USA - Elation Professional has extended its popular Fuze series of LED wash luminaires with new profile and spot versions. Available now is the Fuze Spot and Fuze Profile with framing, both housing full-colour-spectrum RGBMA colour mixing systems. Also available is the cold white Fuze Profile CW with dual colour wheels. The Fuze Spot and Fuze Profile are designed for a wide array of precision lighting applications, particularly theatre, TV and corporate event applications where high colour quality, colour manipulation and accurate colour reproduction is needed. Both luminaires house a 305W 92 CRI engine (6,500K) that utilises a five-colour homogenised LED array of red, green, blue, mint and amber sources. The carefully tuned RGBMA LEDs and high CRI ensure accurate colour reproduction while delivering a powerful white output of over 10,000 lumens. The Fuze
UK - When The Mavericks stopped at the Glastonbury Festival during their 30th Anniversary World Tour, their LD Landon Bloss did what he always does on fly dates: he walked over to look at the lighting rig that he would be running later that day. Approaching the festival’s Acoustic Stage from a distance, Bloss was impressed with the looks the festival LD was conjuring up with some large spots. “I thought for sure, given how bright their output was, that they were 1700w arc lamp fixtures,” said the Nashville-based designer. “So, I was completely surprised when I learned that these fixtures actually had LED engines.” The fixtures that astonished Bloss shared the name of the band he lights. They were Mavericks, or more precisely 16 Maverick MK3 Spot and 18 Maverick MK3 Wash fixtures from Chauvet Professional supplied by Fineline Lighting. For Bloss, his fi
Europe - This summer, Muse continued their Simulation Theory world tour through the UK and Europe. The successful North American leg of the stadium tour put crew and equipment to the test in 23 cities. “Jesse Lee Stout, the creative director for the tour, wanted the entire lighting rig and stage to feel like a spaceship straight out of the ‘80s/’90s sci-fi movies we all know and love,” explains tour lighting designer and programmer, Sooner Routhier. “Making that all-encompassing vision brighter are 176 Solaris Flare LR and 51 Solaris Flare Q+ fixtures. First, neon outlines, comprised of Upstaging Sabers, outline the sides of the truss to help turn the rig into a giant space invader. The Flare LRs provide a thicker, brighter line of light to accentuate the lines of trusses. At the tips of each truss, the structure flips up 45° with three LRs sitting s
UK - Gatwick-based lighting hire company Fisher Hires has made a significant investment in IP-rated Luxibel B Par 180 RGBW LED fixtures. Rob Baker, head of hires at Fisher Hires, says the company was looking to upgrade its existing stock of LED pars, but required a cost-effective solution that would fit in with its high-end branded inventory. Fisher Hires, as part of Fisher Productions, is a Royal Warrant business, awarded the accolade in 2000 by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales as ‘Suppliers of Lighting and Production Services’. “The Luxibel B Par 180 ticks all the boxes - IP-rated, bright, simple to use, lightweight and slick enough for the eye,” says Rob. “What sells is reliable kit that can be trusted to do its job, and although Luxibel is not yet the best-known brand, we let the light do the talking. It has paid off as they are now attracting retur
UK - The judging panel for The Knight of Illumination (KOI) Awards has revealed the 2019 shortlist for the Concert Touring & Events category. Having received a record number of submissions - up 25 per cent from the 2017 Awards - the judges had to choose just a fraction of the entries to put forward for the shortlist.
