Malta - Luxury cruise line Seabourn introduced its newest vessel, the Seabourn Ovation, with a naming ceremony in the harbour of Valletta in Malta in May. The ship is the fifth ultra-luxury vessel to join the Seabourn fleet over the past decade and the second of two ships designed by Adam D. Tihany.
The event was managed by Belinda King Creative Productions and saw the ship's Godmother, Elaine Paige perform to an exclusive audience on the cruise ship’s pool deck and a debut of the Seabourn anthem entitled We Sail to See the Lives of Others by Tim Rice was performed. The evening was capped with a fireworks’ display that lit up Valletta Harbour.
Belinda King Creative Productions brought Push the Button on board to handle the technical aspects of the project and

Denmark - Nordic Rentals has recently made its first major Robe investment with the purchase of 50 x MegaPointes and 26 x Spiider LED wash beams for rental stock, a decision driven purely by “demand” explained senior sales and project manager, Tue Knudsen.
The Veile and Copenhagen-based company already has around 800 moving lights on board, but wanted to keep pace with the latest innovations from Robe. Knudsen comments: “It’s a big investment, however, the massive demand for the fixtures enables a quick ROI, making the products very attractive.”
He also mentions Nordic Rentals had been looking at ways of reducing its annual sub-hired rental costs - and owning more of the products being spec’d is one approach.
The MegaPointes were out of the warehouse door the day after they were delivered by Robe’s Danish distributor Light Partner and are currently

USA - Martini Bar, a new Florida nightlife venue, boasts three LED-lined spaces controlled by one Avolites Ai Miami Licence dongle.
Martini Bar is situated just a short trip from Miami International Airport in the CityPlace Doral retail and entertainment complex and offers a nightclub and an outside lounge.
Upscale entertainment lighting experts idesign Productions served as the speciality lighting and video designers for the project. Owner and lead designer Michael Meacham worked with the idesign team to create a diamond-shaped LED wall upstage, a LED-lined DJ booth and a large LED façade for the external lounge.
"The Martini Bar's owner, Joe Delaney, allowed us to have creative freedom for the spaces. We wanted a unique design that brought the rooms to life, rather than a usual video screen shape," says Meacham. "In addition to creating the unique video screen la

Italy - API has named Digiland Srl as its new distributor in Italy. Founded in 2001, Digiland sells recording equipment, provides technical support, designs and manufactures audio cables, and offers sound-proofing and acoustic treatments.
Digiland owner Massimo Biasibetti comments: "We are proud of having earned this strong recognition. We feel honored by the chance of helping API grow and fulfill their great potential in the Italian market. As new API Italian distributors, a whole new set of creative chances await our customers.
“API is a milestone which every serious audio engineer simply can't avoid. When you are able to hear and test API gear for yourself - you will simply get it. That's how bright we see our immediate future working together with API.”
(Jim Evans)

UK - EM Acoustics recently put their new HALO-A large format line array system through its paces during two days of intensive demos at London’s LH2 rehearsal/production studios (see LSi July’s event report). In addition to HALO-A, the company also took the opportunity to show off the compact HALO-C line array – the inspiration behind HALO-A – as well as several EMS Series models, including the new, award-winning EMS-41.
EM Acoustics’ operations director Mike Wheeler, comments: “The venue was amazing. We had enough space to demo HALO-A properly and compare it to the much smaller HALO-C system to prove to visitors that we really have managed to take HALO-C to the next level – the natural EM Acoustics
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ETC Halcyon Silent

High End Systems Halcyon Silent builds on ETC’s legacy of fanless automated fixtures by incorporating features from the highly sought-after Halcyon family. Halcyon Silent perfectly balances silent operation with brilliant output of 18,400 lumens and high-impact features. 

