Lighting

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21 November 2024

USA - Megan Thee Stallion’s Hot Girl Summer Tour shined brighter thanks to The Playground Design Collective’s innovative use of Elation’s Artiste Monet profile luminaire. As the Grammy-winner’s first headlining tour and The Playground’s inaugural collaboration with her, the production dazzled audiences across North America and Europe, bringing her signature energy to life with visually striking stage designs.

The Playground handled design and creative direction as one of the year’s hottest touring shows. The show featured production designers Sooner Routhier and Trevor Ahlstrand, and creative and show designer Curtis Adams. Dane Kick took on the lighting programmer and director role, while Jason Giaffo served as a lighting programmer. Fuse Technical Group was the lighting and video vendor for the tour.

The Playground team created

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21 November 2024

Europe - The Chiaroscuro style of art, first popularised in the Baroque era by painters like Caravaggio, blends two polar opposites – light and darkness, to amplify the evocate power of each.

Hayden Borgars is deploying this technique to reflect the complex, and sometimes raw, conflicted sound of Californian metal band The Ghost Inside, on the six-nation European leg of their current Searching For Solace tour.

Weaving his way through the elusive, shadowy border area that separates light from darkness, Borgars is creating mysterious, captivating looks that reveal parts of the set, while leaving others cloaked in shadows. The net result of this approach draws attention more closely to the stage and deepens the connection between the audience band members.

“Having used a Chiaroscuro lighting style with other bands in the past to add

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20 November 2024

Europe - ETC has announced that Matrix Sales will now serve as the official dealer in Denmark following the successful acquisition of long-term ETC partner Atendi A/S’s Protech division.

Matrix Sales – a leading distributor of professional lighting, stage equipment, audio and AV across Danish market – brings extensive experience in the Danish entertainment industry and will provide access to an even larger segment of the market for Atendi A/S.

Atendi A/S’s Protech division includes the activities of the company’s theatre, event and architectural lighting department with employees Søren Jørgensen, Hans Henrik Schmidt, and Henrik Sundahl continuing their work now as part of Matrix Sales.

Matrix Sales will have direct access to a wide range of ETC’s products, allowing them to meet the growing demand of ETC solutions across the regi

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20 November 2024

Saudi Arabia - When lighting and stage designer Steve Wary was charged with creating the look for the opening ceremony of the Saudi Games 2024, he chose 50 Claypaky Skylos fixtures to help the event get off to a dynamic start.

Held 3-17 October, the Saudi Games were the third edition of the largest national sporting event staged annually in the Kingdom.  More than 9,000 athletes competed in 52 sports.

The opening ceremony took place not in a traditional stadium but in the existing Boulevard City area of Riyadh, where all the infrastructure needed to be built, created and organised. The location presented a great opportunity to use the LED screens already present on the buildings, which served as the backdrop for a centrally positioned stage big enough to host the impressive parade of athletes captured for broadcast by two drones.  

The game

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20 November 2024

Europe - Lighting, entertainment and cruise ship specialist Tony Perez has taken on a new position as global sales director in Robe’s Maritime division, stepping up from the business development manager role that he has held since 2022.

The cruise industry sector of Robe’s business has expanded exponentially during Tony’s tenure, a combination of his experience and first-hand knowledge of the sector, hard work and being able to offer a raft of flexible Robe and Anolis lighting products to meet exacting standards.

The agility and comprehensive nature of Robe’s worldwide distribution network has also been a vital factor in this success, resulting in several high profile maritime projects including with MSC’s World class vessels, CCL’s Sun Princess class ships and other Carnival Cruise Line brands, RCCL’s Icon of the Seas class, various Di

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20 November 2024

Germany - When Aki Bosse sings about dreaming, living, loving and despairing, it often sounds surprisingly happy and danceable. Übers Traumen (About Dreaming) is also the name of his latest album, for which he undertook a major arena tour in Germany in 2024. Lighting designer Rico Münzer has been lighting Bosse (and his band of the same name) since 2018.

For the current tour design, no fewer than 200 GLP fixtures combine to create a special look. In total, the designer specified 86 GLP KNV Arc, 76 JDC Line 1000, 24 impression X5 Wash and 14 JDC1 in a structure to fill the stage space.

