UK - On 3 December, TFG Stage Technology teamed up with Laing O'Rourke to light up Manchester arts venue The Factory, currently being built in the heart of the city, in support of International Day for People with Disabilities. PurpleLightUp is a global movement that celebrates and draws attention to the economic contribution of the 386m disabled employees around the world. It has been driving momentum for disability inclusion across hundreds of organisations, reaching thousands of employees in different ways. This includes lighting up prominent buildings purple, holding events, developing workplace policies for disabled employees and sparking conversations about disability inclusion worldwide. The Factory is designed by Rem Koolhaas’s OMA and backed by Manchester City Council, HM Government and Arts Council England. It will be Manchester International Festival’s p
Estonia - Robe featured on the rig for the Estonian launch of the new Škoda ENYAQ iV all-electric SUV. The press / VIP event took place at the Škoda dealership centre – Aasta Auto – in Tartu, Estonia’s second city, with technical production coordinated by Andres Sarv of creative visual design and production company Pstudio, and lighting designed by Tõnis Sarv also working for Pstudio. They work with Robe equipment as often as is possible and, on this occasion, chose to work with eight Robe LEDBeam 100s, 12 LEDWash 800s ,12 300E Spots and two CitySkape Xtreme LED floods. Pstudio has been involved with previous Skoda promotional events and delivers technical design and production for other car brands like Audi. The show involved a presentation element followed by a reveal of the new vehicle, demanding a combination of different styles and approaches, and
France - The city of Bordeaux has a new Anolis lighting scheme for its La Porte de Bourgogne landmark. The Roman-style stone arch was built in the 1750s at the end of one of the major roads traversing Bordeaux, now called the Cours Victor Hugo, which is a thoroughfare for both cars and pedestrians crossing the city. It is also clearly visible from across the River Garonne. With its prominent position and historical significance, the city council are keen for La Porte de Bourgogne to be a highly visible ‘communication portal’ welcoming people to the ancient centre, so they wanted a great looking, energy-efficient lighting scheme to replace the old one which was installed over a decade ago and was starting to look dated. Above all, they wanted more dynamic lighting that could redefine and celebrate La Porte de Bourgogne’s significance as a symbolic gateway to
UK - Technical entertainment charity Backup has announced Round 2 of applications for its Hardship Fund is now open. The fund was launched in October with the aim to provide limited financial assistance to production crew and those working in the technical supply chain across the UK entertainment sector. Set up just ahead of the then-concluding Self-Employment Income Support and Job Retention schemes, it originally targeted those in the community who had been unable to receive any state or charitable assistance. But Round 2 will be open to workers who have been awarded up to £5,000 in funding between 1 April and 30 November. “The application uptake for Round 1 of the Hardship Fund reaffirmed to us how dire it is financially and that this help could not come soon enough for many or our colleagues,” comments Backup chairman John Simpson. “It has been heart
USA - Visuals are an important part of most modern church services. More and more churches are switching to LED video walls due to the increased brightness and contrast they can offer. This was the direction chosen by Calvary Christian Centre, which recently installed a pair of ADJ LED video wall displays alongside a lighting package from sister company Elation Professional. Located in Yuba City, Northern California, Calvary Christian Centre is a thriving and growing church which is part of the Assemblies of God fellowship. Pastor Michael Ciociola and his wife Dona have led the church since 1991 and head up a large team of both full-time staff and volunteers. The leadership recently decided to upgrade the AV system in their 900 capacity sanctuary, replacing old video equipment with a new LED video wall system to display song words, scripture readings and other visual c
UK - For the thousands of fans throughout the UK who viewed the recent Lockdown Bingo Charity show, getting swept up in the immersive panorama supporting the livestream’s performances came quite naturally. The tightly woven imagery captivated the livestream audience. But for the team at Tapestry Live Studio that created the visuals, the massive curved video wall and lighting rig were treated as two distinct design elements. “The LED wall and lighting installation are two completely independent installations, but they complement each other beautifully,” said Sarah Winters of Tapestry Virtual Events, which created the studio in the face of the pandemic. “Our LED wall needs to be kept most flexible as it is used for a wide range of activities, but the lighting selected allows us to add different effects to suit every use of the studio. This ranges from corporate
