USA - Richmond, Virginia-based Lite-Tek Entertainment, a lighting rental and production company, supplied Claypaky Sharpy Plus fixtures to the recently wrapped fall tour of Gary Clark Jr., best-known for his fusion of blues, rock and soul music with elements of hip hop.
Clark kicked off the tour in late August in Austin and played dates across the west, southeast and northeast before a final stop in New Orleans on 17 November. Lite-Tek provided the floor lighting package for the entire tour and added a flown package in select cities. John Adamo is the lighting director for Clark; he has worked with the artist since Clark’s fall 2018 tour.
“We bought the first Sharpy Plus fixtures in North America almost three years ago,” says Lite-Tek owner, Darren Lewis. “Since

UK - White Light (WL) has joined d&b solutions, a service-focused business offering end-to-end expertise in the areas of project development, manufacturing, system planning, installation and maintenance.
The move has been described as a “natural next step” for WL, which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary (see more on this story in LSi December, out now), and will strengthen the development of the company’s production and venues solutions. One particular area of focus for d&b solutions is WL’s SmartStage technology, which, in combination with d&b’s Soundscape immersive audio platform, is set to “open new market potential for immersive audiovisual, lighting and media solutions”.

USA - Responding to requests from riggers across the globe for additional time, the comment period on the International Code of Practice for Entertainment Rigging has been extended to 31 December 2021.
Copies of the current version of ICOPER and the Excel form for submitting comments can be downloaded from www.esta.org/icoper. You can also email icoper@esta.org to request a form be emailed to you. Completed comment forms should be emailed to icoper@esta.org.
ICOPER has been downloaded by over 1,100 people located in 59 different countries. It has been translated into Traditional Chinese and Polish, with additional translations underway in Italian, Korean, Norwegian, Romanian, and Russian. Comments on translated versions should be sent to the organization responsible for the
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Strictly FX, Pushing Boundaries

Strictly FX was founded in 1996 by industry veterans Mark Grega and Ted Maccabee. Our expertise and knowledge of the world’s leading pyrotechnic, laser, and flame manufacturers allows us to curate astonishing live events. With over 500+ shows performed a year, there’s good chance you’ve seen some of our work!

Poland - LightsOn, a lighting design and rental company based in Warsaw, relies on an FLX S24 lighting console from Zero 88 to run a full schedule of spectacular event lighting.
LightsOn owner, Lukasz Brylski, and his team supply creative lightshows for bands, DJs, smaller concerts, cultural and corporate events, weddings, and parties, with a constantly busy schedule of three or four events per week. They are fully booked with shows and events for the rest of the year, as the industry recovers from the pandemic shut down. A typical lighting set up will feature around 20 fixtures, including moving lights and LED sources, all run on the Zero 88 FLX S24.
Lukasz likes many FLX S24 features, starting with its ease of use and logicality. “I can design and plan the show, then set up the console exactly as I like,” he stated. One of the many FLX S24 features he finds mos

USA - Chris Stapleton’s All-American Road Show is back with a stage design featuring 400 VL800 Eventpar luminaires from Vari-Lite, supplied by concert touring specialists Premier Global Production.
Taking conceptual direction from Stapleton himself, creative director Becky Fluke and lighting designer Calvin ‘Mac’ Mosier created film-like lighting, centred around a wall of light, which comprises 388 VL800 Eventpar RGBA and 12 VL800 Eventpar WW.
Mac, who has previously worked with Prince, Tina Turner, Madonna, Lady Gaga and James Taylor, explains: “When I first saw the VL800 back in 2019, I thought it was great, so I got one and showed it to Chris and Becky and they both loved it, particularly the colours it produces. Soon after that, Chris came up with the wall of light idea.”
The show design, which uses lighting and video in the most integrated way Mac

