France - Every year since 1998, the mass choir of Les Fous Chantants (The Singing Fools), has honoured French-speaking songwriters and composers - living or deceased - with a major choral concert devoted to their works. The musical programme generally includes 25 songs, including those of the guest artist, that are sung with the choir. This year's event, honouring Pascal Obispo, took place in the Temperas Arena in Alès, at the end of July. One thousand choristers were seated on bleachers around a 27m wide x 13m deep main stage, extending the performance area a further 35m x 20m x 8m high. Victor Lagiewski and Guillaume Fournier, founders of lighting design company Chromatik, have managed the lighting for this event since 2017 and specified 44 Ayrton Cobra, 16 Ayrton Perseo Profiles and 12 Ayrton Khamsin S luminaires for their main rig, all of which were supplied S Gro
USA - To simultaneously ensure professional key lighting while blending seamlessly with the set design, HBO’s Game Theory With Bomani Jones recently utilised Martin VDO Sceptron and MAC Encore Performance lighting fixtures deployed by lighting designer Mike Baldassari. Produced by HBO, Game Theory with Bomani Jones features the Emmy-winning journalist sharing his satirical takes on the intersection of sports and culture through topical monologues, sketches and deep dives. Season One of is available to stream on HBO Max. To ensure a sleek and fresh lighting design for the new series, television producer Kathy Welsh hired Mike Baldassari, who utilised Martin lighting fixtures such as the VDO Sceptron and MAC Encore Performance for their versatility, reliability and user-friendliness. MAC Encore Performance fixtures provided all the key light and addition
UK - The city of Birmingham hosted the first PoliNations event, an epic installation work that took over Victoria Square with 40ft-high sculpted archi-cultural trees and thousands of varieties of plants crafted into a setting that hosted a diversity of live events, experiences, and performances. The forest celebrated the colour, existential beauty, delicacy, and adaptability of horticultural life, telling stories of different species and their global journeys, movement and transformations, a fantastic metaphor for the energy and symbiosis that cultural diversity brings to any society. Lighting designer Matt Daw was already onboard with the project when Hampshire-based lighting rental company Liteup won a competitive tender issued by creative production company Trigger Collective – under the artistic direction of Angie Bual and Carl Robertshaw – to illuminate the project
UK - Rental and technical production company Adlib has invested in Robe Forte moving lights and RoboSpot remote follow spot systems to service their busy ongoing work schedule. Some of the new kit went directly out on the recent Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Live Show - The Battle for Moore Street tour, with lighting designed by Mike Summerfield, who made use of two Fortes on the front truss controlled via two RoboSpot BaseStations positioned side stage by the racks. “This is one of the best remote follow spot systems out there,” commented Adlib account manager Jordan Willis. “So far, our team has praised this system's additional flexibility. The set-up and operation are easy, so it makes sense that everyone is happy to see it on a rider or a specification.” Mike Summerfield comments, “The Fortes remove the need for touring bulky follow spots that need
USA - Lighting designers, programmers and operators all made their way to the Obsidian booth over the course of the three-day show to check out the NX1 lighting console, as well as other consoles in the NX line and a full line of Netron data distribution products. The NX1 has created quite a buzz in the lighting control community since launching at the Prolight + Sound tradeshow in Frankfurt last April with LDI being the first opportunity for many in the U.S. to see and demo the console in person. The unit has been shipping worldwide since September. The NX1 is a scalable and full-featured console that offers the complete Onyx experience in an ultra-compact package. It is expandable with the dedicated NXP motorized playback wing, and the NXK, a small USB-powered control surface. Obsidian ran a grand prize drawing at the show with one lucky winner walking away with a
USA - The Vari-Lite team says they are “overwhelmed” at the response to the new products showcased at LDI 2022 and by the strength of the brand within the industry. Three major new flagship products made their US tradeshow debut at the event. A highlight was the Vari-Lite VL3600 Profile IP - a large-scale, high output production profile fixture with an IP65 rating and pitched for touring and TV productions, stadiums and arenas, and large theatres and houses of worship. The other new luminaire showstopper was the VL1600 Profile - an advanced moving head profile luminaire designed for theatrical key lighting applications. The team also unveiled the new Neo X15 control console, which was powered up for hands-on demo at LDI 2022. The Neo X15 is Vari-Lite’s flagship, high-performance lighting console, offering 15 multifunctional motorized playbacks and backlit encode
