Lighting

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28 April 2025

France - The Showlight quadrennial is a rare event that you do not want to miss. Three days of lighting professionals networking and exchanging ideas, listening to speakers at the top of their profession, all in the beautiful setting of Dijon, France. This gathering only happens once every four years – and it’s for everyone.

Historically, Showlight is conducted solely in English but this year is different. Located in France and supported by French lighting manufacturer and headline sponsor, Robert Juliat, we look forward to welcoming many French-speaking delegates as well as international attendees.

To make sure nobody misses a word, for the first time Showlight is offering simultaneous translation of the Papers and Q&A sessions across four languages. Delegates can choose to listen – and ask questions – in English, French, Italian and Spa

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28 April 2025

Denmark - Litecom has made a major investment in new Robe moving lights. The company is based in Copenhagen and has a branch in Stockholm, Sweden and works extensively across the two countries and throughout Scandinavia.

2024’s purchases include 50 x Forte Profile moving lights, 60 x Painte Profiles and 136 x Spiider LED wash beams, all delivered by Danish distributor, Light Partner. This was followed by a further investment of 24 more Fortes, another 50 x Paintes plus three BMFL FollowSpots.

“This decision was based on boosting our inventory with reliable stage lighting products that are universally useful across all our projects,” explained Litecom lighting designer Martin Wallin.

Wallin has been with the company for 19 years and oversees all the major broadcast projects, which have included supplying lighting to the Eurovision Song C

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28 April 2025

France - "Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist." Kelian Sevrée and the team at Concept K embrace that concept, and they proved its merit in style at the 2025 Dystopia festivals, held in two separate locations, Mulhouse and Rennes.

At both sites, they departed from the standard practice (that says you must have a massive video wall on a festival’s main stage). Instead, they animated their two main stages, both of which were devoted to hardcore music, with brawny collections of lighting effects, including the Chauvet Professional Color Strike M, as well as some compelling cubic set pieces.

“Unlike what is done in most modern productions, we chose not to include a video screen at the back of the stage,” explained Sevrée. “Given the scale of the event, we were able to break away from this standard element, a

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28 April 2025

India - The Chambal riverfront in Kota, Rajasthan is an urban development that has rejuvenated a 6km stretch of land into a thriving cultural and tourist destination.

Designed to celebrate the architectural heritage and cultural richness of India, the riverfront features 26 distinct ghats, each representing a different regional style. Among these, the Rajputana Ghat highlights the art and traditions of nine regions of Rajasthan, while the Sahitya Ghat pays homage to literary giants with statues of renowned authors and a library housing thousands of books.

Beyond its cultural significance, the restoration of the Chambal Riverfront plays a crucial role in ecosystem revitalisation, renewing the connection between the community and the river. The west-side garden of the project combines art, lighting, and horticulture, offering visitors a captivating exp

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25 April 2025

USA - Billie Holiday observed that every song – like every person – must be unique, or it isn’t music. As a lighting designer, Jack Thomas agrees. Guided by this principle, he set out to leave visual fingerprints on each song in Bayside’s current North American Errors Tour.

“I programmed this show with Bayside to be very precise with cue-to-cue transitions so each moment of every song has its own specific fingerprint,” he explained. “Doing so keeps the energy fresh and exciting.”

Thomas’ ‘fingerprints’ provide the accompaniment to the emotionally powerful music on the New York punk rockers 25th anniversary tour. Calling forth a variety of lush colour blends, artful touches of atmospherics, unique light angles, and a touch of geometric patterns courtesy of this Chauvet Professional Epix Bars, Thomas reflects the distinct

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25 April 2025

South Africa - Cape Town-based Flicker-Free Lighting Rentals is a new lighting rental and dry hire company headed by Jason Watts, geared towards offering the region’s buoyant film, TV, commercial and event industry premium lighting solutions.

Their seed investments included several Astera products – Titan Tubes, AX5 and AX9 LED PARS, LunaBulbs and HydraPanels – flexible, fully wireless, innovative fixtures that have been constantly busy and have helped contribute to the company’s immediate success since launching in 2024.

Watts explained that they are dedicated to supplying film productions, gaffers, DOPs and event lighting designers with quality kit – quickly and seamlessly. Their carefully selected inventory caters to multiple sectors and hybrid applications, with a strong focus on both direct rentals and dry hire to other rental companie

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24 April 2025

UK - IPS (Impact Production Services), specialist supplier in the delivery of staging and structures, technical production, and equipment hire to the events industry has announced that its new, purpose-built warehouse in Milton Keynes is now officially open.

