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USA - When WestJet Airlines, Canada’s second-largest air carrier and the number one international carrier into Las Vegas, wanted to celebrate its 21st birthday, the company decided to go all out and set some Guinness World Records in the process. WestJet treated passengers on one of its Toronto-Las Vegas flights to a massive light show in Utah’s Mojave Desert featuring 126 Claypaky Mythos fixtures
Creative agency Rethink devised the rather daunting concept, which Westbury National Show Systems Ltd. in Toronto executed. “We don’t scare easily,” laughs Westbury Vice President Rob Sandolowich. The full-service AV company provides lighting, staging, video and audio services for shows and permanent installations.
Rethink’s idea was to create a giant, ground-based

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Slovenia - Event Lighting is Slovenia’s largest and busiest lighting rental specialist, based in the capital, Ljubljana. The operation is owned and run by Jernej Gustin, who likes to be setting the trends rather than following them.
So it wasn’t a massive surprise that they were the first company in the country to purchase Robe’s new Spiider LED wash beams following a trailblazing purchase of BMFL Blades last year which also started the ball rolling in a country with a small but highly competitive and action packed market!
Event Lighting’s first batch of Spiiders went straight out on a number of projects and this was soon followed by a second order, so they now have 40 in stock. “Everyone loves a fat beam,” says Jernej.
They wanted a latest generation LED wash fixture to pair with their growing inventory of Robe’s BMFL Blades. The Spiiders have the

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Australia - Lexair Entertainment has announced that it is the new Australian and New Zealand exclusive distributor for LDDE.
LDDE specialises in the theatre and studio lighting markets, and has held an exceptional reputation since its foundation nearly 30 years ago. Their products are all manufactured in the company’s home of Austria.
“On the occasion of Prolight & Sound in Frankfurt in April 2017, first discussions were held with Lexair to offer LDDE products to an even larger audience in Australia and New Zealand” stated Peter Durstberger, international sales manager for LDDE. “I am pleased to have found a partner with Lexair, one of the top companies in its region. Together, we will be able to provide our customers with even better support in the future.”
“We are very excited to bring the highly regarded LDDE into the Lexair family, rounding ou
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Indochine X PixMob Fan Immersion

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's - 40 thousand LED pixels on a ceiling!!! Indochine's whirlwind tour transports fans to another level of the live experience - immersing them from floor to ceiling with PixMob's X4 wristbands, and an LED ceiling made entirely of its NOVA Minis! With the vision of Indochine's creative team, PixMob used its LED fan-technology to turn attendees and venues into an ocean of effects, and a starry sky of LED magic. Très très cool!

Read more about the Indochine tour in the latest issue of LSi

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UK - The Knight of Illumination (KOI) Awards – the industry’s largest Awards to celebrate the achievements in lighting and video design seen in the UK -has announced a special collaboration between KOI Awards, Hawthorn and the PLASA Show.
This initiative will introduce a new exhibition area to the PLASA Show (17-19 September 2017), specifically created to showcase the shortlisted and winning designers of the 10th annual Knight of Illumination Awards.
The designated KOI area will be located upstairs at the London Olympia exhibition halls. All visitors to the show are invited to see the showcase of work created by the shortlisted lighting designers, and following Sunday’s ceremony, an update with the winning designs.
Chris Toulmin, director of events at PLASA Events comments: “This collaboration enables us to display some of the best creative talent

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UK - Formed in 2013 in Brighton on the UK south coast, Black Peaks is a four-piece rock band that is going places. Their debut album Statues has been described by The Independent as ‘an exceptional combination of alternative rock, heavy metallic riffs, prog infused concepts and subtle post-rock flourishes that all interweave to create an extremely accomplished debut’ and they have been championed by both Radio 1’s Daniel P Carter and Zane Lowe. Having started out, as most fledgling bands do, with an unrefined mix of microphones, adding Sennheiser to their inventory has made a world of difference.
“We were originally an instrumental three-piece, which was me, Andrew Gosden on bass and Liam Kearley on drums,” explains guitarist Joe Gosney. “We quickly got Will Gardner (vocals) involved and from there our music really started to take shape. We spent 2

