The Netherlands - Rotterdamse Schouwburg, which plays host to a wide variety of performances from every major Dutch theatre, dance and opera company, has recently increased its inventory of Robert Juliat zoom profiles with the purchase of 34 RJ 614SX 16° - 35° fixtures from distributor, LightCo, of the Netherlands.

The 879-seat venue's stock of aging profiles needed to be replaced so, knowing the Robert Juliat reputation for optical excellence, Joost van den Hil, lighting specialist for the Main Auditorium, organised a shootout and approached LightCo's Bas van Schelven who took along the RJ 614SX 1kW fixtures.

In addition to meeting the all-important optical criteria, the Robert Juliat profiles also excelled with their build quality and mechanical superiority: "The mechanics are solid, the shutters stay straight, even after long term use, and the shutter lock work

Germany - The total donated at this year's Wolkenschieber (Cloud Pusher) charity ball held in Bremen's Maritim Hotel & Congress Centre exceeded the record set by the 2009-event. Following a five-course dinner, the 600 generous attendees were treated to a sophisticated entertainment programme.

The high point of the evening's festivities was the Flash & Flow laser show put on by tarm Showlaser, in collaboration with the Extra Energy dance ensemble, under the artistic direction of Wolfram Lenssen.

The team presented an audio-visual interpretation of the evening's theme, illustrating the motivation and history of the Wolkenschieber initiative in a series of scenes involving varied moods and dark clouds that finally disappeared and were replaced by the sun.

The Wolkenschieber initiative was founded by Joke Event AG in 2007 and supports local charitable organizations and as

USA - Open house receptions are nothing new at Gemini Light, Sound & Video. The Dallas-based lighting and production company holds them annually to showcase its inventory and services and educate its customers. But this year's event, held 16-17 November, was extra special for a couple reasons: it marked Gemini's 30th anniversary in business; and it gave many customers their first view of the company's recently expanded 76,000sq.ft warehouse.

Nearly 250 existing and prospective clients attended the two-day open house, which took place in a section of the warehouse set up to replicate a theatre.

"Back by popular demand, we set up a 'black box theatre' demo area to achieve an actual production space within our working warehouse," said Cassidi Cain of Gemini. This allowed customers to see some of the company's newer lighting and video products in action as they would app

UK - The Coemar Infinity ACL beam projector made an appearance on a recent edition of the BBC's Later with Jools Holland, backing the Mercury- and Brit-nominated band Friendly Fires for lighting director Chris Rigby.

"We gave the units a gentle run on Later, where they performed very well." Rigby comments. "The most striking thing about them, to my eyes, was the bright and vibrant colours they offered. They were more than bright enough for High Definition studio cameras. We liked the iris feature, which makes the Coemar unit more versatile than others in its class, and obviously we liked the gobo selection, which makes the fixture a lot less one dimensional. In short, we liked them."

The Infinity ACL is Coemar's moving-light re-invention of the classic, intense ACL beam effect. It offers CMY+CTO colour mixing plus a five-slot colour wheel that

USA - When Northern Kentucky University (NKU) decided to implement a school-wide 'green' initiative, lighting designer Terry Powell leapt at the opportunity, and worked with Adam Hayward at Vincent Lighting Systems to overhaul his lighting rig with 24 PL3 Wash luminaires from Philips Selecon and a Palette VL control console from Philips Strand Lighting.

"In the past, my boss and I had been talking about LED technology and all the benefits we would get by using it in the theatre," began Powell. "So when the University established a pool of money that was to be used for sustainability, we jumped at the opportunity to put together a proposal, and contacted our longtime friends at Vincent Lighting Systems to get the project going."

"Vincent Lighting is very proud to have been involved with NKU for a number of years," added Hayward. "We first beca

Germany - As the indie rock band Incubus prepared to launch their 2011 world tour in Berlin, Germany, lighting designer Robb Jibson stood ready to unveil both some old and new tricks. Having been the band's designer since 2005, Jibson was familiar with how the music and lighting should blend together, but this year he also had a new look that no audience had seen before. To help him achieve his latest design, Jibson relied upon Vari*Lite automated luminaires from Philips Vari-Lite, supplied by Upstaging and HSL (Europe).

"Having worked in the industry as a designer and technician, I am familiar with the complete product line and I have always been a fan of the Vari*Lite colour," began Jibson. "I mostly default to Vari*Lite fixtures on my projects because of their optical clarity and color systems, but on this tour I chose them for a few other reasons as well.

