Belgium - Volleyball has been booming in Belgium ever since the country won the men’s European title in 2013. For the Euromillions Cup Finals, fans flocked to the 18,400-seat Antwerps Sportspalies to cheer on their favourite teams last year. Things were radically different at the 2021 edition of the tournament. With the threat of the coronavirus ever- present, the Euromillions Cup Finals was moved to the much smaller Lotto Arena, with no fans admitted. Not able to see their favourite volleyballers play in person, fans had to be content with watching the finals via livestream broadcasts. The broadcast of the finals kicked off in celebratory fashion, thanks a pixel mapped lighting display created by AB Sound that featured the Chauvet Professional ÉPIX Flex 20 and ÉPIX Flex Drive, along with the COLORado 1-Quad Zoom Tour and foggers. The display created by AB So
UK - Bristol-based event production design and delivery specialist Pytch has invested in 72 new Astera Titan Tubes – adding to their existing 32 Astera AX3 LightDrops. The LightDrops were originally purchased for creating table centres for events and gala dinners and Pytch have produced some custom covers that refract and treat the AX3 light in different ways. Recently Pytch ran a PytchLab session - an experimental event where different ideas and concepts can be tried and tested for effectivity and practicality - using the AX3s and the Titan Tubes to illuminate the underside of the plane in numerous striking ways. However, the Titan Tubes were specifically an investment for the three virtual studios that Pytch has been running since the start of the pandemic, which have steadily been getting busier, utilised for a range of corporate presentations, meetings and
UK - Robe UK followed the current Covid-19 instructions to “stay local”, teaming up with Northampton School for Boys (NSB), the University of Northampton and DroneSwarm based nearby in Daventry to support #LightItInRed’s most recent campaign to unite the UK live events, entertainment, performance, and production industry in solidarity during these challenging times. The action featured a new distinctive red heart logo designed by the #LightItInRed team for the occasion that – one year on – specifically highlighted the human elements of the industry affected by the pandemic – including those still working or training, those who have had to seek alternative employment, those who’ve lost their jobs, those who have lost friends and family, those who have lost homes and livelihoods, battled mental health issues and all who have put their lives on hold and on the li
UK - Mike Wroe, former CFO of Just Eat plc, has been appointed as non-executive chairman of TV and events supplier JLLighting and JLLive. Wroe has a wealth of experience as a senior executive, board member and non-executive director over the course of a 20-year career. As CFO at Just Eat plc, he led the transformation of a £20m start-up into a £4bn FTSE business operating in 15 countries worldwide. Amongst a variety of advisory roles to a number of leading European growth business, Wroe is also currently an active angel investor and is non-executive chairman of private equity backed proSapient Limited, the technology-led expert network and primary research platform. Jack Linaker, group director, comments: “We are thrilled to have Mike on board. His strategic vision will help us steer the business as we grow and enter new territories. Mike’s highly successful tra
Europe - Goldensea UV (GSUV), manufacturers of UV-C disinfection lights, has announced Franck Verin as its new European sales manager for enterprise and agriculture with effect from 1 April 2021. Verin will focus on GSUV UV-C sales in France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, the Benelux countries. He will also investigate and help create potential new business for Goldensea UV in the agriculture sector. Verin brings with him a strong background in international business across variety of business sectors including automotive parts, material handling and, eventually, packaging for the wine industry. He has over 20 years of experience in managing multicultural sales teams, distribution networks and agents, and a special focus on service innovation. “We are delighted Franck is joining the team and adding his spirit of positivity and energy,” says Goldensea UV’s Micha
USA - Chauvet Professional has appointed Jean Lariviere as the company’s channel relationship manager for concert & touring/broadcast. Lariviere joins the company after serving for four years at Elation Professional in international business development and more than 25 years deeply embedded in the industry. In his new position, Lariviere will be responsible for communicating directly with lighting designers and decision makers in the concert/touring and broadcast segments of the market. He assumed his new position on 1 April and plans to be reaching out to designers and other members of the lighting community throughout the spring and summer. “We view communication as a two-way street,” comments Albert Chauvet, CEO of Chauvet. “We not only want to talk to customers about what we do, we also want to provide an open door that makes it easy for them to tell u
UK - Joining forces with Red Nose Day and kitchen disco Isolation Nation, Glitterbox recently brought the curtain down on BBC1 Comic Relief’s main event. The online Red Nose Rave, the special after-party, further boosted the BBC1 fund-raiser. Taking place on a custom stage at the Royal Albert Hall, the venue was lit by Sam Tozer of Vision Factory, using fixtures from the GLP portfolio. These zipped into action around midnight on 19 March to light sets from the from body confidence guru turned celebrity DJ Gok Wan, Melvo Baptiste, and The Shapeshifters, while Teni Tinks joined the latter for a live PA. The LD has been working with Mattie Smith’s production company Nocturnal Tour Management (NTRP) since the start of lockdown, handling the live YouTube streams. His brief here was to support the Glitterbox brand’s own particular style and feel. “They suppor