The 2019 Concert Touring & Events shortlist is as follows:
The MA Lighting Award for Club Hayden Borgars for Fever 333 Sherry Coenen for Frankenstein: How to Make a Monster John 'JP' Partridge for Metronomy
The disguise Award for Video Content Tom Colbourne, Rob Sinclair & Blue Leach for Kylie Minogue Adam Young and Finn Ross for Years & Years Paul Kell for Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets
UK - White Light recently provided the lighting equipment for the Apollo Nights season at the Eventim Apollo - a week of live performances from a range of music artists. The inaugural Apollo Nights season at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith, London, brought together a premium VIP dining experience and a roster of headline artists for a week of shows at the landmark venue. Curated by Ollie Rosenblatt at Senbla, the season delivered an audience experience with the front stalls seating removed to create space for VIP pre-show dining with live jazz piano before opening up the full auditorium for headline shows. The first performance was by Burt Bacharach and Joss Stone and was followed by George Benson and finally Marc Almond. The lighting designer for the season was Ben M Rogers, who WL has previously worked with on the award-winning Hair musical. Rogers c
Europe - High End Systems has opened the ‘new and improved’ High End Systems Knowledge Management Site (KMS) for users to get solutions for specific issues faster. Available at www.support.etcconnect.com/hes, the KMS houses over 2,000 support articles created over the years, including hundreds of new articles produced just in the last few months. Whether you need a quick fix or a detailed tutorial, the KMS gives you a database of solutions that you can search on your own time. And, with the ability to capture questions in real time, High End Tech Services can also get answers out more quickly to help others with similar problems, says the company. The KMS has a wide array of content available for both High End Systems and ETC products. (Jim Evans)
UK - Version 2 is supporting a growing number of crews with low energy solutions both in the studio and on location. Working with a number of leading lighting directors, the Buckinghamshire based lighting rental specialists have supported coverage on a selection of premier summer events with products form their low energy inventory. First up was a visit to Worthy Farm, Somerset as broadcast partners for the BBC’s comprehensive coverage of the 2019 Glastonbury Festival. Making use of a selection of V2 low energy fixtures, lighting director Oli Richards and gaffer Paul Evans made this year’s Glastonbury coverage a completely LED lit event. The Version 2 team deployed a pair of lighting trucks to help deliver the look for both the ‘live studio’ areas and the considerable number of interviews held remotely across the vast festival site. The studio set-ups mi
Belgium - Main stage artists at the 2019 Ghent Jazz Festival were illuminated by 86 Robe moving lights - including 35 new T1s - in a slick lighting design created by Bart Weyts of company L&L Stage Services, who provided technical production, including lightning, audio and video, for that stage. The event was located in the attractive surroundings of De Bijloke, a charismatic historic site formally a hospital that now houses the Ghent Music Centre in the Belgian city. L&L has been involved in the main stage technical production for the last few years, working directly for the organisers. This year, L&L purchased T1s with this and other projects in mind from Robe’s Benelux distributor Controllux, adding to their ever-growing rental inventory of Robe moving lights which is now around the 650 mark. He wanted to use them on the Jazz festival because they are
UK - A.C. Special Projects (AC-SP) has expanded its team with the appointment Muraly Kuhan in the role of business development manager. Kuhan will work closely with AC-SP’s project managers and architectural lighting brand partners - including Traxon/e:cue, CLS, Acclaim and Chroma-Q - to develop and implement new business. He has extensive architectural lighting sales experience on both the product manufacturer and project specifier sides, encompassing supply through to specification, design and installation. AC-SP’s managing director Lance Bromhead comments: "I'm delighted to welcome Muraly to our team. With his wealth of architectural lighting product, project management and commercial experience, he will be invaluable in helping A.C. Special Projects to achieve its future growth plans.” (Jim Evans)
USA - Jackson Browne is back on the road for the next leg of his tour with a lighting package supplied by Bandit Lites, and while the singer-songwriter’s last few tours featured big, saturated looks and backdrops, lighting designer Steve Comer designed this year’s run around beams rather than a set. “I chose to do ladders behind the band and some side trusses at a downward angle to wrap around the band and provide beams of light that surrounds them,” Comer explaines. “It was 12 years ago now that Jackson himself with designer David Davidian led the charge to go to a more earth friendly approach to lighting using a 90% LED based system,” says Bandit production director Dizzy Gosnell. “Back then it was 160 LED Par 64s. Jackson’s house had been off the grid a long while before, and he was intensely interested in pushing LED on his lighting systems. It wa