This opening marks a significant milestone in the company’s continued growth journey and represents the realisation of a vision first announced in February. The new facility, located just a mile from the existing site, is now fully operational and already playing a key role in supporting IPS’s expanding operations across the UK and beyond.

“Opening this new facility has been long awaited, and we’re absolutely thrilled to see the warehouse up and running,” said James Mason, founder of IPS. “This is a major investment in the future of IPS, and as we prepare for the summer, we’re excit

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24 April 2025

Finland - A large complement of Claypaky Sharpys and Tambora Batten squares illuminated the final qualifying event for Finland’s entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 2025. 

The finale of UMK (Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu), or New Music Competition, was held at the Nokia Arena in Tampere on 8 February when broadcaster Yle treated viewers to six performances to determine who would represent Finland at Eurovision in Basel, Switzerland in May.

Lighting designer Pekka Martti and Ari Levela, creative director/founder of MOBB Helsinki Oy, designed the stage for UMK 2025. Martti chose 68 Sharpys and 46 Tambora Batten squares to light the two-hour show.

“Sharpys were used as audience ‘extras’ for songs with 360º shots and when performers went out on the catwalk,” explains Martti. “Sharpys still giv

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24 April 2025

UK - The Human League’s Generations arena tour kicked off its UK leg in December 2024. By the band’s third show they’d already elicited a five-star review from the Guardian, who described the show as “An evening of immaculate electro pop, delivered with grace, precision, and elation”.

Behind the scenes, seasoned production manager Sarah Hollis was at the helm. Hollis has been production managing tours since the late 90s and has worked with The Human League since their 2008, Steel City tour. “I was also the stage manager on that tour,” she explained, “which was a mixture of arenas, theatres and a couple of academies (and not in the order you’d like!) so let’s say it kept me on my toes, and I’ve been working with the band ever since.”

Emmy Award winning designer, Rob Sinclair, was asked by the band’s

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24 April 2025

Europe - Raw Cereal, a renowned global creative production studio, was tasked with designing a bold, immersive visual experience for Hardy's Quit!! tour. With Hardy's evolving musical style blending country, rock, and pop, Raw Cereal had to ensure the visual elements matched the energy and variety of his performances. For the second time, they relied on AV Stumpfl's Pixera media server, known for its flexibility and robust feature set.

Cort Lawrence, the tour’s creative director, explained the scope of Raw Cereal's involvement: "On the show, we handled everything from the production design, stage design, lighting design, scenic design, as well as pyro, special effects, video content, and just overall show." The team was responsible for creating a comprehensive experience that connected Hardy's new album visuals with his live performances.

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24 April 2025

USA - On its latest world tour, metal band Underoath wanted to remind its fans of where the group got its start, while celebrating the 20th anniversary of the successful album, They’re Only Chasing Safety. The set begins with what appears to be a dingy living room and gradually evolves into an expansive, modern show with intense lighting effects provided by Sonus Productions out of Moorestown, N.J.

“I always try to tell the story,” said Lenny Sasso, lighting designer for the tour and director of touring accounts at Sonus Productions. “Essentially for the band, this tour was telling the fans, ‘This is where we came from. This is how we wrote the record’.”

With the minimal initial visuals, Underoath gave a glimpse at the physical practice space in which They’re Only Chasing Safety came to life. The setlist featured a p

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23 April 2025

South Africa - After six years off the calendar, Mediatech Africa is back. The original and largest trade show for AV, broadcast, and live event tech on the continent returns from 3 - 5 June 2026 at the Johannesburg Expo Centre (Nasrec) – and it's bringing the industry back together to mark 25 years since the first show in 2001.

Mediatech Africa has been a cornerstone of the continent’s AV and broadcast industry since day one. More than just an expo, it’s a space for the industry to connect, share ideas, and stay in step with the latest tech. Its legacy is built on collaboration, community, and innovation – drawing top brands, global suppliers, and the passionate people who keep the industry moving forward.

Simon Robinson, co-owner of Mediatech, recalls: “Our first show was in 2001 at the Sandton Convention Centre. It was small, focused mos

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23 April 2025

USA - As the lighting designer for the multi-platinum Grammy winners Diamond Rio, Willis Underhill has run his dynamic lightshows in a variety of venues from arenas and music halls to festivals. But it's doubtful that any have been quite like the site of his most recent setting when he lit the band's show at the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo.

