Vietnam - The ‘Lighting the Stars’ series of conferences featuring internationally renowned lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe landed in Ho Chi Minh City in November 2018 with the aim of celebrating lighting and discussing its future. The event, which was organised by Vietnam ProAVL Co. Ltd alongside Claypaky and MA Lighting, presented Woodroffe to an audience keen to hear first-hand about his thirty-year career at the forefront of live music, event, architectural and theatre lighting design. Woodroffe has designed the lighting for a diverse array of big-name projects, from the London Symphony Orchestra to ABBA, from the Rolling Stones feature film Shine A Light to the Vanity Fair Oscars party to Prince Charles’s Highgrove House gardens. His achievements are remarkable. This latest Lighting the Stars seminar was held at the New Music Centre in Ho Chi Min
The Netherlands - ROE Visual is gearing up for ISE 2019 with a new selection of products and integration options aimed at the rental and system integration markets they serve. ROE Visual is located in Hall 12, stand F50. This year’s stand design will feature a massive Sapphire SP1.5 screen, a Diamond 2.6 video wall and the Black Marble LED system in various applications. Next to these high-end products the ROE Visual stand design incorporates the ROE Strip and the newly released Vanish V8 LED panel. The versatile Black Marble system has evolved from a fast-building LED floor to a full-fledged system that provides stylish and unique integration solutions, to create floors, multi-level platforms and walls suited for architectural, broadcast or event applications. The system has four different finishes for a classy or fashionable look. The Sapphire platform is bil
The Netherlands - Immersive audio and show control specialists OutBoard will demo the TiMax 500-series software which enables immersive spatial audio rendering and show programming workflows in live, presentation and experience applications, while also featuring selectable skins optimised for outdoors and show conditions. Based on detailed input from leading sound design associates, the new TiMax StageSpace allows auto-calculation of dynamic delay-matrix spatialisation objects directly from a map of the venue, speakers and audience/guest spaces. TiMax spatial objects can be quickly auto-rendered and adapted for different shapes and sizes of presentation and experiential spaces, or stage, audience and audio system configurations. Objects can be fine-tuned by the user, because, as OutBoard asserts “experienced sound designers will tell you it’s the last few millisec
The Netherlands - L-Acoustics will present its latest installation solution to the market at ISE 2019 in Amsterdam (5-8 February). “ISE continues to grow year over year and attracts integration specialists from all over the world,” says Jeff Rocha, director of product management for L-Acoustics. “This makes it the perfect forum for us to showcase our latest innovations while highlighting the unique and targeted benefits our of existing product lines.” As well as revealing this new product, the company will be hosting a series of demonstrations and presentations each day, including L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal Sound, a trailblazing multidimensional sound technology. “We look forward to the convenience of reconnecting face to face with so many of our customers at ISE, as well as catering to new demand and clienteles,” adds Jochen Frohn, L-Acoustics director
UK - Pearce Hire regularly collaborates with corporate production specialists Hawk Audio Visual on large scale events. This successful partnership recently provided a circus themed entertainment and dining space for over 1,000 company staff and stakeholders at the BGL Awards Ball held at Manchester Central. BGL Group is a financial services company based in Peterborough and the biennial event which celebrates and rewards staff achievements, was also part of the company’s 25th anniversary celebrations. Pearce Hire’s project manager John Huson provided some insight into the support and co-operation between Hawk and Pearce Hire. “Hawk Audio Visual has been a client of Pearce Hire for over 20 years and during that time we’ve actually partnered with them on four previous BGL Balls alongside many other events which usually averages 15 to 20 jobs every year. Hawk Au
USA - With a nod to Game of Thrones, the Vegas Golden Knights hockey team now enters the ice through a 20ft, 2,375-pound medieval jousting helmet accented with 60m of FloppyFlex Digital LED neon. Originally conceived for the Stanley Cup, the team’s entrance is now a standard feature for all home games at the T-Mobile Arena. Designed and built by Water FX, the large helmet features lighting by Sean Guarino, with the FloppyFlex provided by PRG Las Vegas. “Outlining the helmet to create a portal worthy of the team required something cooler than conventional LED tape,” says Golden Knights LD, Sean Guarino. “I wanted this to pop, and Tim Brennan of PRG suggested FloppyFlex Digital, which exceeded my expectations. Using the pixelated Digital RGB version, I can create spectacular multi-colour chases. The colours are bright, vibrant and warm, and installation wa
UK - S+H Technical, specialists for LED visual effects, drapes and starcloths, supplied around 350sq.m of its LED Animation cloth and 450sq.m of standard RGB starcloth drape for the BBC’s 2018 Children in Need telethon, broadcast live on BBC One and BBC Two. Featuring a star-studded line-up, the event raised over £50m for the 2018 appeal in what was the crescendo of this year’s fundraising activities for disadvantaged children and young people in communities across the UK. The telethon production design was created by Alex Craig - working on his 10th Children in Need - and this new look for 2018 featured some threads from the previous design to keep a strand of continuity, together with some spectacular new elements including lots of LED and a large upstage LED wall, 14m wide by 5m high, which split in the middle and opened for performer entrances and exits.
