International News

LONDON — XL Video announced the formation of a new division, XL Events, which has been created by consolidating the corporate division of XL Video and AV specialists Show Support. Located in Bromsgrove, U.K. and Hemel Hempstead, U.K., the division will be headed by Rich Rowley, who will oversee 23 associates. Pictured here, from left to right, is Rowley and XL Video managing director Lee Spencer.

KRAKOW, Poland — It may be called the Music Media Show, but along with audio systems, lighting gear is figuring prominently in this Polish trade fair. A case in point was the booth for Robe’s Polish distributor, Prolight. The 200 square-meter booth was host to Robe’s “The Future is Digital” international roadshow.

LONDON — Paul Normandale of Lite Alternative, the U.K. based lighting production company that is supplying James Blunt’s All the Lost Souls tour, is putting seven of Martin Professional’s new MAC III Profiles through their paces.

LONDON — Baz Halpin, LD for the current tour for Queen + Paul Rodgers, was looking to create a “good, old-fashioned rock ‘n’ roll lighting show,” but with the kind of consistency in color that wasn’t always available with the monster rigs of yesteryear. He opted to include 80 Coemar Infinity Wash XL lights to meet the challenge.

MANCHESTER, U.K. — Lighting designer Tom Kinane used I-Pix BB7 LED wash lights for the first time on the set of the final episode of the Peter Kay talent show spoof, Britain’s Got The Pop Factor … And Possibly A New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly On Ice.

KRISTIANSAND, Norway — Moving lights and LEDs are brightening up Spot, a multi-zone nightclub that opened here recently. Over 600 Anolis LED fixtures and Robe moving lights have been installed in the two-story, 400-capacity venue.

SANDHURST, U.K. — Large-format projection joined the fireworks, orchestra and chorus for the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst’s 2008 “Music on Fire” extravaganza. The biannual three-day mixed-media event and “Firework Prom” attracted up to 10,000 visitors per night to the main training center for British Army officers, with proceeds going to the Army Benevolent Fund.

LISBURN, Northern Island — A destination for fans of Irish linen, with perhaps a few lost tourists seeking the capital of Portugal, Lisburn offers a variety of live performances from the Island Theatre, which recently invested in an Avolites Pearl Tiger lighting console.

JOHANNESBURG — Robe DigitalSpot 5000 DTs were used to project images onto an elliptical set for the three-day annual conference of Avroy Shlain, South Africa’s leading direct-sell cosmetics house. The event was staged in the Pavilion at the Sandton Convention Centre and attended by 850 delegates.

BELFAST — LD Stuart Gray and lighting supplier Adlib Lighting are giving speed metal band DragonForce anthemic rock ‘n’ roll looks for the group’s current U.K. tour. More upbeat than most metal bands, DragonForce still relies on a heavy dose of smoky looks and beams.

BEIJING — Lighting designer Durham Marenghi specified individual i-Pix BB4 LED cells to up-light the performers onboard the special double decker London bus in the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics Handover sections of the 2008 Beijing Olympics & Paralympics Closing Ceremonies. The two Handover events took place three weeks apart in the Birds Nest stadium, and were integral elements of both Games’ Closing Ceremonies.

ROTTERDAM — Extending a tour attended by close to a million fans, Queen and Paul Rodgers are supporting the recent album The Cosmos Rocks this fall with a four-month, 14-nation European tour. An LED screen measuring 17 meters wide and five meters high is traveling with the tour, flashing images of Freddie Mercury.