Australia - Chameleon Touring Systems recently deployed a Martin by Harman lighting solution for a new production of Mamma Mia! currently touring across Australia. Mamma Mia! The Musical is playing at the Princess Theatre in Melbourne, with future dates scheduled across the country. In order to create a lighting display that captures the detailed expressions of actors on stage and simultaneously conveys the energy and emotion of a rock show, lighting designer Gavan Swift needed a powerful, versatile lighting system. Swift worked with Chameleon Touring Systems and Show Technology to develop an LED moving light system comprised of Martin by Harman MAC Quantum Wash, MAC 101 CT and all-new MAC Encore Performance CLD fixtures. “I have firmly embraced LED technology in moving lights,” says Swift. “The brightness, colour fidelity and consistency of L
USA - Chauvet Professional launched new products to its Maverick, Rogue, Ovation, COLORado and STRIKE lines. Drawing attention at the centre of the company’s booth was a running water display of the new Maverick Storm 1 Wash, a high output IP65 LED fixture that’s especially well-suited for outdoor applications. Another crowd favourite was the large lighting display wall that featured a show by designer Cody James. Commanding attention on that impressive structure were the STRIKE Saber, a bright pixel mapable LED batten-style fixture with amber shift; and the COLORado Solo Batten, an IP65 rated RGBW linear unit that produces seamless edge-to-edge homogenized colour across its lens with no separations, dimmed lens corners or tiny circles. Also drawing widespread interest were the new collection of Ovation products, including 6-inch Ovation Fresnels (the RGBA-Lime Ov
USA - Robe presented part two of its Lost Worlds exhibition live show trilogy concept at LDI in Las Vegas, with another impressive booth design and an eight-minute live dance extravaganza designed to illustrate its latest technologies in the context for which they have been developed. This included the just launched T1 Profile LED moving light. Over 200 new and current moving lights and LED fixtures - including the SuperSpikie and the MegaPointe, Spiider and Tarrantula LED wash beams, BMFLs and the RoboSpot remote follow spotting system running with MDC (multi device control) - were central to the show. Robe’s new iParFect - the first in a series of upcoming IP rated luminaires - was utilised in two rain curtains that were integral to the fully immersive and highly detailed show environment. The show narrative followed the intrepid Explorer character, having j
UK - Technical production specialists Light Fantastic Production Services supported S2 Events with a comprehensive lighting, audio and support package for a spectacular Havana nights themed event. The networking reception was a key date in the dynamic schedule at Focus/18, the six-day celebration of design excellence that welcomes enthusiasts from around the globe. Held at the Chelsea Design Centre, London, the Focus/18 brief was to assist in the delivery of a magical guest experience, inspired by the season’s new collections; playful, bold and confident. Delivering a rich mix of crisp lighting effects, deep colour washes and clear audio, the on-site LFPS production crew, headed up by project manager Andrew Maxted, built on the Havana theme, filling the Design Centre’s three grand atriums with a vibrant mix of tropical colour and spicy salsa rhythms. To match
USA - The winners of the inaugural Knight of Illumination Awards USA (KOI-USA) have been revealed. An independent jury picked 18 lighting and video designers who were ‘knighted’ for their creative talent across Theatre, Live for Broadcast, and Concert Touring & Events at a gala ceremony attended by 300 professionals in Las Vegas on 20 October. The winners are as follows: Theatre The DTS Award for Projection Design: Finn Ross & Adam Young for Mean Girls The ETC Award for Dance: Al Crawford for Victoria The Altman Award for Plays: Jules Fisher & Peggy Eisenhauer for The Iceman Cometh The Elation Professional Award for Opera: Joe Levasseur for Cellular Songs The Robe Lighting Award for Musicals: Tyler Micoleau for The Band's Visit Live for Broadcast The Phil
UK - High End Systems’ Hog Factor UK competition is poised to return on 7 November, when the Live Finals will be held during Production Futures in Wakefield. The previous winner of the contest, Nina Mesitz and her team Status Cue, triumphed at Hog Factor at Prolight + Sound 2018. Six months on she looks back at her progress since and plans for the future. The team are students from the Austrian vocational school BS Evita. Mesitz, who is a trainee of the Graz theatres, speaks highly of the competition, commenting on the ‘valuable experience and lifelong key contacts’ she made from it. “It’s a unique opportunity that aspiring lighting designers or technicians must take advantage of,” she states. Mesitz and her team jumped at the chance to participate in the competition, recognising the importance of getting hands-on experience with industry professional
