USA - Wilmington, Delaware and Las Vegas, Nevada based lighting rental and dry hire specialist Main Light has invested in more Robe BMFL FollowSpot LT fixtures and motion cameras to boost its inventory of available RoboSpot remote follow spotting systems. Larger quantities of all the RoboSpot elements are needed to keep pace with increasing demand, explained general manager Randy Mullican. The company first invested in this technology shortly after the RoboSpot launch in 2017. Since then, Robe has developed and refined the system, most recently with the introduction of the BMFL FollowSpot LT, a powerful solution for larger venues and covering greater throw distances. It has also increased the number of its moving light ranges that can be controlled via the RoboSpot BaseStations. RoboSpots have been a popular rental item for Main Light from the start, and everyt
South Africa - Johannesburg’s Market Theatre has been on South Africa’s political, cultural, and social frontline since 1976 when it opened as an independent, anti-racist producing house at the height of the apartheid era. Located downtown in the lively Newtown area, the Market Theatre has taken delivery of 50 Robe T1 series LED moving lights as part of an upgrade initiative emanating from SA’s Department of Arts & Culture which is looking to the future and boosting suitability across the arts. These new Robe luminaires will be used across the venue’s three main performance spaces - the John Kani, Barney Simon, and Mannie Manim. The T1s were a major part of a package delivered by Robe’s Southern Africa distributor DWR after winning a competitive tender to supply the venue’s new theatrical / stage lighting elements. The tender was writte
Japan - Netherlands-based Follow-Me has announced Tokyo based TSJ (Technical Supply Japan) as a new distributor. As specialists in the distribution and installation of entertainment lighting technology for touring companies, TV, theatre and discotheques the company has recently been involved in the technical requirements for both the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Follow-Me founder, Gary Yates comments: “TSJ has been established as one of the premier suppliers to the live entertainment market since 1986. They have a vast amount of experience in the lighting and entertainment industry in Japan and are very pro-active in the promotion of their products. We are proud to announce them as the perfect distribution partner for Follow-Me in Japan. This builds on our expanding network of distributors across all continents.” TSJ now have Follow-Me demo kits available at their
Italy - Founded in 2013, Battiti Live features a selection of leading Italian and international music artists. The annual event consists of a series of concerts held in various locations throughout the region of Puglia. Since 2017, lighting designer Massimo Pascucci, accompanied by programmer Davide Fusco, has created engaging and high impact shows, using the Hog family of lighting desks. Hog 4-18 was the primary console of choice for the 2021 edition, together with a Road Hog console for additional special effects. From a technical point of view, there has always been a desire for Battiti Live to maintain a strong live impact. This remained the case even after leading Italian television channel Italia 1 first started transmitting the event in 2017, and broadcast needs became an important consideration. Since he began working on Battiti Live in 2017, Davide Fus
UK - Calendars lost much of their meaning over the past year, as the pandemic erased so many long-anticipated occasions from their pages. For a group of students at the University of Nottingham, one such date was Monday 12 July, when their already-delayed graduation ceremony was cancelled again due to lingering safety concerns. However, these students made up for lost time when the university held a glittering black-tie ceremony with dinner, dancing and entertainment at Newark Show Ground. Setting an appropriately festive tone for the affair was its technical producer OneBigStar, which oversaw and managed the production of the event. OneBigStar retained the services of lighting designer David Howard and supplied him with a versatile kit that featured over 80 Chauvet Professional fixtures. “We wanted this evening to feel almost like a festival, to erase the disa
USA - Nashville’s new Brooklyn Bowl venue hosted a late night ‘Phish after-party’ following their concert at the Ascend Amphitheatre. Kicking off at 10:30 pm right around the time Phish was finishing their encore with a cover of the Rolling Stones Loving Cup, the after-party featured improvised jam and funk sounds by six-piece band Big Something. Adding to the festive atmosphere was an electrifying Daniel Thibault lightshow that reverberated visually throughout the intimate, 1,200-person venue, filling it with an whirlwind of movement and colours. “I wanted to make this room look its biggest,” said Thibault. “Everything about this band’s sound and stage presence is big.” Thibault, a partner in Life Is Art Studios, added 20 Chauvet Professional Rogue fixtures from his company’s own inventory to the house rig, to create the desired immersive atmo
