New Zealand - Packed houses greeted UB40 on their 40th anniversary summer tour of the Southern Hemisphere in January and February. The band was doing so well and having so much fun on the tour that they added a final show on 8 February at the Central Energy Trust Arena Stadium in Palmerston North, New Zealand. Sourcing local suppliers, the band’s management contacted Sight & Sound Services, which provided them with a collection of Chauvet Professional Maverick, Rogue and STRIKE fixtures, supplied by MDR Lighting. It was a choice that met with the enthusiastic approval of UB40’s LD Brock Coddington. “I was extremely impressed by the entire rig,” said Coddington. “It went really, really well. The Mavericks provided excellent punch, and the colours were fantastic. The Rogues were a great fit on that stage. The STRIKE 4s were great LED blinders. All and all
USA - Lumileds has appointed Dr Jonathan Rich as chief executive officer. Rich most recently served as chairman and CEO of Berry Global, a Fortune 500 specialty materials and consumer packaging company. Rich succeeds Mark Adams, who is stepping down as CEO and from the board of directors but will remain in an advisory role to the company. “I am very pleased to be joining Lumileds and am looking forward to building on the company’s differentiated lighting technology foundation to increase the value we can deliver to customers across a broad set of industries,” said Dr. Rich. “Mark Adams has made significant contributions to Lumileds during his tenure, leading the transition to an independent company and cultivating a culture of innovation and customer focus,” said Rob Seminara, a senior partner at Apollo and chairman of the board of Lumileds. “On behalf of
USA - FedExForum, one of the nation’s premier arenas in the NBA and North America, recently updated its arena lighting with a lighting package designed and installed by Bandit Lites. Home to the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies and the University of Memphis Tigers men’s basketball team, the installation comes as part of the arena’s recent updates. Bandit Lites installed a package comprised of HES Solaframe 3000, Chauvet Rogue 3 Spots, Claypaky AXCOR 300 Beams and Chauvet Ovation E-260WW w/ 10° Barrels. “As FedExForum was one of the earliest projects that I and Roth Edwards personally installed, I was thrilled to once again be a part of the team trusted to update their system,” says Bandit Lites director of sales and installation Chris Barbee. “Both John Cameron Carter and Roth did a phenomenal job reimagining the lighting system.” Bandit’s team mount
Belgium - Woven in and out of English, German, French and Dutch language fables since the early medieval period, the anthropomorphic trickster Reynaert the Fox has succeeded in eluding capture for centuries. Keeping the legend of the fox alive was Expedition Reynaert, an immersive bike tour in Belgium that culminated in a captivating museum experience, complete with an informative exhibition and engaging performances. Central to bringing the legend of Reynaert to life was local design studio CREATE.eu, which specified 24 Chauvet Professional Ovation E-260WW, 8 STRIKE 1 and 12 Maverick MK2 Wash fixtures as part of their comprehensive visual concept. CREATE.eu relied on lighting to reflect the varied environments that participants experience during their visit to the museum. At the same time, the studio’s designers also made sure to provide theatrical lighting support
UK - White Light recently provided the lighting equipment for Gently Down the Stream which has opened at London’s Park Theatre. Set at the turn of the 21st century, Gently Down the Stream is a delicate examination of the relationship between Beau; a 62 year-old piano accompanist from New Orleans, and Rufus; a 28 year old bi-polar lawyer, set over the course of 13 years in Beau’s London flat. It is written by Martin Sherman, directed by Sean Mathias and features a lighting design by Jamie Platt. He comments: “The majority of the show is set in Beau’s apartment which is beautifully designed by Lee Newby. We wanted this to feel as real as possible so, as a result, most of the lighting for these scenes was committed to creating a totally naturalistic world. That said, Sean was very keen to make the monologues that are dotted throughout the play feel i
USA - As it continues to sustain growth in the pro lighting, video, audio and effects markets, the ADJ Group has announced the creation of two key positions at its LA-based headquarters. Shenor Sakadjian joins the group in the new role of sales coordinator, while Jake Rhodes takes on additional responsibility within the company as product specialist. Shenor Sakadjian comes with over 20 years of retail and corporate experience as a buyer and customer service agent in the fashion, entertainment and hospitality industries. She will assist the ADJ sales staff as well as the ADJ dealer network with support in all aspects of the sales process from purchasing to fulfilment. Jake Rhodes, who has been with the ADJ Group for almost a year as ADJ showroom manager, has now taken on added responsibilities as ADJ Group product specialist. Rhodes is a recent graduate of Califor
