USA - Calvary Chapel, a non-denominational church in Broomfield, CO., offers contemporary style worship and music every Sunday for their devoted congregation. Pastor Richie Furay, a past member of the nationally recognised bands - Poco and Buffalo Springfield, has made music a big part of the church's ministry, with a modern professional band performing exceptional music to enhance the worship experience. Until recently, the sanctuary stage lighting was not all it might be.

With one bar of four 100 Watt and two 75 Watt incandescent can lights to illuminate the stage, it was time to update the lighting and renew the atmosphere to harmonize with the excitement, which was happening on stage every Sunday. The decision was made to install 12 Cygnus 100 Watt LED Colour Wash luminaires,

South Africa - Earlier this year Innibos was acknowledged as the most popular festival in South Africa and received KykNET's Fiesta Award. With this feather in their cap, the Afrikaans festival went full steam ahead to present their ninth successful Innibos held from 26 - 29 June 2012 in Nelspruit and attended by 120,000 people.

Rental company Sound Headquarters partnered with the organisers for the second consecutive year and provided the full technical for the main and Klipdrift stages.

"The first year was very stressful for us," said Anrika Bruinders from Sound Headquarters. The greatest fear was the unknown. "This year we fine tuned the production, the sound was awesome and the lighting was amazing." The most important aspect Sound Headquarters bring to a gig is their passion; that they partner with their client and that nothing is too difficult to ensu

Europe - Bruce Springsteen is a rock star that loves to play live. For his lighting designer Jeff Ravitz, keeping the visual excitement real can be quite a challenge. Although Springsteen has sold more than 120m albums worldwide, he is notorious for his unofficially extended concerts and it is Ravitz's job to stay one step ahead of his, sometimes unpredictable, programme.

For example, just this summer an over run in Hyde Park, London saw Springsteen unceremoniously switched off. This however did not deter him from concluding his 2012 European leg in Helsinki in true Springsteen style playing a personal record-breaking four hours and six minutes. Such capricious behaviour means Ravitz has to be quick thinking, focused and have a lighting design and system that offers maximum flexibility, power, and of course subtlety.

Forming the backbone of his lighting rig is a battalion of P

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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

France - Hugh Masekela (South Africa), Manu Dibango (Camerun), Roberto Fonseca (Cuba), Sly & Robbie (Jamaica) were among the international acts appearing at Fiest'a Sète 2012.

The 16th edition of the festival featured seven evenings of music in the fascinating setting of the Théâtre de la Mer, an amphitheatre with a breathtaking panorama of the Mediterranean right behind the stage.

Fiest'a Sète stage was lit with the new Jack and NRG 1201 high-power compact moving heads by D.T.S., provided by ESL. Lighting designer was Sebastien Serra.

(Jim Evans)

On The Fringe - Ticket sales for the Edinburgh Fringe are down by about 1%. It is thought the London Olympics - which clashed with the first nine days of the Fringe - was a major factor in the fall in sales. The Fringe remains the world's largest arts festival, with 2,695 shows performed in 279 venues.

Kath Mainland, chief executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, said it was "in fantastic health", with more than 1.8 million tickets sold. She said there were also more than 800 free shows at which attendance could not be measured. However, it is only the second time in more than a decade that ticket sales have fallen from the previous year. Sales fell in 2008 due to the disastrous implementation of a new ticketing system. Mainland said, "The Fringe has shown its resilience in responding so positively to the unique challenges of 2012."

Viva La Vi

The 3rd annual PLASA Rigging Conference will welcome over 200 international attendees at the Earls Court Conference Centre in London on Monday 10 and Tuesday 11 September 2012

With UK and worldwide bookings well up on last year and with a strong international flavour to its speakers and seminar sessions, the PLASA Rigging Conference confirms its status as the premier event worldwide dedicated to all things rigging.

