UK - Lighting and rigging provider TSL has announced that Colin Paxton will now be managing its dry hire department. Colin brings considerable experience and technical knowledge having previously worked in similar roles in rental companies, including a senior position as hire manager. Colin will be supported by hire coordinator Ryan Abrahams who has been with the company since May 2017. Colin comments, "I have admired TSL for a long time for their strong focus on quality equipment, maintained to the highest standard and backed up by knowledgeable staff who have a passion for what they are doing. I'm looking forward to getting back to building relationships with hire customers. It's a really exciting time to join the company as with the addition of Blinding Light there are a huge range of opportunities for customers." Alongside Colin's appointment,
USA - Kevin Loretto, popular New York based lighting and technical sales specialist died on 23 January in New York after a lengthy battle with cancer. Celebrating his life, bubbly personality, resilience, dignity and amazing contributions to the world of entertainment and performance lighting, his friends and colleagues at Robe Lighting are all proud and privileged to have had the chance to work alongside Kevin for the last five years, says the company. He is survived by his wife and soulmate of 29 years, Penny Loretto, three children Tammy Monroe, Kerry Watkins and Robert Monroe and four grandchildren and will be hugely missed by everyone. Kevin graduated from St John’s University in Queens, New York in 1974 and has worked in many jobs over the years primarily in marketing and sales. It was his love of music which led him into entertainment industry lighting
USA - The Adam Hall Group is set to premiere a series of commercial product launches at this week’s show. LD Systems MAUI P900, first shown at Prolight + Sound 2017 in Frankfurt, is a column PA design concept developed in collaboration with the renowned Porsche Design Studio. The resulting industry feedback revealed that the new pro audio concept completely re-defines the boundaries between engineering, art and design. The MAUI P900 will now be officially launched to the marketplace at the Winter NAMM Show. With several international design and product awards to its name (including the German Design Award), this PA system combines state-of-the-art technology in an iconic design with exclusive materials making it truly groundbreaking in the pro audio scene, says the company. The MAUI 5 GO is the battery-powered version of the MAUI 5, the award-winning ultra-port
Germany - Multi Media Marketing & Event GmbH of Münster has expanded its inventory of Elation Professional lighting through the purchase of 16 IP65-rated Proteus Hybrid spot/beam/wash lights and 12 Paladin strobe/blinder/wash lights, both weatherproof hybrid models. Multi Media is an event company that has been active in the fields of lighting, sound, video, LED and stage technology for more than 20 years. For more than five years, the company has relied on products from Elation Professional. "In the lighting sector, we only invest in IP65 fixtures,” explains Multi Media managing director Georg Reuber. “Of course, the price/performance ratio plays a major role as well. In this respect, too, we feel comfortable with the Elation products.” The award-winning Proteus Hybrid is an IP65-certified 3-in-1 lighting fixture designed as a beam. "For us the Proteus Hy
Zimbabwe - The Jabula New Life Covenant Church’s Open Sunday held at the Rainbow Towers Hotel and Conference Centre featured a lighting rig that utilised Chauvet Professional fixtures. A crowd of 4,500 people filled the centre’s auditorium on 14 January for the uplifting service intended to inspire congregation members and reach out to new worshippers. Providing a stirring background for the service was a dynamic lightshow that featured vivid colours, subtle stage washes, crisscrossing beams and engaging audience sweeps. Events Evolution created the impressive panorama, despite a short setup time, thanks to a simple but powerful rig it created that utilised Chauvet Professional Rogue and COLORado fixtures, as well as Intimidator and SlimPAR lights from Chauvet DJ, all of which were supplied by Audiosure. The setup was “basically simple,” accordin
UK - The Bristol Hippodrome is one of Britain’s top provincial theatres, catering for the widest possible variety of tastes with its programme of musicals, ballet, opera, concerts, comedians and pantomime. A Grade II listed building designed by leading theatre architect Frank Matcham, the Hippodrome opened for business in 1912. Last year, having reached the venerable age of 105 years old, Bristol Hippodrome, grand old dame that it is, was due a facelift, part of which was to replace its tungsten house light system with a modern, sustainable LED alternative. Key to the entire project was the requirement to ensure that none of the theatre’s splendid Edwardian look and atmosphere was compromised during the upgrade. Whilst it doubtlessly comprised an out-dated and inefficient system, the existing tungsten illumination could not be faulted for the quality of its light -
