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South Africa - Collective Works is a new creative visual design practice launched by three experienced live event production industry professionals – Christopher Bolton, Joshua Cutts and Bradley Hilton. All are well known for their work in South Africa and across the African continent.
Bringing all the energy and vibrancy of the region to an international marketplace, the trio specialise in the disciplines of lighting, video and set / scenic design and digital content production.
“There is a great chemistry and fluidity of ideas and thoughts between all of us,” says Chris, explaining that while Collective Works is a really natural synergy between the three of them, their totally different personality attributes and characters add yet more to the dynamics of the te

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USA - After five years as a partner in FadeUp Design Group, production designer and programmer Justin Kitchenman has announced the creation of the Nashville-based design firm Align Design Group.
Specializing in lighting, production, and media design, Kitchenman opened the doors to Align Design Group on 1 January, 2017, with the goal of creating a collaborative production atmosphere for designers, technicians and other design firms while continuing to serve his current clientele with the same level of service and creativity.
“As a founding partner of FadeUp with Heath Marrinan, the company steadily grew over the years into a full-service lighting vendor that is really making a name for itself,” began Kitchenman. “With the company on solid ground, it was a great time for me to branch out on my own to create Align Design Group which stemmed from my goal to have a li

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Germany - Magic Light + Sound of Germany has added a stock of Elation Professional Cuepix Panel LED matrix blinders to its extensive inventory of event technology products. The Cologne-based rental company is the latest European event technology rental house to add Elation lighting to its inventory.
“The Cuepix Panels were specifically requested for use on various projects so we decided to buy them after numerous rentals,” said Marco Pütz, managing director at Magic Light + Sound. “This type of product with LED technology is just what was required.”
The full colour 5 x 5 Cuepix Panels house 30-watt RGB LEDs and are some of the most popular LED matrix panels on the market. Useful for anything from organic looks to flash blinders to pixelmapped effects, they include individual pixel control, which makes a variety of creative effects possible. Magic Light + Soun
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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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USA - Typically, when legendary bands reunite, it’s usually for a national tour, big festival or high- profile TV special, but post hardcore pioneers Thursday have never been about following the tried-and-true commercial track. When they got back together recently after a six-year breakup, the New Jersey-born group, which is widely credited with putting emo music on the map, came back to the place where it all began – the Starland Ballroom in central New Jersey.
A revered part of New Jersey’s vibrant music scene (the founding members of Bon Jovi are said to have met here), the Starland Ballroom occupies a special place in Thursday’s history. It was here that they celebrated the success of their 2003 breakthrough album War All The Time, which reached No. 7 on the Billboard Top 100 Album charts.
For their homecoming reunion, the band wanted a lightshow tha

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Australia - One of Tasmania's leading lighting designers, Gareth Kays, used an ultra-compact Quartz console from British manufacturer Avolites to programme the magical lighting and special effects on the Australian island state's production of blockbuster Broadway musical Wicked. The show ran at Hobart's Theatre Royal from 27 January to 11 February.
Featuring spectacular staging and a 17-piece orchestra, the musical was put on by local production company The Show Company. Kays was brought in to design and programme the entire lighting package. The owner of GK Productions, Kays controlled the show using an ultra-compact Avolites Quartz console running the latest Titan V10 software.
"There were a number of reasons that the Quartz console appealed to me," explains Kays, who had invested in the console in 2016 from Australian distributor TLC Global. "Firstly, it doe

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UK - As ITV unleashes its new flagship entertainment in the shape of The Nightly Show, specialist illumination providers LED Creative are working alongside scenic designer Dominic Tolfts and lighting director Chris Rigby, adding fresh tones and a splash of bright colour to the show.
Recorded live before a studio audience, The Nightly Show features a selection of guest presenters offering topical views on recent events along with celebrity guests, expert analysis and various games - all with a light-hearted touch.
LED Creative provided a selection of their bespoke LED systems and rental kits to the show, assisting designer Tolfts in creating the show’s stunning, modern look. Flanked by a ‘neon’ proscenium arch, the installation features illuminated steps leading up to the stage, all cleverly constructed using custom built light boxes housing lines of

