UK - SLX has opened applications for the 2022/2023 edition of its student support scheme, The Lighting Programme. The programme aims to foster young, upcoming talent within the industry. Students joining the programme will have access to expert mentorship, along with networking opportunities with industry professionals and leading manufacturers to help prepare for the start of their careers. SLX will also provide specialist project support and an equipment package for one of their final year productions. Live event specialists SLX, who work on high profile events like The Commonwealth Games and the West End musical Six, were recent winners of the inaugural TPi Green Award for outstanding sustainable policies. Successful candidates will have the opportunity to play a part in this change, whilst learning vital skills and practices to take forward into their caree
India - PALM expo in Mumbai was a successful event for ChamSys, not only due to the reception its award-winning line of lighting consoles received, but also because the May show marked a new chapter for the company in India, as it worked the show with its recently appointed dealer, StageMix. “We are extremely happy to welcome StageMix as our Indian dealer,” says Aziz Adilkhodjaev, ChamSys’ international business development manager. “Given the recent surge of interest in our products, we’ve been looking for a partner with the passion for growth that could help us seize the opportunities in front of us. We’re confident we found that partner in StageMix.” Nitesh Narayan, sales manager of StageMix is equally optimistic about future growth. “This is a wonderful opportunity for our company,” he says. “ChamSys has great products with a lot of features and
UAE - The recently opened Dubai Hills Mall is a destination in a popular tourist spot, offering opportunities for shopping, dining and entertainment. It is also home to The Storm, the fastest indoor rollercoaster in the city; an adventurous ride that stands 50m tall. Showcasing the latest innovations in engineering, The Storm features a vertical launch to 50m in just five seconds. The 670m track weaves throughout the entire mall building, making it a spectacle to watch and a unique experience for riders. Experiences operator Emaar Entertainment created the concept of the rollercoaster set into the heart of the shopping mall. They appointed engineering experts Cundall to design and deliver The Storm. As the lead design consultant, Cundall provided a range of services including structural engineering and lighting design. To fulfil the design, Creation Gulf were bro
USA - German dubstep artist Virtual Riot brought his Simulation Album Tour to the Hollywood Palladium 22 April and electrified the sold-out crowd with his edgy brand of EDM supported by lighting effects from Elation Professional. Dallas Gasper from Paradox Productions and Design designed the rig with lighting director Lorcan Clarke on hand to run the show. Lighting gear was supplied by 4Wall with SFX/lasers provided by Owl Vision. Clarke created laser show designs for trance, house and techno events in Ireland before moving to the San Francisco Bay area in 2020. Since, he has designed, programmed and directed lighting for Blu De Tiger’s How Did We Get Here 2021 US tour, Sidepiece’s Kiss & Tell 2022 US tour, and Deorro's 2022 Lollapalooza shows in South America. Clarke timecoded much of the Hollywood Palladium Virtual Riot show and had an Elation rig of beam lights, s
UK - St. Paul’s Cathedral is a venue that is steeped in tradition, even when it comes to lighting, the traditional PAR 64 has always been the fixture of choice for lighting designers. However, for the Queen’s Jubilee Thanksgiving Service, lighting director and BAFTA Award winner David Bishop stepped away from tradition, opting for an all-new LED lighting rig, with the new Martin Mac Aura PXL taking the leading role as the main lighting fixture. Bishop explains: “For the Queen’s Jubilee, it was important to maintain the traditional feel and the natural look, yet I wanted to increase the flexibility and efficiency of the lighting rig. “The new Martin MAC Aura PXL was ideal. The high lumen output, colour rendering, and zoom range is exceptional for such a compact fixture and perfect for this application. It allowed me to have much greater control of the colour
Italy - Following on from its range of LED bars introduced last year, Claypaky has now expanded the Tambora family further and introduces Tambora Linear, a line of static LED Pixel mapping bars designed for versatile lighting effects and artistic set decoration. These are hybrid bars, which incorporate two complementary effects into one fixture. The first is driven by a system of 400 RGB pixel LEDs, which offer a background light very similar to that of a high-definition LED wall in appearance. This LED array can be controlled as 16 LEDs in 25 groups to provide high quality motion graphics. The second effect is created by a central line of 200 powerful white LEDs for an overwhelming strobe effect, capable of reproducing the behaviour of the most celebrated strobe fixtures on the market. This effect can also be controlled through 25 different areas, offering unparallele
USA - At this year’s Experiential Marketing Summit (EMS) at the MGM Grand Las Vegas, The Verge Aero drone team flew a drone show high above the ballroom next to Harry Reid International Airport. Taking off from the MGM Grand parking garage – situated just 100 yards from the airport tarmac - presented the Verge Aero team with a challenge. While a focus on safety and precision execution are always part of standard operating procedures, the tight confines of the flight envelope in an urban environment required extreme precision and attention to detail. “The Experiential Marketing Summit team commissioned us to deliver an on-brand drone show to wow conference delegates, to be flown over the MGM Ballroom roof,” says Verge Aero’s Chris Lutts, who oversaw the project. “We had a tight timeline to design, program and create the show, and some interesting challenges.