The KNV Arc and JDC Line 1000 were in the design from the beginning, without which the intended look would not have been possible, as Münzer explains: “At the beginning of the design process I had the idea of working with circles. Initially I planned this

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19 November 2024

UK - Starring seven-time BAFTA Award-winner Steve Coogan, Dr. Strangelove is the first theatrical adaptation of Stanley Kubrick’s comedy masterpiece. Written by Armando Iannucci and directed by Sean Foley, it tells the story of a US general who decides to go rogue and declare a nuclear attack on Russia; who, he discovers, have a Doomsday machine capable of destroying the world.

The show features a lighting design by Olivier Award-winning Jessica Hung Han Yun who approached White Light (WL), a d&b solutions company, to supply her lighting rig.

Prior to its run at the Noel Coward Theatre, there was much anticipation leading up to the opening of Dr Strangelove; largely due to the cult status of the film. “I had in fact watched the film many years ago and remembered enjoying it and the lighting specifically,” says Hung Han Yun

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19 November 2024

Slovakia - Steel Arena in Košice is one of the most important multifunctional halls in Slovakia. It has twice hosted the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships and is the home venue of the hockey club HC Košice, nine-time Slovak champion and holder of two Czechoslovak titles, which plays in the highest Slovak hockey league, the TIPOS Extraliga.

As part of a comprehensive reconstruction of the ice rink lighting, eight Ayrton Domino Profiles – supplied by Pro Music, s.r.o., Ayrton’s exclusive representative for the Czech Republic and Slovakia – were installed as effects lighting by Pro Music’s long-time business partner Marcel Filko and his technical team from ma.cz.

Four Domino Profiles were rigged on a circular overhead video truss, and another four on the structure above the ice surface, two above each goal, from where the incumbent team make

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19 November 2024

Europe - Neutrik has further extended its etherCON TOP product offering to meet the demands of data networking in the field and addressing feedback directly from end users.

The NE8MXR-B-TOP retractable RJ45 carrier cable connector delivers the environmental protection of etherCON TOP with the capability to mate with etherCON and standard RJ45 receptacles – through a simple retraction of the shell, retaining this piece on the cable. The rugged diecast shell is retractable from the RJ45 plug to enable use in a wide variety of applications and with devices that do not use etherCON receptacles.

The carrier shell’s chuck type strain relief ensures its suitability for use in harsh application environments, for networks operating in entertainment production, media acquisition and beyond. IP65-rated protection against ingress of liquids and particulates

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18 November 2024

USA - Coppell, Texas-based Alford Media, an event services company with more than 220 corporate events worldwide to its credit annually, has invested in a large complement of Ayrton Rivale fixtures for use on its busy roster of projects. ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of Ayrton lighting in North America.

The purchase marked the first Ayrton fixtures in the Alford inventory. “We have always been interested in the Ayrton line; they make a creative product, and we have been looking for an opportunity to jump in,” says lighting manager Blake Taylor. “The Rivale nicely filled a gap in our profiles line and had some newer features that helped drive our decision,” such as variable CRI, infinite pan and tilt and an IP rating. “These were improvements and upgrades over the profiles we already had.

“ACT has always been great about g

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18 November 2024

USA - The Playground creative team called upon an artful blend of dramatic colour changes and various set and video configurations to endow each chapter of the Megan Thee Stallion narrative for The Hot Girl Summer tour.

“The tour consists of three main acts that really drive the creative intent,” explained Curtis Adams, who, along with Sooner Routhier and Trevor Ahlstrand was the co-production designer of the tour. “Act 1 featured Megan's hard-hitting Snake beginnings with sharp lines, powerful silhouettes, and stark colours. Act 2 centred around Megan's Butterfly era and had a dichroic colour palette. The softer pastel-like colours were a vast departure from the hard-hitting show open, which culled a difference in mood and helped emphasise her metamorphosis.

“Act 3 focused on Megan's human embodiment,” continued

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18 November 2024

Australia - Production company Chameleon Touring Systems has made a significant investment in Elation’s Proteus Maximus and Proteus Brutus power luminaires, greatly expanding their ability to deliver robust lighting solutions for high-profile tours and major events across the region.

The new fixtures, supplied in late September through ULA Group – the exclusive distributor of Elation products in Australia and New Zealand – have already seen action.

In early October, Chameleon upgraded the lighting rigs for two landmark events: the 2024 National Rugby League (NRL) Grand Final at Accor Stadium in Sydney and Knockout Outdoor, Australia’s largest outdoor music festival at the Sydney Showground.