China - Malo Ma, a young gaffer in Hong Kong, has selected ETC’s fos/4 fixtures to light several new video productions. With over a decade of research realized in these studio fixtures, the fos/4 series of luminaires are specifically dedicated to the studio and broadcast market. The fos/4 Panel was used in a recent music video production by the rising female Hong Kong singer Cheronna Ng. Malo leads the lighting of this video production. The music video portrays how the girl pulls herself together from failures and challenges. A fos/4 Panel Daylight HDR (8” x 24”) is used in a few shots in this music video. “The colour is very natural. I like how the colour-mixing with deep red LEDs makes the skin colour tone and other scenes look real and delicate,” commented Malo Ma. “The lightning strikes effect is surprisingly real. It flashes naturally and makes t
USA - Martin Castañon and Victor Ortiz of Darvik Productions provided lighting at the recent Tequila & Taco Festival. Before Vanilla Ice appeared at the popular event, the two met with the multi-platinum rapper’s team to discuss his show. As the conversation progressed, one thing became clear, the star’s team wanted flash, “the flashier the better” specifically strobing. Not having any dedicated strobes on hand, Castañon and Ortiz turned to their rig’s Chauvet Professional Rogue R3X Washes, using the high output (up to 18,260 lux at 5-meters) RGBW fixtures to cover the stage and audience at the Ventura County Fairgrounds with a flurry on intense flashes. “You have to be flexible when working a festival,” said Castañon. “The R3X Washes were great for strobing. We had seven of then flying on upstage truss and seven on midstage. They were stagger
Germany - Bold, bright, vivid with the assistance of Robe moving lights was the look central to Lucas Conradi’s lighting design for the Volkswagen booth at the IAA Mobility 2021 expo in Munich. This was the first international automotive expo open to the public to be staged since the pandemic triggered global lockdowns in March 2020. The client and booth designer was Mutabor Brand Experience, and the lighting equipment was supplied by Cologne Hunters. Lucas, from creative and technical event planners IXPI, was both project and technical manager as well as LD for this booth, and he picked the 15 x Robe Fortes and 36 x Esprites to be a major part of the stand’s lighting art. Four Robe RoboSpot remote follow spotting systems, controlling four of the Fortes, were specified for the flurry of events and presentations during the expo’s press day, and there were a
UK - Boxxer has announced a new partnership with Version 2, which will become an official partner of Boxxer and Sky Sports Boxing. Headquartered in Reading, Version 2 is a lighting rental specialist for the television, broadcast and event industries. The partnership kicks off with this Saturday’s stacked Fight Night at the Utilita Arena in Newcastle, headlined by world middleweight champion Savannah Marshall and supported by superstars Chris Eubank Jr., Lewis Ritson and Hughie Fury. Version 2 sponsors Marshall, who will be defending her WBO crown on Saturday, along with new Boxxer signings April Hunter, an undefeated local prospect, and Georgia O’Connor, a former elite amateur making her much-anticipated pro debut. As part of the partnership, Version 2 branding will feature across all pre-event promotional activity during fight week, including at Thursday
USA - ADJ’s Halloween Spooktacular Contest is back for 2021, offering the chance to win ADJ lighting gear simply by sharing your spooky lighting projects on social media and including ADJ’s hashtag. “We want to see the creative ways you put your ADJ lighting, video, or effects equipment to use to create shiver inducing displays or spinechilling events,” says ADJ. “Whether it’s a professional project or home haunt, as long as you use ADJ fixtures, we want to see your Halloween 2021 display and it could win you one of three fantastic prizes.” Like last year, the 2021 ADJ Halloween Spooktacular Contest is easy to enter. Just take photos or video of your Halloween project, display, or party and post it to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram with the hashtag #ADJSpooktacular. “The contest is open to anyone around the world and you can enter as many times
UK - Industry charity Backup's Pumpkin Challenge is back for 2021. The competition aims to help raise awareness of the charity in a fun and creative way, encouraging interested parties to carve the most creative pumpkin. “To enter, all that’s need is a pumpkin, your design and any props or tech you want to incorporate to bring your design to life. If you want to use the opportunity to fundraise too (though not a requirement) that would be welcome,” says Backup. Competition categories are: Best overall design (judged by panel); Best use of tech (judged by panel); Most money raised (via Backup Pumpkin Challenge Fundraising Page); and Most overall likes (on Instagram, using the hashtag: #BackupPumpkinChallenge). For 2021 long-time Backup supporter Lightpower Collection has generously donated a prize of one of their photographic books to the winner of the best