South Africa - Cape Town-based Ultra Events has purchased 12 Robe Robin LEDBeam 350s from DWR Distribution which went straight to work this past weekend. Costa Champanis, owner of Ultra Events, was one of the core people during the pandemic who would meet up to come up with plans and ideas to save the live events industry and was instrumental in the formation of #LightSAred. He has a heart for people, and a dedication towards his clients. “Oh, what I relief!” said Costa. “After a dark period of business during COVID-19, with the events industry being shut down and our ability to work restricted, it’s a great feeling to be on site and doing what we love most with great people and nice toys to work with.” Johnny Scholtz, DWR’s representative in Cape Town says: “I was able to spend a bit of time with Costa and his team while taking delivery of their ne
USA - After a two-year, pandemic-related wait, The Weeknd’s 19-date After Hours Til Dawn Tour surpassed even the loftiest expectations. This was plain to see (and hear) from the moment the stage erupted in light, and The Weeknd appeared dressed in black and wearing a mask to begin his show with a hauntingly evocative rendition of Alone Again. Supporting The Weeknd during his transformative two-hour set was an immersive light and video show that featured over 1,100 fixtures and a 180ft video wall supplied by Solotech. Solotech account executive Robert Kennedy and his team accomplished this feat by drawing on global resources. The resultant lighting and video rig was a key part of a production design. Going beyond scenery, the design created an actual ‘city’ on stage with 17 custom carved, hard coated, painted buildings in various levels of ruination
France - Internationally acclaimed Franco-Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado is showing Amazônia, his seven-years-in-the-making photographic journey into the still-unspoiled heart of the world’s greatest and most awe-inspiring wilderness. Salgado’s work is fittingly celebrated at the Amazônia Exhibition at Palais des Papes in Avignon, which runs until 30 November. Designed by Lélia Wanick Salgado and accompanied by evocative music from Jean-Michel Jarre specifically written for the occasion, this experience features over 200 black & white photographs that reflect the striking complexity and beauty of the Amazon. Enhancing the power of the exhibit and making it even more transformative is a balanced lighting design by RT Events that features 166 Chauvet Professional fixtures. Subtle and discrete, their lighting manages to add to the exhibi
USA/Europe - The music of Phoebe Bridgers has been captivating an ever-growing fanbase since her first album release in 2017, with lighting designer Spike Kienholz Inglis of Spike Design having been lighting the artist since those early days. The LA-based singer / songwriter released her second album, Punisher, in 2020. With live events and touring disrupted at the time due to covid, she is now mid-way through a 2022 world tour which started in the US, before moving to Europe for a festival blast through the summer, and ultimately culminating in a UK headliner tour. For the US leg of the tour, Spike specified a full Robe moving light rig – with 24 x MegaPointes, 24 x Spiiders, 16 x Tetra1s and six Fortes – all supplied by Gateway Studios & Production from St Louis. Spike first encountered Robe’s products whilst touring Europe in 2014 and has be
Spain - Estopa, one of Spain’s most popular rock/rumba bands, have been touring the country for much of 2022. With many venues sold out, their Fuego tour has been a roaring success. Sixteen Showtec Sunstrips have been used as part of the lighting setup throughout the tour. They were supplied by Fluge Audiovisuales, who were responsible for the tour’s sound, lighting and AV equipment. After performing a few dates in the USA earlier this year, Estopa have played more than 20 dates throughout Spain. The Fuego tour was originally planned to go ahead in 2019 and 2020 to support the release of the album that bears the same name but, due to the global pandemic, the tour dates in 2020 had to be scrapped. Consisting of brothers José and David Muñoz, Estopa have now been successful for over two decades. In addition to touring Spain, they have played in the U
USA - Main Light increased its rental inventory of Ayrton lighting fixtures with the purchase of a large complement of versatile new Zonda 9 FX fixtures. The company currently has offices in Delaware, Tennesse, and Las Vegas, with a fourth location coming February 2023 to Teterboro, NJ. Main Light has seen a steady demand for its Ayrton Perseo, Khamsin and Diablo fixtures, which were acquired during the past two years from ACT Entertainment, the exclusive distributor of Ayrton lighting in North America. Main Light’s acquisition of Zonda 9 FX represents one of the first investments by a US company in the luminaire. Designed for a multitude of applications, Zonda 9 FX is the first in a new family of products for stage lighting equipped with a high-performance 40W LED source with RGB+W additive colour synthesis. Zonda’s LED/optical system combination can produce a powerful
USA - Elation expected a busy LDI 2022. Their booth was crowded from the minute the show opened on Friday at the Las Vegas Convention Centre and lighting pros continued to make their way to the booth to talk lighting and demo Elation, Obsidian and Magmatic products throughout the weekend. The Elation team was excited to be back at the show after a three-year hiatus. “We had a fantastic show,” enthused Elation director of sales & marketing, Eric Loader. “We expected a lot of contact and interest from customers leading up to the show so the crowded booth didn’t surprise us in the least. It was great to see so many faces again, both our faithful partners and customers but also the many new faces and contacts we made. The attention on our new products was great and based on the quality leads generated it gives us a lot of opportunities to continue our growth.”