USA - Late January typically doesn’t bring the kind of weather associated with music festivals to central Massachusetts, but the bitter New England winter wind notwithstanding, the mood at the multi-stage Birds of a Feather Festival was as care-free as a summer beach party. Thousands of fans crammed inside the 90-year-old Worcester Palladium for four straight hours of jam and alt rock sounds on Friday, 25 January, and although summer vibes resonated throughout the building, the reality was that being indoors, Birds of a Feather offered no visual variety beyond the stage. With no mountain views, no surfside background, and no tall trees flanking the stage, eyes seldom wandered from the performance area. For Vin Pugliese, lighting designer for the Main Stage, which featured The Lizards, Jazz is Phish, lespecial and Pink Talking Fish, this meant focusing on creating vi
UK - Indie rockers The Vaccines are back on the road in the UK, continuing their world Combat Sports album tour with lighting designed by Dan Williams and equipment supplied by Colour Sound Experiment. The Combat Sports album cycle started in April 2018 and having already played extensively around the UK last year, Dan and the band wanted to treat fans to a new visual experience and ensure that the Vaccines - known for their enthusiastic and ebullient live shows - saw something different. Last year’s UK tour design was inspired by the album track Nightclub, yielding lots of mirror balls and a tungsteny disco vibe. For the festival section of the tour, Williams had a gold sequined drape made up with a large logo across the middle, and this evolved into the lighting look for this leg, which bridges front the nightclub into the fight club, mat
USA - Outdoor walking attractions that immerse guests in an experience have become increasingly popular, especially around the holidays. This past season south Floridians had the chance to experience NightGarden, a new enchanted walk-through experience at Miami’s Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden magically illuminated by lighting designer Chris Werner. Produced by Kilburn Live under the creative direction of Max Painter, the attraction featured such magical curiosities as talking trees, fairies, and 10ft tall dandelions. Werner has an abundance of know-how from lighting theme parks and Halloween attractions under his belt and knows what it takes to create an immersive experience. Responsible for lighting design, specification and programming for all of the exterior spaces within NightGarden, he created a variety of visually stunning experiences using light, c
USA - High End Systems has announced the 2019 Hog Factor USA competition is now open for collegiate teams to register for Phase One. Phase One requires each team to provide a performance lighting piece programmed on a Hog or on Hog 4 PC, which can be downloaded free of charge with a special demo version of Capture visualization. The performance piece submission closes on 30 June and three teams will be selected by 31 July to proceed to Phase Two, In Phase Two, the teams will programme a performance lighting piece based on High End Systems’ 2019 LDI stand design. They will then be invited to perform their shows live at LDI on the High End Systems stand, where the winners will be judged. High End Systems’ GM Becky Koester comments: “We continue to be impressed by the level of talent and the passion these participants hold for our industry. It see
Europe - Prolight Concepts Group has become the UK distributor of Luci della Ribalta (LDR). LDR, based in northern Italy, was founded in 1997 and manufactures theatrical and architectural luminaires, which have been specified at venues including the Oslo Opera House and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. With over 70 fixtures in its range, the Italian company offers plano and pebble convex luminaires, Fresnel luminaires, TH and discharge profiles, floodlights and followspots. Lisa Papi, managing director of LDR, comments: “Prolight Concepts Group are one of the UK’s largest and established distributors of entertainment technology products with a commitment like ours to their customers that has been core to their achievements over the last 23 year. It is with excitement that we welcome them to our UK distribution family.” Andrew Jeffrey, managing director of t
USA - The Entertainment Services and Technology Association (ESTA) Technical Standards Programme (TSP) has launched a control protocols satisfaction survey project to gather public input from end users about their usage of control protocols in the entertainment industry. The survey may be accessed at estalink.us/survey. This survey was commissioned by the TSP’s Control Protocols Working Group (CPWG) and seeks to understand how well lighting control protocols are serving end-users. The CPWG is the working group that develops control technologies you use every day, like DMX512, RDM, and sACN, although the survey includes questions on other industry protocols as well. Survey questions determining what features are currently being used and what challenges have been encountered comprise much
