Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025
Doughty - Banner - from 4 July 2025

Lighting

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South Africa - Rental company MGG supplied over 200 Robe moving lights for a recent indaba at Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg for a high profile financial industry client.

LD Kevin Rieck made the bold move of using front and back rigged Robe LEDWash 600s for all his key lighting, following a great success with this methodology during a press conference by US President Barak Obama in Soweto last year, which he also lit. He also seized the occasion to use four of Robe's new BMFL Spots for the first time.

The stage and set design for the main plenary session of the major two day conference was originated by MGGs Denzil Smith - who also project managed and co-ordinated all things technical. The overall room aesthetic was based around an 80m widescreen projection that brought a dramatic filmic ambience to the setting, staged 'side-on' across the room.

Kevin Rieck has li

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UK - Behind the Scenes UK, the new industry charity, has just issued its first grant to a technician who suffered severe injuries from a fall while at work. Dealing with multiple surgeries and a long recovery process was hard enough, but trying to take care of his young family with no income during this critical time proved overwhelming. Then someone suggested he apply to Behind the Scenes UK.

Behind the Scenes UK is modelled after Behind the Scenes in North America which has issued over half a million dollars in grants since its inception. Each application is carefully reviewed by a committee and each grant is tailored to assist with the recipient's most pressing needs. Funds may be used for basic living expenses such as rent or mortgage and utilities, transportation such as car insurance or repairs, medical related expenses, retraining, or funeral expenses.

In this particula

City Theatrical - Banner - July 2025

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USA - Following Widespread Panic's larger-than-life New Year's Eve performance, the rock band has returned to the road for a 25 date spring tour. On the road with them is long time lighting designer Paul Hoffman, who again trusted Bandit Lites to provide the gear for his exceedingly mind-blowing psychedelic looks.

Due to the wide ranges of venues that Widespread Panic plays, Hoffman is always conscientious of designing a flexible rig that can be utilized in both tiny theatres and expansive arenas.

"We want to use as much of the production every night as we can - so that is a significant design goal," explained Hoffman. "It has to expand and contract without looking sparse or scrunched."

For design inspiration, Hoffman says he tends to look at his surroundings, from architecture, to sculpture and art. The result is an evolution from tour to tour, rather th

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USA - ARRI Inc has announced the hiring of Randy Read as specifications sales manager for lighting, reporting to John Gresch, vice president, lighting products. Read's primary focus will involve building and managing a network of representatives to support the design and installation of ARRI's renowned lighting products in educational and broadcast television studios. His initial territorial coverage is North America.

Read comes to ARRI with over 20 years of experience as a lighting director, designer and manager in both theatrical and broadcast operations. While working for Christian Broadcast Network in Virginia Beach, he designed and managed one of the first complete broadcast studio conversions from conventional lighting to a total LED solution. Read will work closely with Michael Keppler, manager, lighting systems, who will continue to provide design and engineering support

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Mauritius - UK singer songwriter James Blunt recently played his first show on Mauritius at the 3500 capacity Swami Vivekananda Centre (SVICC) just outside capital city Port Louis in a show promoted by Music Machine & Immedia. Lighting was co-ordinated by his long term lighting & visuals director, Glen Johnson, and delivered by the country's leading rental and sales company, Impact Production.

Eight Robe BMFLs featured prominently on the rig together with eight MMX Spots, six ColorWash 1200E ATs and 14 LEDWash 600s, plus some beam lights, Molefeys and LED PARs, all making up a festival / B-rig variation of the touring show.

The 15 month Moon Landing world tour is now drawing to a close. Having started in China in December 2013, it's been another major selling album for Blunt and has been supported by his longest and most successful tour to date.

Glen enjoys opportunities lik

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South Africa - With an estimated 20 visits to the country, international lighting designer Liz Berry is no stranger to South Africa. In fact, she says that when she stepped off the plane recently, it felt like coming home. While her adventures have included trips to Namibia, Botswana, and forming a good friendship with the team at Gearhouse SA and many other South Africans over the years, this stopover was different as Liz presented a lighting workshop at DWR Distribution, aimed at upcoming lighting designers and operators in Johannesburg from 25 to 27 March.

Having a mother who taught French and a father who was a lecturer, it would seem this Berry did not fall far from the bush. She has presented lighting design courses at Rose Bruford College, London's esteemed International Drama School of Theatre and Performance as a result of being a world-renowned LD.

"I met Liz ye

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USA - Elation is once again be lighting American blues rock musician George Thorogood and his Delaware Destroyers band, who continue to surprise after four decades. George Thorogood found chart success in the '80s and continues to tour extensively after 40 years.

