Australia - Lexair Entertainment has announced that it is the new Australian and New Zealand exclusive distributor for LDDE. LDDE specialises in the theatre and studio lighting markets, and has held an exceptional reputation since its foundation nearly 30 years ago. Their products are all manufactured in the company’s home of Austria. “On the occasion of Prolight & Sound in Frankfurt in April 2017, first discussions were held with Lexair to offer LDDE products to an even larger audience in Australia and New Zealand” stated Peter Durstberger, international sales manager for LDDE. “I am pleased to have found a partner with Lexair, one of the top companies in its region. Together, we will be able to provide our customers with even better support in the future.” “We are very excited to bring the highly regarded LDDE into the Lexair family, rounding ou
UK - The Knight of Illumination (KOI) Awards – the industry’s largest Awards to celebrate the achievements in lighting and video design seen in the UK -has announced a special collaboration between KOI Awards, Hawthorn and the PLASA Show. This initiative will introduce a new exhibition area to the PLASA Show (17-19 September 2017), specifically created to showcase the shortlisted and winning designers of the 10th annual Knight of Illumination Awards. The designated KOI area will be located upstairs at the London Olympia exhibition halls. All visitors to the show are invited to see the showcase of work created by the shortlisted lighting designers, and following Sunday’s ceremony, an update with the winning designs. Chris Toulmin, director of events at PLASA Events comments: “This collaboration enables us to display some of the best creative talent
World - Canadian singer-songwriter Shawn Mendes shot to fame via a clip he posted to Vine in 2014 and has quickly garnered pop royalty status with a social media fan following of millions. At the pinnacle of his career playing sold-out arenas around the world, Shawn is currently embarking on his Illuminate world tour – and French manufacturer and provider of lighting balloons for the event industry, Airstar, is helping to set the stage with its Pendulair LED product. The llluminate tour comprises 61 dates in total touching every continent, with Shawn playing some of the world’s biggest music venues. Named after his current platinum-selling second studio album, the show features a set built around a 5m wide Airstar Pendulair LED lighting balloon - known as the ‘Orb’. Providing the main source of the light for fans as they walk into the venue, in an off-b
South Africa - Indian Independence Day, holds a special meaning for the people of Lenasia Township. It was here in the early 20th century that a young Mahatma Gandhi staged a famous protest at the local railway station to advance the cause of civil rights for South Africa’s Indian population. Later, when he returned to India, Gandhi would employ the idea of non-violent civil disobedience that he had honed in South Africa to win independence for his native country, and in the process, change the world. This year, as India celebrated the 70th anniversary of its independence, Lenasia hosted an array of events to mark the occasion. Among the most moving and colourful was Celebrating India at the township’s Patidar Hall, which featured a performance by the Kashvita Music and Dance Academy. Creating a bright and upbeat background for the spirited performances on stage w
USA - Foreigner recently released Forty Hits from Forty Years with an accompanying 40th Anniversary Tour appropriately featuring an old-school lighting design by Dan Lastovka using Elation Arena Par Zoom LED wash lights supplied by See Factor. Used to create a 70’s rock par can look but with the benefits of a modern intelligent luminaire are 108 Arena Par Zoom fixtures. Lastovka comments: “When I was first playing around with ideas for Foreigner’s 40th Anniversary Tour, I wanted to centre the design around a big par can rig, certainly not the largest that has ever been out, but bigger than has been seen in 10 or more years, and maybe a different look to modern audiences. In the end, whimsy yielded to practicality and a richer feature set, so the hunt for a par can analogue began.” Lighting vendor on the tour is See Factor, who, working with Elation rep
UK - Lighting and visuals designer Andy Hurst wanted to make a big impact for Chase & Status acclaimed Saturday night headliner set at the 2017 Lovebox festival in London’s Victoria Park - so he designed an epic specials package which was supplied by HSL, together with crew – which was installed under the event’s production ‘top rig’. The ‘extras’ included 194 x SGM Q-7 LED flood / strobes, used highly effectively for the onslaught that you expect at a Chase & Status gig as well as super-bright floods and audience blinders. The Q-7s were rigged so they effectively worked together in linear strips, wrapping around the back and sides of the stage, the PA wings and the portrait format IMAG side screens, also integrating these screens into the performance space. Andy loves creative challenges and is known for his fresh approach. “I wanted th
