The link between a small green dragon and Sennheiser could be clearly heard during the farewell tour of TABALUGA at over 50 concerts across Germany. For almost 30 years TABALUGA has enthralled fans both young and old; the lovable green dragon has sold around three million albums and more than 1.5 million concert tickets – an incredible success that TABALUGA’s creators (rock singer Peter Maffay, children’s songwriter Rolf Zuckowski, author Gregor Rottschalk and illustrator Helme Heine) barely dared to dream of when they first created him back in 1983.

With ever-increasing fuel costs, the mandate from alt-metal band Deftones for this fall’s North and South American “Koi No Yokan” tour was for a stand-alone lighting package that could play a wide variety of venues while maintaining an 18-foot truck footprint.

Canadian rockers Billy Talent celebrated the release of a new album in September by jumping straight into an arena run of Germany and central Europe. Having tested the touring waters on the summer European Festivals, the production and design was in the works and big things were being planned. Lighting Designer Dara Guiney had worked with the band briefly in 2010 and was invited to come aboard for the new album touring cycle.

Leading UK lighting and visuals rental company HSL supplied nearly 300 moving and LED lightsources and over 100 generics to a series of Welsh language channel S4C Light Entertainment programmes recorded in a 10 day block at Studio 1 of the NEP Cymru (ITV Wales) facility at Culverhouse Cross, Cardiff .

On Sunday November 25th, on commercial channel VOX, the pop duo "Mrs. Greenbird" was voted the 2012 winner of the German edition of "X Factor". The duo received 61.78 percent of the audience votes—and for the first time on "X Factor", the winners performed a song they had written themselves.

The ‘La Grande Battle’ concept brings a slightly different take to TV music talent competitions .... An orchestra performs classical pieces which are reinterpreted by a series of contemporary performers - in their own style. Broadcast annually on France 2 it's fast become a cult 'must watch' event for popular music lovers and this year attracted over 2 million viewers!

Top Lighting designer Martin Kubanka created a fabulous setting for the Slovak Republic’s 2012 ‘Face of The Year’ contest and gala evening, which was broadcast live on national channel STV1, with the aim of finding new modelling talent for the worlds of glamour and fashion.

When country trio Lady Antebellum wrapped the North American leg of its We Own the Night World Tour earlier this summer the band had played to a total of more than one million fans.  Two dozen Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures helped light up the successful tour, which recently concluded with three dates in Australia.

Strictly Come Dancing’s one-off glitterball spectacular, which was broadcast live from Wembley Arena on Saturday November 17th in aid of Children In Need, involved an enormous effort backstage to ensure that the audio reflected the quality of the on-stage performances.

It’s been a long hot summer just about everywhere, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers are amping up the heat with their “I’m With You World Tour,” which features Clay Paky Sharpys and Alpha Beam 1500 luminaires.

One way that World Vision raises funds for its African relief programs each year is to stage a tour across Canada with an international pop star from Hong Kong.  This year’s headliner was Alan Tam who performed shows beneath a Martin rig of MAC 101™ and MAC 700 series moving heads.

Though we might argue the paucity of proper theatre on the West End stage these days, it's rare indeed that a show presents honestly, as totally without drama. Even so, the Beatles theatrical concert Let It Be at the Prince of Wales theatre has received excellent reviews for precisely that candour.

Devon, UK based drapes, starcloth, LED and visual effects specialist S+H Technical has supplied 1100 square metres of lush red velvet Pea-Light Starcloth containing approximately 6000 inbuilt lights, plus an additional 6000 Pea Lights integrated into the set walls for ‘Strictly Come Dancing’, staged in BBC TV’s TC1 studio, Wood Lane, Shepherd’s Bush, London.

On Saturday, November 10th, lighting designer Kasper Lange turned to a large Martin MAC rig that included Martin Professional’s new MAC Viper Profile™ for the 2012 Danish Music Awards at Forum in Copenhagen.

The 13th “Huisgenoot-Skouspel” was hosted at Sun City’s Superbowl during four days in October. The show, which had been described as the largest Afrikaans music performance of the year, saw a collaboration of 60 artists performing 80 songs in a three hour period.