UK - PLASA Focus Glasgow has announced its final programme of events, including support from the BBC who will provide a unique opportunity to visit the BBC Scotland production facility. PLASA Focus Glasgow - Scotland's sole entertainment technology show - returns to the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC) on 18-19 January 2017.

John Carmichael, BBC Radio operations manager for Scotland, will host a tour of the studio for the Quay Sessions, a live music programme recorded in front of an audience, including a run-through of the state-of-the-art studio technology in use. The studio is in the BBC Scotland production facility at Pacific Quay, just a few minutes' walk from the SECC.

Other highlights on the Glasgow programme include a networking event at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, who will host a drinks reception and technical tours. Seminar sessions

USA - Elation Professional has announced the launch of the Platinum 1200 Wash, a bright LED colour wash moving head luminaire with (19) 65W multi-chip RGBW LEDs, making it Elation's brightest wash light offering to date.

The Platinum 1200 Wash produces colour washes on par with 1500W discharge fixtures and houses a host of professional features like a 5° to 50° motorized zoom for tight to wide beam angle control.

The fixture comes with a selection of linear colour temperature presets from 2,700 - 8,000K, which combined with the RGBW colour mixing possibilities and powerful 19 x 65W LED engine, make for an extremely flexible colour wash luminaire capable of powerful and smooth colour shade projections across any surface.

A variety of different effects are possible using the fixture's pixel and pixel ring control with colour pixel ring macros, colour preset macro

Puerto Rico - Daddy Yankee and Nicky Jam closed 2016 on a high and very emotional note, bringing down the house for four electrifying sold-out Cangris concerts at the famed Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot. The two Reggaeton icons had a lot to celebrate, having collectively garnered six nominations for Univision's upcoming Premios Lo Nuestro awards.

The Cangris concerts were about much more than superstar performances, however; they were also a spirited celebration of trailblazing music and the reconciliation of two gifted friends who joined forces in the '90s, then spent more than a decade apart, before their recent reconciliation. Reflecting the passion of these events were two sweeping and transformative lightshows by Daddy Yankee's LD David Ayala, and Juan David Guerrero, the designer for Nicky Jam.

Drawing on the far-ranging performance features of ov

Singapore - Lighting designer Adrian Tan from Light Project is using Robe's CycBar 15 fixtures to light the cyc on W!LD RICE's award winning Monkey Goes West production, which is playing a limited holiday season run at the Drama Centre Theatre in Singapore.

The production first premiered in 2014 and Adrian recalls that in the initial creative discussions they didn't want it to be "just another pantomime", so instead looked at more unconventional ways of lighting the cyc, which was a fundamental to creating 'another world' onstage to which the audience could relate.

Additional creative considerations included the need for a strong Asian culture influenced primary saturated colour scheme to run throughout the performance, and the fact that the overhead lighting rig also needed to be flexible due to the venue's expedient stage and overhead rigging space.

Adrian dec

USA - The Historic Masonic Theatre is an architectural treasure nestled in the Allegheny Mountains in Virginia. Since opening in 1905, the historic venue has boasted eclectic billings over the last century, including Roy Rogers (and of course Trigger), Gene Autry, Count Basie, and even political blunderbuss William Jennings Bryan ("What has been will be again"). Now a performing arts, education, and community facility, a recent renovation includes the new, redesigned Intelligent Marquee Systems (IMS Mk2) LED marquee/festoon lighting system.

Specified by Theatrical Consultants Collaborative (TCC) of North Carolina and installed by Productions Unlimited, Inc. of South Carolina, IMS V12 "Filament" lamps were the perfect way to achieve programmable marquee lighting with the warm, golden look of traditional incandescent lamps, plus the benefits of individual DMX control and LED tec

Italy - Claypaky is part of the impressive lighting plot that characterizes the 2016 edition of X-Factor Italy. The tenth edition of the popular talent show, which started in the UK, is richer and more dazzling than ever. Work on it started a good five months before the recordings since the lights and scenic effects are essential components for the success of the show.

Lighting director Massimo Pascucci explained that X-Factor Italy is not just a television show, but is also a real "live event filmed with cameras, where the artists are free to roam the stage and even put on their shows in the corridors and theatre galleries." Other components typical of live events include the large number of LED walls that accompany the performances and the use of purpose-built scenery. The lighting equipment and filming covers every corner of the theatre, including a dolly hang

UK - The Tourflex Cabling brand will be showcasing its bespoke cable assembly service for the professional entertainment industry at PLASA Focus Glasgow 2017, SECC, Glasgow, UK, stand A7, this week.