Opening with an unmissable speech from original 'Disney Rigger' Roy Bickel, one of the founders of the modern rigging industry and closing with 'Question Time' hosted by Alan Jacobi LVO, MD of Unusual Rigging, the Conference is packed with sessions from industry experts.

On Monday 10 September, the thorny issue of developing standardised Common Practice will be debated by Rinus Bakker and Roy Schilderman from ARGH in Hol

UK - The Olympic Games in London may have come to an end, but the London 2012 Festival - also known as the Cultural Olympiad - continues to draw in crowds from across the UK. As part of that, the puppeteers responsible for War Horse created a stunning show at the Borough Halls in the south London Olympic borough of Greenwich - with production management by Illuminate Design.

Crow is based on a series of poems by the late poet laureate Ted Hughes, with the Handspring Puppet Company accompanying the telling of their stories through the medium of puppetry. Says Illuminate Design's co founder Ben Payne, "Handspring did such an amazing job on War Horse, that we all knew we had a lot to live up to. The poems can be quite dark, and so we wanted something suitably intimate."

Illuminate began by reversing the Borough Halls' traditional layout, with bleach

UK - Philips Entertainment Group brand Selecon is launching a new range of professional LED luminaires at PLASA 2012, Earls Court (9-12th September). Selecon will join Philips Entertainment brands Vari-Lite, Strand Lighting and new range - Showline - in Hall 1, stand BV 1-F50 to showcase some of the latest developments in lighting and control technology.

Debuting at this year's show will be the Selecon PLFRESNEL-1 and the PLPROFILE-1. Both fixtures are designed to complement Philips Entertainment's existing range of LED luminaires - the Selecon PL3, PL1, PLCYC1 and the Vari-Lite VLX ranges. "Together, this comprehensive range of lighting tools will offer a higher level of creative expression to designers working in the theatre, small studio and display lighting sectors," says the company.

General manager for Selecon, Graham Eales comments: "The PLFRESNEL-1, whic

UK - Together with new premises in Poole, UK, Void Acoustics continues to expand both its workforce and its presence in the pro-audio industry. The most recent addition to the Void team is Bradley Scott Watson, who has joined to fill the role as international sales manager.

Watson has been involved in the industry in some way for the last 12 years, working at Middlesex Sound and Lighting (2010 - 2012), and as a UK & international salesman for Martin Audio (2000 - 2010), and said this about joining the Void family, "working at MSL (Middlesex Sound & Lighting) was a fantastic experience, but I wanted a new challenge with a return to the manufacturing side of the industry. Void do things just that little bit differently, which initially drew me to the position."

Void MD Alex Skan said, "Bradley comes to Void at a crucial time in the company's growth, he mirrors bot

UK - ETC's stand at PLASA 2012 is set to be better than ever before, with a range of new and updated products on demonstration

For the first time in the UK, the Layers of Light theatre space will offer a short presentation every hour.

ETC market manager Erik Larsen says, "We'll set up a series of coloured fabrics to show how colours can balance, 'pop' or appear dull by adjusting each of the different colours in an LED fixture. We'll then show how each of the company's different ranges of fixtures can work well either together or separately. ETC staff will demonstrate how LED can be mixed with conventional incandescent light sources, and how that works with a Sensor3 Power Control system.

"While we recognise that no single fixture is perfect for every kind of use, ETC's goal is to provide designers with tools that stand out on their own but also enhance the a

USA - Israeli dupstep producer DJ Borgore recently debuted his 2012 tour at the Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas, mixing rhythms from inside a custom-made ice cream truck built of Chauvet Professional MVP 18 video panels. The Borgore Cream Machine made its big entrance at EDC entertaining enthusiastic crowds, and will go on tour again in the fall in cities throughout the U.S. The event was spiced up by pole dancers on picnic tables and big custom-made ice cream cones placed on stage that shot cream at the audience.

A concept of VJ Morgan Lavery, owner of Infinight Productions, the idea of the Borgore Cream Machine is to make Borgore look like he is driving inside an ice cream truck, equipped with real 30-inch rims that move and spun around on motors.