Australia - The Street Theatre in Australia is Canberra's award-winning home of live storytelling and performance, and a major investor in new theatre, music, and artists from the ACT and region. The Street Theatre commissions, develops, produces, and presents work that challenges expectation and convention. In the months leading to their purchase, they had experienced a bigger demand for LED product in their lighting rig. This demand was driven by the desire to be able to respond to key moments in a performance and being able to easily colour mix and adjust focus, allowing their operators to create lighting that could help drive a performance. “We produced a three-month concert series early 2022, and for this series we hired in an LED lighting rig for the season,” explained James Tighe, technical manager. “After seeing what our lighting team were able to create
USA - Lighting designer Ian Haslauer chose a large complement of Claypaky Xtylos and Mini Xtylos HPE fixtures for the North American leg of The Lumineers’ Brightside World Tour 2022. Christie Lites and representative Martin Kelley supplied the Xtylos fixtures, featuring Claypaky’s proprietary RGB laser source, for the arena tour supporting the American folk-rock band’s Brightside album. The tour played dates across the UK and Europe before moving to North America for the spring and summer, wrapping at Wrigley Field in Chicago in September. Haslauer has worked with The Lumineers since early 2019. Production designers Sooner Routhier and Robert Long of SRae Productions came onboard in 2016 and have three tour cycles to their credit. Routhier suggested that Haslauer use the small form factor Mini Xtylos HPE in his rig following her success in deploying them
Hosted by Oscar-winning composer Steven Price, the two-hour spectacle features highlights from the series shown on a giant 4K screen with live music being performed by an orchestra conducted by Robert Ames. Intelligent lighting by Infinity and Showtec enhance the entire experience. While breath taking images on screen and live orchestral music already engage the audience, stunning lighting effects throughout the venue augment the visual experience to fully immerse them. Numerous lighting fixtures by Infinity and Showtec are used for this. These include 34 Infinity iW-1941 RDM washers, 14 Showtec Helix S5000 Q4 washers, 25 Infinity S401 Spots and eight Infinity S601 Profiles. Each fixture plays an important part in the spectacular light show that was designed by Art of Light’s Andre Beekman. Additional effects are provided by two Showtec Mistique CO2 hazers. In addition to
USA - One of the 2000s most successful hard rock bands is Breaking Benjamin, whose guitar heavy sounds and powerful vocals delivered by Benjamin Burnley have endeared them to fans for two decades. The band teamed up recently with Alice in Chains, to co-headline a tour that also saw Bush on the bill as special guests. The 30-city co-headlining tour kicked off on 10 August at The Pavilion at Star Lake in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania before wrapping up 8 October at the Xfinity Centre in Mansfield, Massachusetts. Ty Veneziano of Bandit Lites designed, programmed and operated lighting for the Breaking Benjamin performance and turned to Elation Professional’s compact Smarty Hybrid moving head to tailor the look and fill out the rig with beam looks. Ty, who has been working with Breaking Benjamin since 2021 after five years working with Chevelle, says that Scott Holthaus (R
Europe - To provide My Chemical Romance with immersive and stylised lighting for their highly anticipated world tour, lighting production house Penlight designed a custom-built rig featuring Martin Professional solutions. After officially disbanding in 2013 and several postponements due to the COVID-19 pandemic, MCR embarked on the tour in May 2022. The band aimed to exceed fans’ lofty expectations with massive, immersive visuals that accentuated their music’s raw energy and adapted to their constantly changing setlists. To meet these requirements, Penlight worked closely with the band to design a detailed and versatile lighting rig featuring Martin MAC Ultra Performance, MAC Quantum Wash, MAC Aura XB and Atomic 3000 fixtures. “For this tour, the band never does the same setlist twice,” said AJ Pen, founder, Penlight. “And by that I don't mean that they swa
