South Africa - Johannesburg-based Norwood Productions has invested in some of Robe’s most compact fixture ranges to further the company’s growth - starting with LED Beam 100s and now also including LEDBeam 150s and LEDBeam 350s, with some Spikies on order. The Robe purchases - eight of each fixture - are appropriate for the current size and scale of the events they are providing with technical production. Norwood Productions is a relatively new business, founded five years ago by Chris Norwood who has previously worked in the industry for other companies. In this short time, the company survived through the pandemic, which also inspired new ideas and provided impetus to reach out in new directions. Currently, around 90% of their business is dedicated to delivering high quality corporate and industrial events, brand activations and product launches, with around 10%
Italy - Prolights products illuminated the Innamorato Tour of Blanco, the young artist riding high in the Italian music scene. Following the success of the Blu Celeste Tour, boasting 35 sold-out dates, Blanco has once again astonished his fans with his inaugural stadium tour, securing his position as the youngest Italian artist to perform on these prestigious stages. The concerts took place at Rome's Olympic Stadium and Milan's San Siro Stadium, where the singer delivered an overwhelming performance, paying attention to every detail and presenting a setlist that encompassed the best of his repertoire, accompanied by a visually stunning scenography. To ensure a captivating visual experience, the rental company Mister X Service employed 106 Astra Wash19PixIP and 138 Sunblast 3000FC Prolights fixtures to illuminate the stage. These fixtures orchestrated a sy
USA - Things never got “routine” for the Beartooth production crew this summer. The Loudwire and Metal Hammer award winners’ 37-city tour has included a wildly mixed bag of shows, as they’ve moved from headlining their own appearances, to supporting bands like Breaking Benjamin and Disturbed, with a healthy sprinkling of festivals thrown in. “It was just kind of all over the place on this run,” said the band’s lighting designer Dan Michie. “This made it critical to have a floor package that was not only very versatile, but could also be set up and torn down fast.” Michie got what he wanted, and more, with a versatile, easy-to-work-with rig from Squeek Lights that featured a collection of compact, but powerful Chauvet Professional fixtures. “The Squeek rig was so great for what we had to do,” he said. “It could be set up and torn down, and offsta
UK - Robe looks forward to the buzz and energy of another PLASA expo at Olympia where it will be launching three new products and debuting a new live performance concept on stands A70 & C28. Designed to create drama, excitement and anticipation, visitors will be drawn to the booths by Robe putting a real live production at the heart of the event. Robe’s partner companies Anolis and Artistic Licence will be on adjacent stands and this area of the show floor will be a lively and interactive ‘takeover’ space where all are welcome to enjoy the tech, innovation and drama. Products being launched at the show include: iForte LTX WB is an ultimate long throw LED wash beam for all environments, developed for stadium shows, concerts and all events and spectaculars where serious intensity is needed over massive distances. The iForte LTX WB can create an imposin
USA - Indie folk rock band Dispatch is back touring with a lighting package from Bandit Lites. Comprised of Chadwick Stokes and Brad Corrigan, the Boston-based band were ready to release an album and tour when the COVID-19 pandemic happened. The band utilised the time to retool and deconstruct songs and released their eighth studio album Break Our Fall in August 2022. They kicked off their summer tour with performances alongside the National Symphony orchestra, requiring lighting designer David Singleton of Datum Creative to engineer a design that could adapt to the special shows and additional festivals. “The design came about from various conversations with the band and the band's management,” explained Singleton. “They love the look and feel of tungsten fixtures. I wanted a little more flexibility than just the tungsten look, so I went with fun unique
Germany - Situated between Cologne and Düsseldorf, the Monheim am Rhine community of under 50,000, bills itself as the “town for everyone” and backs up the claim by offering “a combination of natural beauty and urban sophistication, ancient ruins, and a thriving modern art scene”. For three days this summer, the town’s commitment to diversity was on full display at the Monheim City Festival, a popular event that served up a spread of attractions, from art to interactive activities and, of course, a wide range of music on three stages. At the open-air stage in the Gartzenweg, fans gathered until late in the evening to enjoy an array of performances representing different musical genres. The Stadtkapelle Monheim played pop, rock, and musical tunes. Air Flik and Micha Deutz rocked the turntables. DJ Fedde Le Grand, known for hits such as Let Me Think About I
