UK - The Grosvenor House hotel Great Room in London, one of the largest ballrooms in Europe, has hosted so many high-profile events that it's become a familiar sight on BBC news reports. Standing out in such a glitzy venue is no easy task, but that's exactly what a recent awards ceremony did thanks to some inspired pixel mapping by Storm Events using the EPIX 2.0 strip and EPIX 2.0 bar from Chauvet Professional.

"Everyone wants an event at Grosvenor House to be special, because there is such a rich tradition here," said Andy White, production director at Storm Events. "This was a prestigious event hosted by Claudia Winkleman a well-known BBC presenter and journalist and attended by many key publishing people, so our client asked us to do something to make the set stand out."

Creating a stand out design is precisely what Storm Events did using the EPIX 2.0 p

Germany - Robert Juliat's Lancelot followspots have been chosen to illuminate yet another prestigious international venue. The Lanxess Arena in Cologne, Germany has acquired four of these titans of the Robert Juliat followspot portfolio.

The 20,000-seat Lanxess Arena offers top class facilities as one of Europe's largest and most modern multi-functional indoor arenas and is equipped with the latest technology which now includes the 4000W HTI Lancelot long-throw followspots.

"We chose the RJ Lancelot products because we were not completely satisfied with the American manufacturer we worked with before and therefore preferred to use a European product," says Lanxess Arena's technical manager, Martin Rebiszewski.

Lanxess Arena has played host to a string of top international performers that include Paul McCartney, Sting, Whitney Houston, Eric Clapton and Luciano Pavar

UK - Bristol based lighting and visuals rental specialist Fineline supplied lighting, LED side screens complete with new bespoke supporting structures and an IMAG camera package for Warwick Castle's 1100th Anniversary Summer Proms Spectacular - a music, fireworks and pyro extravaganza to celebrate the founding of the Castle.

The Medieval castle standing today was developed from an original built by William the Conqueror in 1068.

The two day Summer Proms event saw 8500 people enjoy Paul Weller rocking the house on the Friday night supported by White Room and The Gramotones, and a programme of popular classics performed by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) on the Saturday, conducted by Jae Alexander, plus special guests.

Fineline's Rob Sangwell comments, "We have been involved in this event for many years and it was a great pleasure to be doing it again thi

Australia - #THEARTHUNTER was an 'offline' temporary art gallery experience from iconic website The Cool Hunter, created and produced by The Artistry.

The Earth Hunter was a collaboration with Jaguar to launch the brand's first AWD concept car, the C-X17. The space was 'found', designed and the creative concept executed, complete with delicate artworks, in less than three weeks.

Showtime Productions were called upon to design and install the gallery lighting, deciding to purchase 36 ETC Source Four Mini fixtures for the project.

"Aesthetically, the client wanted everything to look very neat and minimize anything that could be obstructive," commented Arian Yeganeh, production manager at Showtime. "It's a compact fixture that's bright enough for this type of application. For a 50 watt fixture, they're pretty amazing. We also had 20 ETC Source Four Jnr Zooms for

USA - Hedwig and the Angry Inch, the unconventional rock musical that recently captured four Tony Awards, may not be your grandma's Broadway show, but its use of grandMA2 lighting consoles keeps the edgy production on track at the Belasco Theatre.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch is John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask's gender-bending musical tale of life, love and a botched operation. It won Tonys for its star, Neil Patrick Harris; co-star Lena Hall; and lighting designer Kevin Adams - Adams's fourth win. The play also received top honours as Best Musical Revival.

The lighting and video for Hedwig were programmed on two grandMA2 full-size consoles. During rehearsals Kevin Adams, video designer Ben Pearcy, associate lighting designer Paul Toben and second assistant lighting designer Jimmy Lawlor used grandMA onPC stations to monitor the production. Now, both

Germany - After winning a thrilling World Cup Final in Rio de Janeiro and the subsequent flight home in the 'Siegerflieger' (the victors' plane), nearly one million fans of the German national team gave them a memorable reception at the 'Fan Mile' in Berlin.

Already in recent weeks up-to 500,000 football fans had celebrated their team's success on the Straße des 17 Juni in front of the Brandenburg Gate and along the Fan Mile. For the light show on the main stage, situated in front of the famous landmark, local company TLT Event AG was responsible for building the 65 square metre LED wall along with a number of GLP impression X4s.

