedgeHog 4. Alongside the product launch came the announcement of a new type of partnership. Elation Professional will distribute the HedgeHog 4 in the US, Canada, Latin America, South East Asia and India. This agreement will enable Elation to offer its customer base a powerful and intuitive lighting console while offering High End Systems access to markets previously unreached.

Alongside the HedgeHog 4, High End Systems launched the SolaSpot Pro CMY and the new family of high definition media servers- Axon H

USA - As of 1 November this year, Le Maitre USA, LLC relocated to Las Vegas, just 30 minutes off the Strip, and it's a move that couldn't have come at a better time, the company says. With a new president at the helm in the US, further investment in R&D and production at Le Maitre's pyrotechnics manufacturing location in the UK, and a steady stream of new products being added to their already extensive portfolio, Le Maitre believes it is "exceptionally well placed to forge ahead in North America as well as around the rest of the world".

The move from Le Maitre's previous US headquarters in Austin, Texas was something that Le Maitre USA joint-owner Karen Haddon had been keen to make happen for a while. She says: "Finding the right location for us in Vegas has involved a great deal of time and effort, but it's absolutely been worth it all. The move to Vegas offers a

UK - The stunning combination of light and video for Kings of Leon's summer dates was the work of Paul Normandale. It was left to board operator Ali Bale to elicit the best out of Normandale's design.

For Bale, this was the inaugural journey on a grandMA2 console. "I had been using the same desk almost exclusively for the last fifteen years; like most people you tend to stick to what you're used to. A desk is a very personal choice but Paul encouraged me, telling me that I wouldn't regret giving the MA2 a try. And, in fact, it was the ability of the board to allow you to set it up in such a way that is unique to its user is something that I feel is real strength of the console - something that initially won me over - without being limited to a fixed set of windows and faders which cannot be altered too much.

"For me and I'm sure a lot of MA users, the real time is sp

Italy - Lighting designers Stefano Limone and Gianfranco Saponaro included 12 Robe Robin Pointes and eight LEDWash 600s in their scheme at the Teatro Franco Parenti, one of the larger venues at the new Elita Ouverture Festival, a celebration of EDM and electronic arts staged at various venues in Milan, Italy.

The lighting for the duration of the festival was looked after at the venue by Walter Lutzu, who has also been a keen Robe user for some time and loves the new Pointe multi-purpose fixtures in particular. He says: "It's a great product, lightweight and compact, with a host of features that make it highly versatile."

With Elita being an EDM festival, there was a need for lots of backlighting and filling the stage space with lights.

Six of the Pointes were positioned on the floor behind the DJ booth. For De La Soul's performance, these were re-positioned to be b

Serbia - Croatian megastar Gibonni recently played a special concert in the Kombank Arena, Belgrade, Serbia in front of 20,000 fans who all went crazy for the occasion! The lighting utilized 22 x Robe Robin Pointes and 36 LEDBeam 100s which were specified by lighting designer Sven Ku?ini?.

Ku?ini?, based in Zagreb, Croatia started working with the popular singer, musician and composer this year. Ku?ini? is a well-known LD in Croatia and was offered the gig following his high profile work with Croatian rockers Prljavo Kazaliste plus a plethora of musicals, concerts and events.

Gibonni is in the middle of a tour at the moment but this was a special show and saw a much anticipated and awaited performance in Serbia.

The starting point for the Belgrade show's lighting design was to create a rig that looked as awesome as possible with as expedient amount of fixtures as possible ..

USA - The new office for Christie Lites New York is officially open for business. The warehouse is in a newly renovated 30,000sq.ft space at 13B Division Street in Fairview, NJ. This 14th location further strengthens Christie Lites' multi-office network supplying full service stage lighting equipment rentals across North America.

Said Christie Lites VP Rentals Ken Alexander, "We are proud of this new expansion which allows us to directly service our already loyal Northeast client base like never before and also provides the perfect avenue to reach new clients in the months and years to come."

Christie Lites New York has been unofficially operating for the past few months while ramping up and accumulating equipment inventory prior to any official opening announcement. Since October, the CLNY office has fulfilled several tour preps including a new NETworks Presentation

Latvia - The Embassy of Latgale GORS is a place with a soul, where the cultural traditions of the region of Latgale combine with modern opportunities and give life to the fascinating stories of eras, people, music and art. In this place, the local dialect mixes with the sound of symphonies, and historical heritage combines with contemporary creative works. New meets old, guests encounter locals, songs hybridize with dance and art merges with cinema.