India - The Kankaria Carnival 2017, which took place in the Indian city of Ahmedabad (Gujarat), between 25-31 December, was brought to life by PR XR330 Beams throughout the seven days. Local event production company Ananta Stagecraft updated their inventory with 100 XR330 Beams in time for the event. A special timecoded show was designed for the celebrations of Ahmedabad, which was declared India’s first Heritage City. The show’s highlight was the XR330. Some 40 units were used in the show along with various other fixtures. According to designer, Jay Joshi, the fixture has great abilities, with silent operation and great stability. The colours are extremely bright and their split gel functions impressive, while the Prisms and Gobo wheels were utilised to the maximum. The fixture also delivered an unfocused spot look which was used creatively in the show. Bein
UK - Illumination specialists LED Creative provided their Alpha 60 RGB LED system as part of the recent upgrade to the Sky Sports Studios at the broadcaster’s West London Headquarters. Working closely with scenic designer Peter Aston for Jago Design, LED Creative’s project manager Ges Smith and on-site team leader Tony Mayor assisted in the successful deployment of the company’s Alpha RGB, which has been used extensively throughout the re-launched Studios One, Two and Three. Featuring the work of lighting directors Richard Bowles, Andrew Louca and Malcom Reed, all three studios have a highly polished, smart, modern feel which can be easily adapted to a suit a broad variety of moods. The end-result is a suite of flexible spaces that can be tailored to reflect the nature of the broadcast content. Studio One the largest of the three is the all-important football hub
USA - Vail may mean skiing, snow and outdoor activities to most people but the area is known for its educational and cultural opportunities as well. Take Vail Mountain School (VMS) as an example. The independent K-12 school has a reputation for excellence and an important part of their challenging academic curriculum is fine art, music, and the performing arts. VMS puts on its own productions in a 384-seat, state-of-the-art theatre. In order to maintain its high standards and offer students the latest in cutting-edge entertainment lighting technology, in 2017 the school replaced its standard conventional lighting rig of discharge-based fixtures with an automated Elation Professional LED-based rig of intelligent spot, wash and batten luminaires. . Media production company THD Productions, Inc. of Leadville, Colorado, was called on to complete the install while freelance
Germany - Chauvet has established Chauvet Germany GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary to serve the German market. Based in Bremen, the new subsidiary will distribute and service Chauvet Professional, Chauvet DJ and Iluminarc products. The opening of the new facility represents the company’s first direct presence in the German market. Thomas Fischer, formerly owner and managing director of Fischer GmbH, has been named managing director of Chauvet’s German operation, which will focus on lighting. He is joined by Henning Oeker, a well-known lighting industry expert, who will serve as regional sales manager. “We’re extremely pleased to have Thomas and Henning on-board with us in Germany,” said Albert Chauvet, CEO of Chauvet. “Thomas and Henning have put together a team of experienced lighting professionals who are well positioned to provide sales and service supp
The Netherlands - Elation Professional is taking momentum from a very successful 2017 to the ISE show in Amsterdam with a number of cutting-edge products set to inspire at Stand 12-F50. From Elation’s award-winning Artiste series of creative, full-featured moving heads comes the Artiste Picasso, an innovative and inspirational theatrical-grade luminaire that connects art to engineering. The Artiste Picasso is a rare combination of brightness and features in an LED light. One of the brightest and most feature-rich profile LED lighting fixtures on the market today, it is a high-output (22,000 lumens), feature-packed (zoom, framing, CMY, CTO, gobo wheels, animation, prisms, frost and more) yet compact profile light featuring a new high-power 600W Cool White LED engine. Making its European debut at ISE will be the Smarty Hybrid, a full featured spot, beam and wash fixtur
