UK - RealSound & Vision Ltd, the Oxfordshire-based sound, stage lighting and AV system integrators who have achieved UK-wide success and recognition within the education sector, has announced the appointment of David Wilkins as their sales manager.
Wilkins is well known in the lighting industry with previous roles at Northern Light, Selecon and Strand. He now adds this experience to broaden the multidisciplinary skill set at RSV.
On joining, Wilkins commented that: “It will be an exciting opportunity to drive the Company forward”.
David Nibbs, managing director, added: “I am very pleased to have David on board as part of our team and I’m sure that he will be successful in significantly raising the RSV profile and our levels of successful business in Education and elsewhere.”
(Jim Evans)

UK - PRG XL Video, the UK operation of Production Resource Group (PRG), has announced two new additions to its music team. Robert Watson and Michael George have both joined as account managers and bring a diverse range of talent and experience to PRG.
Michael George has joined the company from Blink TV where he specialised in filming and streaming of live events – a service PRG XL has already begun to offer with the live streaming of Stormzy’s recent sold-out Brixton Academy shows.
Stefaan Michels, director of music, PRG XL Video, comments: “It’s a pleasure to have Michael join the team. He’s great to work with. It is exciting to expand into the live streaming market and with Michael’s expertise and high standard of delivery, it’s sure to be a resounding success.”
Robert Watson brings more than a decade of experience in live production, working a

Belgium - Tegen de Sterren Op (TDSO) is a highly popular, TV series on Flemish commercial channel VTM that uncompromisingly satirises and sends up politicians, celebrities and anyone else on the ‘fair game’ radar - all in the name of incisive entertainment by a very talented cast.
There is also an equally talented production team behind this success, including creative practice Painting with Light, who were tasked with designing a completely new set together with lighting and video.
They worked on the set elements with scenic specialist Deusjevoo, their near neighbours at Genk’s C-MINE complex. It was a visual concept that brought an urban chic feel to the seventh TDSO series, also delivering dynamic lighting and video.
The show was recorded in the NEP Studios in Londerzeel with a live audience and was produced by Dedsit.
Two interconnected stages we

UK - Open Technology will secure energy savings of up to 40 per cent for Cardiff University after installing its intelligent lighting system to an additional four lecture theatres across the campus.
Last year the company was commissioned to install its LiGO intelligent lighting system in seven of the University’s lecture theatres. The installation, done by consultants Houghton Greenlees and installers Evans Electrical, brought the total of LiGO controllers across the university campus to more than 30.
Cardiff University explained that Open Technology and LiGO were chosen due to the lighting system’s features, which include: presence detection to reduce energy use when rooms are unoccupied; time control settings to match occupancy times for lecture theatres; and, daylight balancing to complement available daylight.
These features will deliver up to 40 per cent

USA - The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival returned to the 700 acre field known affectionately as The Farm with more than 65,000 in attendance in search of good vibes and great music.
Bandit Lites was proud to be asked by Lambda Productions to provide a lighting package for multiple stages, the iconic Tower at Bonnaroo, along with several floor packages for artists in attendance.
This year’s line-up of more than 100 acts included U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Weeknd, Chance the Rapper, Major Lazer, Flume, Lorde, The XX, Travis Scott, Cage the Elephant, Marshmello and The Head and the Heart.
U2’s show designer, Willie Williams, designed the mainstage festival system for U2’s immense show on Friday night. It was then dropped, re-hung and re-configured for the acts to use on Saturday and Sunday.
“Willie’s design had a similar flavour to their curren

USA - Country superstar Eric Church’s Holdin’ My Own tour begins to create an immersive experience for fans as soon as they enter the concert venue. Forget standard house lights. The first thing that strikes visitors when they walk into the arena, whether it’s Barclay Centre in Brooklyn or Staples Centre in LA, is the warm white (and very bright) glow from the 63 Chauvet Professional STRIKE 1 fixtures in Church’s touring rig.
Butch Allen of Blame Funnel Creative, who specced the multi formatted STRIKE 1 units from Christie Lights, uses them in lieu of house lights to set an emotional tone for Church’s deeply personal tour. “We wanted the whole arena itself to be part of the show, to create a totally immersive environment, since this tour is all about Eric connecting to his fans,” said Allen. “The STRIKE 1s are our house lights. Then, once the concert starts,

