Norway - The band, Postgirobygget (named after Norway’s main post office in Oslo), which began life in 1994 under the name The Pissed Off Sons, gained traction with their debut album Melis, which sold nearly 200,000 copies and spent a total of 70 weeks in the VG Chart. Since then, they have embarked on an annual summer tour, performing at festivals and venues in front of audiences ranging from 2000 to 18,000 people.
Postgirobygget’s 28-date summer 2023 tour began in May and will continue through until September, with set and lighting design by Petter Nilssen of LiteNordic, MDG’s distributor for Norway. Nilssen chose a single MDG Me2 fog generator as his source of fog and haze for the duration of the tour, complete with MDG’s digital theFAN, both of which were neatly and conveniently housed with fluid and gas bottles in an MDG Vertical Flight Case as an instan

Turkey - The focus of many legends and sagas, Istanbul’s Maiden’s Tower is the most important building for the city’s inhabitants, with a long history stretching back beyond 1423 when it first received its name.
During its complete renovation, the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism commissioned contractors ASTEL to conduct an international competition for a light show that should highlight the Tower, be widely seen around Istanbul and run fully-automated every night.
The contract was won by Martin Kuhn of MKLD Lighting Design & Consulting of Berlin, who conceived the idea of telling the Tower’s story using light to accompany the narrative in the manner of a theatre piece or performance.
Kuhn commissioned a seven-minute script from respected Turkish writer, Ayşe Kulin, had it translated it into English and Arabic, found professional speakers for

UK - Artistic Licence, now part of the Robe family, goes back to its rock 'n' roll roots, with a line-up of rack-mount splitters and its gateway range. From the signature 'skinny rack' octoboxes to the channel-dense, feature-rich dataLynx range, a spectrum of budgets and technical needs are catered for.
The Artistic Licence stand would not be complete without some of its popular DIN rail mount products. This year sees the arrival of a new addition to the bestselling railSplit range, in the form of railSplit quad.
This new DMX/RDM opto-splitter features all the functionality of the railSplit RDM, with two key differences: Data connections are all RJ45 plus there are four (not six) outputs.
Also in the news, Artistic Licence has revamped the railFlip, with a new style case and markings. railFlip is a modular A-B switch for DMX512 that supports four universes. Its

UK - Sam Fender played two homecoming shows at St. James’ Park in Newcastle with lighting designed by Sam Tozer - also the show’s creative director - and equipment supplied by event technology specialists, Adlib, including 11 x Robe Fortes running on five RoboSpot systems.
Tozer has been working with the artist since he re-started playing live after the pandemic in 2021. Working alongside him was lighting director Luke Avery, who was heavily involved in the design process, together with set designer Flora Harvey. Video content was created by UDC.
Sam’s overall vision for these shows was to make the lighting look epic, large scale and ‘industrial strength’ to cover the dynamic range of Sam Fender’s music.
The Fortes were all rigged on the front truss and utilised for spot lighting, key lighting and specials. “I needed a very reliable and stable remo

Hungary - In 2023, the city of Veszprém in Western Hungary and the Bakony-Balaton region is holding a year-long programme of events and celebrations as the European Capital of Culture. The Grand Opening of the festivities took place on 21-22 January under the title Come shine with us!, a spectacular event with lighting design by Balázs Varga. The LD illuminated the occasion using 120 IP-rated lighting products from Elation Professional.
January weather in Hungary can be freezing - it is the coldest and snowiest month of the year in the country - with temperatures often between 0° and -10° Celsius. “The rehearsal days and programming days were freezing and there was snow on show day,” stated Balázs, co-founder and managing director of Hybrid Production of Budapest.
“It was extremely hard on the fixtures because the equipment was outside for seven strai

South Africa - Cape Town-based rental and production company Ultra Event Technical Solutions has been extremely busy since the industry re-energised post-covid, a challenging time that nonetheless saw them retain their complete staff through resourcefulness, creative thinking and adapting the facilities and skill base they had to a pandemic economy.
Thankfully as soon as the gathering and meeting up restrictions were lifted, “We’ve been absolutely full-tilt,” explained Ultra’s founder and CEO, Costa Champanis.
With business growing, it wasn’t long before they needed more lights, so Costa made the investment in 24 x Robe LEDBeam 350s.
Ultra is a ‘one-stop solution’ for technical production. Their work encompasses a multiplicity of corporate and industrial events, awards shows, gala evenings, graduation ceremonies, etc, plus in the summer, a round of

