UK - LD for Florence and the Machine, Chris Bushell, is using VL3500 Wash and VL3000 Spot luminaires from Philips Vari-Lite to deliver his evocative and atmospheric lighting design for the band's sold-out world tour.

Playing venues such as Alexandra Palace, MEN Arena, plus a raft of vast spaces in Europe and the USA, Bushell's lighting skillfully pulls the audience focus to the centre of the stage without losing the essential theatricality of the early Florence shows.

Lighting is ethereal with Bushell using it more as a statement than for big effects. He discusses, "The overall theme is based around 1920s Baroque fashion and architecture. While a great deal of thought and planning went into the set, I also wanted the presence of the lighting to complement and exploit the space around the set piece. The VL3000 Spots were perfect for this. With their wide angles and long th

UK - Some of the first ETC Source Four LED fixtures have been sold to the National Theatre of Scotland by ETC's Edinburgh-based dealer Black Light, just hours after they were first put on sale.

The Company's technical director Niall Black explains: "ETC's associate regional manager for UK & Ireland, Jeremy Roberts, brought a range of different fixtures to Scotland in February to provide a demonstration to our technicians and others, including Scottish Opera, Scottish Ballet, freelance technicians, designers, and students from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

"Jeremy let everyone just play with the fixtures. We compared a 750W tungsten Source Four to the new LED version in a shoot out; inserted gobos; and got a chance to get a good all-round look at them. It was obvious that the Source Four LED is a fantastic unit.

"We've previously invested in some LED lig

UK - Not even the rain could dampen the enthusiasm at the Royal Armouries last week as PLASA Focus: Leeds 2012 opened its doors for two days of unparalleled access to the newest and most innovative products on the market for the live entertainment industry.

Visitor numbers reached a record-breaking 2122 - an increase of 8.5% on 2011. In all, 2680 people attended the show over the two days and such was the confidence felt by exhibitors that an unprecedented number of exhibitors re-booked on-site for 2013.

As always, the combination of the Professional Development Programme which profiled the effective use of new products and explored areas of special interest through seminar and discussion, together with the dozens of new products for people to get their hands on proved a massive hit with visitors and exhibitors alike.

Among the many new products making their UK debut were Ch

UK - Julie's Bicycle has announced a new sponsorship deal with entertainment lighting specialist White Light. Julie's Bicycle and White Light have developed a strong relationship over the last five years based on a mutual commitment to environmental sustainability, a shared understanding that this issue is at the forefront of business trends, and respect for one another's work, which has now culminated in a three-year sponsorship deal.

White Light's sponsorship will support Julie's Bicycle's UK-wide theatre programme. Julie's Bicycle and White Light have already jointly promoted events for theatre professionals specialising in lighting, and have identified the challenges and opportunities presented by low carbon solutions for front o house and auditoria lighting.

White Light's sponsorship has contributed to the development of a new IG Tool for Production - the latest carbon ca

UK - As part of their on-going business growth strategy, Northern Light has announced the launch of Northern Light Direct.

Northern Light Direct is the division of the company responsible for the supply of goods and services to theatres, educational establishments and other performance spaces right across the UK.

Ed Gamble, head of Northern Light Direct, said, "Northern Light Direct will offer customers a huge range of boxed goods and consumable items, delivered direct from our warehouse to their venues. We will also be a variety of aftercare services to Northern Light's installation customers, including lots of advice and provision of loose equipment to enhance their installed systems."

Additionally, the Northern Light Direct team will be offering tailored maintenance contracts to ensure that venue systems remain at the very peak of performance.

Colin Cuthbert,

Columbia - Adamson Systems Engineering has announced the addition of the first Energia Beta partner in Latin America. Bogota, Colombia based C.Vilar Amplificacion LTDA, has been a long time Adamson user, with one of the largest Adamson inventories in South America. C.Vilar provides production for high profile shows, tours, festivals and installations. Recent Colombian productions with C.Vilar at the helm include FIFA, Coldplay, US President Barack Obama's recent visit, The Cartagena Classic Music Festival, Rock al Parque and The Bicentennial Celebrations of Colombia in Bogota.