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France - A pivotal figure in French history, general and statesman Charles de Gaulle dominated French politics from his leadership of the Free French during the Second World War through to his death in 1970. A memorial and permanent exhibition in his home village of Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises has recently had its audio system extensively updated with Yamaha Commercial Installation Solutions (CIS) control and amplifiers.
Built in 2008, the memorial covers 1600m2 and is close to La Boisserie, de Gaulle’s home of 34 years in Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises. The exhibition building was built a style that would reflect the ‘austere grandeur’ of the Haute-Marne region’s landscape which it overlooks.
The exhibition covers all the facets of de Gaulle’s life and character, also exploring his legacy and the criticisms and caricatures that he inspired. As well as exhibits lik

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UK - Busted are making extensive use of Shure wireless microphones and in-ear monitoring (IEM) on their current tour, supporting their 2016 surprise third album Night Driver.
Every member of the Busted touring band is linked into an eight-channel wireless system comprising two Shure quad-band ULXD4Q receivers. For monitoring, the band is using eight channels of Shure’s PSM1000 IEM system.
Instrumental in the band’s choice of equipment on this tour have been guitar tech Pjay Johnson, who also works with John Newman and McFly live, and tour manager Robert Highcroft, who also looks after Bring Me The Horizon’s live shows. His live charges have also always been Shure wireless users, partly because they tend to be very active on stage and don’t want to be tied down by cables.
“If you look at a Bring Me The Horizon show, there’s around 30 channels of

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UK - LED Eco Lights reports that its Bright Goods LED filament lamps have been installed throughout the newly refurbished and prestigious Oxford Blue gastropub, to create a traditional atmosphere with efficient lighting technology.
The Oxford Blue, located on the edge of Windsor Great Park in Berkshire is housed in two former game keeper’s cottages dating back to the 1800s and was acquired in 2015 by Steven Ellis, former chef at three-Michelin-starred Restaurant Gordon Ramsay. After a lengthy refurbishment, the pub opened its doors on New Year’s Eve and boasts a 44-cover venue with a wine attic for private dining, a 14-seat lounge for drinks and a 16-cover outside dining area.
Fettle Design was commissioned to create an interior that combined the historical elements of the building with modern efficient lighting technology. Fettle specified Bright Goods linear LED

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Europe - Floridian hard rock titans Alter Bridge toured mainland Europe and the UK during the tail end of 2016, with lighting, video and rigging supplied by PRG XL Video.
Lighting designer Greg ‘Lil G’ Kocurek explained his design for the show: “We wanted a real heavy rock look, the kind of visual spectacular that threatens to melt your face; yet to create a well-balanced show with moments of calm between the chaos. The lighting rig is made up of Martin MAC Viper profiles, Icon Beams and Clay Paky A.LEDA B-EYE K20s, which are brilliant because you can do so many things with them and have great effects. I also used Clay Paky Stormy CC strobes and the Chauvet Strike 4 LED lights as audience blinders. Our choice of fixtures was moulded around the budget we had, and the best products we could afford—but in the end they matched our original ideas perfectly.”
The v

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UK - Wiltshire based special effects company, Quantum SFX, has been awarded Best Visual Spectacular at both the Festival Supplier Awards and Event Production Awards 2017.
It is the second year running that the Quantum team have taken home Best Visual Spectacular at the Festival Supplier Awards. Last year the company received the award for their towering pyrotechnic display provided for Metallica’s headline slot at Reading and Leeds Festival.
This year, the award ceremony recognised the team for their work at BST Hyde Park with Mumford & Sons and Take That for which they supplied two bespoke programmes of special effects.
Phil Mundy, manager at Quantum SFX and the man behind the aerial pyro displays, commented, “To be awarded for the second year running is a real honour for the whole team at Quantum. We have worked closely with both Mumford & Sons a

