UK - When event management, lighting and creative design company, Absolute Events was asked by Global Street Art to light up a series of advertisements painted on walls around London, Doughty Engineering was brought on board to help secure the lighting firmly and safely in place. Global Street Art is known for its hand-painted advertising campaigns with well-known consumer brands. Jonathan explained: "We've been working with Global Street Art to light up their amazing advertising artwork for a number of years now and we rely on Doughty to help us secure the lighting effectively. “I have known of their products for my entire professional life and was keen to make sure their kit was used on this project so I brought Rigging Services on board who handle the specialised side of fixing the relevant products in place. Initially I approached a couple of companies who said t
South Korea - Elevating the ambiance in its main theatre, the Daejeon Arts Centre hired Hansam System to install a Harman Professional lighting solution that features Martin Professional fixtures. Opened in October of 2003, the Daejeon Arts Centre has brought a new horizon of culture and arts to the city of Daejeon. Housed in a five-story building across a property size of 100,000sq.m, the centre features four premier event and meeting spaces, including the large-scale Art Hall, Ensemble Hall, Conventional Hall as well as outdoor amphitheatre. Beyond hosting a wide range of productions such as theatre and opera performances, Daejeon Arts Centre also offers a Music Academy and arts cultural programme, which are designed to inspire and educate the future generations on performing arts. To enhance the 1,546-seat Art Hall, Hansam System provided a Martin Professional light
Spain - The 2020 Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Madrid (MBFWM)’s SS21 season show went ahead in its regular venue – Hall 14.1 at the Feria de Madrid – to a 30% capacity socially distanced live audience together with thousands more joining a livestream. Lighting designer Juanjo Saunier chose 38 Robe MegaPointes, 20 LEDWash 800s, 12 Spiider LED wash beams and three BMFL Follow Spots running on three separate remote control BaseStations to assist him with creating the show. Juanjo has worked on Spain’s premier biannual fashion show for around 10 years, both lighting the main show-space and various ‘off-site’ venues, and enjoys the buzz, vibes, and challenges of this seminal fashion event. This year, Juanjo started with three different catwalk lighting configurations in the multipurpose room, all of which offered the 60 different shows designers a good and d
UK - Production Park has secured a £12million Government loan which it plans to use to expand and develop its Wakefield campus over the next decade. Production Park is one of the latest 11 major arts and heritage organisations across the UK to have received loan offers from the £1billion Cultural Recovery Fund, a combination of grant and loan cash from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS), targeted to support a culture sector that has been devastated by the effects of COVID-19. Other organisations to have benefitted from the £165m in repayable finance – and a further £58m in capital funding for ongoing construction and maintenance projects in the sector – announced by Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden include the Royal Albert Hall, National Theatre, English National Opera, Alexandra Palace and the Royal Shakespeare Company. “The
USA - Magmatic atmospheric effects has introduced Rocket, a line of powerful CO2 cryogenic simulation effects that produce ‘dense white clouds of fog for visually stunning atmospherics. Capable of generating a heavy blast of fog that engulfs an area in just a few seconds yet dissipates instantly, each effect is arrayed with high-output RGBA LEDs. Rocket is making it easier for designers and production houses to implement high-impact cryogenic-type effects into projects of all types - tours, special events, clubs, theme parks and more, says the company. The advantages over traditional liquid CO2 or liquid nitrogen cryogenic effects are many. With the Rocket series there are no cumbersome, high-pressure liquid CO2 or liquid nitrogen cylinders to deal with, making for a safer, less expensive and faster setup that requires no local authority approvals. Three Rocket ser
Australia - More than 75,000 tickets were sold as part of the NSW Government’s recent Great Southern Nights performance series held throughout November which is Australian Music Month. Great Southern Nights delivered 1,100 COVID-safe performances to live music venues in over 140 towns and suburbs throughout the state. The aim was to reinvigorate NSW’s live music scene, which took a significant hit at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Presented in partnership with ARIA, Great Southern Nights saw more than 2,500 artists perform at over 300 venues, with many high-profile names heading to regional venues to perform. All music events were programmed in line with current NSW Government health advice regarding physical distancing and venue capacity of public gatherings. Acts who performed as part of Great Southern Nights included Tash Sultana, Alex The A