UK - The Falklands Hall primary presentation auditorium at the Commando Training Centre Royal Marines (CTCRM) required an urgent replacement for their original tungsten lights, and ETC ArcSystem was chosen to upgrade the space. The tungsten lights had come to the end of production and spare parts and bulbs were unavailable which led to a health and safety issue as they fell below the legal level required. ETC dealer, Stage Electrics, selected ArcSystem fixtures and drivers to transform the space with LED. CTCRM, is based in Lympstone, Devon, and is the official training base for the Royal Marines. The auditorium space previously had 66 150-watt tungsten lamps which repeatedly failed and caused issues with maintenance as they were mounted over the seating rake. These luminaires were all replaced with ETC’s ArcSystem Pro One-Cell fixtures and ArcSystem Pro D4 CC Drive
Australia - Hennessy and the NBA unveiled Australia’s first floating basketball court on Sydney Harbour recently, with live music performances from ASAP Ferg and B Wise. This was part of the latest version of Courts Beyond Limits, a programme from Hennessy, the official spirit of the NBA, in celebration of the league’s 75th season. Guests were transported out for a courtside view of the event on the Hennessy Superyatch. In addition to the celebrity hoops exhibition, they got to enjoy performances by FERG, along with AIR Award-winning hip-hop artist B Wise and other stars. Setting the scene for the event was a courtside lighting display by Jay Productions that featured 24 Chauvet Professional Well STX 180 fixtures that the production company purchased from Showtools International, which imports Chauvet products. Showtools International notes that it added the
Australia - After a three-year hiatus, Vivid Sydney 2022 is now underway. Millions of expected visitors will descend on the 8km Vivid Sydney Light Walk that’s packed full of large-scale projection mapping, LED screens, wayfinding and high-powered media server technology linking the Festival’s 50 installations and projection artworks from Sydney Opera House to Central Station. Festival director Gill Minervini, who directs her first Vivid Sydney in 2022, explains: “For 12 years we’ve relied on TDC working behind-the-scenes to deploy the brightest, most powerful technology on a grand scale helping to reinvent Sydney’s urban landscape and using it as a unique and colourful canvas capturing the essence of Sydney’s soul.” Michael Hassett, founder and managing director at TDC - Technical Direction Company - adds: “Each year, Vivid Sydney gets bigger, brighter
UAE - Adam Bassett, lighting designer and founding partner of Woodroffe Bassett Designs, specified a wealth of IP65-rated Ayrton fixtures for the entertainment lighting rig for Expo 2020 Dubai’s central venue, the Al Wasl dome. The rig included 182 Ayrton Perseo S profiles, 116 Ayrton Domino S profiles and 16 Ayrton Huracán LT long-throw profiles. Postponed for over a year due to COVID, Expo 2020 Dubai finally ran for six months between 1 October 2021 and 31 March this year, and was the largest event ever to be held in the Arab world. The indisputable centrepiece was the Al Wasl dome, a 130m-diameter by 67m-tall arching steel trellis that also became the world’s largest 360° projection surface. Its translucent dome crowned the central Al Wasl Plaza which, as the ‘beating heart’ of Expo 2020 Dubai, encompassed gardens and restaurants during the day and transfo
UK - Graduate engineers from Siemens have developed a geo-locating lighting system, which is being used as part of the Green Space Dark Skies project to create artworks in National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Geolights has been designed to allow thousands of people to create artistic displays in landscapes, led by Walk the Plank and commissioned as part of Unboxed: Creativity in the UK. More than 20,000 volunteers will create lighting patterns using the system that will be captured on film and broadcast as short films online. The devices developed include GPS-enabled technology alongside innovations including Internet of Things (IoT), realtime location tracking, energy storage, and wireless connectivity. By remotely changing the colour of the lights, each participant will effectively become a ‘pixel’ within a coordinated image of live artworks wi
USA - After two years of waiting, fans of the Hangout Festival returned to the Gulf Shores beachfront for a weekend of live music. Headliners included Post Malone, Fallout Boy, Halsey, Tame Impala and Megan Thee Stallion. More than 40,000 fans turned out for the sold-out, three-day event, and Bandit Lites provided the festival lighting system for the main Hangout Stage and the Surf Stage. Bandit’s vice president of production, Dizzy Gosnell, has designed the festival lighting rig for many seasons, and he meticulously works to ensure the headliners on each stage have a plethora of lighting to work with from washes, spots, beams, strips/strobes and blinders/safety lights spanning across both rigs. “The first thing I try to get is to layer the lamps on each truss,” explains Gosnell. “For example, having lamps perched from the top chord, outrigged down from the t