Out on a Badder Than Ever spring tour through April, lighting designer William Bennyhoff needed a rig that could complement Thorogood's high-energy boogie-blues style and found it in Elation Platinum Beam 5R Pro, Rayzor Q7 and Cuepix Blinder WW2 fixtures.

"Five years ago we were looking to have an ACL look for our show without having to carry ACL bars," explains Bennyhoff, who works for Toucan Productions of Oklahoma City, provider of lighting, truss and control for the tour. "We looked at all the options out there, which wasn't many, and decided to use the original Platinum Beam 5R."

Last year w

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UK - This month, the Teenage Cancer Trust marked the 15th anniversary of their annual concert series at London's Royal Albert Hall, where leading names in music and comedy come together to raise money to help young people facing cancer. Closing out this year's event, Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls headlined at the venue, with LD Shaun Moore trusting the Avolites Sapphire Touch for the occasion.

Moore, of North-East based rental company Nitelites, has been working with Turner for five years. He designed a lively and dynamic show reminiscent of the band's recent UK tour. He used the full house rig, plus additional PRG provided floor cans for drums and keys, which provided some stunning low level key light, matching the front line.

Having operated their consoles since he started lighting, Moore has used Avolites for his entire career to date. "I followed in my family's

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UK - Excelling in gymnastics requires a high level of adroitness and flexibility, two qualities that the Q-Wash 560Z-LED moving RGBWA wash from Chauvet Professional has in abundance. Perhaps that's why the fixture proved to be so popular at the 2015 Men's and Women's British Artistic Gymnastics Championships held at Liverpool's Echo Arena.

Lighting designer Stephen Jolly arranged eight Q-Wash 560Z-LED fixtures provided by Novum AV on either side of the podium, where Olympians and other top gymnasts from throughout the world participated in an array of competitions covering the power horse, rings and floor exercises. Spaced approximately 7m apart, the wash fixtures filled an important dual role during the event, serving as color washes at some points, then working with high output aerial beam effects at other points.

"The Q-Washes enabled us to create some simple colour ac

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Germany - ETC's stand at this year's Prolight+Sound in Frankfurt, 15-18 April, is set to be their best yet. With so many products to display, ETC will have two stands (B65 and B66 in Hall 9), giving visitors the opportunity to see and try the company's newest products.

On display will be ETC's two console families, with Eos Ti and Gio, and Cobalt 20, Cobalt 10 and Congo jr powered by Cobalt.

A range of fixtures from Selador Desire washlights to the Source Four LED Series 2 range will also be available to demonstrate. The Source Four LED Series 2 comes in the full-colour Lustr array, as well as the two new white-light specialists of the family - Tungsten HD and Daylight HD. ETC will also show the variety of accessories and adapters that the Source Four LED system accepts, including the brand new Source Four LED Fresnel adapter.

The new ColorSource PAR fixture will also be dis

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Germany - UK wireless LED manufacturer CoreLighting will launch its new StripPoint wireless LED batten at Prolight+Sound, Frankfurt next week on Stand A65 in Hall 9.0.

Core will also show a selection of its other best-selling wireless LED products including the new PinPoint, the workhorse ColourPoint Mk 2 and the highly practical Flood30.

Core and White Light, exclusive distributor for the brand, have also just announced the appointment of Keylight as a dealer in Holland and Belgium, and will use the popularity and strategic positioning of Prolight to seek other potential partners in Europe and further afield.

The StripPoint expands Core's current range of robust products, as the trend and demand for good quality wireless LED fixtures for all types of events continues to grow apace.

The 1m long StripPoint unit features 18 mappable RGBW LEDs which emit an impressive 4000 lu

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Germany - Artistic Licence has announced that Soundlight is now an official distributor of Artistic Licence products in Germany. Visitors to Prolight & Sound at the Messe Frankfurt next week (15-18 April) can see a selection of the broad range of Artistic Licence products on offer at the Soundlight stand, D31 in Hall 9.0.

Artistic Licence CEO, Wayne Howell comments, "As a long-standing specialist in digital lighting control and DMX512 interfaces, with an extensive manufacturing and distribution program, Soundlight is ideally placed to distribute our products. Germany is an increasingly important market for Artistic Licence, so having a highly respected company to provide regional support is a very pleasing strategic move."

Soundlight owner Eckart Steffens adds, "Artistic Licence is well known for its outstanding quality and technical expertise. We are excited ab

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USA - Blue Martini Lounge has introduced Robe's MiniMe digital fixtures to three of its South Florida locations - in Naples, Fort Lauderdale and Miami (Brickell).