France - The annual ARTE Concert Festival went virtual this year with three days of music live streamed to audiences worldwide. Lighting designer Pierre Claude deployed seven Claypaky A.leda B-EYE K10 fixtures, two dozen Claypaky HY B-EYE K25 LED washes and 16 ADB SVOBODA classic batten fixtures for the live musical performances shot at La Gaite Lyrique in Paris in November. Artists participating in the festival, which was prohibited from staging in-person concerts due to the coronavirus pandemic, included singer/songwriter Sebastien Tellier, hip-hop sensation Lous and the Yakuza and French electropop band Yelle. Pierre Claude has designed and operated tours for many musical performers, among them The Strokes, Phoenix, Gesaffelstein, Boys Noize plus Future Islands’ live stream. For the ARTE Concert Festival he created a circular stage with three concentric circular t
Experienced lighting pro has used the compact console on several gigs since the summer, including Arnoldo Castillo 20th Anniversary livestream celebration Like many in the lighting industry, Costa Rican lighting professional Emilio Aguilar has used the pandemic downtime to learn new competencies and better his skill set. Finding himself back home in Costa Rica last spring following Cirque du Soliel’s bankruptcy, Aguilar got in contact with long-time collaborators Luces y Sistemas, the exclusive distributor of Obsidian Control Systems products in Costa Rica. “I inquired about the NX2™ lighting console, which I thought would be the perfect console for the types of gigs I do,” he states. “They were happy to show me the console and in the end it was just what I wanted.” Luces y Sistemas provides full support for the entire Obsidian line of hardware and software lighting con
Italy - It has been a year since the release of the Prolights ECL Panel TWC, a 2x1 softlight with tunable white and coloured LED soft light for TV and studios. Since then, the company has been able to tap into a new market - one that looks for high-quality, reliable fixtures with a good ROI. With recent product launches of late 2020, Prolights had expanded the ECL collection into what can be described as a one-stop lighting solution for TV, streaming and motion picture studios - the product portfolio includes Fresnels, Ellipsoidals, PARS, Cyclorama and soft-light panels, with fixtures available in multiple sizes and with different LED sources as Tunable White + Coloured LED sources or static white (tungsten and day-light). “We are one of few companies that are able to offer a complete lighting system for studios,” says Fabio Sorabella, Prolights MD. “We hav
USA - The arid arena of the Arizona desert and the Arcosanti community united for the staging of Existential Reckoning, a site-specific streamed concert of the new album by ‘supergroup’ Puscifer initiated by Maynard James Keenan. Lighting designer Sarah Landau was asked to light the concert livestream, having been fascinated with the idea of Arcosanti for some time but not yet visited. She added Robe MegaPointes and PixelPATTs to her lighting design for this intricately constructed performance movie. Keenan lives about an hour’s drive away from Arcosanti, the ‘arcological’ postulation of Italian American architect Paolo Soleri, designed to connect architecture and ecology as a philosophical base for democratic society. The album backstory involves an alien landing on earth and trying to assimilate. The Existential Reckoning video sho
Sweden - Malmö Opera presented well-received production of musical classic Funny Girl as part of the autumn / winter repertory programme which continued to run despite the pandemic. Audience figures were dramatically reduced to 50+ a livestream which could be enjoyed by all who had bought a ticket for each performance. Planned two years earlier and fully sold out many months in advance, Malmö Opera decided to go ahead in delivering all their seasonal main house productions as the budgets were already allocated and spent. Leading Swedish lighting designer Fredrik Jonsson was delighted to be back working on a live show and helping to create the aesthetic for this vibrant, funny, and poignant piece known for its intricate production numbers. Malmö Opera has a quantity of Astera fixtures in its lighting inventory which are used for multiple situations and
UK - In a bid to lift the spirits of the local community and celebrate the efforts of the NHS, a team of entertainment industry lighting and laser engineers based around the north of England have set out to create laser lighting art. Sheffield-based lighting designer Jonathan Dawson-Butterworth wanted to set up a morale-boosting event that could also help the Sheffield Hospitals Charity appeal. “I thought it would be nice to organise something that people could look at and enjoy, and also do something to help charity. With the terrible situation brought upon us all by the pandemic, I thought it would be great to involve the hospitals charity and say ‘thank you’ to the NHS,” he explains. Taking place on Monday, 14 December, with powerful laser beams firing from three different areas of the city, with the organisers hoping to deliver an entertaining display
