France - Every year around 4m visitors come to the Fête des Lumières in Lyon and every year this festival surpasses itself. It began in December, 1852 as a spontaneous, religious gesture: During the procession of Mary, the inhabitants of Lyons put candles on the window. In the meantime, Fête des Lumières has become France's largest art festival, attracting millions of visitors every year and offering 40 light installations spread all over the city. For four days, international light artists illuminate highly complex light projections on the historic buildings of Lyon. For four nights, the courtyard of the Hôtel de Ville becomes is made accessible to the public. People can cross the building from the Place de la Comedie to the Place des Terreaux. Walking becomes a contemplative experience of pure light, the laser sources are multiplied and compose a spectacular sce
UK - At the recent double premiere of the 2018 post-apocalyptic adventure films Mortal Engines and Aquaman in London’s Leicester Square, the red carpet was suitably soaked in a fittingly post-apocalyptic two-day torrential rainstorm. Fortunately, for movie fans who had turned up in droves to take selfies with stars like Hugo Weaving, Hera Hilmar and Robert Sheehan, the atmosphere on both nights was not dampened in the slightest, thanks in part to a large multimedia installation showing film snippets, custom created content and live action. IPS created the crowd-pleasing video screens with 106 PVP X6IP LED panels from Chauvet Professional. “The most complicated aspect of this particular project was that there were two different premieres on consecutive days,” explains Ian Brown, project coordinator at IPS. “Understandably, the designer and IPS
UK - Over the last three years, Anne-Marie's musical evolution has been nothing short of seismic: she has gone from playing to 300 people in a club, to 360,000 people over four days at Wembley Stadium alongside Ed Sheeran. Now, she is touring her debut album, Speak Your Mind, and both FOH and monitor engineers are working on DiGiCo SD12s, with the consoles supplied by Audiotech UK, which splits audio rental duties with Production North. Production values at an Anne-Marie show are clearly a far cry now to what they were just a couple of years ago. According to FOH engineer, Ben Dexter, it is down to hard work, raw talent, and determination. “I have been working with Anne-Marie since her first show back in 2015 in a 300-cap room; when you look at what she achieved this summer [with Ed Sheeran] at Wembley Stadium, you can see that production elements have been
UK - Johnny Marr, one of the UK's most prolific songwriters, producers, and collaborators has been on the road again, this time with his fourth solo studio album, Call the Comet. The former founding lead guitarist of The Smiths has forged a shining solo career since his debut album in 2013, bringing his latest UK journey to a stellar conclusion with a sold-out date at EartH (Evolutionary Arts Hackney), London, which boasts the first permanent installation of L-Acoustics' L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal Sound technology in a European live music venue. For Marr's FOH engineer, Russ Miller, this was his first date with L-ISA, and his post-show report was glowing: "I was blown away by it," he says. "The separation is unbelievable, without it feeling like it’s separate sources. At sound check our backline techs were amazed: we had people just walking around the venue listenin
Hong Kong - Clockenflap Music and Arts Festival, which takes place annually on Hong Kong’s Central Harbourfront Event Space, once again proved a major success. This year’s headliners included such names as David Byrne, Erykah Badu, Jarvis Cocker, Interpol, The Vaccines, Khalid and Wolf Alice, which delighted the crowds of more than 60,000. GLP’s X4 Bars were pressed into action by event management and production company, A-Team Plus (HK) Ltd, who had made their first investment in the German manufacturer’s LED fixtures. They had added eight impression X4 Bar 10 battens and 16 of the longer X4 Bar 20 - all of which were specified and deployed at Clockenflap. A-Team Plus has been the main stage supplier for a number of years. Although the stage structure this year was shipped in 15 containers from Megaforce in Germany all AV for the main stage was provided by A-T
UK - White Light is welcoming in 2019 by supplying a range of theatre shows in London’s West End as well as touring productions across the country. Over the course of 2018, WL supplied the lighting for a variety of hit shows including the critically-acclaimed Company, The Inheritance, Young Frankenstein, The Jungle, The Pinter Season, The King and I, True West and the Oscar Wilde season. The company also continued to supply long-running hits including Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Matilda, Aladdin, Tina The Musical, 42nd Street and Les Misérables. WL’s MD Bryan Raven comments: “We had a fantastic 2018 which was one of our busiest yet. As we progress into 2019, we have hit the ground running and are looking to repeat the success of last year. Our expert Customer Service teams continue to work with designers, both established and emergi
