Lighting

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06 June 2025

USA - The 60th edition of the Academy of Country Music Awards saw a return to the Ford Centre at The Star in Frisco, Texas – hosted by country legend Reba McEntire for the 18th time.

Co-lighting designers Michael Berger and Travis Hagenbuch both have a long association with the event, starting out as interns many years ago. “It’s been a nice full-circle experience working with Travis in this capacity since he really took me in during that first year,” credits Berger.

This year a vast armoury of over 160 GLP fixtures illuminated artist performances (with a nod back to highlights of the last 60 years). Leading the charge were 73 JDC Lines (500s and 1000s), which edged the band risers, the award presentation stage and other areas.

The latest generation of the popular hybrid strobe – the JDC2 IP – also made a high-profile app

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06 June 2025

USA/Europe - Elation has announced the launch of its new OPS Series (Outdoor Permanent Specification), a durable, long-lasting solution for permanent outdoor installations.

The OPS series enhances some of Elation’s most popular IP65/66-rated lighting fixtures, providing a ruggedized version designed specifically for demanding environments such as theme parks, cruise ships and other marine environments, museums, experiential installations, and more. Built for long-lasting performance in harsh conditions, the OPS Series ensures consistent, reliable use in both indoor and outdoor settings.

The OPS Series incorporates more durable, robust materials, including corrosion-resistant components and protective finishes, to create a hardened version of the fixtures. With this rugged specification, Elation offers an even more reliable solution for projects on

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06 June 2025

The Netherlands – PPDS has announced the appointment of AV/IT specialist Marco van der Knaap as its new global product manager of Philips LED displays.

With a 25-year career dedicated almost exclusively to LED, Marco will support the team in navigating the marketplace, continuing to position the expanding Philips direct view LED displays range in line with PPDS’ global strategy and growth ambitions. He is based in Amsterdam and reports to Jeroen Brants, global product director for LED at PPDS.

Marco comments: “I am thrilled to join PPDS and to take on the responsibility of growing the Philips LED business. With Philips' strong brand presence and the support of an exceptional team, I see tremendous potential to deliver ever more innovative solutions that exceed customer expectations worldwide. PPDS shares an unparalleled commitment to bringing i

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05 June 2025

Australia - The new National Communication Museum (NCM) recently opened its doors in Melbourne, showcasing a series of dynamic displays with a system by Pharos Architectural Controls to connect audiences with the artefacts, stories and technologies that played a fundamental part in the history of communication.

The museum has been transformed by award-winning architects, Carr, from a 1930s telephone exchange building on the grounds of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people in Hawthorn, into an interactive exhibition with two floors of immersive displays.

The exhibition explores how technology shapes us, showcasing integral technologies from the past alongside the cutting-edge advancements that will connect us in the future. Offering hands-on experiences and nostalgic artefacts for all ages, NCM provides a fascinating and welcoming space to explore the lan

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04 June 2025

Switzerland - An array of Claypaky lighting fixtures, including Volero Cubes, Arolla Aqua LT, Arolla Aqua, Sharpy X Frames and HY B-EYE K25s, was chosen by lighting designer Tim Routledge to illuminate the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 (ESC) held at the St. Jakobshalle arena in Basel.

Participants from 37 countries competed with the contest viewed by an estimated 170m people worldwide.

No stranger to ESC, Routledge won a coveted BAFTA Television Craft Award last year for his work on the ESC 2023 telecast from Liverpool. He also won the Royal Television Society Award for Multi-Camera Lighting for that show. 

This year, the theme of ESC was Unity Shapes Love, with variably coloured miniatures of the Eurovision heart symbolising the unity of millions of people celebrating the contest.

Production designer Floria

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04 June 2025

USA - A very well-known figure in the entertainment lighting industry, Brad Schiller has joined GLP to lead the new Lighting Technology Engagement Team, based out of the company’s Americas headquarters in Los Angeles, California.

In a decades-spanning career, Schiller has been at the forefront of many lighting innovations that have made their way into the mainstream from his work with manufacturers, while also being the author of multiple industry articles and books, including The Automated Lighting Programmer’s Handbook and Living the Lighting Life. He has also been a featured speaker, most recently at the Showlight Quadrennial in Dijon, France.

Speaking of the new hire, GLP director Mark Ravenhill says: “I couldn’t be happier that Brad has decided to join GLP. He is an industry legend with a stature, reputation an

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03 June 2025

France - Showlight 2025 made a triumphant return in May, revived and rejuvenated after an eight-year break, visiting the historic city of Dijon - appropriately for Showlight, one of France’s centres of art and gastronomy.

