UK - Online home fitness start-up GRNDHOUSE recently equipped its studio with a custom LED lighting rig designed by Hayden Borgars, featuring Martin Professional VDO Sceptron 10 LED video fixtures supplied by Colour Sound Experiment. Conceived and launched during the Covid-19 pandemic, GRNDHOUSE provides daily workout videos with professional instructors via a subscription service. Members can follow along at their own pace with a flexible schedule, on-demand access and a range of intensity levels. When launching the service, GRNDHOUSE’s founders knew their broadcast studio needed excellent lighting and a distinctive visual design to establish the company’s brand. To achieve this goal, GRNDHOUSE hired lighting designer Hayden Borgars, who designed a dynamic LED lighting system using Martin VDO Sceptron 10 creative LED fixtures, which were provided by Harman distrib
Australia - Some of Broken Hill's key locations have been lit up as part of Australia's Heritage Perfectly Highlighted project. The project involves permanent coloured lighting and projection installations at the Town Hall facade, Civic Centre, Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery, Town Square and Sturt Park. Broken Hill Mayor Darriea Turley said the installations would add a new level of vibrancy across the city once completed advising, “This lighting will ensure these key areas and buildings around our city are an attraction even at night. “We can also use it to complement events and initiatives - I can imagine all our prominent spaces being lit up green for St Patrick's weekend, or in Christmas colours for the festive season. It will add a whole new element to the city after dark.” After winning the tender, Mark Hammer and Matthew Tunchon of Silver Bullet Pr
Brazil - The Masked Singer Brasil, the latest in the worldwide television franchise of the reality singing competition, premiered on 10 August with Claypaky Sharpy and Mythos 2 fixtures, illuminating stage at WTC Golden Hall, São Paulo. Spectrun Design e Iluminação supplied 24 Sharpy moving beams, 24 Mythos 2 spot and beam lights and other Claypaky visual effects moving heads for the new series airing on TV Globo. “When I was invited by the production company, Endemol Shine Brasil, and the director, Marcelo Amiky, to work on this project - which is unprecedented in Brazil [for its size and scope] - we needed high-performance, precision equipment, so Claypaky was my main choice for fixtures,” says Alexandre Augusto, the lighting designer and director of photography. Inspired by the Fibonacci sequence, the lighting team filled the stage’s entire spi
USA - Chauvet Professional has appointed Scott Laurentz to its management team. Formerly with The Lighting Design Group in New York, Laurentz joins Chauvet as product resource manager for broadcast lighting. In his new position, Laurentz will draw on his extensive global experience working on lighting projects to provide the Chauvet Professional and Kino Flo product development team with strategic input. He will also be involved in building customer relations and conducting training related to broadcast, studio, and film lighting. “This position is part our product resource group focused on customer-focused product innovations and applications,” says Albert Chauvet, CEO of Chauvet. “Adding Scott’s expertise to the Chauvet Professional and Kino Flo brands will drive our ability to provide a full range of solutions for this market. In Scott, we not only have some
UK - #WeMakeEvents has launched a supporter scheme to bring more useful resources and services to campaign backers. Members of #WeMakeEvents Supporters get free access to webinars hosted by the campaign and PLASA in the past - including on topics such a Brexit, HR, IP, and various technical sessions – as well as credit checks for UK-based companies. Other benefits include free entry passes to the PLASA Show and PLASA Focus Leeds and an invite to #WeMakeEvents’ Zoom calls. “Launched at PLASA Show 2021 in London last month, #WeMakeEvents Supporters has already seen a large uptake, demonstrating the ongoing high level of engagement to protect and promote live events and entertainment,” says the campaign in a statement. “Supporters can opt in to be listed on the webpage to add strength to the global movement which continues to amplify the voice of the industry a
UK - For the virtual iteration of the annual WhatsOnStage Awards, lighting designer Jack Weir used Martin Professional lighting solutions to translate the excitement and grandeur of live performance through the computer screen. Held annually since 2001, the WhatsOnStage Awards celebrate excellence in the British live theatre industry. However, due to social distancing regulations, this year’s ceremony was a virtual live stream broadcast from the Turbine Theatre, a more intimate venue than the show’s usual large-capacity locations like the Prince of Wales Theatre and the Dominion Theatre. This year’s show required a lighting system that effectively translated from the stage to the screen and performed efficiently despite the limited space, power and personnel available. Organisers turned to Jack Weir, a 2016 WOS Award nominee for his lighting work on the West End
