Belgium - Versuz in Hasselt, Belgium is one of the best known club phenomena in Benelux, regularly attracting a devoted crowd of dance music enthusiasts from Belgium, The Netherlands and many regulars who think nothing of travelling from France and Germany to catch the vibes and grooves courtesy of resident DJ Laurent Wery and a selection of special guests.

Versuz has recently re-opened in a new 3000 capacity venue with even more style and buzz plus the very latest sound, lighting and video technology including a large and spectacular moving light rig from Robe, and three massive custom elliptical trusses in the ceiling made for the space by Wicreations.

With over 140 moving lights in the rig, it's one of the largest Robe club installations to date and arguably the most spectacular in Belgium.

Yves Smolders is one of the three owners. They knew what they wanted, which was a

Ireland - Dublin-based JustLite has recently supplied 19 Chauvet Professional Legend 230SR Beam fixtures for one of Ireland's top music events - Other Voices - which is transmitted globally online and as a television series. The lighting set was designed by Liam McCarthy and he positioned the beams as the central focus of the stage, in the Glassworks venue on the Derry leg of main shooting schedule of the show.

Now in its twelfth series, Other Voices began as a one-off music show in Dingle church in the west of Ireland. It became a series and has been propelled by the beautiful quality of the music. It can best be described as a music and arts event plugged into and evolving through every dimension of content programming, event formats and distribution channels.

Now also a presence in Derry, London and New York, Other Voices attracts an expanding array of

UK - Professional lighting firms and training programmes from throughout the UK gathered at Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance on 18 March for the 12th annual 'Ready, Steady, Light' competition.

Teams are given the same technical 'ingredients' (lighting instruments and cables) to light specific outdoor parts of the College's beautiful green campus. The team of lighting design students from Rose Bruford College and two teams from UCL's Bartlett School of Architecture also participated alongside contestants from well-established professional practices.

The nature of competition is for teams of professional and commercial lighting firms to match expertise against one another to produce a lighting installation that is judged on both artist merits and technical achievements by a professional judging panel drawn from professional peers from the Society of Light and Ligh

China - PR Lighting has reported an outstanding response to its latest products from visitors attending the recent GETShow 2014 in Guangzhou.

Held at the Poly World Trade Expo Centre by Industry Association of South China Entertainment Equipment (SCEE) it was the fourth time this burgeoning entertainment technology show has taken place.

The expo again proved its popularity with all the major Chinese lighting and audio manufacturers - with around 500 different companies participating.

Lighting was contained in Halls 5 and 6 and PR Lighting again occupied a prime position right in the centre of Hall 6 with their large, eye-catching 137 sq. metre booth.

International sales director, Ernie Armas reports an increased not only an increase in domestic customers but also those from overseas. "All were extremely satisfied with the products we presented, and in particular the n

Germany - Pasquale Quadri, founder and chairman of Bergamo-based Clay Paky SpA, received the prestigious lifetime achievement prize at the MIPA/PIPA awards held in Frankfurt during Musikmesse.

The ceremony took place on 13 March 2014 and the winner was chosen by an overwhelming majority of the jury, which consisted of journalists from all around the world, representing more than a hundred industry journals.

This is the fifteenth time the annual MIPA awards have been presented. They have been extended this year, for the first time, from the world of musical instruments to the field of stage lighting and sound (PIPA awards). The fact Pasquale Quadri is the first person from the lighting industry to receive this prestigious award is therefore particularly significant.

Pasquale Quadri, better known as Paky, is a well-known entrepreneur in the Bergamo area, although he is not the

Germany - "It was the most successful ProLight+Sound ever for Clay Paky." Pio Nahum, Clay Paky CCO, did not mince his words when he described the results the Italian company had achieved at the Frankfurt event.

During the four-day show, Clay Paky's stand was constantly crowded with countless industry professionals from every continent. The demo area in particular was literally "taken by storm". Although over 30 demos were held, both in English and German, they were always "sold-out", forcing many determined latecomers to watch the demonstrations from the passageways alongside the booth.

This was no doubt due to the new products on show - the B-EYE, the SuperSharpy and the Stormy - and the ability of Clay Paky's lighting designer, Marco Zucchinali, to put on a highly impressive light show.

"Once again we have managed to come up with truly in

Poland - Martin Professional has announced the appointment of PS TEATR as the new exclusive distributor for Poland effective 21 March 21, 2014.

