Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025
Doughty - Banner - from 6 June 2025

Lighting

Details
USA - After 16 years, seven critically acclaimed albums and a succession of sold-out world tours, New York-based group Bayside remains as raw, hungry and true to its musical roots as ever.

Designer Eric Price hit a visual sweet spot when lighting Bayside's current tour in support of its new Vacancy album. Artfully deploying a collection of Chauvet Professional Rogue fixtures throughout his rig, he is managing to deliver punchy, immersive looks, while avoiding heavy eye candy that could compete with the band's gut level music.

"Bayside wasn't looking for a show full of big lighting looks; this wouldn't be in keeping with their approach to their fans and music," said Price. "At the same time, though, they wanted something that would reflect their music in an exciting and intense way. The Rogues provided me with a great tool for doing this, because they were very brigh

Details
UK - Leading UK lighting and visuals rental company HSL supplied lighting equipment and crew to the recent UK tour by soul and jazz singer / songwriter and guitarist George Benson.

Benson, who had his most popular hits in the 1970s including the album Breezin' still has a huge following, and tours worldwide from May to October every year. The tour included Benson's 23rd show at London's Royal Albert Hall which was completely sold out. He first played there in 1977 and it's one of the artist's favourite venues.

It was the first year that HSL has supplied the tour, working to a lighting design and spec created by UK based LD Simon Tutchener, who has also lit the last four UK tours. This one was project managed on the road for HSL by Lester Cobrin, and prepped and overseen in HSL's Blackburn HQ by Sean McGlone.

Benson had a six-piece backing band and Simon put toge

Doughty - Banner - from 6 June 2025

Details
USA - The Behind the Scenes Foundation has announced the Fred Foster Scholarship Fund. Board members had long been seeking a way to honour Fred's innumerable contributions to our industry and, in particular, his unwavering support of the charity since its inception.

The purpose of the fund is to assist the children of Behind the Scenes grant recipients with continuing their education which may otherwise be in jeopardy due to their family's current financial situation. BTS frequently assists individuals whose children are unable to remain in school because the family can no longer afford tuition.

The BTS Grants Review Committee will be responsible for identifying appropriate candidates from among the families of grant recipients and awarding the scholarships which may be used for any accredited post-secondary education program or vocational training.

Rick Rudolph, chair

Details
World - Multi-award winning Italian singer / songwriter and music producer Laura Pausini started her 2016 world touring campaign in support of her new Simili studio album with a new lighting design created by Alain Corthout and Ignace D'Haese from Belgian based creative visual design practice, Arf & Yes.

This includes 128 x Robe Pointes and 109 x BMFL WashBeams which are right at the centre of a complex and eye-catching rig.

The tour kicked off with five large stadium dates - all completely sold out - in Italy for which the set and video was designed by Igor Ronchese from Tekset based in Paderno Dugnano. It now continues in the U.S. where Pausini has a massive following especially amongst the Hispanic population, and then Latin America where she is also hugely popular. At the 27th Lo Nuestro Awards in 2015 she stated that although being Italian, "half of my heart be

Details
UK - PLASA opened the doors of Olympia this morning with a sense of anticipation. And it wasn't disappointed. It seems that answering the industry call to relocate back to the PLASA Show's original turf has payed dividends.

"It was encouraging to see so many people arrive for the very beginning of the show," says PLASA managing director Peter Heath. "PLASA's emphasis is where it should be, creating opportunities that will lead to sustained growth for our commercial divisions, leading back into the membership through increased activities and initiatives. The relocation to West London, and the move to a September date, as well as an enhanced seminar programme, more interactive showcases and technical workshops are all part of this, and were very much driven by member feedback. Early indications are that it's working."

So what is in store for day one? As well as a host of inn

Details
UK - Forty years ago this October, the new National Theatre building opened on London's South Bank. It housed three theatres, production workshops, rehearsal rooms and all the state-of-the art technology you'd expect in a new world-class venue. It was also home to a new kind of lighting control capable of dealing with the National's 800 plus dimmers, moving lights, colour changers, projectors and more. Specified by theatre consultant Richard Pilbrow and partner Dick Brett, Lightboard offered a wealth of powerful tools for mixing and balancing lighting, creating cues with complex timing and overlapping fades. At best it was considered only borderline possible with the technology of the day - but with a mix of clever planning and cunning engineering by Rank Strand's development team, the project was realised.

The recent recovery of an original Lightboard by the Backstage Heritag

Details
UK - As the most widely supported ethernet lighting protocol in the industry, Art-Net has arguably come of age with the release of version 4, which is timed to coincide with the PLASA show.

