Lighting

Clay Paky fixtures light Nocturnal Wonderland

Details: 14 December 2016

USA - Once again Nocturnal Wonderland owned the night when North America's longest-running dance music festival marked its 21st anniversary in September.

The festival is presented by Insomniac and Pasquale Rotella. Lighting designer Stephen Lieberman of SJ Lighting, Inc. in Westlake Village, California deployed Clay Paky Mythos and Sharpy fixtures on a number of Nocturnal Wonderland's stages.

Nocturnal Wonderland was held for three days at the San Manuel Amphitheatre in San Bernardino, California. "Each stage had its own style dictated by multiple factors such as musical genre, site location, structure and the artists' riders," says Lieberman.

"It was critical that each environment had its own unique set up. We needed to make sure that the stage was lit, the artists were lit and we had proper coverage while, at the same time, giving the stage a personality. Additionall

Morejazz gets more looks with Rogues

Details: 14 December 2016

Mozambique - "Jazz music is the power of now," Wynton Marsalis once observed. If that is the case, then Maputo is flourishing in the moment. A bustling city of gleaming new high-rises, Mediterranean-style villas and wide boulevards lined with jacaranda and flame trees, the Mozambique capital teems with the sound of jazz from its lively club scene and internationally acclaimed festivals.

Included in the latter group is the Maputo Morejazz Series Festival, a two-day event, now in its sixth year, which has in previous years featured music from Grammy winners like Beninese-born superstar Angélique Kidjo, Cameroonian Manu Dibango and other leading African artists. This year, Morejazz featured Cuba's Omar Sosa, South Africa's Judith Sephuma, Mozambique's Moreira Chonguica and Italy's Susana Stivali, as well as student musician stars of tomorrow.

Supporting this diverse mi

Kinesys helps shape Placebo tour

Details: 14 December 2016

UK - Kinesys automation is central to show designer Jvan Morandi's visual concept for the current Placebo Retrospective tour, which features some of the musical highlights and moments from 20 years on the indie rock frontline for the band, known for their intelligent visceral, raw and creative approach to live performance.

Ten Kinesys Elevation 1+ vari-speed drive units, used with 10 x half tonne Liftket motors and Kinesys Vector control are being used to move five I-shaped trussing pods rigged in the roof above the stage.

The system is a new investment in automation by lighting and video contractors Colour Sound Experiment, which made several purchases for this lengthy arena tour to ensure that Jvan has exactly the right elements for the tour.

Colour Sound's Haydn Cruickshank comments, "We have sub-rented Kinesys systems as needed for some time now, so we know the kit

HSL plays the game on the Dan TDM UK tour

Details: 14 December 2016

UK - HSL enjoyed the thrills and hi-energy exhilaration of supplying lighting and rigging for the Endemol produced DanTDM UK tour, for a lighting design crafted by Sam Wright. Sean McGlone and John Slevin project managed for the Blackburn UK based company, with technicals on the road co-ordinated by production manager, Jason Culverwell.

DanTDM is a professional gamer and You Tube star with around 13m subscribers enjoying his TheDiamondMinecart, making it a top UK You Tube channel which has so far received a staggering 8.4 billion views. Needleless to say, the tour which ran from June to November sold out everywhere it visited.

The producers commissioned award winning theatre, film and TV director Ben Woolf to develop a live show which could tour, putting DanTDM in front of thousands of fans, interacting, and entertaining them with a series of special games.

His core au

Utopium illuminates Jake Bugg tour

Details: 14 December 2016

UK - Utopium built and supplied a custom floor package and flown fixtures to illuminate Jake Bugg's UK and European tour, November 2016.

Following the release of his third album, On My One, Jake Bugg embarked on a promotional tour which saw him visit a host of different venues throughout the UK and Europe, including Manchester's O2 Apollo, London's O2 Academy Brixton and The Great Hall at Cardiff University Student's Union.

Utopium was entrusted to build and supply a custom floor package which included Martin MAC Quantum Profiles, new Martin MAC Aura XB washes to offer additional brightness and tighter beams, Martin Atomic 3K strobes, Thomas 4 Lite Molefays, SGM P-5 LED Floods, Antari HZ500 hazers, Antari AF-3 Fans, 8ft Black Truss Towers and a Road Hog 4 Control Desk.

