Germany - GLP’s new JDC1 hybrid LED strobe delivers power in excess through a versatile and highly creative design. Already adopted by some of the world’s leading LDs, it has been “flying out the door and into rental facilities across the globe” since receiving its world premiere at Frankfurt Prolight+Sound in April. Fundamentally, the JDC1 has been designed in three sections, which can be controlled independently or as a complete synchronised unit. The fixture itself contains a traditional single tube element with an incredible clear, bright, white output, derived from 216 white LEDs, and then combines that with a surrounding, format-filling full face of RGB LED power, utilising 1,320 high quality LED’s. Whether running independently, or together these elements offer the brightest output unit its class with retina burning output. Adding versatility t
UK - With a broad stock of event production and AV equipment, production company SXS has launched a dry hire service. Available equipment includes arena-scale PA, high-resolution LED video walls, outdoor video screens, staging, marquees and one of the largest stocks of blackout drapery in the UK. “We now have one of the largest and definitely the broadest of stocks of AV and production equipment in the UK. The equipment we are using is high-end, industry and standard and typically rider friendly,” says SXS project handler Nathan Dunbar who will be heading up the dry hire customer services with assistance from production executive Lucy Payne. “I’ve been with SXS a while now and have been blown away by how well our team maintains some of the highest standards I have seen in every discipline in which we work. SXS is a genuine one-stop shop with technical an
UK - ChamSys has named Aziz Adilkhodjaev as the company’s international business development manager. In his new role, he will be responsible for expanding and strengthening the international distribution network of the brand, as well as improving international customer support and training to enhance the user experience. Chris Kennedy, ChamSys managing director, comments: “With his detailed knowledge in the field of lighting control, Aziz will assist in taking the MagicQ MQ500 and MagicQ software to a new level, and his expertise in international distribution will also help ChamSys to expand into new markets.” Aziz states, “I am really excited about the MQ500. It’s an extremely powerful product with up to 200 universes from a single console and many unique functions - it can really deliver a punch. I am looking forward to playing a major role in its evolutio
Australia - The Brolga Theatre in Queensland’s Maryborough is a typical regional venue – its 900-seat proscenium arch theatre hosts an international ballet troupe one night, Jimmy Barnes the next, and a local dance school the day after. Though the venue is just 17-years-old, changes in technology mean replacement lamps are no longer available for their wash lights, leading the staff to assess how to upgrade for the future. The future, as they see it, is Elation’s Platinum Seven RGBWAC-UV LED wash light. “We knew we had to move to LED and intelligent fixtures,” said Robert Haigh, operations technician at the Brolga. “We could afford to replace our wash, but not our profiles, so it was an easy decision to go to a moving fixture that could provide a wash, and in the case of Elation’s Platinum Seven, work as a profile in many senses.” Twelve Elation
UK - Cameron Mackintosh’s acclaimed production of Boubil and Schonberg’s classic embarked on a record-breaking run in the West End and is now touring the UK. Having supplied the most recent revival, along with the original run thirty years ago, White Light has been called upon to provide the lighting equipment for this latest UK tour. The lighting designer for the tour is Olivier Award-winning Bruno Poet who also lit the West End revival. He comments: “When Cameron asked me to light the 2014 production for the West End, it was daunting to start work on a production with so much history, yet thrilling to be asked to approach it with fresh ideas. I treated it as a completely new show. After the successful West End run, and revisiting the show for Broadway, the UK tour has been an opportunity to revisit my design and hone it for touring. He adds: “It’s a challe
USA - Graeme Flegenheimer, owner of El Club in Detroit, Michigan, fell in love with music at a young age. That may explain his diverse taste in music and the wide variety of acts that play at the popular live music venue, which has featured a customisable Elation Professional lighting rig since opening in 2016. “I pride myself on El Club having an eclectic calendar,” says Flegenheimer, who has a background as a music publicist. “There’s not a typical night here. It’s always changing and Elation is able to meet every requirement of the artist coming in here and capture the vibe of the evening.” Since opening in May of 2016, El Club has arguably become Detroit’s hottest night-time venue with a mixture of acts that is attracting a wide audience. “It's really an amazing room that's giving a massive high-end light show experience to underground artists in a
Belgium - With many music stages and event spaces throughout the city’s UNESCO protected medieval centre, the annual 10-day Gentse Feesten is a go-to event for Northern European music lovers. Shining brightly against the city’s beautiful gothic architecture was the festival’s Sint-Baafsplein square stage. Vince de Schinckel brought the stage (one of the festival’s largest) to glittering life with help from eight STRIKE 1, 20 Maverick MK2 Wash, and 16 Maverick MK2 Spot fixtures from Chauvet Professional, supplied by Belgian rental specialists Euro PA. The 230-watt single source STRIKE 1 fixtures provided de Schinckel with an impactful tungsten emulating blinder and wash tool for creating classic main stage looks. “After having a great experience with the STRIKE 4 on last year’s festival, I was excited to try out the single source STRIKE 1,” he said.