Chameleon sought to replace several outdated lighting fixtures in their inventory from brands that no longer offer this category

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15 November 2024

UK - Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Express, re-envisioned for the 21st century, has taken to the stage in the specially designed Starlight Auditorium at London’s Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre.

With new orchestrations, choreography and songs, the story of a child’s train set that magically comes to life retains all its original wonder, with thrilling roller skate races around the auditorium and powerful performances from the 40-strong company of ‘rolling stock’ (engines and carriages) in an immersive production that begins from the moment the audience steps into the theatre. The audience is closely entwined in the action which takes place on a near in-the-round main stage with racing track ‘spokes’ leading off between sunken areas of seating and around the auditorium.

In anticipation of a long run, the show’s producers, Mi

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15 November 2024

Europe - Highlite International has announced the new Furion Series from Infinity, a collection of IP65-rated, high-performance moving heads. The Furion Series combines power, precision and versatility with a comprehensive range of high-end features.

The Furion line-up offers eight models that span the essential categories of spot, profile, beam, hybrid and washbeam. Each is designed to enhance creativity and provide a comprehensive set of tools for lighting designers.

Each specific Furion model has its own strengths and is optimised with many built-in features for creative freedom to push the boundaries in professional environments.

The Furion Spots and Profiles (S602, S402, P602 and P402), for example, feature a 'flat field LED' light source that produces a uniform field of light with very little loss of brightness towards the edges. The Pr

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15 November 2024

Estonia - Kuressaare Castle on the island of Saaremaa provided a magical backdrop and a beautiful setting for the 2024 Saaremaa Opera Festival, staged in a 68m-long 29m-wide 2000-capacity temporary arena elegantly butted up to the castle.

This year’s host company, Fundació Òpera Catalunya (The Catalan Opera) from Spain produced a week of special back-to-back opera shows and related events, with lighting equipment and crew supplied by Tallinn-based rental specialist E&T, comprising almost all Robe luminaires.

The Robe moving lights included eight MMX Blades, 23 x LEDWash 800s, 16 x MMX Spots and four LEDBeam 350s, joined by 24 x ParFect 100 SWs, all rigged and tech’d by a crew of five led by Andres Sarv working closely with the Catalan Opera’s lighting designer David Galvez.

Catalan Opera’s technical manager Raul Vilasis

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15 November 2024

UK - Lighting designer Phil Supple utilised 56 x Astera Tubes – 40 x Titan and eight each Hyperion and Helios – to illuminate 137 windows across 57 rooms at the George Heriot School in Edinburgh, Scotland, for Where to Begin, the opening event of the 2024 Edinburgh International Festival (EIF).

This Edinburgh International Festival production was created by Pinwheel and delivered in partnership with The Macallan, for which Phil worked closely with creative agency Pinwheel under the artistic direction of Katy Fuller and co-director Simon Sharkey, together with composer Roma Yagnik and video artists, Yeast Culture.

Where to Begin celebrated the energy, vibrance and spirit of Edinburgh, Scotland’s heritage and mythology as well as the alchemy of invention, carefully blended in with a festival atmosphere evoking emotion, inspirati

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15 November 2024

USA - Dierks Bentley’s Gravel and Gold tour concluded with its 21 September show at the American Family Insurance Amphitheatre in Milwaukee.

The tour celebrated the landmark 10th album in Bentley’s successful career, and he wanted to make it memorable. Talking to a reporter, Bentley described how the concept behind this tour grew out of a single question. “What we do if this was the last time we were going to play this city? What kind of show would we put on?”

With a mandate like that, Bentley and his production team strove to create something special, which is precisely what they did on this 30-city tour with production design by Bruce Rodgers, lighting by Chris Reade, and video by Luz Studio.

Collectively this team created a massive, wide open panorama with minimal props and fixtures on the stage deck, a potent flown lighti

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15 November 2024

UK - CrowdGlow has announced a new addition to the CrowdNet family of products. The CrowdNet Nano transmitter is a small USB-based transmitter that allows lighting designers to control up to 2,000 phones at smaller sized shows to create amazing light shows. The new Nano transmitter is available for purchase with a life-time usage licence, compared to the company’s full-size transmitters which are dry hire only.

“The CrowdNet full size transmitters are suited to larger arenas and stadium sized shows, however we wanted to create a new product to cater for the smaller end of the market,” says CrowdGlow. “We’re thrilled to be able to enable the same level of high-end crowd light shows, but making them more economically feasible for smaller shows.”

