UK - A.C. Video, a sales division of A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) is hosting an Open Day on Tuesday, 26 April 2016 at the Grand Theatre, Blackpool, to demonstrate the latest innovations from their portfolio of cutting-edge brands.

With only a week to go, there are still some free places left for the informal event, which will showcase the division's UK-exclusive brands at the forefront of video production in the entertainment and AV integration sectors. These include Green Hippo media servers, ProLights high performance video displays, Just Add Power receivers and Luminex Ethernet switches.

Other featured brands include Draper, Christie Digital, Philips Signage Solutions, AViary - and from the company's Audio sales division, Dynamic Audio Device.

In addition to a product overview and 'hands-on' training sessions, A.C. Video will also demonstrate how these co

Germany - Philips Lighting is celebrating its Entertainment division's most successful Prolight+Sound show to date. With a record number of on stand visitors, the Entertainment team is crediting Prolight+Sound's new concept and location in the Eastern section of the Messe for the boost.

"We really saw a noticeable increase in visitors to our stand from previous years," says Philips Entertainment general Manager Grant Bales-Smith. "The show's new set-up, along with our completely new stand concept, worked well to highlight to visitors our fresh and original approach."

Philips Lighting opted to theme its stand 'inspired by light', with a large video screen displaying stunning imagery of natural light. Lighting designer Mark Wynn-Edwards created a range of looks that worked with the video to fully immerse visitors in the experience and demonstrate how Philips understands and

USA - While his first show of the year may have launched in February, Billy Currington, ever the consummate country summer ballad crooner, is crisscrossing the nation continuing his Summer Forever Tour with a lighting package provided by Bandit Lites.

The singer-songwriter, with nine No. 1 hits on Billboard's Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts, recently released It Don't Hurt Like It Used To, the third single off his sixth studio album, Summer Forever.

Having provided lighting packages for Currington for more than five years, Bandit Lites was ready to once again provide gear, service and support for when the Must Be Doin' Something Right singer kicked off his first headlining show.

Lighting designer Chris Shrom used some of Bandit's newest acquisitions in touring inventory, Elation's ACL 360 Bars, Robe Robin Pointes, Elation Cuepix 2-Cell

USA - History resonates throughout Worcester City Hall and the surrounding common area. It was from this spot on 14 July, 1776, that the Declaration of Independence was first read in New England. Tradition has clearly enriched this ornate granite building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, but at times, it has also created special challenges.

Such was the case recently, when Worcester wanted to build a City Hall broadcast studio. Unable to expand the size of their historic structure outwardly, city leaders were forced to turn inward, creating their new studio in the building's basement. They did this in spectacular fashion, thanks to a skillful design by Jonathan Lipsy that drew on the performance features of Chauvet Professional LED fixtures.

"The basement wasn't the first option, but it turned out to be the only option for the studio," said Lipsy, who

South Africa - Gearhouse South Africa has made the largest LumenRadio investment in Africa to be used for The Forever Living Products 2016 Global Rally at the Ticketpro Dome in North Riding Johannesburg.

"I was impressed when seeing the LumenRadio system at the roadshow DWR hosted at the UJ theatre a few of years ago," said Stuart Andrews, lighting operations manager at Gearhouse Johannesburg. "The LumenRadio guys had really done their research and development and could answer any query I had so thoroughly that I had no doubts that it would deliver. It's such a vital link in the chain that to go with a system that doesn't offer complete peace of mind simply wouldn't be acceptable."

Gearhouse Cape Town was the first to purchase a LumenRadio system. "We used this wireless system before in Johannesburg with great success," he said.

The new gear was installed and set up at

Slovenia - Ljubljana Castle - a top tourist attraction in the Slovenian capital - has added more Robes to its lighting inventory with the purchase of CycFX 8s, LEDBeam 100s and six Robe LightWare HO battery powered up-lighting LED units, complete with integrated charging case.

The Castle sits majestically above the city and defines the skyline. Originally the site of a medieval fortress, its present outline dates back to the 15th century with the majority of the current buildings constructed during the 16 and 17th centuries.

