USA - Eliminator Lighting will use this month’s NAMM Show in Anaheim to showcase five recent additions to its line-up of entertainment lighting and event accessories. These include a powerful simulated water effect, a HEX colour LED par, and a 5-in-1 effect light. Offering a one-stop lighting solution, Eliminator’s new Furious Five RG packs five distinctly different effects into one compact fixture. Designed for mobile entertainers as well as installers working in bars and clubs with limited space, this unit generates a complete lightshow featuring derby and laser beams, UV and colour washes, as well as strobe effects. At the centre of the fixture is a laser aperture which projects countless diffracted beams generated from two laser diodes (70mW green and 100mW red). Serving as eye-catching décor for all kinds of special events, the LED BP Tubes 4 Pak is a set of
USA - The new Capital Hills main campus of Summit Church looks right at home in North Carolina’s famed Research Triangle, which is routinely ranked as one of the most tech-savvy areas in the US. Once inside the 90,064sq.ft house of worship, the visitor is greeted by a welcoming and engaging environment created with help from an advanced AVL system engineered and installed by the CSD Group that features an immersive 360° sound system, massive video walls, and a state-of-the art LED lighting system anchored by close to 100 Chauvet Professional fixtures and two Net X II nodes. Opened in 2019, the new building serves as Summit Church’s broadcast centre. Services from its 1,800-seat worship area are live streamed to the church’s nine other campus in the Research Triangle. Accurate, precisely controlled key lighting and colour temperatures are critical to main
UK - Specialist equipment supplier and production house, Light Fantastic Production Services apply their stock of Robe MegaPointe fixtures to a variety of live events. Having made a significant investment in Robe MegaPointe fixtures to extend their growing lighting inventory, LFPS director, Rob Myer, says: “We have a long-standing relationship with Robe so naturally we are delighted with the performance of our MegaPointes. Over the past few months we have been making great use of them on a host of projects, from creating aerial searchlight effects and gobo projection across building facades to adding incredible theatrical looks to prestigious large-scale live events, including a particularly spectacular product launch installation on a roof at Chelsea Harbour.” Working both on their own in-house projects and in collaboration with a broad range of industry partners,
South Africa - For the past 17 years, British lighting designer Graham McLusky has made his way to South Africa to light the annual pantomime. This season, Jack and the Beanstalk was presented at the Joburg Theatre during November and December. McLusky utilised the theatre’s new lighting gear, which included 12 Claypaky Sharpy Plus fixtures recently purchased from DWR Distribution. McLusky’s history with the production dates back to when director Janice Honeyman and producer Bernard Jay wanted to hire an established UK panto lighting designer to launch their new production. They consulted with UK pantomime producers Qdos, which creates and maintains spectacular stage sets and more than 100,000 costumes for an enormous portfolio of shows. Over the years, Honeyman and Jay have adapted the well-established and successful pantos to convey a distinctly Sou
UK - Expanding UK dry and wet hire company, Fisher Hires has invested in Chroma-Q's new Space Force onebytwo LED soft light, to provide a flexible lighting solution for its diverse event, film, theatre and festival client base. Fisher Hires has been supplying the industry for over 30 years, stocking a wide selection of leading-brand lighting, video, sound & staging equipment for hire. Originally created to support its sister event production company, Fisher Hires’ vast inventory enables it to also service the needs of other event companies. Head of operations, Rob Baker was looking to invest in an LED soft light which was compact and powerful enough to utilise on a variety of its own event productions, as well as being in demand with external clients. Rob commented: “I knew that Chroma-Q’s original Space Force unit had been very successful in the market
Sweden - Singer and songwriter Carola Maria Häggkvist – best known as Carola – has been one of Sweden's most popular performers since the early 1980s, releasing a range of albums over that time encompassing pop and disco to hymns and folk music. She has just played 12 sold-out festive shows at the Slottsladan (Castle Barn) in Steninge Slottsby, around 35km north of Stockholm with special Christmas lighting designed by Danne Persson of Roxy Lighting and including a selection of Robe moving lights – 18 x MegaPointes, 8 x T1 Profiles, six BMFL Spots and one RoboSpot system. The venue is newly refurbished. The old barn was ‘discovered’ by Carola when she relocated to Steninge Slottsby a couple of years ago and it became her dream to perform there. The charismatic space is 60 metres long, 20 metres wide and dates to 1900. It’s now adjacent to a collection