Knowing how critical cables and connections are to the entertainment sector, Tourflex Cabling prides itself on providing the best connections, for a faultless performance.

Although recently re-branded, the service has over 40 years of experience and has earnt an enviable reputation for quality, reliability and a very fast delivery turnaround, as it understands when 'the show must go on' - often turning around emergency orders in 24 hours, including during weekends.

Last year alone, Tourflex Cabling made over 100,000 cable assemblies, including more than half a million metres of exceptional quality cabling. It holds a vast level of stock and choice of raw cables & connectors

USA - Founded in 1987, 12Stone Church has grown to include eight campuses throughout Georgia serving the communities in Gwinnett, Hall, and Barrow counties. In their most recent expansion, the congregation completed a full renovation of a large retail location in Snellville, GA, and in doing so they needed to create a full worship environment.

Working with Cason Cleveland Productions, 12Stone Church had a specific vision for the LED video elements in the new auditorium, so together they enlisted the assistance of Nashville-based PixelFLEX and installed FLEXLite NXG 2.6mm LED video technology.

"For our new Snellville campus, we were moving into what used to be a Best Buy retail location, so we really needed to create all of the production elements from scratch for our worship environment," began Dustin Whitt, production ministry lead.

"When looking specifically at the L

USA - 2017 started with a bang as Georgian rockers Widespread Panic rang in the New Year with an epic three set blowout at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena.

Lighting designer Paul Hoffman utilized a lighting package provided by Bandit Lites for the two night, sold-out event, where the first evening featured selections from Widespread Panic's albums played in chronological order, while the second evening boasted guest appearances by Love Sponge String Quartet, MegaBlasters Horns and McCrary Sisters.

With the band's annual Tunes for Tots benefit concert taking place on 29 December in Nashville's historic Ryman Auditorium, and the arena not being available for a production day prior to the first show at the arena, Hoffman used the framework of the existing fall touring system with many additions.

"There's always a time crunch on these end-of-year shows," said Hoffman. "Lots

UK - Talking with lighting control operator Adam Power before the Manchester show of Bring Me the Horizon's recent tour, their biggest to date, he described the show lighting as "intense". Over 180 lighting fixtures hung on numerous trusses and were built into a technology-laden set.

Adam reports, "James and Louis created a wide vista which used the full width of the arenas, we even put five lights each side of the stage in unallocated seating to stretch the design even wider. The band were passionate about having an intense show with lots of strobing and really big looks, James and Louis did a great job of keeping it classy and refined with so much going on."

James Scott explained, "The initial brief given to us by the band was that they wanted a big rock show, something that made a huge statement and filled as much of the arena space as possible. One word which kept bein

USA - Enchanted: Forest of Light in Descanso Gardens in LA, California, was a beautiful display of nature and light intertwining to create an experience that visitors of all ages could appreciate. This walk-through art piece was installed for a limited time during the holiday season from 25 November 2016 to January 8, 2017.

Lighting designer, Chris Medvitz, chose to install SGM's G-Spot fixtures in order to create the drama and saturated colour quality he desired for this project. Medvitz praised the G-spot for its reliability and durability.

Enchanted: Forest of Light is a complete outdoor installation and keeping this in mind, it was important to find a fixture that could handle all of the California weather elements. SGM is known for its IP65 and IP66-rated products, so for Medvitz the G-Spot was an obvious choice:

"This is the first robust, full-featured moving hea

UK - Lighting, rigging and visuals rental specialist HSL is embroiled in a hectic 2016-17 pantomime season, supplying lights, LED fixtures and rigging including one Kinesys automation system to 20 different productions for leading panto producer QDos, being staged up and down the country.

Some mind-boggling statistics include nearly 2000 intelligent lighting fixtures and over 500 generics, 100 plus kilometres of cabling and over 2000 custom gobos - all of which were shipped out of HSL's HQ in Blackburn in an operation that has been overall project managed by Jordan Hanson working closely with Emma Nolan and John Slevin.

Individual shows have been project managed by Andy Chatburn, who handled four productions; Mark Shakeshaft who also co-ordinated four; Sean McGlone, who looked after seven and John Slevin, who ensured that all ran smoothly for the largest single show, Al

UK - Chichester Festival Theatre reports a successful outcome after investing in two MDG ATMe haze generators and two MDG theFAN digital units, supplied by leading creative and technical solutions specialists, White Light.