USA - On Circa Survive’s recent tour in support of their Top Ten Billboard Rock Chart LP The Amulet, lighting designer Lenny Sasso devised ‘a perception-bending asymmetrical rig’ with Chauvet Professional fixtures, supplied by Squeek Lights. “This was my second tour with the Circa Survive guys, and this one in particular has been extremely creative and experimental,” said Sasso. “I’ve never designed a true asymmetrical rig before, so it has been an interesting journey. It definitely took me a bit to get out of a very strict symmetrical mindset. I was still tweaking things around at the end of the tour, but I feel like the asymmetrical aspect of the show gave me endless possibilities.” Critical to Sasso’s asymmetrical design was the positioning of the nine Rogue R2 Wash fixtures in his rig. He positioned six of these units stage right in an in
USA - Founded in 1908, Harvard Business School in Boston is known worldwide for its MBA and doctoral programmes. With a faculty of over 200 experienced professors and entrepreneurs, the school recently opened Klarman Hall lecture auditorium. Designed by the architectural firm William Rawn Associates, Architects, the hall needed a lighting solution that could meet strict acoustic and performance criteria, so they worked with the design firm Theatre Projects who specified PHX 150W LED profile luminaires from Altman Lighting. “This was a new construction project and our first time working with the Harvard Business School,” says Steven Rust, Theatre Projects’ lighting designer. “In an atmosphere where people needed to hear each other clearly throughout the hall, the criteria from the acoustician was that the lighting had to be ideally convection-cooled, or near-s
Indonesia - Socialight recently collaborated with P.T. Chayolite to utilise a Martin by Harman lighting solution to enhance GWK Cultural Park’s Garuda Wisnu Kencana statue. Created by renowned sculptor Nyoman Nuarta, the Garuda Wisnu Kencana statue is a monument overlooking the city of Bali. Measuring 393ft tall and 213ft wide, the statue consists of 24 segments and 754 modules, and took more than 20 years to construct. In order to visually enhance the structure, Alam Sutera Realty engaged Singapore based lighting designer, Socialight, to design and oversee the implementation of an architectural lighting solution. Socialight selected Martin Exterior Wash and Exterior Projection fixtures to illuminate the statue, which was implemented by lighting solutions specialist P.T. Chayolite. “We wanted to highlight Balinese culture by creating an elegant atmosphere ar
UK - Lighting and visuals design partnership, Co1ab, produced the lighting show for a recent run of gigs by The Streets, led by hip-hop raconteur Mike Skinner. Co1ab unites the talents of Jon Trincas and Steve Hough, two respected young designers who pooled imaginative and creative resources to deliver the right look for The Streets. They utilised 120 x Robe Spikies and 30 x Robe Spiider LED wash beams, all delivered as part of a lighting package by Blackburn based rental company, LCR. Hough was originally contacted by The Streets’ tour manager Keith O’Neill when they played some ‘come back’ gigs in 2018, which culminated in three incendiary gigs at Brixton Academy. The interest in The Streets live resulted in this run, comprising a short UK tour with a lighting floor package, followed by five shows at Brixton, three in Manchester Apollo and three at the
UK - The Society of Light and Lighting is marking 25 years of its annual Young Lighter competition with a revised entry criteria. The contest is open to anyone under 30 with an interest in lighting, with the Society set to cover flight and accommodation costs for overseas candidates attending the finals and the awards, taking place during LuxLive this November. Deadline for entries is 10 May. The winner will be named SLL Young Lighter 2019 and receive a cash prize of £1,000. Iain Carlile, SLL president and senior associate at dpa lighting consultants, comments: “It’s always great to see the next generation of lighting professionals demonstrate their talent and passion for lighting, be that through the presentation of novel project application, social study, technological development, lighting research or any other lighting related topic. I very much look forward t
France - PlugFest, the annual event for lighting protocol interoperability, commenced today (Tuesday, 26 February) in Lille, with a public Ecodesign update scheduled for this Thursday. Taking place 26-28 February at Hôtel ibis Lille Centre Gares, PlugFest welcomed lighting developers and manufacturers from across Europe, including representatives from Artistic Licence, Chauvet Professional, ChamSys, Claypaky, ETC, GLP, Robert Juliat, Swisson and TMB. The programme is focusing on the latest protocols and standards from ESTA and ANSI, with an array of break-out sessions discussing protocols including DMX512, RDM, DALI, RDMnet, Art-Net, sACN and LLRP. Nicky Greet, PLASA’s Membership, Skills and Technical director, comments: “We are delighted to present PlugFest 2019, alongside expert hosts Hamish Dumbreck of JESE Ltd, Peter Willis of Howard Eaton Lighting and W