First, there was the venue's size. The 19,000-capacity Frost Bank Centre, home of the San Antonio Spurs, is big by any measure. Like all massive spaces, it presents a challenge to any designer wanting to foster a sense of intimacy between the artist on stage and the audience. This is especially concerning when lighting a band like Diamond Rio that thrives on connecting to the crowd. Complicating matters even further in this case – the stage was in the centre of the rodeo floor and Underhill's FOH was two levels u

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23 April 2025

Slovenia - For the show that determined the Slovenian 2025 Eurovision entry, Crt Birsa from design studio Blackout fitted nearly 400 lighting fixtures into a 20 x 20m space in Studio 1 at the Radiotelevizija Slovenija (RTVSLO) complex in Ljubljana.

A large proportion of these were Robe moving lights – with 54 MegaPointes, 54 Spiiders, 24 Pointes, 12 Fortes and 14 Tetra2s on the rig – all delivered by Slovenian rental company, Event Lighting.

Crt added these to all the fixtures that were available from RTV’s studio in-house rig, which also included two Robe BMFL Blades used as rear spotlights for the main artists.

Crt’s lighting design was developed in close collaboration with set designer Greta Godnic, an elegant diagonally orientated square LED stage – allowing it to change shape and texture – located in the middle of th

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23 April 2025

USA - When experienced theatre LD Jared Sayeg started planning the design for Topdog/Underdog – Suzan Lori-Parks’ darkly comic fable of brotherly love and family identity at the Pasadena Playhouse – he recognised the importance of having fixtures that “could truly accommodate both slow smooth fades and sharp shuttering as well as big strokes of light that engulf the playing space.”

It was a blend of warm and cool in constant contrast to one another, he explains: “Emulating both a tungsten quality inside, and the ability to pierce through the space with sharp cold light from the outside were key elements to the design.” Helping him achieve his goals were GLP impression X5 IP Bars.

This was Sayeg’s 20th production at the Playhouse, and a primary consideration – especially relevant to proscenium-based venues – was to control

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23 April 2025

USA - The Phoenix Raceway hosted the Relentless Beats' Decadence Festival with one of the two main stages named the Royal Ballroom, since people danced their hearts out in this spectacularly lit space to EDM, house and techno heavies like Wooli, Eptic b2b Space Laces, and Svdden Death.

Every fan who crowded into this dynamic space couldn't help but feel like a part of this ‘ball’ thanks to an immersive lighting design by Luis Torres. Working with the teams at Relentless Beats and Kelco, which handled all the production management for the show, Torres pulled the entire area, as well as the 96ft wide by 44ft deep stage, into an embracive sea of bold monochromatic colours accented by stark white light.

Torres, of HiLite Designs, relied on 48 Rogue R3 Beams and 24 Strike Array 2 blinders from Chauvet Professional (supplied by Hardwired Produ

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22 April 2025

USA/Europe - Clair Global is expanding its global footprint by welcoming the Ampco Flashlight Group to the team. This partnership strengthens Clair's European presence and “enhances both companies' ability to deliver seamless, high-calibre experiences worldwide”.

Ampco Flashlight Group with its sister companies have been an established name in professional audio, lighting, rigging and motion for decades. The team delivers high-profile projects in live entertainment, theatre, broadcast, and events – both in the Netherlands and internationally. That focus remains unchanged. Clients will continue to work with the same people, receive the same level of service, and rely on the same name – now with the added strength of expanded access to key resources, technology, and expertise in more locations worldwide.

"This feels like a very natural step," s

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22 April 2025

USA - The sci-fi adventure The Electric State, directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, premiered on Netflix in March, with lighting technology from Elation playing a key behind-the-scenes role.

Lighting console programmer Eric ‘TK’ Androvich skilfully integrated Elation Fuze Max Profile and Proteus Maximus moving heads to help shape the film’s distinctive visual style.

Set in an alternate 1990s where robots have staged an uprising against humans, filming took place across various indoor sets and soundstages at Trilith and Shadowbox Studios, and on location around Atlanta, Georgia – often in the region’s characteristically wet and unpredictable winter weather. Fuze Max Profiles were used indoors, and IP65-rated Proteus Maximus fixtures were employed outdoors.