USA - The arched front-entry sign of Southgate Shopping Centre in Lakeland, Florida, is now shining brightly again thanks to Firefly FloppyFlex, the professional LED neon replacement. After being dark for decades, property managers Crossman & Company decided it was time to bring this beloved sign back to life. Retrofitting it with the latest technology, delivering a variety of bright colours and animated looks, promised to re-energise this historic commercial area. “The main motivation behind the project to revive the Southgate sign was the love the local community has for it,” says Stephanie Carten, marketing manager for Crossman & Company. “We purposely kept the iconic look and stylized script, taking the sign back to its former glory but with a technical edge.” The famous 26m-tall and 42m-wide Arch has been a pop-culture icon since it was built in
USA - ETC has introduced the SolaFrame Studio automated luminaire, a fanless, convection-cooled fixture. Audibly invisible and visually impactful, the fixture’s feature set is designed for ‘exquisite projection control and gorgeous colour in a compact package’. Designed for theatres, concert halls, opera houses, film/TV broadcast studios and houses of worship, it uses a 300 watt High CRI Bright White engine to produce 10,000 lumens. The fixture’s convection-cooled engine allows for completely fanless operation. SolaFrame Studio’s features include a high quality 13-lens optic system with patented Lens Defogger, powerful 5.5 - 57° zoom, CMY / CTO-Linear colour mixing system, seven position plus open replaceable colour wheel, full-curtain framing system for total control of beam shaping, 16-blade iris for tight beam effects, light diffusion with additional, optional
UK - One of the more widely acclaimed, and viewed, virtual concerts during lockdown has been the recent live internet performance from psych-pop stars, Glass Animals. The Oxford-based quartet were all set to tour their chart-topping Dreamland album this Spring until lockdown came along. When their lighting team (Cassius Creative) were eventually called into play (by tour/production manager, Simon Lutkin), it was to produce a viewable online show only (Live In The Internet) -a dynamic concert masterminded by the band’s inventive front-man, Dave Bayley. Set up nearly five years ago by Chris 'Squib' Swain and Dan Hill) Cassius Creative dipped into their armoury of GLP fixtures and at the same time became one of the first adopters of the new JDC Line hybrid strobe batten. This combines a powerful linear white strobe element and two separate RGB LED pixel ma
UK - #WeMakeEvents, the campaign to support the live entertainment sector during the COVID crisis, is hosting an online Speakeasy from Monday 30 November to Friday 8 January. This new virtual space will deliver skills workshops, support sessions for finance and wellbeing, ‘fireside chats’ with some of the industry’s greats, and plenty of entertainment. All industry professionals are invited to join in and connect with colleagues during what will likely be a difficult festive period for many. The Speakeasy will run regular quizzes, webinars, Q&A clinics and training sessions, and will host a forum on Discord which will be open at all hours for people to seek and share advice. On the agenda is a highly anticipated live conversation between former Cirque du Soleil artists Laura-Ann Chong and Andy Buchanan, advice on motivation through these difficult times, pl
France - The Georges-Pompidou Cultural Centre in Vincennes near Paris will be the first venue in France to be equipped with an Arthur followspot, the latest addition to Robert Juliat's range of LED followspots. With nearly 800 events a year, the town of Vincennes offers a rich cultural life and has three venues with quality facilities, including the Georges-Pompidou Cultural Centre. The 525-seat venue hosts many shows throughout the year during the cultural season, including music, theatre, dance, comedy and shows for younger audiences. The Cultural Centre wanted to replace its 1200W HMI RJ Korrigan followspots and was looking for an LED model. "It was important for us to play the safety card in regard to quality and, of course, the feedback we had on the Robert Juliat luminaires. In addition, I personally consider LED equipment to be the future of our technical profes
UK - Following the success of the Backup Pumpkin Challenge, which ran for its second year this Halloween, the technical entertainment charity has announced the launch of the Backup Christmas Challenge. The challenge will see members of the creative and technical entertainment industries battle it out in a number of categories to see who can reign supreme and put their lighting, design and comedy skills to the test. The categories are: ● Best Exterior House Xmas Design ● Best Xmas Tree Design ● Best Xmas Pet Outfit ● Best Gingerbread Design ● Cheesiest/Funniest Xmas Jumper The winners will be decided by an esteemed panel of judges from Backup, the ALD and the ASD. The competition is completely free to enter but those wishing to donate to Backup