Israel - Named after Frank Zappa and founded in 2004, Israel’s Zappa Group is a live show chain of clubs with an ethos of respect for music, musicians and listeners. From its first venue in Tel Aviv, it has grown to include clubs and outdoor venues in Herzliya, Jerusalem, Haifa ,Beer Sheba, Zappa Amphi Shuni and Zappa live Park, and hosts top Israeli and international music acts.
Following a change of ownership, a new technical manager was appointed to supervise the venues and raise their technical standards. Having worked as technical producer on large-scale concerts, he recognised their ubiquitous use of DiGiCo consoles. This prompted the start of a major move for all Zappa venues to install DiGiCo.
Supplied by Israeli distribution company, Gidron Levitan, the main Tel Aviv venue now boasts a DiGiCo Quantum 338, with Herzliya and Haifa upgrading to Quantum 225s, an
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The Many Looks of Zeo

Delivering ultimate brightness and unique looks, Zeo’s distinct face design is defined by a central LED monolith and four reflectors, backed by four RGBW engines. As a blinder or strobe, Zeo promises powerful impact with 30,000+ lumens. With its sheer brilliance and playful effects, Zeo is ready to amplify the energy on any stage.

Switzerland - In creating his evocative looks for the nine-hour presentation of Goethe’s Faust at the Goetheanum School of Spiritual Science in Dornach, Klaus Suppan drew on the colour rendering and performance features of seven Chauvet Professional Maverick Silens 2 Profile fixtures that were recently added to the theatre’s lighting system.
With the new staging of Faust characterized by a simple stage design with clear, minimal lines; light was consciously selected as the main tool with which to draw emphasis upon various scenic elements. Because the stage design only suggests the respective situations and locations, Suppan deftly used light to outline entities of shape and form - a technique that was greatly aided by the framing-shutter mode of his profile fixtures.
"My professional colleagues and the directors of this Faust production were t

Belarus - For over a decade, Minsk Arena has been the epicentre for all things sports and culture in the Belarus capital. The venue’s main space is an ice arena dedicated to hockey and skating which can also be converted to host other sports events, as well as concerts, conferences, and forums
Minsk Arena hosts some of the most notable sports tournaments, including IIHF World Championship and SU World Junior Figure Skating Championships, as well as musicians like Elton John, Sting, and Shakira. In September this year, the facility completed a large-scale renovation which included a tour-grade audio system from L-Acoustics, installed by BelCultProject.
Known for its contemporary design, Minsk Arena also prides itself on implementing the latest technology, including being the first arena to install a cable roof system capable of withstanding loads of up to 120 tonnes,

UK - Between April and August, Foals played a number of festival shows, which saw live engineer Nigel Pepper using a Yamaha Rivage PM7 digital mixing system for the first time. Supplied by Adlib, the experience was so positive that he has already specified it for the band’s 2022 UK and European shows.
“I had reached the point where I was ready to change from the system I was using,” he says. “On paper the Rivage PM series seemed attractive and the specifications would fit my workflow. I tried different systems, which included using Rivage PM7 in rehearsals, and quickly found it was the one for me. It really fitted the way my brain works.”
Nigel was introduced to Yamaha’s Tom Rundle, who visited Foals production rehearsals and talked Nigel through the system.
“I wanted to really see what I could get from it and make sure I wasn’t missing anything,

USA - UK-based Audiologic has announced its collaboration with Technically Creative, to deliver an immersive experience at the Harry Potter Flagship Store, New York.
Technically Creative, specialists in creating immersive audio-visual solutions, worked together with Audiologic to deliver an exciting brief to bring to life the magic of Harry Potter, in an immersive in-store experience. The experience store is billed as 21,000sq.ft of magic, housing the world’s largest collection of Harry Potter merchandise.
The main aim of the project was to deliver a store-wide sound system with visuals and special effects. Due to differing styles of room and ceiling spaces, Technically Creative and Audiologic needed to be mindful of the carefully curated aesthetics adopted for visually discrete speakers.
The entire site is run on the Q-SYS ecosystem, namely the Core 110f pro

