Czech Republic - The next Showlight may still be a year away, but companies are already signing up to participate at the 2013 event, taking place 18-21 May 2013 in ?eský Krumlov. The latest exhibitors to sign up include ADB, Anolis, ARRI Lighting Solutions, ETC, Lee Filters, MA Lighting, Rainbow Colour Changers, Robert Juliat, White Light and the event's main sponsor, Robe.

Taking place every four years, each time at a different location, Showlight is organised by lighting professionals for lighting professionals. In 2009, with some 40 exhibitors, over 365 delegates from the world of entertainment lighting passed through Showlight's doors.

Showlight places emphasis on debate stimulated by papers from respected industry experts and provides a gathering ground for like-minded people. Both exhibitors and visitors fully participate in the conference programme.

Showlight 2013 is

UK - On the evening of Saturday 7 April, entertainment lighting specialist White Light helped launch the iconic Titanic Belfast building, the world's largest Titanic visitor experience which has been built on the site of the docks where the famous ship itself was constructed and launched 100 years ago.

The show consisted of a 40 minute audio-visual performance, featuring a challenging series of projections mapped to the building's surface synchronised to pyrotechnics and a bespoke sound design. The show was a collaboration between seeper.com, who created the projections, and specialist pyrotechnics company The World Famous, with the project produced by Culture Creative and the technical aspects production managed by White Light.

Evan Grant, founder of seeper.com, explains, "The show was the first time that intense 3D motion graphics have been combined with synchronised py

Olympic Countdown - Duran Duran are to play a concert in London's Hyde Park to mark the start of the Olympic Games. The gig will feature headline acts from all four nations of the UK, with Duran Duran representing England and Snow Patrol appearing for Northern Ireland. Stereophonics will represent Wales and Paolo Nutini will play for Scotland. The concert on 27 July will coincide with the Olympics opening ceremony, which will be broadcast on big screens in the park between performances. Another concert marking the end of the Olympics will be held in Hyde Park on 12 August, headlined by Blur.

Royal Rock - Robbie Williams has been added to the line-up for The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace on 4 June. "If this doesn't get me a knighthood, nothing will," the star joked on his website. "I can't wait for the show." His Take That bandmat

UK - Join 11,000 people who have already signed up to visit PLASA 2012 at Earls Court Exhibition Centre on 9 - 12 September 2012. Visitors that pre-register now can gain entry to the entire four-day event for only £10 - a saving of 50% on the full price of £20.

It's Olympic year at last and PLASA is taking the opportunity to celebrate the enormous contribution made by our industry to the extraordinary events in the city this year, including educational sessions exploring some of the most impressive technical aspects.

In addition, a brand new audio professional development programme is being launched this year, with master-classes from the biggest international names in system design, production, recording, mixing and broadcasting.

With over 100 free to attend training sessions, seminars and specialist conferences, there's only one place to be this September!

PL

UK - Dry Hire Lighting has announced a significant purchase of Clay Paky products from exclusive Clay Paky UK distributor Ambersphere Solutions.

In anticipation of a busy summer for events across the UK and with event planning for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and Olympics gathering pace, Dry Hire Lighting is making sure it is well positioned to serve the expected increase in demand for rental equipment.

States Rob Merrilees, director of Dry Hire Lighting, "At last the industry can boast a dedicated UK based 'dry hire' company. We do what it says on the tin.... offering hire exclusively to rental companies .... but with the added value of exceptional service and top of the range equipment. It goes without saying that Clay Paky needs to feature heavily in our available stock."

Comments Glyn O'Donoghue, MD of Ambersphere, "The premise upon which Dry Hire Lighting

USA - Free registration is now open for the PLASA Focus: Nashville 2012 Professional Development Programme, a two-day programme of free educational seminars and workshops, running alongside PLASA Focus: Nashville, on 11-12 July 2012.

The programme has been specially curated by some of the industry's leading talents, giving visitors a unique opportunity to broaden their specialist knowledge and take part in discussions about innovative projects and cutting edge techniques.

"One of the benefits of hosting a Focus event in Nashville is the depth of professional industry knowledge that is intrinsic to the area," comments PLASA CEO Matthew Griffiths. "Being able to tap into that regional passion for live entertainment and to share it in a common space is something which will not only benefit the local entertainment technology community in Tennessee, but also the surr

UK - There has been a massive increase in visitor registration for PLASA 2012 at Earls Court Exhibition Centre on 9-12 September 2012. Over 11,000 people have already signed up, representing a whopping 40% increase in registrations so far. Visitors that pre-register now can gain entry to the entire four-day event for only £10 - a saving of 50% on the full price of £20.