USA - At LDI 2018, ETC presented entertainment technology charity Behind the Scenes with a cheque for $18,567.19. The funds were collected from the most recent proceeds from ETC’s iRFR and aRFR Radio Focus Remote mobile applications that enable remote control of the Eos family consoles and controllers. Fred Foster, ETC’s CEO, comments: “Over the years, it has become clear that this industry draws in great people that truly feel like family. We are honoured to be part of an industry where the whole spectrum of professionals, from technicians to designers to manufacturers, are so willing to contribute to BTS’s mission to support our colleagues in need.” Rick Rudolph, chair of the BTS Board of Directors, adds: “ETC’s employees and customers should be enormously proud of what they are doing. At a time when feeding profits seems to be the motivating forc
Russia - Moscow’s new Zaryadye Concert Hall opened in style in September with a gala performance by the Russian National Orchestra. The modernist structure houses a 1,560-seat main auditorium lit by a house rig of Claypaky fixtures. Claypaky’s Russian distribution partner DOKA was commissioned to provide technical expertise for the project and specify a lighting solution. To facilitate the breadth of events held at the auditorium – from theatre and classical concerts to conferences - the company designed machinery that required specific lighting fixtures to match. Lighting equipment is mounted on special mechanisms allowing to lift projectors up above the ceiling and handle technical maintenance without dismantling them. DOKA supplied 54x Claypaky A.LEDA B-EYE K20 LED, 12x Claypaky Scenius Spot, 12x Claypaky Scenius Profile and 30x Claypaky Show Batten 100 LED.
UK - Specialist lighting and rigging services provider TSL has appointed account handlers Dominic Sheerman and Loz Wilcox to its board of directors. Sheerman and Wilcox joined TSL from Basingstoke-based conference and event lighting specialist Blinding Light in 2017 prior to its acquisition by TSL at the start of 2018. TSL MD, Sam Tamplin, comments: “We’ve reached the stage where we are a team of more than 60 people. It was time to strengthen the management structure, ready for the next stage of development. Since Blinding Light joined us, we’ve all taken the time to settle in and figure out how we work together, and now the time is right.” (Jim Evans)
USA - Signify announced the global launch of the new Philips Vari-Lite VL10 BeamWash luminaire at LDI 2018. The first lighting fixture to be designed to incorporate the Philips 25R Platinum 550W lamp, the VL10 BeamWash “packs a new level of power, dynamics and personality into a compact, fast-moving body”. The VL10 BeamWash produces 28,000lm of output from the concentrated power of the new lamp, making it the brightest and most versatile fixture in its class. Its 2.2-48˚ zoom range delivers a broad choice of looks, from crisp, tight beams to wide, smooth washes and mid-air blasts, enhanced by an unrivalled suite of creative beam effects. Among the effects choices available are dual overlaying prisms, an eight-slot rotating gobo wheel and an aperture wheel featuring 12 designs, including beam reduction to a laser-like 0.7˚ and a range of bold break-ups and
USA - When describing his lighting design for the second leg of superstar Romeo Santos’ Golden Tour, Bruce Rodgers of Tribe, Inc. says: “It’s all about scale and simplicity.” The scale is immediately apparent to anyone who catches a show on the 18-city tour that began in September. Dominating the area over centre stage is a colossal overhead truss structure that resembles a UFO about to land. Intense brightness radiates from the hovering form, courtesy of 117 Chauvet Professional Maverick MK3 Wash fixtures, which were supplied by 4Wall Entertainment Lighting. The ‘simplicity’ Rodgers refers to may not be as instantly obvious, but once the initial awe inspired by this circular overhead panorama passes, it too becomes easy to appreciate. For all its size and power, there is no waste in Rodger’s lighting design. No distractions. No dead-end flourishes
USA - Harman Professional Solutions has introduced its innovative Martin MAC Allure Profile LED moving head. MAC Allure products were designed to support the special performance lighting needs of rental and install clients, including concert/touring, TV shows, corporate, houses of worship, concert venues, nightclubs, and cruise ships. Also at LDI, Harman re-introduced the ultra-creative potential and ease of use offered by its Martin P3 Visual Control Solution, which is integrated into the MAC Allure Profile and soon other Martin fixtures. The Martin MAC Allure Profile is the first fully-featured moving head to combine a proprietary, solid state RGBW additive colour mixing engine, a seven-segment pixelated beam and onboard P3 and DMX controllability that lets users swiftly alternate or mix between control protocols. The overall feature set further includes dimmer, stro
