UK - Registration is now open for PLASA Show 2019, which returns from 15-17 September to bring over 200 brands lighting, audio, AV, rigging and staging brands to Olympia London.
Mirroring the growth of the AV sector, this year’s show will present an array of next-generation LED screen technology from major players such as Canon and Midwich. Furthermore, Netgear will share its networking and integration solutions.
The audio presence at the show has been growing rapidly over the last few years and in 2019, the show will welcome Void Acoustics and CUK Audio in addition to Bose, d&b audiotechnik, Yamaha and Adam Hall among others.
Meanwhile, live audio demos will double this year, with L-Acoustics taking a dedicated demo space and KV2 Audio demo'ing its products, which fe

Sweden - Despite having worked with Swedish House Mafia’s Axwell and Sebastian Ingrosso in a one-off show in San Francisco, when the time came, Vision Factory production designer, Sam Tozer nevertheless had to pitch for the gig (read full production report in LSi June).
At the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium gig he had gone heavy on GLP’s popular impression X4 20 Bars and equally en-vogue JDC1 hybrid strobes, and that same formula worked for him again at the house legends’ comeback shows at Stockholm’s Tele2 Arena. It quickly became clear that this would be no ordinary EDM experience.
Assisted by LD, Alex Hess, he says: “I already knew the feel of the performance the boys would want to create, so the

USA - ADJ Lighting has planned a two-day summer ADJ road tour event at Soundcheck Nashville to demo its latest lighting, audio, and video technologies and offer informative tech sessions on a variety of lighting and video control solutions.
On 16-17 July, ADJ Lighting will be in Nashville, Tennessee, at Soundcheck Nashville studios, 750 Cowan Street, where the company will spotlight its latest lighting, audio, and video technologies recently shown at InfoComm tradeshow. The showcase will include ADJ’s IP65 outdoor rated lighting solutions.
“Nashville is of my favourite ADJ road tour dates because we always have a strong turnout of lighting professionals. In fact, this is our fifth year in a row at Soundcheck Nashville,” comments Alfred Gonzales, national sales manager of ADJ USA. “ADJ is coming off a very successful InfoComm show. We’re looking forward to tal

The Netherlands - Andre Beekmans, lighting designer with The Art of Light, used Ayrton’s Ghibli LED spot fixtures to create a lightscape on and around the main stage at A State of Trance festival in The Netherlands this year in celebration of ASOT 900.
A State of Trance (ASOT) is the weekly radio show of award-winning DJ Armin van Buuren and the largest trance network in the world. Every year the 50th episode is celebrated with a major live concert in The Netherlands, with smaller satellite events in other countries around the world.
This spring marked the 900th show, which was celebrated in front of a 35,000 capacity audience at the Jaarbeurs Centre in van Buuren’s hometown of Utrecht, designed and operated by The Art of Light, and promoted by Alda Events.
Lighting designer Beekmans chose 65 Ayrton Ghibli, supplied by Ampco Flashlight, as the main spot fix

USA - Australian burlesque Star Wars parody The Empire Strips Back has just completed its most extensive North American tour to date, also visiting Canada for the first time, complete with a suitably boisterous lightshow designed by Peter Rubie, featuring 30 Robe Spiider LED wash beams as the core moving light fixtures.
The show has delighted audiences since it launched at the Vanguard Theatre in Sydney in 2011.
Peter has been involved with the show for the last four years, taking over from original lighting designer Ross Graham. Since then, it has evolved into the performance spectacle it is today including new acts and songs, and in 2018, a complete refresh of the lighting rig.
It was at this stage that Peter decided to replace the previous LED wash lights with Robe’s latest generation Spiider - a fixture known for its power, smooth colour mixin

EMEA - Audio Technology, Ertekin Elektronik and Masterpiece have been appointed as distribution partners of Studer by Harman, operating across Egypt, Turkey, and the Middle East respectively.
“Introducing new distribution partners means we can present the latest Studer technology and align the Studer brand with the wider Harman Professional ecosystem, providing a greater range of high-quality options for our customers in the region,” said Andrew Smart, business development manager, broadcast, EMEA.
The agreements see Audio Technology, Ertekin Elektronik and Masterpiece offering pioneering Studer products including Vista control surfaces powered by Infinity processing engines and Glacier Professional Mixing Consoles to their existing and future customers.
“We’re delighted to partner with such highly-motivated distributors who can provide an extremely im

