USA - It was easy to get caught up in the excitement of the Riverview School’s annual fundraising gala with its spirited live auction, stage shows and convivial company, all set against a 16-acre Cape Cod campus in Derry, NH. The Events United team experienced this first hand last year when they provided the lighting, audio, video and scenic elements for the popular affair at the boarding school, which serves 11 to 22-year old students with learning challenges. Tim Messina and his team at Events United knew that they would have their work cut out when the school turned to them this year, in the wake of the COVID-19 lockdown, and asked them to host a virtual gala at their Studio Lab facility. “A big challenge for us was to take an event that was already spectacular in the live setting and create the same effect for guests virtually,” said Chase Clark, production m
UK - On Monday 6 July in collaboration with Brighton and Hove Council and many of the city's event venues, The Brighton Event Professionals Independent Committee (EPIC) joined the Light It In Red initiative aimed at bring attention on the crisis within the events industry during the COVID-19 lockdown. At 9pm on this day, many of the city's venues and outdoor event spaces turned red, including The Old Market Theatre in Hove, lit up by 96 Prolights Smart Bat. Brighton-based Reveries Events took charge of the installation. Director John Wallis, reports, “The Old Market Theatre is a high quality live theatre and venue. To light up its imposing facade we chose the Smart Bat wireless uplighters as we needed a fixture with a small enough footprint that also had a great output of light. The Smart BatPlus was quick to set up and gave us the flexibility of making changes to th
France - Jacky Fregonese of French lighting and visual rental and production company Loctambule, based near Strasbourg, has put smiles on faces with a series of amusing product and business tutorials that have gained a large fan following on social media. With all events and shows cancelled and the industry closing down with the French COVID-19 lockdown, Jacky, who heads the company with his wife Catherine Saint-Georges, wanted to do something creative to boost morale while so many usually busy companies and talented technicians, designers, production managers, event organisers all push through until events can re-start. Jacky was originally inspired to start the funny tutorials with products Loctambule has in rental stock, which includes Robe MegaPointes, Esprites, BMFL Blades and PixelPATTs, all of which have featured and generated interest amongst technicians and ot
Germany - German Light Products (GLP) has announced an automatic 12-month product warranty extension for any of its products with an original warranty due to expire between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021. The company has been using the hashtag #keepthelighton and #KTLO during the pandemic. The year-long extension is being applied to every product within the GLP portfolio. In order to simplify the process, the extension has already been registered through every GLP office and those of their distributors. Customers are not required to take action in order to ensure that the extension will be applied as this has already been done. “GLP recognises and understands that the vast majority of our products have been sitting idle for many months, and will continue to do so in anticipation of their next call to duty,” declared Ud
USA - Following many weeks of COVID-19 lockdown, the people of Athens, Texas had the opportunity to enjoy live music again last month when neighbourhood event space Common Area Market hosted a community music festival called CAM Fest. Production for the event was supplied by fledgling local company Gain Stage Productions, including a lighting rig comprised exclusively of ADJ LED-powered fixtures. Based on the site of a 100-year-old cotton gin that serves as a local landmark in Athens but had been abandoned for decades, Common Area Market is the brainchild of Marine Corps vets and married couple Chris and Amanda Marholz. The vision for Common Area Market is a venue where the people of Athens can gather to eat, enjoy live music and celebrate big events. Following a successful Kickstarter campaign last year, the first phase of the site’s redevelopment has been completed
UK - The newly lit Mirfield Station underpass in West Yorkshire is the first UK installation for the new Eminere RGBW LED fixtures from architectural lighting brand Anolis – a Robe business – with 16 luminaires installed as part of an improvement works scheme undertaken by train operator Grand Central and partner JMD Rain Ltd. in conjunction with Kirklees Council and Network Rail. The new lighting transforms the previously dull, moody, and uninviting dark space on Station Road beneath the railway tracks – through which passengers must pass before accessing the station – into a vibrant, welcoming, contemporary, and comfortable space. The Emineres were specified by lighting designer Kevin Dugdale from Winchester-based Designs for Lighting, who is a specialist in street and public space lighting. Kevin has been working as a consultant to Kirklees Council, th