South Africa - Comic-Con Africa, a three-day event showcasing comic books, science fiction/fantasy related film and TV, as well as similar popular arts, was hosted for the very first time in South Africa at the Kyalami International Convention Centre in Midrand, Johannesburg. MGG was appointed as the main technical supplier for the sold-out event, enjoyed by over 45 000 superheroes, villains and sidekicks. Geeks, gamers and superheroes were spoilt for choice with an enormous exhibition area and were enthralled by gaming panel discussions, cosplay contests and a chance to rub shoulders with celebrities like Travis Fimmel of Vikings fame. MGG meticulously executed the technical setup for Comic-Con Africa, that included a main stage, four pre-screening rooms, two VS gaming areas, kids’ entertainment area, an MTN outdoor stage which included a VIP and screening area, an
France - PlugFest, the technical event for entertainment lighting interoperability organised by PLASA, is coming to Europe on 26-28 February 2019. The event is taking place in Lille, France, at Ibis Lille Centre Gares, and presents an opportunity for delegates to test and demonstrate device and system interoperability, with the aim of improving reliability, resolving compatibility issues and improving connectivity between entertainment lighting and related technologies. New for 2019 will be a presentation on the ESTA Entertainment Industry control protocol standards which have been in public review since the last PlugFest, with the revised drafts of the RDMnet standard being of particular interest to many previous participants. Attendees will also learn about the latest ESTA/ANSI standards, set to be released in early 2019. Focusing on a wide array of protocols
UK - Temporary and permanent installations specialist Setsquare Staging has invested in print and interior design company Enigma Visual Solutions and event and print production company, GTMS. Enigma and GTMS will both continue to operate from their Marlow and Waterlooville bases respectively but the companies will combine their services. John O’Gorman, creative director and founder of Setsquare, comments: “We are extremely excited to embark on this new venture. Both Enigma and GTMS are specialists within the print, build and staging industries, delivering creative solutions to clients on an international level. We will combine our services to produce industry leading solutions. We will be building branded environments second to none.” Reno Macri, founder of Enigma Visual Solutions, adds: “I founded Enigma in my parents’ spare bedroom as a sign company
China - Clockenflap is one of Asia's largest multi-genre music festivals held annually in Hong Kong. Now 10 years old, the festival is a firm favourite in the region, with its extensive programme of music, art, film and other activities. In addition to a line-up of internationally renowned artistes - which this year included Erykah Badu, David Byrne, Khalid, Roni Size, Interpol, Caribou, Anpu and The Vaccines - the festival also offers a platform to local talent, helping them reach a wider audience. For the 2018 edition of the festival (9-11 November), the main (Harbourflap) stage and second stage were managed by Alto Stage Management, who called in Davide Linzi of Mister X Service as audio system designer for both and FOH engineer for the main stage (assisting productions with their own sound engineer). Linzi explains why he took Outline’s Newton multi-sour
USA - Former PLASA director Chris Toulmin has joined Entech Roadshow in an advisory role ahead of the first Entech USA Roadshow in April. Toulmin has over 35 years of experience in the entertainment industry. As a director of events at PLASA he was responsible for delivering the PLASA Show following the event’s relocation to London Olympia and also oversaw the the Association’s regional Focus shows. Toulmin comments: “I am delighted to be working with Entech Roadshow LLC as a consultant on the inaugural US Roadshow in 2019. This tried and tested formula in the Australia/New Zealand market is a great fit for the expansive geography of the significant North American market. It’s a refreshing new model that adds in a positive way to what has gone before and brings a new level of convenience, accessibility and networking for decision makers and industry knowledge
