Australia - Lexair Entertainment has been appointed the exclusive Australian and New Zealand distributor for American followspot specialist Lycian Stage Lighting.
“Lycian is proud to announce it has established a relationship with Lexair Entertainment to distribute Lycian followspots in Australia and New Zealand,” said Steve Lerman, director of sales for Lycian Stage Lighting. “We believe Lexair will aggressively market Lycian followspots and are happy to join their growing stable of entertainment products. I look forward to working with a company that is dedicated to customer service because that is our root belief.”
“Lycian is the most reputable followspot manufacturer in the world, and we’re very happy to be working with them,” stated Alex Mair, managin

UK - Celebrating some of the finest music and artists from the 80s, Rewind festival takes place over three weekends each summer.
Starting in Scotland at Scone Palace, near Perth, then moving on to Capesthorne Hall in Cheshire, and with the final weekend at Henley, the festival includes performances from a variety of eighties superstars including Human League, Nik Kershaw, Go West, Level 42, Kim Wilde, the British Electric Foundation, and the Trevor Horn Band.
PRG provides support to production manager, Keith Morris, lighting designer, Martin Nicholas, and video content director, Miguel Riberio, supplying lighting and video technology, and experienced technical crew for all three weekends. Unlike many festivals which take place over a single weekend, sometimes in dual locations, Rewind is a ‘touring’ festival, taking the same production package to different sites ov

USA - As Clean Bandit continue their touring progress towards a transatlantic sojourn in the USA in the fall, it seems an appropriate moment to consider the merits of Rob Sinclair’s production design. In particular, the constructions that inhabit the upstage area from left to right, manufactured by specialist show and event design house, Specialz Ltd. These pods are four metres high with eight VDO Sceptron 10 fixtures in each pod. Each one is rigged on a stand that enables the pod to be rotated 360° to be either facing downstage or at 45° degrees making them all but invisible to the audience.
Sinclair elaborates on the basics: “The idea was to have the mirrored pods located behind a black mirrored riser - lots of reflection – with neon edges. They needed to be able to turn so we could choose to see or obscure a video screen upstage. From that original conce
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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

UK - “This was our first ever Claypaky purchase,” opens Kieran Marklew of Marklew Productions. “We had been looking to invest in some new fixtures and one of our clients had specified the K20 B-Eye so we thought it was time for us to investigate.”
Marklew Productions has been in business since 2007 and has built up a very healthy clientele, from local Birmingham businesses opting for dry hire to those looking for a full production service alongside an extensive number of college and university customers and requests for weddings or special event lighting.
“We contacted Ambersphere Solutions and spoke to Thor Andre from Ambersphere Sales. I was so impressed with the fixture it wasn’t a difficult choice to make. I especially like the added feature of the front lens rotation. It gives an amazing vortex effect which is totally unique to the B-Eye. The colour p

The Netherlands - In July, the Dutch port of Rotterdam hosted the 42nd North Sea Jazz Festival, attracting over 75,000 people to enjoy a rich variety of music. Headlining the Nile stage on the final night was Jamiroquai, where a Yamaha Rivage PM10 helped a capacity audience of 10,000 to get funky.
Taking place across 15 stages in the city’s Ahoy arena, the North Sea Jazz Festival is so popular that it sells out every year. This is partly due, no doubt, to the variety of music on offer. As well as classical, contemporary and futuristic jazz from across the globe, the festival features blues, pop, hiphop, dance, soul, world and funk.
Yamaha Music Europe supplied the pianos and drum kits for all stages at the festival and actively helped to provide a range of backline for many of the artists.
Funk / acid jazz specialists Jamiroquai brought the festival to a close

USA - Over two million visitors come to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History every year to view pieces of American culture, from the original Star Spangled Banner, to iconic McDonald’s signs, to a pair of Mohammed Ali’s boxing gloves. It is pure and simple, one of the most concentrated celebrations anywhere of the American spirit and creative innovation.
For one night in July, not all of that famed “Yankee Ingenuity” was on display in the museum’s exhibits. Eric Hertsch of John Farr Lighting Design also exhibited some impressive resourcefulness in the museum, as he overcame a limited power supply and tight schedule to transform sections of the building into a sparkling red, white and blue colour scape with a rig made up entirely of Chauvet Professional and Chauvet DJ fixtures.
As soon as visitors entered this private donor event

Germany - GLP’s new JDC1 hybrid LED strobe delivers power in excess through a versatile and highly creative design. Already adopted by some of the world’s leading LDs, it has been “flying out the door and into rental facilities across the globe” since receiving its world premiere at Frankfurt Prolight+Sound in April.
Fundamentally, the JDC1 has been designed in three sections, which can be controlled independently or as a complete synchronised unit.
The fixture itself contains a traditional single tube element with an incredible clear, bright, white output, derived from 216 white LEDs, and then combines that with a surrounding, format-filling full face of RGB LED power, utilising 1,320 high quality LED’s. Whether running independently, or together these elements offer the brightest output unit its class with retina burning output.
Adding versatility t