UK - White Light has recently supplied the lighting on Teenage Dick, the critically-acclaimed production which is currently running at the Donmar Warehouse. Making its UK debut, Teenage Dick is a darkly comic take on Richard III and is directed by the Donmar’s artistic director Michael Longhurst. Set in an American high school, it tells the story of Richard who, after years of torment due to his hemiplegia, plots the ultimate rise in power: become president of his senior class. The show features a lighting design by Sinead McKenna, who comments: “My brief on Teenage Dick was to create the feeling of a bright and brash ‘high school movie’ meets dark European stark expressionism. It was actually a real joy to mash up these two styles and experiment with what could be achieved. The play is also set in a gym and Chloe Lamford’s set really mak
USA - Philadelphia Zoo did their part to spread holiday cheer this season with LumiNature, a massive new experiential holiday sound and light attraction that transformed the nation’s first zoo into a magical winter wonderland encompassing 12 captivating experience zones. At the centre of the event was a majestic multi-media spectacular called Northern Lights designed by award-winning lighting designer Ken Billington, using a 4Wall Entertainment-supplied lighting package that included Elation Professional’s IP65-rated Proteus luminaires. The show, produced and directed by Jason Kantrowitz of Luminous Ventures, played 11 times a night, and starred a 35ft tall polar bear sculpture named Polaris crafted from recycled car doors and hoods. Polaris, which also served as a giant projection surface for the eco-themed show, stood prominently overlooking a lake conta
Australia - Harman Professional Solutions has announced it has realigned distribution of AMX, SVSI, and install ranges of AKG, BSS, Crown and JBL Professional in Australia with the appointment of MadisonAV, part of the Madison Technologies group. Distribution in Australia for Harman’s retail, cinema, touring, performing arts, broadcast, and Martin lighting solutions remains unchanged. MadisonAV will expand its portfolio to include the complete range of AMX video control solutions, and Harman Professional install and integration audio product suite. This will offer customers a single interface across Harman’s wide range of video controls and install audio solutions. “We are excited to partner with MadisonAV and expand our distribution reach in Australia. This is aimed at enhancing access to Harman products and solutions across verticals, focusing on soluti
USA - ADJ is preparing to kick off the new decade with a significant presence at the 2020 NAMM exhibition in Anaheim. Officially launching at NAMM 2020, ADJ’s new MDF (Magnetic Dance Floor) System is a robust, lightweight and extremely easy to setup portable LED dance floor solution. Each panel (MDF2) features an array of 3-in-1 RGB LEDs that cause its opaque tempered glass surface to glow intensely in an almost limitless selection of vibrant colours. The panels and accessories are all available individually, but can also be purchased in a pack of nine panels (MDF433) complete with all cables, ramps and a flight case. Also making its exclusive debut at NAMM 2020 will be ADJ’s new Entour Chill high-output low-lying fog machine, which uses standard water-based fog liquid and ice cubes to generate an effect similar to that of dry ice. This latest addition to the Ento
USA - More than 200,000 people gathered at Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park to usher in 2020 at Jack Daniel's Music City Midnight: New Year's Eve in Nashville. Bandit Lites once again provided the celebration with a comprehensive lighting system to help with six hours of live music, fireworks and the midnight Music Note Drop. “It’s never easy to plan a party for 200,000 people but the design and production team of David Spencer, Chris Lisle, Mark Anderson and Erik Parker literally make it seem like a stroll through the park,” comments Bandit Lites vice-president, Mike Golden. “This marks the twelfth year of working with this team, and each year they make adjustments to further streamline production.” Production designer Erik Parker of Chris Lisle Lighting Design refreshed his previous years’ designs for the main stage, outfitting the rig to pop both i
USA - The HiJinx Festival of Electronic Dance Music marked its second year with a return to Philadelphia’s Pennsylvania Convention Centre where production designer, Cort Lawrence, ramped up the excitement with Ayrton Huracán-X fixtures providing dynamic graphics and colourful effects. HiJinx drew crowds of approximately 25,000 on 27 and 28 December 2019 with headliners such as Bassnectar, Excision, Slander, GRiZ, Porter Robinson, Skrillex and Zeds Dead. Following the success of its inaugural year in 2018 the festival occupied a bigger portion of the centre and staged a bigger show to the delight of attendees. Cort Lawrence reprised his role designing the club-scene look of the show and coordinating with the individual artists’ teams who crafted the visuals for their performances. He had seen Ayrton’s new Huracán-X in its debut at LDI the previous month and imm