USA - Chauvet Professional has introduced the F6 Strip IP linear video panel. Measuring 1000 x 34.5 x 68.2 mm (39.37 x 1.36 x 2.69 in), the new outdoor-ready product can fit in tight spaces, add an extra dimension to set pieces, and be arranged in unique patterns, making it suited for a wide variety of applications, including drive-in shows and livestream productions, says the company. A 6.9 mm pitch strip, the F6 Strip IP is compatible with all Chauvet Professional F series panels, allowing it to display the same images as other video pieces on the stage. It works with the VIP Drive 83R Nova, using the Novastar control protocol. The VIP Drive 83R Nova can auto-detect F6 Strip IPs when they’re plugged in, making it easy to ‘drag-n-drop’ into the mapping software. “The F6 Strip IP opens up new options for incorporating video displays into designs,” said
UK - Techs on the Decks saw 24 artists and technicians unite to present a 24-hour electronic music live stream broadcast on Facebook Live, YouTube and Twitch. The event - which has currently fundraised £4,000 for technical entertainment charity Backup - was the brainchild of Gordon Torrington from Hampshire-based rental company Liteup. The idea was spawned from a conversation he had with Liteup’s MD Marc Callaghan and freelance LD Warren Hutchison about the work of the charity in supporting many industry peers including a friend and colleague of all at Liteup, lighting director and programmer Jonathan Rouse who passed away recently and is much missed. Techs on the Decks was viewed by 37,000 people creating a buzz around the industry and giving those directly involved a chance to do what they are so passionate about, as the industry remains closed since mid-ma
UK - Cornwall’s Eden Project was born of optimism in 1996, when the visionary Sir Tim Smit announced, what many thought to be an impossible plan: to convert a defunct 160-year old clay pit into a site that would become a world-renowned attraction and education centre. This July, the Eden Project served as a new symbol of hope, when GLX Productions used a collection of Chauvet Professional COLORado Q40 LED panels to create a brilliant glow throughout its massive Biomes as part of Light It In Red, the initiative aimed at drawing attention to the severe challenges faced by the entertainment and event industry in the UK and the entire world. The vivid red hues that shimmered through the hexagonal cladding panels of the Biomes, (like the light that shined on other iconic structures throughout the UK), not only raised awareness of the situation faced by the 25,000 business
South Africa - The South African event industry is planning a widespread protest action to highlight the lack of government support for the sector, which has been severely affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Taking place on 5 August, the Light SA Red campaign is calling on anyone concerned about the future of live events to join in by illuminating a building in ‘emergency red’. The campaign is inspired by Germany’s Night of Light and the UK’s Light It In Red. To shine a light on the lack of state backing for the industry, it will take place exactly five months since South Africa enforced a blanket ban on all live events due to COVID-19, leaving many freelancers, venues and businesses out of work. “The South African events industry is dying, and we are being ignored,” say the organisers in a statement. “Our aim is for government and financial institutio
Puerto Rico - Drone show specialist Verge Aero delivered a stunning aerial performance on 4 July at Puerto Rico’s first drive-in music festival in San Juan, headlined by local artist Pedro Capó. Promoted by Move Concerts (Puerto Rico) and No Limit Entertainment, the AT&T Drive-In Summer Fest was the island’s first step towards the return of live events since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. Verge Aero was called in by Roly Garbalosa of Garba Music Corp to add its specialist technology to the event. A renowned production manager on the Latin American music scene, Garbalosa was looking for a spectacular way for the concert’s main sponsor, communications company AT&T, to announce its launch of 5G network services in Puerto Rico. With corporate sponsorship playing an increasingly major role in live events, Verge Aero’s drone technology presents
USA - GearSource Holdings, operator of the GearSource.com web platform since 2002, is launching in August the G3 Marketplace, the company’s third major generational upgrade to its platform. Founder Marcel Fairbairn comments: “It’s funny, but people have become so complacent in their beliefs that all software should magically perform with perfection, while following advancements in technology you’d see from tech giants including Google, Facebook and Apple. In fact, I remember a customer saying to me, why can’t your search just work - like Google. The obvious answer is that we don’t employ thousands of world class engineers to work exclusively on our search functionality. In fact, we have three great coders, developing and maintaining our entire e-commerce platform,” says Fairbairn. Fairbairn understands the challenges of bringing a complex project to lif