Canada - Working with his board operator Jerome Robitaille and TD Eden Ashby, lighting designer Gil Perron pushed his LSM Ambiocréateurs supplied lighting rig in myriad directions for five different shows videoed over a five-day period in support of a wide range of performances by leading artists from Montreal’s 2SLGBTQI+ community. Through it all, Perron drew on the versatile performance features of 34 Chauvet Professional Maverick MK3 Profile fixtures positioned on his fly system. “It’s no big secret that my go-to light for TV is the Maverick 3 Profile,” he says. “It has the brightness, colour schemes, gobo package, and, when dialed in, a perfectly nice 4300k with bang on render.” To ensure that his looks remained distinctive throughout the entire festival and reflected the personalities of all performers, Perron generally limited the number of Maverick
UAE - Creative Technology Middle East (CTME) is the official live events audio-visual partner for the UK Pavilion at Expo 2020. The UK Pavilion, which is situated in the Opportunity District at Expo 2020 is based around the theme of Innovating for a Shared Future and promises to offer ‘inspiration and excitement to visitors from around the world’. The six-month event will see the UK Pavilion host a variety of events from multiple trade missions and conferences to various live entertainment spectaculars, including the UK National Day event, which is set to bring the imagination of Glastonbury Festival to Dubai. Andy Reardon, CTME’s managing director, comments, “CT Middle East will be delivering audio, video and lighting solutions alongside providing a team of highly skilled project managers and technicians for the duration of the event. The UK Pavilion
Belgium - Measuring 88m long and 132m wide, with a roof spanning 11,600 m², the Sportpaleis in Antwerp is an impressive structure. But, for one weekend this September the big building and the neighbouring Lotto Arena melted into intimate spaces of sound and light for Reverze, the hardstyle music festival produced by Bass Events. Celebrating this ultra-intense form of electronic music that was born in Benelux, Reverze ‘radiated immersive energy that defied notions of space and time as it enveloped the huge crowd with its sights and sounds’. Contributing to this experience was a series of transformative lightshows run by designer and programmer Leon Driessen of LD Company with help from two ChamSys MagicQ MQ500M consoles with Stadium Wings. (A third MQ500M was held in reserve, but never used). Featuring 1017 lighting fixtures and 36,225 channels spread over 11
USA - Darkroom Creative, a fusion of ideas and production design from lighting and visual experts Seth Jackson and Nathan Alves, combined history, nostalgia, and reinvention in a blind pitch for the lighting and production design of the Doobie Brothers 50th Anniversary tour, which they won. The tour was originally scheduled for 2020, was halted amid the initial pandemic shutdowns, and is now back on the road across North America. The lighting design includes 92 Robe Spikie moving lights which play a key role in shaping the show’s aesthetic, which takes inspiration from a collage of classic stage lighting design gems emanating from the 1970s and 1980s, when the industry we know today was in its infancy. Stylistically reminiscent of that era, there are no cameras or IMAG video elements. However, unlike then, the lighting rig encapsulating the foot-tapping
UK - The last footsteps of the 101-mile fundraising mission known as A Light Walk were taken on Friday (24 September) as the five-day odyssey from The Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford upon Avon to the National Theatre on London’s South Bank drew to a halt. The team behind A Light Walk, which includes Chauvet’s Sam Bowden and ALPD Lumiere working group members, Charlotte Burton and Tamykha Patterson, were quick to point out, however, that although the walk is complete, the fundraising continues. The epic hike was undertaken to highlight the vital work of, as well as raise money for the ALPD Lumiere Scheme and industry charity Backup. Whilst Bowden was the only wayfarer along the planned physical route, others walked an equal distance remotely. Remote walkers were ei
Italy - Prolights has made available nearly 200 Vectorworks symbols for most of its lighting fixtures, clamps and accessories, and will keep supporting the library development. Sister company Protruss has also released a separate 3D library with over 650 symbols, including truss and rigging objects. The Protruss symbols include all the properties of objects required from Braceworks (a Vectorworks plugin) to run static calculation and loading reports. “The recently added library represents an important asset to the entire LD community,” says Fabio Sorabella, managing director at Prolights. “Not only that but the announced file compatibility among Vectorworks, GDTF and MVR, and Unreal Engine really benefits designers and system engineers, innovating a new multi-platform workflow from parametric design to show pre-visualisation and presentation.” The files c