Norway - Det Norske Teatret (the Norwegian Theatre) in Oslo houses three stages in its main building in downtown Oslo, plus one more in another venue in the city run by the same team, all of which work on a busy repertory schedule. Together at least 25 original productions are created annually, in the Norwegian language of Nynorsk, and some guest works are hosted. Also known for high production values, the theatre has recently invested in 15 Robe Esprite moving lights for its 250-capacity Scene 2. The theatre’s resident lighting designer Torkel Skjærven, explained that they previously had Robe ColorWash 750AT Tungsten moving lights in the black box Scene 2 space, and these have worked hard and reliably for over 10 years. However, the time arrived to replace them with a more modern LED light source. The drive to convert the theatre’s lighting to LED has bee
Europe - Gary Numan took to the road in April with a moody and ethereal lighting design created by award winning LA-based designer Dustin Snyder. An essential objective of the design was to ensure that the fans could see Numan and his band’s expressive faces from all parts of the room and also on camera. For that reason, Snyder sought out the precise framing capability and familiar CMY colour palette of the VL2600 Wash from Vari-Lite. Atmospheric and moody, the design is inspired by Numan’s three red stripes of facial war paint, from his portrait on the cover of the Intruder album, and centres around a heavily backlit, multi-layered, video and lighting design. The main scenic element on stage is a huge video wall that oozes ominous, cinematic insights into a broken planet, destroyed by humanity, as Numan manifests as the planet’s own lamenting voice.
USA - The winners of the ESTA Members Choice Awards were announced during The NAMM Show in Anaheim. ESTA member exhibitors nominated new products, and ESTA members, who attended The NAMM Show, voted on their favourites in two categories, Equipment and Gadget. In the Equipment category, Altman Lighting was awarded the prize for their AIP-200 Hydra PAR, a compact 200W RGBL IP65-rated and convection-cooled zoom PAR. “It’s always gratifying to receive recognition for a product that so many people put so much hard work into,” says Nicolas Champion, Altman’s vice-president of sales and marketing. “And when it’s ESTA members that are recognising your product, it’s extra special. We are very proud to support the work that ESTA and its members do for our industry and community and are greatly honoured by this award.” In the Gadget category, Link USA took home t
UK - Full-service video and lighting company 4Wall has extended its stock of Elation Artiste series LED moving heads into Europe with the purchase of the Artiste Monet Profile, Artiste Mondrian Profile FX and Artiste Rembrandt Wash luminaires. The purchase complements 4Wall US’ investment in Mondrian, Rembrandt, Monet and Artiste Van Gogh units. The sale took place through Entedi, Elation’s exclusive distribution partner in the UK, working closely with Elation’s European office and Elation business development manager, Graham Hill. David March, director of business development 4Wall, comments: “Following on from our recent investment in Elation fixtures in the US, we are pleased to have placed a significant order with Elation’s UK distributor Entedi for Artiste fixtures. We have chosen from the Artiste family the Monet, Mondrian and Rembrandt for their full
USA - Over 16,000 athletes representing 800 teams from 40 countries participated in the 2022 Allstar World Championship in Orlando this spring. Craig Huddleston, the designer and show director, comments: “This is a competition, but it needs to be fun. We wanted to highlight the athletes and make them feel like rockstars when they ran out on stage.” Huddleston and his team at AVOS agency succeeded in doing this in spectacular fashion. Athletes competing in 50 different divisions were greeted with a walk-on light and video display reminiscent of a NBA championship game, complete with flurries of strobing and aerial effects, as well as dynamic neon-like video wall patterns heralding their arrival. Helping them accomplish this on the event’s main stage was a 4Wall Entertainment Nashville supplied rig that featured over 300 Chauvet Professional F 5IP LED panels