Canada - Lighting designer Pierre Roy has toured extensively over a 30-year career as well as handled lighting duties for a number of artists in his own hometown of Quebec. For this year’s Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, he lit a special Facebook Live concert by one of the top rock artists in Quebec, Martin Deschamps, using an Elation rig directed by an Obsidian Control Systems NX4 console, a lighting control platform Roy has worked with for much of his career. Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day is one of the most important holidays in Quebec and across French Canada, a day to display the region’s fleur-de-lys flag and celebrate its Francophone identity with parades and outdoor concerts. With a storm in the forecast however, the Martin Deschamps show was moved indoors, on very short notice, to the Rolland-Brunelle Cultural Centre in Joliette, Quebec. Although the 24-hour notification mea
France - More commonly known by her stage name, Izïa, Izïa Higelin is the rock star daughter of 70s pop legend Jacques Higelin. The Senegal-born actress and musician recently completed a 24-date French tour on the back of her new album, Citadelle. It took an inspired deployment of GLP’s X4 atom, with its tiny form factor, by the artist’s LD, Jordan Magnée, to provide an imaginative backdrop. The result was a tiltable matrix of 96 atoms (from a total complement of 124 pieces), each with a 30W full-colour LED source, to bring the scenography to life. These were mounted on a structure fabricated by S Group, which also supplied the fixtures, having purchased them specifically for the tour. The versatility of the atom was demonstrated in the 9:1 zoom ratio - from a wide 34° wash down to a tight 3.5° beam - that enabled a constant variation of narrowing or ex
USA - ADJ has expanded its range of theatrical stage lighting products with the release of the new FS3000LED follow spot. This professional-calibre LED-powered fixture generates a powerful spot that is suitable for tracking performers at live productions, theatre stages and churches. Offering a rich feature set and various control options, paired with a high CRI, it is a modern follow spot designed to meet all the needs of a modern theatrical setting, says the company. The FS3000LED utilises the latest LED technology to produce a bright, clear and sharp output. Its 300W white C.O.B. (Chip On Board) LED source has a 6000K colour temperature and delivers approximately 8500 lumens of output with a high CRI of 95. The unit’s lenses and precision-designed optics make for an even light output that can be adjusted, using the manual focus feature, between a crisp spot and a less-d
USA - Martin Professional has expanded the ELP Series of LED ellipsoidal fixtures with IP65-rated variants. The Martin ELP WW IP (Warm White) fixture provides quality colour rendering and brightness, while ELP CL IP (Colour) delivers rich, saturated colours and ‘class-leading output’. Now, both fixtures are available in IP65-rated variants, which offer water resistance and complete dust protection while still providing the same quality of light, performance and ease of use. Featuring optic assemblies designed in Denmark by the team behind MAC Encore, ELP IP are designed to maximise efficiency and deliver a flat field of illumination for smoother blending and mixing between fixtures. The ELP WW IP delivers 7,000 lumens of output and an industry-leading 97 CRI at 3000K-color temperature, for the truest color representation on any surface. The ELP CL IP fixture offe
UK - From the outside, the complex of buildings at 21-25 Bonville Road, Brislington, Bristol, doesn’t look markedly different than it did in 2019. Inside, however, a quiet revolution is underway. The building’s owner, Pytch, which until recently was known as SXS Events, has been busily reinventing itself since the COVID-19 lockdown brought its thriving live event business to a sudden and complete halt. Almost immediately after the pandemic hit, the company began looking for ways to repurpose its extensive inventory of equipment, as well as the vast pool of skills, experience and knowledge possessed by its team members. First came Intelligo, an all-in-one digital platform that makes it easier for schools to implement online learning programmes. More recently, Pytch launched The Virtual Venue, a powerfully-equipped production space that, in only its first month, has
Germany - MA Lighting has unveiled a new member of its grandMA3 onPC solutions range: the grandMA3 onPC command wing XT. grandMA3 onPC command wing XT is billed as a versatile solution for smaller and mid-sized installations and shows, streaming studios as well as a powerful pre-programming and backup tool on the road. It is built to the same standards of quality in software and hardware that are applied to the entire grandMA3 product range. As a member of the grandMA3 family, the grandMA3 onPC command wing XT uses the same user interface as the other grandMA3 consoles. It therefore allows new users to learn the MA user interface from start and later seamlessly switch between this solution and other grandMA3 consoles. Furthermore, newcomers will benefit from the amount of free trainings and webinars MA offers which allows them to quickly build up their skills. E
