Germany - GLP is to launch a new series of short-form, fun, and informative interview videos with lighting designers from all over the industry. The series will see videos released on a weekly basis with different designers facing the same 10 questions, covering their formative years, as well as career highs and even some of the moments they would rather forget. Partly informative, partly inspirational, and partly irreverent and amusing, the interviews have been designed to bring a little bit of everything to the viewer. To keep them easy and fun, the interviews will be edited into 15-minute episodes. Given that some of the more elaborate stories could take a little longer, full-length versions of the interviews will be made available in the future. Episodes will be published every Wednesday on
South Africa - #Feedourcrew, supported by DWR Distribution’s SOS Charity Fund, are hoping to give a final push to raise funds internationally for event industry freelancers and theatre technicians in South Africa. This very hardworking and dedicated group of people have struggled to put food on the table during the national lockdown due to COVID-19 lockdown. Nicole Barnes of DWR reports: Over the past two months, the #FeedOurCrew initiative has been able to provide shopping vouchers for over 350 families, who’s primary breadwinners are no longer able to make a living due to the closing of the events industry. “The #FeedOurCrew fund has raised R280 000. Originally each recipient was given a voucher for R1000. Due to dwindling funds and a huge increase in applications, we are now giving recipients vouchers of R500 each. This has helped just over 350 freelanc
USA - With its 76 fixtures and 18ft by 10ft video wall, the rig set up inside the Harford Sound warehouse in Joppa, MD, looks like it’s being prepped for a live event. But the impressive collection of Chauvet Professional lights and F4IP LED video panels isn’t going anywhere, nor was it ever intended to. Instead, it has remained inside the company’s 10,000 sq. ft. warehouse since early March, turning out a series of immersive livestream shows at a clip of three to four a week. Harford Sound owner Evan Kirkendall and his team didn’t pull any punches when they created this 30ft by 25ft performance space following the COVID-19 lockdown. Rather than limiting themselves to providing a “scaled down studio” that bands could use for livestreams, their goal was to offer something that would have a far more lasting impact, allowing clients to create videos that would benef
UK - A call has gone out for people to nominate their hero to feature as a portrait, digitally projected onto one of 33 trees in and around Manchester City Centre, as part of a project being delivered by Greater Manchester charity City of Trees, Hits Radio and projection artists, Illuminos. Hits Radio launched their Hero Hour to promote the people who are going out of their way to keep us healthy, safe and fed during this time. Greater Manchester-based projection artists Illuminos - the force behind many large scale art projects including the Lunar Loops Blue Dot festival illumination at Jodrell Bank last year, and the ‘Momentous’ projections on Leeds Civic Hall - were inspired by Hits’ Hero Hour. They have teamed up with charity City of Trees, who aims to plant and nurture at least 3m trees - one tree for every person living in the city region, fo
UK - Working to support government officials in understanding the unique issues facing the events industry due to COVID-19, PLASA has produced two infographics illustrating how the events supply chain will be impacted without further government support. The graphics reflect the number of people it takes to deliver just one performance - on average 443 professionals, spanning planning, design, preparation, warehouse and venue staff. Additionally, the graphics show how valuable the sector is, delivering £100 billion to the UK economy and employing approx. 589,000 people. It is hoped that information contained in the graphics will help highlight to government officials how many jobs are at risk in the events industry without support beyond October. PLASA says in a statement: “Whilst many industries will be looking to return to some normality from July onwards, ex
USA - Four draft standards have been posted for public review on ESTA's Technical Standards Programme website. Materially affected parties are invited to review them at http://estalink.us/pr. BSR E1.6-1, Powered Rigging Systems. ANSI E1.6-1 – 2019 is being opened for limited revision, with the scope of revisions applying only to section 6.6 of the standard. The revisions are necessary to correct errata in that section only. No other revisions will be considered or made at this time. Comments are due no later than 28 June. BSR E1.39, Entertainment Technology - Selection and Use of Personal Fall Arrest Systems on Portable Structures Used in the Entertainment Industry. This standard establishes minimum requirements for the selection and use of personal fall arrest systems (PFAS) on portable structures in the entertainment industry. In addition, the standar
