Europe - LD Mark Wynn-Edwards is blazing a trail across Europe with UK electronic duo Lamb and a lighting rider comprising 11 Robe Pointes. Robe's live reporting team caught up with him at the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels - where he also had the luxury of using the house's MMX Spots.

The Pointes were lined up along the back of the stage alternated on two levels - five on the bottom and six on cases forming the upper row - and created all the drama and atmospheric compliment needed for the band's 80-minute set. Their sound fused elements of triphop, d'n'b and jazz into compelling harmonic compositions with haunting vocals.

Mark explains that inspiration for the style of lighting he's evolving for this tour came from the stark monochromicity and 'reality' of black and white cinema, and much of the set is lit in white. With the Pointes, there are so many variations in how you ca

Europe - This summer saw industrial rockers Nine Inch Nails (NIN) on their first European tour in six years, with an array of Clay Paky Sharpy and Sharpy Wash 330 fixtures delivering striking brightness and moody colours to help bring the band back with a bang.

Lighting designer Paul Guthrie specified the Clay Paky fixtures, supplied by Ampco Flashlight, to hold their own against the elaborate production, and provide maximum impact.

"With Nine Inch Nails, we wanted to give the audience an incredible show, that went from dark, moody and soupy to face-welding annihilation," explains Guthrie. "We see it as: if they're not convulsing afterwards, we're not trying hard enough. The Clay Paky fixtures allowed us to achieve this with their rapid movement and intense brightness."

"The Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures were specified by LeRoy Bennett for the original d

UK - Impact Production Services (IPS) has joined the growing list of top-flight hire companies who have added SGM's powerful P-5 wash light to their inventory. Owner James Mason, who set up the Milton Keynes-based company 16 years ago, took the decision after sub-hiring in some of the high output heads for a project, which also gave him the chance to evaluate them. As a result, he placed the order for 24 P-5 RGBW fixtures with SGM UK.

"We had been looking at various IP-rated outdoor washes and P-5 had come up a few times on specs," he explained. "For us it's the next generation; it's compact, neat and you can use it indoors, whereas other IP-rated washes are often big and bulky."

In order to get the maximum impact from the fixtures he purchased 21° and 43° lens options.

Mason said the decision to back the Danish brand followed the recognition that

Canada - Nestled in the heart of the city of Camrose, in Alberta, Canada, is the Jeanne & Peter Lougheed Performing Arts Centre (PAC), a 4,100sq.m multi-venue building. Equipped with nearly 100 ETC Source Four LED Series 2 Lustr luminaires - the largest number installed anywhere in the world - the venue earned a prestigious level four Green Globe distinction for its energy efficient building design and commitment to green technology before its doors even opened in October 2014.

Camrose is home to a blossoming arts community, and the city desperately needed a new, large-scale performance venue. "There weren't any venues within a 45 minute drive of the city that could accommodate touring Broadway shows and large scale dance or theatrical productions," explains Nick Beach, technical director and operations coordinator of the Jeanne & Peter Lougheed PAC. The primary goal f

USA - LDI 2014 in Las Vegas lived up to pre-show expectations for LDI premier partner Elation Professional with an extremely busy booth, a Best Large Booth accolade and more industry recognition for the award-winning Sniper.

"We expected a busy show based on our pre-show appointments and it certainly didn't disappoint," said Elation sales director Eric Loader, who split his time between a busy Elation booth and a just-as-busy demo room. "Our booth was crowded from start to finish and based on the quality leads generated it gave us a lot of opportunities to continue our growth."

Like at the PLASA show one month earlier, the Sniper was recognised as an innovative product at the show, this time receiving an honourable mention as Best Debuting Product presented at an awards ceremony on Saturday, 22 November on the LDI show floor. The company also won the Best L

USA - Against Las Vegas' glittering backdrop, Ayrton's display of technical innovation on the booth of its exclusive US distributor, Morpheus Lights, shone as brightly at LDI 2014 as in any casino or show on the Strip.

Ayrton exhibited a plethora of new products from Ayrton's new Radical and NandoBeam series, videos of which were already causing excitement on social media. Many of these were presented for the first time to the American market, exciting visitors who were treated to spectacular lighting displays which caught the eye and fired the imagination.

Ayrton's Radical Series, consists of WildBeam-R, MagicPanel-R, MagicBlade-R, MagicRing R9 and IntelliPix-R, with MagicRing R1 being the latest addition to the Series.