UK - Sound Technology, distributor of Martin by Harman in the UK, has further expanded its professional lighting division with the appointment of Darren Jackson as head of lighting sales and Ferenc Vacha as architectural lighting application engineer. Jackson has over 20 years’ experience in the lighting industry, with positions at Global Design Solutions and Chauvet. “I am very excited to be working with the team at Sound Technology and to be representing such a world famous and high-profile brand as Martin is a really honour. Martin has been a market leading and innovative lighting manufacturer for many years, having massively changed the lighting industry with what have become industry standard lighting,” says Jackson. “With more in the pipeline, it’s a very exciting period and I am very much looking forward to the challenges ahead.” Vacha joins fro
South Africa - Vectorworks training, presented by Francois van der Merwe, will be hosted in March at DWR Distribution in Johannesburg. Delegates can choose to attend the basic, intermediate or advanced training session while some individuals may prefer to be at all three. The basic course, priced at R750, is held on 25 March and will cover fundamentals, layouts, palettes, basic tools, classes and layers. The intermediate course, held from 26-27 March, will focus on preferences, basic Spolight, basic Renderworks and Intermediate Tools. The cost is R1 600. The advanced training, held from 28-29 March, will cover working planes, advanced modelling and advanced Renderworks. The cost is R1 600. Delegates are requested to supply their own desktop or laptop with Vectorworks installed and a valid ID. (Jim Evans)
UK - Lighting designer Jon Smith has worked for the last seven years with one of the more brash and humorous pop punk bands around, Bowling for Soup. In late November and early December, the band played a string of festive UK gigs dubbed the Almost Christmastour with Jon using an Elation lighting rig to light the shows. This run was a bit different for the LD however, as his own company, JSES provided all the lighting, truss, crew, operation and special effects. “My company has only been operational for two years and I have gone from a freelancer with a desk to a large operation that’s expanding all over the world,” Jon stated. ”We’re running fast to keep up with the work load and the exciting clients we are working with.” Those clients include names such as Drake, Giggs, Gareth Malone and Zebrahead. About to mark their 25th anniversary, Bowling for
The Netherlands - Full service rental company HVR Show Equipment has expanded its rental stock with 66 CLF Aorun beam fixtures as it prepares for the upcoming festival season. Dennis Sommerdijk, co-owner of HVR Show Equipment comments: “Especially for festivals and dance events we were looking for a large quantity of powerful beams. In addition, we received a lot of requests for the Aorun specifically. They are mentioned in a lot of riders and designs in the nearby future. “Based on a number of productions in the past year, we know that the Aorun excels in light output. Furthermore, the movement and effect speed is outstanding. Our entire team was therefore quickly convinced; we had to get the Aorun.” After delivery, all Aoruns were deployed immediately in the Amsterdam Ziggo Dome for the Charly Lownoise and Mental Theo anniversary show. HVR Show Equ
UK - Rehearsals are a valued ally of lighting designers. But for Olly Suckling, they were a luxury he couldn’t afford when he lit the famed fireworks display at Alton Towers Resort. “Given the nature of this show, the first time everything is seen working together is on the opening night,” says Suckling. “It simply isn’t possible to have a rehearsal with all the fireworks and other special effects being set off due to the sheer cost of such a large display. This means that the creatives from each department have to work together closely to plan how the show will look, without fully seeing the final product.” From a lighting designer’s perspective, working on the fireworks show also requires the ability to very quickly update programming and make critical changes. This was something Suckling was able to accomplish quite handily in his eight-universe 156-f
UK - GDS has given new roles to two members of staff as the company prepares to launch new product ranges in the coming months. James Hall will head up sales in entertainment and architecture, whilst Scott Kerslake will act as key accounts executive for entertainment products. Hall worked in the entertainment lighting side of GDS’s business before leaving for a brief period to develop his knowledge of the architectural sector. He will work closely with MD Richard Cuthbert to introduce customers to the company’s new Reality Series and Prodigy Series lighting and control products. Kerslake meanwhile is a highly-skilled former production technician. Managing director Richard Cuthbert states that the appointments are part of the new long-term development plan for GDS: “Both James and Scott are dedicated to GDS and are proven, highly-committed specialists. With the de