UK - Shure Incorporated will be returning to the PLASA show next month at Olympia, London.
Shure will showcase its comprehensive line of digital wireless systems and participate in the traditionally well-attended PLASA seminar programme. Tuomo Tolonen, Shure UK’s Pro Audio Group manager and RF expert, will discuss how to prepare for the loss of the 700MHz RF band, which is being auctioned in May 2020, and will no longer be available for wireless microphone and in-ear monitoring system use.
Shure now offers several digital wireless systems to meet a variety of budgets. The entry-level GLX-D Advanced system, mid-tier QLX-D and ULX-D, and the flagship Axient Digital wireless system will all be available for demonstration at the Company’s exhibition stand at PLASA (G40).
Launched earlier this year, Axient Digital incorporates a newly designed minimal-latency dig

UK - With a broad stock of event production and AV equipment, production company SXS has launched a dry hire service.
Available equipment includes arena-scale PA, high-resolution LED video walls, outdoor video screens, staging, marquees and one of the largest stocks of blackout drapery in the UK.
“We now have one of the largest and definitely the broadest of stocks of AV and production equipment in the UK. The equipment we are using is high-end, industry and standard and typically rider friendly,” says SXS project handler Nathan Dunbar who will be heading up the dry hire customer services with assistance from production executive Lucy Payne.
“I’ve been with SXS a while now and have been blown away by how well our team maintains some of the highest standards I have seen in every discipline in which we work. SXS is a genuine one-stop shop with technical an

UK - ChamSys has named Aziz Adilkhodjaev as the company’s international business development manager. In his new role, he will be responsible for expanding and strengthening the international distribution network of the brand, as well as improving international customer support and training to enhance the user experience.
Chris Kennedy, ChamSys managing director, comments: “With his detailed knowledge in the field of lighting control, Aziz will assist in taking the MagicQ MQ500 and MagicQ software to a new level, and his expertise in international distribution will also help ChamSys to expand into new markets.”
Aziz states, “I am really excited about the MQ500. It’s an extremely powerful product with up to 200 universes from a single console and many unique functions - it can really deliver a punch. I am looking forward to playing a major role in its evolutio

Australia - The Brolga Theatre in Queensland’s Maryborough is a typical regional venue – its 900-seat proscenium arch theatre hosts an international ballet troupe one night, Jimmy Barnes the next, and a local dance school the day after.
Though the venue is just 17-years-old, changes in technology mean replacement lamps are no longer available for their wash lights, leading the staff to assess how to upgrade for the future. The future, as they see it, is Elation’s Platinum Seven RGBWAC-UV LED wash light.
“We knew we had to move to LED and intelligent fixtures,” said Robert Haigh, operations technician at the Brolga. “We could afford to replace our wash, but not our profiles, so it was an easy decision to go to a moving fixture that could provide a wash, and in the case of Elation’s Platinum Seven, work as a profile in many senses.”
Twelve Elation

South Africa - Not tip-toeing around what’s wrong and very wrong in the Rainbow Nation, South Africa, Mamba Republic is a rapidly-paced satirical sketch theatre comedy which reunites the talents of Ben Voss (Beauty Ramapelepele) and John van de Ruit (Spud). This brutally amusing production, from its opening at Durban's Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre through to its performances on the Main programme at the National Arts Festival in July, and its current run at The Theatre on the Square in Sandton ending 19th August, has continually had its audiences in stitches.
The Mamba Republic team generously donated R13 000 towards the SOS Charity Fund from ticket sales.
With their blend of sharp wit, hopeless optimism and clever characterization, the duo sank their fangs into the fiascos and foibles of South African life.
“As a theatre show, Mamba Republic

UK - Cameron Mackintosh’s acclaimed production of Boubil and Schonberg’s classic embarked on a record-breaking run in the West End and is now touring the UK. Having supplied the most recent revival, along with the original run thirty years ago, White Light has been called upon to provide the lighting equipment for this latest UK tour.
The lighting designer for the tour is Olivier Award-winning Bruno Poet who also lit the West End revival. He comments: “When Cameron asked me to light the 2014 production for the West End, it was daunting to start work on a production with so much history, yet thrilling to be asked to approach it with fresh ideas. I treated it as a completely new show. After the successful West End run, and revisiting the show for Broadway, the UK tour has been an opportunity to revisit my design and hone it for touring.
He adds: “It’s a challe

UK/Taiwan - Coretronic Corporation Taiwan has completed the acquisition of Calibre, a privately held British image processing technology manufacturer based in Bradford, Yorkshire.
Coretronic manufactures the largest number of DLP projectors in the world, and is the ODM supplier to the majority of the world’s Tier 1 DLP projector brands.
The acquisition of Calibre expands Coretronic’s technology capability by the addition of Calibre’s compelling range of HQUltra image processing technology and in-house R&D capabilities.
“It reflects Coretronic’s strategy to strengthen its leading position in display and image processing technology with a rich set of capabilities afforded by the Calibre team. This will help Coretronic Group with its plans to further advance in the pro-av markets as well as assisting with entry into the rapidly expanding direct-view LE