The team also supplied a flown package which incorporated Martin MAC Aura XB washes, 40ft Trus

Reebok relaunch pumped up with Chauvet

Details: 14 December 2016

USA - Paul Litchfield is no Thomas Edison, but the Massachusetts resident will go down in history as a great inventor, at least as far as the athletic shoe industry is concerned. In 1989, Litchfield created the Reebok PUMP!, an inflatable running shoe that redefined footwear aesthetics, was embraced by athletes from virtually every sport, and became one of the most prominent urban fashion icons of the '90s.

Now, some quarter of a century later, Reebok is relaunching the legendary running shoe with glitzy events, such as the one that took place in October at an Insta Fury Pop Up Shop space in Midtown Manhattan. The event featured an appearance by rap powerhouse and Reebok endorsee Future, portraits by world renowned sneaker artist Steph Morris from the UK, and a massive collection of new PUMP! shoes.

Accenting the proceedings with vivid colors, sharp beams and crisp gobos w

CAST delivers for the first Kaaboo festival

Details: 14 December 2016

USA - CAST wysiwyg was a guest star at the recent Kaaboo festival held at the historic Del Mar Racetrack and Fairgrounds, just north of San Diego on the Southern California coast.

Kaaboo is a new concept, describing itself as a "mix-perience" that blends headline music acts, top comedians, and a world-class food selection from celebrity chefs, with the underlying benefit of the three-day event being its reprieve from the porta-potties, muddy grounds and confused millennials. The event appeals to the more mature, more affluent festivalgoer willing to pay a little extra for atypical festival VIP amenities.

Chris Lisle of Chris Lisle Lighting Design of Nashville, Tennessee was lighting designer for the main Sunset Cliffs stage, hosting headline acts including Jimmy Buffett, Aerosmith, Fall Out Boy, Lenny Kravitz, Flo Rida and Collective Soul to name just a few. In all, almost

Gibonni & Oliver join Robe family

Details: 14 December 2016

Europe -Leading Croatian artists Gibonni & Oliver are on an extensive European tour campaign supporting their collaborative new album Familija (Family) with a brand new lighting design by Gibonni's long term LD Sven Ku?ni? based around 88 x Robe moving lights - a combination of Pointes, MMX Spots and MMX WashBeams.

Sven's design is adaptable to be able to fit into the wide variety of different venue sizes on the itinerary. He was given a 'blank canvas' by the artists, both of whom he knowns well. Gibonni and he are in tune when it comes to ideas about presenting his music live, and he trusts Sven implicitly to imagine and deliver all the visual aspects which include video.

Sven has been a keen Robe user for some years. One of his philosophies is that "darkness is the best lighting effect available" so on this one, video screens are used in moderation so they augment

Chefs Who Share - The Art of Giving Back

Details: 14 December 2016

South Africa - Over R2m was raised in aid of youth development at the fourth annual Chefs Who Share - the Art of Giving Back. Since its inception, CCPP Group have supplied the full technical for the black-tie gala event which is usually hosted in the Cape Town, but this year was brought to the Johannesburg City Hall. The set was designed by cNic and built by Dream Sets.

This annual charity event saw top international chefs arrive in Johannesburg to cook alongside South Africa's finest talent, ending the experience at a fundraising gala dinner. "The client is very particular," commented Clint Cawood, who established CCPP in George in 2006. "While they never give us free rein, they provide detailed guidelines which at the end of the day is great for everyone."

Clint invested in a DiGiCo S21 prior to the event. On the lighting side, Lans Pepler from CCPP programmed on a grand

Yamaha and Nexo go to the ball

Details: 14 December 2016

UK - As a production supplier for prestigious clients at equally prestigious London venues, Production Plus cannot afford to take any chances with equipment. One of the most recent events supported by the company was the annual charity ball for the DM Thomas Foundation at the London Hilton on Park Lane, where Yamaha and Nexo once again proved their worth.

Dedicated to helping disadvantaged and vulnerable young people transform their lives, the DM Thomas Foundation's annual ball is a chance for the charity to highlight it's work to an audience of invited guests, while also giving them an enjoyable evening of entertainment.

Letchworth-based Production Plus has been using Nexo loudspeakers for over 15 years and brought Yamaha digital mixers into the company's portfolio nine years ago.

"We don't want a lot of different brands in our rental inventory. We want equipment that

Hawthorn walking on air with The Snowman

Details: 14 December 2016

UK - Birmingham Repertory Theatre's production of The Snowman is playing to packed houses at the Peacock Theatre this Christmas, with Hawthorn supplying lighting equipment for the production.