USA - When British lighting designer Stu Dingley was approached by Meggan Mckenzie, creative director for Atlanta rapper Young Thug, to work alongside her in creating the production and lighting design, and bringing her ideas to life. He was soon dipping into the GLP toolbox in search of his solutions, coming up with the JDC1 hybrid strobes and impression X4 Bar 20 battens. Explaining the rationale, he said: “We wanted first off to be able to box in his riser and really close the stage down but also have enough power in the rig for the really energetic moments. As it was a co-headline tour [with Machine Gun Kelly], we incorporated some automation to be able to change up the looks between acts to give the artists two different performance spaces under the one rig.” And the JDC1 was central to this concept. “I think these are probably the best strobe units out ther
USA - Reflecting Chon’s music in light requires a design that is as complex and immersive as its sound, which is precisely what David Summers provided on the co-headline tour the band completed in December with Between The Buried and Me. Filling venues from the Wiltern in Los Angeles to Brooklyn Steel in New York with wide beams and sharp gobos, while backlighting the artists on stage from multiple directions, Summers created a dreamy panorama that flowed seamlessly with the band note for transcendent note. “Chon is an incredibly vibey group, which makes them fun to light,” says Summers, who worked his magic with a collection of Chauvet Professional Maverick and Rogue fixtures supplied by Squeek Lights. “The four artists in the band are excellent musicians. The two lead guitarists have their own signature guitar models. So, I wanted to accentuate each member o
USA - It was quite a run for the Brummies in 2019. Since making a splash a year earlier with their breakout LP Eternal Reach, the indie folk trio has maintained a global touring schedule appearing at festivals from Electric Picnic to Bonarro. The rapidly rising band capped off the year with a homecoming of sorts, returning to their native Birmingham, Alabama to perform a NYE show at the city’s Saturn live music venue. Contributing to the good time atmosphere was a Jessica Sanders designed lightshow that featured a whirlwind of colours along with some intense audience lighting, all provided by a house rig anchored by Chauvet Professional Rogue, COLORado, and STRIKE fixtures. Positioned overhead on ceiling mounted truss structures, the rig gave Sanders the opportunity to create dome-like colour panoramas over the stage. “It was a really good arrangement that
UK - Lighting and video specialist Colour Sound Experiment supplied lighting equipment, LED screen, rigging and crew to the most recent UK leg of Respect: The Aretha Franklin Songbook tour which has just finished. The vibrant and animated two-hour live concert was created by Adrian Grant (producer of Thriller Live) and directed / choreographed by Tiffany King, celebrates the huge success and songs of Aretha Franklin - the Queen of Soul. It was delivered by three leading vocalists - Stacy Francis, Tanya Edwards and Cleo Stewart - together with a live band, a gospel choir and ‘preacher man’ AJ Lewis. Colour Sound had supplied the tour earlier in the year, so production manager Aaron Booth again returned to Haydn Cruickshank and the team in West London. For this one, they were also asked to supply a lighting and visuals director, so regular Colour
USA - Lighting designer Mason Delman lit an NYU Tisch School of the Arts production of Legally Blonde with Elation Artiste Picasso moving heads and praised the multi-functionality and responsiveness of the high-performance LED profile luminaire. 4Wall Entertainment in New York, with Al Ridella as key account manager, provided 10 Artiste Picasso fixtures for the Tisch New Theatre student organisation production at the Skirball Centre in November. Delman comments, “This is a theatrical show and the Picasso fit in well. It was a bit smaller and we didn’t need the extra bells and whistles that the Monet has. Being compact was convenient and better fit our needs.” At roughly two an a half hours, Legally Blonde is not a short, easy-to-light pop musical yet a fairly complicated show as Delman explains. “Most musicals that are adapted from movies are a b
Australia - The International Queen of Burlesque, Dita Von Teese, returned to Australia with Glamonatrix, her most lavish touring show to date. It was the first outing for Phaseshift Productions’ Claypaky Sharpy Plus fixtures. Dita’s production manager and lighting designer, Alex Goldberg, was thrilled to have the new fixtures at the beginning of her world tour. In Glamonatrix, fans were treated to a full evening of comedy and striptease that celebrated diverse beauty. “This is the type of show that provides a lighting designer with the opportunity to be an active element in the presentation itself,” says Goldberg. “Often, when you have one performer on stage the lighting becomes an essential part of the show that interacts with the dancers’ performances, keeps everyone looking glamorous, and transforms the entire atmosphere to create beautifu
UK - The team behind the ground-breaking Blackout installation have released the results of the UK Backstage Entertainment Industry’s Evaluation on Mental Health Awareness. This pioneering study was launched alongside the acclaimed 6-minute immersive experience at September’s PLASA Show, held at London Olympia. Funded by leading industry associations PLASA, the ALD, the ASD, the ABTT and the PSA, the academic analysis was conducted by Dr Paul Hanna, research director in clinical psychology at the University of Surrey. Hanna has worked closely with Blackout’s core creative team since they launched the installation in May 2019 at The Guildford School of Acting.