Established over 40 years ago, TEATR is the longest serving industry leader, specializing in some of the most complex project installations throughout Poland, whilst managing exclusive distribution for a portfolio of world class brands.

Commenting on the appointment, Marek Guminski, CEO of PS TEATR, stated, "We have followed the dynamic development of Martin closely, especially since they joined the Harman organization. Martin's products are an ideal companion for TEATR's portfolio and expectations of the Polish market. We know the excellent service and support Martin provides combined with our experience and market position will allow us to exceed our markets needs and demands."

Echoing this sentiment, Matt Hallard, busine

The Netherlands - A State Of Trance (also known as ASOT) is the title of a weekly radio show hosted by prominent trance DJ and producer Armin van Buuren. The success of the show has also spawned several live dance events around the world. The show is celebrated live each year in different locations around the globe with a lineup of the most exciting trance artists, and recently took place at Utrecht in the Netherlands. This year the show (A State of Trance 650 - New Horizons) will be staged in eight more cities ranging from Moscow to Buenos Aires.

Lighting designer André Beekmans relied on three grandMA2 full-size and one grandMA2 light consoles for lighting control in Utrecht. He commented, "For all our big jobs we're requesting grandMA2 consoles. We're open for all the other platforms but grandMA2 works best for us. Especially for large setups, it's so stable and i

UK - Robe teamed up with top lighting designer / director Dave 'Bickie' Lee to make the latest moving light technology available for 'The Concert Lighting Project', a practical module being taken by students on the BA (Hons) Lighting Design course at leading UK theatre and performance college, Rose Bruford.

The initiative was co-ordinated by Hansjorg Schmidt, programme director for lighting design at the Kent based college and by Ashley Lewis and Petra Sefton from Robe UK in Northampton and was also supported by rental company Siyan - who themselves have a reputation for nurturing emerging young LD talent - and console manufacturer, Avolites

Says Hansjorg, "With Robe and Siyan getting involved this year the students were able to have a much larger lighting rig to work on and it was a fantastic opportunity for them to test drive the absolute latest Robe kit as well as work

UK - London gay venue has upgraded with the installation of Emto's Mambo 8 LED screen by the Buckinghamshire UK based LED specialist.

Emto's Wes Matthews was contacted by the venue's Manager Chris Amos who was searching for a reputable screen provider who could provide a cost-efficient visual solution to go at the back of their DJ booth...and happened upon the Emto website.

They discussed the requirements and then Matthews spec'd the screen. "They wanted a product with great clarity that was robust and hard-wearing," explains Matthews. Following an initial site visit, he recommended the 8mm screen from their hire stock which is waterproof on the LED side, and easy to wipe down in case of any liquid spillages.

This has proved a winner in bar and club environments where the screens are often very close to the audience.

The screen is configured as a 3m wide by 1.5m

Lighting designer Rob Sinclair has incorporated 87 of SGM's new X-5 LED strobes into the set for the current Miley Cyrus Bangerz tour, which visits Europe in a few months' time - and he has been relishing the experience of working with them.

"It's the first time I have used these strobes and also my first time working with Miley - and it's been great fun," he reports.

Introduced to the tour by production designer, Es Devlin, the experienced LD has been joined by lighting director/programmer Sean Burke, making this the perfect team to deliver Devlin's powerful and strident creative concept.

Describing the show as "a high gloss, high fashion, very geometric wild ride" Sinclair adds, "I knew we needed to fight against an enormous LED wall so chose the brightest fixtures I could and grouped them into blocks.

"We went through many changes on the same basi

Germany - At this year's Prolight+Sound Show in Frankfurt, Hans Günter Dünkel from Motion in Fürth, received a special award to commemorate the purchase of their 1000th SGM P-5 wash light.

"Over a short period of just 18 months since the product was launched, Motion has purchased more than 1,000 devices, and thus has the largest dry hire inventory worldwide," says Thorsten Sattler, director of SGM Deutschland.

Motion GmbH is one of the largest dry hire rental companies in Germany with a customer base extending to the surrounding countries. The P-5s are being ordered both in quantities of 16-32 pieces for smaller jobs, while large-scale exhibitions such as the IAA (International Motor Show) or IFA (International Radio Exhibition) in Berlin may require the complete inventory. Similarly, the catwalks of Milan Fashion Week will be illuminated with Motion's newly acqui

Spain - The Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is the largest trade exhibition in the world for the mobile phone industry. Manufacturers and service providers spend huge sums on their stands to present the best possible image to the attendees, so they must be immaculately presented with the lighting perfectly integrated into the design.