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Germany - The 1000th edition of Germany’s hugely popular children’s TV show 1, 2 oder 3 aired in July, and Green Hippo and mo2 design helped ensure it looked suitably impressive. Based on the original US version, which was called Runaround, those in the UK may be familiar with the UK show, which went out in the 70s and 80s under that same original US title. The success of the German show has outstripped that of any of its ‘siblings’ seeing it become a mainstay of German childhood TV watching.
mo2 design produced the historic episode, and to help ensure that the visuals went perfectly to plan, Green Hippo delivered special training to the German lighting and design company. Cologne-based mo2 design has extensive experience working with Media Servers – it was the first lighting designer to widely use them in German television – and has recently focuse

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World - Canadian singer-songwriter Shawn Mendes shot to fame via a clip he posted to Vine in 2014 and has quickly garnered pop royalty status with a social media fan following of millions. At the pinnacle of his career playing sold-out arenas around the world, Shawn is currently embarking on his Illuminate world tour – and French manufacturer and provider of lighting balloons for the event industry, Airstar, is helping to set the stage with its Pendulair LED product.
The llluminate tour comprises 61 dates in total touching every continent, with Shawn playing some of the world’s biggest music venues. Named after his current platinum-selling second studio album, the show features a set built around a 5m wide Airstar Pendulair LED lighting balloon - known as the ‘Orb’. Providing the main source of the light for fans as they walk into the venue, in an off-b

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South Africa - Indian Independence Day, holds a special meaning for the people of Lenasia Township. It was here in the early 20th century that a young Mahatma Gandhi staged a famous protest at the local railway station to advance the cause of civil rights for South Africa’s Indian population. Later, when he returned to India, Gandhi would employ the idea of non-violent civil disobedience that he had honed in South Africa to win independence for his native country, and in the process, change the world.
This year, as India celebrated the 70th anniversary of its independence, Lenasia hosted an array of events to mark the occasion. Among the most moving and colourful was Celebrating India at the township’s Patidar Hall, which featured a performance by the Kashvita Music and Dance Academy. Creating a bright and upbeat background for the spirited performances on stage w

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UK - His aviator shades, curly mop and beard may appear to be cryogenically frozen in time but the renaissance of Jeff Lynne and his Electric Light Orchestra continues to move ever forward in popularity and – with assistance from Stageco – sheer physical size, as witnessed by 70,000 ecstatic fans at Wembley Stadium on 24 June.
Supported by The Shires and Keane’s Tom Chaplin, Lynne led his latest ELO incarnation through a two-hour set rammed with highlights from his vast catalogue of self-penned hits, including Mr. Blue Sky, Livin’ Thing, Evil Womanand Shine A Little Love, while Handle With Care served as a reminder of his brief but perfect career as a Traveling Wilbury.
The big talking point of the night, however, was the breathtaking, 16.5-tonne spaceship hovering above the band that evoked memories of ELO’s celebrated

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UK - In a move to grow big in the APAC market OHM has appointed Sushil S John as executive director – Asia Pacific.
“OHM is strongly committed to invest and grow in the APAC region and we are extremely pleased that Sushil will be bringing his vision and direction to our team in the region” said Krishna Hegde, CEO, OHM-UK.
“Sushil brings a record of exceptional leadership, growing companies and deep experience in the Asia Pacific regions” Krishna added. “We look forward to working with Sushil as OHM executes the near-term growth strategy to become a leading brand in the APAC’s pro audio markets.”
Most recently, for the past seven years, Sushil was the business director – SAARC for QSC. He previously served as country head for Hasrman in India for six years. Sushil has also worked closely with OHM, Electro-Voice, and Martin Audio, in the past.