Europe - UK based creative design practice Okulus – James Scott and Louis Oliver – was asked to create a production design for rising Canadian singer songwriter Shawn Mendes’ tour. This followed their work for the launch of his second studio album, Illuminate at Madison Square Garden in September 2016, and Okulus’ penchant for bringing fresh and interesting visual perspectives to a show. 39 Robe Spikies are incorporated into the lighting scheme, crafted with Okulus dexterity and imagination in close collaboration with the show’s creative director, Paul Caslin and 24/7 Productions. The overall stage look is clean and definitive with attention focused on the artist. The set is built from a multi-layered fixed riser system with curved frontage and a high-gloss black floor, fabricated by TAIT. It keeps the band positions balanced across the upstage
Italy - Singer/songwriter and producer Tiziano Ferro is known as the modern face of Italian pop music and his phenomenally successful career has seen one chart-busting album and single after another earning him a dedicated fan following. His live shows are also known for their visual flamboyance and style and the recent Italian stadium tour was no exception. Belgian engineering and automation specialist WIcreations was commissioned to find solutions for two primary motion-control ‘brain-teasers’. The show was creatively directed by Claudio Santucci working in close collaboration with video designer Romain Sabella from Clonwerk and lighting designer Giovanni Pinna. The two automation challenges were to provide a fluid and smooth movement system for a large video ceiling weighing 11 tonnes, which moved in all directions and to track two massive upstage LED scre
Germany - Forty years on the air and 1,000 episodes are really a reason for celebrating 1, 2 or 3, the legendary children’s quiz show from ZDF - with a 150-minute prime time show from the MMC Studios in Cologne. Moderated by Steven Gätjen and Elton, prominent guests included actress Stephanie Stumph, comedian Bülent Ceylan and singer Mark Foster. Günther Jauch, who presents Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, also made an appearance and superstar Helene Fischer appeared on stage. For the lighting design of this special anniversary show, MBTV, the production company for ZDF, awarded the design work to mo2 design, run by lighting designer, Manfred "Ollie" Olma. Olma is one of the long-time users of GLP fixtures, and on this occasion he also made the most of it - specifying more than 100 impression X4 atom, as well as 92 GT-1 hybrids and 60 impression X4. "W
Europe - illumination Physics has opened a European office in Bremen, Germany. Martin Opolka will assume the role of European manager, effective immediately. Martin is a career lighting professional and his experience and specialisation are ideally suited to illumination Physics’ core business in architectural and architainment façade lighting, says the company. He has been involved in many international projects including The Chicago Bridges illumination, London Television Tower, London, and Aspire Sports Dome in Doha. "My new role as European manager for illumination Physics represents an exciting challenge that I'm honoured to accept," says Martin. "I have known the company directors and have been familiar with their work for many years and am delighted now to be part of its success story.” The office is located at Bruno-Bürgel-Strasse 11, 28759, Bremen,
UK - To best support and grow its rapidly expanding user-base, global design and BIM software developer Vectorworks has announced the formation of a new office in the UK. To facilitate this new corporate office, Vectorworks has acquired Design Software Solutions Limited, a long-time reseller of Vectorworks software. The Vectorworks UK office will build on the support, training and sales infrastructure developed by Design Software Solutions as a launch pad for further development in the region. The new office will be led by Tamsin Slatter and Adrian Slatter, former directors of Design Software Solutions. “With more than 10 years of experience helping users make the most of their investment in Vectorworks software, Design Software Solutions has provided significant input to the growth of the UK market while also providing valuable support and training materials,