Germany - Situated near Wermelskirchen in the Bergisches Land, Schloss Burg is one of the largest completely preserved castle complexes in Germany. Built in the 12th century as the ancestral seat of the Counts and Dukes of Berg, and extensively restored between 1890 and 1914, the castle is one of the landmarks of the Bergisches Land and has been used for years as a museum and for various cultural events. After a planning period of almost a year, Burg Castle became the scene of the Castle Illumination for the first time this October - and despite, or perhaps because of, the current coronavirus situation, the event was a complete success. "In the course of the year we had to reschedule several times and, at some point, threw the entire concept overboard," stated Uli Hoppert from Siren, the technical service provider for the event. “We said goodbye to the original idea
USA - Harman Professional Solutions has announced the Martin ERA 600 and 800 Profiles which join the ERA 300 Profile to round out the full-featured range of ERA Profile and ERA Performance fixtures (see LSi December for an in-depth review of the ERA 800 Performance). The new profile fixtures are suitable for rental and entertainment applications needing an all-in-one moving head that is both compact and lightweight but also bright, efficient and feature-loaded. Whether being used for concerts and touring or corporate shows, cruise lines, houses of worship, and live TV, the new fixtures are designed for a long list of scenarios, requiring a truly versatile LED profile, says the company. The new ERA 600 and 8
USA - Amber Solutions has introduced a solid-state two-wire dimmer solution that works without a neutral wire, is compatible with most types of LED lighting and offers ‘flicker-free performance with a wider range of LED bulbs and fixtures, and provides smooth, precise dimming from zero percent to max power’. According to Amber founder and CEO Thar Casey, Amber’s two-wire dimmer architecture enables even older buildings and electrical infrastructures to provide wirelessly controlled dimming without any new wiring or construction. “Amber’s newest solution underscores how its core technologies enable a fundamental restructuring of common electrical product architecture, significantly transforming their capabilities, reducing returns/support requirements and enhancing value,” said Casey. “Our solid-state redesign embeds intelligence that enables a substantia
Taiwan - When Taiwan’s National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying) hosted a revival of the German/Taiwanese co-production of Puccini’s Turandot earlier this year, Chien-hao Kuo, lighting designer and head of lighting, boldly chose to replace all the discharge moving lights of the original design with LED fixtures. He carefully selected 26 Ayrton Khamsin-S profiles which were supplied to the venue from its rental stock by Hispot Workshop of Taipei, Taiwan, a company which has been dedicated to theatre design and equipment rental for over 26 years. Kuo’s had used Ayrton Khamsin-S on several operas in the past and knew them to be both powerful and quiet. “Because opera singers perform without amplified sound, I was focused on methods of reducing the background noise in the theatre,” he explains. “Moving lights with discharge sources are n
USA - As this difficult year draws to a close, ADJ is hoping to spread a little festive joy over the holiday season with its Winter Wonderland Lighting contest. The company is offering lighting pros and enthusiasts at all levels the chance to win one of three prizes simply by using their ADJ fixtures as part of a festive display or holiday event and tagging the photos or video on social media. Says ADJ, “Entries could be a holiday project created for a client or you could simply use your ADJ lighting, video or effects equipment to decorate your yard, front porch or home for the holidays. It probably goes without saying, but in whatever you do to celebrate the holidays and enter the contest, please be safe, take any necessary precautions and practice social distancing. “The ADJ team will be selecting the first, second and third place winners based on how good the ph
USA - The colourful floats were there, 26 of them in all; so too were the giant helium balloons, bands and street performers, but the 2020 version of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was unlike any of its 96 predators. The usual throngs of fans were nowhere to be seen, and instead of following its normal route down 5th Avenue, the entire ‘parade’ took place within a designated area in front of Macy’s flagship store. For the 20.7m who watched on TV, this year’s parade offered all of the pageantry, excitement and holiday spirit that people have come to expect from this popular tradition, pandemic restrictions notwithstanding. Helping to create this image on television was a Geoff Amoral lighting design that artfully relied on lighting and props to support the parade with an engaging background, despite the absence of fans. “The normal look for the parade