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UK - Now in its sixth year at Hyde Park, AEG Live’s Barclaycard Presents British Summer Time (BST) has settled into a proven formula, with sound reinforcement partners Capital Sound and Martin Audio’s MLA loudspeaker system having yet again optimised the sound site-wide.
Maintaining the status quo, Capital rigged the main stage and outfield identically to 12 months ago - with one major exception.Providing the spectacular curtain raiser to the 10-day festival, Roger Waters brought his Us + Them tour to the UK for the first time. Waters had already taken his sonic and visual experimentation to breath-taking levels at Desert Trip in 2016, with the biggest surround sound system ever built. To create maximum impact at Hyde Park, Capital were asked to provide an additional 12 hangs of MLA/MLA Compact on towers positioned through the concourse for one night only.

Canada - With the popularity of boxing on the rise in Ontario, ensuring Canadian audiences get the kind of bang for their buck provided by high profile bouts is increasingly important. For Craig Bickerstaffe, owner of Toronto production services company, ShowWorks Inc., that means investing regularly in cutting edge LED technologies.
ShowWorks road-tested and then purchased Elation’s new DARTZ 360 narrow-beam fixture, as well as ADJ Vizi CMY300 hybrid moving heads, just prior to United Boxing Promotions’ The Big Hurt at the Hershey Centre in Ontario in May. SFM, Elation’s exclusive distributor in Canada, provided the DARTZ and Vizi CMY300 fixtures to ShowWorks for road testing.
“The first time I saw the DARTZ I was in Montreal and I was blown away by the amount of output for a 50-watt LED fixture,” Bickerstaffe states, adding that many of the lighting
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Create new traditions – Cameo P6 - High Output Full-Spectrum Ellipsoidal

Cameo's P6 is a future-proof LED profiler with a powerful 600 W RGBACL engine and 16,000 lumens. It’s an energy-efficient replacement for 2.5 kW halogen profile lights in theatres and venues. With excellent light quality and natural colour rendering, it fits perfectly in theatres, musicals, TV studios, congresses, and live events.

With an LED life of 50,000 hours and low power use, the P6 cuts energy costs and supports the EU’s ‘Green Deal’ goals for climate neutrality by 2050. It also meets updated eco-design rules for lighting.

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Italy - The former railway station of Porta Romana is one of the historic areas of Milan waiting to be renovated with a project of urban revaluation.
Since 2015, Social Music City has enhanced that unused space with its tensio-structure, attracting thousands of young people thanks to the DJ sets and spectacular themed events.
The lighting system for Social Music City consists of 78 moving heads by DTS: 46 Raptor, 12 Evo and 20 Wonder units.
Daniele Campanaro, resident programmer at Social Music City, comments: "This is the second year that Feliciano Musillo (Felix) of Expect Nothing has asked me to programme the stage lighting. The lighting project of SMC is by Felix, with whom I collaborate on different projects programming the light shows.
“A lighting design that satisfies the variety of SMC events - from electronic dance to corporate events - is certai

UK - De Montfort University in Leicester has recently undergone a major investment in their lighting and staging capabilities for one of their largest on-site facilities, The Venue. With the help of Stage Electrics, the university now possesses more trussing and some of the most up-to-date lighting kit available.
Created to host a wide range of events, The Venue is often used for music events, conference work, performances, and celebrations. As the university hold all their graduation ceremonies here, they can now give each graduate the moment in the spotlight they deserve.
The university has invested £5 into transforming the building. After installing a number of improvements including retractable bleacher-style seating and a full sound rig, they have now added the lighting equipment to truly showcase the capabilities of this space.
Stage Electrics were appr

Singapore - Signify reports that its Philips Vari-Lite stage lighting fixtures have helped to conjure the magic of the big-top for the sumptuous Circus 1903 - The Golden Age of Circus. The dazzling show, complete with life-sized elephant puppets, thrilled audiences at its most recent run at Singapore's Marina Bay Sands Grand Theatre.
Lighting designer Paul Smith utilised the dual functionality of the VL4000 BeamWash to fulfil two important lighting roles from a single unit. He says, "The VL4000 BeamWash performs well as a wash, and as a spot too - much better than I ever expected a hybrid fixture like this to perform."
With life-size mother and baby elephant puppets central to the show, floor space was at a premium. The mother elephant alone has four puppeteers inside. This gave Smith a challenge. "The BeamWashes have helped me to reduce the number of units I ne

