Europe - Lights Control Rigging (LCR) has provided 20 Chroma-Q Color Force II fixtures for Bloc Party’s Silent Alarm Tour, to create a spectacular back wall wash. The set design for the show features five individual cyc panels spaced apart, which together display the Silent Alarm album artwork. Color Force II LED battens at the top and bottom of each panel flooded the back of the stage in vibrant colour, with the units' strobe effects used during some of the faster paced songs. LD Ryan Hopkins, who's also a director of LCR, comments: “It was great to have our Color Force II’s at my disposal for the tour. They provided incredibly bright colour across the stage. I was very impressed by their seamless blending across the entire artwork and I am really happy with the results.” (Jim Evans)
USA - The Dave Matthews Band (DMB) is on the road again in the USA promoting their latest album Come Tomorrow with another visually provocative production design by Fenton Williams. Fenton combined creative energies with Aaron Stinebrink from lighting rental specialist TMS - also the tour’s lighting vendor - on the lighting design, and the pair specified over 100 Robe fixtures to be at the heart of the show. Forty MegaPointes, 48 x Spikies, 16 x BMFL WashBeams and 10 x BMFL Spots are helping to create the vibes for this highly successful tour. Fenton has worked for DMB since 1991 taking on various job roles and has been the video and lighting designer / director for over 20 years. Aaron joined the team in 2003 and the two have worked together on lighting DMB’s dynamic and intricate live shows ever since. (Jim Evans)
UK - Production Services Ireland (PSI) capped a busy Halloween period by supplying technical infrastructure and support for Belfast City Council's Halloween Monster Mash and Samhain Live Halloween TV special, which was filmed in Derry/Londonderry. PSI specialises in lighting, rigging, audio and video - for sale and hire. In the build-up to Halloween, the company also supplied riggers for the visiting U2 and ELO productions at Belfast’s SSE Arena, and full technical production for Harlem Gospel Choir at the Ulster Hall and a major public event in Lisburn. Monster Mash afforded PSI an opportunity to deploy its Adamson PA inventory, which the company acquired in April when it became a certified reseller and rental partner. It also supplied lighting, video, rigging and staging for the themed event that welcomed thousands of people to the Titanic Slipways. Sound re
Poland - Bazyliszek, a new interactive dark ride situated in the Magical Forest zone of Poland’s largest theme park, Legendia, was recently opened to the public as part of a comprehensive rebranding and overhaul. Having collaborated once before on the Antwerp Comics Station theme park, the ride’s designers, Alterface, brought in Belgian design studio Painting with Light to help create a thrilling visual backdrop for Bazyliszek. Drawing on their wealth of experience in the field of theatrical lighting, Painting with Light specified 80 Chauvet Professional mini ERS-style Ovation Min-E-10CWZ fixtures and COLORdash Par-Hex 7 units to create a multifaceted and exciting visual accompaniment to the ride, which went on to win the European Star Award for Best New Ride in 2018. Bazyliszek is a legendary folklore figure in Poland - a complex and highly venomous reptile that
Germany - Under the catch-line All you need to be, Nature One called its dance-loving audience to the Pydna former rocket base in Hunsrück between 3-5 August. As in previous years, over 50,000 people joined the pilgrimage, engaging in four days and three nights of pure EDM fever, with 350 acts participating on a total of 23 floors. For the largest floor - the Open Air Floor - lighting designer Thomas Gerdon of Gerdon design produced the entire visual concept. Gerdon, who has been working on various floors of Nature One since 2003, faced a fundamental change this year: for the first time, a conventional stage was used on the Open Air Floor, and for this the designer immediately had the idea of GLP’s new modular KNV LED system of GLP in his mind. However, since the KNV system was not yet on the market at the beginning of August, GLP was able to meet the design
USA - As part of the LA-based Legends Football League, the Nashville Knights are a 7-on-7, tackle football team that incorporated into the league in 2018. Playing their inaugural season in the Nashville Municipal Auditorium, the Knights wanted to offer an in-game experience that would create a lasting connection with their fans. Needing to supplement the production gear inside the multi-purpose event venue, the Knights worked with Elite Multimedia Productions who oversaw a complete game-day audio, video and lighting design. “We try to design our in-game experience to be similar to what they do in the NFL to heighten the experience for our fans and provide a deeper connection to the action on the field,” says Candice Leisengang, operations manager. “When we started looking for production companies, we really needed someone who had the ability to do live audio, ca