Austria - Studio Due Light, in collaboration with Laman Gmbh in Austria, has recently illuminated the Novomatic Forum in Vienna as part of a façade lighting overhaul. The previous fixtures installed were traditional luminaries with a high-level of energy wasted. The project included replacing the façade uplighters on the ground and first floors, along with the balcony lighting around the forum. Confronted with new challenges to accommodate the LED fixtures, the specifiers noticed the impossibility to run DMX cable to the bottom part of the building, to replace the in-ground fixtures with the energy-efficient ones. Faced with this issue, Mr. Robert Makovsky of Leman Gmbh turned to Studio Due to come up with a cost-effective solution. After several tests on-site, Studio Due implemented W-DMX into their Terra Plus RGBW RDM fixtures. “We have implemented Nano TRX modul
Denmark - More than 130,000 people and 184 artists saw the AVB debut of Luminex Network Intelligence in a cooperation with Bright Group and Meyer Sound at the Roskilde Festival. On thr Orange stage and the Arena stage, audio was running on AVB protocol from Meyer Sound Galileo Galaxy 816 network platform through a network of 28x GigaCore 10 switches of Luminex Network Intelligence. “We were very happy to have Luminex on board for the Roskilde festival. There are many reasons to go for the GigaCore range of Luminex but definitely the easiness, the GUI and the rock-solid reliable performance of their switches is remarkable,” says Fredrik Arwidson from Bright Group Sweden. “Furthermore, we were delighted with the upfront training, the intensive testing in our Stockholm warehouse and with the presence of Roel Apers (Support engineer) of Luminex Network Intelligence during
UK - For the last 93 years, the Blackpool Dance Festival competition - probably the most globally acclaimed international bastion of ballroom dancing - has ensured that the genre continues to have a relevant role in popular culture in the UK and beyond. This year, 3,000 couples from 60 nations competed in the event. Providing them with a stylish and sophisticated visual background was a lighting design by Oliver Wilkinson of Arranpaul that featured 10 Chauvet Professional Rogue R2 Spot and16 Rogue R2 Wash fixtures, and 32 Q-Wash 560Z-LED washes. Wilkinson has been part of the Blackpool Dance Festival for six years, but in 2018 it was his chance to design the event. He strove to bring a new level of smoothness to his efforts. “We have provided equipment to this event since 2012, and each year we set the bar higher for ourselves,” he said. “This year, I wanted to
UK - Martin by Harman and UK distributor Sound Technology will be at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) on 20 November for a showcase of the latest Martin products, including the award-winning MAC Encore Performance, MAC Encore Wash and new JEM Glaciator Dynamic. Demos will begin at 11am, 2pm and 4pm in LIPA's Art School Studio Theatre. This will also be an opportunity to discover details of the recently announced MAC Allure Profile LED moving head and ELP LED Ellipsoid Series. (Jim Evans)
UK - Star Events has released a video highlighting the company’s work for British Summer Time Hyde Park (BST) as the festival stretched to accommodate Roger Waters’ Us+Them performance (read the production report in LSi September 2018), the first of its six sell-out shows this summer. With Waters’ production requiring more than 1,000m of LED screen, 110 tons of production and no performance box, Star redesigned the entire Great Oak sub-structure and super-structure, increasing the width of the stage by 20m. Shot by video production and promotion company In The Bag, this look behind the scenes focuses on the Star team building the Great Oak, panning across the Vista hospitality structure, the Barclaycard St
USA - The recent AES New York 2018 Convention saw over 300 brands of audio equipment manufacturers and service providers showcased alongside a wealth of free events. Held on 17-20 October at the Javits Centre in New York City, the education and peer networking event once again proved an invaluable resource for audio engineers, producers, students and other audio professionals. Meyer Sound co-founder John Meyer was the Richard C. Heyser distinguished lecturer. John Monitto, Meyer Sound's director of business development and sales manager, Northeast, says: “This past AES convention drew some of the top audio professionals who we value as a manufacturer. The convention was well attended by those professionals who visited the exhibit booths, demo rooms and the workshop sessions. Meyer Sound featured a two-channel and 5.1 listening room with our newly patented Bluehorn S