In this unique year for London and the rest of the UK, PLASA is taking the opportunity to celebrate and reflect on the extraordinary contribution made by the lighting and sound industries to the London 2012 Olympics. As PLASA Events Manager, Sophie Atkinson, comments, "The record breaking surge in pre-registrations for the show this year is enormously encouraging and goes to show that people want to come to PLASA 2012 to reflect on their industry's input in the 2012 Olympic story and experience th

USA - San Antonio-based Spectrum Lighting recently sold 16 Robert Juliat 634 LED Profile Spots for use in the teaching auditorium/conference centre at Doctors Hospital at Renaissance in Edinburg, Texas.

Doctors Hospital at Renaissance is a full-service medical and surgical facility providing healthcare to the residents of the Rio Grande Valley. Its teaching auditorium and conference center is the site of continuing education for physicians.

Wrightson, Johnson, Haddon and Williams (WJHW) served as the theatrical consultant, system designer and lighting designer for the space with Texas Scenic the installing contractor. "Every fixture in the facility is an LED, so when we were looking for a fixture for Front of House, Robert Juliat's LED profiles provided a perfect solution over comparable products," says WJHW's Rene Garza. "We were looking for long life, smooth d

Luxembourg - Entertainment technology rental company Codex is the first rental company in Luxembourg to own its own inventory of Clay Paky Sharpys. The largest operations of its kind in the region, Codex conceive and implement technical solutions for public and private events and exhibitions Europe-wide.

Since Codex's inception in 2000 the company has expanded from a local service provider to a pan European supplier with operations in rental, sales, and installation, dealing with audio-visual, multimedia, intelligent lighting, sound, stage systems and rigging equipment.

Having recently taken delivery of 48 Sharpy moving heads for its rental operation Patrick Risch, managing director for the company says, "Codex strives to constantly upgrade its stock with the latest and most innovative products available on today's market. That's why we're the largest event company in Lu

South Africa - When Avicii performed at the Wavehouse in Durban as part of his South Africa tour recently, Insane Sound & Lighting were the technical suppliers. Avicii drew in a crowd of 5 500 people.

Vimal Rawjee from Insane Sound & Lighting asked lighting designer Thomas Peters to put together the drawings for something that could work for this renowned DJ performance. The actual show was plotted and operated by Insane's David Mupanguri.

The show started at 3pm, but four hours later, serious rainfall wet most of the equipment. In addition the power tripped. DWR Distribution's Nick Barnes was on the show with a spare Avolites Titan for back-up and support. Gary Furman from Wild and Marr was attending the show as a patron.

The hardworking Insane team, accompanied by Nick and Gary, successfully wiped, dried and moved gear about to keep the show running."Nick helped us qu

UK - The National Theatre of Scotland (NTS) have recently invested in seven Chroma-Q Color Force 48" / 1.2m LED battens to provide wash lighting effects for their various stage productions, including Knives in Hens and An Appointment with the Wicker Man.

The Glasgow based theatre received a grant from the Wolfson Foundation to replace their existing cyc lights with energy-efficient LED versions. They wanted a high quality, powerful and easy to set up LED lighting solution.

Head of lighting, Paul Claydon and technical manager, Niall Black conducted extensive research before inviting four leading LED brands to do a shootout at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow. Also attending the shootout were a number of LDs with whom NTS work.

"As soon as the Color Force battens were switched on, to us they absolutely blew all the other products away, especially in terms of

Slovenia - When the Playboy White Invasion dance event hit Ljubljana's Gospodarsko Razstavisce, 6000 dance enthusiasts raised the roof and appreciated Dutch mixmaster DJ Chuckie and others including Arty, Thomas Gold and R.I.O - all illuminated by a Robe moving light rig. This was supplied by locally based rental company Intralite and designed by their Primoz Kosir.

Kosir wanted to create a dynamic atmosphere lighting to match the vibe and pumping vibrancy of the music, he needed to produce plenty of variety and scope for 'rocking the house' in every shape and form of the expression.

Trussing was installed over the main stage which featured the DJ booth and all performers, with more over the audience, providing lighting positions for zapping beams and effects around the room and immersing the audience in the action.