UK - Exhibition London is a new multipurpose live music and events venue in White City, West London initiated and operated by Broadwick Live and Venue Lab, offering 1400 seated to 2800 standing capacity. It is designed for conferences, exhibitions, gala dinners, awards presentations, location filming and live music events. Opened in early 2020, Exhibition London’s complete technical infrastructure was specified and procured by consultant and technical production director Simon Jones of SJ-TPM who also coordinated and oversaw all elements of the technical installation and commissioning. Simon had started work on the project in the second quarter of 2019 after having been involved in other Broadwick Live venues. He chose both Robe and Anolis products to be core house lighting system elements for the main show-space where the spec features 28 x Esprites and 30 x Robe
Russia - Moscow’s Vakhtangov Theatre marked its upcoming 100th anniversary with a special 10-minute music and light show featuring more than 100 Claypaky Axcor Profile 900 LN high-wattage moving head LED spotlights and HY B-EYE K25 moving head LED wash. The theatre’s lighting designers Ruslan Mayorov and Alexander Matveev created the lighting spectacular with Sergei Dobrikov, software engineer from equipment supplier and installer Doka Centre, choreographing the intricate play of beams to music by Faustas Latenas. An invited audience was in attendance for the show, which featured forests of parallel beams, dancing beams, textured curtains of light and giant beams that broke the boundaries of the proscenium to sweep the audience. The theatre’s heads and the Russian government’s Minister of Culture were on hand to offer congratulations. “When we were loo
UK - PLASA is hosting two sessions on Brexit during December to help PLASA members prepare for the new trading rules which will come into play from Friday 1 January 2021. The first session on Friday 11 December at 2pm is a 30-minute introductory Q&A which will allow members to ask questions on the new rules and how they should prepare. This session is free, but numbers are limited to 20 to allow everyone to ask their questions. Pre-registration is required via the link below. The next session will take place on Thursday 17 December and will run from 2pm to 4:30pm, allowing for a detailed look at exporting and importing post-Brexit. This workshop will help you prepare for the new rules of moving goods between the UK and Europe and will consider the process and cost obligations of navigating through new borders and the implications of procedures for both seller and
USA - Under normal circumstances, Kyle Upchurch, doesn’t have to think much about the area directly in front of the concert stage, as it’s filled with fans. His goal as a designer is to create the kind of immersive looks that pull fans into the performance on stage. But during a pandemic, rules have to be rewritten. When lighting a drive-in concert by The Petty Junkies at the new Oasis outdoor theatre in Marion, IL, Upchurch had to weave the empty area in front of the stage into his overall design. “With safety protocol, you typically have the area in front of the stage empty,” he said. “Unless you address it, this creates this jarring blank space in front of your design, which disconnects your stage from the audience.” To avoid this, Upchurch extended his design by covering the area in front of the stage with bold gobo patterns and colourful crossing beams
Australia - Queensland Theatre - usually - sits at the heart and soul of Brisbane’s lively arts and performance scene, producing around eight or nine main stage productions a year between the 351-capacity Bille Brown Theatre in the south of the city and at the four-venue Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC). The theatre also has a strong youth and educational programme which allows school-aged artists to stage shows with the company. On top of that, they also receive shows at both the Bille Brown and QPAC, and tour productions across Australia throughout the year. The Theatre has Robe LEDWash 300+s, eight of which were in residence when technical coordinator Lachlan Cross arrived in May 2017, which has since increased to 32 fixtures. The main increase in fixtures came when they finished renovating the Bille Brown Theatre in October 2018, after a A$ 5.5m renovati
Italy - Prolights has released its new LED ellipsoidal, the EclProfile FW. This is a Full White LED profile, in tungsten (3,200-kelvin) and daylight (5,600-kelvin) variants. The unit has been engineered in the same housing and optical design as the EclProfile CT+ fixtures, launched last October. However, the FW series were conceived with higher-brightness and quality on a specific white point, with LED sources selected to achieve the finest quality of whites, scoring over 97 CRI, as well as very high on R9 and TM30 values, since it was designed for demanding broadcast and studio environments. The FW range outperforms in luminous flux against any other ellipsoidal, with high-definition and smooth dimming features, selectable PWM control, and an easy user-interface that offers a classic user experience just like on older ellipsoidals, says Prolights. The EclProfile rang