In addition to being a place of great historical interest - it's also a busy event space with several stunningly converted spaces tastefully mixing historical and contemporary architecture. Its multiple venues are used for an eclectic mix of conferences, meetings, presentations as well as theatre and music productions. A new small theatre has just been

Germany - More than 60 Clay Paky Sharpys were perfectly programmed to create a 'light orchestra' which interactively illuminated the Fraunhofer award ceremony. The achievement recently won LD Bj

UK - Opening in three weeks, PLASA Focus Leeds 2016 will welcome the latest products recently launched in live entertainment technology from 10 - 11 May. Robe, Avolites, Triple E and Pioneer Pro Audio will join over 175 brands showcasing their new technical solutions for the live entertainment industry.

After recently launching a variety of new and innovative lighting products, Platinum Sponsor Robe, returns to Leeds with its new Spikie, a super-fast LED WashBeam, on stand N-B30. The fixture produces sharp, multi-coloured spikes of light, rotating in both directions at variable speed, while a unique beam effect engine transforms the output into three piercing narrow beams. It has continuous pan and tilt rotation and weighs only 5.5 Kgs.

State-of-the-art professional audio solutions will also be on offer, including the recently launched XPRS Series from Pioneer Pro Audio on

UK - The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (Central) and the Unicorn Theatre have announced the establishment of a memorial fund in honour of the late Petrus Bertschinger. At the request of Petrus's family, donations are being sought for The Captain's Fund which will be split between the Unicorn Theatre and Central's Technical and Production Management or Stage Management courses.

Petrus Bertschinger (1961 - 2015) was a long-standing member of the Central community from his time as a student in the 1980s to his most recent role as Senior Lecturer in Technical and Production Management at the School. Petrus graduated from Central in 1984 and had 32 years professional experience as a stage manager, production manager and theatre consultant including Production Manager for Matthew Bourne's Adventures in Motion Pictures. He also spent ten years with the Unicorn Theatre, fir

China / Germany - PR Lighting's new hybrid BWS (Beam Wash Spot) hybrid attracted much interest at the recent GET Show in Guangzhou and Frankfurt Prolight+Sound, two of the global production industry's major shop windows.

The Chinese manufacturer has wasted no time in capitalising on these lightshow extravaganzas, and has followed up last year's XR 330 BWS release with the new XR 440 BWS, which is now shipping.

This new range of high-output moving heads integrates three features in one unit, and adopts PR patented technology.

The XR 440 BWS houses a powerful Osram Sirius HRI 440W lamp, and features include an advanced colour index with CYM linear colour mixing system, with macro; colour wheel with 12 colours and CTO plus open; bi-directional rainbow effect at variable speeds; step/linear colour change.

There is a fixed gobo wheel with 13 fixed gobos plus open, bi-di

Germany - Laserworld Showeditor FREE was presented at prolight+sound 2016 for the first time. It is a free ILDA laser show control software, that incorporates the utmost features of the Laserworld Showeditor full version except the direct output to a hardware interface. It can be used for creating logos, text, animations and aerial effects and exporting them to the standard *.ild file format. This file format is compatible to all ILDA standard SD-card playback systems for show laser lights, so the Laserworld Showeditor FREE can be used with SD-card lasers of almost any brand.

Laser show playback systems are useful for many different applications: DJs may not want to directly control their laser with a computer during their set, as they obviously need to concentrate on that. So they often decide to have an automated show playing or control the lasers via DMX, together with the

USA - Beach Park in Florida's famous spring break city is 893 miles from Ryman Auditorium, birthplace of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. But for three days this April, the eyes of the country music world were on Fort Lauderdale, as the Tortuga Music Festival welcomed stars like Blake Shelton, Tim McGraw, Sam Hunt, Thomas Rhett, Kip Moore and others to its three stages.

Being on the ocean, Tortuga treated 90,000 fans (from 47 states and 16 countries, according to organizers) to a tropical escape as well as music. Contributing to the mood was a collection of Caribbean-inspired lounges and meeting places bathed in appropriately lush evocative colours by a collection of COLORado fixtures from Chauvet Professional.

Abbas Ritscher of The Design Oasis positioned over 200 COLORado fixtures throughout the festival grounds, relying on their color rendering capabilities to accent a

Germany -Andreas Bourani is currently out on an arena tour of Germany in support of his latest album HEY, with a slick and stylish lighting design by Nik Evers using Clay Paky Mythos and A.leda B-EYE K20 fixtures.

Evers - who also designed the staging and video content alongside Timo Marten and Philip Hillers - has specified the highly advanced hybrid light Mythos and the LED wash and effects light B-EYE from Black Box Music.