The Robe moving lights consisted of 16 Robin 600 Beams,12 C

USA - An impressive video wall of 40 Chauvet Professional MVP 12 panels took centre stage during the annual Women's Empowerment event at PNC Arena in Raleigh.

Specified by Jay Holem, president of Rock Quarry Productions, the modular video panels interlocked to form a 16ft long by 10ft tall rectangular wall projecting live video content and graphics. The all-day event featured Tyra Banks as keynote speaker, seminars, panel discussions and musical performances by Robin Thicke, Anthony Hamilton, and Wale among others. Since 1994, Women's Empowerment enhances the lives of African-American women by addressing issues that specifically affect their health, relationship and overall lifestyle.

"The Chauvet MVP modular video panels shined through as always," Holem said. "We actually had to dim them down not to overpower everything else, which is a wonderful problem to hav

Sweden / Russia - LumenRadio has announced that Moscow based Sofitlight will distribute the CRMX wireless DMX/RDM products in the rapidly growing Russian market. LumenRadio and Sofitlight will present the entire CRMX product portfolio to the Russian lighting industry at the upcoming trade show Prolight+Sound NAMM in Moscow on 16-19 May.

Sofitlight is a leading supplier of professional lighting and sound equipment, as well as design and consulting services, for applications ranging from theatres, concert facilities, and live events to indoor and outdoor architectural installations. The company, founded in 2001, already offers an extensive product portfolio including well-known brands such as Robe, MA Lighting, ETC, Avolites, Selecon, Pixelrange, Leaderlight and Robert Juliat.

"LumenRadio has a solid track record of technological innovation and achievement and the CRMX prod

UK - Siyan, a long-term customer of Clay Paky, has recently increased its investment in Clay Paky products, alongside a brand new purchase of the grandMA2 light, all from Ambersphere Solutions.

Nick Valdez, MD of Siyan, is clear on the reasons for these new investments. "We want to be seen as an approachable rental company with premier equipment. The Clay Paky fixtures we are offering our customers are quality products that can really help provide the professional finish to any of our productions."

"Clay Paky consistently delivers on the quality of their optics. The Alpha 700 family offers a versatile range of fixtures that are bright, lightweight, modular and offer us a great return on investment. This makes them an excellent choice for rental packages, and we can offer the full 700 range, beam, spot and wash as well as the popular Sharpy."

Concludes Val

UK - Lighting, sound and AV hire company Point Source Productions has appointed Amy Parks as general manager. Previously PA to managing director Stephen Capel, Parks will take over all day to day running of the company.

Parks comments, "As the company has grown over the past few years, I have been shadowing Stephen, so it made sense for an official restructuring in order to formalise my role and to allow Stephen to focus on other aspects of the business.

"My strengths lie in client liaison and people management, where Stephen's lie in his extensive lighting industry experience and business development, so it makes good business sense to capitalise on these abilities."

Capel adds, "Point Source has seen different stages of growth from start up in 1997 to the present; now we're about to start a new phase of expansion. I'm looking forward to promoting the Ev

UK - Northern Light Direct has announced the arrival of Gavin Scott, who has taken on the role of sales co-ordinator.

Scott returns to the entertainment technology industry after a brief hiatus during which he worked within the financial services sector. A graduate of Queen Margaret University, he worked within the retail division of Northern Light from 2000 until 2007.

"The launch of Northern Light Direct - and the subsequent expansion of this area of the company's business - provided an ideal opportunity for me to return to the fold," says Scott. " My first love is technical theatre and it's fantastic to be back in this industry. I plan to use my recent experiences gained within the corporate sector to apply specific business expansion techniques to growing Northern Light Direct's market share in the provision of boxed goods to entertainment venues."

Ed

Germany - tarm Showlaser's TSL Yoke is an integrated, single-arm, moving yoke and laser-projector system that allows projecting bright, high-quality, laser effects onto virtually any surface.

This flexible system includes an interchangeable head system that enables users to replace the laser projector with another device - on the same yoke.

With staging and event applications in mind, laser-projector movement and control is managed via DMX protocol - enabling users to integrate and control lighting equipment and laser-projectors easily from the same console. These versatile yokes can be suspended, or rigged and set up at floor level, as your application may require, says the company.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Siyan, a long term customer of Clay Paky has recently increased their investment in Clay Paky products, alongside a brand new purchase of the grandMA2 light, all from Ambersphere Solutions.