USA - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell formed his band, The Dirty Knobs, as a side project 15 years ago. Although the band seldom ventured outside SoCal, it built up a loyal following throughout the region, not unlike a tucked-away club treasured by locals, but beyond the reach of outsiders. That began to change with the death of Petty in 2017. No longer able to work with his frontman, Campbell (who is also the guitarist for Fleetwood Mac), began pushing his band into new musical directions, culminating with the release of their debut LP Wreckless Abandon. On Friday 20 November, the band introduced the new album to the world with a livestream from the Troubadour. Although the influence of the Troubadour in the history of rock has been huge, the stage at the famous LA club is rather small. Nevertheless, Julien Reux was able to create a bo
USA - Billie Eilish’s Where Do We Go arena world tour, scheduled to run from March to September 2020 halted abruptly after three shows, so the recent <|I>Where Do We Go Livestream Concert re-united many talents from her creative team. Under the creative direction of Billie Eilish and Moment Factory, collectively they worked to script and stage this XR pay-per-view stream. Lighting designer and director Tony Caporale from Tennessee-based Infinitus Vox was working as LD on the tour, and also came onboard in the role for the livestream concert, where he collaborated closely with lighting director Madigan Stehly of 22 Degrees who was working for XR Studios Burbank in Los Angeles which staged the performance, directed by Tarik Mikou from Moment Factory. The overhead lighting rig at XR Studio comprised 48 x Robe Esprites. Six of the Esprites were running on a Robe Ro
UK - Opened in 1970, Blair Drummond Safari Park is located just outside the Scottish city of Stirling, the site is home to over 350 rare and exotic animals, including the country's only giraffes. Opened to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary this year, the park’s new World of Dinosaurs attraction features 20 full-size model dinosaurs arranged throughout a trail laid in a 10,000sq.ft area of woodland. The models, which include a towering tyrannosaurus rex and a diplodocus are constructed with steel frames, covered with silicone skin, and are controlled with infrared sensors that trigger realistic movements including blinking eyes, breathing stomachs, arm gestures and head movements. Since the park opens well after dark in the winter months and also hosts special events for Halloween and Christmas, management were clear that lighting would be an integral part of the new
USA - DCR Nashville and lighting designer Nathan Alves, a partner in Darkroom Creative in Franklin, Tennessee, answered the Live Event & Entertainment Professionals’ call to action by bathing some of Nashville’s leading landmarks in red light on 1 September. Their contribution to the WeMakeEvents #redalertRESTART initiative was the Mobile Visual Art Platform (MVAP) outfitted with 38 Claypaky Scenius fixtures. The MVAP rolled through Music City with surgical precision, lighting up the Tennessee State Capitol, the AT&T Building (popularly known as the Batman Building), the Ascend Amphitheatre, downtown’s Bank of America building the Shelby Street Bridge and the neo-classical Parthenon. Nathan Alves and DCR Nashville’s owner and president Howard Jones had been sharing news on COVID-19’s impact on the Nashville live event industry when Alves sent an ema
UK - Apparel and tech brand STNDBY has launched its flagship range of sustainable clothes and accessories, designed for crew and creatives. STNDBY (www.STNDBYworld.com) was conceived by lighting and production designer Tom Campbell and host, producer and entrepreneur James Murden to offer clothing and accessories that are ‘as functional as they are fashionable’. With partnerships in place with companies such as Avolites and Dirty Rigger and offering customisation, gifting options and tour swag, STNDBY’s products are designed ‘to work and built to last’. “We’ve spent almost two years researching the problems crew face finding work gear and developing these products to solve those problems,” said Campbell. "We’re so proud of the incredible feedback we’ve had throughout our testing phase and can’t wait to s
Argentina - Buenos Aries-based Sophya Acosta Lighting Design Studio recently embarked on a project to highlight the plight of local venues affected by the ‘cultural emergency’ resulting from restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The project, entitled Espectador-Luz (Spectator-Light) set out to demonstrate how new protocols approved by state agencies – such as social distancing measures and the proposal to limit audience numbers to 30% of capacity – ignore the needs of small and medium-sized venues with limited space. Batons of white light were placed in auditoria around the city to highlight the lack of spectators, shows and life. Venues taking part in the project included La Gloria Espacio Teatral, El Excéntrico de la 18, and Teatro Anfitrion. “Until the beginning of the year we’d considered these theatrical spaces our second home. When we