Spain - The musical Los Chicos del Coro (The Choir Boys) production is based on the Oscar-winning film The Children of Monsieur Mathieu and premiered at the Teatro La Latina in Madrid in late 2022. The multi-award-winning production unites renowned musical performers with an 80-member children's choir and celebrates the creative power of music. For the METjor award-winning lighting design, internationally renowned lighting designer Juanjo Llorens used Cameo moving lights from the Opus and Evos series. The musical production directed by Juan Luis Iborra relates the contrast between the harsh realism of the dreary everyday life at the boarding school and the emotional power that arises from the friendship between the students and their music teacher. For Juanjo Llorens, the first scene of the musical sets the visual direction: "The boarding school
USA - With offices in Chicago, Nashville and Las Vegas, as a full-service provider OSA International carries a vast inventory of show production solutions. One of the most recent acquisitions from its Las Vegas HQ has been the first tranche of 100 Fusion X-PAR 12Z, affectionately known as the ‘Oom-Par’ in recognition of its German manufacture. Powered by a 120W RGBL light source and Fresnel optic, other than its sheer power and colour palette the IP65-rated product has an 8.5° to 55° wide zoom. According to OSA head of lighting design Duke Carlisle, aside from replacing old generic PARs in their inventory with modern LEDs it has already found favour as an installation item in a modern church and been deployed on a number of blue-chip corporate events. “We didn’t want to do the whole retro-fit single colour and we had tried a few other options that didn
China - Lightware Visual Engineering has announced that it has entered into a partnership with Tico ZhiSheng Information Technology Co to further accelerate the company’s expanding business operations in China. Tico ZhiSheng was established in 1994 and has grown impressively since, cementing a reputation across China as a product supplier and service provider of audio and video product system solutions, with a proven track record in integrating design consulting, equipment supply, after-sales debugging, and after-sales service. It has developed five national sales and service centres, with headquarters in Beijing and Foshan, branches in Shanghai and Guangzhou, and a joint branch and technology exchange centre in Chengdu. "We are pleased to become a partner of Lightware in the Chinese market, responsible for the sales and promotion of Lightware's complete solutions,
UK - At this year's PLASA Show from 3-5 September in London, the Adam Hall Group will present the latest product highlights of its two brands Cameo and LD Systems on stand B13. The focus will be on the lighting solutions from Cameo, which has been nominated for one of the renowned PLASA Innovation Awards in the form of the new PixBar G2 IP65 LED Bar series. In 2022, the Adam Hall Group's participation in the PLASA Show was all about MAILA - the ground-breaking Modular All-Round Intelligent Line-Array System from LD Systems. This year, the Adam Hall Group is turning the spotlight particularly on its Cameo lighting brand. In addition to the PixBar G2 series, visitors can look forward to the OTOS SP6 IP65 Spot Profile, the OPUS SP5+ Profile Moving Head with optimised LED engine, the compact AZOR S2 Spot Moving Head and the S2 IP65 LED Softlight Panel. The Cameo Highlights
USA - The redolent power of the mood ring made an appropriate metaphor for Matchbox Twenty’s Slow Dream Tour, which recently concluded its 54-show run at Chicago’s Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre. The Playground design studio evoked images of the emotive cultural icon with a large inflatable semi-circle that arches over the upstage deck and is backed by a massive video wall. An array of images from retro clips to abstract patterns displayed on the video screen, is suggestive of the dreamy, translucent look of a mood ring. Accenting the 3D quality of this ‘ring’ is a collection of lighting fixtures, including the Chauvet Professional Maverick Force 2 Profile, arranged along angled stage left and stage right horizontal truss structures. “Things that felt important to us were that the show feel minimalist and architectural. It had to exist as an environmen
Australia - Live entertainment supplier Chameleon Touring Systems has upgraded its communications solution from an old analogue party line system to a Green-GO digital package, to aid reliable communications between lighting teams on tour. Green-GO dealer Event Communications Australia masterminded Chameleon Touring’s investment, drawing on extensive experience of digital communications solutions for the live music touring market. “Chameleon’s previous comms systems were based around a basic single channel, analogue party line system which were starting to be less reliable, so it was time to update to current technology,” says Event Communications Australia’s Rod McKinnon. “We worked closely with Graham Walker at Chameleon Touring to curate a kit list of Green-GO products that we knew would offer clear, easy-to-use communications for the lighting crew worki
