UK - Technical production specialists Light Fantastic Production Services have just made a large investment in the latest Robe moving light technology. The order includes Robe’s new MegaPointe and LEDBeam 150 moving light fixtures plus a selection of Pointes, Robin 600 LED washes and DL4X Spots in a custom white bodied finish. Based in Elstree just north of London, UK, the company services a wide range of prestigious projects providing lighting, audio, video & scenic services. The company also provides extensive dry hire services to other industry clients. The total investment value is over a quarter of a million pounds and the kit will be used to service Light Fantastic’s action-packed ongoing project schedule and dry hire requirements. Working primarily in the premium events sector, from high profile experiential events to spectacularly jaw-dropping pr
UK - The Hammond Theatre is a contemporary theatre situated in West London. Seating 380 people, the venue features a range of performances and attracts professional companies from across the UK. It is also an accredited venue for National Theatre Live, Royal Opera House and the Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company screenings. The venue recently decided to upgrade a range of its existing fixtures and approached WL to supply them with the latest equipment. The technical theatre manager at The Hammond Theatre is Daniel Dar-Nell. He comments: “I manage all aspects of the theatre on a day-to-day basis with my assistant, which includes managing the box office and the bars all the way through to the technical side. Our programme is mainly a 50-50 mix of school shows and external hires. We also offer live cinema screenings, conferences and concerts; meaning we need a technical set-up t
UK - Lighting designer Davy Sherwin has created a 'formidably cool' lighting set for Wolf Alice's latest album campaign, Visions of a Life. Conceived in collaboration with the band to keep the focus tightly on-stage, Sherwin's stripped-back yet versatile design supports what The Guardian's Gwilym Mumford describes as an "exuberant jumble of dream-pop and grunge", confidently melds with the emotional peaks and troughs, uncertainty and angst of Wolf Alice's catalogue. Using a modest selection of lighting fixtures, all supplied by specialist concert touring and event lighting solution provider Lights Control Rigging (LCR), Sherwin's sculptural, atmospherically diverse design is as intoxicating and pounding, and by turns as sparkling and dark as the eclectic collection of songs it's there to enhance. "The band was keen to develop a fresh new look. They wanted
USA - Rental company and production house Creative Technology used Elation Professional’s Fuze Wash 575 luminaire to highlight cars on the Kia and Volvo booths at this year’s LA Auto Show. Creative Technology has used Elation Design PAR 575 opti par moving heads on auto show booths for years - as have many other production companies - and plenty of Design Par 575 fixtures were to be found at the 2017 LA Auto Show. The company sought the benefits of an LED solution and turned to Elation’s new cool-white Fuze Wash 575 LED PAR moving head luminaire with motorized beam control. Held 1-10 December at the LA Convention Centre, the LA Auto Show is one of the most influential auto shows in the world. Elation has a tradition of lighting excellence on auto exhibitions and has designed the Fuze Wash 575 to optimise the way a vehicle looks and assume the role as a new workho
The Netherlands - The TivoliVredenburg in central Utrecht features seven different music performance spaces and is in the process of having its house and public area lighting upgraded with Anolis Ambiane RGBW LED luminaires. With around 300 fixtures installed so far, approximately 650 Ambianes will be in place when the project is completed. The spectacular building designed by Herman Hertzberger was part of the CU2030 urban redevelopment scheme and opened in 2014. The new dedicated arts and performance complex incorporates Vredenburg, an original live music venue standing on the site since 1979, with six brand new venues, all fully sound-proofed and self-contained, ranging in capacities from 175 to 2000. These include Rhonda, which continues the spirit and vibe of Tivoli, another historically significant Utrecht music club at the heart of the city’s music sce
China - Legally Blonde - The Musical opened in December to glowing reviews in Shanghai’s Culture Square Theatre at the start of its China National tour. From China it will move to Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands Grand Theatre in May, before returning to the USA in October 2018. Produced by Big League and directed by Jeff Moss, with choreography by Grinch veteran, Bob Richard, Legally Blonde the Musical is a celebration of pop culture. Responsible for the smooth running of the technology on tour is the team from Intelligent Lighting Services (ILS), led by lighting engineer and company founder, Paul Gould. As part of the tour’s lighting inventory Gould’s team supplied two MDG ATMe haze generators to provide the haze with which to show off Kirk Bookman’s fun and vibrant lighting design. The two ATMe units were purchased specifically for the tour, but