Poland - Design and installation company ARAM has outfitted a new e-sports studio in Poland with a flexible Elation lighting system. The studio, at Polsat television in Warsaw, is equipped with the latest in studio-optimised LED luminaires designed to provide players and viewers with the best e-sports experience, whether watching the event on TV, online or in person. The custom Elation lighting solution includes everything from dynamic white-light LED array panels and high-quality white light ellipsoidal spots to full-colour batten, par and LED moving head luminaires that deliver a wider spectrum of chromatic and effect options. Incorporated in the rig are some of Elation's newest luminaires, including Artiste series LED moving heads. As one of the few technical production companies specialised in e-sports, ARAM has stood behind the design and technical production of
UK - Lighting designer Derek Jones utilised Chroma-Q’s Vista 3 lighting and media control system to deliver his lighting design for Sir Cliff Richard's recent tour celebrating 60 years in music. With a career spanning 103 album releases, 123 single hits and the equivalent of 20 years spent in the UK charts, the 58-18=60th The Tour saw Sir Cliff play his greatest hits across six decades in some of the UK and Ireland's leading concert halls, including two nights at the Royal Albert Hall. As a Vista user for nearly a decade, Jones was keen to utilise the next generation capabilities of the Vista 3 software for his show design. He comments: "I've been using Vista for nearly a decade now and have seen its evolution. As an LD I've always found it very intuitive and simple to use, so I was really excited to switch to Vista 3 and, after trying it out with succe
UK - Film and TV crewing specialist Studioforce was appointed by Shiver, an arm of ITV Studios, to support the delivery of this year’s Pride of Britain Awards. The event was held at the Grosvenor House Hotel on 29 October and Studioforce provided stage hands, lighting technicians, carpenters, scenic supervisors, scenic artists and followspot operators. The company worked closely with Shiver’s freelance production designer Paul Houston, supplying a team of experienced freelancers to work alongside the lighting and set design teams to create the Pride of Britain Awards’ set and backdrop. The tight timeframe presented the Studioforce crew with its largest challenge. With just 48 hours to complete the entire project, from unloading the first piece of equipment from the truck and building the set, to running the show, completing the de-rig and the last truck le
Belgium - Once every two years, Brussels’ Grand Place becomes even more breath-taking as its cobblestone surface is transformed into a magnificent carpet of colour by over a half million flowers. Artfully arranged in an intricate design, the floral panorama flows gracefully, softening the gilded baroque buildings that surround it to create a vista of almost mythical beauty. Like most enchanting creations that seem to spring forth naturally, the Biannual Flower Carpet at the Grand Place is in reality the result of intensive planning and hard work. In 2018, a team of 200 volunteers laboured for six hours to install the carpet the day of the event. Illuminating their efforts and tying the floral display into the square’s historic buildings was a carefully developed lighting design by Geoffrey Oelbrandt of Studio Artfex that included Chauvet Professional Rogue R3 Wash fixtu
USA - “Versatile, sexy, bold, and effective” is how BML-Blackbird’s lighting designer and director Chris Ragan describes his work at Lockn’ Festival, for which he used a combination of cyan, purple and amber lighting. Ragan spec’d 34 Robe BMLF Spots, 38 Robe Spiiders, 24 Robe Mega Pointes, 14 Robe Color Strobes, 10 Mac Vipers, 26 Chauvet Rogue FxB, and 36 LED par - all provided by BML-Blackbird. “I thought the Robe ColorStrobes were a powerful fixture. It was my first time using them and I was pretty impressed. And, of course the Mega Pointes are great for the amazing prism features,” says Ragan. “The BMFLS are great for powerful audience sweeps as they have the ability to cover a large concert field. I rely on the Mega Pointes to frame the stage along with their prisms while the Spiiders and colour strobes are used for wash and pixel tricks.”
