Czech Republic - The Vivaldianno Project - a sumptuous and ambitious combination of popular classics played in a classical rock style - is a successful crossover musical concept evolved by Italian violin virtuoso Jaroslav Sveceny and Czech rock keyboardist Michal Dvorak.

The latest touring version of the show played five large arenas in the Czech and Slovak Republics with a full Robe moving light rig supplied by rental company Q-99 from Slovakia.

The largest venue was Prague's 17,000 capacity O2. The concerts were so popular that extra shows were added in both Ostrava and Brno which immediately sold out. Lighting was designed by Martin Hruska.

The Robe fixture count included BMFL Spots and BMFL Blades, LEDBeam 1000s, CycFX 8s and 4s, Pointes and LEDWash 1200s - a combination that gave Martin the chance to create all the drama and intensity expected from the genres of rock an

UK - Long days in the sun and surf, long nights lost in music. That's the promise of Boardmaster, Europe's leading celebration of all that is surfing. Grown from small beginnings in 1981, Boardmasters has become the epitome of boutique festival going, an event packed day and night with a feast for all the senses; not least visuals. "We're doing something quite different at the Unleashed stage in the Big Top this year", said Rhodri Shaw of Video Design. "That's as well as provide the big IMAG screens for the main stage."

Shaw, as project manager for Video Design, has been instrumental in driving the development of LED at Boardmasters and it's not as straight forward as it sounds. "The Unleashed stage is a saturation situation with pumping music from the likes of Groove Armada and Roni Size. The designers asked that we provide great arches skinned with LED

China - When the 24th PALM Beijing Show was reinstated, after originally being cancelled, PR Lighting took every opportunity to capitalise.

On their large 252sq.m stand at the China International Exhibition Centre the company presented no fewer than eight new products, and was rewarded by picking up several 'Best in Show' awards.

The XR 470 Beam won the first prize and three further PR Lighting products - XLED 3019, XR 1000 Spot and XR 130 Beam - took runner-up awards in the 24th PALM Expo Exhibitions Products Technology Progress category. In addition, PR Lighting walked away with the Exhibition's Intellectual Property Award.

According to international sales director, Ernie Armas, response to the new products from the market was equally positive. "The lighting professionals, specifiers and consultants who visited our booth were extremely bullish about all our new produc

Europe / USA - Utilizing a proprietary Philips technology, Philips Selecon has introduced the PL Series Mark II LED luminaires.

"As we listened to our dealers and clients worldwide, we found that what they desired most in LED luminaires was colour consistency," said Julie Smith, Philips Strand Lighting general manager of the Americas. "Working with our engineers at Philips, we have found a fantastic solution with the PL Series Mark II LED luminaires and we are very excited to introduce them into the market."

The PLPROFILE1 MKII LED luminaire is a variable beam profile with precise beam control and pattern projection from a high output beam using only 140 Watts. An innovative combination of LED source technology and precision optical design, the PLPROFILE1 MKII is available in 18-34 or 24-44 degree beam angles while offering the performance of a 500 Watt pro

Spain - The latest addition to Ibiza Town's extensive nightlife platter is a club cum restaurant named Heart, perched idyllically at the foot of the Marina next to the Ibiza Grand Hotel. The club, which provides guests with a three-pronged experience of food, dance and musical performances and DJs, is the brainchild of Albert and Ferran Adrià - the world-famous chefs renowned for their Michelin three-star restaurant elBulli - and Guy Laliberté, founder of Cirque du Soleil.

Belgian-based Arf & Yes were responsible for coming up with a lighting concept for the main part of the experience, and called upon the services of 112 Rogue R1 Washes supplied by Spanish distributor Stonex Show Lighting.

"The concept is nothing like a normal club," commented Ignace D'Haese, one half of Arf & Yes. He continued: "It's more like a Vegas show in a way, with many evolving

Slovenia - Leading Slovenian lighting designer Crt Birsa was asked to create a dynamic production lighting scheme for the main stage at the 2015 Schengenfest event, Slovenia's largest festival, staged at Vinica, Bela Krajina and attracting up to 10,000 music fans each day. They enjoyed a series of rousing performances from a selection of top international artists and local heroes including Rudimental (DJ set), Asian Dub Foundation, Magnifico, Siddharta Stahlzeit and Guano Apes.

Crt chose to use close to 80 x Robe moving lights which were mostly supplied by rental company Intralite. This included 20 x Pointes, 16 x Robin 600E Beams, 20 x ColorSpot 1200E ATs, 20 x ColorWash 575E AT Zooms and three ColorSpot 700 E ATs all right at the centre of the design, which also utilised a number of other lights.

