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
USA - By any measure, summer 2023 in the U.S. has been extreme with intense heat, severe rainfall and unrelenting smoke. So when a number of outdoor festivals and events are on the program, the challenge for any production company is immense. “This is a very current issue,” states Ryan Knutson, president of Brown Note Productions in Colorado. “We've seen some really intense changing weather patterns and IP fixtures have become critical in outdoor applications.” Knutson credits Danny Wimmer Presents for initiating their move to weather-resistant lighting solutions, a client they have worked with since 2014. “DWP was really the first client we worked with who stressed that the dynamics of weather and shows had changed and therefore a change was needed in how we approached these events. Specifically, we needed to stop the behaviour of plastic bagging fixtures wheneve
France - International light artist Christien Methot enabled Parisians to see the River Seine in a new light when he created the first Light:Bridge with Ayrton Cobra phosphor laser source luminaires. ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of Ayrton lighting in North America. For one July night, Methot, the principal lighting designer at New York City-based Design One Lighting Design, added a new bridge across the Seine using 10 powerful parallel beams of light to project a ‘bridge’ across the water near the Passerelle Leopold-Sedar-Senghor footbridge, which links the Left Bank’s Musee d’Orsay with the Right Bank’s Jardin des Tuileries. From far away, the light beams appeared to be a sturdy, physical crossing. But as people approached it, the ethereal nature of a bridge built of light was revealed. Only light could achieve that dichotomy linking the tw
USA - Bandit Lites has announced the promotion of John Cameron Carter to integration solution sales. Carter first joined the integration team seven years ago and has since grown as a technician, project manager and sales member. Bandit’s integration team acts as a liaison between architects, project engineers, equipment manufacturers, and clients and oversees client’s projects from conception through installation, researching and recommending design elements that fit the desired look and budget of each project. “During my time at Bandit, I have been afforded many opportunities, such as turning on projects as an ETC Field Service Tech, installing large scale lighting rigs and managing architectural and themed entertainment projects in some of the largest US markets including New York, Boston, Las Vegas and Houston,” said Carter. “John Cameron has been
Austria - With the goal of achieving a more environmentally friendly, energy efficient and sustainable lighting rig, the Schauspielhaus Graz in Graz has upgraded its main stage with an array of Claypaky fixtures. Vienna-based distributor LB-electronics provided 15 Claypaky Sinfonya Profile, 15 Arolla Profile MP and eight Arolla Profile HP fixtures. The lights were selected and installed by Thomas Trummer, head of the lighting & video department at the Schauspielhaus Graz since 2009. The historic Schauspielhaus Graz opened in 1776 and is the biggest theatre in the Austrian province of Styria. It presents classical drama and comedy productions as well as a wide range of contemporary drama. The Arolla HP and MP fixtures, which replaced ageing discharge lamps, were chosen for their quality white light. With a 1,200 W white LED engine and an output of 52,000 lume
USA - The Backseat Lovers are on the road with an innovative and interesting production and lighting design created by Meagan Metcalf, who has been working with the indie rockers from Utah since 2022, with 22 x Robe Esprites and 24 Tetra2 moving lights at the heart of the lighting rig. Meagan was offered an initial short tour with the band in early 2022 after her work with Caamp, who share the same management. While everything was quite low key then, Meagan loved being imaginative with a small lighting rig, enjoyed the music and knew that the band were ones-to-watch, a roller-coaster that gained serious velocity following the release of their debut label album, Waiting to Spill, at the end of last year. The Backseat Lovers are now on a much larger full production tour playing 3,000-5,000-capacity rock clubs and theatres, selling out every time and amplifying the
UK - At this year’s PLASA Show (3-5 September, London Olympia), LSi magazine’s popular column Classic Gear will be brought to life on the show floor via a new attraction called Classic Gear Live. In association with CH Vintage Audio, the display will enable visitors to experience for themselves a range of defining products from the last 50-plus years and meet some of the people who made and used them. Throughout its 38-year history, PLASA’s LSi magazine has looked forward, covering the never-ending stream of innovations in the live production industry, and the shows and people that create and use those innovations on spectacular new shows, events and installations. For 17 years of that history, LSi has also looked back, with Rob Halliday’s popular Classic Gear column taking a light-hearted, nostalgic look at the products that have shaped our indu
