Chile - The recently opened Falabella Chile Inmobiliario at the Open Plaza Kennedy shopping centre in Santiago, has a simple, but very ambitious, goal: to offer customers a culinary experience in surroundings that make them feel special. The 6,000sq.ft space, which is located on the fourth floor of this centre, is well on its way to doing just that, serving as home to 12 restaurants offering a variety of dishes from Chile and around the world. The centre features an immersive and transformative lighting design by the Piedra Luces studio, headed by lighting designer Fernando Piedrabuena. Featuring 150 Chauvet Professional fixtures supplied by Piedra Iluminación, which acquired the fixtures through Chemtrol Chile, the lighting creates an enchanting mood throughout the entire area. Acclaimed for lighting of the first Zaha Hadid tower in South America, the Piedra Luces st
USA - One of Seattle’s largest lighting rental houses, R90 Lighting, often turns to Elation Professional products to light a wide scope of projects and has recently added more Elation fixtures to its rental inventory. The concert and event lighting design firm emphasises the latest in LED technology in its inventory of stage lighting fixtures, a principle the company has held since its founding 10 years ago. R90’s new acquisition includes an LED package of Fuze MAX Profile, Fuze Wash FR, Proteus Rayzor 760, Artiste Picasso and Paladin Panel luminaires. R90 owner Joe Cole has followed LED’s development closely over the last decade and has been enthusiastic about the opportunities it has opened up. “Early on, LED was useful for uplighting and wash lighting but wasn’t really viable as a spot or profile,” he stated. “But then we noticed Elation moving towards
USA - The Rock Believer world tour kicked off in March in Las Vegas, with a residency by the Scorpions at the Planet Hollywood Hotel & Casino. Manfred Nikitser has been there from the start, where he has been the lighting designer for the Scorpions family since 2015 and, for the current tour, relied on the the Prolights ArenaCob 4FC LED blinders, among other fixtures. "The Scorpions are a classic hard rock band, but they have always had a very modern approach to their tour and set designs," explains Nikitser, who also worked for the band as a video programmer and operator at the beginning of their long-standing collaboration. "Even on the previous tours, the stage was very clean, without the typical amp setups in this genre. In addition, a lot of work is done with LED screens.” For the current Rock Believer tour, however, the Scorpions consciously opted for a cla
USA - The colourful, richly textured 3D set created by the team at Lüz Studio casts a powerful spell on audiences at country star Reba McEntire’s current arena tour. The production design does more than provide an attractive backdrop for the beloved star’s performance, using artificial Intelligence and other tools, it creates an immersive environment that she lives in during her 100-minute set. At times, the setting seems so real that it looks as if the performance is taking place “inside” an actual structure instead of on a stage. Critical to making this look work is the position of the set’s big video screen in relation to the stage, the band and the artist herself, according to Lüz Studio’s Matthieu Larivée, the tour’s lead designer. “Positioning the lighting rig in this set-up is very important,” he explained. “When the lighting truss structu
Israel - The fifth season of Ninja Warrior Israel, the popular endurance sport competition TV series, was recorded on the waterfront of the atmospheric Haifa port industrial setting, overlooked by giant cranes and massive container ships unloading at the adjacent docks. All the action – as competitors negotiated a series of increasingly difficult obstacles against each other and the clock – was filmed overnight due to the extreme heat, and lit by lighting designer/director Ofer Jacobi working in close collaboration with director Oren Levi. The site was a 20,000sq.m outdoor arena-like space, so Ofer needed powerful moving lights and chose Robe products to help light vital elements of the show. The Robes included 14 x BMFL Blades, 30 x Spiider LED wash beams, 23 x Pointes and 12 x LEDBeam 150s, supplied rental company Argaman Systems Ltd., along with app
Austria - In a transition to the newest generation of LED moving light fixtures, The Vienna State Opera has replaced its Claypaky HMI luminaires with Claypaky Arolla Profile MPs. While small in stature, the Arolla Profile MP delivers powerful light output with its 470 W white LED engine (at over 22,000 lumens output) and boasts a feature set typically seen in a much larger, more expensive fixture. “We have invested a lot in LED technology in recent years. Almost all the backlights on stage are LED types now, and we also use a lot of LED for the proscenium,” says Rudolf Fischer, head of lighting at the Vienna State Opera. “In total, we replaced 19 lights in the proscenium and stage area.” The famed Vienna State Opera is a 1,709-seat Renaissance Revival landmark located on the city’s Ring Road. It was inaugurated as the Vienna Court Opera by Emperor Franz Josef