USA - Hung on five 30ft truss fingers that rise at a 30° angle as they go from upstage toward the audience, the Chauvet Professional Nexus Aw 7x7 fixtures at the heart of Greta Van Fleet’s lighting rig allude to a plane taking flight.
Eric Cathcart, the band’s lighting designer, has a first-hand appreciation of this dizzying trajectory. The owner of Bigtime Lighting Design, Cathcart was with the quartet on some of their earliest touring a little over a year ago. Back then everything, including lighting, audio gear and the backline (not to mention the band), fit on a single bus and trailer. Today, a Grammy Award win and a slew of No. 1 hits later, the band’s caravan is considerably larger at five vehicles.
Cathcart’s rig, with its 100 Nexus panels, which, like the rest of the fixtures, were supplied by Primer Global Productions, sprang to life with the kind of

Italy - Showman and superstar Vasco Rossi - Il Blasco - returned with another Live Kom tour, including six sold out nights at Milan’s San Siro stadium with a performance to match his profile.
Leading the creative production team was lighting designer Giovanni Pinna, who has worked with the artist for many years as part of a team ensuring that the live shows are constantly exciting, interesting and innovative and meet the massive public expectations each year.
A master of making impressions - Giovanni chose to use over 340 Robe moving lights - 152 x MegaPointes, 122 x Spiiders and 72 x LEDBeam 150s - to assist in the visual impact.
Video screens / content director and disguise server operator Marco Piva and disguise tech whizz Nicolas Di Fonzo worked directly for Giovanni who also collaborated closely with live camera director Peppe Romano from Except to create

Germany - Like many others, lighting designer Thomas Gerdon would sit on the couch with his parents to watch music show ZDF Hitparade on a tube TV.
He was then overjoyed when he was offered to design the lighting for the 50th anniversary of the show - all the more so as he knew German TV veteran, Thomas Gottschalk, would be hosting it.
Gerdon’s task was to create a modern set for the 50th anniversary, which at the same time needed to connect with the look of the original studio (Berlin Union Studios). "It needed to pay homage to the old hit parade,“ explains Gerdon, describing the challenge set by the show’s production.
"It was clear to me in which direction this design would go,” he continues. And much of this would require the implementation of GLP’s innovative solutions. “The back wall of the set would be the first anchor point,” he expl

UK - Light Engine Dry Hire, a new London-based dry hire service, launched on 1 May. The company offers stocks of the latest technologies and innovations in LED fixtures from a wide variety of manufacturers.
The Light Engine Dry Hire directors Colin Bodenham, Jon Newman and Angus Chinn were drawn to their strict fixture selection by the clear advantages offered by LED fixtures of improved sustainability, minimal waste and high efficiency. The core team is completed by Ayesha Chinn as warehouse manager, and Steve Warren and Carolina Fajardo-Linares of LDC as the contracted marketing and promotional department.
The Light Engine Dry Hire centre is located in London’s ‘Lighting Quarter’ of Park Royal NW10, making its position practical for collections and deliveries within Greater London and gives easy access to the M1 and M40 motorways. Light Engine Dry Hire already

Honduras - Reggaeton singer and Latin Grammy Award-winner, Nicky Jam, took his Intimo tour to the city of San Pedro Sula in Honduras for a show at Morazán Stadium that featured an Elation Professional lighting rig designed by Juan David Guerrero.
Setting the party atmosphere with colour and high-energy visual excitement was a dynamic lighting rig made up of 36 Platinum FLX moving heads, 48 ACL 360 Bar LED battens, 16 Protron 3K strobes, eight DTW Blinder 700 IP and eight DTW Blinder 350 IP blinders with atmospheric haze from a pair of Antari F-7 Smaze machines.
Production and operation of the event was by PRO504, a leading Honduras-based production company that gave the more than 20,000 people who attended the show an unforgettable audio-visual experience.
“In Honduras, I used Elation thanks to the excellent service that John Lopez gave me,” stated Juan Dav

The Netherlands - The Kunstlinie Almere Flevoland (KAF) in Almere has installed 16 Claypaky Axcor Spot 400 fixtures in its theatre. Claypaky distributor AED Nederland provided the LED moving spotlights.
KAF is a theatre and exhibition centre which opened in 2007 and was renovated and took its current name in 2016. The complex features three performance spaces in the theatre and an exhibition hall.
“We were looking for lights that would work with a wide range of theatrical performances, concerts and event rentals,” say Maarten Bolt and Menno van Houten, Light technicians at KAF. “We did a long shootout of fixtures, and the Axcors stood out from the competition for their design, performance and attractive price. Plus, we had used the Axcor Spot 300s once and liked them, so we opted for the new Axcor Spot 400 models.”
While lighting usage at KAF varies from