USA - The weather in eastern Maryland never got much past 70° on 23 May, but the vibe in the improvised studio at Showtime Sound’s Baltimore warehouse was decidedly tropical. Aaron Kovelman, the company’s director of design and production, saw to that by creating breezy, colourful, beach-like visuals for its one-hour Virtual Island Festival featuring Jah Works. “From a design perspective, it was very important for me to consider the audience point of view given the platform they would be watching the performance on,” explains Kovelman. “I wanted to give viewers the feeling of an intimate performance, as if this stream was being done straight for them. Yet, at the same time, I wanted to deliver large enough landscapes through the video looks and depth of lighting to make the audience feel as if they were outside on lawns listening to music amidst summe
Belgium - Creative director and lighting designer Koert Vermeulen wanted to do something extra special to celebrate 25 years of his Belgian-based creative design practice ACTLD, so he and his team crafted ‘a fluid and mesmeric large scale spectacle of lighting art’ - A2C5T - which was presented to the public for three weeks at the See U event space in Brussels. The 45,000sq.m former police barracks provided an atmospheric backdrop for this multi-level light art experience, which was inspired by the core tenets at the heart of ACT - Art, Concept and Technology. Within the installation, these three values were represented by three abstract intersecting works of creative lighting, carefully curated by Koert to offer a different but equally compelling immersive experience for guests. The three elements could be enjoyed individually or as one, or as a user-definable mi
USA - Lighting for comedy has its own special characteristics and lighting designer Marc Janowitz, who recently lit comedian Jimmy O. Yang’s debut stand-up comedy special on Amazon Prime - Jimmy O. Yang: Good Deal - using Elation Rayzor 760 and Fuze Z350 LED wash lights, knows all about them. “In the concert industry, you can end up with a thousand different ways to use a light in a single show but in comedy you work hard to come up with a perfect look that stays throughout the entire show and needs to look right from a multitude of camera angles.” Recorded last fall at the Neptune Theatre in Seattle and aired in early May on Amazon’s paid subscription service, the Silicon Valley and Crazy Rich Asians star laid down a hilarious hour of comedy in a blossoming career as a stand-up comedian. “When lighting a comedy special, there is typically an int
USA - Eric Cathcart begins the design process by forming an idea for a distinct look in his head. Then he goes to his rental company contacts, does his best to describe his vision down to the smallest detail, and asks which fixtures in their inventory can help him achieve it. This sums up what happened late last year when Cathcart envisioned expanding the look of his show to better reflect the free-flowing sound of Silversun Pickups. Understanding Cathcart’s inspiration as they did, his contacts at Upstaging recommended the COLORband PiX from CHAUVET DJ. “I have been working with Silversun off and on since 2016,” said Cathcart, owner of Bigtime Lighting Design. “The album cycle started June of 2019 with a very minimal floor package, consisting of strobes and small movers. For the new year, I wanted to create a wall of light to close the gap between the floor pa
USA - Over the last two months, Stage Right Lighting of Virginia Beach has been hosting a 6 Feet Together livestream concert series that has put some much needed joy and optimism into the live event community. Stage Right’s final livestream concert was held Saturday, 6 June and featured Celtic-inspired rock band The Fighting Jamesons. The 6 Feet Together benefit concerts are streamed live from Stage Right Lighting's own studio and are decked out using their extensive inventory of lighting gear including Elation Proteus Rayzor 760 moving heads, Seven Batten 72 linear lights, ZW37 II moving heads, Cuepix 16IP matrix panels and Protron Eclypse multi-effect lights. The 6 Feet Together benefit concerts raise money for out-of-work musicians and crews with donations going to Hampton Roads musicians and local stage technicians, as well as the technicians that make the 6 Fe