Switzerland - Around every 20 years, the ‘once in a generation’ Fête des Vignerons takes over the Swiss town of Vevey for a month in July and August. Featuring nearly 6,400 performers, musicians and singers, 2,000 lighting fixtures, 612 loudspeakers and over 300 channels of wireless microphones, 11 networked Yamaha digital mixing systems were needed for the centrepiece production of the 2019 event. Fête des Vignerons is a spectacular event which pays homage to the centuries-old traditions of the Brotherhood of Winegrowers, which covers the area from Pully to Vevey, in the Lavaux region of Switzerland. The centrepiece production takes place in a temporary arena, built on the banks of Lac Léman (Lake Geneva) and depicts a year in the life of the vineyard over 20 scenes. Taking place from 18 July to 11 August, this year’s production comprised 23 shows, plus the c
UK - White Light supplied the lighting equipment for the UK premiere of the Broadway musical Amélie, which completed its UK tour. Originally performed on Broadway, Amélie is based on the 2001 romantic comedy film by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and tells the story of an astonishing young woman who lives quietly in the real world but loudly in her mind. This UK premiere is directed by Michael Fentiman, stars Audrey Brisson and Danny Mac and features a lighting design by Elliot Griggs. Griggs explains: “Amélie is unlike anything I’ve ever worked on before. The film itself actually broke a lot of traditional concepts, with the central character being largely passive and the story being told through short vignettes, which together create a rich tapestry of 90s Paris, but also highlight its loneliness and isolation. “Trying to encompass this successfully
UK - Independent event production specialists Light Fantastic Production Services returned to The Old Truman Brewery, London to support innovation festival Unbound with a complete event solution. Featuring presentations by a host of leading brands, the two-day symposium attracted over 5,000 visitors. The LFPS team worked with Unbound to transform the capacious venue into a series of zones, including the Main Stage, Future Stage, Networking Zone, Partners Lounge plus individually-branded spaces for over 140 exhibitors. The guest speaker presentations and panel style discussions were hosted within custom designed auditoria, built from the ground up by the LFPS team. Covering every aspect of the installation LFPS provided all lighting, audio, video and staging along with an extensive suite of stylish exhibition stands, digital event branding and signage. Comme
France - The Printemps department store at the intersection of Boulevard Haussmann and Rue du Havre became the first store in Paris to use 100 percent electric lighting in 1883. For this year’s Fashion Show Spring Vélizy 2 at the store, battery powered and Wi-Fi controlled LED WELL Fit fixtures from Chauvet Professional supplied by Axilum provided the lighting. Axilum used 36 WELL Fit units in its lighting for the fashion show event. Many of the fixtures were used to illuminate displays, while others, positioned by the runway itself, played a more unusual role. The WELL Fit units at the runway were placed on their sides so they could create a lattice work of crisscrossing light on the carpet as models paraded to showcase the latest fashions. “We had free card from our client to recreate a friendly space,” says Lionel Tachet of Axilum. “So, we relied on
USA - Chauvet Professional has released the Maverick MK3 Profile to the market. The fixture, which received its world premiere at the 2019 Prolight+Sound exhibition, can handle the demands of large concert venues and excels in a wide range of other applications, from high-profile events and festivals, to broadcast projects, says the company. A fully featured 820W LED moving profile fixture, the Maverick MK3 Profile has an output of over 51,000 source lumens (23,000lm output), making it capable of creating aerial effects, specials and audience lighting at any touring show. In addition, it offers a plethora of features, including a four-blade fully wiping shutter system that can rotate up to 60° in each direction, for a total 120° rotation capability. Adding to the fixture’s versatility are its precise CMY + CTO colour mixing and a fast 9:1 zoom ratio that maintains
Spain - ETC dealer Stonex has supplied 19 Source Four LED Mini fixtures to light the installations of acclaimed Indian artist and filmmaker Amar Kanwar at the Thyssen Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid. The museum hosted the work of Amar Kanwar - Testimonios Relámpago and El Bosque Soberano. ETC lighting was used to enhance his exhibition which focuses on the concepts of nature, landscape, climate and human presence whilst criticizing the political state and lack of justice in his native country, India. Kanwar’s artwork in La Sala de Las Semillas, is characterised by taking elements of nature from India and using them as an activist proposal. Different types of rice grains were collected and carefully categorized in small drawers. The room required a dim light that created a warm and intimate atmosphere. Kanwar selected ETC for the installation based