USA - Signify has announced the launch of the new Philips Strand SPX LED WW, a high-output, warm white LED profile spotlight fixture which offers a powerful, energy efficient alternative to existing models. The SPX LED WW was officially unveiled at the LDI exhibition in Las Vegas. The SPX LED WW is targeted primarily at applications such as education, houses of worship and themed environments. It has been designed to meet the requirements of consultants and specifiers looking for quality, efficient and reliable fixtures to serve as straightforward replacements for conventional profile fixtures. Dimmable either via DMX or via a conventional forward phase dimmer, it provides a smooth, stepless fade right down to zero - the perfect dimming credentials for performance lighting. The SPX LED WW uses the latest energy efficient warm white LED light engine to produce an output
UK - Canon recently held the launch of its new camera the EOS R at Shoreditch Electric Light Station, London. The camera giants invited journalists along to take part in an experiential experience in which they were transported to a utopian land 400 years in the future. The experience was produced by award-winning theatre company Les Enfants Terribles, known for their work on Alice’s Adventures Underground. Having provided the lighting on a range of immersive projects, White Light was called upon to supply the equipment for this particular launch. The lighting designer for the event was Charlie Morgan Jones, who comments: “Canon wanted to launch their new camera yet do so in a way that was interactive and provided the journalists in attendance with an unforgettable experience. Les Enfants came up with the concept that a Canon ambassador was lost in the future and
Australia - Versatility, value for money and a dash of pizzazz are some of the factors influencing the choices made by Sydney-based LD Peter Rubie when he is creating his work. Peter Rubie has spent the last 11 years devising a wide variety of lighting design work for different types of performances but specialises in productions that are a hybrid of classical and modern/pop/rock music. His lighting ‘choreography’ requires an intimate and up-to-date knowledge of what’s available and how it can be used to achieve different effects. He often uses Robe products, distributed by specialist lighting and staging equipment suppliers, Jands. Robe has released a number of LED products in the last year and having been a fan of Robe’s previous LED range, Peter was keen to get his hands on them. ‘I programmed a big private lightshow launch for Jands when they rele
USA - Good feelings and creative energy are flowing freely on the Summer Plays On tour, which continues to fly high long past the autumnal equinox, with sold-out October dates everywhere from PNC in Charlotte, to the Grand Ole Opry, to the Royal Albert Hall in London. Co-headliners Lady Antebellum and former Hootie & the Blowfish frontman Darius Rucker are not only friends, they also occasionally share the stage on this tour. This kind of connectivity and creativity are also evident in the tour’s shared lighting rig, which was developed by CLLD LLC. Used by the design teams for both Lady Antebellum and Darius Rucker to create two very distinct shows, the power-packed rig features Chauvet Professional Rogue and STRIKE fixtures, supplied by Upstaging. “This was a special project for us,” said Chris Lisle, head of CLLD LLC. “We did the rig, but
UK - It took a year of negotiations, but 2018 saw Stonehenge host its first-ever live DJ set. And lighting creative Motion Mapping, complete with a pair of Green Hippo Hippotizer Karst Media Servers supplied by A.C. Entertainment Technologies, was tasked with delivering a digital video projection show equal to the brooding majesty of one of the Seven Wonders of the Medieval World. Up until this happening, ‘playing Stonehenge’ had proved impossible. Deep, booming bass, large crowds, and ancient stones are not always a good mix and English Heritage, Stonehenge’s current protector, had turned down numerous requests from music acts. But one Alon Shulman was perfectly placed to make the gig happen. Shulman is a special advisor to English Heritage and a business partner with DJ Paul Oakenfold. His live DJ set pitch ticked all the boxes: the show - including Live fro
USA - Elation Professional (stand 931) will reveal three new luminaires at LDI 2018 - the Artiste Monet, Proteus Profile and Smarty MaX. The Artiste Monet is a full-featured, 45,000lm LED Profile fixture a comprehensive FX package, dynamic framing and a wide array of colours via its SpectraColor engine. The new SpectraColor array uses traditional CMY colours but also adds variable RGB flags for rich and vibrant primary colours. Elation says that combined with variable CTO colour correction, the Monet produces colours that were previously impossible to achieve from theatrical pastels to the purest reds, blues or greens ever produced by a colour mixing system. The Monet houses a full blackout, four-blade framing system with unlimited indexing and continuous rotation control that allows shapes to rotate while morphing and transforming for transitions, projections and aer