The CrowdNet Nano has all of the same CrowdGlow features available including: RGB screen colours

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14 November 2024

UK - ETC Ltd has officially moved to its new eco-building and base in the UK, in London. The new site is more than double the size of ETC’s former premises boasting over 35,000sq.ft of floor space. The move marks a significant milestone in the company’s growth and expanding business offering.

ETC’s own in-house team has developed the design for the new building, which includes larger demonstration spaces and increased capacity for training, logistics, conferencing, collaboration and more. There is also a new visualisation suite in the building available for industry professionals to use and prepare their shows in. The additional warehousing space also holds significantly more inventory to meet the growing demands of the business and support the needs of ETC’s customers.

The new building is lit and controlled

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14 November 2024

UK - Production Park has announced its first major TV commission after Warp Films, Plan B and Matriarch Productions chose it as the production base for new Netflix drama, Adolescence.

The one-shot crime drama will be fronted by an A list cast including Stephen Graham (Boiling Point, Bodies), Ashley Walters (Top Boy) and Erin Doherty (The Crown). Produced by Sheffield-based Warp Films, Matriarch Productions and Plan B for Netflix, Adolescence tells the story of a family’s trauma when a 13-year-old is arrested for the murder of a teenage girl.

Warp used Production Park near Wakefield as the main base for cast and crew, who spent a total of six months on site over the summer. The Park’s newest stage Studio 005 is normally used for large-scale arena tour productions, but on this occasion became th

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14 November 2024

Australia - The Hordern Pavilion, often referred to as ‘The Hordern’, is one of Sydney's most historically significant landmark venues. Originally opened in 1924, it now regularly hosts live performances, dance parties, sports tournaments, trade shows, conferences, and a variety of other events.

Recently, the venue unveiled a new house lighting scheme featuring 46 Anolis Ambiane RGBW XPs, specified and installed by SimpleMotion Lighting (SML), a specialist in venue infrastructure lighting.

With a portfolio that includes high-profile venues such as the Sydney Opera House and numerous other theatres, concert halls, and recital spaces, SML was approached by The Hordern’s operators, Playbill Venues, to reimagine the lighting of the venue. The aim was to replace the outdated halogen lighting system with a more modern, energy-efficient solution that

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13 November 2024

World - Pearl Jam embarked on their Dark Matter world tour in May, sharing their introspective brand of rock with audiences across North America and Europe before heading to New Zealand and Australia in November. Lighting designer Kille Knobel has worked with the band since 2000 and complements the Dark Matter shows with a minimalist yet impactful design that uses Elation KL Panel XL soft lights as a key visual element in creating the distinctive looks.

The show brings video projection to the forefront with soft, organic visuals and minimalist lighting. When choosing fixtures for the tour earlier this year, lighting vendor Upstaging hosted a fixture shootout in Los Angeles for the designer, where she ultimately selected the KL Panel XL and Proteus Maximus as part of a larger lighting package. The fixtures were essential in creating the desi

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13 November 2024

UK - The bang was provided by the starter’s pistol as the Day at the Races themed quiz night got underway. The DiGiCo quiz night is a celebration of hire companies and the communities they serve, with all proceeds from those attending going towards their two chosen charities, Backup Tech and Stagehand, the PSA’s benevolent fund.

The Quiz represents a chance for suppliers, hire companies, manufactures and businesses to get together in a relaxed environment to connect, do badly at quizzing and most importantly raise money. The evening was a complete success with £14,000 being shared between both charities.

On the night Backup was represented by Lee Dennison, trustee and vice chair, Scott Arnold, trustee, and Sarah James, PR, all raising awareness of the way that Backup can help industry professionals and their families.

“Backup

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13 November 2024

Romania - In just three years, Constanta’s Beach Please! has become one of the largest urban music festivals in Europe drawing hiphop, pop and electronic headliners. The 2024 show, held 10-14 July, featured a stage spanning 82 x 26m with a lighting rig comprising 430 moving light fixtures.

To match the colossal scale of the production, stage and lighting designer Andrei Predut of Apart Productions brought in 36 Claypaky Skylos, which made their Romanian debut in spectacular fashion.

Predut positioned the Skylos in groups of six placed at key points in the 3D decor. “As soon as we let the beams loose on the sky during the setup and programming time, we got instant reactions of awe,” Predut reports. “Crew from all departments started a pilgrimage to FOH so they could inquire about this never-before-seen breed of fixture.

“The second w