Artistic Licence is well known as the inventor of Art-Net and a leading expert in lighting control, and as such is the perfect host for PLASA 2016's dedicated Art-Net Zone. This exciting new initiative - on Stand R71, on the show's upper level - is supported by PLASA and LSi magazine and aims to provide expert education and training on the use of Art-Net and related protocols.

The Art-Net Zone promises to be a hub of activity, with many of the industry's most knowledgeable experts in ethernet and DMX/RDM lighting control on hand to provide one-on-one training, mini-seminars and practical product advice in an 'Art-Fest' session. Visitors will find Wayne Howell & Fraser Connolly (Artistic

Details
UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies Ltd. (AC-ET), a leading one-stop provider of professional equipment to the entertainment industry, will showcase a selection of the very latest technology solutions available from their vast portfolio of over 200 leading brands, in their large exhibition zone (main stand E30) at PLASA 2016 - Olympia, London, UK, 18th - 20th September.

Staff from the company's dedicated Lighting sales division - which supplies any aspect of your stage, theatre, or architectural lighting system - will be present to demonstrate the latest lighting solutions from brands including Chroma-Q, Jands, ProLights, Spotlight, LumenRadio, Luminex and Tourflex Cabling, amongst others.

The company's dedicated Film & TV sales division - which offers a comprehensive one-stop inventory of lighting, control and grip solutions for film, television, studio and locati

Details
UK - On stand G60 at PLASA 2016, Philips Lighting - home of the Vari-Lite, Strand, Selecon and Showline brands - is showing visitors the very latest products from all of its renowned brands.

The first in an innovative new LED range from Philips Showline is the SL LEDSPOT 300: a compact, high output LED luminaire that offers great colour choice from its CMY colour mixing and fixed colour wheel, plus a range of dynamic effects from its rotating and fixed gobo wheels, three-facet prism, Iris and framing system. Other recent Showline additions include the SL BEAM 300fx and the SL HYDRUS 350 - an "astonishingly powerful" luminaire designed for the live event and TV market.

New from the Philips Selecon brand are the PL1 MKII LED range, plus the new PLprofile4 MKII - an updated product which now offers improved colour consistency across units and new power saving features. The Se

Details
UK - Immediately following the launch of Spiider, PLASA 2016 Platinum Sponsor, Robe, is set to show this latest, innovative product at PLASA 2016. Spiider builds on the extreme success of Robe's best-selling 'industry standard' LEDWash series with a completely new concept and optics.

"Spiider is really something special which everybody will love!" says Robe's CEO Josef Valchar. "Forty-two Spiiders will be in action on the Robe booth - which is an absolute 'must-see'!"

As well as Spiider, Robe will be showing Halo and the Viva LED.

Halo is a special bespoke new Robe LED 'pixel technology' device, which can be used to transform PAR cans and add other dimensions to stage and TV sets, whilst the Viva LED is a moving light that has driven the introduction of a CMY version of this small, punchy workhorse fixture.

"PLASA is an important show," continues Josef. "We recogni

Details
UK - Taking place at PLASA Show, the Essential Dante Training seminar, sponsored by a number of leading audio technology companies, including Audinate, Focusrite, Solid State Logic, Roland, Yamaha and XTA, has been designed to give a great opportunity to gain a greater insight into Dante Audio Networking Technology, which has become the de-facto standard in connecting uncompressed, highly synchronous, low-latency audio network devices.

Introduced by PLASA's managing director Peter Heath, the seminar will include Dante Level 1 and 2 training from Audinate's Kieran Walsh, live table-top displays and a session on deploying Dante networks in live events from Liam Halpin.

"Audinate is pleased to co-present this day of seminars in cooperation with PLASA," says Kieran. "Attendees will receive training that will help in taking the Dante Certified exams, discover how some of the la

Details
UK - Netherlands-based Highlite International was founded in the 1990s and has since grown to be one of Europe's leading suppliers of show equipment and a worldwide distributor of light and sound equipment. What started as one container of show equipment has grown into a company that supplies products to over 70 countries and employs a workforce of over 150. Its brands are Showtec light, DAP audio, Infinity light, DMT LED-screens and Artecta architectural lighting.

Of particular interest on its stand this year are the Showtec LED Sunstrip Lamp GU10, Infinity Chimp 300 and Infinity iS-400 440W LED-spot with CMY.

More than 60,000 Showtec LED Sunstrip Lamp GU10 have been sold since the Sunstrip Active was launched - the equivalent of 600,000 halogen lamps.