France - Robert Juliat has launched a new range of luminaires – and the latest introduction to its LED lines – Sully. Sully is a new family of LED products based around the same exclusive 115W white LED engine, with an output that equals or exceeds that of a traditional 1kW tungsten fixture. Robert Juliat has developed a new LED compartment which will enable customers to upgrade current traditional profile installations to LED by simply swapping the tungsten lamp base on their existing RJ 600SX Series for the new T650SX LED module. The new accessory is also compatible with Robert Juliat’s Aledin Series, Figaro, and Quincy, and with its tungsten Cricket and MSD Buxie followspots. This new development is kinder to the planet as well as your budget. Any 600SX Series profiles can be transformed from tungsten to LED sources whilst retaining the iconic, ergonomic
UK - Event production specialist Leisuretec UK, headed by Phil Jameson, has utilised imagination and resources to light up Wigan’s DW Stadium in a variety of vibrant colour combinations, showing support for the National Health Service (NHS), essential workers and various community initiatives as everyone pulls together to beat the coronavirus pandemic. The venue is used by both Wigan Athletic football club and Wigan Warriors rugby league club, and Leisuretec UK is the preferred event technical supplier, which entails providing kit, services and crew for numerous corporate activities happening there – around two to three a week for most of the year. With all that and other work on hold, the idea of firing up some lights started at the Leisuretec UK warehouse in support the UK’s weekly Thursday night Clap For Carers action which Phil illuminated with their 12 x Rob
Belarus - Ayrton has announced A17 Stage Systems as its new, exclusive distributor for Belarus with immediate effect. A17 Stage Systems was established in 2019 with the mission to service its customers’ projects from concept to completion using only the best, most reliable brands in the industry. The company is composed of experienced technicians with many years of expertise in the lighting, sound, rigging, staging, conferencing and video markets. Its customer base includes VVIP and government organisations. “From the very beginning, A17 Stage Systems has hunted out the best brands in all areas of its activity,” says A17’s engineering director, Vitaly Kazakevich. “We look for future leaders, not just current brands, and see that Ayrton is a fast-growing company with interesting new technologies, and a very good, professional team. “The Ayrton product
Europe - With fellow General Device Type Format (GDTF) founders MA Lighting and Robe lighting, global design and BIM software provider Vectorworks reports that DIN SPEC 15800 officially recognises the GDTF as an open standard for the entertainment industry worldwide. "With this latest accomplishment of DIN SPEC 15800, GDTF will continue its growth and see even greater success now that it is recognised as a standard way of communicating controllable characteristics of lighting fixtures,” said Vectorworks CEO Dr. Biplab Sarkar. “GDTF has covered a lot of ground in the two short years since inception. We already have 35 manufacturers signed on to support the open standard and are grateful for their contributions to help build a solid basis for a standardized format that will advance the industry in new ways. I look forward to seeing more manufacturers, as well as more
USA - The concept was key to everyone behind Keith Urban’s Nashville drive-in concert on 14 May, not just for the Vanderbilt University Hospital medical heroes, in whose honour the event was held, but also for the team that managed to create an immersive stage setting for the one-hour show on short notice. “The paramount thing about this gig for Keith and everyone else was being socially distant and as safe as possible,” said Brent Maxon, Urban’s lighting director. “Our goal was to involve the fewest people possible in setup, while still putting together a quality show for this very important audience of special guests.” Maxon and the rest of the team began working on a plan to achieve this goal only five days before the surprise show was scheduled to begin. They had no precedent to draw ideas from, since this was the first drive-in theatre concert by a maj
UK - Stage Electrics has announced that it has won a contract for the design, supply, and installation of specialist production lighting, sound & video projection systems to the new Nottingham College, City Hub facility at a value of over £200,000. This new building will offer students a modern facility including a large performance hall and drama studio, both of which will feature new lighting fixtures including the Chauvet Professional Ovation E-910FC and CYC 1 FC units. Stage Electrics worked closely with both the main contractor Wates Construction and Nottingham College to develop a specification that was within budget and met all the technical requirements whilst utilising the colleges existing sound equipment. Work commenced on site in May and is anticipated to be completed in early August.