UK - Architectural LED lighting specialist Anolis showcased its Ambiane range of interior lighting products at the 2021 PLASA Show at London’s Olympia Grand Hall, the first in-person UK industry trade show since pandemic restrictions were lifted. The Anolis team was especially interested in meeting theatre consultants, venue managers and specifiers working in different types of auditoria. “After long periods of lockdown and no tradeshows, PLASA Show in London was the perfect platform to reconnect, attracting a targeted visitor base which gave the team the opportunity to engage in meaningful conversations with relevant buyers across the sector,” says the company. Anolis used the occasion to highlight the indoor Ambiane range which is available in RGBW and CCT versions with multiple beam angles - suitable for FOH, back-of-house and any public space illumina
USA - Elation’s Proteus line of IP65-rated automated lighting has enjoyed worldwide success, with over 10,000 units now in the market. Three new Proteus products set for release this autumn. “We’ve put years of extensive R&D work, market research and planning into developing this award-winning product line and are extremely proud that it has become the most specified line of IP65 automated lighting on the market,” states Eric Loader, Elation director of sales & marketing. “Our goal from the beginning was to give creative designers the freedom to design any project just the way they see fit regardless of weather or other factors and we delight every time we see them on a show or event.” Set for release in November are the Proteus Excalibur, Proteus Rayzor Edge and Proteus Rayzor Blade. The Proteus Excalibur is a long throw beam moving head with
UK - The newly launched Strand Electric Pattern 23M lantern from Pacific Lighting (HK) is a 1/3 scale replica of the original Strand Patt 23 Mk1 designed by aircraft designer, Morgan McLeod. The fully working model has a 3W 3000K LED source and is available with a choice of telescopic stand, swivel arm wall bracket or ceiling/floor plate. The lantern can be connected to a USB phone power supply or computer, and the beam angle can be altered by moving the lens back and forward. Hugh Chinnick, director of Pacific Lighting has spent several years researching and developing the Patt 23M (‘M’ stands for Mini) to perfect every detail of appearance and performance. “For more than 20 years it has been my dream to produce a scale model of the Patt 23, one of the most iconic lanterns in British theatre lighting history,” he says. “It has taken over four y
USA - To create exciting, immersive visuals that highlighted Red Rocks Amphitheatre’s unique layout during the String Cheese Incident’s multi-night run, PHNTM Labs deployed a lighting rig featuring Martin Professional lighting fixtures, provided by Brown Note Productions. Colorado-based jam band The String Cheese Incident returned to the Red Rocks Amphitheatre for the 45th time this past July to kick off their 2021 tour, marking the first full-capacity events at the venue in over a year. Red Rocks’ geological architecture and storied history make performing there a major career milestone for many artists, with performers from The Beatles to Vulfpeck gracing the stage over the past 80 years. Because the venue’s steep seating arrangement means a majority of the audience is seated above the stage roof, Red Rocks has historically posed a challenge to lighting desi
UK - England’s Enlightened Lighting sparked up its stock of VL10 Beamwash and VL2600 Series luminaires from Vari-Lite for the Bath Festival Finale Weekend in August. One of the first major music festivals to take place in the UK after the pandemic lockdown, it saw favourites McFly, Scouting for Girls and Gabrielle perform alongside a host of big-name bands. For Dave Thorpe of Enlightened this was the first time their newly purchased VL2600 Profile and Wash fixtures and VL10s had graced the stage of a busy festival. Therefore, he was keen to see how they performed and gauge the response from both festival lighting designer Nic Ayres and McFly’s visiting lighting designer, Chris Yeomans. “It was a delight to use the VL2600 Wash and Profile fixtures and the VL10 Beamwash luminaires on this production,” says Ayres. “The colours are great - and although the fixtur
USA - Tom Kenny wowed the crowd and cameras at the iHeart Radio Music Festival at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in mid-September with a big, but artfully balanced, lightshow that featured 124 Chauvet Professional Maverick MK3 Wash fixtures supplied by 4Wall Entertainment. Produced by Diversified Production Services, C2W, Firehouse Productions, All Access Staging & Productions, Inc., and Atomic, The iHeart Radio Music Festival is “a real hybrid,” notes Kenny. “It’s really a big TV special,” he said of the show, which was broadcast on the CW Network. “All the experienced LDs and creatives understand that this is not a festival in the usual sense of the word. It’s a huge party being filmed and aired for the enjoyment of millions of fans.” With this in mind, Kenny used copious amounts of lighting, along with video elements to create an ebullient, fest