USA - SoundSwitch, the provider of DJ lighting control solutions, has announced the SoundSwitch Control One - a professional lighting controller and dual-universe DMX interface with extensive connectivity with DJ and DAW applications.
Control One is compatible with professional DJ platforms from Engine DJ, Serato DJ and Virtual DJ, making it easy to integrate the tool into existing set-ups. In addition, performers can automate synchronised light shows and add live lighting effects via Ableton Link or by manually tapping in the BPM on Control One.
Control One provides tactile control over all SoundSwitch performance features, including triggering colour and position overrides, cycling between banks of automated light shows (Autoloops) or triggering the strobe. There are customizable RGB performance pads, parameter knobs, and a touch strip to create the perfect ambience f

Freelancers in the Dark - The coronavirus lockdowns have had a major impact on theatre freelancers, leaving them pessimistic for the future, says the leader of a study. Dr Holly Maples, of the University of Essex. said the "stops and starts" of the lockdown prevented freelancers from being able to plan ahead. She said many did not know whether they would be able to carry on in their profession.
The first part of the report, called Freelancers in the Dark, found 72.4% of respondents felt more pessimistic about their future as a theatre freelancers. Dr Maples, a senior lecturer at the East 15 Acting School at the Colchester university, said: "The closures of theatres greatly affected people's ability to plan and to carry on with the work they had been doing. A lot of people were kind of left high and dry, both by the organizations they were working with [that] couldn't

Europe - Lighting designer, director and programmer Marc Lorenz has joined Ayrton’s international team as designer relationship manager with a focus on Europe.
Lorenz brings to his new role over 30 years of experience as a freelance operator, programmer, lighting director and designer on many well-known festivals, arena shows, tours, television and corporate events, as well as being a respected trainer for lighting consoles and media servers.
His past festival credits include Paleo Festival Nyon, Out in the green Frauenfeld and the Open Air St. Gallen while his touring career has encompassed groundbreaking tours for artists - many with leading lighting designer Gunther Hecker - like Die Fantastischen Vier, David Garrett and Herbert Grönemeyer, amongst many others. Lorenz is also co-author with Roland Greil of Showlicht, vom Scribble zum fertigen Design.
“I

UK - Ross Robertson has joined Arena UK MEA as managing director of the structures division, based in Arena’s St Ives headquarters.
Arena chief operating officer EMEA Tom Evans comments: “Arena Group is taking on a new look as we bounce back from the pandemic, and I am sure that Ross is the right person to steer the structures division, bringing great experience to achieve ambitious expansion beyond our core events sector.
“Arena’s structures division is gearing up for an incredibly busy 2022 across a wide range of events, and we are investing in our team to support our project directors, managers and site crews’ delivery of amazing events on behalf of clients.”
Arena’s structures team is already well underway with the build for Europe’s largest temporary triple-decker hospitality structure for the 2022 Cheltenham Festival and next year will also

New Zealand - Dream Solutions has announced that its flagship product, LightFactory can now be purchased as a yearly subscription. The new pricing model greatly reduces the investment needed to use this control software. The new subscription system starts at $99 for the full one universes product, $149 for four universes and $199 per year for a 10 universe system. The scription includes all future software upgrades, free fixture library requests and monthly fixture library updates.
The existing one-time purchase model is still available for those who prefer to purchase the software outright.
The latest version of LightFactory is free to download from: http://www.lightfactory.net
LightFactory has seen considerable success in a variety of applications over the past 18 years of development, from running major stadium spectaculars with up to 150 DMX universes to loc

France - Robe France enjoyed the buzz and excitement generated by the 2021 JTSE (Journées Techniques du Spectacle et de l'Evénement) expo staged over two days at Les Docks de Paris.
It was a welcome return to face to face - or mask to mask - meeting opportunities after the 2020 online event, and Robe’s French team also celebrated this landmark putting a special focus on the launch of the new T11 range of theatrical luminaires, a three-in-one LED lighting solution.
The eye-catching Robe booth in the main Pullman Dock building was designed as a stylish, contemporary ‘lounge’ meet and greet area, and became a social hub for those wanting to say hello and stop for meetings and discussions. It was constantly busy with a stream of customers, contacts and industry friends, and Robe France co-CEO Bruno Garros comments: “It was impressive - many came to us with a spe