Hailed as the largest and most international Showlight to date, Showlight 2025 marked a welcome, and long-overdue, chance to converge once again and dedicate three whole days to talking about light.

“I sensed an enormous feeling of joy and relief that Showlight was not just back, but had if anything moved on. I am sure it was the most international Showlight I have experienced!” Bernie Davis, papers committee and technical manager.

The event exhibited a greater international presence with participants coming from all over the world, not just Europe but as far afield as America, Brazil and Aus

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03 June 2025

Europe - MDG has announced the appointment of menzi ebz as its new, exclusive distributor for Switzerland and Liechtenstein. The appointment takes place with immediate effect.

menzi ebz is a company with a long pedigree, its origins stretching back to 1943 with the founding of Walter Eichenberger Theatre Lighting, and the creation in 1999 of MBelectronics by Marco Menzi, later to become Menzi Eventtechnik. The merger of these two companies in 2010 saw the advent of menzi ebz ag under the management of Marco Menzi and Andreas Stahl. Since 2024, menzi ebz ag has made the strategic step to focus exclusively on the sale of lighting, lighting control systems and rigging across the theatre, television event technology service provider and scenic architecture markets.

“This reorientation is a big step for the company and a good time to modernise,” says

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03 June 2025

Switzerland - The Eurovision Song Contest is now one of the biggest, brightest and most colourful live productions in the world, and the 2025 edition boasted the biggest rig in Eurovision history.

Ayrton fixtures played a key role in Tim Routledge’s spectacular and ever-changing, metamorphic design which included the complete range of Ayrton laser-phosphor sourced fixtures Mamba, Kyalami and Cobra, as well as Domino LT, Rivale Profile and Nando 502 Wash, all supplied by London-based Neg Earth Lights. “I had a lot of options to play with in this playground,” says Routledge. Just as well for the number of performances (nearly 50 including half time and opening performances) which happen in such quick succession.

The St. Jakobshalle Arena may have been smaller than traditional Eurovision Song Contest venues, but Routledge’s lig

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03 June 2025

USA - Lighting designer Nathan Brittain from Houston, Texas-based lighting rental specialist LD Systems oversaw a major lighting upgrade for the live concert element of this year’s Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo – AKA Rodeo Houston – which included adding over 150 Robe moving lights to the rig.

Staged at NRG Stadium, Nathan has also created production lighting for the concerts for several years, with LD Systems as the lighting vendor.

Every five years, a major technical upgrade takes place ensuring all the latest and best technologies are available for the benefit of all artists. Lighting is rigged on a bespoke TAIT-designed and built stage / roof structure, and this year Nathan and LD Systems made a major investment in Robe including the addition of 62 iForte, 70 x TetraXs and 16 x iBolts. It was the first time iBolts had b

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03 June 2025

USA - Immersive technology specialists, Quince Imaging, recently partnered with professional hockey team, the Anaheim Ducks, to install a permanent, projection-mapping solution at their Honda Centre home arena in Anaheim, California.

The installation aimed to enhance the Ducks’ fan experience through engaging, interactive visuals, especially during half-time breaks. At the centre of this project is Stage Precision’s SP software, which plays an integral part in Quince Imaging’s production workflow, allowing for precise tracking, calibration and real-time data integration. 

“We’ve worked on various types of tracking and motion systems over the years,” says Eric Gazzillo, vice-president of innovation at Quince Imaging. “Integrating SP by Stage Precision was a turning point. It’s faster, more intuitive, and allows us to automate complex

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03 June 2025

USA - The Obsidian Control Systems team will showcase the new NXW control wing at the InfoComm tradeshow in Orlando. System integrators and lighting control specialists are invited to visit Obsidian at Booth #7672 for a closer look at this new addition and much more.

The NXW is a sleek, portable, and full-featured PC control wing designed to deliver professional-grade Onyx operation via USB-C. Its responsive hardware surface brings the power of Onyx to any PC system, offering lighting operators the tools they need in a compact and intuitive form. From RGB-backlit motorized faders to customizable multi-function buttons, every detail is engineered for speed, precision, and creativity.