USA - The stars truly unite for Dead & Company, the celebrated group featuring original Grateful Dead members Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann and Bob Weir alongside singer/guitarist John Mayer, Allman Brothers’ bassist Oteil Burbridge and Fare Thee Well and RatDog keyboardist Jeff Chimenti. Reflecting the stature and profile of the band, the first gigs of their recent tour were two sold out nights at Madison Square Garden for which LD Chris Ragan of Raygun Design created a fresh and spectacular lighting scheme utilizing 24 of Robe’s new MegaPointes, 36 x Spiiders, 37 BMFL Spots and six BMFL Blades, all of which are at the core of the rig. The tour followed a series of summer stadium shows where Chris’s rig included 70 x Spiiders and 60 x BMFL WashBeams, also supplied by Upstaging, the lighting vendor for the tour. The tour trussing configuration comprised
UK - Adlib supplied lighting, audio production and crew for the highly festive Christmas with the Overtones tour, renewing a long term working relationship with the popular five-piece harmony group. This was among the highlights of a number of shows and tours wrapping up a busy year for the Liverpool based rental and production specialist. Adlib’s audio team was led by Mario Leal who was tasked with getting the Coda PA fine-tuned and sounding crisp each day for the band’s FOH sound engineer Mark Clements. Paul Allen was the tour and production manager steering the ship. The PA was specified by Mark and monitor engineer Cristiano Vuolo, explained Mario, and he, together with account handler Dave Jones, all worked together to ensure everything was co-ordinated smoothly and efficiently. A typical set up was 12 x ViRAY left-and-right with three senso
Croatia - Croatian pop singer Petar Grašo completed a trio of sold out high-profile arena shows - at the Spaladium Arena in Split, the Roman Arena in Pula and finishing up at Zagreb Arena - with lighting, video and scenography designed by Sven Kučinić. Sven uses Robe as his go-to moving lights whenever possible, for which 24 x BMFL Spots, 24 x LEDWash 600+s and 24 x MMX WashBeams were supplied for two of these three shows - in Spilt and Zagreb - together with sound video, trussing and staging, by ELDRA. The production supplier for the second show was the IVAS Group, and the Robe kit included 20 x Pointes, 28 x LEDWash 600s, 16 x BMFL Spots and 20 x CYCFX 8s. Sven, one of the top Croatian LDs working with a raft of music clients both regionally and internationally has collaborated with Petar Grašo for the last two years. He was given complete creative freedom
Denmark - For the third year in a row, lighting designer Martin Holst was commissioned to illuminate Realdania’s beautiful building during Copenhagen’s Culture Night 2017. Realdania’s 50m tall building was hard to miss with a fiery red illumination created with various SGM fixtures. “We used SGM’s LED tubes for the square in front of the building and the P-5 in the atrium behind the building to illuminate trees, bushes etc. But the fun and challenging one was definitely the huge facade on the tall building,” said Holst. The annual Culture Night in Copenhagen attracts participation from more than 230 museums, theatres, libraries, churches, ministries, and parks. “On this evening, there are so many activities all around Copenhagen. Therefore, we really had to make the building stand out; creating a spectacle that drew people's attention,” ex
UK - The Royal Albert Hall recently decided to invest in a range of Robert Juliat Cyrano 2500W HMI followspots and approached White Light to make the purchase. The lighting design manager at the Royal Albert Hall is Richard Rhys Thomas. He comments: “My role covers a few broad areas, namely overseeing the running of the lighting department as well as delivering a high-quality lighting service to incoming as well as internally produced shows. I also have to oversee the upkeep and maintenance of the systems and installations, specifying new lighting equipment and improving the design of the lighting rig as needs change.” It was Richard who decided that the previous rig required an upgrade of its existing followspots. He comments: “We wanted to replace our followspot provision with up-to-date and more efficient technology. Having used the Robert Juliat Cyrano magne
USA - Philips Lighting’s new VLZ range of LED-based stage luminaires have been chosen for the busy Novo by Microsoft, a live entertainment venue at the L.A. LIVE sports and entertainment district in LA. The 2,356-capacity Novo by Microsoft is a flexible venue hosting live music of many genres, as well as comedy shows and a full and varied events program. Consequently, its lighting demands are of the highest order. In their search for new lighting tools, theatre manager Jennie Perkins and lighting designer Keith Mitchell prioritized fixtures that were bright, silent and responsive, with state-of-the-art LED technology to bring the benefits of energy efficiency and low maintenance. "We do over 200 events a year and energy consumption is very important to us," says Perkins. "Equally, the busy programme means we simply don't have time to have fixtures out for repair."