UAE - Stage One Creative Services delivered stage engineering for the hero centrepiece at UAE’s 50th National Day celebrations. The show, which took place on 2 December, marked the country’s Golden Jubilee as the largest celebration to date.
The floating theatrical experience, designed by award winning artist, Es Devlin, is situated on Hatta Dam in the Hajar Mountains. Stage One engineered, fabricated, installed and operated the hero rotating stage which hosted the cast. The floating disc-shaped sculpture, which is 19m tall at its highest point, doubled up as a performance area and projection surface.
The key challenge was engineering a heavy steel structure that will remain balanced in a cantilevered state on a floating pontoon. This was achieved through judicious structural and marine engineering and a hefty serving of ballast. To allow the disc to revolve, it wa

UK - With his repertoire of music blended with comedy, Tim Minchin’s UK tour, which began back in 2019, resumed after lockdown with a further eight-week stint. Titled Back . . . Encore, this took him through a number of sold-out UK theatre shows, interspersed with a handful of arena dates.
The Australian was supported onstage by a seven-piece band - three brass players, bass, guitar, drums and percussion. Masterminding the sound production was Martin Audio’s rental partner, Capital Sound, with Dave Roden mixing once again to his favoured Wavefront Precision WPS.
Capital drew on their inventory of 32 WPS line array enclosures, but purchased six additional multi-channel, Dante-supporting iKON amplifiers for the tour, enabling the system to be driven in the optimum one-box resolution.
Explaining the need for the expanded WPS inventory this time around,

USA - To bring the Tony Award-winning musical Hadestown to life on stages across the US for its national tour, lighting designer Bradley King implemented a versatile lighting rig featuring Martin Professional LED fixtures, provided by Christie Lites.
Written by singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell and directed by Rachel Chavkin, Hadestown is an American blues and folk-infused version of the Ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Mitchell first premiered Hadestown in 2006 with a DIY theatre group in Vermont and recorded a concept album based on the show in 2010 before the final version debuted on Broadway in 2019 at the Walter Kerr Theatre.
This year, Hadestown embarks on a national theatre tour that debuted at the Kennedy Centre in Washington, D.C. Lighting designer Bradley King, who won a Tony for his work on the Broadway production of Hade

USA - Lighting designer Tim Deiling used 35 Ayrton MagicDot SX fixtures to help construct the visual narrative for the Broadway production of Six The Musical when it transferred from London’s West End in October (see LSi December, out now, for detailed production report on the musical).
Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’s multi award-winning musical follows the story of Henry VIII’s six wives, expanding on each of their stories and translating their historic power struggles into a modern day pop contest which breathes dynamic new life into the story. Tim Deiling’s associate lighting designer, Tim Reed, reports:
“The show takes place on a standing set with no set moves throughout. Instead, we chose to use a rock concert style of lighting with lots of beam looks at all times

UK - Overcoming the somewhat inauspicious climate created by the global pandemic, Legoland Windsor Resort has continued to invest in its infrastructure. Part of that investment has included the upgrade of their 4D cinema as well as the implementation of a new ride, the UK’s first Flying Theatre attraction, Ride of the Sky Lion.
The new attraction forms part of Legoland’s most recent development, Mythica, an area that was inaugurated for the park’s reopening in early 2021. The Legoland production team overseeing the design and installation of the new ride called on their long-term audio supplier and consultant, Dave Shepherd of D.S. Audio to ensure the audio experience was the best possible. Shepherd specified a system based on EM Acoustics’ new flagship Reference Series R10 system.
Shepherd’s brief was straightforward enough – to design a world class

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