South Africa - The Suncoast Casino in Durban KwaZulu-Natal has a new Anolis lighting scheme which was designed and specified by Joao Viegas and Paul Pamboukian of PPALD.
While Paul and Joao presented and drove the project, it was a collaborative effort involving the entire PPALD design team working in conjunction with DWR Distribution, who supplied the Anolis fixtures, and commissioned the system.
The project was overseen for DWR by Johnny Scholtz. They were subcontracted to Edison Power, working for South African hotel group, Tsogo Sun, the end client.
The brief was to replace the building’s tired old coloured metal halide [sodium] lighting installation which was outlined with coloured neon with something vibrant, colourful and contemporary to match the cosmopolitan vibes and energy of Durban.
PPALD proposed the colour changing lighting scheme, complete

USA - Premier Production Services (PPS) of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania has taken delivery of Ayrton Mistral-TC (True Colour) spot luminaires for its inventory where they have been in active use since their arrival from ACT Lighting, Ayrton’s exclusive distributor in North America.
PPS offers lighting and audio packages and production assistance for corporate meetings, school dramatic arts and other live events in central Pennsylvania.
“We had replaced our older static fixtures with LED and wanted to replace our moving intelligent lights with LED as well,” says PPS vice president Rocco DiBacco. “ACT Lighting brought us some Mistral-TCs for a demo and a shootout with another fixture brand, and we really liked a lot of things about the Mistrals.”
Mistral-TC has been created for applications that require perfect colour reproduction. It is equipped with an en

UK - To provide Scottish customers with a hands-on experience with their products, Ambersphere Solutions is heading to Glasgow. The open day workshop is on Wednesday 26 June and is held in partnership with the Royal Conservatoire Scotland.
The latest entertainment control and lighting products from Astera, Ayrton, MA Lighting, Robert Juliat and zactrack will be on hand. Visitors will be able to try out the consoles and fixtures in a real-world environment with assistance and guidance from Ian Green and the Ambersphere technical team.
Products will include the grandMA3 range, the Ayrton LED moving light range, 100% wireless range from Astera, 3D tracking solutions from zactrack and the Dalis Cyc and Footlight range as well as the latest LED Followspots from Robert Juliat.
Philip Norfolk, sales director of Ambersphere comments, “Here at Ambersphere it’s very im

Singapore - Concept Systems Technologies recently upgraded The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia, Singapore grand ballroom with a Martin by Harman lighting system for conventions, weddings, celebrations and more.
Concept Systems Technologies recommended the Martin MAC Quantum Profile, MAC Quantum Wash, Rush MH 1 Profile Plus, MAC Aura and the JEM Hazer Pro.
“The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia, Singapore wanted to upgrade their old discharge lamps with dynamic, intelligent LED fixtures to make their events more immersive,” said a spokesperson for Concept Systems. “Thanks to the wide array of diverse fixtures from Martin, we were able to design a custom lighting solution capable of creating a visually impactful experience for any event.”
Concept Systems outfitted the ballroom with four MAC Quantum Profile fixtures and four RUSH MH1 Profile Plus fixtures to create crisp, clea

UAE - Prolights feature in the installation of the newly opened restaurant Wavehouse in the iconic Atlantis The Palm, Dubai.
Since opening in early 2019 the Wavehouse entertainment venue has been acknowledged as one of Dubai’s premiere entertainment destinations and a jewel in the crown for the landmark Atlantis The Palm Hotel.
Wavehouse delivers entertainment over three floors including a multi-level soft-play area, two floors of arcade gaming with a dedicated Fortnite suite, multifunction room and VR experiences, a four-lane bowling alley, indoor restaurant & bar and a large terrace area with live stage, bars, casual seating and a view out over the Aquaventure Waterpark.
Prolights dominates the lighting installation with over 800 fixtures throughout the venue. The range of IP-rated and track-mount fixtures varied depending on requirements from their locat

Europe - Lighting designer Jacopo Ricci made a fundamental contribution to staging Fedez's recent tour by selecting a high-impact lighting system, consisting of 52 Mythos 2 units and 20 Claypaky B-EYE K20s, all supplied by Mister X service based in Grumello Cremonese.
Jacopo Ricci said: “I chose Mythos 2 units for the versatility they allowed me. With these units, I could go from beam light to spotlight depending on the needs during the individual parts of the show, and I could program the fixtures differently during the show while exploiting the same installation points. I don't normally use beam lights very much, but in this case, the ability to switch to beam mode was really important. I can safely say that I made the most of the hybrid features of these units.”
The three front and two side trusses were all fitted with Mythos units, which Jacopo said he "used 90