USA - Control products from ETC have been specified to modernise the lighting control at the Anderson Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum in Albuquerque. The museum’s facade is the silhouette of a hot air balloon, with the top of the building a dome newly washed with colour-changing LED fixtures. The museum wanted to take advantage of capabilities of the LED fixtures and reinforce the iconic nature of the building. The solution was an ETC Paradigm system. Lighting looks were programmed into the system and now the museum staff can choose custom colours for different themes or special events. “Because we are used a lot and we do a lot of activities all year round in the very early morning or late at night, it gives us a way to add an element of beauty to the building,” says Paul D. Garver, manager of the museum. He has plans to let the lights react
USA - 4Wall Entertainment has added Chauvet’s Maverick MK Pyxis to the company’s rental inventory. Featuring a ring of nine 15-watt RGBW LEDs with a zoom range of 7° to 45°, a high output 60-watt RGBW LED centre pixel and continuous 360° pan/tilt movement, the Maverick MK Pyxis is capable of creating “an endless variety of looks”. This versatility, along with the fixture’s bright output and reliable performance, played a key role in 4Wall Entertainment’s purchase decision. “We supply gear to numerous market segments, and we see the Maverick MK Pyxis being a very valuable fixture for many applications,” said Wes Bailey, VP of M&A and product strategy at 4Wall Entertainment. “The endless eye candy looks you get with the Pyxis played a big role in our decision.” In addition to the Maverick MK Pyxis, 4Wall Entertainment added the Maveric
USA - ADJ is set to introduce eight new products at NAMM. Those are: a moving head wash, a blinder, a ‘dim-to-warm’ pinspot, an illuminated lighting stand, two all white housing fixtures, a POW-R BAR and a new addition to the American Audio range of wireless mics. Expanding the Vizi Series of professional-calibre moving heads, the new Vizi Wash Pro is ADJ’s most powerful wash fixture to date. Powered by 19 x 30W RGBW Osram LEDs and boasting motorized zoom that offers a beam angle of between 5 and 50 degrees, “this potent fixture is equally suited to tight mid-air beam effects as it is to far-reaching wash lighting”. The Encore Burst 200 will also be showcased for the first time at this year’s NAMM. This innovative new addition to ADJ’s Encore Series of professional stage lighting fixtures is a dual blinder unit featuring high intensity 110W COB warm white
Belgium - Luc Peumans of Painting With Light created the lighting and stage design for the 30th anniversary tour by rock band Clouseau. The visual concept of Clouseau 30 tour - an extensive itinerary visiting 500 2000-capacity venues across Belgium - is based around a lounge-style environment with carpets on the floor, standard lamps dotted around and an upright piano onstage. Charismatic lead singer Koen enthusiastically engages with the audience as he tells assorted stories related to each song. The set list can also change - with no warning - depending on this audience interaction, as they will often shout out requests for specific songs the band might decide to play. This improvisation keeps Luc and the crew on their toes and is an exciting and invigorating way to work ‘live’. Luc is celebrating his own anniversary, being back behind the lighting
Europe - Feeling the heat and helping create the energy and industrial-strength visuals for award winning Swedish heavy metal band In Flames, lighting and production designer Fredrik Stormby of creative practice Greenwall Designs AB used 156 x Robe BMFLs - a mix of 102 x BMFL WashBeams and 54 x BMFL Spots for their most recent tour. The band was founded in Stockholm in 1990, since when it has been highly successful and prolific, steaming through a full-on career that’s seen them produce multiple best-selling albums and be credited for founding the nuanced metal sub-genre ‘Swedish melodic death metal’. They have built up a loyal international fan-base over time and tour extensively, known for the passion and vitality of their live performances. This tour is still part of the 2016 Battles album cycle, and the very latest autumn-winter European arena section
Europe - Colour Sound Experiment supplied lighting and crew to the most recent UK and European leg of synth pop duo Hurts Desire tour which included many adventures and the presentation of some superlative shows in more off-gig circuit reaches of Europe. These included Moldova, Siberia, Belarus and Ukraine, and was a test to the tenacity, ingenuity, commitment and camaraderie of production manager Craig Sherwood and his team combined with the ardent enthusiasm of the band’s fan base. Award winning production designer Rob Sinclair created the scenic and lighting design and worked with Matt Arthur as lighting director / programmer and operator on the road. It’s the third Hurts’ album cycle for these two, who have worked together in a similar format for the last 10 years. The band’s production and the relationship with Colour Sound as a lighting and
USA - New Year's Eve festivities at the luxury hotel Fontainebleau Miami Beach isn't just another NYE celebration. The oceanfront resort, with its celebrated poolscape, has featured the likes of Lady Gaga, Drake and Justin Bieber at past celebrations and this year saw Demi Lovato and popular DJ KYGO ring in the New Year. Lighting director and production designer Tyler Frank and the team at Everlast Productions created a lasting memorable experience for Fontainebleau and their guests. By blending a creative solution with innovative technology and technical expertise Everlast produced an engaging live event experience. The South Florida-based production company supplied the entire production; from dynamic graphic content, to impactful lighting atmospheres, to premium audio quality, cutting-edge technology that adapted perfectly to the environment Everlast’s Tyler Frank