Crt and programmer / operator Nikola Podlesnik worked closely on creating a ran

UK - Quick fire comedian Lee Mack is back on prime time screens with a new series of the popular fact finding panel show, Duck Quacks Don't Echo. Filmed live in front of a studio audience, lighting director Oli Richards is taking care of the lighting installation, with assistance from crew chief David 'Frankie' Francis.

Set designer Markus Blee has created the backdrop to the show using an array of pictorial acrylic blocks arranged to form a cascading effect. Aurora worked closely with the designer to populate the boxes with hundreds of metres of LED ribbon, adding colour and depth to the set pieces.

Elsewhere, to wash the set Aurora supplied Martin MAC Auras augmented with a selection of Viper Performances that add versatility with their framing and focusing capabilities. Martin Rush Pars are also included in the installation to keep the audience illuminated during ca

Germany - The Airbeat-One festival happens annually since 2002 on the private airfield of Neustadt-Glewe in North Germany and is held by the rental company Music-Eggert. There are several floors where a lot of EDM fans can listen to several styles of their favourite music.

The Main Floor this year alone was equipped with the following material: 108 x Clay Paky Mythos, 28 x Clay Paky B-EYE K20, 20 x Clay Paky B-EYE K10, 16 x Alpha Spot HPE 1500, 66 x Laser Imagineering Sunbeam 100 4C Zoom, 34 x Laser Imagineering CLED 1000, one grandMA2 full-size, two grandMA2 light, with lighting design from Sebastian Heise.

Heise, who is also CEO of Laser Imagineering, explained, "The base design idea of the different dance floors is to get an impressive feeling to all festival guests. The lighting fixtures themselves should be part of the decoration and shall not dominate the total opti

Sweden - Wireless Solution hosted three very successful training days in Marstrand, Sweden. From the 25-27 August the Wireless DMX team introduced the new G5 software to 23 distributors of 13 different nationalities in this picturesque Swedish west-coast city.

W-DMX introduced innovative new features in the new G5 software, including Triple-Band communication, Wi-Fi, improved Adaptive Hopping with four times increased resolution and many other great components soon to be released.

The team also introduced a redesigned product line: a sleek MicroBox, IP66 rated WhiteBox, new ProBox, BlueBox and completely reshaped UglyBox. "It was very important to present these new products to our loyal distributors first," said Niclas Arvidsson, CEO of Wireless Solutions. "We have got the most unique software on the market, and the best product range created to date. The new im

Denmark - Martin Professional has announced the RUSH FiberSource 1 is now shipping. As the latest addition to the RUSH by Martin line of affordable lighting solutions, the RUSH FiberSource 1 is a powerful tool for illuminating fibre optic cables in permanent installations.

With a new 78 W LED fiber projector, the RUSH FiberSource 1 can light up to 300 1 mm fibre optic cables and boasts improved efficiency and reliability. The luminaire features a colour wheel with nine interchangeable colours, a twinkle wheel for variable-speed sparkling effects, and smooth, full-range (0-100 percent) electronic dimming.The fixture is fully controllable via DMX (up to five channels) as well as a stand-alone mode that ensures any combination of colours, colour speed and twinkle speed can be easily programmed.

"LED technology is evolving and is now also taking over traditional fibre applica

Germany - The new Flashback 4 (FB-4) network interface from Pangolin Systems is now available in a professional and durable aluminium housing. Ray Technologies (RTI), a Laserworld company, manufactures the new interface at its premises near Munich, Germany.

The Pangolin FB-4 is a new interface providing Network laser show control options for Pangolin software products. It is designed for high performance application. Several FB-4 interfaces can be connected with normal network switches.

The RTI FB-4 is available for Pangolin Quickshow or for Pangolin BEYOND, and it is available in different configurations, each providing additional features: Standard, DMX, IDLA and MAX. RTI's FB-4 interface can be used with any ILDA compatible laser show projector, and can be placed directly at the laser (it is snap-on compatible to the RTI PIKO and RTI NANO remote pad attachment slot) and the

Russia - Lighting designer Roman Stolyarov has used a wide range of Clay Paky fixtures to create stunning lighting looks in celebration of global cosmetic company Oriflame's annual awards ceremony and banquet, which saw over 3000 employees attend.

Leading technical production house MAX'N'MAX created the concept for the event which was called Banquet of Oriflame Directors: What Dreams May Come and took place at Moscow's Gostiniy Dvor.

MAX'N'MAX designed an ultra-wide stage with dynamic LED screens at the end of the venue's large hall. To complement this, the team worked with Stolyarov to specify an impressive rig of 34 x Alpha Spot 1500 HPE, 28 x Sharpy Wash 330, 50 x Sharpys, 81 x Shotlight Wash and 24 x Stormy CC fixtures from Arlecchino Group.