USA - World Cup champion Lionel Messi created shock waves when he passed up offers from better-known clubs to sign with the struggling Inter Miami team.
Anticipation was high when the seven-time Ballon d'Or winner suited up for his first game on Friday 21 July, but Messi, still recovering from an exhausting travel schedule, had to sit on the bench for the first 54 minutes. Then, with the sell-out crowd standing and cheering wildly, he entered the game and proceeded to score the winning goal.
A few days before, the player was greeted at the team’s DRV Pink Stadium in Fort Lauderdale with a welcome celebration.
Helping to create the heady atmosphere was a bright, bold, and colourful lighting design from José Laria, lighting designer Andres Albornoz and the entire team at LPS Production that drew on the intense output of over 100 Chauvet Professional IP65 rated

Indonesia - To provide the new Tokyo Riverside Apartment complex with vivid and engaging lighting, architectural firm PT Chayolite deployed a selection of Martin lighting solutions.
Located in the Pantai Indah Kapuk 2 precinct (PIK2) within Jakarta, Tokyo Riverside Apartment is a luxury living complex featuring modern Japanese architecture and smart living tools. Developed by Agung Sedayu Group, the complex is conveniently located near a variety of amenities, including sports and recreational facilities, a 2.5-mile white sand beach and the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.
To accentuate its architecture, PT Chayolite and Harman Professional Solutions were appointed to illuminate its façade in a way that complemented its luxurious details. To meet this requirement, the installation team deployed Martin VC-Dot 1 outdoor LED lights.
Featuring individually co

France - One of the biggest heavy metal music festivals in the world, Hellfest recently wrapped its 16th edition in Clisson, where KISS launched the festival with Claypaky Xtylos and an array of Claypaky fixtures played key roles for other bands.
The four-day festival featured 180 bands performing on six stages in the concert area plus additional outdoor stages. KISS, Iron Maiden, Motley Crue and Slipknot headlined as more than 150,000 extreme music fans attended performances, camped out and explored the full Hellfest 2023 experience.
France-based B Live Group has been Hellfest’s technical partner from the start of the festival providing lighting for both of the main stages and the Warzone. This year, they chose Claypaky Sharpy X Frames to illuminate Main Stage 2, which hosted the biggest international bands, and Arolla Profile MPs and Sharpys for the Warzone, the st

Belgium - There were over 230 Chauvet Professional fixtures at the Happy Belgium concert in the Cinquantenaire Arcade, but it’s doubtful that any of the 60,000 people who were there to celebrate the National Day of Belgium on 21 July noticed many of them. Lighting designer Jordi Vandekerkhof of the More To Show design studio would have it no other way.
For him, the purpose of the majority IP65 lighting fixtures at this exquisitely orchestrated evening event, was to be “seen” (in terms of their effect), without being noticed because of their protective domes. “We wanted to light the stage, audience and surroundings without drawing attention to the fixtures,” he explained.
Jordi credits Splendit, which supplied the fixtures for the event, with helping to put together a rig that was low profile, while still being powerful enough to create a stunning impression.

USA - Lighting designer Eric Price turned to Elation’s Proteus Lucius as the feature light of an all-purpose floor package for rock band Taking Back Sunday as they headlined the travelling Sad Summer Festival in July. Reminiscent of the Warped Tour, the fourth incarnation of Sad Summer Festival ran coast to coast and featured a strong line-up of pop punk’s finest.
Price has been with Taking Back Sunday since 2017 and served as lighting designer, programmer and operator for the band’s Sad Summer set. He says he had used the Proteus Lucius before, on a tour with Mastodon, and knew the all-purpose LED moving head well. “The Proteus Lucius is great technology with a lot of features and you don’t lose anything with it being IP rated,” he said. “It makes no feature compromises and is just what you would expect from a professional moving fixture.”
Proteus Luc

UK - TechLED will showcase its range of UK-manufactured lighting effects on stand G30 at this year’s PLASA Show. Contributing the lowest possible airmiles to low-energy LED effects, the show-stopping range from UK-based Abstract, is a must-see for any UK installer with a green agenda and an eye on sustainability.
Recognised as one of the pioneering market leaders in effects lighting with a manufacturing legacy spanning over 30 years, Abstract’s key lighting effects units will be demonstrated, including the Abstract Candi Blox and Abstract Candi Bar, the Abstract X-Lite Pro freestanding lighting system and the Abstract X-Drive. The popular Abstract-supplied, Pixel Neon lighting system will also be at the forefront of stand G30.
Pixel Neon is a square neon flex lighting effect supplied by Abstract. Flexible, weatherproof, and easy to install, Pixel Neon is perfect fo