Nick Valdez, MD of Siyan comments, "We want to be seen as an approachable rental company with premier equipment. The Clay Paky fixtures we are offering our customers are quality products that can really help provide the professional finish to any of our productions.

"Clay Paky consistently delivers on the quality of their optics. The Alpha 700 family offers a versatile range of fixtures that are bright, lightweight, modular and offer us a great return on investment. This makes them an excellent choice for rental packages, and we can offer the full 700 range, beam, spot and wash as well as the popular Sharpy."

Concludes Valdez, "Our recent addition of a grandMA2 li

Ukraine - Rental company Feyeria is using Showgun 2.5 automated luminaires and the Road Hog Full Boar on all areas of entertainment: concerts, conferences, TV shows, exhibitions, sports, corporate and political events.

Feyeria's Dmytro Andrushchenko, project manager/stage designer, comments, "The Showgun is the first powerful fixture with the LED ring. It combines the functions of spot, wash and an LED Tracking System. We like to use them in big open Air-shows and concert halls, but especially using the LED ring on TV concerts and TV shows where it is most identifiable."

The company owns 24 Showgun 2.5s, and used them for the first time in 2010 on Paul van Dyk's show in Kiev. "These powerful fixtures hadn't been seen in our country before that. It's great for a show at 12,000 people and in such big halls," says Andrushchenko.

Feyeria needed the power of S

UK - Lighting students from across the UK got their first taste of working under pressure - as part of a competition to light a railway carriage in less than two hours.

Six teams were invited to take part in the National Railway Museum's annual Locos in a Different Light event - and ETC was on hand to provide equipment and support.

ETC's associate regional manager for UK and Ireland, Jeremy Roberts, brought a range of Selador Desire LED fixtures and six lighting control desks. He said, "I was really impressed with the imagination and technical ability of the teams. Many of the students had seen ETC SmartFade and Congo jr desks before, but fewer had seen ETC's recent Congo Kid and Element. The programming syntaxes would have been familiar to them, since they're part of the Eos or Congo families, so they were soon up to speed."

The Locos in a Different Ligh

Mexico - Robe lighting has a new Mexican distributor - Mexico City based Vari Internacional - a high profile company established for over 25 years.

The announcement was made during the recent 2012 Soundcheck Expo trade show also in Mexico City, at a special launch party staged at the Polyforum Siqueiros, part of the World Trade Centre complex. The venue is a creative / social facility and art gallery showcasing the work of famous Mexican artist, muralist and political activist, David Siqueiros.

Says Robe's Latin American regional sales manager, Guillermo Traverso, "We planned the Robe party and the announcement very carefully as we wanted to make a huge impact with it and the news of the partnership."

Vari Internacional's CEO Hugo Patiño Cuellar states, "Robe shares our philosophy of offering great products and service, with immediate response and the best te

Korea - Following the signing of a new agreement, C&C Lightway will distribute Coemar products in Korea as an exclusive supplier and dealer.

"I'm delighted with this agreement with C&C," states Salvatore Grillo, director of Coemar S.p.A. "It's the result of a close synergy between the two parties. For Coemar this means being able to set up a stable partnership with a highly qualified company operating in Korea, a rapidly-growing market for applications for entertainment and infrastructures. In the latter sector Coemar is gaining an increasing market share with lines of dedicated products."

"We're very proud to have finalised our partnership with Coemar, a prestigious name that will play a leading role in our already excellent business in Korea," comments H.M. Chung, managing director and president of C&C Lightway.

(Jim Evans)

USA - The nominees for the 2012 Tony Awards have been announced, and the nominees in the lighting, sound, scenic and costume design categories are as follows:

BEST SCENIC DESIGN OF A PLAY

John Lee Beatty - Other Desert Cities

Daniel Ostling - Clybourne Park

Mark Thompson - One Man, Two Guvnors

Donyale Werle - Peter and the Starcatcher

BEST SCENIC DESIGN OF A MUSICAL

Bob Crowley - Once

Rob Howell & Jon Driscoll - Ghost the Musical

Tobin Ost & Sven Ortel - Newsies

George Tsypin - Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark

BEST COSTUME DESIGN OF A PLAY

William Ivey Long - Don't Dress for Dinner

Paul Tazewell - A Streetcar Named Desire

Mark Thompson - One Man, Two Guvnors

Paloma Young - Peter and the Starcatcher

BEST COSTUME DESIGN OF A

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