"As the venue has a glass roof and part of the event happened during the day, we needed fixtures that would still perfo

Sweden - Mats Karlsson, an industry veteran with a string of successful products and positions with several major companies, has started Intendor - a product innovation consultancy.

"My mission is to help companies get ahead of their competition by helping them create useful, innovative, and differentiated products. Anyone who has visited a trade show in recent years can testify to the fact that you have to look long and hard to find something really new. As the competition heats up and product life cycles gets shorter, companies are becoming painfully aware of the need to innovate in order to stay competitive and profitable. But only a few know how to do it, Karlsson shares."

"After bringing successful products to life at several leading companies, I am now making my skills and experiences available to those who wants to succeed using true competitive advantage

Sweden - The Stadsteater in Borås - about 60km west of Gothenburg - is one of a number of high profile city theatre and cultural centres in the country which has invested in Robe moving lights.

The purchase of 19 LEDWash 800s currently sees 10 installed in the 500 capacity main house, with nine in the smaller 100 capacity studio space. The Stadsteater is located in a large facility - together with the culture centre and library - built in 1976 and featuring some classic 1970s retro architecture and décor.

They wanted to replace some of their colour scrollers explains Lighting Technician and house LD Michael Dimle - and are absolutely delighted with the results of the LEDWashes. The Stadsteater had some previous experience with Robe ColorSpot 700E ATs bought in 2008, and the reliability of these was one of the reasons they looked to Robe again.

Michael also works for

USA - The Bay Area-based band Primus is touring North America with a Meyer Sound LYON linear sound reinforcement system to deliver its quirky, bass-driven brand of alternative rock. Described by FOH engineer Jason Mills as a "really fast" system with plenty of punch, the LYON configuration is provided byPro Media/UltraSound of Martinez, California.

"LYON is a very snappy box," says Mills, who works triple duty as FOH engineer, production manager, and system tech. "It's responsive, punchy and clear. The fans have noticed, too - I'm getting more compliments after shows than ever before."

The full system for the tour includes 24 LYON-M main and 4 LYON-W wide-coverage line array loudspeakers, 12 700-HP subwoofers, and four UPJ-1P loudspeakers as front fills. Two CQ-2 and four MSL-4 loudspeakers are deployed as needed for corner front and out fill, whi

Azerbaijan - Audiences were left enthralled and entranced by two dazzling opening and closing ceremonies staged in the National Stadium in Baku, Azerbaijan, for the first European Games - which saw Belgian based engineering specialist WIcreations involved in making some key elements of these innovative shows come alive.

WIcreations was approached directly by California based production company FiveCurrents who produced the Ceremonies. WI's team was led by Yves Vervloet and worked closely with FiveCurrents' senior technical director Nick Eltis.

The Heist-op-den-Berg based company was tasked with helping create some major visual moments, including the magic (flying) carpet during the opening ceremony, and design and construction of three performer stages for the closing ceremony, complete with a Temple of Fire rising up from beneath the largest one.

"It was a fantastic ev

Canada - Robe BMFL Spots and Blades were an integral element of the lighting scheme designed by Pierre Marleau of Orange Frog Productions Inc. for the Grandstand concert stage at the 2015 Calgary Exhibition & Stampede, arguably the world's most famous rodeo, exhibition and festival held annually in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Pierre, based in the same city, has been a lighting professional for over 25 years, starting his career in the world of theatre and musicals, with which he has toured worldwide. He's been lighting the Stampede's Grandstand Show for the last 19 years which sees a line-up of international artists play in front of 20,000 people nightly for 10 days plus a preview evening.

The lighting equipment was supplied in collaboration with BML Blackbird of Secuacus, New Jersey and Stagelite from Winnipeg, Canada working a joint venture initiative project, managed by VP of

South Africa - Showgroup used four Robe BMFLs for Rocking the Koppies, an intimate event hosted on a farm in Potchefstroom. Control was on an Avolites Tiger Touch II. "This was a private function for a fiftieth birthday party and included performances by Prime Circle, Just Jinjer and Mean Mr Mustard," said Andries Liebenberg from Showgroup, lighting designer at the celebration.

Showgroup was the technical supplier and incorporated a Prolyte Roof Structure used for the stage, 16 Robe Robin 300s and four Robe BMFLs. Other lighting included six Martin MAC 600s, 30 Stage Color 48, 24 Longman LED Cans, 20 Longman Colourme 11, stage battens, 12 Parcans and six Source 4 Profiles.