The MiniMes, an innovative and different fixture in Robe's popular Robin line of LED fixtures, join a wide range of other Robe lights in the venues including Robe Scan 250 XTs and LEDForce 7 PARs along with a variety of Anolis products including recessed Anolis ArcSpot 170s.

Eventually Blue Martini would like to incorporate multiple MiniMe units at each location nationwide. The Naples location currently has four MiniMes while Fort Lauderdale has three and Miami's Brickell location has two.

The MiniMes are suspended from the ceiling and used to produce images projecting onto the dance floor. They were supplied by Griffin Automation OSF and specified by owner Tom Griffin and Blue Martini's entertainment director Char

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South Africa - Cape Town stepped out, for the second year running, for the Mercedes-Benz Bokeh Fashion Film Festival, held on the 27 and 28 March at the African Pride designer hotel.

Rental company Ultra Events were the full technical supplier, as commissioned by their client Mercury Productions, to take care of the staging, trussing, lighting, sound, lcd screens and a central flow LED screen and also to provide AV equipment for the break-out conference area, which held talks, discussions and presentations on the hour every hour.

The red carpet was a podium of fashion fusion for the paparazzi and Ultra Events used six Philips Showline SL Nitros 501 and six Philips Selecon Rama 1000 w Flood Fresnel for an effective result. "The photographers loved the lighting," commented Costa Champanis, owner of Ultra Events.

The festival included an awards ceremony, film viewing

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UK - At the end of April 2015, both Lighting&Sound International sales manager Barry Howse and sales executive Jane Cockburn will be leaving LSi after over twenty years of working with PLASA's members, advertisers and readers and exhibitors and visitors. LSi editor Lee Baldock comments: "On behalf of the entire PLASA Media team, I want to thank Barry and Jane for their many years of hard work and thousands of miles of travel undertaken in our cause. We will all miss them and wish them the very best in the future."

Barry Howse joined LSi in March of 1992 as Advertising Manager, then as Media Sales Manager. He also served on the PLASA Exhibitor Working Group. Jane joined in 1993 as LSi's sales coordinator, then Media Sales Executive and has also regularly provided valuable organisational support for a succession of Showlight events which Jane will continue to work on. Bo

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Germany - Philips' entertainment lighting brands Vari-Lite, Selecon and Strand, alongside product range Showline, will be unveiling a broad portfolio of exciting new creative tools for lighting designers at Prolight + Sound this month.

Following the success of the award-winning Vari-Lite VL4000 Spot comes the new VL4000 BeamWash, a luminaire that combines stunning wash capabilities with intense beam functionality and the ability to produce a powerful column of light.

Visitors will be able to see the VL4000 BeamWash in action at the dedicated Vari-Lite booth, in Hall 11, Stand D71, situated close to and operated by valued Philips distributor Lightpower.

"We're very much looking forward to showing off the brand new VL4000 BeamWash and the proven VL4000 Spot. These products are two of the highlights at the Lightpower village during this year's Prolight + Sound," says

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Germany - RC4 Wireless will be displaying a range of their RC4 Series 3 devices and technologies at Prolight+Sound in Frankfurt. This is the first RC4 European exhibition since winning the PLASA Award for Innovation at PLASA London last October.

Since the October release of these small and portable packages powered by batteries and controlled by wireless DMX, RC4 Series 3 devices have seen touring across Europe in Disney's Violetta Live!, and used extensively in the world premiere of An American in Paris at the Théatre du Chatelet, now opening on Broadway.

RC4 Series 3 wireless dimmers directly drive halogen lamps, LEDs, servo motors, relays, solenoids, and much more. RC4 technology seamlessly and transparently integrates into scenes and cues, indistinguishable from traditional wired fixtures. RC4 Series 3 devices provide a family of powerful features avai

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China - For the fifth year in succession PR Lighting were able to report a 100% positive reaction to their new product showcase at this year's GET Show 2015.

Held once again at the Poly World Trade Expo Center in Guangzhou, by Industry Association of South China Entertainment Equipment (SCEE), all the major Chinese lighting and audio manufacturers participated.

In fact, PR Lighting increased their presence by taking two large 108sq.m stands this year - one booth dedicated to professional lighting, the other strictly to entertainment lighting. Said sales director, Ernie Armas, "This not only demonstrated the strength of PR Lighting - by being able to show over 350 working units - but enabled visitors to see our products from a different perspective."