UK - Respected theatre lighting designer Neil Austin has again relied heavily on Martin Professional’s MAC Encore Performance moving heads in lighting the West End production of Frozen The Musical for audiences at London’s famous Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. He is using 115 Martin MAC Encore Performance CLD fixtures as part of a fully moving rig, quipping that “I chose the CLD units as I predicted there would be quite a lot of cold white light on Frozen!” The inventory was supplied by White Light, whom Austin says he has been renting from “since I was a 15-year-old schoolboy.” White Light were supplied by Martin’s exclusive UK distributor Sound Technology. As the predominant fixture in his rig, the MAC Encores are set on five overhead bars and six ladders either side of the stage in a virtually all-LED rig. “They’re basically everywhere
Canada - Solotech has appointed Nicolas 'Nico' Labbé as senior technical specialist (business development). Joining the company's Montreal Live Productions team, he will liaise with the Live Productions Division to offer clients the services they require and aid in the development of new business opportunities. Over the last 35 years, Labbé worked as a lighting designer with the biggest names in the music industry, such as Charles Aznavour, Véronique DiCaire, Garou, Lara Fabian and Roch Voisine. He is also well known and respected in television, where he served as director and designer of photography on multiple live show recordings. Solotech says Labbé will also play a crucial role as an ambassador of the company’s multiple technological solutions and his lighting and video expertise will help the team to better support Canadian designers. Solotech says
Colombia - The historic Teatro Pablo Tobon Uribe in Medellín sets a high bar for anyone creating visuals on its stage. For starters there are the elegant contours of the building itself, the work of famed architect Nel Rodriguez. Then there is the curtain that covers the stage, graced by the art of post-modern master Dora Ramírez. When that curtain rose on Circular, an evening of Colombian and Caleño music, the captivating visuals continued, thanks to a vivid lighting design by Juan Pablo Marulanda that drew on the colour rendering power and brightness of Chauvet Professional fixtures that were part of the theatre’s house rig. With no LED video wall, Marulanda used 31 COLORado Batten Quad-9 IP linear fixtures, arranged vertically and horizontally to create a geometric background that added depth and texture to the stage. He complemented the patterns that h
USA - After years of lighting Ryder Cup press areas with standard Lekos and PARs, the team at NMR Staging and Events decided to add Elation’s KL Panel LED softlight to their bag and the results were impressive. NMR has been involved in the Ryder Cup for years, the Professional Golf Association’s biennial men's golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States. This year’s event played out 24-26 September at Whistling Straits Golf Course in Wisconsin, and, as always, the rivalry and its post- match press conferences were followed closely on both sides of the pond. NMR, who has nearly 40 years of experience providing technology for a wide variety of events, purchased the full-color-spectrum and colour temperature-adjustable KL light panels last year for use on tradeshows and NMR’s in-house studios. Daniel Gerstenhaber, head of lighting at NMR, say
USA - Lighting rental production company Main Light has added the Prolights EclProfile FS to its rental inventory. Throughout the pandemic, Main Light took the opportunity to rebalance their inventory by selling off older equipment and buying new technology. High on Main Light's list of must-have fixtures was a high-output, full-colour LED ellipsoidal. Working with their A.C. Lighting sales representative, Brian Dowd the team at Main Light took a close look at the Prolights EclProfile FS. "We were looking to invest in a high-quality, workhorse LED ellipsoidal," comments Mike Gaynor, operations manager for Main Light. "We service a wide range of clients, from the professional theatre, corporate AV, worship, touring, and broadcast markets." The ability of the EclProfile FS to provide warm tungsten and crisp daylight whites along with soft, subtle pastels an
Slovenia - Lighting designer Crt Birsa and set designer Greta Godnic created the visuals for the 40th annual MMS song contest, which this year was built around the appropriately titled theme Festival of the Melody of Sea and Sun. “The whole idea for the general look of the set and lights was to create the sensation of waves spreading from a central point,” said Birsa of Blackout Lighting Design. “MMS was held at a seaside town, and most of the songs performed were about the sea, so connecting the stage design with water was essential. At the same time, since this is a song contest, we wanted dramatic looks to be part of each performance.” Working on his ChamSys MagicQ MQ70, Birsa programmed a seven-universe show with 14 pages of cues and cue lists that accentuated the deepest elements of his collaborator’s set design. “I am working with Slovenia’s b