"The main driving factor behind our investment was the need for greater controllability than the on/off capability offered by our existing AtmosphereAPS units," says CFT's head of lighting and technical manager, Sam Garner-Gibbons.

"We have a purpose-built atmosphere generation system that sites the generators and fans above the rear of the audience and ducts CO2 gas through copper pipes to gas canister storage locations back of house. The units are placed front of house so the venue's air handling system pulls the haze across the stage to create the optimum coverage.

"Because we are a very exposed venue, any fan noise and or excess haze output perco

UK - Software provider Stardraw.com has announced 2016 to have been the company's best year ever since its incorporation in 2000. The news follows the announcement last year that 2015 had already been a record year for sales and usage stats of Stardraw.com's award-winning design and documentation software, Stardraw Design 7.2, and 2016 has been better still.

"Obviously, we're delighted," said Stardraw.com CEO, Rob Robinson. "We had already recorded close to 25% growth during 2015, and we were up nearly another 20% again over the course of 2016. Our usage stats bear out the same story with an average of 10,000 sessions per month opened during 2016 which increased to a staggering 15,000 per month in 2016. That we should be enjoying this kind of growth in what has been a precarious year in so many other ways is particularly gratifying.

"There are doubtless a number of factors

France - Innovative and cutting edge French artist / music producer DJ Snake rocked the Paris Zenith with an incendiary set and a spectacular new visual design by Romain Pissenem of creative production company High Scream ... utilizing a lighting rig of nearly 200 Robe moving lights including 64 of the new Spiider LED wash beams, 80 x Spikies, 32 x Pointes and 11 x BMFL WashBeams.

Lighting was programmed and directed by UK based Rob Lister who has worked as DJ Snake's LD for the last year and has a long-standing working relationship with Romain and High Scream from visiting Ushuaia Ibiza with DJs Axwell & Ingrosso ... for which Romain is also the production / show director.

Tickets for this landmark Paris show by the hugely popular and proudly French electronic music guru sold out almost immediately so the pressure was on for all to produce a truly amazing visual and sonic

Final Curtain - The curtain is coming down on the most celebrated circus in the US, the Greatest Show on Earth, run by Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey. After 146 years in the business, the owners said declining tickets sales and high operating costs were to blame. Activists who campaigned for decades against the travelling circus's animal acts welcomed the news.

"After much evaluation and deliberation, my family and I have made the difficult business decision that Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey will hold its final performances in May," said a statement from Kenneth Feld, CEO of Feld Entertainment, the family business which has run the circus since the late 1960s.

Sep Outside Love - A life-size bronze statue of Cilla Black has been unveiled outside Liverpool's Cavern Club as the venue celebrates its 60th anniversary. The club, credited with launching

World - ETC's new Response 4 Port Gateway is now shipping. This affordable product is available as a table-top, rack-mount, DIN-rail, or pipe-mounted device. It uses bidirectional Ethernet communication with other network devices to send or receive up to 2048 channels of DMX512-A data and RDM messages.

Using ACN and streaming ACN protocols, the Response 4 Port supports up to four DMX universes and distributes up to 2048 channels over Ethernet. The 4 Port uses the same integrated LCD screen as ETC's other gateways for status display and configuration information.

While this Response gateway does not offer interchangeable sleds, the gateway is substantially lighter than other gateway variants and is available in the following standard models: 4-DMX out XLR, 4-DMX in XLR, 3-DMX out and 1-DMX in XLR, 4-in/out RJ45 ports, and 4-in/out terminal ports.

(Jim Evans)

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd. is showcasing many UK-exclusive and other product highlights from their extensive portfolio of over 200 brands, at PLASA Focus Glasgow 2017, SECC, Glasgow, UK, stand B1, this week.

A leading one-stop provider of professional equipment to the entertainment industry, AC-ET's expert lighting, audio, rigging and video sales divisions will showcase how they can supply and advise on leading brands from each major product category, to offer customers access to complete technology systems suitable for touring, theatre, venues, education, film & TV, corporate and other markets.

The company's Lighting division will showcase highlights from their massive portfolio of industry-leading and popular-selling brands, which cater for a huge range of budgets. The stand includes LED washlights, hybrid luminaires, blinders, moving lights, lante

Korea - Total Korea Lighting & Sound (TKLS), one of the leading rental companies in Korea, has recently purchased 24 of GLP's award-winning X4 Bar 20 revolutionary lighting battens from GLP.