Two of the largest stands incorporated a total of 130 of MilTec's highly successful Batten2 LED battens. MRL Productions of Clacton supplied lighting, truss and rigging for the Qualcomm Inc. stand via design and build specialists The 3D Factory. Push Hires Ltd. from Eastbourne supplied 2LK Design Company for the Intel/Airwatch stand with the battens, moving heads and conventional lighting as well as sound equipment and hundreds of meters of truss (c/w chain hoists). Push also used the Miltec 360WZ moving head LED zoom wash for the conference set.

UK - Anglia Lighting, a specialist distributor of LED lighting technologies to the architectural market, has appointed two dedicated business managers to strengthen its relationships with manufacturers, contractors and installers of LED lighting systems.

Jason Middleton and Anthony Zvirblis report to Andrew Pockson, divisional marketing manager at Anglia Lighting. Commenting, Andrew Pockson said, "Anglia Lighting has an outstanding portfolio of nearly 30 market leading suppliers such as Cree. Our focus has always been on technical support and design guidance, as well as building close relationships of trust with customers in an exceptionally fast moving and dynamic industry. Anthony and Jason are two outstanding sales and project management professionals, with a 'can do' approach, who will prove a real asset to customers executing complex lighting projects to the very highe

USA - It may have been a bitterly cold winter night in the South, but inside Nashville's Municipal Auditorium some of music's greats gathered to perform and honour those being inducted into the Musician Hall of Fame. Bandit Lites and Mark Carver worked to illuminate the evening hosted by Chip Esten of ABC's Nashville.

Inductees included guitarist Peter Frampton, Randy Bachman, Buddy Guy, Jimmy Capps, Will Lee, Velma Smith, Corki Casey O'Dell and country legend Barbara Mandrell, the first woman inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame. Posthumous inductions went to Ben Keith, Stevie Ray Vaughan and his band Double Trouble while Roy Oribison was honoured with the first Iconic Riff Award. Additionally, Mike Curb was awarded the first ever Industry Icon Award.

In a place filled with such immense talent, it would have been a shame to not indulge in some jaw dropping performances, a

Germany - Ayrton chose Prolight & Sound as the forum to launch three new products as it continues its mission to develop fixtures that provide lighting designers with different products to expand the possibilities of Light in Action.

The last in this trio of new launches is IntelliPix R which is a modular beam projection panel of 25 independently controllable 4.5° LED emitters, arranged in a 5 x 5 array, which are designed to project graphics and media far into the air.

As a result of combining revolutionary 67mm optics with 15W Osram Ostar RGBW LED emitters, IntelliPix is able to exhibit more power than has ever been imagined, projecting 100 candela per lumen - two and a half times more than that of a 45mm collimator.

Multiple panels can be connected together quickly into a semi-transparent wall to form a giant screen, or placed under glass to create a projection floor

Italy - Martin Professional has appointed Leading Technologies as the exclusive distributor of Martin products in Italy. Leading Technologies has been working with Harman since 1995 and this partnership will serve to enhance the sales, distribution and support of Martin Professional lighting solutions in the Italian market.

"The addition of Martin to our current portfolio of Harman Professional products allows us to provide an even more comprehensive array of audio/visual solutions to our customers," commented Marco Porro, vice president and CEO, Leading Technologies. "We are committed to bringing this expanded offering to new and existing customers while also ensuring they receive the same level of service and support that they always have from our team."

Commenting on the partnership, Steen Matthiesen, vice president of EMEA sales, Martin Professional, sa

Chile - The 55th edition of the world famous Vina del Mar International Song Festival in Chile was staged in the city of the same name in the Valparaíso region of Chile, with 48 of Robe's Robin Pointes onstage at the Quinta Vergara's amphitheatre.

The six-night event featured an array of local and international artists like Ricky Martin, Laura Pausini, La Ley, Ana Gabriel, Carlos Vives, Rod Stewart and many others.

Full lighting production, media server support, lighting design and realisation was provided - for the fourth consecutive year - by Santiago-based Producciones Órbita.

Spanish LD Luis Pastor has been in charge of lighting design at Vina del Mar since 2011 and explains that all the creative processes start at local TV channel Chilevisión, the Festival's official broadcaster for the last four years. This year, they wanted to emphasise the historic spirit of the f

Germany - ETC is celebrating after their most successful Prolight + Sound show ever. The staff on the stand - including people from ETC, their dealers and a number of freelancers - were kept very busy, helping hundreds of visitors wanting to catch up on the company's latest innovations.