Spain La Ciudad del Rock Arganda del Rey hosted electronic music festival A Summer Story on 21-22 June as 100,000 attendees enjoyed the latest music trends highlighted by Claypaky fixtures. The festival has become one of the epicentres of electronic music in Spain Its fifth edition, produced by Disorder Events, featured performances by more than 70 artists, as well as large screens and spectacular lighting that combined tungsten and LED technologies. A Summer Story featured four stages with lighting designs that mixed moving heads, LED bars and blinders, among others, all controlled from a grandMA2 full-size console supplied by Stonex. Disorder Events and Enrique Jiménez of Fluge Audiovisuales worked together to light four stages. Fluge Audiovisuales was once again in charge of providing the AV equipment, including Claypaky Sharpy PLUS fixtures. The main
China - Elation has been providing lighting solutions for Royal Caribbean International cruise ships since the first Oasis class ship launched in 2009. That trend continues with Royal Caribbean’s latest luxury cruise liner, Spectrum of the Seas. Custom-built for the Chinese market and accommodating 4,246 guests, Spectrum of the Seas set sail from Shanghai in June as the largest cruise ship in Asia. Similar to Royal Caribbean’s previously launched Quantum class ships, Spectrum of the Seas features first-at-sea amenities including Sky Pad, a bungee trampoline experience, and two-level family suites with an in-room slide. Built at Germany’s Meyer Werft shipyard, Amptown System Company (ASC) served as system integrator for sound, light, video, projection, media control and networking of media technology for the entertainment areas of the ship, working closely with t
Flamboyant ‘90s pop icons the Spice Girls’ 13-date summer stadium tour, Spice World – 2019 Tour, kicked off at Croke Park Dublin in May to culminate in June at Wembley Stadium (where else!), transforming 1990s nostalgia into 21st century excitement as they went. Helping to bring the near-vintage flavour to modern sensibilities was a fan-based, fully-invested design team brought together by Creative Director Lee Lodge, comprising set designer Jason Sherwood, choreographer and stage director Paul Roberts and lighting designer Tim Routledge, under the art direction of Kate Moross, who succeeded in creating a show that was a fusion of theatricality and live music on a touring scale. Into this set up Routledge, a keen advocate of Robert Juliat Dalis fixtures, introduced over one hundred RJ Dalis 862 150W LED footlights with the purpose of bringing a heightened sense of glamo
World - Dreams and nightmares are the main themes of the Billie Eilish When We Fall Asleep world tour - the first major tour for this young internet sensation whose career is experiencing a meteoric rise. Helping this seventeen-year-old, Indie pop phenomenon to dizzying heights is the tour’s wonderfully creative set design, the central motif of which is a flown bed, inlaid with 24 Ayrton MagicDot-R lighting fixtures supplied by PRG. Erik Anderson of Cour Design is the creative director behind this incredibly dynamic show. Anderson and his partner, Gordon Droitcour, have been working with Eilish since late 2017 and on this occasion, collaborated closely with production and lighting consultant, Nick Whitehouse at Fireplay, alongside lighting director and programmer, Tony Corporale and lead programmer, Dominic Smith. The stage design is an intricate structure
Belgium - Lucenti has introduced their latest additions to their portfolio, the Blackwave Collection. It consists of LED bars with a 20mm pitch and comes in two lengths, a 100cm LED bar with 50 pixels called the BW100 as well as a 50cm LED bar with 25 pixels, the BW50. Both are powered and controlled by the designated PixlDrive1. These bars unleash “a whole universe of creative possibilities, any pixel can be fully controlled in any shape at any given time”. Their lightweight but robust engineering done in Belgium, is the result of light technicians, rental companies and light designers giving their extended feedback from real-life experiences, says the company. The in-house developed Pixel bus data system by Lucenti, ensures fluent RGBW colour mixing with smooth dimming and synchronization between each pixel and driver. Combined with interchangeable filters it
Europe - The Showtec Mistique is a CO2-based hazer which produces an extremely fine haze. It is the solution for many theatre and television productions because it is quiet, says the company. The oil-based hazer-fluid is carried by and dispersed through the CO2 so there is no need for an additional pump which means no noise-pollution. Features include: very even and thin haze ensures no visible cloudy effect on stage, customisable output direction for extra flexibility, silent operation with output and fan speed remote controllable by DMX and W-DMX. (Jim Evans)
Belgium - The 89m high tower of the majestic Saint Bavo's Cathedral is off limits to the public, except for 10 days in July when Ghent rolls out the welcome mat for the Gentse Feesten. Normal rules, whether at the Saint Bavo’s tower or anywhere else in Ghent, don’t apply during this annual music and theatre festival that draws over one million people to this Belgian city. Lighting the way for visitors at this year for the 176th edition of the festive event was a massive collection of Chauvet Professional fixtures that were used at over 15 stages and other venues. Among the fixture brightening Belgium’s second largest city during its annual escape from the ordinary were the Maverick MK1 Spot, Maverick Storm 1 Wash, Maverick MK1 Spot, Rogue R3 Wash, Rogue R2 Wash, and the COLORado Solo Batten. Additionally, over 200 COLORdash Par H12IP fixtures were used throughout the