USA - Dude Perfect recently wrapped their high octane 24-city Panda-monium Tour with a lighting system designed by 46 Entertainment and provided by Bandit Lites. Former college roommates Tyler ‘Beard’ Toney, Cory and Coby Cotton, Garrett ‘Purple Hoser’ Hilbert, and Cody ‘Tall Guy’ Jones famous for their crazy stunts and trick-shot battles have amassed 59.6m YouTube subscribers and 11.8m Instagram followers. For Dude Perfect’s second tour, Davis Kornegay and Mason Felps utilised a larger LED surface for the eye-popping family-friendly content of silly competitive battles, audience-involved games and dynamic tricks. “The interactive content is really the backbone of this show,” said Felps. “This year’s design was less beams and more tasteful colour washes/looks. Davis did a great job on the design this year.” Bandit Lites supplied
Poland - Poland’s largest lighting rental company, Transcolor, has invested in Robe iFortes, currently the highest-powered LED fixture from Robe’s expanding iSeries of IP rated products. The purchase - the first iFortes to be delivered in Poland - underlines Transcolor owner and boss Lucjan Siwczyk’s trend setting policies by purchasing innovative equipment. Lucjan explained that they looked carefully at some different options when sourcing high powered IP rated luminaires before deciding on the iForte, although the company already has a consistent track record of investing in Robe over the years, among other brands, so it was always a strong contender. “Lighting designers and show producers are often wanting to work with IP rated products now. Obviously for any outdoor work and for various other circumstances,” Lucjan commented, adding that an advanta
USA - RZI Lighting of New Orleans has stocked Elation lighting gear for much of its 24 years in the stage lighting business and again has added Elation products to inventory. The additions - Proteus Maximus, Proteus Smarty Hybrid, KL Panel, Fuze Profile, Paladin and Prisma Wash 100 - reflect the breadth and wide variety of stage lighting and installation projects that RZI work on. “We continue to collaborate with Elation because they provide industry-standard lighting options at competitive prices and offer a broad product line that covers the many markets we work in,” stated Ray Ziegler, owner of RZI Lighting. “Not only do clients often request an Elation product by name, many of our Elation lights have proven so versatile that they can substitute for other gear on the spec. Our clients inevitably come back after the event and tell us that they loved them!”
Serbia - LD Anđelko Popić and team at Chameleon Rental opted to reflect the spirit of the Lake Festival in Bačka Topola by building their production design around three concentric circles that expanded outward from the stage’s centre. This arrangement gave designers the freedom to create widely different settings for the festival’s various acts, allowing them to move from the intimate, when almost all light came from the smaller centre sphere, to the more elaborate, when crossing beam patterns from fixtures on different circles created complex patterns. To enhance this flexibility and add power to their circular design, the Chameleon Rental team anchored their rig with 88 Chauvet Professional fixtures from their company’s own extensive inventory. Playing a key role in this rig were the eight Rogue R2X Beam fixtures flown on the smaller centre stage circ
Italy - Prolights Sunblast 3000FC transformed the arcades of Bologna, a worldwide symbol of the city and UNESCO heritage site, into a light show. The project, conceived and promoted by singer Cesare Cremonini, involved illuminating 2km of arcades, from Piazza Santo Stefano to the Basilica of Madonna di San Luca, during the Bologna Portici Festival. "The arcades are the true stage of everyday life for us Bolognese, and I wanted to pay tribute to Bologna with a tailor-made lighting project for the portico of San Luca, a symbol of worship but also an emotional connection for all of us citizens," stated Cremonini. The technical manager Antonio Onorato, in collaboration with the agency Giò Forma, projected an unprecedented lighting design: a 30-minute loop of lights, synchronised with Cesare Cremonini's songs, transformed the arcades into a unique and emotionally charged l
Belgium - Creative visual practice Painting with Light (PWL) was asked by the Agoria Sports and Entertainment Technology club - a networking hub for Belgian technology leaders - to show direct and design lighting for an epic mixed media visual spectacle - lighting, lasers & fireworks - which was the finale segment of the official 2023 Belgian National Day celebrations. This year, the occasion also coincided with the 10th anniversary of the coronation of King Philippe of Belgium, making it extra special. The overall event, which included a two-hour music Festival, was titled Happy Belgium. The 15-minute finale show was developed for the Syndicat d'Initiative-Bruxelles Promotion (SIBP) and staged against the imposing and dramatic backdrop of Cinquantenaire Arcade, a grand 30m-wide, 45m-high triple arched architectural monument in Brussels’ Parc du Cinquanten