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USA - Foreigner recently released Forty Hits from Forty Years with an accompanying 40th Anniversary Tour appropriately featuring an old-school lighting design by Dan Lastovka using Elation Arena Par Zoom LED wash lights supplied by See Factor.
Used to create a 70’s rock par can look but with the benefits of a modern intelligent luminaire are 108 Arena Par Zoom fixtures. Lastovka comments: “When I was first playing around with ideas for Foreigner’s 40th Anniversary Tour, I wanted to centre the design around a big par can rig, certainly not the largest that has ever been out, but bigger than has been seen in 10 or more years, and maybe a different look to modern audiences. In the end, whimsy yielded to practicality and a richer feature set, so the hunt for a par can analogue began.”
Lighting vendor on the tour is See Factor, who, working with Elation rep

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UK - Lighting and visuals designer Andy Hurst wanted to make a big impact for Chase & Status acclaimed Saturday night headliner set at the 2017 Lovebox festival in London’s Victoria Park - so he designed an epic specials package which was supplied by HSL, together with crew – which was installed under the event’s production ‘top rig’.
The ‘extras’ included 194 x SGM Q-7 LED flood / strobes, used highly effectively for the onslaught that you expect at a Chase & Status gig as well as super-bright floods and audience blinders.
The Q-7s were rigged so they effectively worked together in linear strips, wrapping around the back and sides of the stage, the PA wings and the portrait format IMAG side screens, also integrating these screens into the performance space.
Andy loves creative challenges and is known for his fresh approach. “I wanted th

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Hungary - Allen & Heath’s dLive S Class mixing system recently managed the gala event for the FINA World Aquatic Championships 2017, held at the prestigious Opera House in Budapest.
Hosted in Hungary in 2017, the FINA World Championships take place every two years in different locations. The Championships are attended by international athletes in swimming, diving, high diving, open water swimming, synchronized swimming, and water polo. Staged at the end of the competition, the gala comprised performances from a symphony orchestra with a choir and opera soloists, alongside the FINA Awards Ceremony.
Local PA company, AV Advice Ltd., managed technical requirements for the event, supplying the dLive system, which comprised a S7000 Surface equipped with Dante and Waves interface cards, a DM64 MixRack, and two DX32 expander racks with redundant connections to the MixRa

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Germany - The annual DPWK Deutscher Preis für Wirtschaftskommunikation (German Prize for Business Communication) gala award presentation took place recently in the casual surroundings of Berlin’s Columbiahalle rock venue (replacing the usual formal ‘black tie’ event).
Known as Der Goldene Funke, the event was expertly lit by locally based lighting designer, Björn Hermann, working in conjunction with phase7 performing.arts, with whom he shares a studio. German lighting manufacturer GLP provided many of the creative tools, including 24 x GT1, 14 x impression X4 and 16 x impression X4 L.
Hermann says he believes it is important to support the City’s institutions, particularly at student level, and GLP were also happy to lend their sponsorship.
Explaining his conceptual mission, the designer states, “It was important to create an ‘Oscar’ type feeling

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Hungary - July saw the FINA (Fédération Internationale de Natation) World Championships for aquatic sports take place at the Danube Arena in the Hungarian capital of Budapest. Hungarian sales and rental company Chromasound was tasked with providing a complete audio system for the games and its subsequent events, with a DiGiCo SD10 chosen to provide audio control.
“FINA was responsible for the entire AV installation for the event and they wanted a redundant, reliable, high-end system that could also be used for various events after the games,” explains Imre Makkay, Chromasound’s sales director, who was in charge of system design. “As well as DiGiCo, we are also suppliers of Meyer Sound loudspeaker systems, so it was obvious that we could provide them with the correct overall solution.”
For the main venue, Imre chose the SD10 because he wanted to supply a con

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UK - Details of an impressive array of contributors for the Theatres Trust Theatres & Placemaking conference have started to emerge, as delegate bookings for this one-day conference rise.
Taking place at Lyric Hammersmith on Tuesday 17 October, Conference 17 will discuss why and how theatres can engage with the placemaking agenda. New contributors include:
Paul Callaghan, chair of live theatre and trustee of Sunderland Music, Arts and Culture Trust, will explore the role of culture within regeneration as part of the MACQ (Music, Arts and Cultural Quarter) project in Sunderland, whose vision will see the restoration of an important area of Sunderland, re-establishing the area’s previous importance as the Edwardian heart and soul of the city.
Graham Lister, project director for Storyhouse Chester and Cllr Louise Gittins, deputy leader of Cheshire West and Che