The Radical Series, which takes its name and inspiration from the world of high-performance vehicles, exhibits a honed and streamlined appearance, a very na

Denmark - For the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's gathering in Copenhagen, Greenpeace saw an ideal opportunity to emphasise the need for the world to change into 100% renewable energy in the future and demonstrate how this is actually possible.

While the panel wrote and published the latest research on impact of human made climate changes, and their solutions how to mitigate and counter these impacts, Greenpeace launched a highly visible and eye-catching campaign, projecting the official Danish targets of 100% renewable energy by 2050 onto four wind turbines, with the assistance of AF Lighting and SGM's G-Spot LED moving head.

Greenpeace's project leader Esben Sloth explains: "We wanted the light projection to be very accurate, with sharp lines and figures, in order to make the wind turbines look like a graph."

ÅF Lighting were optimistic in their acce

USA - The first annual New York Festival of Light (NYFOL) came alive 6-8 after dark in Dumbo, Brooklyn, attracting crowds so large that the family event had to turn away people Saturday night. NYFOL utilised numerous Clay Paky fixtures on the main stage under the Archway of the Manhattan Bridge, and Clay Paky's new Supersharpys created the spectacular Beacon installation at The Pearl Street Triangle.

NYFOL offered visitors a curated collection of lighting installations created by local and international lighting designers, performance artists and technologists - all working with the medium of light. The event was presented by The New York Festival of Light Organization, a non-profit art group. Its vision is to create and provide a unique and delightful experience for residents and tourists by enhancing New York City's architecture through interactive, static and projected lighti

UK - Heathrow Airport and Fisher Productions worked together to bring some Christmas magic to travellers over the Christmas period at Terminal 2: The Queens Terminal.

Building on Terminal 2's vision, in conjunction with Heathrow, The Fisher team have designed and installed a giant vinyl Christmas tree which stands over 90ft high in the covered courtyard to T2, close to the Slipstream sculpture by renowned British artist Richard Wilson.

Fisher have added a very modern interactive touch to this traditional looking tree, overlaying it with festoons of lights that can be triggered to flash and dance by passengers who tweet Christmas greetings to #T2Christmas. After dark the tree will come alive with a gentle wash of light giving it an enchanting glow.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Leisuretec Distribution has selected Chauvet as a preferred supplier and strategic partner, reinforcing the existing relationship between the trade distributor of audio, lighting, video and special effects, and the lighting manufacturer. The announcement comes as a result of Leisuretec's decision to focus on a selection of hand-picked brands with strong customer appeal.

Cliff Dounting, managing director of Leisuretec, says: "What's nice is a manufacturer recognising a true trade distributor. We have a relationship built on strong teamwork, and it's a great pleasure to be associated with such a growing team at Chauvet Europe."

Leisuretec founder director Mike Henden adds: "Having a really good relationship between the key people in each company is fundamental to a strong, long-term partnership."

Leisuretec will continue to offer sales and support for

UK - Applications are being sought by Rose Bruford College for its Junior Ready Steady Light 2015, a lighting design competition which offers teams the opportunity to win an amazing prize - to chance to redesign the architectural lighting of the National Theatre on London's Southbank.

Philips and the Society of Light and Lighting continue to sponsor Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance's hugely successful Junior Ready Steady Light competition for 2015. Rose Bruford College aims to attract eight teams from state schools, further education colleges and art organisations working with young people, made up of five year 12 and 13 students, or those similar in age, to participate in a full day of activities that lead up to the final competition and prize-giving ceremony.

This is an exciting opportunity for young people interested in science, art, design, technology and te

UK - S+H Technical has supplied specialist draping and 'soft' lighting effects lighting to several high profile TV shows recently including Strictly's Blackpool special as well as for the regular weekly show broadcast from Elstree Studios; the main Children In Need telethon studio; popular talent competition Stars in Their Eyes back on air in 2015 after a nine year hiatus; new ITV talent show Get Your Act Together and Bette Midler's first ever ITV special One Night Only.

Another blockbusting Strictly season for the BBC sees S+H working with BAFTA Award winning set and scenic designer Patrick Doherty - a regular client - for whom the Ilfracombe, Devon-based company is supplying around 6000 Pea-Lights for the regular weekly episodes broadcast from Entree Studios. The Pea-Lights are integrated into the set walls of Patrick's impressive ballroom de

USA - Slipknot headlined its own musical festival, Knotfest, on 24-26 October at the San Manuel Amphitheater in San Bernadino, California, and then kicked off its Prepare for Hell world tour, both using rigs that include Elation Professional's new hybrid Platinum SBX luminaire along with Elation Cuepix Blinders and a video centerpiece made up of Elation EPT9IP LED video panels.