Kazakhstan - Earlier this year, lighting designer, Dmitriy Karabetskiy utilised Vista by Chroma-Q’s Vista 3 lighting & media control system to deliver spectacular lighting for the inaugural series of Central Asia’s Got Talent. A spin-off of the Got Talent TV show franchise - one of the world’s most successful reality TV formats, with versions in over 68 countries - Central Asia’s Got Talent showcases acts from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Season 1 premiered on the Khabar, Zo'r TV, KTRK, and Safina TV channels. Dmitriy, who had previously worked on The X Factor Kazakhstan, was brought in to oversee the lighting production. Dmitriy needed to create a lighting design tailored to the particular aesthetics of each performance, which ranged from dance and vocal acts, to magicians and acrobats. An important factor i
South Africa - The tallest building in Africa – The Leonardo, a 234m mixed-use property development in Sandton, Johannesburg – was lit up for the South African launch of the new Microsoft Xbox Series X console – standing out against the night sky highlighted in green by Robe BMFL moving lights, with the Xbox logo emblazoned onto the top of floors of the tower. The lighting, crew and technical production were delivered by event technical specialists MSTARR working for event producers Penquin. Amassed media, press and VIPs watched the spectacle unfold from the rooftop balcony of the nearby Radisson Blu Hotel on Rivonia Road, a vantage point offering the best views, with the event also clearly visible from all around the Sandton CBD and beyond. It brought plenty of positive energy and vibes to the city amidst a challenging year. The launch lighting scheme was
UK - In celebration of their upcoming new album For Those That Wish To Exist, Architects performed an exclusive livestream show at The Royal Albert Hall on 21 November. PRG supplied all lighting, rigging, media server (D3) and LED for the live performance which was streamed globally via the streaming service Veeps. Production designer Paul McAdams utilised the space, creating a high energy design to showcase the venue and ensure viewers watching the stream could experience that same live energy from behind their screens. “The team at PRG were extremely professional and supportive as always, constantly coming up with creative and effective solutions to any issue that arose on this show,” explained McAdams. “It was great to call on all members of the team’s vast wealth of knowledge to help deliver the design as intended. The shoot went off without a
Italy - When opera singer Andrea Bocelli performed on the steps of the impressive baroque cathedral in the Sicilian city of Noto this October, the UNESCO world heritage site was turned into a unique stage, full of atmosphere and historical splendour. The artist was accompanied for the performance by the orchestra and choir of the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania, directed by Alberto Bartalini. The televised event, adapted for COVID-19 health guidelines, aimed to celebrate the island’s seven UNESCO sites and to promote the region to the wider world. Italian lighting designer Massimo Tomasino was responsible for creating the atmosphere and enhancing the features of the cathedral for the occasion. Tomasin chose to use 40 units of ArenaCob 4FC - a full colour LED flood and blinder fixture - in his rig. 10 where used under the orchestra as back-lighting, 20 for the high
UK - Back in September when it was announced that theatres could play to socially-distanced audiences, this saw a range of venues prepare for their re-opening. One of these included the Charing Cross Theatre which re-opened with the world premiere of GH Boy. The lighting designer was Tony Simpson, who approached White Light to supply the lighting equipment. Prior to its Charing Cross run, the show was originally going to play at The Vaults. Tony explains: “We were initially supposed to be opening in April and heading into the Waterloo tunnels. We had site visits, meetings and I’d even formulated a design. Then the outbreak of Covid happened and the entire production had to be pulled.” Like many other freelance designers, Tony found his entire workload for the rest of the year suddenly disappear. He remarks: “It was an incredibly worry time as overnight
Australia - During the Covid-19 era, production companies have sought many ingenious ways to keep clients satisfied and the work coming in. In June, Australia’s Big Picture launched its’ premium live event studio offering a technologically advanced and connected virtual event space. This high-tech studio supports clients in delivering a broadcast-quality online event, corporate theatre, and live performance experiences. Big Picture’s flexibility and technical prowess recently led to a mammoth two-day shoot with country superstar Keith Urban. Keith’s production house Human Person approached Big Picture to facilitate and coordinate the ambitious project. Keith recently launched a new album The Speed of Now Part 1 and he was keen to produce a bunch of different performance videos, shot at the same time, for various television shows. These shows included