Belgium - The Concert Hall venue, which is part of the Music Centre de Bijloke in Ghent, was once a 13th century civic hospital and now offers a vibrant and interesting blend of music often embracing additional performance and visual art forms like theatre and film.
During the pandemic, The Concert Hall which retains its original wooden curved frame roof and exterior walls, was completely renovated. New lighting was installed as part of this upgrade, including 13 x Robe T1 Profiles, which were specified by the Music Centre’s technical manager, Natan Rosseel and his team.
The works included removal of the entire floor which was sunk down by one metre. This was primarily to improve the acoustics; however, it has also resulted in an additional metre gain of headroom very much welcomed by the lighting department.
The 13th century roof spans are still in place, bu

UK - Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in London has become the first open air theatre in the UK to install Ayrton Perseo fixtures as part of its plan to update to a more sustainable and environmentally-responsible lighting rig.
20 Perseo Profiles have been supplied to this venue by White Light for the full 20-week summer season. White Light worked in close collaboration with the teams at Regent’s Park and Ambersphere, Ayrton’s exclusive distributor for the UK, to understand the aims, and facilitate the provision of the correct LED fixtures, to meet all the theatre’s requirements.
Joe Kirk, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre’s head of lighting, was determined to make changes to the lighting inventory when he took on the role last year: “I wanted to replace the old rig of power-intensive tungsten and discharge moving lights with more sustainable LED replacements,

UK - Flashlight Ltd has announced that Ged Murphy has been promoted to the board of directors as operations director. Ged joined the company 17 years ago as a technical sales advisor and the company has watched him continue to flourish and evolve to the current day.
“I am privileged and proud to have been appointed to the board of directors as director of operations at Flashlight. I will continue to serve the company, streamlining procedures and continuing to refine processes in order to maximise our impact within the industry”, comments Murphy.
“We are excited to welcome Ged to the board at Flashlight. His commitment to the company has been unwavering over the past 17 years and we look forward to continuing to watch Ged develop within his new role. We are confident customers and suppliers alike will share our enthusiasm for this appointment”, comments David Ma

Australia - Dubbo Regional Theatre and Convention Centre features the Joyce Schneider Auditorium, a 500-seat theatre with modern facilities including a comprehensive, computerised sound and lighting control room. The theatre completed a significant lighting system upgrade, transitioning from outdated halogen lamps to more advanced technology.
David Brown, the technical coordinator of the venue, explained that the upgrade had been planned for some time, but the increasing difficulty in finding and the high cost of halogen lamps expedited the need for a change. The Covid-19 pandemic, which temporarily suspended performances, provided the perfect opportunity to carry out the upgrade, and David took the chance to conduct an in-depth market research and compare various options. After careful evaluation, he presented a comprehensive report to the council for approval.
Show T

UK - At PLASA Show 2023, Highlite International will be presenting a wide selection of audio, lighting and special effects products and accessories from its renowned brands Showtec, Infinity, DAP, Artecta and Wentex, as well as from distribution brand Antari.
Among many other products, the powerful Showtec Polar Wash 740 will be on display along with DAP’s new NRG speaker range and there will be some exciting developments by Infinity waiting to be discovered too.
The Showtec Lampy light controller now benefits from a major V2 software update, which has made it faster and brought countless new features including MultiCell capabilities and a CIE colour picker with XY editing - a feature unheard of for light consoles product in this price range - which is why the Lampy has been nominated for a PLASA award.
With all the extra features that the V2 software brings t

USA - Virginia-based rental and production company Lite Tek Entertainment has grown with Elation Professional through the years and recently continued the close relationship with an investment in Elation’s Fuze series of high performance/high value lights.
“The Fuze series products have great features and high-quality construction but come in at price points that make them fit our markets,” stated Lite Tek founder and owner Darren Lewis. “Elation has proven that they didn't forget us in the middle of the market and still want to support the smaller lighting companies with quality products. That’s why we remain loyal customers, confident in their commitment to our success and growth as partners in the industry.”
Lite Tek’s recent purchase includes 32 Elation Fuze Max Spot, 16 Fuze Max Profile and 24 Fuze Wash 500 luminaires, all automated moving heads wit