Obsidian offers a complete line of NX consoles, wings, and USB interfaces for professional lighting control. Visitors to InfoComm can get hands-on with Obsidian hardware

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02 June 2025

UK - PLASA Focus Leeds 2025 returned to the Royal Armouries on 13-14 May, drawing a vibrant cross-section of the live entertainment technology sector for two buzzing days of connection, innovation and learning.

This year’s show welcomed 2,852 professionals, an increase on the 2024 show. The quality of attendees continues to thrive, with 687 directors, owners, or chairs representing 16% of the audience. Significantly, when combining senior roles and those in sales, procurement and specification, nearly 40% of the professionals on site held final decision-making responsibility, underscoring the event’s commercial impact.

A broad spectrum of industry roles was represented, including sound and lighting engineers, technicians, production and tour managers, lighting designers, venue and operations staff, as well as consultants, buyers, lecturers, conte

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02 June 2025

UK - Adlib has been awarded the service and support contract for the Barbican’s theatrical lighting system infrastructure.

The Barbican Theatre and The Pit studio theatre are major venues in the Barbican Centre, the largest performing arts centre in Europe. The Barbican Theatre was purpose-built to host large-scale theatrical performances and has a 1,156-seat auditorium for drama and dance, while The Pit is a smaller scale, fully flexible, black-box studio space dedicated to experimental live performance.

The Barbican Theatre has one of the largest stages in London, equipped with a fly tower and advanced rigging for complex staging and scenery changes. It is renowned among professionals for its technical sophistication and infrastructure, making it suitable for bold and innovative productions.

The technical systems are integral to the opera

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02 June 2025

USA - Coachella has always been about stepping into transformative spaces. And over at the Yuma tent it’s clear what that magical zone is all about – an urban EDM nightclub.

Forget that you’re in the middle of a desert, step inside this tent and it’s easy to feel like you entered a hot club in Brooklyn, LA, or Tokyo’s Shibuya district. This effect isn’t due only to the power of the music either, it also springs forth from the space’s immersive club-like lighting design with its intense plays on darkness, brightness, and geometric patterns.

Designer, Steve Lieberman of SJ Lighting, who has been lighting the Yuma Tent for years, described the setting this way: “Yuma is not a typical festival design. The approach is more immersive and follows the philosophies of nightclub design. The tent is very long; and this year we added more bays to

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02 June 2025

The Netherlands - Muziekgieterij is a lively music hub in the southern Netherlands city of Maastricht with two live performance spaces that showcase a vibrant and varied artist lineup featuring all genres of music. Other music-related facilities at the site include a studio and rehearsal rooms.

The 1,100-capacity large hall and 420-person small hall are both now fully equipped with Robe moving lights, with packages specified by the chief lighting technician Mathieu (Mat) Huveneers and his team to deliver full flexibility and high production values for all performers. During the pandemic, regular livestreams were broadcast from the studio.

Muziekgieterij initially opened in 2007 and has been on its current former ‘Sphinx’ ceramic factory site on the outskirts of the city since 2013, with the large hall built from scratch in 2019. The venue now sta

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02 June 2025

UK - Mumford and Sons withdrew from their self-described “almost nonstop touring schedule” to channel a new more organic and personal wellspring of creative energy. Ultimately, this led the iconic band to record Rushmere, their first album since 2018.

"Because we're no longer as rushed as we used to be, the creativity of Rushmere comes from us carving out more space for our best artistic selves," Marcus Mumford told an interviewer after the album was released in March and instantly reached the top of the charts.

Mumford and Son’s longtime lighting designer, Ed Warren reflected this mood in his work for the band’s Tour Before The Tour, a limited run of shows at mid-sized venues before their 32-city North American arena-amphitheatre tour scheduled for this summer.

Like the band’s new creative outlook, Warren

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30 May 2025

UK - Follow-Me is inviting lighting industry professionals and venue owners to its inaugural open day at its new meeting and demo space at Underbelly Boulevard Soho. Scheduled for 17 June from 11:00 to 15:00, this special event will offer hands-on demonstrations of Follow-Me's performer tracking solutions, supported by SLX.

The open day takes place at Follow-Me's newly established demonstration facility within Underbelly Boulevard Soho, situated in London's bustling Soho district. This venue provides industry professionals with direct access to Follow-Me's remote follow-spot and performer tracking technology in a real-world environment.

Luke Edwards, designer relations liaison UK at Follow-Me, will lead the day's activities, offering personalised demonstrations, Q&A opportunities, and technical consultations. Visitors can explore Follow-Me's comp

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30 May 2025

USA - GLP fielded its largest ever deployment of fixtures at Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival for the recent 2025 event – including all its latest in-demand touring products.