USA - Christopher Robin, a production manager at Star Design Event Services of Morgantown, put together the stage for an Independence Day concert by Top 40 recording artists The Davisson Brothers. Unlike the usual summer concerts, he’s worked on, which take place before large crowds at a park or music venue, this one happened in front of only a few fans in the parking lot of a motorcycle dealership. Most of the fans who saw this show viewed it on a large drive-in screen at a nearby park. Others who saw it through the social media platforms of the 18 country music stations that carried it in West Virginia. “This was probably the first time we did a multi-site hybrid show that was ‘live’ before a small group of people and livestreamed over different formats,” said Robin. “Like everyone in an industry that is changing all around us, we are adapting to a new no
USA - As the live entertainment industry looks for new ways to engage people in a post COVID-19 world, Bandit Lites, Moo TV and Clair Global joined forces to offer a safe and controlled venue to artists at the Steel Mill, Nashville, complete with a full production turnkey studio. The full production studio includes a 60’ x 40’ stage area with a lighting rig comprised of over one hundred moving fixtures including the new Chauvet R2X LED washes, a grandMA2 Full console and hazer. Bandit’s GoGo truss, under hung with GLP X4S, flank an LED video wall while each of the six eye-catching octagons are outfitted with eight Elation ACL360, eight Ayrton MagicDots and one Robe 600 wash. GLP X4 fixtures along the front truss offer key light while Claypaky Sharpys spread throughout the rig act as beam units. The Steel Mill offers not only a stunning (and air conditione
UK - Built for the Festival of Britain in 1951 and located on the south bank of London’s River Thames, Southbank Centre is the UK’s largest arts centre. It comprises the Royal Festival Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Purcell Room and the Hayward Gallery and has recently seen the installation of two MDG ATMe haze generators in its larger venues, the 2,700-seat Royal Festival Hall and the 916-seat Queen Elizabeth Hall. “For some time we’d been looking to replace our aging haze machines which were noisy, rather temperamental, and notoriously bad at leaving an oil residue on surfaces,” says Roger Hennigan, Southbank Centre’s technical manager. “We’d looked at several alternatives in the past but none were able to better the old models - until MDG’s ATMe came along. “ATMe has a much finer particulate so they leave no residue or slippery oil deposits
USA - ETC has partnered with an award-winning Broadway lighting team to create a new educational challenge: The Hamilton Programming Project. Participants will use real touring paperwork from the hit musical to finish prep on an Eos show file and recreate Howell Binkley’s Tony Award‐winning lighting looks - all in Eos Augment3d. The project stemmed from an idea Hamilton’s programmer David Arch had when he sat down to explore Eos Augment3d, a programming environment (currently in open beta) that allows Eos Family console or ETCnomad users to control and design in a three-dimensional space. As a practice exercise, Arch decided to import the 3D model of the Hamilton set from the pre-vis of the first touring production and add in the lights. With Augment3d as his virtual venue he began to lay virtual focus tapes and cones, focus convention
Europe - Owing to the cancellation of numerous tradeshows and industry events around the globe and current travel restrictions, Claypaky is offering an alternative channel to promote its new products - the Claypaky Virtual Booth (www.claypakyvirtual.com). On show are new Claypaky products placed inside themed areas. For each product, visitors can watch a demo video, download a datasheet leaflet, rotate a 3D model over 360°, and request further information. Featured products include the following . . . With its custom designed 1200-Watt white LED engine, the new Arolla Profile HP is one of the most powerful LED Profile moving heads on the market. The LED engine produces 44,000 lumens and the fixture’s beam is flat and uniform, making projections crisp and colours rich. Designe
USA - Each year, WinShape Camps attracts over 30,000 students to its Christian-led summer camps across the U.S. but like most outdoor camps were forced to cancel in-person events this year due to the Covid pandemic. In order to relieve the disappointment and give kids a fun and engaging experience, WinShape has been working with Stacked Hearts Productions to create an engaging virtual experience, ON, that brings the fun of summer camp directly into homes. The virtual experience broadcasts live eight hours a day, five days a week from a gymnasium on the WinShape campus in Rome, Georgia. Peter Streiff, president of Stacked Hearts Productions, a full-service events and production firm based in Atlanta, has worked with WinShape Camps for a number of years. He and his crew have stayed busy through the five-week camp by broadcasting a morning show, an end-of-day show, worsh