Positioned on the floor of the B-stage surrounding Bourani and the band, Evers is employing the sharp and precise beams of the Mythos to create a range of beat-perfect looks.

"The Mythos are really powerful which is ideal for this show," he explains. "as their power means their beams stay incredibly bright even when using colour," he explains.

Evers' design is based on the Andreas Bourani logo and sees the main stage at a 45° angle

UK - Technical event production expert Hawthorn has seen significant expansion in its supply to the touring theatre sector, with an impressive 90% increase in business over the last six months.

Seven productions are currently out on the road, all using lighting or video kit supplied by the technical production expert's hire service. These include supporting renowned lighting designer, Philip Gladwell on a number of touring theatre productions; the National Theatre of Scotland's highly acclaimed The James Plays, Hairspray and Jackie the Musical.

Other productions currently using Hawthorn's lighting kit include The Ladyboys of Bangkok, Laila the Musical, Clybourne Park and English Touring Theatre's Brideshead Revisited.

David Slater, head of hire at Hawthorn, said, "The last six months have seen fantastic growth in our sup

Ireland - Rental and production specialist Just Lite delivered full technical production, including lighting equipment and design, for BAMMA 24 working for production manager Sven Knight and his team from KRS.

The mixed martial arts tournament was staged in 3 Arena, Dublin, and broadcast live on Spike (UK) Channel 5 in the UK and Ireland, ESPN 3 in the US plus numerous others worldwide as well as streamed live via main sponsor Lonsdale's Facebook.

The Just Lite team, led by John McGuinness and working closely with LD Andrew Harris had to light the action for camera as well as the charged large live audience packed into 3 Arena, which they did with the help of over 70 Robe moving lights - a combination of BMFL Spots, Pointes, ColorWash 1200E ATs and LEDBeam 100s.

The lighting design for this BAMMA event was developed by John and Andrew - the lighting operator for the la

UK - StarTech.com has announced three new dual-monitor mounting products that offer advanced options for a flexible, ergonomic-friendly workstation. The Dual Monitor Stand (SKU: ARMBARDUO), the Side-by-Side Monitor Mount (ARMSLIMDUO) and the Stackable Dual Monitor Mount (SKU: ARMDUAL30) make up the new trio of products.

All three of the dual-monitor mounts offer cost-effective ways to create an ergonomic work space. Each of the monitor mounts are built with sturdy materials, and can securely hold two monitors in place with varying degrees of adjustability.

"Our newest dual-monitor mounts offer users three different options for creating a comfortable work space," said Jordan Hamm, product manager at StarTech.com. "They provide a durable and dependable way for users to adjust the position of their monitors, without wasting valuable desk space."

The new trio of monitor mo

Spain - The Sama-Sama Live interactive park in Madrid is a revolutionary new concept in the entertainment industry. The park offers the audience an opportunity to participate and feel how it is to be a performer.

Roy Ofer, founder and CEO of Sama-Sama, had the vision to create a fun and loose way to reach out to the visitors inner artist and connect them with their own creativity to the core of this new experience. Skip Sherman, chief creative officer of Sama-Sama describes it as "the evolution of entertainment. This journey takes you from your passive seat and lets you jump into the story."

The park hosts 10 different attractions called sections. Each one invites the visitor to try different aspects of creativity through music, rhythm, movement sound and lights

Cochavi&Klein light architects worked closely with artistic director Amir Schorr, designer Keith Greco and v

USA - The new SyncroMITE Beam that was introduced at LDI last November is now in full production and available for immediate rental and sale. During the first week of April the SyncroMITE Beam debuted in its first production in record setting form.

On 3 April 3, 2016, 40 SyncroMITE Beams were used alongside the reveal stage at WrestleMania 32, where the WWE set a new attendance record of 102,000 fans packed into AT&T Stadium. The SyncroMITE's were part of a larger Syncrolite package that included MX4's, SXL's and XL's, which combined was also the largest number of automated Syncrolite fixtures ever used in a single event.

TJ Benton served as crew chief for Syncrolite and worked alongside Jason Robinson, the WWE production manager and Jason Shaw, the senior manager of lighting, to pull off this bigger than life production.

Later that same week, SyncroMITE Beams were inc

USA - American jam band moe. wrapped its winter tour with a rig featuring Clay Paky fixtures.

