UK - Last month, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre reopened with a concert version of Jesus Christ Superstar, making it the first major London venue to do so post lockdown (a full technical report will be featured in LSi October). Having supplied the Open Air Season for many years now, as well as working on a host of outdoor productions over the past few months, WL was called upon to supply the lighting for this much anticipated concert. Created by the team behind the Olivier and Evening Standard Award-winning production, Jesus Christ Superstar: The Concert is a special staging of the Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber classic. Complying with government regulations, this version is being performed in front of a socially distanced audience in order to ensure the complete safety of everyone in attendance. While there has been a lot of changes to
USA - Kentucky-based production designer, Bobby Grey, already had a wealth of real-world experience behind him - ranging from theme parks to theatre, touring and designing top-end festival stages - by the time he had reached 30. Concentrating on lighting he came under the influence of Joe Paradise - and it was he who introduced Grey to his current charges, veteran rock band 311. Along the way Grey became an associate designer with Sightline Design Group, before starting his own company, Notan Creative in January 2020. The band are now noted for their summer tours and legendary ‘311 Day’, held annually at the Park Theatre, Las Vegas (Park MGM) on 11 March. But this year the event went into overdrive as they celebrated their 30th anniversary over three nights. Bobby Grey designed another bespoke rig, using an abundance of GLP X4 Bar 10 and Bar 20 and JDC1 hybrid st
Italy - Situated in the northern Italian town of Arco, the Centrale Caffe recently underwent a complete renovation, which in addition to the general interior and patio also included the sound and video systems. Local contractors, Iiriti srl, were brought in, and having installed Martin Audio systems many times in the past, again recommended the brand - as did the project architect Thomas Matteotti. Owners Ciroc Srl had commissioned the substantial upgrade just before the COVID19 lockdown. Special attention was paid to the terrace, which has been completely renewed, with three Blackline X8 mounted horizontally on the external walls of the patio. Meanwhile, 10 Adorn A55 loudspeakers populate the main room and lounge. The system was designed by Iiriti owner, Giacomo Galassi, and supplied by Audiosales srl, Martin Audio’s territorial distributor. The sound sy
USA - History resonates throughout the Roxy Theatre, the legendary Sunset Strip club opened in 1973 by Lou Adler and a group of celebrity partners. It was here that the Rocky Horror Picture Show made its US debut, and the Ramones gave their first California concert. Bob Marley recorded a live album at the club in its first decade, so too did Ratt, Frank Zappa, George Benson, and Bruce Springsteen. Impressions of these moments echoed through the mind and imagination of Julien Reux, the owner of ReuxLight Design, when he sat down this summer to create some special looks for a virtual four-show tour by Wallows at the legendary venue. Summoning the evocative spirit of the club’s rich past, he gave his shows a haunting, redolent flavour with help from the warm white light of 20 Chauvet Professional STRIKE 1 fixtures supplied by the Envizion Group. Reux, who has bee
USA - Astera products played their part in the recent #RedAlertRESTART campaign in the US on 1 September, a collective lighting action that saw over 2000 buildings, places, structures, landmarks and spaces lit in red to highlight the critical situation facing live events and entertainment. John DiEleuterio, sales / project manager for from Wilmington, Delaware-based dry hire company Main Light Industries, reached for the company’s stock of Astera AX5 TriplePAR battery powered LED fixtures in support of the event. This latest lighting ‘red day of action’ was part of a wider international industry campaign being led by the #WeMakeEvents movement, a collective of trade organizations, companies and individuals including PLASA (the Professional Lighting & Sound Association). Like many in the technical production industry, John is passionate about his job, c
USA - ETC has introduced Source 4WRD Color as the latest addition to the Source 4WRD fixture family. This new product offers a colour-changing retrofit for existing full-size Source Four ellipsoidal/profile fixtures, bringing additive RGBA colour-mixing, saturated washes, quick colour changes and more to Source Four. As a non-destructive retrofit, Source 4WRD Color is the next generation of ETC’s Source 4WRD LED line. Source Four ellipsoidal/profile fixtures can be transformed into RGBA LED luminaires with the Source 4WRD Color LED engine, while retaining all of the features of the Source Four including the lenses, accessories and its renowned reliability. Source 4WRD Color technology is also available in two complete wash light fixtures. The Source 4WRD Color PAR and PARNel deliver soft-edges and saturated color, no retrofit required. These luminaires incorporate th