Lithuania - The Lithuanian agency Baltas Daznis put their trust in Goboservice to create a highly evocative scenario in collaboration with the Creative Dock agency. The municipal administration of Vilnius last year announced a competition reserved for innovative projects which aimed to embellish public zones of the city. 30 proposals were submitted, from which the Commission selected the top four. One of these is the Vilnius Illuminated Legend Park, based on an idea by Simonas Eismontas. At the Pasaku Park (the fairytale park), Divum projectors were used to revive 10 legendary figures in the national history of the Baltic country. The architectural projections were used to give new life to an urban-suburban area that risked degradation in a territorial marketing operation with a strong cultural value. This was a difficult test for the new architectural projectors
Columbia - Arbol Naranja (Orange Tree) is an event organiser and creative agency that more recently also became an equipment rental company called Circuito Naranja, initially to service their own shows and clients, then expanding into a proactive new division of the business. They are young, ambitious and passionate about their work which is primarily music orientated, and the new rental element has also become a bit of a disruptor on the lively Bogota event production scene. The rental side of the business is managed by Luis Burgos, also one of the owners and founders of Arbol Naranja, which kicked off in 2006. Their two main areas of business are complete event organization and equipment rental, and there are currently 70 full time staff working across two nearby sites in the Chapinero area of Bogota, servicing around 200 events a year of different sizes and complexi
Germany - The Brandenburg Gate has seen New Year’s Eve come and go over 225 times, but the historic structure has never shined quite like it did this 31 December. An estimated one million NYE revellers gathered along a two-kilometer route that culminated at the landmark for New Year's Eve in Berlin. There, in the shadow of the famous gate, international stars like DJ Bobo, Alice Merton, Bonnie Tyler and the Village People appeared on the Genesis Stage. Providing visual support for their performances was a dazzling lightshow that featured Chauvet Professional ÉPIX Strip IP fixtures deployed by TCL Event AG. Designed by Denny Arndt of 666 Veranstaltungstechnik and Helge Rabethge of TCL Event AG, the lightshow used 160 of the 1-meter ÉPIX LED strips. With over 50 different acts from a wide variety of genres taking to the stage, the designers’ main challenge was to underli
UK - Stage Electrics has announced it has won a £2m contract for the supply and installation of specialist production lighting and audio-visual infrastructure for Riverside Studios, Hammersmith. The broadcast, arts and entertainment venue closed in 2014 for demolition and redevelopment and is scheduled to fully reopen its doors again in 2019. The new 90,000 sq. ft. Riverside Studios will comprise three studios, small, medium and large, as well as public and community spaces including a two-screen cinema, rehearsal space and a number of restaurants and bars. The design of the medium studio is particularly flexible allowing for the easy alternation between theatre, music, events and television. During the consultancy phase of the project, Stage Electrics advised on the supporting infrastructure to allow it to function as a multipurpose space. The smaller studio is int
USA - Named after local businessman and philanthropist Jerry Scheidegger, the J. Scheidegger Centre for the Arts on the campus of St. Charles, Missouri’s Lindenwood University, is a $32m educational and performing arts complex. The 138,000sq.ft facility’s main theatre, the 1,200-seat Lindenwood Theatre, can be a challenging acoustical space, with its high interior and ceiling weight load restrictions. The school’s ambitious theatre programme also adds its own specialised requirements. An L-Acoustics Kara sound system recently installed there by St Louis-based Logic Systems addresses both the acoustic and artistic requirements with ease. According to Logic Systems president Chip Self, the Kara system was both the venue’s choice as well as his recommendation. “We have a long-time relationship with the school as their rental systems vendor, so we’ve been able
UK - Lighting and visuals rental specialist HSL supplied lighting equipment to 32 Qdos pantomime productions across the UK for their 2018-19 season, together with a full rigging – truss and motors package – plus Kinesys automation for Cinderella at Glasgow’s SEC. Lighting the colourful fantasy environments that characterise this genre of comedic melodrama is huge fun for lighting designers, and this year HSL worked with 17 LDs and liaised with 25 production LX’s who made it happen on the various sites which included Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh and London. HSL’s 2018 panto team was led by Jordan Hanson, assisted by Emma Turner, and included account handlers Sean McGlone and Mark Shakeshaft, all well-known for their multi-tasking and number-crunching abilities. Jordan comments: “Fluid communication, having a cool head for logistics and being orga