C.Vilar sound designer Leonardo Vilar comments, "Energia's global network is growing rapidly and it's exciting to be a part of the vision from the beginning. Energia is without question the world's leading concept as far as innovation and interactivity is concerned. Many of Adamson's competitors have

Norway - ARX Systems, the Australian based pro audio designer and manufacturer has announced the appointment of Horten based Intersonic AS as its new distributor in Norway.

Headed by JP Westerlund formerly of distributor PSS, Intersonic was established in 2011 by JP as a joint venture with distribution heavyweight IntersonicAB of Sweden.

Along with ARX Intersonic also represents other hi end manufacturers including Camco, Coda Audio, Sabine and Orban.

(Jim Evans)

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies' video division has supplied lighting and visual designer, Max Conwell of Naked Eye Lighting with a Green Hippo HippoCritter and a TV One down-convertor - to help service his busy schedule of TV shows, events and world tours including Paul Weller and Morrissey.

The scope of Naked Eye's work encompasses all genres of visual design - from high profile rock 'n' roll world tours, to major events and architectural concepts. Conwell also programmes video and moving lights for a variety of high profile TV and game shows.

He has been using media servers for some time, and was an early adopter of the innovative technologies and mindsets fuelling the 'convergence' between video and lighting.

On the most recent Morrissey tour, he used the HippoCritter to playback video content for the pre-show movie, which ran for 25 minutes. The HippoCritter was al

UK - At PLASA Focus in Leeds, WiSE (Women in Stage Entertainment) and Le Mark, specialists in self-adhesive tapes, printed tapes, road case labels and dance floors joined forces to raise funds for Breast Cancer Care.

Le Mark, maker of the Dirty Rigger collection, announced that 10% of proceeds from the sale of their Ladies XS range of gloves for the coming year would go towards the Breast Cancer Care Programme.

To maximize the reach of this initiative Le Mark has teamed up with WiSE (Women in Stage Entertainment), a not-for-profit networking group for women working in the industry.

Sarah Rushton-Read, co-founder of WiSE says, "We were delighted to be asked to team up with Le Mark to promote this valuable initiative and we really hope we can help. WiSE has nearly 600 female members and a vast network of supporters working in the industry worldwide. Not only do we hope th

USA - Mission Media asked Bluman Associates to help them produce a complex AV presentation alongside Nicki Minaj's performance in Times Square to launch the Nokia Lumia 900 phone.

This event saw the artist take to a stage in the square with a special remix of her hit single Starships being played live to a big audience with flash mob style dancers, pounding sound effects and a 200ft LED wall.

Bluman enabled the production to take over the American Eagle LED tower in Times Square to create a hero screen which would form the centrepiece for the event with striking content designed to move in time with the song. Other screens around the square were taken over to relay camera feeds from the live event as well as brand messages for the launch of the Nokia Lumia 900. Super high resolution CGI content was created for the screen by UK production company Glassworks.

The screen

Qatar - W-DMX by Wireless Solution Sweden helped make the grand opening of the Katara Amphitheatre in Doha, Qatar a truly illuminated evening.

The venue, the largest amphitheatre in the Middle East, played centre stage for a special concert by the Oscar-winning Greek composer Vangelis. A&O Technology implemented a spectacular light show by the late esteemed lighting architect Gert Hof for the special concert.

A&O was responsible as general contractor for the lighting and pyrotechnics including the provision of electrical power, control and programming for the light show. Only 10 days had been assigned to put together a multimedia show in which at times over 350 high-powered searchlights, a variety of lighting systems, fireworks and video projection were employed simultaneously.

The central section of the giant screen erected on the seaward side of the amphitheatre formed a g

UK - West London UK based rental company, Entec Sound & Light supplied full technical production including lighting and sound equipment and crew for a recent high profile show at Wembley Arena by Taiwanese alt rock superstars, Mayday.

Their brief included the provision of the band's backline which was sourced from John Henry Enterprises, and specialist video which came via Bluman Associates. All necessary rigging was also supplied by Entec.

Entec's project manager Noreen O'Riordan worked closely with Mayday's LA-based production manager Jeffrey Soon to ensure that all their needs were met, and brought Simon Tutchener on-board as their overall production and site manager.