USA - Solstice: Reflections on Winter Light is a multimedia and meditative art experience celebrating the shortest, darkest day of the year, created by Masary Studios from Boston, and presented at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts.
It started as a small two-day installation idea in 2020 during the pandemic and has grown rapidly and organically to become a hugely popular and accessible 10-day annual public art festival. Visitors engage with the magic and ephemeral beauty of lighting and sound and its relation to the algorithms, mystery, and energies at work in the greater universe.
Masary Studio’s Sam Okerstrom-Lang initially needed “high quality and durable kit to withstand tough environmental conditions of New England in the winter”, so when their technical partner AVFX introduced them to Astera in 2020, they were delighted

Europe - UK-based rock band Marillion has built up a formidable and near cult-like following over a career spanning five decades that has spawned 20 studio albums plus a string of top 40 hits since their formation in 1979. For the last 21 years, they have staged biennial two and three-day summer convention events for fans, which include special live performances plus additional Marillion world activities.
Lighting designer Yenz Nyholm’s specification for the 2023 Marillion ‘convention tour’ included nearly 100 Robe moving lights - 31 Robe Esprites, 22 LEDBeam 150s, 16 MegaPointes and 30 Spiider LED wash beams.
Conventions were staged in the UK, the Netherlands (twice), Germany, Italy, and Canada. For the shows at Berlin Tempodrom, Leipzig-based rental company Konteg supplied the full Robe package. It was also a completely new lighting design for this year.

Australia - Tumbalong Park, a five-hectare respite of green in the centre of Darling Harbour is serving as the site of a FIFA Women’s World Cup Fan Festival this month.
A vibrant celebration of all things football, and much more, the festival features giant live streams for watching FIFA Women’s World Cup games, a variety of fun football-related activities, a cornucopia of street food, and live performances by popular Australian artists like Jessica Mauboy, Jack River, Mia Wray, and Jacotene.
Enhancing the festive atmosphere and providing memorable visuals at the event, which began 20 July and runs through 20 August, is a bold and colourful lighting setup by dplr that is anchored by 108 Chauvet Professional fixtures from Showtools International. Included in this collection are 16 Maverick Storm 4 units, 20 Outcast R2X Washes, eight Colorado PXL Bar 16 motorised ba

USA - Rapidly rising folk and indie star Lizzy McAlpine’s The End of the Movie tour featured a set that was designed around her actual living room space. “All the items in the room were chosen by Lizzy, and were very specific to her inspiration and interests,” said Kat Borderud, the tour’s lighting and scenic designer. “The set contained her own personal clothing, family photos, books, and other cherished items.”
Borderud intensified the effect of this living room set by accentuating its various elements with light and shadows. “My role was to fulfil Lizzy’s vision and transform the stage,” she explained. “Darkness and shadow play are incorporated in this design for bringing the room to life as another character in Lizzy’s show. Shadows and light move and reflect on the walls from inside and outside the windows to move us through the set in a nar

Slovenia - From 23 June to 1 July, the city centre of Maribor was transformed into a large festival area for music, art and culture. Festival Lent is the largest open-air festival in Slovenia and one of the biggest city centre festivals in Europe.
For the 30th anniversary, national and international artists performed on the numerous large and small stages, including this year's Eurovision Song Contest participant Joker Out as well as funk legend Fred Wesley. To stage the broad spectrum of genres, the lighting designers of the respective stages relied on an equally versatile range of moving lights, LED bars and flood lights from Cameo.
On a total of five of the seven stages, including the Main Stage, Jože Skarlovnik, technical director of the festival, relied on Cameo fixtures. The focus was primarily on IP65-capable outdoor spotlights, with which those respons

USA - At 46, Floyd Mayweather still packs a punch, even five years after the former champ retired undefeated from professional boxing. This was plain to see during his recent exhibition bout against John Gotti III. But the Boxing Writers of America’s ‘Fighter of the Decade’ wasn’t the only one flashing impressive firepower at the sold-out FLA Live Arena. Also displaying its prowess was a collection of Chauvet Professional Rogue Outcast 1L Beam fixtures from The Design Oasis that were used to rev up excitement during the exhibition.
“The 1L beams really created an impact throughout the arena,” said Abbas Ritscher, of The Design Oasis. “They were small, which allowed our lighting designer John Hollingshead to bunch a lot of them together, keeping the cables clean but still creating impact by directing beams of lights across the entire venue. They have a very tigh

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