Gibraltar - Zero 88 has provided lighting consoles to the new Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) purpose-built TV and radio studio facility and HQ at Gibraltar’s South Jumpers Bastion. The lighting systems were designed, specified, and commissioned by UK-based lighting specialist, The Projects Department, with the two Zero 88 FLX consoles at the heart of the control set up. The newsroom FLX is controlling around 50 lights which are primarily generic white light fixtures, with a mix of conventionals, LED fixtures, and moving lights. GBC purchased its first Zero 88 FLX console for its previous main studio in 2015, soon after the product was launched. It was such a hit that GBC soon added another console for the second of their two TV production studios. “They absolutely loved it,” comments Projects Department’s Peter Daffarn. “It was simple, powerful, a
UK - New Order played two one-off shows ahead of a London O2 Arena show scheduled for November, which also celebrated the re-opening of full-capacity live shows and performances in the UK. Lighting designer Andy Liddle - who celebrates his own landmark of 40 years as the band’s LD this year - specified 66 Robe MegaPointes as the only effects moving lights on the rig for these two outdoor shows, the first staged at Piece Hall in Halifax, followed two days later by Heaton Park in Manchester. To make a visual impact, lighting was combined with lasers and video, and Andy wanted one fixture that would work equally well as a spot, wash, and beam light … and MegaPointe was an easy choice! The lighting kit was supplied by rental company Siyan. The MegaPointes were rigged on three overhead trusses above, below and around the sides of the screen, effectively framing
Liechtenstein - In a major reorganisation of its global operations the Neutrik Group has restructured as a multi-brand company with an extended portfolio of products. A major global player in the interconnectivity segment, the group now develops, designs, manufactures and globally distributes electrical and electronic interconnect products and systems under the Neutrik, Rean and Contrik brands. The reorganisation has been undertaken over several months and has significantly expanded and further diversified the group’s product offering across a breadth of technologies and applications; including both within and beyond the entertainment and broadcast production sectors the company has traditionally dominated. Further expansion is being undertaken across AV, lighting, Ethernet, fibre optic and power applications globally throughout healthcare and wider industrial sectors, whe
UK - Pharos Architectural Controls has further strengthened its senior team with the appointment of Simon Hicks to director of product & marketing, and the promotion of Tim Edwards to director of operations. As director of product & marketing, Simon Hicks will have responsibility for the Pharos product development strategy, while leading the product management team. Hicks has worked for Pharos both directly and indirectly - with Pharos’ partner brands - since 2006. Having originally been employed in software development for Carallon, he moved to Pharos as the technical director in 2012 - a position he held for a number of years. Most recently, he led the team developing Pharos Cloud under the SixEye brand, before once again becoming part of the senior Pharos team. Hicks comments: “This is a very exciting time to be taking on this new role as Pharos
USA - The team at Cour Design is celebrating the emotional pull of Lord Huron’s music on the band’s current USA tour with a powerful, image-rich stage design. Adorned with illuminated representations of mountain ranges as well as cactus plants of different sizes and a large semi-circular backdrop suggestive of a setting sun or moon, the set is clearly representative of the kind of environment that runs through the band’s music. Designer Erik Anderson chose to illuminate this visual panorama with a collection of Chauvet Professional Maverick MK3 Wash fixtures. “I specced the Mavericks,” he said. “They are our workhorses, and we love their brightness, especially with the outdoor shows on this tour.” Depending on the venue, between eight and 11 Maverick MK3 Wash fixtures are flown on downstage truss, while eight other units are divided evenly between stage
Denmark - Freedom Day was celebrated with several prominent shows and events including a landmark performance at Parken Stadium in Copenhagen by The Minds of 99 who became only the second ever Danish act to play there, in front of 50,000 fans, complete with a high impact show design from Jannik Kenneth Skov Jensen. Lighting included over 300 Robe fixtures - a mix of Tarrantulas, BMFL WashBeams, MegaPointes, Spiiders, BMFL FollowSpot LTs and RoboSpots. Jannik Kenneth has worked with the band since 2017 and he curates all the visual elements of their stage performances - including staging / scenic and video - in close collaboration with their manager, Ole Nørup Peteresen. Parken was the biggest show that Jannik Kenneth has designed and operated to date. The LD studied to be an actor and director before turning his talents to the more technical disciplines of ligh