Germany - The annual DPWK Deutscher Preis für Wirtschaftskommunikation (German Prize for Business Communication) gala award presentation took place recently in the casual surroundings of Berlin’s Columbiahalle rock venue (replacing the usual formal ‘black tie’ event). Known as Der Goldene Funke, the event was expertly lit by locally based lighting designer, Björn Hermann, working in conjunction with phase7 performing.arts, with whom he shares a studio. German lighting manufacturer GLP provided many of the creative tools, including 24 x GT1, 14 x impression X4 and 16 x impression X4 L. Hermann says he believes it is important to support the City’s institutions, particularly at student level, and GLP were also happy to lend their sponsorship. Explaining his conceptual mission, the designer states, “It was important to create an ‘Oscar’ type feeling
Belgium - Tomorrowland is one of the world’s highest profile electronic music festivals, gathering over 400.000 people at the main site in Belgium, and connecting an additional 70.000 people at multiple remote venues through the UNITE event. UNITE are events organised in different countries and connected via a live satellite broadcast with Tomorrowland Belgium. This year UNITE shared three hours of live HD video broadcast feeds featuring performances from the main stage in Belgium, with remote live parties in Germany, Malta, Dubai, Israel, South Korea and Lebanon. At each location grandMA2 consoles were in control. In Belgium 13 x grandMA2 full-size, eight grandMA2 light, one grandMA2 ultra-light, two grandMA2 fader wing, two MA onPC command wing and one MA onPC fader wing were used. Up until 9pm Belgium time, every party had their own DJ performances. Starting at 9p
UK - The PLASA Show returns to Olympia London next month for what will be its 40th anniversary. The event will once again present ground-breaking technology and exciting new launches by the world’s greatest designers and engineers. As the technical solutions specialist, White Light will be exhibiting on stand L50 where its expert staff will be on hand to meet customers old and new as well as present a range of revolutionary technology. WL’s head of business development Lee Dennison comments: “We are delighted to be returning to the PLASA Show after what has been yet another significant 12 months for the company. In that time, we’ve become the in-house technical supplier at Claridge’s Hotel, installed exhibitions at the V&A and Saatchi Gallery, supported the relaunch of Hintze Hall at the Natural History Museum as well as continued to supply the biggest shows in
UK - During PLASA 2017, CLF lighting will present three new lighting essentials, including the Yara. The CLF Yara is a workhorse for every purpose. The LED fixture has outstanding smooth RGBW colour mixing delivered by 14 high power LEDs with a very punchy 15° beam angle. The specially selected LEDs provide high output with intense colours and an exceptional white balance. IP65 rating makes the Yara suitable for both indoor and outdoor use. The Ares XS is the smaller brother of the Ares, which has proven to be a lighting essential for many different purposes. The powerful LED wash fixture is designed for illuminating large surfaces both in- and outdoor. Extreme brightness and an extraordinary even projection make the Ares XS a true LED alternative for traditional wash lights. An array of 18 calibrated high power RGBW LEDs is divided in three individually controllable
Brazil - Rental company LPL supplied over 150 Robe moving lights including BMFL WashBeams to the 2017 League of Legends Mid-Season Invitationals (MSI) competition staged in the Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janiero. (formally the Rio Olympic Arena) Produced by LoL developers Riot Games, professional regional champions from Asia, North America and Europe met in Brazil and battled ‘live’ to win large numbers of points counting towards the 2017 World Championship title for this popular e-sport phenomena. The 15-day Group / Knockout games and their Finals in Rio was one of two LoL MSI events hosted in Brazil that featured five team players per game and an eye-catching production including giant LED screens, dramatic lighting and lots of audience interaction, together with colourful and vibrant opening and closing ceremonies, explained LPL’s Caio Bertti, who project manage