Denmark - Coinciding with Denmark’s ‘Freedom Day’ - the lifting of all the current coronavirus restrictions - in September, an innovative and popular production of Jesus Christ Superstar featuring the Danish Chamber Orchestra (Danmarks Underholdningsorkester) conducted by Andreas Vetö was staged at Copenhagen’s Royal Arena, complete with a spectacular lighting and stage design by Sune Verdier. This version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘rock opera’ embraced the production genres of theatre and rock ‘n’ roll in staging and lighting. The lighting included an all Robe moving light rig comprising nearly 150 luminaires - supplied together with audio equipment by Copenhagen-based European Tour Production (ETP). Imposing three-tiered scaffolding decks accommodated the orchestra, while a 30m long 3m wide runway extended across the arena floor whic
USA - Car dealership Porsche Austin’s top floor window display features 10 Porsche cars highlighted using SEVEN Batten 72 linear lights from Elation Professional. Eric Bernstein of Intelligent Lighting Services (ILS) of Austin has worked with the dealership’s ownership group for about 20 years. On this latest project, he worked with Kirk Franceschini, managing partner at Hi Tech Motorcars (Porsche Austin Group), who was tasked with implementing a lighting system that would attract attention to the new dealership. The idea was to line 10 Porsche cars along a sixth-floor display window and illuminate them in high-quality lighting so they couldn’t be missed by the myriads of people who drive by the dealership each day. Bernstein designed the sixth-floor look and specified 20 Elation SEVEN Batten 72 fixtures, 6ft colour-changing LED battens with 7-color multi-chip
Serbia - Since it arrived on the scene in 1994 with over 100 channels, TV Pink has been a media success story. The privately-owned broadcaster is well-known for its innovative programming aired on numerous channels in entertainment, music, talk shows and news. The popular broadcaster recently upgraded its PFI studio complex in Šimanovci near Belgrade with an intelligent LED lighting system. Designed and installed by Novi Sad-based AVL Projekt, the new system includes a collection of 64 Chauvet Professional Maverick and Rouge fixtures as well as four RDMX Splitter 8 units and two Net-X II nodes. The Chauvet Professional fixtures (16 Maverick MK3 Wash, 12 Maverick MK2 Wash, 12 Maverick Silens 2, and 24 Rogue R3 Beam units) were selected for the upgrade project after an extensive review by professionals in image quality and management of lighting resources, includi
USA - When Germany-based Thomas Christmann saw Claypaky Xtylos at a Prolight + Sound expo in Frankfurt he knew he had to work with the fixture one day. The lighting designer and director for metal band Korn since 2015, Christmann, who is known as ‘Church’, thought the 2020 tour planned for the band would be the perfect opportunity to use the first moving head light with a laser light source. “I’m not a big fan of beam lights and try not to use them for effects lighting,” he says. “But I love the Xtylos beam, their colour and speed and was eager to use them.” Then the coronavirus pandemic intervened and 2020 touring for all bands was cancelled. But as soon as Korn was booked to play two 2021 summer festival dates, Church put 20 Xtylos from OSA International, Inc. in the rig for Rock Fest Wisconsin and the Upheaval Festival in Michigan. Now Korn has
Turkey - ChamSys has appointed Modern Elektronik as its exclusive distributor in the Turkish market. Modern Elektronik, which has overseen major installations, as well as theatre and touring projects throughout Turkey, will be responsible for selling and servicing ChamSys’ line of consoles in the country, including conducting hands-on training. “Modern Elektronik is an excellent company with strong values that align with our own,” comments Aziz Adilkhodjaev, international sales and business development manager for ChamSys. “Modern Elektronik will be offering a variety of hands-on experiences with ChamSys products. I am looking forward to visiting their facility soon to work with them on master classes on the latest Stadium consoles like the MQ500M and MQ250M.” Erkan Işıksel, Modern Elektronik’s managing director, adds: We are very excited. Chamsys w
USA - North Montgomery High School auditorium in Crawfordsville, IN, is benefiting from a new technical upgrade, including advanced C21 dimming technology and Vision.net touchscreen control interfaces from Strand. Looking for new power-saving LED house lights and stage lighting control infrastructure to replace their increasingly unreliable systems, North Montgomery High School turned to Associated Controls & Design (ACD) for help. “The existing wall controls had started to fail, while the dimmer racks were also failing and had started randomly flickering various circuits when the system was in use,” said Sean Cole of ACD. Cole opted for Strand’s versatile C21 dimming system because it offered “the best level of flexibility and control for the needs of the auditorium”. He specified a combination of non-dim modules for the stage circuits, and IGBT modules