USA - Volt Lites co-founders Matthew Shimamoto and Harrison Lippman and Lulu Creative director Michael Zinman of Zinman Company have launched the 3by3 Space on the premises of entertainment production services company Volt Lites in Burbank. The three partners have created a safe stage for the COVID-19 era that’s equipped with a trio of lighting, video and xR capabilities. Sixty-four active Claypaky Mini-B LED moving lights comprise the workhorse fixtures for the space. “We wanted to create a safe space that would allow people to get back to work and stimulate them to think out of the box,” says Shimamoto. The 3by3 Space has already been used by rock band Bush to shoot Quicksand with Augmented Reality, the Black Eyed Peas shooting Feel the Beat for Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular, the iconic Temptations reprising their greatest hits for
South Africa - As the city slept during the Covid-19 lockdown, a deserted building in downtown Johannesburg became a beacon of hope for musicians. Urban Sessions 2020, an amalgamated project by Militia Broadcast, technical supplier Stage Effects and Smack Entertainment for audio, created a studio for musicians to livestream concerts to their fans. To date, over 150 performances have been hosted in this space. Erik de Bruin of Stage Effects explains that as early as May 2020, Militia Broadcast, Stage Effects, and Smack Ent knew they had to do something to survive the strict lockdown in South Africa as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. They managed to secure an empty warehouse at Thabo Mpelo Studios in Johannesburg and converted it into an intimate environment with a bit of a nostalgic feel, giving viewers at home the impression that they were part of a rehearsal or jamming s
USA - One of the growing trends in entertainment lighting the past few years has been the increased use of UV light in productions of all kinds. On Thursday, 17 September at 11:00 a.m. CEST, the next Elation Coffee Break sees Alistair Smyth and Frederik Afif take a closer look at the Prisma line of advanced UV LED lighting products from Magmatic Atmospheric Effects. This new generation of IP65 lighting is changing the quality of UV light projection while making it easier for designers and production houses to implement UV light into their projects. Because Prisma uses high quality, medical grade LEDs that emit UV light in the 365nm range, no visible light is emitted, meaning only the UV reactive material glows and nothing else. The Elation Coffee Break is available on Elation Europe’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ELATION.Pro.Europe/live/. No registration is req
UK - The ALD has announced that applications for its popular Sponsored Student Scheme for the year 2021 are open, and that also running alongside the scheme, for the month of September only, is a promotion targeted at the other individual membership categories, for discounted subscription rates for the rest of the membership year to March 2021. The Sponsored Student Scheme is funded by ALD ccorporate members and is targeted towards students who have not previously been members, offering the opportunity of free ALD membership until the end of March 2022. Membership within any category provides vital interaction opportunities and connection between established figures in professional lighting and video design, and the next generation of talented designers, programmers and technicians. Members also enjoy complimentary copies of the Association’s magazine Focus, a
Europe - After a period of consultation with the industry and the impact of the ongoing pandemic, Integrated Systems Events has announced that ISE, scheduled for 2-5 February 2021 in Barcelona, has been postponed and will now take place in June (dates to be confirmed), alongside a virtual offering. Additionally, ISE will launch RISE Digital, a regular programme of content and networking events which will run throughout the year and support the live show. Integrated Systems Events released the following statement: “We’ve been monitoring the conditions in Europe since the beginning of this year and have worked hard on your behalf to balance health and safety concerns with the need for commerce and F2F interaction. These two factors have had shifting weight throughout the calendar year and although we’ve felt confident and hopeful regarding delivering this show in F