France - Rapper Dinos played a high-profile one-off gig at Paris’s Accor Arena to celebrate the launch of his latest studio album, Hiver à Paris. For his first show at this venue, lighting designer Damien Dufaitre from BlackMoon Design created a special environment with 90 x Robe MegaPointes at the core of the concept. A prolific collaborator, Dinos appeared on stage with a stream of interesting guest artists as he delivered an action-packed two-hour high-energy performance. Damien has worked with Dinos for some time, and his primary goal for this show was to keep the visuals pacey, lively, and provocative, yet raw and elegant to match the spirit and essence of Dinos’ music, which was very much at the centre of the performance. “It was all about showcasing him and his music,” he confirms. He proposed an in-the-round concept with a central rectang
Latvia - SPH Engineering has announced the release of three major updates - the Drone Show Software v.4.2, Firmware v. 4.2, and Drone Show Creator updates. and enhance the creativity and control available to drone show professionals, says the company. Drone Show Software Release 4.2 and Firmware v. 4.2 include significant advancements in synchronization capabilities, with the DSS Controller now perfectly aligned with GPS time. This precThese updates bring an array of powerful features that will elevate the world of drone shows ise synchronization allows drone show designers to synchronize color animation and music integrated into the Drone Show Software, enabling the launch of even more vibrant shows integrated into large-scale events that involve music, pyrotechnics, and more. Users will benefit from the Weather service tool in DSS Controller which includes a weather
UK - Global, independent multidisciplinary engineering consultancy, Cundall, has broadened its presence in Birmingham with the appointment of Natalia Duffy as the first lighting associate in the region. A chartered engineer with extensive experience in the industry, Natalia joins the Birmingham team, demonstrating Cundall’s ambition to grow its lighting team’s geographical base. Specialising in lighting design, Natalia has contributed to the successful delivery of projects in a range of sectors including commercial, residential, education, transport and sports and leisure. She was also the lead designer for the public realm lighting strategy of Paradise, a new commercial and cultural hub that pays homage to Birmingham’s history and allows freedom of movement for pedestrians though the city. Commenting on her new role, Natalia said: “I am excited to join
Germany - The Guinness World Record breaking German version of long-running musical phenomenon Starlight Express celebrated 35 years of performance in June 2023 and zactrack celebrated its own slightly shorter ‘milestone’ in November 2022 with a Starlight Express five-year ‘show anniversary’ dating back to 2017 when a zactrack PRO system was first specified by the show’s technical director, Peter Lucassen. In that time, he reports, “it’s been fantastic – completely stable and reliable,” and has revolutionised the way the fast-paced roller spectacular has been lit. Peter has been working on the show’s production since 1990, two years after it was first installed into the purpose built 1651- capacity Starlight Express Theatre in Bochum. It is a 360-degree show, and the venue features U-shaped tracks or skateways for the roller-skating action on
Belgium - Jordi Vandekerkhof from production specialist More To Show worked closely with Frank Anthierens and Nathalie Rasschaert from event agency Alice Events and DDMC Event Design to deliver a special live televised festival event to celebrate Belgian National Day 2023 for organisers, the FPS Chancellery of the Prime Minister. This was combined with the 10th anniversary of Belgian King Philippe’s coronation, and staged in front of the magnificent Cinquantenaire Arcade, an imposing 30m wide, 45m-high triple arched monument in the centre of the Parc du Cinquantenaire in Brussels. The festival featured performances by 12 dynamic and high-profile Belgian artists accompanied by a 24-piece orchestra including rhythm section. The triple arched monument was completed in 1905 in time for the 75th anniversary of Belgian independence. Topped by an impressive bronze q
USA - Clifford Michael Spulock lit the Slow Burn Theatre Company’s production of Newsies earlier this summer at the Broward Centre in Fort Lauderdale. The story told in this Tony-winning musical, based on the 1992 Disney film of the same name, is very familiar to theatre goers. And Spulock does this narrative justice with precise lighting that conveys the tale of a group of ragamuffin newspaper kids who strike against the powerful publisher Joseph Pulitzer. However, he also goes well beyond “conveying” by using a rich and delicately balanced blend of colours and dark space to evoke the mood of the world inhabited by these characters. “It all plays back to the newspaper theme,” Spulock of CS Lighting, said of his design. “When you think of a newspaper at the end of the 19th century when this play takes place, you think black print on a white backgroun