Germany - As Ascension Day is a traditional day off for Germans, what better way to spend it then at Tanta Mia tanzt, a one-day electro dance music festival with international and regional DJs. Held in the town of Vechta in northwest Germany, Tanta Mia tanzt debuted in 2016 and was back in 2017 with a line-up of EDM and house beat artists playing across multiple stages. The all-day EDM party with its unusual name (Aunt Mia is dancing) attracted more than 16,000 visitors this year. Elation Professional’s new German distribution partner, LMP Lichttechnik Vertriebs GmbH, who began distributing Elation Professional products in Germany in April of this year, worked with production services company Multi Media Marketing & Event GmbH. Dirk Möhlenbrock from Multi Media, responsible for the entire show design, took over the creative and technical project management this
Europe - “How do we set up the control system to accommodate everything we need for a huge show including capacity for different festival rigs?” Matt Arthur, lighting director for System of a Down’s current European tour, and festival appearances asked Jack Moorhouse, Jands product manager from A.C. Entertainment Technologies. Rob Sinclair’s ambitious creative design for the headline European tour by the American alternative, Grammy-winning rock band contained over 800 individually controlled elements, including a touring floor package, festival house rig and a large hybrid video wall. The wall incorporated embedded RGB pixel “lights” alongside a traditional video screen. The lighting pixels themselves required 2,128 DMX channels. Matt originally planned to run the video and pixels from two separate media servers, with overall control from Jands Vista.
UK - St John's is a Romanesque chapel, located in the heart of the Tower of London. It was built between 1077 and 1097 of French stone imported by William the Conqueror and constitutes not only the best-preserved interior in the White Tower but also one of the finest examples of Anglo-Norman church architecture in England. Historic Royal Palaces had wished for some time to improve lighting provision in the chapel to achieve an improved experience for visitors and congregational acts of worship. Architects Carden & Godfrey, retained architects for Historic Royal Palaces at the Tower of London, recommended James Morse for the project. Morse specialises in the interior and exterior lighting of historic buildings and had recently worked with Carden and Godfrey at Rochester Cathedral. There was to be strictly no disturbance of the ancient fabric and with this in mind,
UK - Storyhouse in Chester is a new theatre, cinema and library, housed in a renovated art deco Odeon Cinema building. Located in the city centre, it is the biggest project of its kind outside of London. (A detailed report on the evolution of The Storyhouse features in the latest issue of LSi - plasa.me/lsidigital). The £37m renovation has seen the building revitalised and it now houses an 800-seat auditorium, a 200-seat studio theatre, a restaurant, two bars and a 100-seat boutique cinema. Leading production solution specialist White Light was contracted to supply all of the loose entertainment equipment, which included lighting, audio and video. Jonathan Haynes, WL’s business development manager and William Bray, business development support at WL, brought Doughty Engineering on board to supply a range of IWB boxes. Jonathan commented: "For the Storyh
World - Ed Sheeran is currently engaged on an extensive world tour, featuring an eye-catching production design by Mark Cunniffe with a networked grandMA2 system specified to control lighting and playback video. Cunniffe has worked with Sheeran and his technical team, led by production manager Chris Marsh since 2010. That was right at the start of the artist’s impressive career trajectory which started unobtrusively and steadily grew – keeping all the best cool and slightly underground elements - to the supersonic proportions it is today. For this tour, Cunniffe’s brief was to make the stage space really dynamic, so he created an elaborate video set and a highly versatile lighting rig which includes 142 moving lights and 17 LED strobes together with two MDG theOne stadium hazers and 10 Kilometres of DMX-controlled RGB LED tape which is lighting the set very effec
Germany - The Cameo ZENIT B60 battery-powered PAR spotlight is on its way. The first production run of the two models is already completely sold out. Boasting IP65 classification and W-DMX control, this spotlight is designed for demanding lighting tasks, both indoors and outdoors. The ZENIT B60 is available in black (CLZB60BLSD) and chrome (CLZB60CLSD) versions. This spotlight is equipped with high-quality components to provide safe operation, long life and the highest efficiency, says the company. When fully charged, the powerful lithium-ion battery from LG Chem delivers a reliable operating time of up to 24 hours in RGBW mode. In single colour mode, the run-time can be up to four whole days, i.e. 96 hours. An intelligent battery-management system protects against overcharging and deep discharging, ensuring long life. With a service life of 50,000 hours, four 15-watt