The fixture is the first purchase of GLP solutions by Total Korea, but it has already found immediate success for the company, having gone straight onto a major production which will be running in Seoul until March 2017. The opera Aida has placed all the fixtures onto a four-month production run.

Mr Shin, Owner and CEO of Total Korea, stated that he had been extremely happy with the X4 Bar 20. "This is our first purchase of GLP - we are very impressed with the quality of the product, and confident that the X4 Bar 20 will prove to be highly successful in our rental stock going forward. We are also very pleased with the service from the GLP staff and look forward to working with them in

USA - In October 2015, Pulpit Rock Church in Colorado Springs received extensive water damage due to several days of heavy rain that unfortunately fell during a re-roofing project. With almost every room damaged, including their main worship space, Pulpit Rock underwent a building renovation that included a house lighting upgrade to Elation Colour Pendant LED color-changing downlights.

The new design for the non-denominational church's main sanctuary called for a warm, inviting atmosphere that allows everyone to worship however they feel comfortable. Design/build company SOA of Colorado Springs (secondopinionaudiollc.com) steered the church in the direction of the Colour Pendant fixtures, a dynamic lighting solution that replaced outdated fluorescent architectural fixtures.

"The project architect had spec'd white light LED pendant fixtures for the space to replace the fluo

USA - The new 28-story Oceana Bal Harbor condominium has elevated the art of luxury to a new level, quite literally. This is readily apparent as soon as one steps inside the gleaming understated, but elegant, structure, which is located at the northern edge of Miami Beach Island. Inside its two grand lobbies, with their 22' vaulted ceilings is a multi-million dollar collection of 10 modern art masterpieces, including the dazzling liquid gold Pluto and Proserpina statue by the world-renowned sculptor Jeffrey Koons.

The grand opening of such an extraordinary edifice calls for more than a mere ribbon cutting. Argentinian art collector Eduardo Costantini, who developed the $1.3 billion sellout condo, celebrated its completion recently with an A-list event orchestrated by ACT Productions that featured star-studded entertainment, an art show and celebrity appearances. In conj

UAE - Cutting an elegant swathe through the city, the new Dubai Canal opened with a spectacular ceremony hosted by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and Ruler of Dubai. When it came to providing the ultimate in fanfare, drama, and excitement, creative agency and show producers Prodea Group, engaged the services of Protec.

"With such a prestigious opening spectacular nothing can be left to chance," said Paul Flint, head of production international team for Prodea. "The delivery of this event by Protec did exactly that; their attention to detail was superb."

With over three kilometres of canal side to cover, the provision of equipment was huge, as Protec's project manager for this event Simon Travis explained. "Prodea is an Italian company, they brought a clear creative vision for the event. The brief they gave

The Netherlands - Philips Lighting, a global leader in lighting, has announced that its stage lighting will be used in the next leg of Justin Bieber's rapturously received 'Purpose' world tour. Lighting designer Cory FitzGerald has declared the multi-functional Philips Vari-Lite VL4000 BeamWash luminaire as 'essential' for the redesigned 2017 leg.

"There's going to be a few changes when the tour continues next year as we will be heading to outdoor venues and stadiums," said lighting director Nick van Nostrand, who is in charge of realizing FitzGerald's design out on the road. "The show is going to be reworked and we are currently making decisions on what's going to come with us. Cory has stated that the Philips VL4000 BeamWashes are high up on the list. There's not anything else out there that's a good substitute for all the roles it performs in the show."

"The VL4000 Beam

USA - For many, Christmas Eve is an evening of reflection and celebration with loved ones, and Bandit Lites was proud to help facilitate a special programme from Berea College entitled Listen! A Musical Celebration of Christmas.

The holiday concert was broadcast Christmas Eve on CBS affiliates and featured performances from both students and faculty members including the Berea College Folk Roots Ensemble, Concert Choir, Jazz Ensemble and Bluegrass Ensemble along with a reading from a copy of the St. John's Bible, the first handwritten and illuminated Bible published since the invention of the modern printing press.

Naturally, the Berea Chapel was not designed with the intention of being utilized as a television event space, meaning lighting designer Mark Carver had to fashion a lighting system that would fit the venue, compliment the various music stylings and trans

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