Forty-seven MVP 18 panels cover the main façade of the truck and 18 make up the rear screen behind the DJ booth, while two

UK - Acoustic Technology Group reports that Bossa Nova, a new electro dance club in NYC has bought an LS1000 system with TT amplifiers and LS48DX system controller. The system consists of four LS1000NF, one per corner with two LS1000S subs; the front bar features LS1000M enclosures plus two more LS1000M for DJ monitors.

David Liles is set to manage the company's New York office which will be opening shortly. Liles is currently undertaking FOH duties for Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings.

The Railway in Bolton has just upgraded to the LS1000M monitors from the Tannoy units previously used.

Sneaky Pete's in Edinburgh has ordered LS1000M floor monitors to replace their Logic Systems units. The new monitors are shipping next week.

Several other venues in New York State are about to close contracts to upgrade to LS1000 systems. Watch this space for these and other exciting develop

USA - Bring Elvis to life - That was the main video projection mission for Pete's Big TVs for the Elvis 35th anniversary concert, 16 August at the FedEx Forum in Memphis. The event was a fan favourite at the end of Elvis Week, a weeklong celebration of The King and on the 35th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death in 1977.

Pete's Big TVs has worked on many past Elvis in concert tours and anniversary shows - again with producer Stig Edgren Productions.

This year, Pete's Big TVs supplied 324 panels of the new digiLED MC7 high resolution video tiles to comprise all video screens in the show. The MC7 emit no radio frequency interference, making them a popular rental item in Pete's Big TVs' inventory.

The panels were split up into four screens. A screen over the stage displayed the show's EP 35 logo and IMAG. Of the three screens on the upstage, measuring 18ft tall,

Spain - Continuing their work with The Shop Ibiza, XL Video are supplying LED screens for Paradise at DC10 every Thursday throughout the 2012 season.

Paradise, presented by Hot Creations, is one of the coolest club nights on the island and includes a residency by Hot Creations label owner, Jamie Jones, along with guest appearances from some of the best names in electronic music, including DJ Harvey, Soul Clap and Damian Lazarus.

XL Video is supplying a backdrop for the DJ booth constructed from Martin LC 2140 transparent LED, to complement the look of this unique club night.

This residency, along with other shows and events in Ibiza this summer including the International Music Summit, and Ibiza 123, reinforces XL Video's commitment to working with electronic dance music artists and clubs to help enhance their performances with the creative use of video technology.

USA - Over 250 Chauvet Professional LED fixtures are part of the stage design for the 60-minute worship services held at North Point Community Church, one of five churches in the Atlanta area that make up the North Point Ministries. Arrays of ÉPIX Strip linear pixel mapping fixtures - 112 to be exact - anchor the stage's backdrop. Placed in vertical lines from stage floor to the trim height of 16ft, they resemble raindrops falling from above animated by motion graphics generated by ArKaos MediaMaster Pro.

Positioned at the top, smoothing out the colour, are 14 COLORado Batten 72 Tour linear wash lights while 44 COLORado 1-Tri Tour and 19 COLORado 1 Tour static wash lights light up the wider set pieces found between the ÉPIX Strip fixtures. For dramatic flair, studding the ÉPIX array, are simple incandescent work lights clipped into place. As side lighting fo

Australia - Canberra's Elite Sound & Lighting has taken delivery of its first order of Shure UHF-R Wireless Microphone Systems to cater to their growing corporate, events and rock'n'roll market.

"Our Shure UHF-R systems will service many of our premium gigs," remarked Darren Russell, Elite's managing director. "So far we've found them to be very good, reliable and provide very stable RF performance. The Shure UHF-R's user-interface is very friendly and easy to follow. We really like the simplicity of use and the fact that they come with all the inter-connect cables and accessories in the box - with some other brands you have to purchase them as a separate item. It's great that you can easily patch up and configure your system straight out of the box. It's really all quite self-explanatory to set up.