The GORS cultural centre has two concert halls, a cinema, an art school, an exhibition space, a restaurant where you can enjoy the pleasure of life, and a few rooms where dance companies and orchestras may rehearse: everything has a pulsating rhythm and is full of life.

A new building has been built in the park, on a bend in the river, near the 'United for Latvia' monument, known among the people as 'Latgales M?ra'. The purpose of

Austria - La Bohème, composed by Giacomo Puccini, was performed for the first time in 1896 at the Teatro Regio in Turin, Italy. It was an immediate success and is still successful today. This was confirmed by its recent staging during the St. Margarethen Opera Festival in the Römersteinbruch (a Roman quarry). The quarry has been a UNESCO world heritage site since 2001 and is the largest natural stage in Europe. For this reason, it makes an impressive setting for operatic performances.

Lighting designer and programmer Michael Grundner, event designer Ernst Hainisch and production manager Christoph Trauner (the latter two from Multisound) used 22 Clay Paky Alpha Profile 1500s, along with an MA system to manage the lights.

Grundner underlined that, "The Clay Paky Alpha Profile 1500s won me over with their great brightness and the way it is possible to change and sha

UK - For many years the O2 Guildhall Southampton has been a popular venue on the South Coast, hosting a wide variety of concerts and events from rock to classical, comedy and sporting, student and private parties, exhibitions, fashion shows and conferences.

Recently, Live Nation (Music) UK Limited decided that the foyer lighting needed updating as part of the venues O2 rebranding. Whilst researching potentially suitable fixtures, Simon Williams, the venue's head technician, approached local lighting experts GLS Lighting Ltd for advice. Ian Turner from GLS suggested the MilTec Batten2 as a suitable fixture, and so a demo was arranged. The result was that eight of the Batten2s have been installed along with two Par144Q led pars by the in house technical crew, along with new DMX distribution and associated cabling.

Williams commented, "The new MilTec fixtures have replaced s

Sri Lanka - When the recent Commonwealth Peoples Forum was held for the first time in Sri Lanka, Live Productions Pvt. Ltd was contracted by another local company, Dynamic AV Technologies Pvt Ltd to provide the lighting in front of 500 invited guests at the historic Galle Fort.

This comprised entirely of PR Lighting moving discharge and LED heads from their large inventory of the Chinese manufacturer's fixtures.

The lighting had to be purpose designed by the organising committee to meet the requirements of both the live audience - comprising the Secretary General Commonwealth of the Commonwealth, Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, and various Ministers and Foreign delegates - as well as the television audience. As a result the fixtures first had to undergo camera tests.

Under the production management of Dhanushka Fernando of Dynamic AV large quantities of PR Solo 575

USA - Released in April this year, the instant success of Ayrton's MagicPanel 602 has been acknowledged at the LDI show in Las Vegas where it received the 2013 LDI Award for Best Debuting Product of the Year in the Projection category.

Ayrton MagicPanel 602 is a moving head LED beam projector equipped with thirty-six 15W Osram RGBW emitters in a 6 x 6 array. Each emitter projects a tight, powerful 7.5° beam and can be controlled individually or used collectively to produce a coherent 12,000 lumen shaft of light. Under individual control, the emitters can be pixel mapped or driven by video via Art-Net or Kling-Net. To supplement the graphic possibilities this control provides, MagicPanel 602 can be continuously rotated on both pan and tilt axes, which adds a dynamic dimensional effect to beams individually projected by mapped emitters. MagicPanel is also controllable via DMX-

USA - Lighting designer, Liam Griffiths, recently selected GLP's impression LED spots for use on tour with New Zealand alternative rock band, The Naked and Famous.

Having provided lighting dynamics for the band since 2011 the LD - who runs West Midlands-based Stage Techniques - sourced 18 X4 spots from PRG in Los Angeles, and integrated his touring floor package, consisting of six legs of curved truss, with the house rig at San Diego's House Of Blues where the world tour kicked off.

The set-up has provided the LD with an economical touring package capable of delivering a big show from a small footprint. Easy to truck and then manually transport, and without the need for big power distro, it is the kind of practical solution that is deal for shows of this scale, where the overall economics are paramount to a tour's success.

"I had only ever used [GLP's] 120RZ on my desig

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