Hungary - Művészetek Palotája (MÜPA) – Palace of the Arts – enjoys a commanding position on the shores of the Danube in Budapest and is a powerhouse for high quality arts productions. Its prestigious venues include the 1,700-capacity Bartok National Concert Hall and the festival theatre which accommodates 450 people. The lighting department – comprising 12 people – has recently invested in more Robe moving lights, with 30 x Tarrantulas and 13 x Fortes joining the inventory and now in use, mostly in the Festival Theatre. During the pandemic lockdowns, all MÜPA’s technical staff including the lighting department was kept busy staging streamed shows and they also ran drive-in performances in the car park outside. MÜPA also seized the opportunity of ‘dark’ time during the lockdown to upgrade some of the technology – some of which had been in t
Europe - Prolights has announced the release of the Smart BatPlusG2, a high-end version of the Smart Bat uplighters designed with enhanced output and battery performance, IP65 with a new look. The fixture has four 20W RGB+WW LEDs with high CRI, twice the output on the battery against the previous generation, and nearly three times if connected to the mains. The Smart BatPlusG2 is also ‘Spektra calibrated’, joining a large family of Prolights products that share the same colour calibration standard. The mechanical design allows turning the unit from an uplighter into a spotlight by using the suspension or floor bracket without compromising the aesthetics of the fixture. The Smart BatPlusG2 introduces new features such as interchangeable batteries and easy covers with multiple colours, making it possible to change its look as desired. User-friendly, it can be u
UK – Science Fiction Voyage to the Edge of Imagination is an interactive exhibition of unlimited possibilities at the London Science Museum, which opened this October and runs through May 2023. Designed by Framestore, a Bafta and Oscar winning creative studio in collaboration with P&P Projects, a Dutch scenic design company, the ticketed exhibit draws on a variety of AR and VR tools including a multi-array projection dome featuring a real time Unreal Engine visualisation of extra-terrestrial beings, to immerse visitors in a universe where imagination knows no boundaries Guided by” artificial intelligence of an alien origin,” visitors board a spaceship and explore an unknown planet at this remarkable attraction. Enhancing the transformative journey and deepening the experience of visitors as they leave the familiar behind and enter a new reality is a li
France - With great sadness, the Showlight Committee has announced the postponement of Showlight 2023. The popular quadrennial networking event was due to take place in Fontainebleau, France from 20th – 23rd May 2023. In a statement from Showlight, chairman John Allen explains the reasons behind this decision: “It is after lengthy consideration and with much deliberation that we have decided to postpone Showlight 2023. The plans and preparations for Showlight in Fontainebleau have been underway since 2018 and although the Covid lockdown took two years out of our work, it was always our intention to hold Showlight in 2023 following the lifting of Covid restrictions. “Fontainebleau is a beautiful town with an intimate theatre and a wonderful chateau as well and it is an ideal place for our quadrennial event. Plans progressed with this aim in mind. However, develop
Poland - Multimedia solutions company SQM has recently purchased 54 Prolights EclExpo Flood300WV. The Polish-based company invested in these units as part of a commitment to differentiate itself from other exhibition suppliers: “What attracted us to the EclExpo Flood300VW was the fact we wanted to offer better standards for exhibition stands,” said Jakub Kowala, BDM at SQM. Jakub added: “Other companies are still using halogen flood lights or lights that you can buy in DIY stores. We want to offer more, including features like changeable colour temperature, and individual unit control, so we get the best effects and generally have brighter stands, which will stand out and be more visible than others.” SQM was also driven to these fixtures for practical reasons: “I think the EclExpo Flood300VW will bring new operational standards and simplify our work.
USA - Harman Professional Solutions has introduced the Martin ELP PAR IP static LED wash fixture with IP65-rated outdoor protection. Joining its sibling, the ELP PAR, this fixture features high-intensity zoom, full-gamut color calibration and smart rigging and control functions and is suitable for indoor or outdoor applications with an IP65 rating for protection against dust and water ingress. And its sealed design supports fewer maintenance cycles. The ELP PAR IP and ELP PAR are versatile workhorse lighting solutions for rentals, installs and touring. The ELP PAR IP delivers 3,350 lumens of output thanks to its newly designed 7 x 40W RGBW light engine. It’s designed for covering larger stages that require long throw distances. “The ELP PAR significantly raised the brightness bar in the compact class, producing up to twice the lumen output of its predecessor