South Africa - The most recent RMB Starlight Classics concert, staged at the Vergelegen Wine Estate in Somerset West, Western Cape, South Africa was lit by Chris Bolton of Keystone Productions with a little help from some Robe moving lights. It was Chris's second year in the creative hot seat - working directly for organizers Jam Events. Last year he and Joshua Cutts of Visual Frontier produced a lighting co-design – and the two are now partners in their brand new visual design venture, Collective Works – however when Starlight came up this year, Josh had other commitments, so Chris added the lighting magic working with his assistant Jade Manicom. For the first time, the 2017 event was also recorded by MNET for broadcast a couple of weeks later, bringing a different dimension and set of parameters for lighting. The talented South African line-up includ
China - The Jiangsu Centre for the Performing Arts, located at the Olympic Sports Centre in Jiangsu Najing, is the largest modern theatre in China, second in size only to the National Grand Theatre located in Beijing. It was designated as a world-class exhibition of works of art, the international exchange of arts activities platform and a public education platform for the promotion of arts. Its Opera Hall is equipped with two grandMA2 full-size, two grandMA2 light and two grandMA2 fader wing whereas its concert hall relies on two grandMA2 ultra-light and two MA 2Port Node as well as two MA DMX Booster. Xu Zhi Yong, project manager for ACE – Advanced Communication Equipment Co Ltd., MA Lighting’s exclusive distributor in China, commented: “The choice for MA was an easy one. Not only is it a well-known brand in China, it has a great reputation to be extremely sta
Denmark - Holstebro Musikteatret in Denmark has invested in 24 new Robe LEDWash 600+’s which will be used throughout their facility, making the production lighting options more dynamic and flexible and saving valuable time during changeovers and technical time. The Musikteatret includes three main venues: a 1,200-seater main auditorium; the Black Box, a flexible space which can accommodate up to 1,700 people standing and is where the fixtures will primarily be deployed - and The Hall of Fame bar which is also used for concerts, comedy, dining and events. The venue is a truly multi-purpose concept, built in 2006 on the footprint of the old Holstebrohallen. The Black Box was added in 2008 expanding the capacity to stage more and a greater diversity of shows. The Black Box is also the home to its own Black Box Dance Company which produces several works annually and tour
UK - This year’s Glastonbury Festival was “the best yet” according to organiser Emily Eavis. A star-studded procession of artists from Radiohead, Ed Sheeran and the Foo Fighters to The Sleaford Mods, The XX and Katy Perry appeared on its stages. These superstars weren’t the only crowd pleasers at the five-day event, however, also attracting a lot of attention was the 20m high multi-coloured ribbon tower set against the brilliant light produced by 10 Maverick MK1 Hybrids from Chauvet Professional. Simon Marcus, MD at Enlightened Lighting specified the 10 powerful 440W moving lights to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the tower and the park area that surrounds it. In addition to creating an aerial lightshow, the Maverick fixtures fit harmoniously with the tower uplights, and add drama and presence to the structure. Installed in weather proof domes, the MK1s were
UK - The Association of Lighting Designers has announced the launch of the 2017 Michael Northen Awards. This year, following extensive research by the ALD’s student working group, a total of four awards will be presented under the Michael Northen Award scheme. The awards are open to current students – not limited to those on vocational theatre course – as well as affiliate members of the ALD. The awards are a celebration of imaginative and creative lighting and video design and represent a chance for young designers to showcase their talent, bringing their work to the attention of experienced lighting and video designers, as well to the wider reach of industry professionals. Awards are presented to those who demonstrate strong, imaginative and creative lighting or video designs. The winner of last year’s Award was Rory Beaton, who has since held the role of l
UK - Theatre lighting designer Andy Webb has specified an Avolites Tiger Touch II as the house-desk at The Griffin Centre, a new £3.3m performance venue at Cotswold educational establishment, Rendcomb College. Webb has been involved in the build as technical consultant since 2013, having worked alongside the college for over a decade, supporting the theatrical department and teaching A-Level lighting design. "It was great to be involved in the project from the ground up," says Webb. "I was able to work with the architects to solve any design problems from a technical perspective before they were even engineered into the building." The Griffin Centre will be utilised as a hybrid professional space for live events and as a training centre for the college's theatre students. "From the start of the process, Rendcomb College made it clear that the theatre was t