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Norway - Barco reports that entertainment equipment rental company AVAB CAC selected 17 Barco's event projectors and 100 MiSTRIP creative LED strips to support the Nobel Peace Prize Concert on Sunday, 11 December. This year's edition was co-hosted by Helen Mirren and Rosario Dawson and featured artists such as Evanescence, Ellie Goulding, Jill Scott and many others.

The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the most prestigious awards in the world. Every year, the ceremony takes place on 10 December, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death, and is followed by the Nobel Peace Prize Concert the day after. Featuring an international selection of musical artists and celebrity hosts, the concert honours the Nobel Peace Prize laureates.

The concert is held every year at the Oslo Spektrum Arena in the centre of Oslo. The customized three-tiered stage was able to host 50 singers and musicians a

UK - The fourth annual PLASA Focus: Leeds event launches today with a new website and a sold out floor-plan. The leading event for audio, video, lighting and staging technology in the north of England will be held on 17-18 April 2012, at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds.

Long-standing exhibitors such as White Light, Martin Audio, Martin Professional, J&C Joel, Shure, Avolites, Stage Electrics, Robe, Sennheiser, Hawthorn Theatrical and Clay Paky have been joined by a raft of new exhibitors, including Bose, d&b audiotechnik, LSC Lighting Systems, Midas, Topdeck Stage Systems, Pete Smith Inspections, JoeCo, Amber Sound, Audio Logic, English Braids, Experience Lighting, Isophase Audio, The Lectern Company, Showtex, Smoke Factory, CLD Distribution, ADB, Wirelessled.co.uk and Total Solutions.

Packed aisles and major UK product debuts have firmly established PLASA Focus as an unmi

UK - Over 250 people attended this year's joint ETC/Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT) Christmas party at London's Theatre Royal in Drury Lane. The theatre's Grand Saloon saw some of the leading people in the theatre industry, including theatre consultants and owners, architects, lighting designers, system specifiers and technicians.

Mark White, chairman of the ABTT and also regional manager for UK and Ireland at ETC, says, "The ABTT is now 51 years old, and throughout its history, has always campaigned on behalf of the theatre industry to ensure legislation is appropriate to the industry's needs. The annual Christmas party - which, itself, is in its 10th year, is a great opportunity for all manner of theatre people to get together for an informal chat over a glass of wine."

(Jim Evans)

USA - Chauvet reports that Amnesia Miami, a former staple in the South Beach club scene, is back in business. After months of renovations, the multi-level nightclub became a state-of-the-art venue featuring 87 Chauvet fixtures.

Hundreds of partygoers flocked to the newly redesigned, 26,000sq.ft hot spot on Miami Beach to hear DJ Bob Sinclair, also co-owner of Amnesia Miami, rock the beats and take part in the nightclub's grand reopening celebration. The once open-air venue now features a roof, a vast dance floor, 70 VIP tables, two private VIP sections and revamped sound and lighting systems.

Michael Stone, vice president for HMS Inc specified the incorporation of 30 COLORado 2 Tour, 30 COLORdash Accent, eight COLORado 1 IP and seven COLORado 3p IP wash lights. Lighting designer Maxime Moussier created Amnesia Miami's extensive, yet intricate, lighting design.

The club's out

Italy - New from DTS Lighting is The Jack which is fitted with an advanced MSD Platinum 5R 189W discharge lamp, a wide excursion motorized zoom and ultra-fast & silent Pan/Tilt and functions (colour change, gobo change, focus, zoom, iris).

The Jack is suitable for a wide range of applications, such as concerts, special events, fashion displays, corporate events, television studios, theatres, shopping malls, libraries, museums, exhibitions, clubs, buildings, monuments, houses of worship, resorts, theme parks, sport facilities, says the company.

The Jack has been ergonomically engineered and thanks to its compactness and light weight (only 11 Kg), the unit is very easy to transport, install, and store. Thus making this unit suitable for rental companies, who want a quick and easy to install unit.

The Jack provides a powerful combination of sharp overlapping gobo projections (1

Singapore - The School of the Arts (SOTA) is Singapore's first national arts school to offer an integrated arts and academic curriculum for students aged 13-18 years old. The vision of the school is to nurture Singapore's next generation of artists and creative professionals committed to the arts in a multi-cultural society.

Located in Zubir Said Drive, this school reflects the rich diversity of its artistic programme with three different performance venues: Theatre, Concert Hall and Studio Theatre. All three halls are suitably adorned with Clay Paky luminaires, which are used to enhance the performance and staging for certain plays and shows.