The grisly-masked heavy metal rockers are out on an 18-month world tour in support of their first album release in six years, .5: The Gray Chapter, which debuted in October at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart. The tour sees the band playing dates in the US, Japan (at Knotfest Japan), Europe and Australia with more legs expected to be added.

Slipknot plays an aggressive style of music with energetic live shows that have been described as 'choreographed chaos'. Production designer

UK - Masters of metal Motorhead returned to the UK after the festival season for a limited special run of autumn shows. To kick these dates up a notch, lighting designer Caio Bertti started from scratch, devising a simple yet extremely powerful lighting theme, with an ultra-versatile Avolites' Sapphire Touch console as the ace up his sleeve.

Bertti's design is traditional rock and roll, yet with a contemporary edge of LED and moving lights mixed in with ever-faithful Par Cans. Preferring to control the show on the fly, Caio specified the intuitive Sapphire Touch.

"With Motorhead, if you have music in your blood you'll have a great show," says the Brazilian designer. "There's no cue-list, there's no time coding, it's just in my head and fingers. You have to play the board, which is why I chose the Sapphire Touch. It gives me more freedom and I can run through the

Russia - With a style of its own that miraculously intertwined the best traditions of Russian and Soviet culture as well as new trends of the modern entertainment industry, the World Circus Festival - IDOL 2014 took place at The Great Moscow Circus from 10-14 September. Martin Professional fixtures played the main role in creating exciting lighting effects in accordance with the vision of the event.

Preparation time for the festival was limited as the event grounds had hosted another performance right before, so the technicians had to dismantle the previous installation and create a new rig for IDOL using 64 MAC 101s, 20 MAC Viper Profiles, 24 MAC Auras, 12 MAC III Washes, six MAC III Performances, 10 MAC III AirFXs, 12 Atomic 3000 DMXs with Atomic Colors, two Glaciator X-Streams, a Jem Hydra with 12 heads, and six Jem K1 Hazers with six AF-1 fans.

"The fixture park of Th

Sweden - The Göteborg Opera has become hooked on SGM P-5 technology. Since purchasing their first units 18 months ago, they have kept adding to their inventory and now own 34 P-5 wash lights.

Production lighting manager Kent Hellberg explains, "Since I acquired the first P-5, every production in the house seems to want them."

Currently being deployed for the production of Mozart's Le Nozze de Figaro by lighting designer Giuseppe di Lorio, the luminaires are washing the backdrop as an essential part of the opera. But Hellberg has other lighting designers also queuing up to utilise the P-5s. "Every lighting designer that I've shown the P-5 to has been impressed," Hellberg confirms.

The P-5s have therefore been used for different projects - for instance for a dance company, where the Japanese choreographer wanted a strong even colour output; and that

USA - The Addison Theatre Centre, home of the WaterTower Theatre, has invested in ArKaos MediaMaster Pro 4.0 software which it recently utilised on the WaterTower Theatre Company's production of Bonnie and Clyde.

Founded in 1996, the multi-awarding-winning WaterTower Theatre is a not-for-profit professional theatre company that produces six main stage shows each season alongside award-winning educational and community outreach programmes.

Earlier this year Fred Mikeska and Darrell Barnes of A.C. Lighting (ArKaos' US distributor) took Arkaos MediaMaster Pro to The Addison Theatre Centre where they presented a full demonstration of its capabilities to technical director, Scott Guenther, and lighting designers, Dan Schoedel and Jason Foster. "The team at Addison Theatre Centre was evaluating different media server options that would meet the venue's diverse requiremen

USA - Creative BackStage of Phoenix turned to an Elation lighting and video package as a main element of their visual design for Fear Fest, Arizona's ultimate Halloween EDM festival that took place 1 November at The Slaughterhouse in Tucson. Fear Fest combined high-energy dance music from featured DJ's with the thrills of three different haunted houses, all in one entertaining, spooky-themed festival.

The Slaughterhouse is a well-known haunted house in Tucson and because the event was held on Halloween weekend Creative BackStage wanted to create a design that represented the ghoulishness of the holiday as well as the Fear Fest festival.

"The idea was simple, to use LED video screens for eyes and a mouth with video images that would be of the fear kind with monster eyes and teeth or devilish eyes," explains John Garberson, owner of Creative Backstage and lighting desi

World - Renowned lighting designer LeRoy Bennett has painted Lady Gaga's ice themed ArtRave / Artpop Ball world tour set with beat perfect layers of dancing light and his medium of choice is Clay Paky.