USA - Daryl Hall and John Oates kicked off their 2017 summer tour last month at the BOK Centre in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The whirlwind tour across America’s heartland includes 30 dates through July. The lighting design team of Matt Geasey and Jesper Luth specified 140 Solaris Mozart fixtures, as well as 600 IMS Mk2 RGBW lamps on 12 110-foot festoon strings, all provided to the tour by Morris of Nashville. “Daryl and John were looking to add a lighting effect that would bring the audience closer to them, thus creating a more intimate setting,” explains David Haskell, president of Morris. “To achieve this, we deployed strings of IMS colour-changing festoon lamps over the audience from downstage to front of house. With six IMS Mk2 Universe Drive controllers mounted in the downstage truss, the network is simple to operate and keeps our work areas tidy. We are happy to r
USA - Theatre audiences today are accustomed to seeing musicals where songs and dances are woven into a well-crafted dramatic storyline, but that was rarely the case prior to the 1943 Broadway debut of Oklahoma!. The Rogers and Hammerstein classic’s smashing success (it ran for an unprecedented 2,212 performances) marked the beginning of a new era, one that would ultimately see the songs and dances in a musical go from being mere entertainment numbers to vital parts of the unfolding narrative. Lighting designer Zach Blane did justice to this “Book Musical” tradition in a recently concluded, Igor Goldin directed, revival of Oklahoma! at the John W. Engeman Theatre. Drawing on a collection of Ovation, COLORdash and Rogue fixtures from Chauvet Professional, Blane conveyed key dramatic elements of the play in light, particularly during pivotal scenes, such as
UK - Tony Kushner’s multi-award-winning play, Angels in America has made a triumphant return to the National Theatre, marking 25 years since its UK debut. This technology-laden production of the two-part epic features innovative ways of working with ETC’s Eos family of lighting control desks. Dubbed "a gay fantasia on national themes" by Kushner, Angels in America concerns a group of interconnected New Yorkers in the mid-1980s, when the world was in the grip of the AIDs crisis and Ronald Reagan was in the White House. This new staging of the play is directed by Marianne Elliott, complemented by lighting design from Paule Constable and a set designed by Ian MacNeil, who takes advantage of the moving parts afforded by the National’s Lyttelton stage to blend reality and fantasy for the multi-faceted story. To transport the audience from New York, to Sa
USA - Visional Productions, the high-end visual engineering firm specializing in event design, has announced the addition of BlackTrax, the advanced real time tracking system, to its rental inventory. Based out of Atlanta and Denver but producing live experiences worldwide, Visional is now one of only three U.S. companies offering the system for rental and sale. BlackTrax has multiple production applications, including motion lighting, automated spotlights, projection mapping, and more. Using active IR beacons, the system is capable of tracking a performer, stage prop, scenery or screen in real time and in most atmospheric conditions. BlackTrax can integrate with other third-party systems such as lighting consoles, enabling moving lights to follow performers, or media servers such as d3, Avolites Ai, or Christie Pandoras Box, allowing projection content to follow moving per
Belgium - For almost 30 years, the municipality of Ingelmunster in the Belgian province of West Flanders has played host to the Labadoux festival. Now as much a part of the Belgian cultural fabric as the region’s chocolate and beer delights, the 'Music with Roots' festival blends a wide variety of folk and other genres, and serves as a key platform for both established and up and coming acts. For this year’s festival, organisers wanted to up the visual ante for headliners including The European Pink Floyd Show and Levellers. To this end, LD Vincent de Schinckel specified a number of Chauvet fixtures for the festival’s main stage, including 12 Chauvet Professional Maverick MK2 spots, 16 Maverick MK2 washes and 16 Chauvet DJ Intimidator 140SR hybrids. Wanting to give the impression of visual depth from the audience perspective on the main stage, De Schinkel positio
The Netherlands - Philips Lighting’s new lighting fixture, the Philips Vari-Lite VL6000 Beam, featured prominently in the lighting design from specialists Light-H-Art for the finals of The Voice Kids Holland, broadcast on RTL 4. Bas de Vries, lighting designer at Light-H-Art, had just two days of camera rehearsals to create distinctive looks for 18 different acts on the show, so needed a lighting rig that would give him a range of options. The Philips VL6000 Beam, introduced to the market earlier this year, drew his attention and Philips Entertainment Lighting worked with Dutch distributor FACE to provide Light-H-Art with the units for the show. De Vries employed six of the Philips VL6000 beams on the set, mounted on moving trusses arrayed above mid-stage. This allowed him to vary the visual framing of the performance, bringing the six wide beams into play to