UK – The 2017 Knight of Illumination (KOI) Awards has announced this year’s shortlist of lighting and video designers, recognised for their creative work in the Concert Touring & Events sector. The winners will be announced at the 10th anniversary KOI Awards ceremony, to be held at London’s Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith, on 17 September. The KOI Awards was established to publicly celebrate the achievements of lighting and video designers in the sectors of Television, Theatre and Concert Touring & Events. The annual Awards are open to designers whose work has been showcased in the UK in the previous twelve months. The Awards is now one of the most celebrated nights in the live entertainment design industry calendar, with more than 500 leading creatives and professionals in attendance at last year’s celebrations. The Concert Touring & Events shortlist is the
USA - It isn’t often that a rock star coming off three successive Billboard Top Ten albums takes time before a big show to hold a yoga class, but then Michael Franti has made a habit of defying expectations, whether it’s with his genre-bending music, or unconventional dress code. (He gave up wearing shoes in 2000 and hasn’t donned a pair since, save for the flip-flops he puts on to board airplanes.) Franti’s iconoclastic and richly fertile imagination was on full display at his 13 July appearance with his band Spearhead at Red Rocks Amphitheatre. Supporting their multifarious performance was a Matt “Jonezy” Jones designed light and video show run with a ChamSys MagicQ MQ80 console. Kicked off after the conclusion of his Love Out Loud Yoga class, Franti’s show took the audience through a weaving musical journey that touched rock, hip hop, blues, da
USA - The Moody Blues have been touring since the fabled moment in music history referred to as the British Invasion, and while they have 18 platinum and gold albums, retail sales of more than 70m units and decades of touring behind them, the trio, consisting of Graeme Edge, Justin Hayward and John Lodge shows no plans of stopping any time soon. The band’s illustrious career stretches across more than half a century. In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the album Days of Future Passed, Bandit Lites supplied the lighting and video elements for the legendary group’s latest tour. Bandit Lites supplied lighting designer Mick Thornton, now in his fifteenth year with the band, their exclusive GRNLite Moving Washes, GLP X4, Robe Pointes, 4 Lite Moles and LED Pars, along with Chauvet Video Panels (6mm) and Clay Paky Mirage Video Panels (20 mm). “The bal
UK - Miss Saigon has recently embarked on a major UK tour, taking the full West End production to every corner of the UK. The show opened at the Curve, Leicester in July before moving to Birmingham Hippodrome, from where it travels to Ireland, Wales, Scotland and back to England, culminating at Norwich Theatre Royal in September 2018. Travelling with the show, with its lighting design by Bruno Poet, are two MDG ATMe haze generators, purchased specifically for the tour by White Light. “My Associate LD on this show, Warren Letton discovered the ATMe hazer and recommended that I take a look at them,” says Poet. “I have used MDG’s Atmosphere machine many times before and love the fabulous haze they deliver. And we used two Atmospheres on both the West End and Broadway productions of Miss Saigon where they stood the test of time. “But it was the extr
Europe - Robbie Williams’ latest European tour takes in all points east and west of the continent throughout the summer, culminating in two shows in the Russian cities of St Petersburg and Moscow in early September. Touring in support of Williams’ 11th studio album, The Heavy Entertainment Show, the production reflects the nature of both the artist and the album, mixing full-on schmaltz with in-your-face entertainment in an atmosphere that is cheeky, loud and proud to be brash. In a design set to dazzle in keeping with the effervescent star, lighting designer, Mark Cunniffe, opted to use 200 Ayrton IntelliPix-XT LED matrix fixtures to line the front edges of the stage, which is – what else – star-shaped. “One of the major challenges of a stadium show is that 50%-60% of the show is played in daylight, before transitioning into night-time later on. The further
Europe - Lighting and production designer Mark Cunniffe knew what he wanted to create his vision and met up with SGM to provide the right luminaire. Besides this newly developed G-4 Wash-Beam, a vast amount of Q-7 and SixPacks are to be found in his design. When creating the plot for the Robbie Williams Heavy Entertainment Show Tour, or for that matter any other lighting design, Cunniffe is very much driven by the artist, for whom he is working. “I try to achieve something out of the ordinary and wherever possible something thought provoking, but at the same time I stay clear of any approach that could be considered to be overpowering the performance. “I still believe very strongly that the role of a lighting and production designer is to be supportive and sympathetic as opposed to overpowering. I consider myself to be nothing more than a support act for th