France - Lyon, a city famous for its annual Festival of Light, has also successfully reclaimed its two rivers, a project that started in 2002. A major element of this is the ‘glacier blue’ illumination of a 2.5k stretch of the Rhône riverbanks linking the Parc de la Tête d'Or and the Parc de Gerland in greater Lyon, which is now permanently lit with 244 new Anolis ArcSource 24 LED fixtures. This Anolis lighting scheme has replaced all the original metal halide lighting fixtures that were installed in 2008 when the riverbank scheme was inaugurated and transformed the area from moody car parking to a bustling urban thoroughfare. The switch to LED was driven by the city’s Urban Lighting Department (DEU) and the new lighting is 76% more energy efficient. The banks of the Rhône pass through a succession of natural, mineral, and urban developments and a
Canada - CAST Group has announced the immediate availability of their latest hardware solution. BT-1 is a compact tracking solution that delivers impressive effects, tracking and automation capabilities, similar to large-scale productions, but tailored to fit smaller intimate spaces. Unveiled at this year’s Prolight & Sound trade show, BT-1 opens a number of possibilities for small-scale productions to experience the same precision and control capabilities as the original BlackTrax system, but in a more compact, cost effective and portable solution. Specifically designed for small to medium-sized projects in theatre, studios, corporate events, and houses of worship. BlackTrax’s impressive feature set, including easy setup and calibration, high accuracy, low latency, prediction algorithms, integrates with any application through a single integration output. Whet
USA - Independent lighting designer Joel Reiff has tapped 28 Ayrton Domino Profiles as his ‘workhorse’ fixture for Counting Crows’ 56-date summer tour across North America, which he programmed on a grandMA3 console. ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of Ayrton fixtures and MA lighting products in North America. The band, with guests Dashboard Confessional, kicked off their Banshee Season Tour in June in Omaha and will wrap with a show at the famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado on 25 September. Upstaging provided the Dominos and grandMA3 consoles for the tour. “I like to emphasise the music in my lighting design and not take the audience’s eyes away from what the band is doing on stage and what they’re hearing,” says Aiken, South Carolina-based Reiff. “As my spot fixtures the Dominos get the brunt of the looks and take the majorit
UK - Over two nights in June, Adlib’s sizeable inventory of Martin MAC Ultra fixtures were deployed for Sam Fender’s homecoming gigs at Newcastle’s St. James’ Park. Specified by lighting designer Sam Tozer, with lighting director Luke Avery, and design associate Harry Williams, a combination of Martin’s MAC Ultra Performance and MAC Ultra Wash fixtures delivered huge impact for the 100,000 strong audience. Explaining his initial design concept Sam Tozer said: “We wanted to create a show that felt heavy and dynamic. Something visually impactful but with the capability to create unique spaces with visuals and light. It needed to be able to match the energy of the music.” And in terms of fixtures, the LD already knew the MAC Ultra family would deliver the necessary impact. “I‘ve been using the MAC Ultra Performance in most of my larger scale
USA - Morgan Wallen has become a country music superstar in a very short time. Just years from debuting, he dominates the country music charts with a pair of albums that remain in the Billboard Top 10. His 2023 release, One Thing at a Time topped the chart for an impressive 15 weeks. Wallen’s current One Night at a Time stadium tour reflects his meteoric rise with an expanded production design by Zac Coren that includes Elation Proteus luminaires. Being an outdoor stadium tour, IP-rated lighting fixtures were a must and Zac turned to three fixtures in the proven Proteus series - Proteus Rayzor Blade linear FX bars, Proteus Hybrid moving heads, and Proteus Rayzor 760 LED wash effects. The tour launched in March in Australia and New Zealand with a North American leg that kicked off in Milwaukee in April and is selling out at virtually every stop. Event product
Vietnam - The Adam Hall Group continues to expand its international sales network. With Acoustic & Lighting System, the event technology provider headquartered in Neu-Anspach, Germany, has gained an experienced distribution partner in Vietnam. Acoustic & Lighting System is one of the leading event and AV technology distributors in Southeast Asia and will take over the exclusive distribution for the solutions of the Adam Hall Group brands LD Systems, Cameo, Gravity and Palmer with immediate effect. In addition to the Vietnam market, Acoustic & Lighting System with its more than 150 employees also covers the sales markets of Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand. The extended range of services offered by the A&L Group includes technical project consulting as well as a comprehensive service and maintenance offer for all sales brands. "The Vietnamese