Working closely with Andy Fidgeon, head of lighting at Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Hawthorn has drawn from its extensive range of hire stock to supply lighting equipment to specification.

Wanting to upgrade this year's rig to feature more efficient and reliable fixtures whilst also still maintaining the look of the show, Hawthorn replaced the older Vari*Lite VL1000's units previously used with a mixture of Martin MAC Viper Performances & Wash DX fixtures. A selection of MAC 700 profiles also formed part of this season's rig.

"This year we wanted to upgrade and enhance the lighting of the production," says Fidgeon, who has been associated with the show for 20 years. "Using

White Light elected to light This House

Details: 14 December 2016

UK - Set between the fateful years of 1974 and 1979, which saw huge economic crisis and a hung parliament, This House takes place in the engine rooms of Westminster, where fist fights took place and votes were won or lost by one. Following a brief run at the Chichester Minerva Theatre in October, the show has now arrived in the West End, playing at the Garrick Theatre, London. White Light has been called upon to provide the lighting equipment.

This House is written by James Graham and was initially staged at the National's Cottesloe Theatre (now the Dorfman) back in 2012. After lighting the original production, Paule Constable is once again designing the West End revival. She comments, "This House is a brilliant show and I am delighted to be working on it once again.

"What's great is that I've reunited with director Jeremy Herrin and designer Rae Smith who bo

Il Volo 2016 world tour with Claypaky

Details: 14 December 2016

Italy - Following the extraordinary success of their summer tour, and after winning the 65th edition of the Sanremo Music Festival and representing Italy in the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest, Il Volo have given a long series of performances in Italy and abroad this year. Show designer Francesco De Cave, who was called upon by the production team to create a new show image, used Claypaky lights to illuminate the young tenors' world tour dates.

Piero Barone, Ignazio Boschetto and Gianluca Ginoble, just back from the success and excitement of their long Il Volo World Tour 2016, are now top stars of traditional Italian and international music, which they play with style and modern arrangements.

Francesco De Cave helped create new exciting atmospheres through a show lighting design he set up using a set of conventional lights, Claypaky moving lights, and some other special effec

Frank Schotman joins Elation's European team

Details: 14 December 2016

Europe - Elation Professional has announced that lighting industry veteran Frank Schotman (better known as The Tank) has joined the company's European sales team as a technical sales representative and product specialist.

The Tank is a well-known face in the lighting industry with over 25 years of experience under his belt. He comes to Elation from a position as senior product specialist at the AED Group, where he supported High End Systems Inc.'s HOG4 family, including their full range of fixtures. He also worked for Eclipse Staging Services in Dubai as Head of Lighting and is a specialist in a wide range of automated fixtures.

Frank also brings with him a wealth of front line experience from major tours and productions of all types. Highlights include support for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, as well as support work on tours by Prodigy, Eric Clapton, Faithless, Iron

Jim James tour features Solaris Mozarts

Details: 14 December 2016

USA - My Morning Jacket (MMJ) founder and frontman Jim James embarked on a solo tour this fall, opening on the West Coast and closing 18 December at Iron City, Birmingham, Alabama. Veteran MMJ designer Marc Janowitz conceived a "forest" of 57 Solaris Mozarts as a main design feature for the tour.

"The Mozarts are used as stand-alone fixtures," explains Janowitz, "each one mounted at the end of goosenecks, LP claws, mic stand boom arms, and other lightweight audio accessories. I designed them to look as if they were growing out the ends of these 'branches'. There are sets of these trees downstage, mid-stage and upstage, creating a three-dimensional forest of lights for Jim and his band. Mozarts are super bright, but not in a way that it hurts to look at them, and although they're promoted as RGB their mixed white is excellent."

Space optimization is always a major considera

Iluminarc lights Heidi The Ride

Details: 14 December 2016

Belgium - The name Heidi may conjure up images of a sweet young heroine in a Swiss children's tale, but for thrill seekers in Benelux it is also coming to stand for an exciting rollercoaster ride. Towering above the heart of the Plopsaland De Panne theme park in Belgium, Heidi The Ride, is a new 22m high wooden rollercoaster that accelerates to dizzying speeds.

Named after the highly successful Heidi TV show produced by amusement park owners Studio 100, Heidi's commanding position at the end of the park can now be appreciated by both park visitors and passers-by at all times of the day, thanks to an impressive lighting design utilizing fixtures from Chauvet Professional's Iluminarc division.