Lighting designer Lars Murasch was more than satisfied with the performance of this compact LED moving head: "The X4 is a very versatile wash light," he said. "It can be combined excellently with Beams due to its tight zoom and the low

The Netherlands - Following Elation Europe's popular PRO Service Days in May, Elation Professional is offering Pro Training Days to be held 20 and 21 August at Elation's European Customer Care Center in Kerkrade, The Netherlands.

Day One of the factory-authorized training will focus on Elation's Capture Polar lighting design software and Emulation/Emulation Pro lighting control software. Day Two will cover Elation's Zeus media server including the Arkaos Media Master Pro.

The training will be headed by qualified Elation instructors and costs 30€ per person per day which also covers lunch. Registration is required but there are only 15 spaces available via https://s3.amazonaws.com/Elation/Register_proday_08-2014.pdf

As Elation continues to expand its market presence across Europe, the company has put in place the training and service infrastructure needed to support the high

World - When it came to lighting superstar Katy Perry's current Prismatic world tour, lighting and show designer to the stars Baz Halpin selected the Clay Paky Sharpy and Sharpy Wash 330 to create a series of surprise special effects.

Engaging in a bit of theatrical trickery Halpin designed a series of 36 bespoke hydraulic flippers onto which are attached 36 individual Sharpy fixtures supplied as part of a lighting package provided by UK Neg Earth and US hire outfit Upstaging. The flippers are built into the sides of show's giant onstage triangular LED screens to provide a range of fast paced special effects.

"As the LED screens move up and down the stage the Sharpys 'flip' up or down allowing the screens to pass by each other," explains Halpin. "At one point in the show the dancers interact with the fixtures by using mirrors attached to their hands. They

Europe - Top Gear Live (TGL) - the show that presents all the adrenaline, excitement, humour, serious motoring stunts and moments of the top TV show in a breath-taking arena extravaganza - has just completed a whistle-stop European tour playing Prague, Budapest, Zagreb and Turin.

Lighting designer Steve Sinclair lit this using nearly 200 Robe moving lights - and for the first time no generics - not even a single PAR can or Molefey in sight!

The show saw TV show hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, James May and The Stig add their irreverent and quirky humour to this extraordinary motoring theatre event, alongside some of the world's most expensive, powerful ... and most absurdly modified cars.

Sinclair has been lighting the popular TGL show worldwide for some years. This tour featured a completely new design, and the decision to go only with moving lights was to he

USA - Rebelution has been reinvigorating reggae with an irresistible sun-splashed playful sound that's been acclaimed as being "easy on the ears." Its highly anticipated Count Me In Tour is offering something else too: a lightshow that's easy on the eyes and souls of the group's free spirited fans thanks to a colorful and quick moving design by LD Kenny Gribbon of Pulse Lighting that features Legend moving fixtures from Chauvet Professional.

"Rebelution is on a roll, drawing big crowds, and riding high on the charts; so there's a lot of excitement surrounding them," said Gribbon, the group's LD, noting that its Count Me In album debuted at No. 14 on the general charts and topped the reggae list. "We wanted bright, colorful high impact lighting to convey this uplifting feeling."

Kevin Mignone of KM Productions (Hicksville, NY) provide

USA - Cache Creek Casino Resort, (CCCR), located in Brooks, CA, recently completed upgrading the lighting system in its popular entertainment hub, Club 88. Along with extensive audio and video production upgrades, the 700-seat multipurpose venue is now a premiere state-of-the-art performance space equally able to showcase entertainment acts as well as sporting events booked at the Northern California casino.

Club 88's technical team wanted to move beyond the limitations of the original, more conventional lighting equipment. They were looking to more effectively address the audiences' expectations and the technical requirements of the full range of events hosted, including the numerous national and international musical acts, top-bill comedians, and live boxing. It was important to the CCCR team that the production systems are more than capable of supporting the first class enter

UK - Martin Professional is expanding the manufacturing capabilities of both Jem smoke machines and Martin lighting in the UK with a new factory at Louth in Lincolnshire. The new factory will house identical production facilities to those found in Martin's main production plant in Fredrikshavn, Denmark, and heading the new facility will be managing director Soren Kjer and production planner Birgitte Jakobsen.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Universal Event Production (UEP) supplied full technical production - sound, lighting and video - to the Nike Phenomenal House, a one week only pop-up experience to celebrate football, street culture and style, music and fashion staged at the Old Sorting Office just off London's New Oxford Street.