UK - From stand D3 with SES, at this year’s PLASA Show, Data Strategy will showcase the extensive benefits of the industry’s first choice electrical and cable safety inspection solution, the QC-Check workstation. Anticipating an extension to the summer festival season’s conversational theme of cable identification out on site, Data Strategy’s Iain Roche will be on stand ready to discuss the benefits of simple labelling solutions, as well as the latest rental system integrations and QC-Check’s most popular add-on modules, including the PowerCheck distro testing, LOLER inspection and SimplyPATS integration software. Integration with equipment hire software is central to QC-Check’s role in embedding practical safety inspection solutions into the heart of the warehouse process. Data Strategy is progressing two new and interesting integrations that will allow mo
Albania - Prolights fixtures played a pivotal role in the concert titled Dekada by Albanian singer Elvana Gjata. This event marked a significant milestone in Elvana's two-decade-long musical journey, captivating thousands of fans at the Air Albania Stadium in Tirana for a memorable four-hour extravaganza. Contributing to the importance of the event was ASLV Albania working in collaboration with Kuadr Events, they integrated 350 cutting-edge Prolights fixtures, creating a breathtaking stage setup, including: 30 PanoramaIP Spot, 30 PanoramaIP AirBeam, 60 UNICO, 50 Jade, 40 Stark 400, 24 Sunrise 2IP, 40 SunRise 4, 40 Lumipix 15IP, 12 EclFresnel TW, 12 LumiPar 12IP and 16 Razor 440. "The Prolights fixtures truly exceeded our expectations at Elvana Gjata's Dekada concert. Their cutting-edge technology and versatility allowed us to create a visually stunning productio
Norway - The band, Postgirobygget (named after Norway’s main post office in Oslo), which began life in 1994 under the name The Pissed Off Sons, gained traction with their debut album Melis, which sold nearly 200,000 copies and spent a total of 70 weeks in the VG Chart. Since then, they have embarked on an annual summer tour, performing at festivals and venues in front of audiences ranging from 2000 to 18,000 people. Postgirobygget’s 28-date summer 2023 tour began in May and will continue through until September, with set and lighting design by Petter Nilssen of LiteNordic, MDG’s distributor for Norway. Nilssen chose a single MDG Me2 fog generator as his source of fog and haze for the duration of the tour, complete with MDG’s digital theFAN, both of which were neatly and conveniently housed with fluid and gas bottles in an MDG Vertical Flight Case as an instan
Turkey - The focus of many legends and sagas, Istanbul’s Maiden’s Tower is the most important building for the city’s inhabitants, with a long history stretching back beyond 1423 when it first received its name. During its complete renovation, the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism commissioned contractors ASTEL to conduct an international competition for a light show that should highlight the Tower, be widely seen around Istanbul and run fully-automated every night. The contract was won by Martin Kuhn of MKLD Lighting Design & Consulting of Berlin, who conceived the idea of telling the Tower’s story using light to accompany the narrative in the manner of a theatre piece or performance. Kuhn commissioned a seven-minute script from respected Turkish writer, Ayşe Kulin, had it translated it into English and Arabic, found professional speakers for
UK - Artistic Licence, now part of the Robe family, goes back to its rock 'n' roll roots, with a line-up of rack-mount splitters and its gateway range. From the signature 'skinny rack' octoboxes to the channel-dense, feature-rich dataLynx range, a spectrum of budgets and technical needs are catered for. The Artistic Licence stand would not be complete without some of its popular DIN rail mount products. This year sees the arrival of a new addition to the bestselling railSplit range, in the form of railSplit quad. This new DMX/RDM opto-splitter features all the functionality of the railSplit RDM, with two key differences: Data connections are all RJ45 plus there are four (not six) outputs. Also in the news, Artistic Licence has revamped the railFlip, with a new style case and markings. railFlip is a modular A-B switch for DMX512 that supports four universes. Its
UK - Sam Fender played two homecoming shows at St. James’ Park in Newcastle with lighting designed by Sam Tozer - also the show’s creative director - and equipment supplied by event technology specialists, Adlib, including 11 x Robe Fortes running on five RoboSpot systems. Tozer has been working with the artist since he re-started playing live after the pandemic in 2021. Working alongside him was lighting director Luke Avery, who was heavily involved in the design process, together with set designer Flora Harvey. Video content was created by UDC. Sam’s overall vision for these shows was to make the lighting look epic, large scale and ‘industrial strength’ to cover the dynamic range of Sam Fender’s music. The Fortes were all rigged on the front truss and utilised for spot lighting, key lighting and specials. “I needed a very reliable and stable remo