Germany - The spectacular classical music production Schloss in Flammen (Castle In Flames) in the courtyard of the Mannheim Castle was recently mixed on an Allen&Heath dLive C Class C3500 provided by Auditiv from Kassel/Germany.
Schloss in Flammen – a classical music highlight in the festival season in Germany – is a stunning mixture of classical music and synchronised fireworks. The orchestra and solo singers from the National Theatre of Mannheim perform arias and other parts of various famous operas.
“The big challenge of this production is that we have nearly no time for rehearsals and soundcheck,” explains FOH engineer Rolf Dressler. “This is where the easy handling and flexibility of the dLive shines and it got even better with firmware 1.4 and 1.5 and new features like DCA spill and the improved scene management. I also love the sound,

UK - Evans Audio Visual Staging provided equipment and scenic elements across the whole site of the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta - the biggest event of its kind in Europe.
Thousands of people visited Ashton Court, on the edge of Bristol, during the four-day Fiesta, and Evans was involved in multiple locations across the large site, normally a country park.
For the Balloonists’ Marquee, where pilots gathered several times each day for all-important briefings, Evans supplied six Nexo PS8 speakers, hung from Utopium’s truss, for background music and announcements. These were relayed using Shure hand-held radio microphones and a Yamaha QL1 mixing desk. Evans provided a 42inch screen which was used for presentations in the media suite.
Multiple LED screens were placed around the Fiesta site to carry live close-ups from the displays, sponsor adverts, conten

Brazil - As one of the world’s most famous tenors, tickets for the final world tour by José Carreras have been in huge demand. The A Life In Music tour has seen sold out shows around the globe, but a particular highlight for Front of House (FoH) engineer Peter Schneekloth was the Brazil concerts, which he mixed on a Yamaha Rivage PM10 console.
Peter has been the live sound engineer for Carreras for 16 years, mixing hundreds of shows in concert halls, arenas and stadiums in more than 50 countries. The A Life In Music tour started in 2016 with a sold-out show at London’s Royal Albert Hall and has included concerts throughout Europe, the Middle East, the Far East, USA, Central and South America, Australia, Russia and other territories. Sell-outs and standing ovations have been a regular feature, with Carreras’ management hoping to book more for 2018.

Singapore - Cloud Electronics has appointed Loud Technologies Asia (LTA) as its new distributor in Singapore. LTA, a subsidiary of Trektech, is a principal distributor in the region, providing the Singaporean market with a portfolio of products from a number of reputable brands, such as K-array, One Systems and Chauvet.
Having confirmed the appointment following a productive meeting at ISE2017 earlier in the year, Cloud managing director Simon Curtis feels his decision to appoint LTA as their distribution partner has been fully justified.
With offices in Singapore, Indonesia and Cambodia, LTA is managed by Colin Quek. ‘I’ve been a fan of Cloud’s engineering quality, such as the perennial Z4 and Z8 zone mixers for many years, representing the brand is a great honour’, Quek comments.
“From an installer’s point of view, the reliability of their easy-to

South Africa - An energised and confident Malesela Josias Mashiane returned to South Africa after attending training at the Stagecraft Institute of Las Vegas (SILV). His journey abroad was made possible thanks to sponsorship from the SILV and the SOS Charity Fund, a DWR Distribution initiative.
To further expand his knowledge and for him to gain hands on experience, SILV extended an offer to Josias to participate in the Stagecraft Institute of Las Vegas 2017 programme. He had already achieved good results in the 2016 SILV, and this year was admitted to the Track 2 Advanced Level which covered Movers, Media and Rock ‘n’ Roll!
When Josias was asked what was the greatest thing he learnt, he answered that he found all the courses so interesting. He conceded that he gained so much like the correct process of ordering items from hiring companies, learning the importance

USA - Graeme Flegenheimer, owner of El Club in Detroit, Michigan, fell in love with music at a young age. That may explain his diverse taste in music and the wide variety of acts that play at the popular live music venue, which has featured a customisable Elation Professional lighting rig since opening in 2016.
“I pride myself on El Club having an eclectic calendar,” says Flegenheimer, who has a background as a music publicist. “There’s not a typical night here. It’s always changing and Elation is able to meet every requirement of the artist coming in here and capture the vibe of the evening.”
Since opening in May of 2016, El Club has arguably become Detroit’s hottest night-time venue with a mixture of acts that is attracting a wide audience. “It's really an amazing room that's giving a massive high-end light show experience to underground artists in a

UK - Jubilee Library is the main public library in Brighton and forms the centrepiece of the Jubilee square development in the city centre. Opened in 2005 by the Princess Royal, Jubilee Library stands at the heart of a multi-million pound scheme for redevelopment of a 40-year-old brownfield site and was recognised at the time of opening as one of the most energy efficient structures in England with a carbon footprint half that of a traditional public building of comparable size.
In addition to an extensive literature collection, Jubilee Library offers local communities state of the art IT facilities within its IT Connect room, a full business suite with five conference rooms and a one-to-one meeting room.
Kier Group Facilities Management, responsible for the management of Jubilee Library for Brighton & Hove City Council, called in unified business solutions provide

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