Following on from the phenomenal success of Zonda 9 in April, Ayrton is excited to launch Zonda 3 Wash and Zonda 3 FX, the latest addition to the Zonda family and part of Ayrton’s Multi Sources 3 Series. Designed specifically for stage lighting, Zonda 3 is an incredibly compact, versatile luminaire with unlimited potential. Packed with amazing effects it can switch from beam to wash with great ease. Its speed of movement and reduced dimensions increase its dynamic potential, while its compact size makes Zonda 3 easy to use in compositions with curtains or matrices. Fitted with seven high-performance 40W LED sources with RGB+W, Zonda 3’s proprietary optical system is made up of a unique 170mm mono-block cluster in PMMA, which enhances beam coherence, and seven glass light guides with an output surface composed of an optical micro-structure. A 50mm truncated transmitting le
UK - One of Britain’s most successful girl groups, the Sugababes, embarked on their first tour in 20 years this autumn with their original line up performing a 17-date tour of UK and Ireland. Award-winning show designer Ed Warren chose 24 Ayrton Domino Profile fixtures as his main source of key light and mood lighting for the tour. “This is not my first time using Ayrton - I’ve loved what they’ve been doing for many years now,” says Warren. “For the tour I wanted an LED fixture that was powerful, with a clear, crisp beam, solid colours and reliability. The Domino has all of that!” Warren sited the Domino Profile fixtures in sets of eight, on the upstage deck and on each of the upstage and downstage trusses. “The downstage eight were primarily used as our main source of key light, the rest for setting various moods, backlighting the performers, hit
UK - European LED lighting manufacturer Anolis – A Robe Business - participated in (d)arc Media’s new LiGHT22 expo concept for architects, lighting specifiers and designers, staged for the first time at London’s Business Design Centre. The brand showcased three innovative product ranges on a fresh contemporary-looking stand that caught eyes and attracted plenty of interest. The three highlighted product families were Calumma, Ambiane and Eminere, all chosen as most relevant for the expected show visitor demographic. For exterior lighting, all five current sizes of Anolis’s Calumma floodlight family were shown, a range that works seamlessly in conjunction with the Eminere range of linear luminaires. Both fixture types are available with the same LED chips and connection systems for continuity and flexibility, allowing excellent mixing, matching and integ
USA - The owner of Live Wire Productions, Mike Cristella was at Harrah’s Resort, Atlantic City, this October to light Matchroom’s US Open 9-Ball Pool Championship, the world’s most prestigious pool tournament, which was televised on the Sky Sport, DAZN and A&E networks. Cristella and his team (Andy DiAngelis, Jeff Gallagher, Dan Ryan, Andrew Driscoll, Rob Zauck, and Janice Brittin) made a demanding situation look easy, not only creating a supportive environment for players, but also evoking classic poolhall images for TV viewers. Helping them accomplish this feat was a 4Wall Entertainment supplied rig that featured Chauvet Professional COLORado 2 Solo and STRIKE Array 2 fixtures. “When lighting a pool tournament, we’re always looking to land a certain shadow in the right place or get pleasing fill light values on a face,” said Cristella. “This
USA - Lighting designer Tom Kenny recently used Elation Professional’s KL Fresnel 8 LED wash light to support the retro set of a special CMT Crossroads performance by Robert Plant & Alison Krauss. Kenny had seen the warm-white LED Fresnel luminaire on the duo’s summer tour and realised it would fit in ideally with the show’s vintage look. CMT Crossroads is a television programme broadcast on CMT that pairs country music artists with musicians from other music genres. The programme, which debuted in 2002 and is celebrating its 20th Anniversary, has helped spawn many successful collaborations including that of Plant and Krauss. The British singer-songwriter and American bluegrass-country singer have enjoyed success as a duo since collaborating on 2007’s Grammy-award-winning Raising Sand album followed by their first CMT Crossroads speci
USA - Jamestown New York’s Riverwalk Illumination Project officially opened in November as part of a $10m city rejuvenation programme. The system highlights city landmarks including the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities coal silo, the Washington Street Bridge piers and abutments, and the Main Street Bridge arches over the Chadakoin River. All these structures are now alive with a range of colourful lighting scenes, with the entire system driven by a Neo Playback Controller paired with a Vision.Net system from Vari-Lite. The coal silo is illuminated by a top and bottom ring of lighting fixtures and the bridges have custom-designed poles supporting more than 50 flood lights. To achieve the looks, the Vari-Lite-designed control rack communicates intensity and colour information to custom designed remote DMX distribution hardware using a fibre network, with the Neo and