USA - Earlier this month, the Lollapalooza Festival rocked Chicago at Grant Park with four days of music and fun. Supplied through LD Systems, High End Systems SolaSpot 1000s helped augment the visuals on the Pepsi Grove and Lakeshore Stages. LD Systems’ Nathan Brittain served as lead programmer on the Pepsi Stage, joined by Pepsi Grove lead tech Wade Henry, while the Lakeshore Stage was manned by lead programmer Lance Williamson and lead tech William Diven. Brittain commented: “We recently purchased SolaSpot 1000’s to fill a need in our inventory for a bright midrange hard edge fixture. Being that the stages we were providing for were medium size roofs, the SolaSpot 1000 was a perfect match. Their size, weight, and power consumption fit with our needs for this show. “We provided two identical rigs for the two stages, and the SolaSpots were placed on the
UK - The Batley and Spen Youth Theatre Company was recently set up to celebrate and pay tribute to the life of the late Jo Cox, MP for the constituency. Its aim was to create a lasting legacy in the town which will benefit young people for many years to come. Its inaugural project was a three-week event led by a West End creative team which included a performance of Jo’s favourite musical Les Misérables</>, using an entire local cast. In support of the project, White Light provided the lighting equipment. The project was entitled Hear the People Sing and celebrated the values that Jo stood for: togetherness, collaboration, comradeship and equality. The performances of Les Misérables were made possible by Cameron Mackintosh generously granting the rights for free. The creative team included renowned director Nick Evans, producer Donna Munday, musica
USA - Artist- producer duo, The Chainsmokers, aka Alex Pall and Drew Taggart, embarked on their first arena tour earlier this year, visiting 36 cities across North America. The multi-faceted show was designed and produced by Miguel Risueño, aka Mike808, and Corey Johnson of Production Club, Los Angeles, with a stunning lighting design from Cory FitzGerald, and production management by Clancy Silver. Signature to the show’s design were 126 MagicPanel fixtures from Ayrton, with 42 of the new MagicPanel-FX and 84 MagicPanel-R fixtures forming a dynamic, articulated ceiling of light above the duo, and 18 Ayrton MagicDot-R units fronting their DJ booth. The tour was in support of Memories…Do Not Open, the duo’s first studio album which plays with the concept of a teenager’s ‘memory box’ in which a youngster might hide their precious objects – love lett
UK - Sir Elton John is one of a number of acts PRG has had the pleasure of working with for many years. Account director Jon Cadbury explains a little about PRG’s history with Sir Elton’s tours: “We have been working with Sir Elton and his touring team for many years, and we supply lights for most of his shows around the world. I look after them in Europe, together with a fairly consistent, and excellent lighting team, and my colleague Curry Grant takes care of all of the North American and rest of the world shows.” As part of a wide-ranging tour, taking in numerous countries around the world, Elton played a number of dates around the UK this summer, including the First Direct Arena in Leeds. Lighting crew chief Lars Kristiansen has worked with the touring production and LD Kevin ‘Stick’ Bye for 14 years, during which time there have been various designs w
UK - Entertainment lighting control system rental specialists, Illuminate Lighting, has acquired the lighting control and data distribution hire business of Lighting Productions with a mission to expand the console brands they offer and the services the company currently provides. The combination of resources will allow an enhanced provision of services to Illuminate Lighting's growing client list with everything from basic dry hire to a full lighting control solution. "Illuminate Lighting can now offer three of the leading console brands in the industry - Avolites, Hog, and MA Lighting alongside all the accompanying data distribution equipment," says Jonathan Pask, founder of Illuminate Lighting. "There's a real synergy between our two business inventories. This enables Illuminate Lighting to provide everything from individual consoles to entire networked systems tai
UK - BBC One’s musical show Pitch Battle recently completed a successful opening season with five pre-recorded episodes, plus the live finals. Live broadcasts have zero tolerance for malfunctions (just ask Mariah Carey or Janet Jackson) and gear must be 100% reliable. For this reason, lighting designer Mark Kenyon insists on ProPlex Data Distribution Devices for all his show data networking. In addition to Pitch Battle, British television credits for ProPlex include six seasons on the hit show Strictly Come Dancing, five seasons of Saturday Night Takeaway and the new game show Big Heads – all designed by Kenyon. “ProPlex just keeps working,” says Mark Newell, lighting gaffer and Kenyon’s chief systems tech. “For Pitch Battle, we used 10 ProPlex Opto-Splitter 2x8 RDM units, plus a user-friendly, versatile ProPlex IQ