Switzerland - Since investing in more 300 GLP X4 atoms at the end of last year, Swiss company Winkler Multi Media Events, has found that this small lamp from Karlsbad has developed into a serious and versatile contender. The wide application possibilities range from small to large events as well as popular TV shows. Back in February this year, lighting designer Matthias Kern from broadcast service provider tpc switzerland ag used multiples of the X4 atom in gigantic matrix displays at the Swiss ESC (European Song Contest) preliminary voting round. Further assignments followed, most recently the SRF show Ich schänke dir Lied (I’ll sing you a song) which is running for several weeks. The X4 atoms were used in different arrangements for this emotion-laden Saturday night TV show - as a large matrix between the theatre audience and in a circular truss struc
China - A range of Claypaky moving head fixtures created the responsive theatrical lighting for immersive Chinese theatre production Encore Dunhuang, a 'walk-in' theatre show that debuted at the first Silk Road Dunhuang International Cultural Expo. The event's theatrical lighting design was created by lighting designer Mr Wang Yugang, who specified the Claypaky Scenius Profile, Claypaky Alpha Profile 1200s and Claypaky Sharpy Wash 330s to meet the demands and the scale of the production. Mr Wang Yugang singled out the Scenius Profile for its superior colour rendering. "In the flying scenes, I chose to base the look around the Scenius Profile," says Mr Wang Yugang. "The colour reproduction on clothing and characters is extremely good, and the consistency of light is far more than the other brands of fixtures available." The 90-minute performance guided audi
UK - Depeche Mode’s career spans four decades and a reputation for musical originality has kept them relevant and at the cutting edge in delivering one visually and sonically inspiring performance after another. Blackburn lighting rental specialist HSL is the main lighting and video contractor worldwide for the current Spirit tour. They are partnering with CT to deliver the video package. The raw, stylish, industrial production design is by creative director Anton Corbijn, who has always pioneered video as an essential vehicle of live production. Lighting has been designed by Sooner Routhier and Robert Long of SRae Productions and is being directed on the road by their associate LD, Manny Conde. The Spirit tour is being production managed by Tony Gittins and plays a mix of stadiums and arenas. HSL’s project manager Jordan Hanson is working closely with CT’s
South Africa - As the Naledi Award winners of the night thanked their mothers, their fathers, their oumas (grandmothers) and life partners, as tears flowed, speeches were read and the audience cheered and rose to their feet, it was clear that the ceremony hosted at the Lyric Theatre in Johannesburg on 5 June 2017, held great substance to the victors of the night. With sponsorship and finances bleak, an act of kindness and financial support saw various local and international companies rallying alongside founders Dawn and Des Lindberg, to ensure the 13th Naledi Awards would take place. To top it off, Haccius Mokopakasi, who has been in the industry for 40 years and works in the Market Technical Department, received the Lifetime Achievement Award while Hlomohang Mothetho and Wesley France were the winners in the Best Lighting Design category. Many people are unaware that
UK - Nearly 50 of the multi award-winning Chroma-Q Color Force II 48 luminaires were a central feature of the Pyramid Stage lighting rig at this year's Glastonbury Festival, providing powerful coloured illumination and eye candy during both daytime and evening performances from high-profile artists including: Foo Fighters, Ed Sheeran, Katy Perry, Craig David, Chic, Barry Gibb, The National, First Aid Kit and many more. Mark Cunniffe, lighting designer for Sunday night headliner, Ed Sheeran was impressed by the output of the fixture, commenting: “Loved the Color Force IIs. They worked really well in a daylight application.” Kirk J Miller, lighting director for Katy Perry’s early evening, full daylight performance commented: “I’ve used the Chroma-Q Color Force IIs on a number of TV productions and I absolutely love them. They’re bright, well lensed, and put o
USA - After 12 years, 19 Number One singles and untold touring miles, AMC Entertainer of the Year Jason Aldean isn’t about to take his foot off the pedal. The dust had barely settled from his 2016 We Are Here tour back in January, when he announced plans for his current 33-city They Don’t Know road show. At the time, the country superstar promised that his new tour would be bigger, bolder and brasher than anything he’d ever done before. Rolling through a 90-minute, 22-song set of old and new hits, Aldean has sold-out crowds on their feet, with his animated stage presence and rip-roaring mix of hard-driving music. Supporting his performance and lending extra visual pop to the proceedings is a brawny and colourful Chris Lisle-designed lightshow, anchored by 118 Chauvet Professional Rogue RH1 Hybrid moving fixtures supplied by Bandit Lites. Lisle posit