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UK - As part of Leisuretec’s ongoing TecZone educational seminar series, Apart Audio is to host an event –An Installers Guide to Commercial Audio Solutions – on Wednesday 15 March at Leisuretec’s purpose built training facility in Leighton Buzzard.
The free event, which will run between 10am and 3.30pm, is designed to equip installers with a working knowledge of audio for retail, restaurant and other environments, and an understanding of Apart’s wide range of speakers, music players and amplification solutions.
Training will be delivered by Audio-Technica’s Logan Helps (Apart brand manager) and Matthew Archer (technical product specialist) and will cover topics including correct speaker selection, designing multi-speaker installations and how to approach multi-zone applications. During the day, attendees will have the chance to listen to an array of Apart A

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World - The global success of multi-national pop / classical sensations Il Divo continues as their Amor & Pasión World Tour 2016 concluded with over 40 dates across the USA and Canada between September and November. Their Amor & Pasión album, released in late 2015, debuted at the top of the Billboard Latin Albums chart and the supporting tour visited 30 countries.
Following the very successful UK and European legs, for which London-based Capital Sound supplied their Outline GTO C-12 system, the north American shows were handled by Special Event Services (SES) of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. A long-time user of Outline systems, SES added GTO C-12 to their inventory for the tour.
SES vice-president Jason Farah describes his company’s experiences with the GTO C-12 on tour with Il Divo. “SES has enjoyed Outline's GTO for years but this was our first

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UK - POLAR has agreed a deal to become Radial Engineering's sole distributor in the UK. Radial is a manufacturer of professional audio products based in Vancouver, Canada that offers a wide array of products sold under the brand names Radial, Tonebone and Primacoustic.
The Radial brand is renowned for the high quality of its products for the professional live and recorded markets including DI boxes, splitters and isolators whilst Tonebone comprises a range of guitar and bass pedals for professional use where quality, durability and performance is critical. Primacoustic is a range of panels, bass traps, diffusion and isolation solutions that address the acoustic treatment needs of a wide variety of applications from professional audio to houses of worship, education, home entertainment and beyond.
John Midgley, POLAR managing director warmly welcomed the partnership. "R

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Europe - Grammy-award-winning, nu metal band KoЯn embarks on a tour of mainland Europe in March, starting in Zurich and culminating in Slovakia in April, with a set that features Ayrton MagicPanel-R fixtures as the focal point of the lighting design. The 17-date tour follows on from North American and UK legs which were supplied by Morpheus Lights in the US and Neg Earth in the UK respectively, with Black Box of Germany assisting for the forthcoming Europe leg. KoЯn’s lighting designer, Thomas ‘Church’ Christmann, supplemented the North American tours with 20 Ayrton NandoBeam-S9 and 6 Ayrton MagicBlade-R fixtures for KoЯn’s sets in the Return of the Dreads & Nocturnal Underground tours.
Church designed his lighting to work in combination with a large, rectangular back video wall, by deploying 56 MagicPanel-R fixtures, complete with mirror kits, i

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Italy - The tenth Showlight quadrennial, the full speaker programme for which was announced last month, takes place in less than three months (20-23 May) at the Palazzo dei Congressi in Florence, Italy. It is with delight we report that all exhibitor spaces have sold out - we even managed to squeeze in a few more due to popular demand! The latest exhibitors to be welcomed on board are AED, Elation Professional BV, PRG, SGM and Music & Lights. The full list of confirmed exhibitors can be found on the Showlight website at www.showlight.org/it/exhibitor-list
Exhibitors are a vital part of Showlight’s winning formula where manufacturers, distributors and lighting practitioners, from all disciplines and levels of expertise, are in the enviable position of being able to discuss ideas in a much closer, mo