Luc Peumans and his team at creative design studio Painting With Light was brought on board to give Heidi an exciting night-time visual aesthetic to match the breath-taking experie

Free State church pays it forward

Details: 14 December 2016

South Africa - A severe drought and water shortage left Kroonstad, situated in the Free State, in dire straits earlier this year. In fact, there has been little improvement since. In the midst of this crisis, Kroonstad Cell Church were moving into a new church building which they had worked on for a couple of years, when Johannesburg based Maranatha Community Church decided to pay it forward and donate some of their existing lighting system to them.

"Kroonstad Cell Church is a dynamic local church with sound leadership," said Pastor Kobus from Maranatha Community Church. "We believe that if you touch a church you touch a community and so we wanted to give them a kick-start in getting on their feet in the new building."

Maranatha Community Church decided to upgrade their own auditorium with Longman Phoenix Bars and then to donate their existing Robe LEDForce 18s and a l

Blink-182 not bored with Robe

Details: 14 December 2016

USA - Rock band Blink-182 - known for their raw, adrenalized, hi-energy performances - are back on the road and blasted straight back up to the top of the charts in both the US and UK with their new studio album California and single Bored to Death!.

An extensive tour - currently in the US is re-igniting the enthusiasm, passion and commitment of their loyal fanbase who have rocked up to show their continued appreciation and enjoyed intense performances with an eye-popping production design to match created by Dominic Smith from Neon Black.

Dominic - who is based internationally in the US and the UK - started working with the band in April and Neon Black delivered the full production design for the tour - lighting, video and set. The lighting rig includes 40 x BMFL Blades which are being supplied by VER.

It's the first time Dominic has toured with

Martin Professional's Positive Expectations

Details: 14 March 2016

At the Martin Group's Annual General Meeting in mid September, the Board of Directors announced expectations for both a positive turnover and profit for the current financial year. The Board also suggested changing the financial year to follow the calendar year with May 1st - December 31st 1999 as a transitional period. This eight month transitional period is expected to show a turnover of approximately $60 million compared to $47 million for the same period last year, with a pre-tax profit around $3.5 million compared to a loss of $3.7 million last year. The result for the period also allows for a $430,000 expense related to the pending lawsuit with Vari-Lite in the US.

Shead Wins World Light Jockey Championship

Details: 14 March 2016

UK champion Chris Shead has won the final of the World Light Jockey Contest - sponsored by Clay Paky and Pulsar - which was staged at the Hippodrome in London during the recent PLASA Show. Runners-up were French champion Benjamin Prot and Dutch champion Amir Barbel.

LTG Win Biggest Ever Stage Lighting Order

Details: 14 March 2016

Earlier this year, Lighting Technology Group won the tender to supply London's re-built Royal Opera House with its main stage lighting equipment. The order, consisting of some 1,700 pieces of equipment, with a value in excess of £470,000, covers equipment from a wide range of manufacturers including Strand Lighting, Robert Juliat, ETC, James Thomas, CCT Lighting, ADB, Rainbow, Smoke Factory, Doughty, Rope Assemblies, SES and lamps from all the major. The order is one of the biggest single orders ever received by LTG for luminaires and associated equipment and probably the biggest single order of its kind ever placed within the UK.

Stage Electrics

Details: 14 March 2016

Stage Electrics has just become the largest stockist of Martin Professional lighting equipment for hire within the UK. The £17m turnover company, with branches in Bristol, Birmingham, Exeter and Plymouth, has just completed a purchase from Martin UK that swells its stock of MAC 600, 500, 300 and 250 moving heads to an impressive 500 units.

Lakin Acquires Vari-Lite Middle East

Details: 14 March 2016

Stephen Lakin, chairman of newly formed Production Technology, has acquired Vari-Lite Production Services, Dubai. The acquistion of Vari-Lite's entire Dubai operation gives Lakin access to the largest array of automated lighting in the region. He confirmed that this was the first in a series of regional acquisitions and stated an intended policy of expansion into full service facilities.Industry veterans James Rock, Adrian Bell and Nick Chapman head up Lakin's new management team.

LT Projects Awarded Dimming Contract for Dome

Details: 14 March 2016

ETC dealer LT projects has been awarded the major dimming contract for the Millennium Dome. In what is believed to be the largest single installation of the system in Europe, LT projects is installing 3,000 channels of high density ETC Sensor dimmers.

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