UK - Stormzy, headlined the Saturday main stage in spectacular fashion at this year’s Wireless Festival in London’s Finsbury Park. The London-born superstar performed in a full, bespoke production in six acts, created by Bronski and Amber Rimell of Tawbox.
It was clear that lighting designer, Tim Routledge, would need a giant-sized fog generator when lighting Stormzy’s set, and specified two MDG Me8 fog generators to take on the job.
“I’m very familiar with MDG’s TheONE dual fog/haze generator which I specify for most of the tours I light,” says Routledge, “but when Matt Wiseman brought the Me8 to my attention at the ABTT show last month and highlighted the sheer volume of controllable fog it can produce, we decided to try it out. Stormzy’s set design called for vast quantities of dense fog for a couple of numbers, which is always a challenge in an ou

France - Nouvelles Pièces Courtes is a collection of short contemporary dance pieces, created in May 2017 by French choreographer Philippe Decouflé and his Compagnie DCA.
Each piece tells a different story, which in turn calls for a very separate visual identity to each work. “My interest in the short form comes to me via rock'n’roll: short, efficient tracks gaining in power what they lose in duration,” says Philippe Decouflé. “For me this system works well for dance, where the composition is often more poetic than narrative, where the format needs to be adapted to its subject, to go through different worlds in a same programme and take the pleasure to get lost.”
Lighting designer Begoña Garcia-Navas used Robert Juliat fixtures to complement each different dance piece through her use of lighting, choosing 20 Robert Juliat Dalis 860 Cyclight LED b

USA - Grammy-nominated group Kaleo fuses Mississippi blues, old school country, up-tempo rock and a range of other styles into their creative cauldron to arrive at their particular brand of music.
Kaleo’s distinct style is also reflected in their ethereal stage presence. Minimizing the use of colours, they prefer to be lit in subtle variations of white light. Max Lenox, who has worked with the band in various capacities since 2016 and is the lighting designer for its current tour, has mastered the art of creating subtle white-light-dominated looks, while still providing the versatility needed to reflect his client’s eclectic music.
This balance was on full display in late June, when Kaleo headlined at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre, illuminated by a bright, evocative lightshow created by Lenox with help from a floor package that featured Chauvet Professional STRIKE and

USA - The ANSI Board of Standards Review has approved a revised version of ANSI E1.46, Standard for the Prevention of Falls from Theatrical Stages and Raised Performance Platforms. The standard has been revised to address changes to the OSHA regulations for fall protection, while keeping the document's useful guidance for preventing falls from stages into the orchestra pit or the house.
ANSi E1.46 – 2018 can be downloaded at no cost from the ESTA TSP website at tsp.esta.org/freestandards. The no-cost download is made possible by the sponsorship of ProSight Specialty Insurance. Alternatively, the standard may be purchased for $40 from ANSI and IHS at webstore.ansi.org/ and global.ihs.com/ respectively.
(Jim Evans)

USA - The Knight of Illumination Awards USA (KOI-USA) has announced the judging panel for the Live for Broadcast category.
Panel chair Jeff Ravitz comments, "I'm very lucky to have been able to assemble a stellar panel of judges. I wanted a well-rounded mix of experienced eyes working with me to select this year's KOI-USA Live for Broadcast Award recipients, and well-rounded they are." KOI-USA Full Live for Broadcast panel:
Jeff Ravitz - lighting designer and chair of the judging panel who has turned innumerable live performances into broadcast ready television shows, including for Bruce Springsteen, Lollapalooza festival, and Canadian pop star Justin Bieber
Amy Tinkham - creative director, producer, and writer, Amy has previously worked as a choreographer for artists including Madonna, Aerosmith, and Earth Wind and Fire, and has directed events including Amer

UK - PLASA Show, the world-wide event for entertainment technology, is returning to London Olympia from 16-18 September, and the seminar programme is beginning to take shape. Attendees will have access to back-to-back professional development sessions across the three days, delivering content from all sectors of the industry including lighting, live sound, AV, rigging and staging.
Only a slice of what’s to come has been announced, but many hot topics are already covered, from immersive audio and the latest AV technology, to pioneering design software and electrical updates.
Audio experts from Britannia Row Productions are hosting a series of seminars to help both the younger generation and seasoned professionals. As well as discussing the future of immersive audio and outlining their training courses, Britannia Row will run a demonstration of speaker sys