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China - PR Lighting chose this year’s GET Show at Guangzhou’s Poly World Trade Centre to launch its first waterproof moving head (the AQUA 440 Beam). This IP44-rated version of the XR 440 Beam is equipped with the advanced Osram 440W lamp, to create a punchy, parallel beam with 3.1° beam spread.
Also well received at the booth were other recently launched products, including the fully-featured XLED 4007 Beam and XPar 150 Zoom.
The engine of the XLED 4007 Beam is provided by the 7 x 40W RGBW 4-in-1 LEDs, which produce a full range of vivid colours. The colours of each LED can be independently controlled.
The XPar 150 Zoom is a compact and lightweight fixture. With its IP67 rating it is designed for extreme outdoor conditions such as building façades, landscaping and so on. Featuring multi-chip (4-in-1) 150W COB (chips-on-board) LED and linear zoom, it is ide

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Sweden - Rally Sweden is the biggest recurring sports event in Sweden and a part of the FIA World Rally Championship. No less than approximately 100m TV viewers worldwide and 250,000 attending spectators followed the race that took place in the province of Värmland in the middle of Sweden from 9-12 February.
For the seventh year in a row, Jakob Larsson was the responsible lighting designer and production manager who ensured that the light settings were enhancing the settings the best way possible. For that purpose, he stocked up on SGM P-5 LED wash lights:
“I have a lot of experience with the P-5 and I knew it was the right lamp for the mission. I rented all that Woodlite had in stock which was about 110 pcs. If they have had more, I had rented more, as they were my first choice.”
He installed the P-5s at two different so-called Super Special Stages and als

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Slovenia - PA company, ABC Professional Sound & Light, has invested in Allen & Heath’s S Class dLive digital mixing system, adding a S7000 Surface with DM48 MixRack to its hire stock.
ABC’s new system has already been used on a variety of events, such as the Triskel festival in Italy, Idrija Lace festival, concerts for Pinko Tomažič choir and the Komen wind orchestra, and tour dates with well-known Slovenian bands including Big Foot Mama, Vlado Kreslin and Kingston.
“dLive has a simple interface, and is equipped with Allen & Heath sound and build quality,” comments ABC’s owner, Bojan Dolgan. “The preamps sound natural, and the FX section is simply great with fabulous reverb, delays and compressors. We are planning to buy the smaller S3000 system for the other events. We love it!”
(Jim Evans)

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USA - Composer Craig Bohmler was on a hiking trip through Arizona’s Tonto National Forest five years ago, when he came upon a small museum dedicated to Zane Grey, the prolific writer (64 novels and over 300 short stories) of American cowboy sagas.
Intrigued, Bohmler began reading Grey’s Riders of the Purple Sage. Not long into the book, the composer envisioned turning the 1912 romantic story into an opera. His vision became a reality this March as The Arizona Opera premiered Riders of the Purple Sage, directed by Fenlon Lamb at Phoenix Symphony Hall.
Supporting the drama on stage and accenting its evocative scenic elements was a flexible and richly coloured lighting design by Greg Hirsch that included COLORado 2-Quad Zoom fixtures from Chauvet Professional. The resident lighting designer and director of production at The Arizona Opera, Hirsch position

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Switzerland - For the tenth anniversary edition of the Swiss Music Awards in Zurich, lighting designers Thomas Gerdon and Nik Evers were tasked with lighting a colourful mix of live acts and chose Elation fixtures for the job, including Platinum FLX and Platinum HFX hybrid luminaires, along with Elation’s new Fuze Wash Z350 LED wash lights and ACL 360 Matrix LED moving head panels.
The awards show, which took place in Zurich’s Hallenstadion, is a tribute to national and international musicians in over 10 categories.
Gerdon, who lit the awards show for the first time, worked together with associate LD Nik Evers of stage/lighting design firm HELL Studio. Gerdon and the design team, which included stage designer Timo Martens from HELL Studio and content designer Roger Staub, were entrusted with creating a great atmosphere in the arena. Production company Habegger was
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