Poland - Transcolor Lucjan Siwczyk, one of Poland's major rental companies, is located in greater Warsaw, since 2010 in a substantial purpose-built warehouse and office complex complete with two large studios which are regularly hired out by TV production companies to record a range of series and programmes. Television is a core market for Transcolor which also services other studios with lighting and video equipment – together with concert touring, special events and long term installations. To assist with the busy schedules, there are now over 300 Robe fixtures in the rental inventory including 200 plus LEDWash 800s and over 100 Spikies. They started looking at Robe in 2012 - having been a distributor for a competitor brand for several years and consequently having a big stock of their fixtures – it was a big moment - explained technical manager Szymon Kos
USA - Altman Lighting has announced the appointment of Miles Dudgeon as their new Northeast regional sales manager for North America. Based in upstate New York, Dudgeon will manage the Altman Lighting sales efforts in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Eastern Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. “I am thrilled to add Miles to our sales team,” said Nick Champion, Altman Lighting vice president of North American sales. “His background working with industry manufacturers is extensive, and his work as an end user adds a perspective that will help him be able to quickly understand and address the needs of our customers and partners.” As an ETCP-certified entertainment electrician, Dudgeon most recently worked as the master el
UK - To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Wholehog lighting control desk, the Flying Pig Systems team, along with an original Wholehog console, will reunite at the PLASA Show in September. In 1992, three young, twenty-something men - Nick Archdale, Tom Thorne and Nils Thorjussen - exhibited a new control system for live entertainment lighting at the PLASA Show in London. Called Wholehog, it had been conceived, developed, road-tested and launched in less than a year. Its disruptive power and features drew huge interest from the market, while its impact was recognised by the PLASA Show's Awards judges who unanimously named it Lighting Product of the Year. Wholehog was a landmark in the history of entertainment lighting control. For the three founders whose blood, sweat, tears and (no doubt) more tears had led them to this point, it was an extraordinary achievement ag
UK – Matrix has introduced a range of LED products designed for the live event sector. Matrix’s 2.6mm pixel pitch LED creates high definition clear images, suitable for exhibitions and conferences that need a superior display platform. Matrix reports that it has received “great feedback” for the product, with benefits including magnetic attraction function on each LED panel, optimised cable management, and one-man operation. Examples of the product in action can be seen on the Matrix YouTube channel. (Jim Evans)
Spain - The annual Premios Max Awards celebrate Spanish individuals and organisations who have making outstanding contributions to the performing arts and are organised by the General Society of Authors and Publishers (SGAE). This year they were staged at the Palau de les Arts in vibrant Valencia. Lighting designer Juanjo Llorens took up the challenging task of lighting the high-profile event which was also broadcast live on TVE2, for which he utilised luminaires in the venue’s house rig, together with some specials, notably 30 x Robe Pointes, six BMFL WashBeams and five PATT2013s. These were all supplied by Madrid based rental company, Fluge Audiovisuales. Juanjo’s starting point for the lighting was this year’s theme of the Mediterranean and in particular the famous and beautiful Levantine light as depicted in the works of Spanish painter Joaquin Sorolla. From
Belgium - Rental company EQS Pro-Rent has recently taken delivery of Elation Professional’s new Artiste DaVinci LED moving head spot luminaire, as well as the company’s ACL 360 Matrix LED moving head panel. Wouter de Loose, owner of EQS Pro-Rent, based in the town of Rijkevorsel, commented on the decision to add the fixtures to their rental inventory. “We have worked with various Elation products for several years,” he said. “Last year we bought 16 units of the Rayzor Beam 2R, a narrow beam moving head that we are still very pleased with today. Due to our growth in the rental sector the past year, we have been looking for new devices to expand our range. We found the road to Elation very quickly.” Together with Coen Criar of Elation partner Geronika and Bert Schmeits of Elation Professional, a comprehensive demo was undertaken of various Elation products. A