South Korea - Curated by Olivier Saillard, Volez, Voguez, Voyagez - Louis Vuitton tells the history of Louis Vuitton, beginning in 1854, through the archives of the family’s founding members.
Conceived and designed by Robert Carsen, the thematic journey has been touring around the world, including a stop in Seoul, South Korea. With strict guidelines for the exhibition lighting design, lighting specialist Baesung Kim needed a series of powerful yet flexible lighting solutions, so he worked with distributor Hansam Systems and created a design with 260 Gallery LED luminaires from Altman Lighting.
“The exhibition was part of the world tour for the Louis Vuitton show with the initial exhibition design coming from France that included lighting product specifications,” began Baesung Kim. “I joined the team for the stage setting and assisted with the product pro

Russia - After 19 TV shows, dozens of songs, some special performances and innovative lighting designs, created and executed by Leonid Poznyanskiy, Songs on TNT TV project had its final broadcast on 2 June.
He deployed 24 GLP impression X4 Bar 20 and 24 JDC1 strobes in the production, which ran from the first episode until the last. And the final performance by the singer Nazima was made almost exclusively with the X4 Bar 20.
The designer admits that he has been a fan of the GLP products ever since the Eurovision Song Contest that took place in Moscow in 2009, when some of the first LED moving heads were placed in the side-fills. This signified to him that the new era in professional lighting had arrived.
Around two years ago Leonid came across the X4 Bar 20 for the first time and by summer 2017 he had the opportunity to use them in a project. At that ti

Italy - Playing during June and July, the annual Ravenna Festival is currently taking place in the city of Ravenna, making great advances in its audio production and delivery. At the heart of the sound system are d&b audiotechnik’s Soundscape immersive live audio technology, and mixing systems from fellow German systems innovator, Lawo.
For the past three years, Italian rental company BH Audio – which specialises in classical, contemporary and jazz production work – has used the combined d&b/Lawo platform for critical trials ahead of Soundscape’s official launch at the ISE event in February.
In charge of the Ravenna Festival system setup is BH Audio’s Massimo Carli, who chose Lawo’s IP audio capable mc²36 console for FOH mixing as he had previously proved its adaptability at a Verdi Festival staged at the Farnese Theatre in Parma.
“After t

Canada - Built over a century ago, the Imperial Theatre in the city of Saint Johns, New Brunswick has played host to many a legendary show. In the mid 1980s, a huge restoration project took place, bringing the theatre back to its original glory.
With its colourful history and design, the Imperial Theatre still enjoys a busy schedule with music, film and theatre shows filling its diary. It has recently taken delivery of two DiGiCo SD12 consoles.
“We looked at a lot of consoles from a lot of different manufacturers. They each had things we liked and didn’t like,” explains the theatre’s head of sound, Sean Boyer. “Time again, the SD12 bubbled to the top of our conversations because of its small footprint, flexibility, world-class preamps, expandability and its light weight, trust me, that was a consideration. Our previous consoles would take four people to back

UK - Signify reports that its new LED stage luminaire, the Philips Vari-Lite VL2600 Profile, made its world debut on the stages of the Forestry Commission's Forest Live shows in June. Supplied by Pearce Hire, the VL2600s were used to light performances by artists including Gary Barlow, The Script, Kasabian and Paloma Faith on this summer's first Forest Live weekend.
Peterborough-based Pearce Hire is the first company in the world to invest in these latest luminaires from the Philips Vari-Lite brand. They purchased 40 VL2600 Profiles from London-based show lighting specialist Flashlight Ltd. On delivery, 20 fixtures were supplied to each of two Forest Live shows, at Thetford Forest in Suffolk and Delamere Forest in Cheshire.
Pearce Hire's general manager Jim Brown says, "We'd looked at several alternative fixtures and the VL2600s were the brightest

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