USA - OSA International, which delivers entertainment technology, event production and systems integration from its base in Las Vegas, has added large complements of Ayrton Eurus and Diablo lighting fixtures to its rental inventory servicing its Las Vegas and Nashville offices. ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of Ayrton lighting in North America. The purchase is the one of the first Eurus buys in the US. Mark Fetto has a long history as an early Ayrton proponent including the purchase of a compliment of Diablo units for OSA International in February of 2020. Fetto, who is OSA International’s VP lighting and general manager of the Las Vegas office, was brought on board about three years ago to build the company’s new lighting division. “We’ve steadily been growing our inventory of fixtures and, as part of that, ACT demo’d the new Eurus for us,”
USA - Robe lighting embraced the 2022 LDI expo in Las Vegas with a new booth design, invigorating live show, and a line up of new and innovative products. “It was wonderful to be back together with everyone and catch up face-to-face with so many colleagues and friends to celebrate the entertainment technology and design community we all love so much,” stated Lorienn Cochenour, CEO of Robe Lighting Inc. Robe’s six-minute timecoded All Environments live show extravaganza captured the spirit of the moment with strong multi-layered messaging as well as illustrating the robust weatherization and creative effects of Robe’s new iSeries luminaires, including the iForte, iSpiider, and iBeam250 highlighted in the show. The live show attracted excited crowds to the stand, and people rammed the aisles each hour to catch the performance. In a booth whic
UK - Version 2 has announced a new sports partnership with Team GB’s Elise Glynn. Elise, a young amateur boxer boasts an illustrious junior and amateur career securing a multitude of European and National Championships. Her impressive rise through the 57kg weight division has recently been recognised by GB Boxing, awarding her a place on their podium squad. To help fund her passion Glynn holds down multiple jobs whilst training full-time and studying for a degree with the Open University in Business Management and Marketing. Fresh funding from Version 2 provides a much-welcomed addition to her training camp. The Partnership with Elise represents Version 2’s third format partnership in sport after becoming the official partner of BOXXER, Savannah Marshall and Sky Sports Boxing in October 2021 and most recently Saracens Rugby Club in January 2022. Version 2,
Mexico - Steve Lieberman, owner of SJ Lighting has built a reputation throughout the world by defying expectations in his designs for major EDM festivals. If it seems like no two of his designs are alike, it’s because he strives to add a new and unexpected element to each one. “When we design an environment, it’s important to us that we have a visual element that stands out amongst the traditional components,” he explained. “The thing that really elevates a design from the predictable is the unexpected. This is what adds personality to a show.” On 5 November, Lieberman flashed his originality again at Beyond Wonderland Monterrey, an event produced by Ocesa and Insomniac, with a startling geometric design that featured 154 Chauvet Professional ÉPIX Strip IP fixtures with square frosted filters, which, like the rest of the rig, was supplied by Serpro Producc
UK - In Tomb Raider: The LIVE Experience, teams of eight people experience an adrenaline-fuelled adventure in search of a powerful artefact in an approximately 30,000 m2 LIVE action course in London. On behalf of Little Lion Entertainment, Darkside Audio Visual was responsible for the planning and installation of the lighting, audio and video technology, and for this, the London-based integrator relied on a total of 166 spotlights from Cameo. Tomb Raider: The LIVE Experience moves through single and multi-level areas with one overarching goal: to immerse participants deeply in the story being told. In addition to the beautifully designed sets, actors also contribute to the adventure. The selected Cameo fixtures – from the Q-Spot, Studio Par, Root Par, TS and Thunder Series – are spread across all areas of Tomb Raider: The LIVE Experience. For e
Italy - Prolights has released its latest product in the soft light range, the EclSoft Tube100, a multipurpose, IP65 wireless linear pixel tube designed for film & TV, indoor and outdoor environments. The EclSoft Tube100 has a 48W RGB+WW source and 16 independently controlled sections. Just like the other fixtures in the soft light range, it has RGBW mode, HSI, CMY, XY, Raw Direct, CCT linear, CCT presets with +/- green shift, source emulation and industry standard gels, plus a wide range of built-in pixel effects. There is a powerful, long-lasting battery on-board and Wireless DMX (CRMX and W-DMX), making it possible to take the EclSoft Tube100 anywhere without running cables. The new soft tube includes a built-in power supply that bipasses the battery and enables extra lumen output when connected to the mains, an ideal feature for users wanting to install the uni