UK - The Association of Lighting Designers (ALD) announced the winners of its Michael Northen Award at the Annual Lighting Lunch on 18 December 2017 in London. The Michael Northen Award is supported by a further two awards: the Francis Reid Award and the ETC Lighting Award; and is awarded annually to students studying in the UK, who have demonstrated strong, imaginative and creative lighting design. Underlining its commitment to the nurturing of new talent in lighting design, the ALD placed the organisation and management of this year’s award into the hands of those closest to its effect; the ALD Student Committee. Head of the committee, Rory Beaton explains, “We have taken some time this year to implement improvements to the structure and processes of the award. As an example, to ensure greater consistency in the marking of the award we created more judges this y
World - Taking the reins from the former European master distributor AED Distribution, ETC Ltd and GmbH will now distribute High End Systems products in Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa (EMEIA). ETC Asia will take control of distribution for the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. This is the latest step for ETC in “assisting High End Systems to even better serve their customers in the regions”. ETC welcomed High End Systems into the family in April 2017 and has already made significant investments in stocking, personnel and product support. This is set to continue, says the company, with a particular focus on EMEIA and APAC over the coming months. High End Systems general manager Becky Koester comments: “Since assuming the role of European master distributor several years ago, AED Distribution has made great strides in establishing High End Systems as a
UK - Dry-hire provider TSL Lighting has agreed to acquire corporate and event lighting specialist Blinding Light. The companies will continue to operate under their individual brands but under the leadership of TSL owner and MD Sam Tamplin and his senior team, with TSL account directors Dom Sheerman and Loz Wilcox assuming day-to-day management roles at Blinding Light. Tamplin comments: "Today's news marks the start of a fantastically exciting opportunity for both TSL and Blinding Light. The additional skills and equipment resource within our combined team will be a huge advantage to all of our clients, both existing and new. Our unique collaboration will allow TSL to continue to provide dry-hire, projects and trade rental, locally and nationally alongside Blinding Light's existing focus on the Corporate and Event market. "We are delighted to welcome t
The Netherlands – ETC is heading to the Netherlands for the biennial CUE exhibition on 15-17 January at Rotterdam Ahoy. The new ColorSource CYC luminaire, the recently launched Ion Xe lighting control console, and products from ETC’s rigging portfolio will be making their Benelux debut at the event, with the company also offering product demos and giveaways on stand 101. ColorSource CYC will take centre stage on ETC’s booth at CUE. The purpose-built cyclorama light is bright, compact and affordable. It’s also the first ColorSource fixture to add a fifth colour to its LED array, incorporating indigo with the RGB-L mix to achieve rich, theatrical hues. The CYC will be joining fellow family members at the show, including ColorSource Spot and PAR fixtures; ColorSource control desks; and the ColorSource Relay power control solution. With compact footprints and full-
UK - Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, one of the UK’s leading drama schools, utilised effects lighting fixtures from Chroma-Q and ProLights for its recent annual Christmas Concert - supplied by A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET). This evening of songs, speeches and a chance to see all of Mountview’s undergraduate and foundation students perform under one roof, took place in St. George’s Catholic Cathedral, Southwark, Central London. Mountview senior lighting tutor, Alex Cann, created the Christmas Concert's lighting design in partnership with a student of the Academy's 3rd year BA (Hons) Theatre Production Arts course. The lighting brief was to enhance the overall production, but also to ensure that the whole audience could see the performers. The design therefore needed to be practical whilst also subtly enhancing the overall performance. Whe
USA - The iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour presented by Capital One visited 12 cities from 28 November to 7 December. Select dates included Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, the Chainsmokers, and many more – with a spectacular lighting rig including many Solaris Flares. “Love those Flares,” says the shows’ LD Tom Kenny. “A few years ago, TMB gave me some Flare demos to try out. Since then, after using Flares very successfully on many TV shows, including Kids’ Choice Awards, as well as the VMAs and Europe’s EMA award shows, I specified them for The Who Hits 50! tour. “I always get wonderful compliments when I use Flares because of the fixture’s terrific colour and strobe effects. I was introduced to the Linear Flares last year and eagerly used them on this year’s iHeartRadio Music Festival, and then on the Jingle Ball tour. Both of those