"As LED technology becomes more advanced, it's now possible to replace the Sunstrip halogen lamps with an LED variant

Details
UK - Announcing an unprecedented line-up of new, cutting-edge, entertainment lighting innovations at the PLASA Show this year, Elation Professional can be found on Stand C40. The company's bumper line-up includes the new Fuze Series of dynamic LED wash lights, the ZCL Series of high-output LED effects, and the DTW Series of variable white LED lights.

Visitors can also find the new seven-colour Platinum Seven LED wash luminaire, plus the TVL CYC RGBW cyc wash fixture, the Sniper Pro (an upgrade of the PLASA Award-winning Sniper 2R with three times the power) and the Protron 3K Color, a high-power 40,000 lumen LED colour strobe.

Elation's line of creative high-res LED display panels, the EVHD Series, comes in three pixel pitches (2.8mm, 3.9mm and 5.9mm). EVHD modules are curveable, to meet a wider range of creative applications and feature a fanless design with complete fron

Details
UK - Ayrton has built a deserved reputation as a maker of original, eye-catching and well-engineered lighting effects - and has introduced a multitude of new products in 2016, many of which can be seen for the first time in London at PLASA. You can see them on stand L30, where the French innovator can be found alongside UK distributor Ambersphere Solutions.

Drawing attention are MagicPanel-FX - an exciting new multi-function luminaire with 5 x 5 array of squared lenses on its front face producing a variety of 2D and 3D effects, which builds on the creative potential of its predecessors in the MagicPanel family - and MagicBurst, which is not only Ayrton's first strobe but the industry's first high-power graphic LED strobe, offering continuous rotation on both axes. Its 384 x 384mm squared face has 3,840 high-output white LEDs grouped into an 8 x 8 matrix - great for arrays. Wit

Details
UK - PLASA Gold Sponsor, Chauvet Professional, has chosen PLASA 2016 launch its new Ovation E-260WW IP ellipsoidal, which has taken the 750W HPL output of the Ovation E-260WW (which is currently the brightest LED ellipsoidal on the market) and has housed it in an IP65 rated housing.

The company is also featuring one of its most versatile fixtures, the Rogue R1 FX-B, which has five individually controllably heads, each with infinite rotation of both pan and tilt, and its new Maverick series which launched in April of this year. Maverick is Chauvet Professional's latest power-packed series of tour grade moving head fixtures featuring the MK2 Wash, MK2 Spot, and MK1 Hybrid.

"We are thrilled to be returning to PLASA as a Gold Sponsor this year," said Michael Brooksbank General Manager of Chauvet Europe. "The response to a number of our latest fixtures, including the Maverick s

Details
UK - Chroma-Q's Color Force II range makes its European debut at PLASA 2016 this week (Stand F20).

Nominated for the PLASA Awards for Innovation, and using the very latest fully homogenised optics, the Color Force II fixtures' output is a single, clean and pure beam of light, delivering a superior colour blend with no unsightly colour mixing shadows. The homogenised optics and improved Chroma-Q technology provide even higher quality saturates and pastels, and a purer white - all from a single source. In addition, the models deliver at least 50% more output than their predecessors.

Other features shared include exceptional colour consistency fixture-to-fixture and batch-to-batch, theatrical grade dimming, and ultra-quiet operation.

Also on display at PLASA are highlights from the Chroma-Q range of white LED solutions, including the recently launched, award-winning Space

Details
UK - The ProLights ArenaCOB4 IP65 LED blinder family were a key element of Paul Normandale's stunning design for Coldplay's recent Head Full of Dreams tour. These fixtures, along with many others, are featured on the ProLights stand at PLASA (Stand D30), presented by exclusive UK dealer A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET).

In addition to a selection of architectural and theatrical fixtures taken from the extensive ProLights range, other products at PLASA to note include:

The new StudioCOB PLUS - even brighter than the incredibly popular StudioCOB, but keeping the same core values, the new StudioCOB PLUS is also IP65 rated making it the ultimate workhorse LED Par.

The Luma1500 is the ideal replacement for a 1200W discharge moving profile. With a 6500K, 440W white LED source delivering a staggering 26,000 Lumens, a full CMY colour system, and a massive 5 to 50* Zoom

Details
UK - Throughout PLASA London, the WL Bar, situated on Stand G40, will showcase a visual spectacle unlike any other...

With the help of Christie projectors and d3 Technologies media servers, White Light will showcase the very latest interactive lighting and visual technology, all tracked by a BlackTrax real-time motion tracking system.

CAST technicians will be on hand to discuss the technology and demonstrate the capabilities of the BlackTrax technology. To date, BlackTrax has already been used in over 4,000 shows globally.

(Jim Evans)

Details
UK - In an exciting panel debate chaired by composer and sound designer, Donato Wharton, which includes award winning sound designer, Paul Arditti and stage lighting designer, James Farncombe, Investigating the Intangible will explore how sound and lighting designers work together to create the complex environments that theatre shows inhabit, how they communicate with one another and how they often compromise in the pursuit of a truly great performance.