UAE - Lighting designers Travis Hagenbuch and Bob Dickinson lit the Expo 2020 Dubai Closing Ceremony and turned to Elation Professional’s powerful Proteus Excalibur beam moving head to create a spectacular finale look that brought to a close the six-month Expo journey. The Emmy-award winning designers - who also lit Expo’s Opening Ceremony back in September - sought a compact, IP-rated beam light with power to project an impactful ring of light out of the Al Wasl Dome. “We were tasked with how to make it happen within the constraints we had,” comments Travis Hagenbuch, who notes that the brief came from Expo 2020 director-general Reem Al-Hashimi. “It was a beautiful poetic moment, simple and elegant, and a fitting way to end the Expo.” The Expo story began during the Opening Ceremony when a young Emirate girl was given a ring, which unlocked a world of dis
UK - LSi is sad to report that John Simpson, co-founder of White Light and chairman of technical entertainment charity Backup, passed away on the morning of 11 June after a short battle with cancer. He was 79 years old and is survived by his partner, Sue, and three children. In a tribute to its founder, White Light has published the following statement: “We are heartbroken to bring you the news that our founder and former chairman John Simpson passed away (…). Those of you who were lucky enough to know John, or work with him, will know what a brilliant person he was and how this is not only a huge loss to White Light but also the wider industry. John had a lifelong passion for theatre lighting and his co-founding of WL was both a pioneering and revolutionary move; forever changing the way the industry would operate. Not only did he have incredible foresight bu
UK - Great Britain marked the 70th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's reign with thousands of events and street parties over a long weekend, including a large-scale live concert at Buckingham Palace. 22,000 spectators gathered in front of the three stages, where Queen & Adam Lambert, Rod Stewart, Alicia Keys and Ed Sheeran played, among many others, and another 13.4 million watched the BBC's mega-event live on TV. For the lighting of the main stages, Buckingham Palace and the Tree of Trees sculpture designed by Heatherwick Studio, Version 2 Lights supplied more than 600 cameo spotlights, including over 60 of the new hybrid outdoor all-rounder Otos H5. The forecourt as well as the Palace itself was staged by 62 Otos H5, 156 Zenit W600, 392 Flat Pro 7 G2 and 72 Flat Pro 12 G2. The lighting design was done by Nigel Catmur, who used the Cameo spotlights for the numerous live
USA - Bandit Lites has announced the promotions of several major leaders with Brent Barrett as vice president of business development, Roth Edwards as vice president of operations and Jake Tickle as vice president of business and innovation. “Every great firm is defined by their great people,” says Bandit chair, Michael T. Strickland. “Bandit Lites is no exception. Brent Barrett, Roth Edwards, and Jake Tickle exemplify that dynamic. Each a long time Bandit, they have from day one contributed at a level far beyond what was asked of them.” Barrett now takes the helm of VP of business development. “Bandit has been a part of me most of my life,” Barrett reflected. “For me, Bandit started with a friendship with Michael during our elementary school that continues today. Roth Edwards entered Bandit as an assistant warehouse manager and appeared on the c
USA - Lightware Visual Engineering will highlight a range of new and enhanced professional AV solutions at InfoComm 2022, on stand W1831. From its Taurus universal matrix switchers to UBEX AV-over-IP devices and more, the Lightware technologies on display combine atmix of performance, quality and efficiency needed by commercial end-users and system integrators. Lightware is also announcing the official opening of its new global training facility, the Lightware Discovery Centre, based in Las Vegas. “The professional AV/IT landscape is constantly changing, with an increasing emphasis on network connectivity, remote access and interactive collaboration,” said Gergely Vida, CEO at Lightware Visual Engineering. “Attendees will experience our latest technology innovations and comprehensive solutions designed for every application, requirement and budget as well as o
USA - City Theatrical is staging demonstrations of relevant tape products at Cine Gear Expo LA which is running currently at the Los Angeles Convention Centre. City Theatrical's QolorFLEX HiQ High CRI LED Tape is designed to have a Colour Rendering Index (CRI) of 95, making it an iappropriatel high CRI LED tape for the needs of the film industry. It is available in three types, 3200K, 6000K, or 2700-6500K in a single chip, and offers exceptional on-camera colour rendition and the ability to match the light sources already being used on film and television sets. QolorFLEX 5-in-1 LED Tape is an interior-grade LED Tape with high output brightness and the ability to create a wide spectrum of colours when used with a DMX colour control system. QolorFLEX 5-in-1 LED Tape comes in two colour options, RGB plus Amber plus Cool White (new!), and RGB plus Warm White plus Cool Whit