UEP was working for brand and live communication specialist XYZ. The Tring, Hertfordshire based company has worked on many different Nike events in recent years and also with Will Mould, MD of XYZ. However this was the first time they had worked in the Old Sorting Office space which is a regular venue for offsite London Fashion Week shows and other events suiting its semi-industrial and slightly edgy ambience.

The lighting design for the Nike Phenomenal was developed by UEP's James Fickling and Mike Lindsay to encompass an eclectic collection of exhibition and interactive areas

USA - KVLA Television in Huntington Beach, California, a TV station that broadcasts to the large Vietnamese speaking community in Southern California, has recently added two new studios and is using LED strip lighting from Elation Professional to colour the sets.

Christian Choi of Emergent Entertainment Group was production and lighting designer, as well as fabricator for the project, and explains that the client initially sought to create three areas within two studios - a segregated news area, two talk shows and a home shopping set (which was eventually postponed).

Choi came up with rendering ideas for both the news and talk show sets, something he says he enjoys doing in order to get everyone's creative juices flowing. "Since the building was nothing more than a warehouse with attached office space, basically a shell, it was a bit difficult for everyone to picture what

Spain - Lighting designer Edu Valverde and Madrid-based AV group Geometrica Studio have created an urban-inspired lighting design using the exact beams of the Clay Paky Sharpy for a show celebrating Spanish jewellery brand Aristocrazy at this year's Mercedes Benz Fashion Week (MBFW) Madrid.

Taking inspiration from the 80s cult classic film Blade Runner, the design comprised of a clever mix of architectural, video mapped and lighting elements that combined to create an urban set reminiscent of the gritty architecture featured in the science-fiction blockbuster.

"The lighting acted as the unifying core between the audience and the set," explains Valverde. "The idea was that with the long reach of the Sharpy beams the nocturnal, urban mood of the show would be extended out from the set and into the audience to create a really immersive atmosphere."

Va

UK - Rosco has launched a line of four new fog machines designed to meet the demands of a wide variety of applications, from theatrical productions and film sets to photo shoots and training exercises.

The Mini-V is easy to use as well as being the most affordable and compact machine in the series. The Vapour is the workhorse of the new line with features and performance suited to the most demanding professional environments. Designed specifically to fill large venues and outdoor spaces with dense fog and smoke, the Vapour Plus produces a massive amount of fog in a short time. The V-Hazer is a rock solid, quiet and reliable haze generator.

Rosco's Vapour Series has been carefully engineered to provide professional quality fog and haze while also offering ease of use, reliable performance, and simple maintenance. The Vapour, Vapour Plus, and V-Hazer models have been designed wi

Chile - W-DMX by Wireless Solution Sweden is heating up the airwaves in Chile on Channel 13, one of the most prestigious television stations in the country. W-DMX distributor Iluminacion Profesional Valook SA, based in Santiago, is currently using W-DMX for the station's productions to great success and is looking to expand the use and knowledge of the product through educational seminars.

Francisco Yanez Valdivia, trainer & product manager for Valook explains, "Channel 13 works with a very high standard of quality. At present they use the W-DMX F-2 model linked with some integrated receivers on the fixtures and R512 receiver. I had the opportunity to talk with one of the lighting technicians and he said that this wireless system is very reliable and stable."

In an interview with Channel 13 lighting designer Luis Quiroz said of W-DMX, "With W-DMX I solve timing

Germany - Astera LED Technology has released the AsteraApp for free on the Google Play Store. The AsteraApp can be downloaded and then installed on any Bluetooth-enabled Android device (optimized for Android phones and 7" tablets).

Users should link their Android device to an AsteraBox to initiate control. Acting as the middleman, the AsteraBox receives commands from the app (using Bluetooth), and these commands are processed inside the AsteraBox, then sent to all Astera lights within a 300m range.

With the AsteraApp, users can easily send programmes and effects to lights, create programmes and customize effects, store these programmes for quick use at an event, change the colours, brightness, speed, and fade of programs, target individual lights or groups of lights, as well as many other advanced features for event lighting professionals.