ETC's fixtures product manager Jim Uphoff and his colleagues showed visitors the latest updates to the Source Four LED family - the Source Four LED Series 2 Lustr, which adds lime green emitters to the x7 Color System, ensuring the best spectral range and about twice the output of the Source Four LED Series 1. They also demoed the new Source Four Mini LED, which allows small-scale installations, such as puppet theatres, shops and museums to benefit from the powerful Source Four optics while also saving energy. A Gallery option with a high CRI value ensures that the best possible colour reproducti

USA - City Theatrical will be demonstrating some innovative technology at USITT in Fort Worth, TX on 27-29 March, 2014 (Booth 909), including QolorFLEX Professional LED Light Tape, D Series LED Dimmers, and the SHoW Baby 5 wireless DMX transceiver.

Also being demonstrated is City Theatrical's complete line of SHoW DMX Neo wireless DMX products. City Theatrical's SHoW DMX is the wireless DMX of choice for lighting professionals on Broadway and West End shows, permanent entertainment installations, architectural landmarks, major music tours such as U2 and Madonna, and large scale events such as the opening ceremonies of the London Olympics.

City Theatrical will be a participant in USITT's Innovation Gallery & Stage, which is a showcase where new products will be displayed in a museum gallery environment where attendees can view them and learn about their uses. Gary Fails, presid

Belgium - Genk based creative lighting practice Painting With Light (PWL) has designed a complete bespoke interior, exterior, foyer and house lighting scheme and control for the brand new 1400 seater luxury Plopsa Theatre, located at the Plopsaland de Panne theme park and business centre in West-Flanders, Belgium.

PWL also engaged in a consultancy role for the stage lighting specification and installation, and has a relationship with the park and its operators, The Plopsa Group, that dates back over a decade to when the Park was first opened in 2000.

The striking Plopsa Theatre foyer which occupies 13,000sq.m with over 12m of headroom is also used as a multi-purpose event space to accommodate anything from gala dinners to special presentations.

This expansive open area required lighting that was as flexible as possible to facilitate a myriad of different activities and uses.

Macedonia - LumenRadio's CRMX Nova products recently played a key role in the premiere show of The Eternal House which marked the opening of the new Macedonian National Theatre in Skopje.

The opening of the Macedonian National Theatre is one of the largest installations in the region ever, with over 760 dimming channels and over 500 conventional and 100 intelligent luminaries.

For the National theatre it was important to choose the right products, technology and quality. Since frame integrity and flawless radio transfer was an absolute requirement, the companies qualified for the prestigious assignment was LumenRadio and their distributor Svetlost Teatar. Svetlost Teatar who specializes in theatre and related technologies provided a CRMX Nova System containing four receivers and four transmitters.

Around 80 actors from various generations took part in the play written

UAE - The feature rich Clay Paky Alpha Spot QWO 800s are providing a large part of the top-end lighting solution for Abu Dhabi's latest nightclub O1NE.

The middle-eastern 'super-club', designed to merge the latest AV, light and audio technology with super-luxe interior design for its VIP guests, has been lit by lighting designer Hiljo Stadt of Dutch lighting design company - The Lighting Dutchmen. Stadt worked in close association with Lebanese equipment house Wide Angle to meet the club's high-tech demands.

"For the lighting design of O1NE it was imperative that we had the best moving light fixtures available to us," explains Stadt. "We chose to use 28 x Clay Paky Alpha Spot QWO-800s because we wanted a fast and accurate moving light head with versatile beam options. Clay Paky fixtures have proven their reliability and quality optics and the rich feature set on

Czech Republic - A section of Prague's beautiful hilltop Letna Park area was transformed into an exciting and fun Olympic Park environment for the duration of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, complete with a lighting installation in key areas by Prague based technical production company AV Media, which included over 100 Robe moving lights.

Olympijsky Park Soci-Letna 2014 was also the first big event for Cesko Sportuje, an initiative launched by the Czech Olympic Committee to promote a healthy lifestyle especially for children.

AV Media is an official event technology supplier to the Czech Olympic Committee and Czech Olympic Team, and also supplied lighting, sound and AV to the acclaimed award-winning Czech Olympic House project during the London 2012 Summer Olympics.

The company also has over 160 Robe moving lights in its rental stock and is a big fan of the Czech manufacture

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