USA - BBC World News America recently underwent renovations to their high-profile studio in Washington, D.C. BBC is an iconic news brand known around the world. With a new set design, comes the need for new studio lighting. Eastern Lighting Design worked closely with award-winning (broadcast) production design firm Clickspring Design to create a slick studio environment. The studio is a small space and the challenge was to create a clean and sleek design while giving BBC as much lighting flexibility as possible. While the entire studio was gutted and re-built, the lighting had to fit into the existing power load footprint. “Small spaces can quickly become crowded with lighting fixtures,” explains Matt Gordon, lighting designer and president of Eastern Lighting Design. “Our goal was to blend the lighting fixtures into the architectural aesthetic as much as possi
USA - On 26 August, the voice of women shined on the exterior of the Columbia Museum of Art, as the sleek postmodern building was lit in radiant purple, gold and white for Women’s Equality Day and the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment’s passage. David Sneath of ACS Sound and Light, organised the inspiring display with the city of Columbia. A collection of 30 Chauvet Professional WELL Fit fixtures were used to light the museum and the historic building across the street from it at 1530 Main Street. Delicately balanced with varying degrees of saturation, and white light blended artfully with colour palettes, the commemorative lighting at the museum commanded attention as it played off harmoniously against the building’s exterior lattice work of columns and cross beams. Denise Simpson, a member of the ACS team, was responsible for positioning the IP65
France - The famous Palais des Papes in Avignon came alive bathed in a vibrant collage of colours, shapes, and textures – thanks to 12 x Robe Esprite moving lights – which were part of a design by LD Fabien Chamakoff for the 2020 Helios Festival. Launched in 2017, the event highlights – with silent projection / visual works and light art pieces – Avignon’s stunning architecture and rich, diverse heritage as the ‘City of Catholic Popes’ between 1309 and 1377. It remained under Papal rule until 1791 when it became part of France. The Palais des Papes (Pope’s Palace) is one of the largest and most important medieval Gothic buildings in the whole of Europe. For Fabien – who works for the Helios Festival organisation – it was a great honour to illuminate the intricate and imposing architecture, one of seven key sites lit up this year. The 10-minute
UK - London’s Southbank Centre has stood on the south bank of the Thames for nearly 70 years. A celebration of progress and modernity, Europe’s largest arts venue was built in 1951 for the Festival of Britain and, under normal circumstances, stages over 2000 performances of music, dance and literature a year, and more than 2000 free events. Like all arts venues, the Southbank Centre is not immune to the economic and cultural upheaval caused by COVID-19 but, prior to lockdown, the Southbank Centre had, over the past two years, made a long-term commitment to LED performance lighting, with complete moving head installations in the fixed rigs of three of its performance spaces: the 2700-seat Royal Festival Hall, 916-seat Queen Elizabeth Hall and the 295-seat Purcell Room. As part of this drive towards LED, the team at the Southbank Centre invested in Ayrton Ghibli and
France - To mark the re-release of his album Eden at the end of 2019, French singer-songwriter and pop star, Etienne Daho, embarked upon a 17-date concert tour of France's leading venues, including Philharmonie, Pleyel and Olympia. The final date took place in January 2020, narrowly avoiding the lockdown measures introduced by the onset of the Covid-19 crisis. Victorien Cayzeele, a gifted young lighting designer, was determined to obtain the best possible interpretation for his artist, so he specified an MDG Atmosphere haze generator to materialise the light within his design. "I had mostly washes and very few spot sources in my kit, so I needed a density of haze that was strong enough to materialise the colour that bathed the set. And, on this tour, we wanted to maintain a uniform and stable level throughout the show.” Etienne Daho's music, with its ele
USA - High End Systems has announced the finalist teams for the 2020 Hog Factor USA Collegiate Lighting Programming Competition. First held in North America in 2015, Hog Factor has become one of the premier lighting programming contests in the United States and across the globe. For Phase One, each submitting team provided a performance lighting piece, programmed on a Hog or Hog 4 PC. The collegiate teams were judged by a panel of High End Systems and ETC employees. The three Hog Factor USA finalist teams are The Ghost Lights from Webster University, Bacon Powers from Southern Methodist University, and Hamburglers from Texas State University. With the LDI 2020 Exhibition now cancelled, this year’s contest will take place online as part of ETC/HES’ Study Hall events in October. Details on the contest date, format and judging will be announced soon.