Simon Canins, R&D director at

USA - Production Resource Group has announced that Jeremiah J Harris, chairman and CEO, has promoted Stephan Paridaen to the role of president and chief operating officer. Paridaen has served as PRG's chief executive officer for Europe, Middle East and Africa since 2009.

In his new role, Paridaen will apply his management expertise and services to supervising the global operations of the company, the delivery of new technologies and services offerings, and the further development of PRG's efforts in the corporate and global special events markets.

"Along with attracting world-class talent to the company, one of my top priorities is recognizing and developing PRG's existing leadership team," said Harris. "Stephan has demonstrated exceptional operational leadership in Europe. He has earned the respect of the entire PRG team, our customers and our partners. This

Belarus - Clay Paky's multi-zone A.leda B-EYE was the star of the show at the recent Belarusian TV Awards beaming complex aerial effects as part of a lighting design by Kirell Zelenko.

TV LD Zelenko worked with assistant lighting designer Ilya Piatrouski of Minsk-based production house Blackout Studios to design a rich, glittering light show for the popular annual event - now in its tenth year - which celebrates the best in Belarusian television.

"We needed to create a balanced design that actually enriched the video mapped elements occurring on stage," explains Piatrouski. "The lighting needed to be effects based as well as practical to create the sumptuous, detailed look we were after."

Zelenko and Piatrouski specified a host of Clay Paky fixtures for the ceremony, including 24 x A.leda B-EYE K20, 12 x A.leda Wash K10, 24 x Sharpy, 20 x Sharpy Wash 330

USA - When two of music's long established bands prepared to embark on their 38-city North American co-headlining tour, the design teams behind Journey and Steve Miller Band had to find the best way to support the style of each group. With the challenge of sharing the same rig, lighting designer Kevin 'Deuce' Christopher had to decide which automated luminaires would provide the most flexibility as the main lighting instruments for both show designs. Working with Tour Tech East, he chose 38 VL3500 Wash and 25 VL3000 Spot luminaires from Philips Vari-Lite to be the lighting backbone for the complete tour.

"In the design for the Journey tour, we have a large video wall that we treat as a surface for I-MAG, so I knew we needed automated lighting that could punch through the intensity of the video wall," began Christopher. "During the design process, we looked at seve

USA - One hundred and forty Robe Pointes were at the core of the production lighting design for the 2014 Essence Festival in New Orleans, which was created by Matt Foucheux of Solomon Group, production designers and equipment suppliers for the Main Stage in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Musical acts included Prince, Erykah Badu, Mary J. Blige and Jill Scott.

The Solomon Group has worked for the vibrant and diverse "party with a purpose" - which started in 1995 - for the last three years, and for the last two has also been responsible for producing the 60,000 capacity Main Stage at the four day event.

This was the first time that Foucheux and Solomon Group have used Pointes and actually the first time they have ever worked with Robe products. The fixtures were supplied by VER, and it underlined a real confidence in the brand and its reputation to commit to so many Poin

USA - A virtual plethora of Elation Professional lighting and video gear was used this year to light up Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) in Las Vegas, North America's largest dance music festival. Produced by Insomniac Events and held the weekend of 20-22 June at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, more than 400,000 attendees danced and raved their way to the latest EDM beats in front of eight stages, seven of which featured Elation products.

EDC is a spectacular scene, a multi-sensory testament to the popularity of electronic dance music with some of the biggest names in the genre performing, including Avicii, Diplo, Afrojack, Carl Cox and Tiesto, many helicoptered in from the Vegas strip 20 minutes away to play to tens of thousands at each stage. Ferris wheels, fireworks, glowing sculptures, desert heat and beams of pulsating light all make up the EDC Las Vegas experience.

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Italy - From 20 to 22 June, the Sforza Castle in Milan was transformed into a stage for a magical journey of lights and music that took the audience back in time from the Milan of today to 1906, during the Belle Époque, when the world exposition was first held in the city. "The project not only enhanced the Sforza Castle and its precious art collections, but it also linked the monument with Expo 2015," said Milan city councillor for culture, Filippo Del Corno.

All the façades of the Rocchetta courtyard were animated with images from the Achille Bertarelli print collection, which is kept in the castle itself and tells us about Milanese life and culture in the early 20th century.

The Castello di Carta (Paper Castle) project was curated by Sebastiano Romano and Studio Comunicazione & Immagine di Mariella Di Rao. It was promoted by the Milan City Council Departme

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