International News

MIDDLETON, WI – Last month, ETC's Serbian distributor Studio Berar welcomed over 600 visitors to an open house at Belgrade's BelExpo Center. ETC Regional Manager for Southern Europe Fulvio Cotogni and Field Project Coordinator Davide Gabbani presented a full range of equipment, including Congo, Eos and SmartFade lighting control families, Selador LED luminaires and Source Four automated and conventional fixtures.

YORK – When Graeme Sewell of Vortex Lighting Ltd saw the spotlight at a major industry exhibition he was determined to be the first to use it and gave Sharpy its debut with the Huge Party Band at two recent sell-out concerts in York. ‘I realised that Sharpy was significantly different from anything else on the market,’ Sewell explains. ‘We are a relatively small operation in the North of England and perhaps because of this I’ve always been a firm believer in the less-is-more approach. Sharpy fits the bill perfectly: less weight, less cost, but more power!’

VINA DEL MAR, Chile – The 52nd annual Viña del Mar Song Festival drew some 15,000 visitors a day recently to the Quinta Vergara Amphitheater to hear Nelly Furtado, Simply Red, Sting, and other international artists perform and, in many cases, compete. The production crew relied upon Riedel Communications for the wired and wireless communications infrastructure.

ABU DHABI, UAE – For the 2010/11 Prince of Poets festival, competition and TV series staged at the 2,100-capacity Al Raha Theatre, Robe ROBIN LEDWash 600s were among the Robe moving lights in a rig specified by Talib Alsouri from end clients, the Abu Dhabi Association for Culture & Heritage (ADACH). Sono AB from V Design provided the lighting design.

SAN REMO, Italy – The televised Sanremo Music Festival, which dates back to 1951, was not only the inspiration for the Eurovision Song Contest, it has also, on occasion, served as the way of choosing Eurovision's Italian representatives, while also launching the careers of a long list of Italian vocalists, including Andrea Bocelli. For the 2011 edition, Ivan Pierri, the show's director of photography, used 100 moving Clay Paky fixtures to light Gaetano Castelli's set.

MEXICO CITY – Tomcat brought its truss and grid products to the Sound:Check Expo for the first time, joining fellow Vitec group plc companies Brilliant Stages and Litec at the event. It took place at the World Trade Center in Mexico City from March 20-22.

ABU DHABI, UAE – The Ferrari World F1 Grand Prix events held in 2010 on Yas Island were accompanied by a series of city-wide events known as Yasalam, and there were also three nights of after-race concerts headlined by Kanye West, Linkin Park and Prince. Fixtures from Clay Paky were included in the lighting rig.

LONDON – Entec is supplying lighting, rigging and part of the visuals package, including a new Green Hippo Grasshopper HD media server, to the current Australian Pink Floyd Show tour. Entec has supplied gear for the band, lit by LD Phil White, since 2004.

LONDON – Three of the four shows nominated for best lighting design at this year's Olivier Awards, including the winner, The White Guard, lit by Neil Austin at the Royal National Theatre's Lyttleton Theatre, relied upon ETC Eos for lighting control.

SINGAPORE – LumenRadio and Total Solution, its distributor for Singapore, are staying busy providing LumenRadio's CRMX wireless lighting control to meet various entertainment and hospitality lighting needs at the 2,561-room, $6.35 billion Marina Sands Bay Resort.

VERS-PONT-DU-GARD, France – LumenRadio's CRMX RDM wireless lighting control system is playing a key role controlling the architectural lighting for Pont du Gard, an ancient Roman aqueduct bridge and UNESCO world heritage site in southern France.