According to the survey, the prevalence of mental health issues among those working in the UK technical, backstage and entertainment industry is far higher than the national avera
South Africa - DWR’s first sale of Astera Titan Tubes in the country was to freelance gaffer Andre Beumer from Just Light It in Pretoria, who works extensively with several leading DoPs and other clients in the film, TV, commercials and video industry. No sooner had DWR and Astera struck the distribution deal, Andre was on Duncan Riley’s doorstep, and in fact the eight-way Titan Tube kit was DWR’s original demo kit, which he purchased on the day it arrived in their warehouse in Johannesburg! Duncan commented: “I always knew Astera was going to be popular, but even I was taken aback by Andre’s enthusiasm. He rocked up, virtually snatched them from us, transferred the money and disappeared in a cloud of dust up the road,” he says laughing. “I think he was straight out on a shoot that day using them.” “They are totally amazing tools,” confirms An
Singapore - When Singapore-based lighting design company, Roadie Pte purchased a substantial number of Ayrton lighting fixtures from exclusive local distributor, Total Solution Marketing Pte, it was an opportunity to find out what persuaded them to choose their 24 MiniPanel-FX and 18 Diablo-TC fixtures. Roadie’s professional team of individuals provides lighting design for productions, shows and events locally in Singapore and internationally. They were pleased to explain that the fixtures had been purchased primarily to support their lighting designs and that they chose Ayrton for good reason: “As lighting designers who are constantly on the ground, we look out for multiple factors in our equipment - quality of light, flicker-free LED sources, uniqueness, versatility and form factor are vital. The quality of light from both Diablo-TC and MiniPanel-FX is superb. The fixt
USA - Employees from around the country convened at Bandit Lites Nashville location for the company’s annual general meeting. A special celebration was held for Eric ‘Rock’ Shafferman, who has surpassed 40 years with Bandit Lites. Shafferman’s storied tenure at Bandit includes touring with Jimmy Buffett, Kenny Rogers and Alabama as well as working the Super Bowl, Bonnaroo, Farm Aid and President George W. Bush’s inauguration. “I first met Rock in 1979 when he joined the Bandit family as a driver on Kenny Rogers,” said Bandit chair Michael T. Strickland, a longtime friend of Rock. “He quickly climbed the ladder and became one of the top lighting technicians in the industry. Everyone that knows Rock simply loves him. I have never heard Rock speak ill of anyone, and he has a work ethic and ability second to none.” Craig Richter (lighting designe
UK - Pantomime season in the UK and Ireland brought another crop of hilarity and slapstick to stages up and down the countries. One of the most high-profile presentations for this season was UK Productions’ Peter Pan at Blackpool Grand Theatre, directed by Anthony Williams and lit by Andy Webb. Andy specified all-Robe LED fixtures with the T1 Profile at the core of his lighting scheme. The design also included Spiider wash-beams, ParFect 100s and 150s, DL4S Profiles, LEDWash 300s and CycFX 8s. Andy has a lot of experience in lighting the world of pantos, which requires some classic theatre treatments, but also leaving room for experimentalism and fun. He has also worked at the Grand Theatre before, an original Frank Matcham designed house - and now a Grade II Listed building - dating back to 1894 that is exceptionally tight for space when staging comple
Australia - For the tenth year in a row, AGB Events has produced its Lights of Christmas spectacular in Sydney. It has become a tradition, and a much-anticipated event for families throughout the city - and beyond. The first Lights of Christmas was established by AGB Events in 2010 with the support of the NSW State Government. “We take great pride in creating meaningful and memorable public celebrations that draw communities together so successfully that they become an integral part of the cultural landscape,” comments Anthony Bastic, CEO and creative director of AGB Events. “That’s what Lights of Christmas has become.” “While it’s a unique event, Lights of Christmas is representative of the kind of events we’ve created for governments and city/state councils around the world - not just Australia, but the United States, Europe