USA - Mountain Productions has acquired full-service event production company ROC-OFF Productions. As part of the transition, ROC-OFF has relocated from its Davie office to Mountain Productions’ facility in Palm Beach, Florida. Core staff, including founder Jose Roche, will remain at the company. Ricky Rose, CEO Mountain Productions, comments: “Over the past two years, Mountain Productions has been expanding our network both domestically and internationally through the addition of three new offices in Los Angeles, Dublin, Ireland and Palm Beach. With our combined expertise and industry knowledge, ROC-OFF is a natural addition to the Mountain Productions’ suite of brands and a key component to our expansion into Latin America, while enhancing our service base across Florida and the South.” Roche adds: “Since 1998, ROC-OFF has been an industry leader and
UK - The UK entertainment technology industry is valued at £1.28bn in 2017/18 and its value is predicted to grow over the next five years, according to a new research report by PLASA. The study - said by PLASA to be 'the most comprehensive study of the entire entertainment technology industry in many years' - is available to download from plasa.org. It delves into each market sector’s performance and also looks at the effects of macro-environment trends and employment. According to the findings, all sectors have experienced growth, particularly AV and audio, which represent 38% and 27% of the market share respectively. AV is currently valued at £490m and has an increasing presence in many sectors including architectural and retail. Audio is valued at £340m due to its
Indonesia - The 2018 Asian Games Opening Ceremony, staged in Jakarta’s Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) Main Stadium, saw LD Yves Aucoin to deliver an impressive lighting design. The OC of Asia’s largest sporting event featured a general cast of around 4000, produced by Scott Givens and Libby Hyland working with Indonesian creative director Wishnutama Kusubandio. Staging direction was by Michael Pena working with Indonesian choreographers Denny Malik and Eko Supriyanto, and the breathtakingly visual extravaganza was produced by live event specialists FiveCurrents. Montreal based LD Aucoin specified 270 x Robe BMFLs to be a major part of the lighting rig. “It was BMFLs or BMFLs,” he says. “They were the only fixture option for a selection of key positions around the venue.” These high-powered fixtures once again proved their ruggedness and reliability as
Sweden - Each year in October, the Swedish town of Alingsås near Gothenburg turns into a fun lighting event, attracting more than 80,000 visitors from around the world. For this year’s Lights in Alingsås, six groups of talented lighting and electrical students created beautiful light installations under the professional guidance from seven established lighting designers using over 50 fixtures from SGM Light. The almost 400-year-old Swedish town Alingsås started off mainly as an iron trade city, which later turned into a city for the textile industry. In the city river, the manufacturers would wash out the colour of the textiles, giving the name for the first site for this year’s Lights in Alingsås, Färgeribron (Dyers’ bridge). Led by Nielsen and van der Velden, this team focused on the visible energy from the water as well as the communa
UK - On 6 November (Tuesday), A.C. Entertainment Technologies’ specialist film & TV sales team will be showcasing its broadcast lighting solutions at the KitPlus show, MediaCityUK Studios, Manchester. Chroma-Q’s Studio Force II high intensity tuneable white (2,800K - 6,500K) wash light will be shown for the first time. The fixture is specifically designed for broadcast and film applications. Studio Force II complements the Cine Gear Expo award-winning Chroma-Q Space Force tuneable white (2,800K - 6,500K) LED space light/soft light source, which has been adopted by leading television studios and specialist rental companies, including the Marjan Television Network, Aurora Lighting and Pixipixel. Quasar Science's Q-LED Crossfade Linear fixtures have the benefits of a self-ballasted variable white LED source in a compact, low profile form factor. Q-LED Crossf
Estonia - The Ugala Theatre in Viljandi is one of a number of state-funded theatres and a major premium quality producing house. The most recent round of refurbishment at Ugala in 2017 resulted in a new stage machinery system for the 300-capacity main house, which also means they can now configure the space in any format. With this new versatility, they decided the time was also right for some new moving lights in the rig, and after a lot of consultation, decided on 10 x Robe DL7S Profiles and 10 x BMFL Blades. The town also has the only technical theatre training facility in Estonia which is a department of the Tartu University, and happens to have a Robe moving light rig! Mari-Riin Villemsoo is one of the venue’s four person lighting technical team, who are all also lighting designers in their own right, and she reports that having these new moving lig