USA - Seattle-based duo Odesza (Harrison Mills, Clayton Knight) wanted to make an outstanding visual impact with their current A Moment Apart Tour that kicked off in San Diego and Staples Centre in LA and ran through Barclays Centre in mid-December. Their creative team led by Luke Tanaka, Sean Kusanagi and the two artists called on Kyle Kegan of Voyage Productions to help sculpt a lightshow and add extra visual magic that would work harmoniously around their video and striking overall concept. Kyle, known for his lighting and visual designs for Major Lazer and others, specified 185 x Robe fixtures to assist him in the task, with 27 x BMFL Spots, 74 x Pointes and 84 x Spikies. “By the time we came on-board the concept design had been evolved and developed by Luke and the team, so we took that and applied practical elements like truss, motors, fixtures an
Germany - Independent lighting and show designer Patrick Rabus used SGM's new all-in-one P-10 for the recent Itchy tour. Being on tour with the punk band posed certain challenges when it came to equipment - Rabus needed to achieve maximum output with just few resources and he chose four SGM G-4 Wash-Beams, two SGM P-5s, and six of the brand new SGM P-10. Rabus says: “The new features that SGM has implemented, such as the power-out and the degree indicator on the side of the lamp, make setting up much easier. So, if it has to be really bright and flexible, I'll take the P-10.” “For bands this size, the budget and the equipment weight are usually the main challenges. Since we were traveling with two Sprinters, there was not much room for lighting gear,” he reveleals. “In this equipment situation, I needed a fixture with a large coverage and, of course, th
USA - Roughly 7,000 dairy farms closed in Wisconsin between 1993 and 1998 according to the US Department of Agriculture as part of a reorganisation of production facilities in America’s “dairy state”. While most of their barns faded from the landscape, in the northwest part of the state one farm was given new lease of life. The 180-seat community theatre and concert venue St Croix ArtBarn, expanded its production capabilities with the addition of a new colour rendering lighting system featuring Chauvet Professional COLORdash fixtures supplied by Monkey Wrench Productions. “The time had come for a lighting system replacement,” said Chad Leonard, technical director of the St Croix ArtBarn. “The fixtures that we had were almost 20 years old and were in bad shape. We replaced all of them. Aside from greatly improving our lighting for shows and concerts and giv
Poland - The Voice of Poland was recorded in the ATM studios in Warsaw, with the set featuring about 100 Prolights fixtures. Those were 16 Panorama IP AB, 24 Sunblast3000FC, 24 Starbar1000, 44 Arenacob4FC. Artur Szyman has been entrusted as lighting designer and director of photography for The Voice of Poland and he took responsibility for artistic, visual and technical direction of the production. An experienced LD in Polish TV, he says, “I was aware that Prolights fixtures were performing well and collecting lot favourable reviews on several tours and rental productions around Poland. When I was designing the lighting and video concept for TVoP, and knowing that ATM could supply this equipment, it was a good chance to try them in a TV application, where quality and refinement of the details are on top of my checklist. The fixtures have done the
Germany - It was at Showtech in Berlin that Michael Feldmann and GLP founder and CEO Udo Künzler met for the first time. GLP had previously caused a stir in the industry with the Patendlight and YPOC series and as a student Michael was looking for an internship as part of his lighting technology studies. "Here, the door to the event industry opened up for me and fulfilled a long-awaited dream to work for a renowned moving head manufacturer,” he said. “Udo then offered me the opportunity to take care of production as a German engineer in China, which I gratefully accepted.” The paths of Feldmann and GLP were soon to part again. For four years he worked as a project manager and planning engineer in the field of architainment. But the passion that had originally sparked GLP duly led him back into the event industry for a number of years. Michael Feldman gained extensive
The Netherlands - ETC will showcase a selection of its architectural lighting control solutions on stand 15-R260. Visitors can explore ETC’s collection of systems to suit installations of all sizes and budgets – from a single room to office complexes, large museums, convention centres and theme parks. Unison Paradigm delivers a new level of comprehensive control – sophisticated facility-lighting and building systems integration. And it does so with unprecedented flexibility and simplicity: a green-minded energy management system that capitalises on daylight harvesting, occupancy sensing and time schedules for maximum electricity and budget savings, plus the power to speak with different devices from different manufacturers over the same control system. Unison Echo offers flexible, intelligent, and scalable control – simply. Whether it’s turning lights on and