Australia - Lighting designer Brenton Slattery from Scene Change Brisbane chose Astera AX1 and Titan Tube wireless battery-powered LED fixtures to create a memorable light sculpture and high-impact messaging for the 2020 Anzac Day commemorations. The sign spelt out ‘LEST WE FORGET’ in bold, bright, positive letters and was highly visible on the waterside lawn at Howard Smith Wharfs in the Queensland state capital. Brenton is based at the Howard Smith Wharfs multi-venue site comprising a series of regenerated – and now heritage-listed – riverfront buildings on the Brisbane River, overlooked by Story Bridge which was constructed around the same time, between 1934 and 1940. He took up his post in February after three years of freelancing, and now he and his team coordinate technical requirements for Scene Change Brisbane’s diverse events schedule that incl
Israel - A star-studded line of music stars and artists performed during a protest concert in Charles Clore Park, Tel Aviv, titled Behind The Scenes: An Assembly of Solidarity to draw attention to the plight of freelancers, backstage technicians and all the zero-hours contract workers in the Israeli event industry whose livelihoods have been decimated as the music and live event industry has been paused in the fight to control COVID-19. This solidarity rally was initiated and produced by Tali Yaacobi Events Production and backed by Inbar and Marius Nacht – an Israeli entrepreneur, social activist, and philanthropist – who made a generous donation to all the crew working on the show. The lighting and audio were supplied by Argaman Systems – including a large Robe moving light rig which was designed by Cochavi & Klein and operated by two of Israel’s b
USA - Altman Lighting has announced release of the new PHX3 LED Profile and PHX3 LED Zoom luminaires. Designed for theatres, special events, television studios, or ‘any location where superior, energy-efficient lighting performance is required’, the 340W PHX3 LED ellipsoidals ‘enhance your design versatility and efficiency without sacrificing performance’. “Wanting to make sure that we implemented the most robust technology possible into our next-generation LED ellipsoidals, the PHX3 Profile and Zoom introduce a number of innovative features in function, style, and efficiency,” says Pete Borchetta, Altman vice president product innovation. “Having spoken with a number of lighting designers and dealers worldwide, we wanted to expand our PHX series even further with these two new high-performance and dependable luminaires.” Utilising a 340W (RGBL) Red, Gr
USA - Roger Sharp is proud of his region’s music tradition. His upstate New York stomping grounds have nurtured a wealth of talent in virtually every genre, from Lana Del Ray, the Goo Goo Dolls, and Ani Di Franco to Moe, Rick James, Lou Gramm, 10,000 Maniacs and Chuck Mangione. The owner of High Peaks Event Production, Sharp has always entertained the idea of putting on a summer festival honouring this local tradition, even starting a Facebook page dedicated to this mission. But keeping up with the demands of his growing business prevented him from getting around to realizing this dream. He finally found the time though after the COVID-19 lockdown put all events on hold. With his event business halted, Sharp built a lockdown-safe recording studio and stage in his warehouse, and launched a weekly Sunday night livestream, NY Rock N Roots Festival to highlight lo
South Africa - When South Africa went under strict lockdown on 26 March, the entertainment industry had been out of work for a couple of weeks already, with all shows on the events calendar either cancelled or postponed indefinitely. It was a grim picture, and Jannie de Jager of DWR Distribution believed that the very least he could do was use this opportunity to set up training sessions for the industry during this time. While there was no shortage of training videos and webinars provided by international suppliers, which are still being shared on the DWR Distribution Facebook Group page, Jannie and colleague Dylan Jones, wanted to create a platform where training and personal contact with the industry could continue, allowing all parties to be motivated and to share knowledge. The only obstacle was navigating the best way to do this. “We definitely had to get used
Germany - DRIVE.IN Concerts of Monheim has come up with a solution that allows music fans of the area to attend a live concert again. DRIVE.IN Concerts Monheim is a series of events in which the crowd park their cars in front of the stage just like at a drive-in movie. Running through June, with a variety of live acts and DJs performing, the concert series features an impressive stage set-up that relies on Elation Professional and ADJ lighting fixtures. The series kicked off in early May with a live performance by Cologne-based rock band Kasalla as part of their Et Jitt Car-Salla tour of drive-in concerts. Since then, most weekends have seen two or three concerts taking place at the outdoor site, featuring artists such as DJ Quicksilver, Da Hool, Moguai, TOPIC and The Disco Boys. Future performers are set to include electronic acts Fiasko and YouNotUs, as well a
USA - New York City may be over a thousand miles away, but local company, JEM Productions, created the look and feel of Manhattan jazz club at its warehouse- turned-studio in Wausau, WI, as it hosted a livestream fundraising show by the Sara Rifleman Trio. The performance by the Wisconsin-based musicians was the latest in a series of livestreamed shows emanating from the lighting and audio company’s makeshift studio. It was the smoothest production to date, according to Joe Ellis, president of JEM Productions. “We’ve been doing these for weeks now, ever since the Covid-19 shutdown started,” said Ellis. “I think we’re getting familiar with this process! Our lighting and production crew did a really great job creating the look of a classic New York jazz club on the set. Sometimes, the simpler the look, the harder you have to dig into the art of design. This