According to SOTA's lighting technician, Albert Wileo, "We got to know Clay Paky from the feedback from a couple of friends from the entertainment industry in Singapore. After we tested the demo set of Clay Paky 700 Wash and Alpha 7

Ireland - For any lighting designer, setting the scene for three very distinct operas, as part of a busy repertory season, invariably presents its own set of challenges.

Such was the creative task for Declan Randall, lighting designer for Wexford Opera's 60th Anniversary season: "My rig has to be both flexible and reliable," he explains. "I'm keen to use new technology where appropriate and this year I decided to incorporate LED luminaires into my design."

Randall elected to use Philips Selecon PL3 LED Luminaires: "For me the application of colour and hue is one of my most critical design tools," he says. "Lighting three distinctly different operas: French opera La Cour De Celimene, Polish opera Maria and Italian opera Gianni Di Parigi, presented me with a variety of design challenges. The PL3s provided my 'get out of jai

USA - Two indy bands, Passion Pit and The Glitch Mob, each featured High End Systems intellaspot automated luminaires in recent shows.

Andy Cass, LD for The Glitch Mob and lighting director for Passion Pit, was trying the intellaspots for the first time, and he ran them through their paces through a variety of show situations for both bands. Be it festivals, nightclubs, and 'on the rocks' at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, the intellaspots demonstrated their versatility in a variety of venues.

The Glitch Mob performs electronic sound fusion, playing laptop music together as an ensemble onstage. For their one-off at Red Rocks Amphitheatre outside of Denver, Cass pumped up the rig with 16 intellaspots. Placing them as floor fixtures, Cass said the units performed full beamage in the air. "They cut through a significant overhead rig and I did a little projection lighting back on the

UK - West London rental company Entec Sound & Light renewed its 17 year acquaintance as a technical production supplier for the Bootleg Beatles on their latest UK tour - supplying lighting and audio equipment plus crew.

Entec project manager Noreen O'Riordan comments: "Entec has been associated with the Bootleg Beatles since 1994. The band and crew take great pride in producing authentic sound and visuals based on the original Beatles shows of the 1960s, creating a stunning atmospheric evening that appeals to all generations."

The band are known as the definitive Beatles tribute act as well as the longest running and most successful, having formed in 1980 and been performing worldwide regularly ever since.

To deal practically and efficiently with the different venues, both lighting and sound designs needed to be adaptable, and this was a key starting point for LD M

USA - Free registration is now open for the PLASA Focus: Austin 2012 Professional Development Programme, a two-day programme of free educational seminars and workshops, running alongside PLASA Focus: Austin, on 22-23 February, 2012.

The programme has been designed by some of the industry's leading names and presents an opportunity for visitors to broaden their specialist knowledge and contribute to discussions about innovative projects and techniques, say organiser PLASA Events.

"Giving people the opportunity to develop their professional knowledge is key to the success of PLASA Focus: Austin 2012," comments PLASA CEO Matthew Griffiths. "We're creating an opportunity to talk about the choices behind major projects in the region, from the Austin City Limits studio and The Long Center for Performing Arts, to seminars as broad and far-reaching as the use of lightin

Australia - When scheduling conflicts prevented US lighting designer Don Holder from travelling to Australia to re-create his intricate design for The State Opera of South Australia's production of Moby Dick he quickly called on long time friend and associate Gavan Swift to oversee the process. One of Australia's most respected lighting designers, Swift first worked with Holder on the Australian production of Disney's The Lion King and later spent some time with Holder in New York as part his Mike Walsh Fellowship while he lit A Streetcar Named Desire.

Jake Heggie's Opera Moby Dick was originally commissioned by the Dallas Opera to commemorate their inaugural season in the Winspear Opera House in Dallas and consequently the production was first plotted on the house's new ETC EOS console. To make the transition as easy as possible the logical step was

Belarus - Russian rock group Bi-2 recently returned to their native Minsk, in Belarus, for a one-off sold-out show at the Sports Palace indoor arena, in front of 6,000 adoring fans.

FE-Belimlight provided a large number of PR Lighting automated heads for the band's LD, Dmitriy Movlev, as well as technical support.

The lighting designer selected 24 PR lighting XL 1500 spots and 16 XL 1500 wash lights as the mainstays of a dynamic rock rig. "It was a true rock and roll show with a mixture of fast, dynamic songs, interspersed with slow and lyrical ballads," confirmed FE-Belimlight's Ilya Piatrouski, who was supporting the production. "The flexibility of the lighting rig needed to reflect this."