"The BMFL is an amazing light," said Andries. He has since hired the units regularly from MJ Event Gear, usually four at a time, even incorporating them into smaller indoor shows.<

USA - Often, the owners of a club will select a name for their establishment, because it sounds good - or sells more beverages - but in the case of Passion, the multi-level mega club at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino, there is real heat behind the bright moniker. The 15,000sq.ft club pulsates with passion from 10pm to 6 am Fridays and Saturdays, with non-stop simultaneous performances at its three DJ booths and the visual treats served up by 184 pixel mapped ÉPIX Strip 2.0 linear fixtures and other products from Chauvet Professional.

Opened on 1 December, 2004, Passion quickly established itself as a serious player in South Florida's buzzing club scene, making waves by booking talent like Lady Gaga and DJ Pauly D, as well as international EDM stars such as Dash Berlin and Latin sensations like Grammy-nominated Farruko. Still the club's owners have never been ones to rest o

Canada - The famed annual Calgary Stampede just concluded another successful season attracting over one million visitors to the 10-day event. A combination rodeo-exhibition-festival, the largest fair in Canada also featured a nightly Grandstand Show, which was illuminated by Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures.

Pierre Marleau of Orange Frog Productions Inc was the lighting and production designer for the grandstand show, a role he's fulfilled for the last 19 years. "It's an old-style review, a big outdoor mega-spectacle," he says. "It's got acrobats, circus acts, video, pyro, fireworks. It's one of the more complex projects we do." He obtained the Sharpy fixtures from a new joint venture between BML Blackbird of Secaucus, NJ and Stage Lite Manitoba Ltd. in Winnipeg, which combines a 30-year reputation for serving clients in the northeastern US with a professional team

Mexico - Mexican rock band Maná has earned four Grammy Awards, seven Latin Grammy Awards, five MTV Video Music Awards Latin America, six Premios Juventud awards, fourteen Billboard Latin Music Awards and fifteen Premios Lo Nuestro awards. The band's sound is inspired by Pop Rock, Latin Pop, Calypso, Reggae and Ska music genres. Recently the band started its new world tour 'Cama Incendiada' with a lighting design by Alain Corthout.

The tour used a grandMA2 full-size and a grandMA2 light consoles, two MA NPU (Network Processing Units) and eight MA 8Port Nodes for lighting control of over 200 Clay Paky moving lights.

"Versatility, robustness and reliability are the main reasons I'm using a grandMA2", explained lighting programmer and operator Menga Cruz. "Versatility is needed because of the various ways in which we work with the system on shows. We have two users

UK - Flashlight Ltd, a leading UK supplier of lighting equipment to the broadcast, motion picture and theatre industries, has announced the opening of a London sales office and warehouse, headed up by sales executive Gordon Smith.

The new location will also provide showroom and demonstration facilities. Due to the rapid expansion of their southern client base and operations, the company feels the new location will better serve the demands of local rental and sales clients.

The new location will provide sales and support for the company's expanding range of leading lighting products - stocking the brands the company has become renowned for supplying, such as ARRI, Manfrotto and KinoFlo. The company will still have its headquarters at the existing location in Manchester.

Flashlight directors Andy Dodd and Rob Williamson commented: "We're delighted to open a London office;

USA - Lighting gaffer Matt Ardine is shooting a pharmaceutical industry commercial at DC Studios, a few blocks from Los Angeles' Skid Row. The camera tracks down a drab hospital corridor whose 'windows' are lit by eight ETC Source Four LED Series 2 Lustr luminaires behind diffusion scrims.

Staring at the monitor, cinematographer Larkin Seiple calls for level changes barely visible to the human eye. Bringing a fixture down to 4% output, Ardine explains, "If I were using incandescents, I would start seeing colour shift at around 26% and my crew would be spending time putting in NDA or full blue to compensate for the tungsten effect."

On a set with skylights, windows, fluorescents and practical table lamps, setting the perfect colour temperature can be challenging. "We started out trying to shoot at 3200K, but now we have settled on 4400K. With the Lustrs, I can di

UAE - Dubai-based production supplier Protec supplied HQ Creative with lighting, video and rigging for the opening ceremony of the Nad Al Sheba Sports Tournament 2015, held at NAS Sports Complex on 21 June.

The event was created using two d3 4X4 Pro servers which created the mask, blend and warp for the custom made screens as well as integrating the use of primarily Clay Paky lighting fixtures which included 24 Clay Paky Mythos and 14 Clay Paky K10 B-eye, working together alongside eight Sharpys, seven Sharpy Wash 330s and eight Super Sharpys.

The venue had to function as a sports arena post show, so the design had to take this into account, staying out of the way of overhead house lighting as not to form shadows for the TV sports broadcast and not interfere with the games being played below. The rig needed to be light weight but still pack a punch for such a dynamic and fast

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