UK - sunDial quad, the PLASA Gold award-winning mains LED dimmer from Artistic Licence, offers smooth LED dimming with DMX512. Following a firmware upgrade, the product is now offering improvement in dimming resolution, achievable with many theatrical controllers. The latest firmware is available free-of-charge and can be uploaded using DMX-Workshop. DMX512 can control up to 512 channels and has an 8-bit native resolution. This means each channel can be set to a level between 0 and 255 and is encoded as an 8-bit number (256 levels). sunDial quad has a much higher native dimming resolution of 14-bit, so in normal operation a dimmer curve translation is used - in effect, sunDial picks 'sweet spots' on the response curve to achieve a nice fade. However, some professional lighting consoles allow two DMX512 channels to be combined to provide up to 16-bit resolution (
Italy - Claypaky has introduced the HY B-EYE K25 Teatro, a special version of the HY B-EYE K25 that is designed for venues that need silent operation without sacrificing bright colours. This fixture is designed for theatres, television studios, conference halls, showrooms, corporate events, and more. The HY B-EYE K25 TEATRO has all the same optical, electronic, and mechanical features of the HY B-EYE K25 with changes in the overall design to reduce the acoustical footprint. This luminaire has the same 37 powerful 40 Watt Osram Ostar RGBW LEDs, a zoom range of 4° to 60°, uniform light spread, a rotating front lens, an enhanced electronic engine for dynamic beam pattern design with digital accuracy and repeatability, individual control of each single LED to make spectacular kaleidoscopic projections and charming eye-catching effects. The HY B-EYE K25 TEATRO is extreme
Germany - Bei uns ist immer was los - the words are written across the top of the homepage of the Stadthalle Delbrück website. Roughly translated into English, they mean “we always have something going on”. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has put this claim to the test, forcing the popular East Westphalian cultural centre to cancel its diverse schedule of shows, Stadthalle Delbrück lived up to the spirit of this motto recently by turning its idle stage into a broadcast studio so local bands could record professional quality music videos. Taking place over a weekend, the safe, socially distant event (there was no live audience and minimal production crews), featured five different bands. Providing them with a dynamic stage setting was a power-packed fast-moving lighting rig supplied by LDT Veranstaltungsservice that featured over 25 Chauvet Professional fixtures.<
UK - London fringe theatre returned to the capital, as the first socially distanced and fully Covid-compliant live musical production of post-pandemic England 2020 was staged in a specially renovated garden space at The Eagle pub in Vauxhall. Fanny & Stella, a sharp-witted com-romp through some extraordinary events gave theatre fans a snapshot into the real lives of two eccentric Victorian Londoners - Ernest Boulton and Frederick William Park. Based on the book and lyrics by Glenn Chandler (creator of hit TV series Taggart), the show was directed by Steven Dexter and produced by Peter Bull and Richard Lambert of Lambco Productions. Richard also designed and operated the lighting using his Zero 88 FLX S24 console. “It was perfect for the job,” enthused Richard about the console, “totally portable and fitted easily onto a fold-out table, and just
USA - With live events at a slow trickle, those venues that have been able to open up, albeit with restrictions, are elated and generally selling out. Madlife Stage & Studio, a 284-capacity live music venue and recording studio in Woodstock, Georgia, which like other live venues in the U.S. was forced to close earlier in the year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, re-opened in late July with a full lineup of acts on the schedule. “Madlife re-opened over a month ago at half capacity as one of the few places around holding live events,” said local lighting designer Caleb McClesky, who often helps at the venue, supporting house LD Brendon Rosenbaum and frequently supplementing the house rig with his own Elation lighting gear. “Patrons have to sit at tables so everyone is socially distanced. Staff is required to wear masks and the venue is sanitised between shows. It’s b
USA - Around 2,000 venues, places, landmarks, and monuments all over the US were lit in red for the #RedAlertRESTART campaign on 1 September to highlight the critical situation facing the live events and entertainment industry and the need for lawmaker’s support of the Restart Act (S.3814) to offer some sort of relief to the industry. This latest red day of action was part of a wider industry campaign being led by the #WeMakeEvents movement, a collective of trade organisations including PLASA (the Professional Lighting & Sound Association). The idea of lighting buildings in ‘emergency red’ started in Germany with #NightofLight in June, and the concept caught on with red days of action organised in many European countries and the UK (initiated by #LightiItInRed on 6th July, followed up by PLASA’s #WeMakeEvents action on 11 August) as well as South Africa (#
USA - Christian rock band Needtobreathe recently utilised Bandit Lites rehearsal space, Venue One, to film a series of five music videos. Their seventh studio album, Out of Body, was released 28 August and features 11 new songs that range in topic from first love to fatherhood. “This album was birthed from human experience, beliefs, and gathered inspiration along the journey,” said the band on social media. “And with time, the songs will breathe and grow into new expressions and ideas, completely dependent on the ears and hearts they land on.” In the same way the songs “breathe and grow” the same journey can be seen in the music videos filmed at Bandit’s spacious rehearsal space, featured in the first video release Hang On. “I was approached by Dustin Reynolds, production manager for Needtobreathe back in May and he asked if we mig