USA - When planning for their current tour in support of their sixth studio album, Attention Attention, hard rock band Shinedown asked their lighting designer Carter Fulghum for more saturated colours and darker looks. Fulghum created a deeply evocative lightshow with low backlight and sidelight. To balance the penetrating mood created by these fixtures, he added intensity with the help of 38 Chauvet Professional Rogue RH1 Hybrid fixtures supplied by Bandit Lites. Flying the 330W moving beam/spot fixtures on four 8ft x 9ft diamond-shaped pods, Fulghum is using them for downlighting, specials and powerful colour accents that dramatize key moments in the concert. “We have eight Rogues arranged in two rows of four in the centre of each pod,” he says. “Using them to cover the stage, we create a powerful impression. Their gobos and prisms are adding an extra s
Europe - Astera’s Titan Tube was awarded a PLSN’s Gold StarProduct Award. Titan Tube, which also won the PLASA Gold Award for Innovation, is a battery powered linear light tube that can be pixel mapped and controlled via its backside display, wired and wireless DMX or via and an app. It’s a high-end version of the original Astera PixelTube that has been specially re-engineered for the film industry. With 72W of total power that can be used for up to 20 hours, TitanTube offers a combination of Red-Green-Blue-Mint and Amber LED chips that produce a CRI/TLCI between 96 and 98. It also has a boost mode which allows it to almost triple its output for just under two hours. Titan Tube comes with a large range of mounting accessories as well as a new charging and transporting case featuring the PowerBox: a removable power supply that also transfers data for DMX co
UK - Hawthorn has invested in Eaton’ Zero 88 FLX and FLX S series consoles. The decision partly customer led, as Adrian Searle, Hawthorn’s asset operations director, explains: “[It was] partly due to the fact that we can all clearly see the benefits of the FLX feature set and appreciate the fact that Zero 88 hardware and software has a history of making complex programming tasks exceptionally straightforward.” The new batch of FLXs is replacing some of those older consoles which have served well for many years but are now not ideal for controlling the proliferation of LED based fixtures on the market. Searle adds that FLX is great for its corporate events work which involves a lot of LED light sources where the operator/designer needs to be creative, often with precious little time to programme and integrate them into a show. He says: “FLX is perfect for thi
Europe - There are three days left for the entertainment lighting industry to respond to the EU Commission’s revised version of the Ecodesign regulation. The consultation period ends on 9 November (Friday) and the draft is open for one last review before the final parliamentary vote. Those who wish to respond should follow this link or visit plasa.org for instructions. Whilst the outcome overall has been positive, European entertainment industry bodies have proposed four ‘small but essential’ amendments ahead of key talks in December. The European Entertainment Ecodesign Coalition (EEEC) -
Austria - Austrian LD Martin Kames and his crew at Martinkames.com have worked with a number of prominent musicians, including Hatebreed, Kreator, Machine Head, Parkway Drive, Heaven Shall Burn and David Hasselhoff. In 2017, Kames took his passion for blending music and light a step further, when he teamed up with guitarist Bernth Brodträger to form CueStack, a band that “intrepidly bridges the gap between sight and sound”. With Brodträger on the guitar, Kames on synths and both sharing vocals, CueStack serves up a techno-driven blend of metal and electronic music that’s tightly woven around light and video. “We fuse visuals with the music to challenge conventional boundaries,” explains Kames. Helping CueStack in this endeavor are two ChamSys MQ100 Pro consoles with one extra Wing and one Mini Wing. “I have been using ChamSys since 2005, when I e
UK - Ayrton’s Ghibli LED spot luminaire made its opera debut at the Garsington Opera Festival. Founded in 1989, the annual Garsington Opera Festival takes place over seven weeks in June and July at the Wormsley Estate, home of the Getty family, amid the beautiful natural setting of the Buckinghamshire countryside. Garsington Opera is renowned for the quality of its productions, and engages the very best performers and musicians from around the world. It is important, therefore, to match this quality of performance with the quality of the production and equipment. The aim therefore was to replace some lighting fixtures with those which made less noise during the finely tuned performances, something they were particularly keen to achieve given the peaceful surroundings. Technical manager, Stephen Hawkins and his production electrician, Sam Floyd, began
UK - Event production specialists proudly supported the team at CoppaFeel, donating a comprehensive event equipment and logistics package for Festifeel, the annual boutique music and comedy festival, held deep within the arches below Waterloo at House of Vans London. CoppaFeel are the UK’s first breast cancer charity to build awareness of the signs and symptoms amongst young people, providing invaluable support and advice aimed at driving home the importance of regularly checking your boobs - a simple procedure that could one day save their life. The team works to equip younger people with the tools and knowledge to be proactive about their own health allowing them the best possible chance of detecting cancer early and enabling them to make informed decisions about their health. Installing a full production package that included lighting and rigging plus video and pr