South Africa - Just over two years ago, Bernard Gramann became the sole owner and founder of Core Productions, a Cape Town rental based company.
In this time, his equipment retinue has grown to include Robin 300 LEDWash fixtures, Robin Mini Pointes, Spikies, the MVS Hazer, base plates, a Beavis and Huey Distro, Prolyte trussing and much more.
“It’s been quite a ride over the past few years,” Bernard is now able to say with a smile. While he has had his fingers burnt on a few occasions by people he trusted, the challenges have moulded him to make a difference in the establishment he now runs.
“In a short time, we have built an amazing company with amazing people in it,” said Bernard. “There isn’t much more to say other than we are an honest, ethical and an exciting team to work with who love what we do and respect those who we do it with, and for!.<

UK - Northwest based technical production supplier, Sterling Event Group, has continued its dedication to investing in its equipment by purchasing the latest lighting gear from Clay Paky.
After success with other industry leading Claypaky products, such as Alpha Spot and B-eye and Sharpy fixtures, Richard Bowden, MD of Sterling, decided to invest further by purchasing the Mythos 2 Hybrid fixture, which is currently specified by leading designers for many TV shows and concert tours.
Richard commented: “We have had great success with our previous Claypaky fixtures in terms of performance and reliability, we are looking forward to using the Mythos 2 in the coming months across lots of our client’s events. In fact, the fixtures are already straight out of the door on a fashion show for one of the UK’s best known retailers.”
Other recent additions to the Ster

UK - Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance is London’s International Drama School. Students from over 40 different countries study on the 15 different vocational and professional degree courses, with notable alumni including Gary Oldman, Hayley Squires and Tom Baker. Every year, the College hosts a Graduate Exhibition in order to give its graduating students a launchpad into the industry. Having worked with the College for over ten years now, White Light was called upon to provide the complete technical solutions.
This year’s Graduate Exhibition was named Beginner’s Call and took place at the Ugly Duck in central London. The head of production was Anthony Sammut, the production manager was Toscane Luckett whilst Sam Jackson was the technical manager.
Sam states: “My role on the exhibition was to work closely with Ollie Brennan (technical superv

UK - All Spotlight and Headline Sponsors have been confirmed for the 10th anniversary edition of The Knight of Illumination (KOI) Awards, which will be held once again at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith, London on 17 September.
One of the biggest nights in the Entertainment Technology industry calendar, the KOI Awards celebrate the exceptional creative talents of international lighting and digital content designers working in the UK across the sectors of television, theatre and concert touring & events. Awards in each of these sectors are sponsored by individual industry organisations known as the Spotlight Sponsors.
Coming on board for the first time as Spotlight Sponsors this year are ADB sponsoring the Theatre Award for Plays, Altman Lighting sponsoring the Television Award for Small Studio, Avolites sponsoring the Concert Touring & Events Award for Stage

USA - Robe’s Spikie has been named as one of the 2016-17 Live Design ‘Products of the Year’, which were selected by a panel of industry experts and aficionados, including designers, programmers and engineers active in the essential production disciplines of lighting, sound and video.
Robe’s Craig Burross (national business development manager) went to New York to accept the Award, presented during a special ceremony at the Upper Story by Charlie Palmer in midtown Manhattan.
Craig commented, "I was honoured to accept the award on behalf of Robe and everyone in our ‘family’ greatly and sincerely appreciates this new product recognition for Spikie. We would like to say a big thank-you to everyone at Live Design and of course to our amazing Robe Lighting customers!"
Bob Schacherl, CEO of Robe North America said, “We are extremely pleased with how well t

France - The Accor Hotel has played host to its share of high-profile sporting events, such as the World Indoor Athletics Championships. Recently, the 18,000 capacity venue was the site of another sports spectacular as it welcomed the Meeting de Paris Indoor, a one day track and field event that featured some of France’s top Olympic athletes such as Kevin Mayer and Renaud Lavillenie.
French production house Franck Sono provided suitably energetic visuals for the meet with a collection of Chauvet Professional fixtures supplied by Algam.
A total of 15 Maverick Hybrids, 16 Rogue R1 FX-Bs, 15 R1 Beams and 18 Nexus 5x5 fixtures lent added impact to the competition by creating a variety of impactful, and often contrasting looks throughout the venue. This was especially evident at the main podium, which was the centre of spectator and media attention.
To illuminate th

