International News

LONDON – As PLASA Show 2015 opens its doors at ExCeL London, visitors from 101 different countries, with a combined purchasing power of over £3 billion, have registered to attend.

EDINBURGH – Edinburgh based rental and event production specialists Blue Parrot have continued their investment in world class equipment across a busy summer. The company has now added a grandMA2 Light as the flagship desk for its lighting rental customers.

MEXICO – The Premium Staff Group is a large rental and production facility based in Mexico City, founded 7 years ago and owned by Francisco Estrada, who is also a prolific Mexican music show promoter. Estrada started purchasing sound, lighting and video kit when he realized that his own concerts could benefit from higher production values – at more cost-efficient prices. Premium Staff has recently invested in 84 Robe Pointes, delivered by Robe’s very proactive Mexican distributor, Vari Internacional.

LONDON – West London based Entec Sound & Light supplied lighting, sound equipment, crew, plus their extensive knowledge and expertise of working in one of the UK’s best known venues – Wembley Arena –  for a gig shot by the BBC for the third series of ‘Brian Pern : A Life In Rock’. The tongue-in-cheek tribute to aging rockers will be broadcast in Jan. 2016.

LONDON – PLASA Show 2015 is just a few days away, but the organizers are working right up to the wire to bring in the best speakers for the PLASA Professional Development Program. Four new sessions have just been announced, respectively addressing lighting, sound and video. 

LONDON – Lighting designer Ed Warren is using a large number of newly developed LED PAR can frames from LED design and manufacture house Light Initiative (LI) to add an extra punch to his design for Mumford & Sons’ world tour and headline festival dates.

UK – For Steve Angello’s show at the Size Matters arena at Creamfields 2015, lighting designer Jon Trincas worked with an upstage wall of light coming from 48 Robe PATT 2013 luminaires.

UK – For Eric Prydz’s EDM set at his own ‘Pryda’ stage at Creamfields this year, Avolites Ai servers and an Arena console powered more than 100 light fixtures, including Clay Paky Sharpys, Robin LEDWash 600s, and various strobes, wash and blinders all supplied by Colour Sound Experiment. 

HAMBURG, Germany – The Frappant, an underground art gallery and artists residence in Hamburg’s Altona borough, was the site of a noted avant-garde exhibition “Der liebe Gott” (The Dear God). Among the pieces attracting the most attention during the 10-day event was light artist Boris Frentzel-Beyme’s “Deus luminogaster.” It makes use of carefully placed Freedom Pars from Chauvet DJ to make its powerful impression.

SANTIAGO, Chile – Light Initiative’s IntelliFlex and NeonFlex LED systems are visually keeping the beat on Blur’s current world tour, in a design by Dave Byars. Byars commissioned Light Initiative to create individually controllable RGB LED light boxes from its in-house-invented IntelliFlex LED system.

LONDON – Light Initiative and FIX8Group will reveal their custom creations for the Knight of Illumination Awards (KOI) ceremony this weekend. The eighth KOI Awards is this Sunday, Oct. 4, at London’s Troxy. The awards program  is organized by The Association of Lighting Designers (ALD), The Society of Television & Lighting Design (STLD), The Fifth Estate Ltd and Clay Paky. Light Initiative (LI) was asked to create the table center pieces for the occasion. FIX8Group’s Richard Kenyon and Henry Crawfurd created the visuals for the KOI ceremony main screen, pictured here.

LONDON – High End Systems will be exhibiting on stand E8 at the forthcoming PLASA 2015 at London’s EXCEL. Once again, it is all about LED, and the Austin, TX-based company will be featuring its SolaWash Pro 2000, pictured here, at the U.K. show for the first time.