Sweden - The final tour by Swedish disco group Alcazar concludes at Stockholm’s Cirkus venue on 31 December. Lighting designer Palle Palme applied his golden magic dust to the mix and created “a stunning lighting show with 58 x Robe MegaPointes proudly dancing to the disco-disco beat”. Palle, who works worldwide on theatre, ballet and musical shows, was asked to imagine something special for this landmark occasion. It was the first time he’s worked on an Alcazar tour and also the first time he’s specified and used MegaPointes in a design. At the start of his career as a lighting professional, he wanted to work at the Swedish National Theatre and also to light legendary singer Ulf Lundell, both of which he had achieved by 2002. After that, one of the bands he most wanted to light was Alcazar - because they took ‘disco’ to a different level and he thought t
UK - Directed by the Olivier Award-winning Marianne Elliot, Stephen Sodenheim and George Furth’s musical Company has recently returned to the West End. Playing at the Gielgud Theatre, the show has opened to critical acclaim and has already announced an extension to March 2019. White Light was called upon to supply the lighting. Company tells the story of Bobbie whose friends and family can’t understand why she isn’t married. At her 35th birthday party, she questions the pressure to find the right person and finally settle down. The show is lit by Olivier and Tony Award-winning Neil Austin, who comments: “This is actually the second time I’ve lit Company, having worked on a version in Sheffield about eight years ago with Daniel Evans. It’s a show I love and was delighted to be asked to do it again. What’s brilliant about Marianne’s version
UK - The UK entertainment technology industry is valued at £1.28bn in 2017/18 and its value is predicted to grow over the next five years, according to a new research report by PLASA. The study - said by PLASA to be 'the most comprehensive study of the entire entertainment technology industry in many years' - is available to download from plasa.org. It delves into each market sector’s performance and also looks at the effects of macro-environment trends and employment. According to the findings, all sectors have experienced growth, particularly AV and audio, which represent 38% and 27% of the market share respectively. AV is currently valued at £490m and has an increasing presence in many sectors including architectural and retail. Audio is valued at £340m due to its
USA - Brian Dowd has joined GLP US as sales director. Dowd has previously served as vice-president of sales at ACT Lighting for over 12 years and has also been a regional sales manager at TMB. Throughout his career, he’s worked as an electrician, rigger, designer and production manager. GLP US president Mark Ravenhill comments: “It is fantastic to have Brian join us at GLP. Having known him for many years, his knowledge of the industry and his ability to consistently grow markets will be a great asset to the company as we move forward.” Dowd adds: “I was attracted to GLP because they do not follow the pack. My role at GLP in the America’s is to create growth in the marketplace. There are some very exciting opportunities out there, and I am looking forward to them all.” (Jim Evans)
USA - The University of Kentucky’s Big Blue Madness – the annual televised open practice event for the university’s basketball teams – is a highlight for basketball fans and students, who camp out for days to get tickets to the event. Bandit Lites once again provided the lighting package for the televised celebration, where the 2018/19 season kicked off with dance routines from both the women’s coach, Matthew Mitchell, and the Kentucky cheerleaders along with epically staged introductions as the players were introduced to the sold-out crowd before a scrimmage. Bandit Lites supplied more than 100 fixtures including GLP X4S, Robe BMFLs, GLP X4 Bar 20, Chauvet Rogue RH1 Hybrids, Claypaky B-EYE K20, Suntrips, Robe PATT 2017 and Mega-lite CircaScoops. LD Aaron Swetland tackled the design for the projected #1 ranked basketball team’s event, lighting the t
Germany - The power of collaboration is not to be underestimated. Take German electro duo 2raumwohnung, for example. After meeting in post-reunification Berlin in 1990, electronic musicians Inga Humpe and Tommi Eckart embarked upon two long-term successful collaborations - one of them romantic, and the other as one of Germany’s most successful electropop bands of the last two decades. Tasked with providing visuals for a recent 2raumwohnung performance at the Freilichtbühne in Zinnowitz designer Mario Volk along with the lighting operator Sven Köpke from Hellcon Veranstaltungstechnik, used Cuauvet Professional Maverick and Rogue fixtures to create a combination of looks for the band's 90-minute concert. Hellcon Veranstaltungstechnik Stralsund provided Volk with six Maverick MK2 Spot, six Rogue R2 Wash and six Rogue R1 Beam fixtures. These luminaires were hung above