Tutchener started work on the gig about two weeks in advance. The challenges were all the usual ones of a large one-off - a pressurised time frame, the logistics of remote co-ordination .... and only one cha

France - To offer fans first class entertainment both on the pitch and off it, more and more rugby clubs are investing heavily in stadium infrastructure. A case in point is the Parc des Sports Marcel Michelin, home of ASM Clermont Auvergne which now features a new sound reinforcement system from Electro-Voice.

The installation in the 18,000-seater stadium was performed by the Clermont-Ferrand branch of Manganelli, supported by EVI Audio France. "Those responsible for the stadium wanted a sound reinforcement system with the highest intelligibility level possible," explains Jean Marandet, the French Electro-Voice distributor's product & service manager.

The greatest challenge was the need to obtain high sound pressure levels and at the same time even coverage with a 100-V system.

In the case of the Parc des Sports Marcel Michelin, simulations and calculations reveale

UK - Manchester-based A to V recently supplied six Christie M Series projectors, stacked three wide and two high, to create the 31.5m x 14m visual element of a 4D projection onto the Wheelwright Building, Kirklees College, marking the rebranding of the Batley School of Art.

A to V's Mark Whitehead advised on process, content ratios and resolution, whilst all content - celebrating the history of the School of Art, which dates back to 1853 - was supplied by final year photography student, David Black.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Canford announced at PLASA Focus that it has added Roland to its expanding range of pro audio brands. Canford will be able to source any professional Roland product and will hold key items in stock.

They took the opportunity at the Leeds, UK based show which ran over 17-18 April to present a selection of Roland products including the VC-30HD multi-input video converter and encoder, the VR-3, and A4 sized compact 'all in one' audio mixer and video switcher and two USB audio interfaces. The UA-55, which provides four inputs and four outputs and the UA-1010, provides 10 inputs and ten outputs.

(Jim Evans)

UK - While becoming the first UK rental company to purchase Martin Audio's MLA (Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array), RG Jones Sound Engineering this month also found themselves being the first to debut the scaled down version of this technology in the shape of the new MLA Compact.

"I couldn't wait to get my hands on the new system," says Simon Honywill, who took the opportunity to mix Chris Rea's sound through the MLA Compact on the closing dates of the recent European and UK tour.

Honywill, who had largely been responsible for driving RG Jones' investment in the MLA platform, instigated a seamless PA switch, ably assisted by system engineer Mark Edwards in time for the last two tour dates - at the Pavilions in his home town of Plymouth, and HMV Apollo Hammersmith, where the system had been formally launched last month.

Whilst the system performed admirably in Plymou

Russia - DiGiCo has staged its first seminar in Russia, held in February at the recording and performance studios of artist Igor Sandler by its Russian distributor, Aris Pro.

DiGiCo's vice president of sales Ian Staddon was joined by engineer Dave Bracey, known for his work as Front of House engineer for artists such as Robbie Williams, Massive Attack and Bjork, with whom he is currently touring.

The pair presented a mixture of technical theory and hands on practice, with the seminars covering DiGiCo's entire range of products, from the flagship SD7 to UB MADI, the latest offering from the company's Solutions division. The sessions were rounded off with a Mixing Master Class from Bracey, where he demonstrated why the SD7 is his console of choice and emphasising the use and value of features such as snapshots when using digital consoles.

As a finale to the event, all the atte

USA - New York City's famed Metropolitan Opera has purchased a complement of Clay Paky Alpha Profile 700 automated spotlights for its lighting inventory. A.C.T Lighting provided the fixtures to the specifications of Patrick Eagleton of Contemporary Lights.

The Metropolitan Opera has a reputation for carefully selecting gear to add to its equipment roster. Only the highest quality, most reliable products will meet its strict requirements.

"The Met liked a number of features of the Alpha Profile 700," reports Brian Dowd, vice president of sales at A.C.T Lighting. "Among the attributes that most appealed to them were the fixture's compact size, even optical field, quiet and precise shutters, smooth dimming curve and silent movement."