"The Shure Wireless Workbench software with the network is

Germany - Robe moving lights helped create the dynamics for the two stages in the Bullhead Circus tented arena at the 2012 Wacken Open Air (W:O:A) Festival in Germany.

Among the biggest, best known and most popular metal fests in the world, over 80,000 rockers gathered over three days to enjoy a wide selection of metal genre artists which included headliners The Scorpions, Machine Head, Sepultura and many others.

Lighting for the double-staged Bullhead Arena was supplied by Crystal Sound based in Karlsruhe.

An impressive cityscape set was designed by Thomas Bartz from Konzeptsache Berlin.

The two stages were positioned side-by-side with a mesh-clad Layher scaffolding structure in the middle, complete with a boxing ring coming out into the audience. Artists used this to tease the crowd and strut their stuff.

The stages were operated in 'flip-flop' style to ensure that the

UK - Lighting and visuals rental and solutions provider HSL continued a massively busy touring season supplying lighting, LED screen, rigging and a Kinesys automation system to Production North for street dance troupe sensation, Diversity's first major arena tour.

HSL has worked with Production North on many different projects. Once again, Mike Oates project managed for the Blackburn based company, with set, visuals and lighting designed by Peter Barnes, working in close conjunction with Diversity's creative director and leader, Ashley Banjo.

On the road, lighting was looked after and operated by Neil Trenell. An HSL crew of six took care of lighting and video and the Kinesys system, together with rigger John Ashton, who put in the 58 points each day.

Sarah Hollis, production manager for Production North, remarked that it was "Excellent" to deal with one company an

UK - Show sponsor Martin Professional is celebrating its 25th Anniversary at PLASA 2012 and will be holding a number of celebratory and VIP events at stand 1-F44 including prize draws for the chance to win Martin products.

"We look forward to celebrating with all our friends in the lighting industry and invite everyone to our stand for a chat and a celebratory drink and not least the chance to get an up-close look at the new MAC Viper series and other innovations as well," says Martin UK sales director Mike Walker.

"The feedback we've received on the Viper series has been unprecedented as our pre-sales numbers attest to. It is truly a ground-breaking moving head and contains all of our accumulated knowledge over the past 25 years. It is nothing short of spectacular and we are confident that lighting designers will feel the same."

Martin will be showing a

UK - The third annual PLASA Rigging Conference will welcome over 200 international attendees at the Earls Court Conference Centre in London on Monday 10 and Tuesday 11 September 2012.

With UK and worldwide bookings well up on last year and with a strong international flavour to its speakers and seminar sessions, the PLASA Rigging Conference confirms its status as the premier event worldwide dedicated to all things rigging.

Opening with an unmissable speech from original 'Disney Rigger' Roy Bickel, one of the founders of the modern rigging industry and closing with Question Time hosted by Alan Jacobi LVO, MD of Unusual Rigging, the conference is packed with sessions from industry experts.

On Monday 10 September, the thorny issue of developing standardised common practice will be debated by Rinus Bakker and Roy Schilderman from ARGH in Holland along with panellists Cris

UK - Although a regular exhibitor, this year Doughty has its own stand for the first time at PLASA and will be showing a host of new products on stand 1-E7.

The Baby Quick Trigger clamp is designed specifically for smaller truss sizes, being adjustable to diameters of 25mm-38mm and, with TUV approval pending, comes in polished aluminium or satin black.

Recently appointed the UK distributor for Reutlinger, Doughty will be showing their range of cable holders, in two sizes to suspend loads of up to 130kg and 330kg on wire rope. Reutlinger cable holders have been specifically designed for applications which demand compliance with BGV C1 accident prevention rules.

Also new are the Lightweight Pantograph, Follow Spot Mount, TV bracket - and much more. stand 1-E7.

(Jim Evans)

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