A lighting designer with Nashville-based Pulse Lighting, Justin Casey has been working with the band since last July. Moe. tours year-round; their winter tour recently concluded in Manhattan. "The band celebrated its 25th anniversary year in 2015, and the winter tour wrapped in New York City on St. Patrick's Day," says Casey. "I'll be redesigning the winter rig for Moe.'s summer festival tour." Main Light Industries supplied the lights and consoles for the winter tour.

Casey chose 12 Clay Paky A.leda B-EYE K20s and four Stormy CC RGBW LED Strobes for the rig. The B-EYEs were the "workhorses of the rig" delivering the primary lighting for the band as well as "eye candy in their pixel-mapping mode," he explains. "I liked having full control of the lights to create my own very colour

USA - Superstar DJ Eric Prydz premiered his EPIC 4.0 shows in America this spring, backed up by his 'dream team' of long-time entertainment technology collaborators, RES, to create a colossal visual show driven by Avolites Ai S4 servers.

Playing a total of seven shows spread across New York's Terminal 5, LA's Hollywood Palladium and the San Francisco Armory, EPIC 4.0 was the fourth incarnation of Prydz's assault on the senses.

The behind the scenes team is comprised of Mark Calvert of RES as production director, Liam Tomaszewski as creative director and VJ, Ross Chapple as lighting designer, Ian Gotts as tour production manager, Dave Green as Ai programmer, PRG, PRG Nocturne USA and Lightware USA.

The core element of the ambitious show was another magical-looking hologram, which seemed to float centre stage in front of Prydz as he performs.

"The visual effect for t

UK - Singer songwriter Hozier has taken his self-titled debut album on tour with a carefully crafted lighting design by Matthew Kilmurry who specified Clay Paky Mythos to play "one of the most versatile roles in the show".

Kilmurry specified the award-winning Clay Paky fixtures from Adlib Audio, employing them for fast-paced punchy beam looks, spot work, atmospheric washes and seamless colour changing.

"The Mythos are incredibly versatile," continues Kilmurry. "They have a huge zoom range meaning they can perform as a spot or wash, which is pretty incredible for one moving light. And on top of all that they are extremely bright."

The Mythos units were flown in the rig, with seven positioned on Kilmurry's upstage/back truss, one on the centre truss and six on the mid stage truss. From here he used the fixtures to complement Hozier's raw sound with aerial looks that swun

Germany - Production Resource Group, L.L.C., (PRG) recently marked the two-year anniversary of its global partner network programme with the second PRG Alliance Summit. Under the theme Gearing Up To Success, the Summit took place during the Prolight + Sound 2016 trade fair at the Festhalle Messe Frankfurt.

Since its inception, the PRG Alliance has grown in both size and reputation, and now offers technology, services and support to event producers in a total of 25 countries.

There are now 15 member companies which make-up the PRG Alliance. The newest addition is DB Schenker - the first member supplying services other than audiovisual. DB Schenker supports the Alliance members with specialized logistics for events with a large worldwide presence and multi-modal transportation requirements.

The PRG Alliance Summit is already a key date on the calendar for members, allowi

UK - Following what has been an extremely busy and exciting year for White Light, the complete production solution specialist will be returning to PLASA Focus Leeds at the Royal Armouries Museum from 10-11 May. With over 130 different exhibitors working across audio, lighting, video and rigging, along with presentations, technical demonstrations and panel discussions, this year's PLASA Focus Leeds promises to be the biggest one yet.

Since its previous visit to PLASA Focus Leeds, WL has grown exponentially. Alongside expanding its audio department along with acquiring video technology company Shock Solutions, the company has worked on a whole host of projects, including the Rugby World Cup, the NME Awards, London Fashion Week and many more. For all of these projects, WL drew on its unparalleled inventory of entertainment technology;

Mexico - Multi-brand distributors, Hermes Music México, have carried out a major architectural lighting project in the Santa Fe district of México City.

They have illuminated the 151m high Paragon Tower (dominated by the Hotel Presidente Intercontinental Santa Fe) with LED colour washes from one of their principal suppliers, PR Lighting.

"The client wanted to enhance the building itself on a permanent basis," explained Hermes lighting specialist, Ricardo R Segura de la Cruz.

Hermes had been approached by locally-based audio and technology company Subsuelo, who were also involved in the project and Ricardo himself was tasked with coming up with the lighting design. "I was asked to cover the whole building fa

Latest Issue. . .