“The Fuze Max Profiles are a fantastic choice for film and TV,” sta

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22 April 2025

UK - SpotTrack, the specialist software tool for making, modifying and maintaining followspot cue sheets, continues to support shows of all scales around the world – including a number of award-nominated and award-winning designs.

On the all-new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Express, which opened at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre in London, assistant lighting designer Danny Vavrečka put SpotTrack to use managing the intricate followspot track that formed a key part of Howard Hudson’s design. This saw two human operators run four Robe Forte followspots remotely using Robe’s RoboSpot controllers, alongside other moving lights controlled via Zactrack. Starlight’s lighting was nominated for the 2025 Olivier Award for Best Lighting Design and won the same category at this year’s WhatsOnStage aw

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22 April 2025

South Africa - DWR Distribution recently hosted Oliver Ronshausen, service manager at MA Lighting in Germany, for a special in-house technical training session in South Africa. Ronshausen shared his expert knowledge with the DWR technical team, covering grandMA3 technical hardware and offering detailed insights into the zactrack system.

DWR Distribution staff regularly receive training so they in turn can always provide up-to-date support to clients when needed. Technicians from DWR’s Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban branches were invited to attend this session.

“I recently came to South Africa to help DWR’s technicians get up to speed with the latest MA Lighting service knowledge, so they can react quickly when a console needs repair,” said Ronshausen. “The goal was to show them how the grandMA3 and electronics work on the inside, then

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22 April 2025

Europe - Robe enjoyed an ‘excellent and super-active’ Prolight+Sound expo in Frankfurt, exhibiting alongside its five core businesses – Robe, Avolites, Anolis, LSC Systems and Artistic Licence – in a ‘Robe Village’ area that was constantly busy throughout the four-day trade show.

Many attractions drew visitors to the Robe booth including the final performances of The Fifth Dimension, Robe’s 2024-25 live expo show concept – together with two new product launches, the T31 Cyc and T31 Cyc Slim, half-length versions of Robe’s existing T32 Cyc and T32 Cyc Slim range.

A host of other just-launched Robe technologies stood out prominently on the stand and its two public demo areas, including the retina-burning WTF! moving strobe-wash, the new LedPointe – the first LED version of Robe’s famous and best-selling Pointe family of p

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17 April 2025

USA - Winter Jam recently wrapped their 2025 tour with a lighting system provided by Bandit Lites. Hailed as Christian music’s largest annual tour, the event, founded by Newsong and produced by TPR, featured performances by top artists such as Skillet, Anne Wilson, KB, Colton Dixon, Newsong, Micah Tyler and speaker Zane Black. Admission is a $15 donation at the door, keeping with the tour’s mission of accessibility to all.

“The contemporary Christian music market is near and dear to my heart so this is always a tour I look forward to digging into with Jerry Holcomb and the team,” said Bandit Lites client representative Allen Deneau.

While the previous five years have featured some form of a large LED surface upstage, production designer Jerry Holcomb chose to break up the surfaces into three sections, allowing space for vertical trusses.

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17 April 2025

USA - Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina, affectionately known as America’s Home for Racing, has received a major upgrade – one that ensures every fan has a front row experience no matter where they sit. GoVision has delivered a massive, high definition digiLED LED screen.

For over 60 years, Charlotte Motor Speedway has set the standard for motorsports entertainment. Its new mega-screen measures a 15,500sq ft and boasts over 5.5m pixels. This custom built 16mm digiLED Vision Ultra LED screen brings brightness, clarity and colour accuracy to NASCAR fans. The installation marks the latest in a series of high-profile Motor Speedway installations by GoVision, using digiLED’s LED technology.

The new LED screen weighs in at over 47.6 ton and is supported by six 30ft-high steel pillars, each one weighing 18,500 pounds (8400kg) with a

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17 April 2025

Germany - The new SAP Garden in Munich is an impressively space-age 50,000 m² multifunctional sports venue, home to both the EHC Red Bull München Hockey and FC Bayern München Basketball teams.

Opened in September of 2024, the arena was designed to revolutionise the fan experience through the implementation of innovative and, most importantly, interactive technology. To achieve this, bright! studios, a leading creative technology company, leant on the power of SP software from Stage Precision to develop a workflow that enables tracking data to be transformed into engaging visual content for real-time gaming and audience participation, bringing to life Red Bull’s innovative concept of a new spectator experience.

bright! became involved in the project following a recommendation. “The goal was to make the arena a kind of interactive playground, a