USA - Covenant Presbyterian Church in Monroe, Louisiana had a welcome problem: its congregation had outgrown the 175-seat sanctuary that had served as its home for over 60 years years. The church is philosophically opposed to holding multiple services every weekend because that solution would sever many of the community connections that come with a single service attended by the entire congregation. Overflow into the Fellowship Hall served as a stopgap measure, but it would not engender the right kinds of connections and togetherness in the long run. Thus, Covenant’s new 400-seat sanctuary solves its most pressing problem, but the new sanctuary’s generous reverb created another potential problem: intelligibility. The AV integration division of Matt’s Music, also of Monroe, solved that potential problem by using Danley Sound Labs loudspeakers. “Covenant wa
UAE – For over 10 years, an ETC Eos Classic has been used to light the broadcast studio of leading TV news channel Al Arabiya, 24 hours a day, seven days a week live on air without any technical faults. Al Arabiya is the chief news station in the Middle East, based in Dubai. ETC dealer, Oasis Enterprises has been in partnership with Al Arabiya since 2008, supplying and installing technical equipment to the TV channel. The news studio commented positively on the relationship with Oasis Enterprises, remarking that their “reliability and support’ influenced the decision to choose ETC for their broadcast studio”. “They offer us a great service and are always available whenever we need them,” comments the head of news resources, Mahmoud Issa. This year, Al Arabiya was upgraded to ETC’s flagship lighting control desk Eos Ti, bringing the latest technology and m
UK - Beautiful beaches, tasty Caipirinhas and soulful music: probably enough reasons to justify why over 2m people travel to the Rio de Janeiro carnival in Brazil each year. When the team at Vivid Experience decided upon this exotic South American festival atmosphere as the theme for the Athena Christmas party in the cold East Midlands region of the UK, they knew that recreating this warm-weather carnival atmosphere was not going to be a simple task. Responding to this challenge, production manager Jake Moore and production engineer Chris T-Smith devised an ingenious plan to support Vivid’s creative concept of a carnival-like atmosphere at the Athena event, complete with a makeshift street filled with various pop-up bars, Brazilian artefacts and Samba dancers on stage. Contributing to this immersive environment were colourful lighting displays from 12 Chauvet Profess
South Korea - Seoul Dragon City is Seoul features upscale accommodations, fine dining and world-class entertainment. The hotel complex wanted its luxurious facilities to benefit from a new lighting solution suitable for a wide range of upscale events. To achieve this, Seoul Dragon City hired lighting specialists Hansam System, who deployed a comprehensive Martin lighting solution comprised of RUSH MH 5 Profile, RUSH MH 6 Wash, RUSH PAR 2 CT Zoom, RUSH PAR 2 RBGW Zoom, MAC Aura XB, MAC Quantum Profile, MAC Quantum Wash and MAC Axiom Hybrid fixtures. “Seoul Dragon City wanted to build their facilities with cutting-edge LED fixtures to create more versatile and dynamic lighting effects,” says Sun-Gyun Kim, sales manager at Hansam System. “The biggest challenge was protecting the Mac Axiom Hybrid and Quantum Wash fixtures on the Sky Beach’s rooftop lounge from exte
USA - Over the past year, Emmy Award-winning designer Oscar Dominguez added significantly to the selection of Solaris fixtures used on his many projects, including NBC’s The Voice, and World of Dance. Recently, up to 124 Solaris Flare Rayzrs were added to the main stage of The Voice, for featured artists’ guest spots, as well as for contestants’ live, final rounds performances. Oscar also used up to almost 1,000 Solaris Mozart fixtures in unique, innovative ways on various sets. “I’ve been a Flare fan for years, both the original Flares, and then the LR,” says Oscar. “Now, the new Rayzr ‘blade of light,’ which has all the Flare features, benefits and brightness in a super-thin linear form factor, has given us a radically different design element. It’s a terrific tool for creating unique light patterns and shapes. For some sets, I tact
Russia - Allen & Heath’s dLive series recently supported one of Russia’s biggest pop star’s, Leonid Agutin, during his recent 50-year jubilee show held at the Olympic Stadium in Moscow. The show also featured performances from many famous Russian artists, as well as special guests such as the Jazz-trumpet player, Arturo Sandoval and guitarist, Al Di Meola. dLive was used for FOH, monitors and the TV broadcast mix, with a total of five surfaces and four MixRacks employed throughout the production. At the FOH position, an S7000 was utilised as the main control surface in conjunction with an S3000. The S3000 was used as a dedicated FOH surface for the guest artists’ engineers, as well as offering additional control over the FOH mix for the higher channel count performances. Monitors were controlled by two C2500 surfaces that were located on either side o