(Jim Evans)

UAE - PALME's fourth Middle East Lighting Solutions Conference 2012 has been timed to coincide with the opening day of this year's three-day PALME Middle East expo (1-3 May).

Held at the Dubai World Trade Centre, the full-day event opens at 11am with an address by George Katodrytis, RIBA, Associate Professor of Architecture, College of Architecture, Art and Design, American University of Sharjah.

It will then go on to discuss a series of topics including: New Technologies and Products in Lighting Design (with Ivar Krasinski, design director, STR-EDGE), followed by The Development of Standardisations for Lighting: Abu Dhabi's Sustainable Lighting Policy (with Martin Valentine, Municipality of Abu Dhabi City). This will lead into a debate session a debate session which asks: Are LEDs for Everybody in the Lighting Profession? (moderated by George Katodrytis a

Russia - Battle of the chariots, battles with predators and other scenes from the many myths of ancient Greece are performed by the Circus Zapashny brothers, a world-famous family of artists that successfully managed to integrate the Russian circus tradition with top level lighting, optical effects, laser and video equipment.

For their Legend, their latest spectacular production, Circus Zapashny - in cooperation with Imlight - they decided to add the XR3000 Spot CMY and XR3000 Beam moving heads as a major upgrade of their light rig.

Legend is staged in the Luzhniki sports arena, Moscow. In 2002, the arena experienced a major reconstruction andtoday it can seat 11,500 people.

(Jim Evans)

West End News - The site of a former pickle factory is set to become the location of a new theatre in London's West End. The venue will be the first in the area for 30 years, after Westminster City Council approved the plans. The development above Tottenham Court Road station on Oxford Street will also include offices and shops. The venue is expected to open in 2020. The site was formerly used by Crosse & Blackwell to make Branston Pickle until they moved out in 1927.

The theatre will be operated by Nimax which already runs five others in London, including the Apollo and Lyric. Nimax chief executive Nica Burns said, "Our new theatre won't compete with those already in London. It will be a different - very intimate - space, in a great location, where cutting edge shows can be performed." The London Astoria most recently occupied the site before it closed in 2009 when it

UK - PLASA will host its 2012 European AGM and Members' Lunch on Tuesday 29 May at BAFTA in Central London. Over 200 members and guests are expected to take part in the event, which includes the opportunity to feedback on the work that PLASA is doing, contribute to the future direction of the Association, and enjoy networking with fellow members.

Over the past year PLASA has embraced a completely different governance structure, expanded its portfolio of events in North America, and introduced a range of new services and benefits. Members at the AGM will also learn more about PLASA's proposed global strategy and the crucial role played by the respective Regional Boards and Governing Body in the planning process.

The PLASA Members' Lunch will be followed by a very special guest speaker in the form of Iron Maiden front man, Bruce Dickinson. Well known as the lead singer of one of

UK Black Light's annual Open Day (30-31 March) event attracted hundreds of visitors from a wide range of different backgrounds, including professional theatre, the education sector and amateur dramatics. Over 30 leading light, sound, AV and stage technology companies exhibited and hundreds of items of cutting-edge equipment were on display.

"Our exhibitors really appreciated the opportunity to meet customers, talk to them in a relaxed environment and find out exactly what their needs were," said Phil Haldane, Black Light's head of company development. "All of the show visitors I spoke to said that they were impressed by the range of products on demonstration. They also really liked the chance to get information at first hand. In general, what was so great about the Open Day was that everyone could meet their friends and colleagues, make new contacts and share advi

Argentina - Robe has announced a new exclusive Argentinian distributor - Buenos Aires based The TSD Group. The company is run by Daniel Lema, and it has been a major player in the professional entertainment technology industry since 1994 as a leading supplier to all sectors including television, theatres and concert touring.

"We are delighted to have TSD onboard as part of the Robe family," says Robe's regional sales manager for Latin America, Guillermo Traverso. "We took our time to find the right company and people," he adds, "and the TSD Group's expertise and commitment to the brand, plus their renowned after-sales service and support are all qualities that fit perfectly with us. We expect that they will be great success."

TSD sales manager Sandra Gallasso comments, "We have wanted to work with Robe for some time, and now all the circumsta

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