Bennett uses huge banks of A.leda B-EYE K20s and Sharpys to light the set to deliver a wealth of vibrant, multi layered, multi-faceted and lively looks. Supported by lighting director Whitney Hoversten, who has taken the show on the road, Bennett specified 107 x Clay Paky B-EYEs and 83 x Sharpys, all supplied by PRG, to create the show's high octane, rave style atmosphere.

"My first thought when it came to creating the rave style concept was that the audience has to be fully immersed in the show and become part of it," says Bennett. "I chose the Clay Paky B-EYEs for their versatility and unique personality, they are the icing on the cake tools that add all the det

USA - Chart-topping LA-based indie pop duo, Capital Cities, have completed the first North American leg of their In a Tidal Wave of Mystery tour, together with a highly flexible lighting design created by Chris Smith.

For the first time, Smith is using Robe's CycFX 8 moving LED battens, together with 10 x Pointes. He had previously used Pointes on a Fitz And The Tantrums tour, was impressed, and so when this design came up, he immediately specified them again.

The rig had to be scalable to deal with the variety of venues on the itinerary - from clubs to theatres of capacities between 1000 and 3000 - and to guarantee they always had their proper lightshow.

Smith wanted to introduce architecture and shape to the stage, as well as develop a concept that worked as a comprehensive floor package in conjunction with any overheads utilized from the venues' house rigs.<

UK - Philips Vari-Lite is currently rolling out training for the industry standard VL4000 Spot, with one of the most recent workshops taking place at London's RADA.

Highly experienced Vari-Lite trainer for EMEA Coral Cooper was hosting the hands on session, where the VL4000 Spot luminaires were disassembled to the sub-assembly level to demonstrate ideal maintenance techniques. Cooper also explained the VL4000 Spot luminaire's broad range of features, informing the end users and potential customers at the session on how to maximise its vast potential.

Among the attendees was James Ashdown, Director at Automated Ltd. "The VL4000 is a multi-featured fixture, with all the tools a lighting designer needs in one," says Ashdown. "I'm very pleased to see that Philips Vari-Lite has included a four bladed shutter module into the fixture without losing any other features.

Australia - Melbourne companies Mint Lighting Design and ENTTEC have transformed the forecourt and main terminal façade at Melbourne Airport with a dynamic lighting installation that provides ambience and entertainment and welcomes travellers to the city.

The landmark project covers 12 individual sites programmed as one to create an intricate, synchronised light show that boasts more than 40,000 pixels and 57 universes to control and schedule them.

In total, 2140 individual products were designed and installed.Key elements include: 14m 'Melbourne' sign in the forecourt; 140m double-sided light projections beneath the elevated roadway; 60m canopy lighting within pedestrian bridges, plus light in shell canopies and trees; interactive 'light shower' that bathes visitors in blue light, inspired by research into its effects on the circadian rhythm.

Specialised programming across

UK - Artistic Licence has launched www.art-net.org.uk, a website dedicated to the Art-Net protocol. Offering a wealth of technical information, practical tips, downloads and registration portal, the website provides the definitive resource for anyone working with Art-Net.

Introduced by Artistic Licence into the public domain in 1998, Art-Net transformed the lighting control market by removing the channel restriction of DMX512. The protocol enabled multiple universes of data to be transported over a single ethernet cable, a necessary development as channel-hungry RGB LED fixtures became widely adopted.

Art-Net has always been non-proprietary and available free-of-charge. As a result, it is now supported by more than 150 manufacturers worldwide.

Offering over 16m control channels with full support for remote device management (RDM), Art-Net is ready for an even bigger, brighte

USA - LDI 2014, Las Vegas saw double-fold excitement around Robert Juliat this year as two booths promoted the latest products from the French manufacturer of followspots, profiles and Fresnels.

Robert Juliat USA's booth displayed popular, well-established brands including its LED profile ranges and a number of its powerful followspots. Simultaneously, newly-appointed US distributor, ACT Lighting, marked its first showing of Robert Juliat products by introducing Robert Juliat's latest followspots, the new Merlin and Roxie.

LDI 2014 witnessed the first viewing on US soil of Robert Juliat's new touring followspot, Merlin. Merlin is the culmination of an ambitious project to produce a powerful, rugged followspot for the touring market.

"America is the home of the megatour, with stadium rock, mega churches and large sporting events an essential part of its culture," sa

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