Belgium - The massive art deco building bordering the Ixelles Ponds at the edge of Place Flagey Square has been at the heart of Belgium’s rich musical and cultural history since it opened in the 1930s. Originally called Maison de la Radio, but now known simply as the Flagey, the building provided a suitable setting for the 2018 edition of the Red Bull Elektropedia Awards, an all-Belgium annual event honouring rising stars and outstanding achievements in the country’s burgeoning music scene. Thomas Boets created a lighting design for the popular event that paid homage to its 2018 venue, while still reflecting the contemporary artistry of its honourees. Helping him in this endeavour were 380 pixel-mapped ÉPIX Strip IP fixtures from Chauvet Professional, supplied by L&L Stage Service. “The Flagey is iconic, and our show took place in the building’s Stu
UK - It’s panto time again in the UK with the slapstick, craziness and innuendos flying as fast as a foam pie in the face. At Blackpool Grand this year, putting both beauty and some beast attitude into the show, lighting designer Andy Webb specified 81 x Robe fixtures - 98 per cent of them LED sources - for a brand-new version of the classic tale produced by UK Productions for the 2018-19 season. It’s the fourth consecutive year that Andy has lit the famous UK seaside resort’s panto, which was directed by Damian Sandys with whom he also worked on the 2017-18 production. This was a huge advantage to the fluidity and creative flow of this year’s show, together with knowing the venue, a beautiful original Matcham house that is notoriously tight for space when installing the complex modern productions of the 21st century. Andy chose Robe as his main lighting
UK - St Mary’s Church in Standon, Hertfordshire is a Grade I listed building. Bequeathed to the Knights of St John in the 12th century, this processional church has experienced many architectural embellishments over the years, all of which have served to add to its character as a significant link to a rich historical past. In continuous use for hundreds of years, St Mary’s remains a community hub where alongside congregational worship, it’s used for concerts, recitals and events, attracting local audiences as well as visitors from further afield. The church is supported by an independent charity, which works to preserve and restore the ancient building, as well as by a host of local volunteers who keep its extensive churchyard in good order. In recent times, the church authorities had concluded that significant improvements were required to its internal facilitie
UK - JM Barrie’s famous tale of Peter Pan was presented on ice at Hyde Park, with capacity audiences wowed by the spectacular Imperial Ice Stars’ skating. Flying stunts, special effects, a giant Led backscreen providing animated scenery, dazzling costumes, fire-on-ice and original music and songs combined to make this narrated Peter Pan on Ice a thrilling family show. SLX supplied the truss and lighting inside a marquee supplied by Peppers Marquees, with production management, sound and rigging support from Southby Productions. Olivia Disandolo, one of Lunchbox Theatrical Productions event managers, comments: “This was our third year on ice at Hyde Park for Christmas and we have a tried and trusted team behind the scenes, which SLX is a key part of. We opened 21 November and ran to 6 January (with the exception of Christmas Day), with three to five shows schedul
Europe - For Josh Groban, two months hard touring through North America last autumn was followed by a whirlwind sprint through some scattered corners of Europe. With Christmas Day already in sight, Groban played arenas in London and Manchester in the UK, Dublin in Ireland, and Krakow, Poland, all in the space of seven days. Groban’s operatic voice takes centre stage, the main reason why production manager Zito focused his attention on sound. “I have to admit, going into this project the biggest concern I had was audio. The audio needs are very demanding.” Demanding they might be, yet with Groban an established Clair Global client, Zito had reason to be assured. “Marlow ‘Mikey’ Beck is Josh’s mix engineer and prefers an L-Acoustic system,” says Zito. “The K2 and Kara combination proved a good choice.” Zito belongs to that exclusive group of production mana
Italy - Just for the 2018 Christmas holidays, the Vatican City set up a highly original nativity scene in St Peter's Square, with a distinctive fundamental feature: it was made of sand. The nativity scene was donated by the Municipality of Jesolo, which has celebrated Christmas for the past 17 years with Jesolo Sand Nativity, an exhibition of nativity scenes made from sand by artists from all over the world. So, when a large box of compressed sand was placed in the middle of one of the most famous square in the world at the end of November, everyone knew that St. Peter would be playing host to an extra guest this year. The work was created by a team of artists, who gradually shaped the block of sand to create a true three-dimensional sculpture. The nativity scene is housed in an aluminium casing with power-driven curtains that protect the sculpture from the elements.<