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Belgium - Tomorrowland is one of the world’s highest profile electronic music festivals, gathering over 400.000 people at the main site in Belgium, and connecting an additional 70.000 people at multiple remote venues through the UNITE event. UNITE are events organised in different countries and connected via a live satellite broadcast with Tomorrowland Belgium.
This year UNITE shared three hours of live HD video broadcast feeds featuring performances from the main stage in Belgium, with remote live parties in Germany, Malta, Dubai, Israel, South Korea and Lebanon. At each location grandMA2 consoles were in control. In Belgium 13 x grandMA2 full-size, eight grandMA2 light, one grandMA2 ultra-light, two grandMA2 fader wing, two MA onPC command wing and one MA onPC fader wing were used.
Up until 9pm Belgium time, every party had their own DJ performances. Starting at 9p

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UK - The PLASA Show returns to Olympia London next month for what will be its 40th anniversary. The event will once again present ground-breaking technology and exciting new launches by the world’s greatest designers and engineers. As the technical solutions specialist, White Light will be exhibiting on stand L50 where its expert staff will be on hand to meet customers old and new as well as present a range of revolutionary technology.
WL’s head of business development Lee Dennison comments: “We are delighted to be returning to the PLASA Show after what has been yet another significant 12 months for the company. In that time, we’ve become the in-house technical supplier at Claridge’s Hotel, installed exhibitions at the V&A and Saatchi Gallery, supported the relaunch of Hintze Hall at the Natural History Museum as well as continued to supply the biggest shows in

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UK - During PLASA 2017, CLF lighting will present three new lighting essentials, including the Yara.
The CLF Yara is a workhorse for every purpose. The LED fixture has outstanding smooth RGBW colour mixing delivered by 14 high power LEDs with a very punchy 15° beam angle. The specially selected LEDs provide high output with intense colours and an exceptional white balance. IP65 rating makes the Yara suitable for both indoor and outdoor use.
The Ares XS is the smaller brother of the Ares, which has proven to be a lighting essential for many different purposes. The powerful LED wash fixture is designed for illuminating large surfaces both in- and outdoor. Extreme brightness and an extraordinary even projection make the Ares XS a true LED alternative for traditional wash lights. An array of 18 calibrated high power RGBW LEDs is divided in three individually controllable

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In Flight Entertainment - German live music promoter Deutsche Entertainment AG has bought out British entertainment producer the Flying Music Group, as it looks to expand into the UK theatre market. Established in 1976, producer and promoter the Flying Music Group is behind theatre productions including Thriller Live and The Kite Runner, both of which are currently running in the West End, and forthcoming musical The Toxic Avenger. DEAG has now acquired a majority shareholding of the company through its British subsidiary Kilimanjaro Holdings.
Through the £5m deal with Flying Music Group, DEAG will expand its activities in the UK, moving into the touring plays and musicals market. A statement from DEAG said its sales in the UK are expected to increase to more than €100m in 2018 following the acquisition of the Flying Music Group. Stuart Galbraith, chi

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UK - ER Productions is an innovative laser specialist providing cutting edge laser products and choreography to some of the most iconic shows internationally.
“We use Le Mark because of their good quality products; not just flight case labels but other items we have ordered. Le Mark's Hannah Tuoy in business development is always speedy with our requests and keeps us updated as to our orders,” said Hannah Williams, production assistant at ER Productions.
The PAL case labels that ER Production bought were used on flight cases, which contain the kit required to make the show a success, and go all over the world to the variety of shows they work on.
“Each case is clearly labelled which aids us not only when packing the kit in the warehouse, but also at the gig for set up & de-rig,” explained Hannah.
Le Mark’s PAL case labels are not restricted by
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