Aside from the busy footfall that dominated their stands during the four days of the show, the week effectively start

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Poland - ARAM, Poland, was responsible for the design and technical production of largest gaming event in the world - the ninth edition of the World Final of the Intel Extreme Masters .

For the second year in a row, this event was held in Katowice, this time spread to two locations - Spodek and the newly built International Convention Centre. Event broke all records of audience and visitors.

The event lasted for a total of four days, and ARAM was responsible for the design and implementation.

"Work began many months before the show," says Michael Mrzyg?ocki. "We were responsible for the execution of the set design of projects for all three stages." The ARAM team worked closely with both the client and the executors, among others, Jack Van Daniels.

The resulting total of three scenes, including an impressive main stage with a total span of 60m, located i

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USA - Before Enrique Iglesias set out to play some of the world's largest venues for his 2014 Sex and Love Tour he consulted Travis Shirley, his longtime creative director and show designer. To make the show's production elements specialized yet easy to replicate in any tour destination, Shirley deployed several classic lighting fixtures from Martin Professional and one new one - the MAC Quantum Profile.

Over the last decade, Shirley and Iglesias have done 12 tours together. The Sex and Love Tour was a first, however, in that Iglesias shared the role of headliner for some of the shows with Pitbull, which challenged Shirley to design a show concept that was distinctly Iglesias's style but could be augmented by Pitbull's creative team when necessary. Furthermore, the tour's far-reaching itineraries made local product availability a key concern.

"The show design that I sold

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UK - Rock band Placebo continue their acclaimed Loud Like Love world tour which entered its third year after starting in September 2013, with lighting and visuals designed by Jvan Morandi of Placing Shadows Ltd. who brings his characteristic eye for style and flair to the imaginative equation.

For the first time, west London based rental company Colour Sound Experiment supplied lighting equipment and LED screens - for the latest section of the tour - which has just completed an extensive run through UK academy venues.

Jvan's original design concept has been adapted several times for the various legs of the tour, which have already included two full production runs and two festival seasons. This time it was modified again to fit the academy sized venues, retaining the raw, gritty aesthetic with lots of moody back-lighting and quirky video that has created such an interesting cr

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Germany - GLP will present iadditions to its popular impression range of LED moving lights at this week's Prolight+Sound Show in Frankfurt (on booth #11.0, B17).

For the first time in Frankfurt, the German company will showcase its new impression X4 Bar 10 and impression X4 Bar 20 fixtures. Alongside these, GLP will be showing its very latest fixture to join the range, the fully pixel mapping impression X4 L, and also previewing its new impression X1 for the first time anywhere in the world.

GLP's new impression X4 Bar 10 and impression X4 Bar 20 - two high performance battens that offer flexibility across multiple applications - use high output RGBW LED's that are packed tightly to give a full batten of light.

The one metre long X4 Bar 20 uses 20 LED's, while 10 LED's feature in the shorter 50 cm X4 Bar 10. High quality optics ensure a smooth, homogenized output across the

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The Netherlands - The Hard Dance electronic music event Masters of Hardcore celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2015 under the banner 20 Years of Rebellion. The 28 March event attracted an audience of 25,000 in the Brabanthallen in S'Hertogenbosch.

To celebrate this event in an appropriate way, the organizers decided to go for a massive laser show setup on four of the six stages, which meant that more than 16 high power lasers were set up on the main stage, and 16 more fired on the other floors.

Reliability as well as quality of the equipment is essential at such large scale productions. Laserfabrik did the laser show performance on all stages and decided to go for a massive laser setup of RTI NANO, RTI PIKO and RTI FEMTO show laser light systems.

The laser show control was executed with a combination of DSP controllers and grandMA2s, which triggered the pre-programmed

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Germany - Luminex Network Intelligence, a Belgium-based developer of pro AV and lighting control data distribution equipment, will introduce its latest developments at Prolight+Sound 2015 this week (Hall 11, E0 Stand B41B).

Ethernet-DMX8/Truss MkII is an eight- port truss mounted converter that brings all the well known features of a Luminex converter in a rugged and versatile form factor. Fitted with eight fully isolated DMX ports, and two Ethernet ports, the unit is "the perfect solution to convert a high number of DMX channel, and to take benefit of the powerful Luminex Ethernet-DMX engine".

The team will also demo the beta of the upcoming 4.2.0 firmware for the Ethernet-DMX range. This beta includes the following new functionalities:

The GigaCore RPSU is a redundant power supply unit for the GigaCore 14R and 16Xt switches. Fitted in a 19" enclosure, the un

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  5. Dream Sets & EPH at the Ghoema Awards
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