Both Paul and James have a long and successful history collaboration spanning almost a decade at the Old Vic and beyond.

Join us in the PLASA Lighting and Staging theatre at 12:00 to see our panel in action in a panel jointly presented by the Association of Lighting Designers and the Association of Sound Designers.

(LSi Online)

Details
UK - Developed by Soulsound, PLASA's first foray into the world of interactive visualisation has been an immersive experience for everyone who has gone along to the installation on the upper gallery at London Olympia. Headline sponsor NRG Lighting Community (Next Robe Generation) with participation from: Funktion-One, University of Derby, d&b, KLANG, preeVue, Limbic Productions and Barco; additional sponsors: ZEROdb Live, Genius Bros, J&C Joel, Sound Directions and tvONE.

The interactive zone features a maze of exciting and thought-provoking experiments in audio, lighting and visual wonders. Simple, entertaining and educational each experiment proves a concept, or demonstrates a principle to wow the user with a little bit of science.

There's virtual reality and prisms, experiments on perception and even a 'Brain Transfer Machine'!

The experiments end with 'Lens through

Details
UK - This year's prestigious Gottelier Award was won by Anne Valentino, Senior Controls Product Manager at ETC.

Named in memory of Tony Gottelier, the renowned industry innovator and commentator who passed away in 2006, the annual Gottelier Award aims to recognise those product developers who have made significant long-term contributions to the advancement of entertainment, presentation or installation technology - whether in audio, lighting, rigging, staging, or any other related field.

The competition was tough, with this year's nominees being Chris Cronin, founder of Total Solutions Group (TSG), Artistic Licence founder Wayne Howell, Dr Christian Heil founder of L-Acoustics, Masaaki 'Mick' Okabayashi, head of Yamaha's digital mixing console development team, Yvan Péard, co-founder of Ayrton, The Strand Lighting R&D team, 1960s-1980s, led by Marin Moore and later

Details
UK - For the first time, Momentum Circuits have introduced audio & lighting application circuit board manufacturing to the PLASA Show to reflect their expertise and experience gained within these sectors.

Managing director, Keith Wrigley told LSi: "LED lighting PCB applications represents over 70% of our business turnover and the experience we have with thermal management of high power LED devices and specialist materials is directly applicable to the PLASA audience and co-exhibitors."

Audio application circuit board d K6s also require the very highest quality, connectivity and aesthetic appearance to match the aspirational nature of high-end equipment, and Momentum have a growing number of pro-audio and control system customers including other PLASA exhibitors who encouraged Momentum to attend the show.

"The results so far have been hugely encouraging and we have alre

Details
UK - Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, ETC is a world leader in professional lighting technology, and is once again displaying its latest innovations at the PLASA Show. On stand J40, visitors can find the new ColorSource Linear, a batten-style addition to the budget-friendly ColorSource range, in which a proportionate recipe of red, green, blue, with a twist of lime and an extra dash of red provide an extra richness of colour to its LED luminaires. With no difficult setup and round-the-clock support from ETC, it's ideal for any small or medium venue, say ETC.

Visitors can also see the rest of ETC's ColorSource family, including the ColorSource Spot and PAR luminaires; the ColorSource consoles, which provide hands-on control with the ability to run effects, mix LED colours, control moving lights and play back cues; the ColorSource Relay, which wirelessly switches powe

Details
UK - It's always nice to meet up with Martin Hawthorn, Managing Director of recently re-branded Hawthorn as it usually means an informal chat over a cup of coffee and some of his wife Lynn's excellent baking. This time was no different and gave us an opportunity to talk about recent developments within the business.

A recent re-brand was part of a consolidation of Hawthorn's business interests following the purchase of Anagram Production Services and Rex Howard Drapes, both now firmly under the new banner of Hawthorn and has allowed them to simplify the company structure ahead of their 30th anniversary in the events industry, in February of 2017.

"PLASA is a good show for us to reach a multitude of different sectors and we catch up with an amazing number of people over the 3 days of the show," says Martin. "Our approach to exhibiting is a little different. We don't have an

  1. Winners of the PLASA Innovation Awards 2016 announced
  2. Chauvet Professional for Vessel reveal event
  3. Knight of Illumination Awards 2016 winners
  4. FLDA lights US Open media coverage
  5. Rogue R1 FX-B gives moe. more looks
  6. David March to head VER UK lighting hub
Page 434 of 1182
Astera - Large MPU - June 2025
Sennheiser - MPU - June 2025

Latest Issue. . .