As a result, the XL1500s were distributed across the front-, mid- and back-trusses as well as on the stage - operated by Dmitriy Movlev himself from a Wholehog 3 desk

Russia - After six years of construction, Russia's Bolshoi Theatre has finally reopened its doors. The renovation project was focused on preserving the architectural and artistic features of the building while adding modern necessities and installing state-of-the-art technology in the theatre's historic main hall, including a completely new lighting system controlled by an ETC Eos lighting control system.

The reopening marks the beginning of the Bolshoi's 236th season, with a schedule bigger and busier than any in the theatre's history - 365 performances, with a staggering 319 shows at home. To keep up with the hectic performance schedule in the main hall, and to ensure that the lighting is as stunning as the building itself, the Bolshoi chose ETC Eos control desks to control the new lighting rig. The system consists of three Eos desks - one main board and two backups - and a fu

Belgium - MDG has announced the appointment of AED Distribution as its official distributor in the Belgian and Luxemburg markets, with effect from 1 October 2011.

Through this partnership, AED Distribution (part of AED group), will supply and support MDG's portfolio of fog and haze generators to resellers, installers and rental companies, which will now benefit from easier access to MDG's reliable quality products.

"MDG is proud to partner up with AED Distribution for the Belgian and Luxemburg market and welcomes AED Group to the MDG family," states MDG president & CEO Martin Michaud. "AED's perpetual quest for excellence, their personalized service and the quality of their team and organization reflects values shared by both our companies."

"We are very pleased to be partnering with MDG, which is a world leader in professional fog and haze generator

UK - Entertainment lighting specialist White Light was the lead sponsor of TheatreCraft 2011, the annual free workshop and open day that provides anyone aged 17-25 with an introduction to every possible aspect of working backstage in the entertainment industry, from writing to stage management, to wig making to - of course - lighting.

Held on 28 November at the London Coliseum, the popular event kicked off with a welcome speech from leading international theatre designer William Dudley. During the day the hundreds of visitors were able to learn more from those already established in their field, and had the chance to meet representatives from organisations including the ABTT, the Almeida, English National Opera, the National Youth Theatre, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, the Royal Opera House, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Society of British Theatre Designers, the Society o

UK - Flight case manufacturer 5 Star has supplied well over 1000 cases to West Midlands-based AV rental specialists Central Presentations (CPL) in the last seven years, which have ranged from audio equipment, 19" racks, projector, plasma and LCDs and video production cases.

5 Star's Keith Sykes says: "Clients like CPL are invaluable. They are extremely busy year-round, their work is always varied and interesting and they are constantly expanding the equipment and rental stock, all of which needs flight casing for on-going road work. Consequently, we are involved in supplying a full range of standard and special cases."

The latest CPL 5 Star case project has involved a custom designed set of road cases for CPL's newest series of 'fly away' portable video production units (PPUs).

This is a smaller PPU specifically designed to service the proliferation of project

UK - Karen Monid became the first sound artist to present a stand-alone acoustic artwork for York's annual Illuminating York digital arts and lighting festival. Contours brought a fresh, provocative and highly entertaining medium through which visitors to the 2011 Festival could explore and enjoy the city's rich cultural history.

The decision to stage the piece - exploring the poetic, religious and musical culture of ancient York's Viking settlers and Anglo-Saxons - in the city's Dean's Park received great critical and popular acclaim. It was experienced by over 50,000 visitors across four evenings.

This year's Festival theme of Voices from the Past - the first time it has had a content signature - enabled the Festival event to broaden into some new platforms and parameters whereby the public could explore, interpret and understand the city as a place with

World - Le Maitre's Multi-Venue System (M.V.S.) Hazer is the only haze machine that rock band Uriah Heep will use. Currently on their Into The Wild Tour, with dates around the globe, the band's lead singer, Bernie Shaw comments: "With Uriah Heep playing on the world stage now in excess of 40 years, we've worked with most effects companies' hazers and smoke machines at our concerts all over the world. We've found Le Maitre's MVS Hazers to be the best, and now have them on our technical rider.

"With five singers in the band, we need a product that does not dry your throat, is tasteless, odourless but efficient and reliable enough to make the light show look good, but not hinder our performance. A very tall order that Le Maitre hazers handle with ease."

Playing as close to home as London's Shepherds Bush Empire, to as far afield as Vladisvostok and Venezuela

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