UK - Illumination specialists LED Creative supported set designer Rudi Thackray and lighting director Gurdip Mahal, in helping set the scene for James Corden and The Late Late Show’s recent visit to London.
Filmed in front of a live studio audience, The Late Late Show transferred its regular format of star guests, sketches and musical performance from its US home for a run of shows at Central Hall Westminster. Maintaining the general feel of the US show, Rudi Thackray’s vibrant set, shrouded in fluorescent pinks and blues, was a perfect backdrop to the show, contrasting perfectly against the grandiose surroundings of the venue.
One of the key features in the design was the inclusion of over 40 LED Creative Sigma Pulse Wands, cleverly placed throughout the set to provide ultra convenient, colour shape and movement. Quick to install and easy to control,

Israel - Tel Aviv based Light Architects Cochavi & Klein are known for their style and propensity for invention and they are also impressed with Robe’s Spiider LED wash beams.
The designers seized the opportunity of the Picnic Passover with Black Coffee, a pumping electronic music event presented by The Tripping in Tel Aviv’s most famous urban oasis, Hayarkon Park, to utilise 48 x Spiiders and 24 x Robe Pointes on a circular trussing structure, forming a massive ‘sun’, which was winched above the crowds on a crane.
The sold-out event featured sets from award-winning, rising-star South African DJ and music producer Black Coffee, plus DJs Jenia Tersol & Benji. They, together with a hugely enthusiastic audience, enjoyed the unique setting of the park, which is known for its magical aura and ancient rocks brought from all over Israel.
These ro

Europe - Canadian industrial band Skinny Puppy might not be mainstream airplay but the band has been around for decades and is currently touring Europe beneath an intelligent lighting rig that includes Elation Professional ACL 360 Bar effect lights and SixBar 1000 LED colour-changing battens.
Pioneers of the electro-industrial genre, Skinny Puppy, known for their theatrical and sometimes controversial live performances, enjoys a dedicated following and has charted in both North America and Europe. They have just completed the European leg of their Down the Sociopath tour.
Lighting has been designed and is under the direction of Eric Price (Thrice, Underoath, Bayside), who, although working with the group for the first time, has meshed with the band to create a design that complements the band’s complex and layered sound.
“For the Skinny Puppy design, everythi

UK - Following on from a highly successful event in 2016, creative agency Imagination has once again produced Make the Future London and the Shell Eco-marathon Europe, a four-day event held at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London.
The event promotes innovation and future technologies, and includes a variety of family-friendly activities and exhibits to educate and entertain. Imagination’s global project director, Lynda Hickey, and event technical director, Matt Francis, called on PRG XL Video to supply lighting, rigging, and video technology for the event, as the company was able to provide technology across all three disciplines.
PRG XL rigging account manager, Ade Stead, worked with Imagination’s brief to specify and build rigging structures for the outdoor stages, LED screens and lighting, and truss and supports for the lighting in multiple m

USA - This month, new and classic stars are performing at the iHeartSummer ’17 Weekend at Fontainebleau, Miami Beach, culminating in a TV special and live, two-day national broadcast across 130+ iHeartRadio stations, websites, and apps. Integral to the show lighting’s networking and data distribution are four ProPlex GBS Gigabit switches.
“We have four GBS switches on the job - Two at FOH and two at pits backstage,” explains show lighting director and programmer, Michael Appel. “We have an A/B network set up at FOH with A side switch and processing for the main show. B side is a full back-up to an A/B Cat 5switch that feeds down the fibre net to various sACN nodes.”
Appel adds: “We have used ProPlex GBS on massive shows including Kids Choice Awards, Teen Choice and the iHeartRadio Festival in Las Vegas. The switches are very robust and we trust them to ha

USA - Voted for and recognised by the industry, AV Stumpfl received accolades for Wings Engine Stage media server and Monoclip screen system, both showing for the first time at InfoComm 2017.
On 13 June, Monoclip won the Rental & Staging Award for Best Projection Screen. It has all the features of the Monoblox system with a full clean profile without studs and press snaps. The Monoclip's entire frame block unfolds and the snap joints lock automatically for an ultra-fast set-up process. The MonoClip vinyl surface can be stretched easily and attached to the frame with patented QuickClip hooks. This gives the surface a perfect mat, seamless accurate fit to the projected image.
The fully upgraded Wings Engine Stage media server also won a Rental & Staging Award for Best Show Control Product. It combines a durable hardware platform with automatic camera based softed