USA - City Theatrical is launching its new Multiverse wireless DMX system at stand 2815 at LDI in Las Vegas this week (19-21 October). The Multiverse system can broadcast up to 10 universes of DMX data from a single transmitter while producing less radio energy compared to other single universe systems. The launch will include the introduction of Multiverse SHoW BabyTM, City Theatrical’s fourth generation of the original plug and play wireless DMX transceiver system, and feature the Multiverse Module, Multiverse Node, Multiverse Transmitter, and Multiverse Gateway products. Discussions and live demonstrations of the technology will take place on stand every half hour. Every product in the Multiverse system is built around a tiny radio, the Multiverse Module, which can carry up to five universes of data depending on the frequency used. Multiverse Transmitter an
Spain - Starlite, which takes place at the Cantera de Nagüeles in Marbella, has been described as the best boutique festival in Europe. The music and cultural event, now in its sixth edition, has become the longest festival in the world, with more than 50 days of concerts. It is an event for those who want to enjoy intimate concerts from global superstars in an incomparable venue. The stage itself is surrounded by 60m-high rock walls, creating a secret, hidden venue beneath the stars for the 2,200 guests. All inventory, including GLP JDC1 hybrid strobes and KNV Arc fixtures, had to be brought up a steep hill to the former quarry, which houses a main outdoor auditorium where VIP attendees sit in eight-seater ‘Bubble Boxes’ and a second DJ area. This was the first year that GLP’s Spanish distributor, Monacor Iberia had been involved, and they were brought
UK - After taking Las Vegas by storm, Channing Tatum is bringing a new production of Magic Mike Live to London this autumn. Opening at the Hippodrome Casino in November, full service technical production company Hawthorn has been chosen to supply lighting equipment to the production. Conceived and co-directed by Tatum, Magic Mike Live is a large-scale, live production show based on the hit films Magic Mike and Magic Mike XXL. The show will see the theatre at the Hippodrome Casino transformed into an intimate 325-seat in-the-round performance space where guests will witness artists perform a 360° dance and acrobatic spectacular. Hawthorn is supplying lighting from its extensive hire range to meet the specification of theatre lighting designer Philip Gladwell. Having designed the rig for the Las Vegas production, Gladwell has modified it to
South Africa - DWR Distribution’s Ole Boinamo hosted his first dot2 training session in both Tshwana and English at DWR’s offices in Johannesburg on 27-28 September. The training was requested and sponsored by MGG with the aim to train crew based at Sun Arena’s Time Square in Pretoria, where MGG are the in-house technical supplier, as well as TUT (Tshwane University of Technology) students who are currently gaining work experience and training at MGG in order to complete their diploma. “With most delegates residing in Pretoria, I presented the course in both Tshwana and English,” says Boinamo. “It makes a huge difference in understanding the functions of the console when you are being taught in your mother tongue. Learning becomes quicker, and more importantly, it creates an environment where students feel confident to ask any questions.” “Once
Peru - Latin pop-rock artist Gian Marco performed three sell-out shows at Lima's Gran Teatro Nacional del Perú in October, backed by an array of Claypaky Mythos2. The lighting was designed and operated by Gianfranco Di Vitto, who specified 35 Mythos2 rigged in a seven-line array behind Gian Marco and his band. At the core of Di Vitto's design were powerful beams of striking colours, creating fast-moving shapes and patterns on the stage. "I needed a versatile fixture that would allow me to create a different look for each song - one that would really wow the audience," explains Di Vitto. "The Mythos2 offers a high intensity output with incredible beam quality." Behind the Mythos2 rig, Di Vitto - who has been Gian Marco's lighting and set designer for 25 years - specified 27 LED panels that loomed above the stage, hung in erratic patterns. "The light b
USA - Hot on the heels of the release of SolaFrame 3000 in August, High End Systems will launch the SolaSpot 3000 automated luminaire at LDI this week. Offering the same performance as the SolaFrame 3000, the new SolaSpot 3000 is engineered for designers that require “unprecedented pattern and effect possibilities as well as incredible brightness”. The SolaSpot 3000 delivers over 37,000lm and features three gobo wheels for a total of 21 patterns, graphic and glass textured animation wheels, light and heavy frost, three-facet and eight-facet prisms, aerial effects plus a full feature set. HES general manager Becky Koester comments: “We are excited to bring this new luminaire to our Sola Series family. Customers that don’t require the framing capabilities of the SolaFrame 3000 now have a high-powered option with the largest effects selection to date. It further s