Italy - Follow-Me has announced the start of a new partnership with Italian distribution company Molpass for stocking, sales, marketing, training and support of the Follow-Me remote follow-spot and performer tracking system, across the Italian market. Paolo Albani, commercial director of Molpass comments, "We have already been collaborating with great quality brands for some time and, adding Follow-Me among these, is a big step and a great opportunity to offer to our customers a single solution to their projects.” The wide array of applications that Follow-Me is currently used on range from international tours with artists such as Genesis, Ed Sheeran & Rolling Stones to TV shows like The Masked Singer, Dancing with the Stars, theatrical productions, Expo 2020 Dubai, theme parks, cruise ships and many other applications. General manager for F
USA - Salem Baptist Church in McDonough, GA, sits on a beautiful 104-acre wooded campus with winding paths and gently rolling bluffs that provide an idyllic setting for worship services and bible studies, as well as a variety of recreational activities by its community of worshippers. Completed in 1979, the church building itself is also warm and welcoming, and features a modern video-ready lighting system. Salem recently opened the first satellite campus in its 152-year history. Located 12 miles from the main campus, the new Salem at Keys Ferry building, which was acquired from another church, seats approximately 300. Like the main campus, the new building was designed to support a welcoming worship environment. However, it did not have comparably modern lighting. To address this issue the church contracted StageCulture to design and install a new lighting system for the K
The Netherlands - The new Amare building is an arts, culture, and educational hub on the Spui in Den Haag, which opened last year at the heart of this lively capital city, after six years of construction. Built on the footprint of the old Lucent Danstheater, Amare is a centre for excellence and houses the Dance and Music Centre, The Hague Foundation, the Residentie Orkest, the Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) and the Royal Conservatoire. Offering a 1500-capacity concert hall (2500 standing) and a 1300-seater theatre plus two other performance halls and extensive rehearsal facilities, it was a big deal to get over 100 Robe moving lights specified for the project. These are a mix of 86 x T1 Profiles and 30 x T2 Profiles plus 60 x ParFects all supplied by Robe’s Benelux distributor Controllux and installed in the two primary venues and their main black box space. A
UK – EnterTec, a Buckinghamshire-based provider of audio and visual rental and turnkey production services, has made a major investment in lighting equipment from the Prolights brand, via UK distributor, A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET). The range of new equipment EnterTec has added to its stock includes a range of Prolights’ moving heads such as Astra Wash 19Pix washlights, Jet Spot4z spots and Jet Beam2 beam fixtures. Static luminaires from the brand include Eclipse FS RGBLs (with a choice of lenses), plus a number of Eclipse Junior profiles and Fresnels. The investment also sees EnterTec add 24 of Prolights’ Lumipix 15IP, the tour-ready LED pixel batten, to its stock. Through clients including production management agencies and high-end event producers in the UK and Europe, EnterTec supports events for global brands including several international airli
Germany - This past summer, Waldstadion in Frankfurt was the scene of two sold-out shows by one of Germany’s favourite rock bands over the years, Böhse Onkelz. Renowned lighting designer and long-time lighting collaborator with the band, Jerry Appelt, created a spectacular stage and lighting design for the stadium shows and ensured that the visual impact would be memorable using Elation Professional’s Proteus Excalibur beam moving head. Formed in Frankfurt in 1980, the band’s stadium shows were meant to be 40th anniversary events in 2020 but were postponed until this year. Appelt, who worked with the band earlier in its career and lit the band’s ‘farewell’ concert in 2005 before 120,000 fans, has continued to light shows for them after the band reunited in 2014. The two Waldstadion shows featured distinctive stage and lighting designs by Appelt who says h
UK - The Jools Holland’s Rhythm and Blues Orchestra embarked on their Autumn 2022 UK tour in October, backed by a ‘big band’ lighting design by Paul Fairfield. His vision for the show swings from upbeat rock ‘n’ roll large looks to smooth solo instrument key lighting using VL2600 Profile luminaires from Vari-Lite. The VL2600 Profile fixtures were supplied by Peterborough-based Pearce Hire, which was the first company in the world to invest in them back in 2018. Pearce Hire has supplied the lighting rig to Jools Holland’s Rhythm and Blues Orchestra tours for more than a decade and worked with Fairfield to specify the VL2600s. “We knew the VL2600s were just perfect for the needs of the Jools Holland tour,” says Fairfield. “The consistency of the smooth light output from the LED engine across the rig versus a discharge fixture was a game changer.” For