USA - Early June was rocking in Music City. The hometown Predators were selling out the Bridgestone arena for the Stanley Cup finals, and the Country Music Awards celebration was in full swing.
Although the city's hockey team came up a little short in its championship quest, the CMA festivities were all they were cranked up to be, as Nashville's downtown rang out with parties and festivals during the awards weekend.
Among the hottest CMA celebrations was the one at Piranha's, a 10,000sq.ft sports bar and music hall on Second Avenue, where 38 bands performed over three days, supported by a Jeff Hinton-designed lightshow that featured Chauvet DJ Intimidators.
Hinton used six Intimidator Beam LED 350 and six Intimidator Spot 255 IRC fixtures in his design for the Johnny B Enterprises-produced event. He flew his moving lights on two different levels of overhead tru

UAE - Lighthouse Productions (LHP) from Dubai created a unique visual design for the Islamic Art Awards 2017, staged at the Abu Dhabi National Theatre. Organized by the UAE’s Ministry of Culture & Knowledge Department, the Awards - a poetry, calligraphy and ornamentation competition open to local and non-local poets from within and outside the UAE expressing themselves in classical and Nabati verse - is widely recognized as one of the most important Islamic Art events worldwide.
The LHP team was led by Terry Miranda. When it came to lighting, he and Adrian Guzman specified 80 x Robe luminaires to be right at the centre of the aesthetic.
LHP has successfully been awarded the contract to deliver the event for the last 11 years, chosen for their understanding and appreciation of Islamic art, design and history, parameters which have been evident in all the differen

Germany - The Adam Hall Group has announced its repositioning with a specific focus on business customers. Its newly launched corporate image campaign and a range of expansion measures pave the way. The company aims to increase the transparency of its solution portfolio and its service commitment to customers, partners and event technology professionals worldwide. With an investment of more than 20m euros in two building complexes, it is laying new foundations for the future.
The Adam Hall Group, as both a leading German manufacturer and a sales distribution company makes its focus on event technology solutions for the four professional customer segments – rental companies; AV installers; music instrument retailers and industrial flightcase manufacturers – more explicit.
With an ever-growing portfolio of pro audio, LED lighting, stage equipment and hardware produc

USA - Continuing to increase the lighting solutions available in their rental inventory, Elite Multimedia has announced the addition of Elation Artiste DaVinci LED luminaires. Needing a high-powered LED solution that provided minimal power consumption, the new 270W Cool White LED luminaires were also chosen for their diverse features and design creativitynd are now in stock at the Nashville office of the live event and touring production provider.
“In looking for an LED equivalent for our 700W short arc fixtures, we were interested in the Elation Artiste DaVinci because they could give us a wide feature set in an economical and multipurpose fixture,” stated Jason ‘Cannonball’ Jenkins, Elite Multimedia director of operations. “Their maiden voyage will be with our summer camp clients who needed a small fixture with low-power but great output, and we really like how

USA - In May, some of Elation Professional’s newest, cutting-edge lighting gear was used by lighting designer Daniel Cortes of Everlast Productions on the Haitian Compas Festival in Miami, one of the largest Caribbean festivals in the United States.
The Haitian Compas Festival is a yearly celebration of the Haitian community that features popular musical acts along with traditional Haitian food and other facets of Haitian culture. After 18 years as a one-day event, this year’s festival was held over two days from 20-21 May at Bayfront Park in downtown Miami.
For Miami’s Haitian community, Compas was an opportunity to put the méringue sounds of konpa (compas) music in focus while partying beneath the bright lights of a truly contemporary rig. This year an all Elation rig provided the visual dynamics with some of the company’s newest lighting products in action:

USA - Elation Lighting Inc., based in Los Angeles, has been successfully offering Arkaos MediaMaster Express software for the past five years, as well as integrating Arkaos Kling-Net protocol into many of its lighting products. Elation has now entered into an agreement with Arkaos and A.C. Lighting Inc. to start selling Arkaos media servers to Elation’s US and Mexico dealers.
A.C. Lighting has been the exclusive North American distributor for the ArKaos range of media server solutions since 2012. The agreement between A.C. Lighting Inc. and Elation opens access to these powerful media servers to the entire Elation dealer network in the US and Mexico.
Eric Loader, Elation Professional sales director, comments: "As the market convergence between lighting and video continues, our customers need more powerful and flexible plug and play control solutions. Arkaos media s

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