The massive global event has been staged successfully across two weekends since 1999 at its Empire Polo Club location in the Californian desert, close to Palm Springs.

Various stages – including the main stage and Sahara tent, as well as the Yuma club tent – were awash with GLP fixtures specified by international LDs, adding extra floor package drama to the existing generic house rigs.

The industry was eager for a first look at the might of the super-powerful Mad Maxx – used by Dan Norman with rapper Travis Scott on the main Coachella Stage – while production designer Rob Sinclair gave a sneak preview of the JDC Burst 1 in a taste of what to

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30 May 2025

USA - Elation invites lighting professionals to Experience Tomorrow at Booth #7671 at InfoComm in Orlando.

Elation will showcase new product lines including the award-winning Paragon, Elation’s new flagship automated lighting series. With TruTone variable CRI technology, interchangeable lenses, a comprehensive FX package, and a weatherproof IP54 rating, Paragon combines multiple fixture roles in a single design, representing ‘a leap forward in intelligent lighting for entertainment’.

Also new is the first luminaire in a bolder breed of workhorse lighting, Rebel. The Rebel Profile is a powerful yet compact LED profile moving-head with IP65 rating designed for attention-grabbing visuals in both indoor and outdoor applications. The fixture delivers intense beams, sharp projections, and a comprehensive effects package for captivating mid-a

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30 May 2025

USA - The lighting design community is mourning the loss of Paul Marantz, co-founder of Fisher Marantz Stone, who has passed away. A lighting visionary, he helped to transform the perception of lighting design as a profession.

Alongside Jules Fisher, Marantz co-founded the company that would become Fisher Marantz Stone in 1971, creating a legacy of creativity and genius that continues to inspire to this day.

Paula Martinez-Nobles, president, Fisher Marantz Stone said: “We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of Paul Marantz. Paul and Jules founded the company that would become FMS in 1971, creating a legacy of creativity and genius that continues to brighten our lives and the world around us. Thank you, Paul, for your wit and wisdom. We honour your life and legacy.”

Initially working in theatre lighting, Marantz held a strong inter

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29 May 2025

UK - Teddy Swims’ record-breaking and sold out I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy tour headed across the UK and Europe with PRG providing video, automation and lighting, including their brand-new GroundControl Multi for the Followspot system.

Having amassed over 8.7bn streams globally, Teddy Swims has captured the hearts of music fans worldwide with his live show and chart-topping hits such Lose Control and The Door. For his 2025 UK and European leg of the I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy tour, the team once again chose PRG to provide lighting, automation and video, but this time upgrading to PRG’s latest followspot innovation – the GroundControl Multi.

The GroundControl Multi is the newest addition to PRG’s GroundControl Followspot family. This system can control up to 16 lights through a single Ground

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29 May 2025

The Netherlands - The 3,000-capacity Poppodium 013 concert hall was transformed into a nightclub when NachtCollege brought its all-night party to the Dutch city of Tilburg in mid-April. Technical production was led by the venue’s in-house team, headed by senior lighting designer Paul Cox.

To help deliver the immersive experience the event called for, 48 ADJ Vizi Beam CMY fixtures were dry-hired from local rental supplier Spectrum AV to supplement the venue’s house rig. Paul arranged the fixtures across four trusses – two on each side of the dance floor – running the length of the hall. The upper trusses were mounted near the ceiling with fixtures suspended downward, while the lower trusses hung directly below, with fixtures positioned upright. This layered setup allowed Paul to fill the air above the crowd with intricate, overlapping beam patterns th

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29 May 2025

Europe - Wireless LED lighting manufacturer Astera has launched QuikPunch, the latest in its innovative ‘Quik’ series, which started with the QuikSpot launched at the end of 2024.

QuikPunch delivers precise, high-quality light via its Fresnel lens, featuring a 13º – 60º zoom, with no stray light and 8,000 lux at 3m. It is optimised for fast set-up and practical operation and comes complete with a battery-driven PrepBox and ChargingPlate. It delivers Astera’s colour science, based on its high-colour-rendering RGBMA Titan LED Engine – but as it happens with QuikSpot, QuikPunch adds OutputGain for deeper colour saturates.

It does exactly what the name suggests, ‘punching’ high-quality light into the picture while consuming just 75W of power, producing an output equivalent to a 200W LED PAR for stage and event use. All this plus an impres