World - Philips Lighting reports that its stage lighting fixture, the Philips VL6000 Beam, is delivering a powerful impact for the Crazy World Tour by German heavy metal band Scorpions. The power and quality of the output from the 36 Philips VL6000 Beams solves several challenges for Scorpions' lighting designer, Manfred Nikitser. His lighting fixtures need to provide enough punch to cut through the light from the LED screens on the stage, and be strong enough to deal with long throw distances, as the lighting trusses are trimmed at between 10m and 14m above the stage. "The VL6000s give exactly the strong look this kind of rock show needs," says Nikitser, "and even with full content on the screens, I can still make an awesome light show! If you look for fixtures that will work with this amount of video, the selection is small. And with this height, it's even ha
UK - The Natural History Museum in London made waves on New Year’s Eve with 700 guests celebrating Under the sea festivities inspired by the Hintze Hall’s newly-installed blue whale skeleton. The evening saw celebrations of oceanic proportions organised by Amy O’Brien, senior event co-ordinator, in partnership with Guilty Pleasures who provided DJs and live entertainment. During highly competitive games of Musical Bingo, guests battled it out marking off songs played in Museum-themed rounds to win a range of prizes from the shop. Revellers also engaged with the latest ‘Massaoke’ craze sweeping the nation, a mass participation karaoke sing-along with crowds guided by big screen lyrics. White Light enhanced the spaces with lighting and audio elements to create an immersive experience for the party-goers with atmospheric soundscapes throughout to h
USA - Fans who pack the Pageant Theatre to capacity for six or seven El Monstero shows every holiday season never quite know what to expect. Certainly, they’re re going to hear spot-on renditions of The Wall, Dark Side of the Moon and other Pink Floyd classics, but beyond its music, this Christmas tradition in America’s heartland is full of delightful visual surprises. Drawing on a cast of up to 75 characters, the annual tribute show in St. Louis has been coming up with novel and enthralling dramatizations and set designs every year since it was started by members of different local bands in 1999. True to form, the 2017 rendition of El Monstero sparkled with a lively and fresh-looking stage presentation, thanks in no small part to a convention-defying lightshow designed by Chip Self that featured a collection of Chauvet Professional fixtures, including the
USA - Andrew Peterson’s 18th annual Behold The Lamb Of God Tour returned to Nashville for two shows featuring a lighting package provided by Bandit Lites. The moving show presents the Christmas story with musical numbers that move from the Old Testament to the New. Lighting designer Winn Elliott is nearly a dozen years into designing this production and credits his history with Andrew Peterson into knowing what direction to take the lighting each year. “Andrew and I have worked together for so long that I have a good understanding of what he will and won’t like,” said Elliott. “We’re in many ways cut from the same cloth from a design standpoint: my goal is to add a very intentional visual interest and beauty to the evening and to complement all that is happening on stage. That typically involves building looks that don’t have a ton of movement or
USA - Scorpions have wrapped the first North American leg of the Crazy World Tour 2017 with Megadeath. A large complement of Claypaky fixtures hit the road with the German rockers The North American leg’s September and October dates included a performance at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, the first time the band played the venue since 1984. Lighting and show director Manfred Nikitser, of Manfred Nikitser Show Lighting, designed a “classic rock show” with “big, strong looks” to please audiences who expected “a good rock show”. He created a “clean overall look with big LED screens, thrust and ego risers plus a massive angled stage set. My intention was to meld lighting and video, so LED screens were a lighting element that actually immersed the stage with saturated colour” for some songs. Live camera integration was a big part too, bu
UK - Dubai-based Protec has acquired Birmingham-based Aventeq. The UK company, which offers a comprehensive suite of services, including creative & technical design, production, lighting, audio, video, staging, rigging and venue support services, will be renamed to Protec European Events and continue to be lead by its founder Chris Bramwell. Stephen Lakin, Protec’s founder and CEO, says: “I have a lot of time for Chris Bramwell and the team. They have built up a strong business and I’m thrilled to welcome them into the Protec family. I am looking forward to the opportunity to introduce their customers to a wider global reach and more exciting tools & technology to create unique and memorable event experiences.” Bramwell adds: "Aventeq, which of course I’m thrilled to say, is now Protec European Events, has a similar passion to Protec. We are very