USA - Eggshell Light Company of Honolulu, which has handled professional lighting needs on the Hawaiian Islands for decades, continues their reputation for innovation by taking delivery of Elation Professional’s new IP65-rated Proteus Hybrid multi-functional moving head. Bob Harmon, CEO and president of Eggshell Light Company, commented on the addition of the award-winning hybrid lights to Eggshell’s rental inventory. “We often put moving lights outside for a number of events, always with the caveat that if it rains we have to shut them down. On a few occasions that was indeed the case but now we don’t have to do that thanks to the new Proteus in our rental fleet." Designed for outdoor production applications, Eggshell’s new weatherproof Proteus Hybrid units made their Hawaiian Islands debut at the infamous Waikiki Shell in Honolulu earlier this month for a
The Netherlands - Podium de Vorstin is a purpose-built live music venue right in the heart of ‘media city’ Hilversum in the Netherlands. Its interesting modern neo-ecclesiastical steel architecture was created by Architekten Cie, and ensures that it stands out as an aesthetic landmark as well as a popular entertainment venue. Production assistant Robin von Zijl and technical manager Michael Sakkers were part of the team who chose Robe Spiider LED wash beams and DL4S Profile luminaires – 16 of each – in a recent technical upgrade. This replaced their previous moving lights, which were from a competitor brand and dated back to 2010 when the venue opened, built on the site of the former De Tagrijn youth centre which burned to the ground. Vorstin’s action-packed production schedule includes at least three or four live gigs every weekend utilizing its two performa
Australia - Lexair Entertainment has been appointed the exclusive Australian and New Zealand distributor for American followspot specialist Lycian Stage Lighting. “Lycian is proud to announce it has established a relationship with Lexair Entertainment to distribute Lycian followspots in Australia and New Zealand,” said Steve Lerman, director of sales for Lycian Stage Lighting. “We believe Lexair will aggressively market Lycian followspots and are happy to join their growing stable of entertainment products. I look forward to working with a company that is dedicated to customer service because that is our root belief.” “Lycian is the most reputable followspot manufacturer in the world, and we’re very happy to be working with them,” stated Alex Mair, managing director of Lexair Entertainment. “Their product quality and excellent reputation directly align
USA - As Clean Bandit continue their touring progress towards a transatlantic sojourn in the USA in the fall, it seems an appropriate moment to consider the merits of Rob Sinclair’s production design. In particular, the constructions that inhabit the upstage area from left to right, manufactured by specialist show and event design house, Specialz Ltd. These pods are four metres high with eight VDO Sceptron 10 fixtures in each pod. Each one is rigged on a stand that enables the pod to be rotated 360° to be either facing downstage or at 45° degrees making them all but invisible to the audience. Sinclair elaborates on the basics: “The idea was to have the mirrored pods located behind a black mirrored riser - lots of reflection – with neon edges. They needed to be able to turn so we could choose to see or obscure a video screen upstage. From that original conce
UK - “This was our first ever Claypaky purchase,” opens Kieran Marklew of Marklew Productions. “We had been looking to invest in some new fixtures and one of our clients had specified the K20 B-Eye so we thought it was time for us to investigate.” Marklew Productions has been in business since 2007 and has built up a very healthy clientele, from local Birmingham businesses opting for dry hire to those looking for a full production service alongside an extensive number of college and university customers and requests for weddings or special event lighting. “We contacted Ambersphere Solutions and spoke to Thor Andre from Ambersphere Sales. I was so impressed with the fixture it wasn’t a difficult choice to make. I especially like the added feature of the front lens rotation. It gives an amazing vortex effect which is totally unique to the B-Eye. The colour p
USA - Over two million visitors come to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History every year to view pieces of American culture, from the original Star Spangled Banner, to iconic McDonald’s signs, to a pair of Mohammed Ali’s boxing gloves. It is pure and simple, one of the most concentrated celebrations anywhere of the American spirit and creative innovation. For one night in July, not all of that famed “Yankee Ingenuity” was on display in the museum’s exhibits. Eric Hertsch of John Farr Lighting Design also exhibited some impressive resourcefulness in the museum, as he overcame a limited power supply and tight schedule to transform sections of the building into a sparkling red, white and blue colour scape with a rig made up entirely of Chauvet Professional and Chauvet DJ fixtures. As soon as visitors entered this private donor event
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