The Netherlands - Dutch singer and TV presenter Jan Smit has been at the forefront of show business for over 20 years. After being discovered by Dutch boy-band Volendam MWN back in 1996, Smit has since gone on to work as a solo artist, in addition to his work as a TV presenter.
For his current theatre tour of the Benelux, Smit's long-term creative collaborator Martijn Steman was once again tasked with providing refreshing and versatile tour visuals. After much pre-tour deliberation, Triple Showtechniek supplied Steman and his team with 30 Chauvet Professional Rogue R1 FX-B fixtures, which were incorporated within Steman's lighting concept to award Smit’s energetic rock ’n roll songs with an explosive visual energy.
Positioned in three horizontal rows running the width of the entire stage, the R1 FX-Bs play a pivotal role in creating energetic bursts of colour and

Europe - The 2019 arena tour of Saveus, a Danish electronic pop/soul act, featured an impressive setup that featured CLF Orion fixtures.
LD Theis Wermuth from Create This was asked to create a spectacular look for the 2019 arena shows in Copenhagen and Aarhus. With the idea of creating big pods of light, needed for an electronic/digital look, he included ladders with 24 CLF Orion hybrid moving heads and 32 CLF Ares LEDwashes as main light.
Theis Wermuth explained, “I wanted a powerful hybrid fixture that could make beams and nice breakup looks. The CLF Orion was more the answer. They were used for creating nice, subtle looks, but also for powerful highlights. For strobe effects I searched for a powerful LED fixture. I was hugely impressed by the output of the CLF Ares when using them before, so I decided to use them as LED strobe.” Both fixtures will be deployed f

Europe - Released through Prolight Concepts Group, the LEDJ Spectra QX40 Pixel “gives the wow factor to any indoor or outdoor space”. This IP-rated exterior fixture will withstand the elements, illuminating event spaces, stages or facades in all weathers, says the company.
Utilising quad-colour technology from its 40 10W RGBW LEDs the Spectra QX40 Pixel can produce a wide colour spectrum from rich, primary colours through to subtle pastel hues. This, coupled with five segment pixel zone control, allows lighting designers to create stunning effects. This multi-use fixture can also be truss mounted via the included Omega clamps, making it suitable for use as a blinder, strobe or stage wash panel.
The QX40 features a heavy-duty alloy chassis with precise 180° tilt angle adjustment, quick release omega brackets, powerCON TRUE1 connectors and IP rated 5-pin XLR connect

USA - The Aiken Bluegrass Festival held this May at the Western Carolina State Fairgrounds featured a healthy dose of rock-infused newgrass sounds alongside traditional bluegrass.
Lighting this year’s festival, John Berret reflected the spirit of both branches of bluegrass music. Aiding him in this endeavour was a collection of Chauvet Professional Rogue fixtures, supplied by Quest Sound Productions.
“I really needed to be aware of the relatively limited space I had available while designing the festival rig,” says Berret. “At the same time that it had to be compact, my rig also needed to be versatile enough to create unique looks for 19 different groups representing different generations of bluegrass.”
With limited height and room for his design, Berret optimised the placement of all fixtures to enhance the impact of his lighting. He hung six Rogue R2

Colombia - Obsidian Control Systems has appointed Audio Concept as its exclusive distributor in Colombia.
The Bogota-based company, which has provided professional and high-end consumer audio, lighting and video products in the region for over 30 years, will offer support for the entire line of Obsidian hardware and software lighting control solutions.
Audio Concept has already held training sessions dedicated to the Onyx system and the latest Obsidian consoles in Bogota, with further workshops coming up in other locations in July.
Jean Paul Gaspard, president of Audio Concept, comments: “We are excited about the opportunity to offer Obsidian controllers to lighting professionals across Colombia. We believe the intuitive nature of the new Obsidian products combined with training of lighting programmers will help position Obsidian as one of the top control bra

France - High End Systems’ new SolaFrame 3000 has been selected by French dealer Texen to join its fleet of lighting products. Twelve units have already been ordered and shipped for use in upcoming projects by the rental company.
Officially launched last year, the SolaFrame 3000 remains in high demand by several venues in search of an automated fixture with such a powerful lumen output. Established venues across France including the Opéra Bastille, Opéra National de Lyon and Théâtre du Châtelet have chosen the SolaFrame 3000 for their respective productions.
Managing director of Texen, François Mondié, comments: “We have carried out several tests and compared different automated fixtures on their movement, effects and noise-level. The SolaFrame 3000 has been the clear winner. It is the only LED machine that is comparable to HMI and ticks all of the boxes.”

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