USA - Corey Easterbrook of Hot House Music and Productions credits his ChamSys MagicQ MQ80 with smoothing the path when he returned to live events recently, providing AV services to the Power & Communication Contractors Association (PCCA) annual meeting in Naples, FL. A North American trade association serving members involved in the electrical power distribution industry, PCCA had always used in-house AV services for their events. The results were mixed. So, during the lockdown, the group re-evaluated its policies and decided to go with a professional. Hot House Music and Productions came highly recommended by a Fortune 500 company. For Easterbrook, the call from PCCA was the opportunity to work on his first significant live project since the lockdown began. “The past year has been a challenge for us as it’s been for just about everyone in our industry,” he
Australia - The weather in Australia can be unpredictable, from searing temperatures to dust storms and intense rain. With so many outdoor events held every year in the country, production suppliers require sturdy, IP65-rated lighting fixtures that will perform no matter what weather event is thrown at them. Lighting production company Chameleon Touring Systems has it figured out, relying on Prolights IP-rated gear. That strategy led them to purchase another 24 PanoramaIP AirBeam fixtures to add to the considerable stock they already have in their inventory. As well as being weatherproof, the PanoramaIP AirBeam is a powerful beam and searchlight, featuring CMY colour mixing and multiple prisms. “Our PanoramaIP AirBeams have been popular and this year they have been on several key events already,” comments Tony Davies, managing director of Chameleon. “Their
Europe - Ayrton has announced the appointment of Matt Hallard as the latest member of its expanding international sales team. Hallard takes up the position of regional sales manager for the UK, Ireland, Benelux, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Croatia, Malta, Greece, Slovenia and Turkey, with effect from 1 April 2021. Hallard brings extensive experience of the lighting industry and the European market from a career that spans over 20 years. He first cut his industry teeth with an eight-year period as a production manager on cruise ships, after which Hallard returned to dry land in 2005 to launch a career as a specialist in European sales with some well-known moving light brands. “This was an exciting time in the development of moving lights and I worked with, and learned from, some incredibly talented, hard-working individuals,” says Hallard. “That diversity of experien
USA - For a large venue, the 115,000sq.ft Sonoran Lawn at the Rawhide Event Centre in Chandler, AZ often feels intimate to concert goers. Perhaps that’s because of the crowds that, prior to the pandemic, packed the site for the national acts that performed there. When Sullivan King, Ghastly and Shiba San appeared at the venue over three nights, headlining a series of EDM shows produced by Relentless Beats, COVID-19 safety protocols restricted the number of fans that could be present. Those lucky enough to score a ticket had to stay within widely-separated 8ft x 8ft pods. Everyone was able to enjoy the sense of connectivity that this venue is known for, despite the limited crowd size, thanks to an engaging lighting design by Luis Torres that featured a collection of Chauvet Professional Rogue and Maverick fixtures. “There was a lot of social distancing at the
Zimbabwe - The rhythmic Afro-pop dance floor sound of Ammara Brown flows through a musical path that is distinctly different from the jazz infused offerings of Tamy Moyo. Yet both of these multi-instrumentalists and All Africa Music Award winners exude a captivating aura every time they step on to the stage. This was plain to see on 12 February when they joined forces for Girls on the Move, a two-hour pay-for-view livestream on Gateway Stream Music intended to celebrate and raise awareness of Zimbabwean women in music. Providing a lively and brightly coloured setting in support of their performances was a Blessing Bero designed lightshow that featured Chauvet Professional Maverick and Rogue fixtures, including eight MK2 Spot units, four R2 Spots and four R2 Washes, all of which were supplied by Events Evolution. Working in coordination with video designer
Estonia - Robe moving lights and two RoboSpot systems provided a neat solution for the 2021 Eesti Laul competition to select Estonia’s entry to this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Lighting and set designer for the finale show and the two semi-finals that preceded it in Tallinn’s Saku Suurhall arena was Rene Jõhve, who was approached to work on the project by Estonian national broadcaster, ERR. This was his tenth year of lighting the finale and semi-final events which were aired live, and - for obvious reasons - this year were staged without an audience. The lighting rig included a selection of Robe fixtures including two BMFL WashBeams, 13 x DL7 Profiles, 12 x 300E Spot, 42 x Pointes, 25 x Spiider LED wash beams, 18 x LEDBeam150s and eight MMX WashBeams, plus other lights, all of which were supplied to the production by rental company Cuuclub. The streaml
Hungary - ChamSys has appointed Chromasound as the exclusive Hungarian distributor of the QuickQ series of consoles and QuickQ software. Wannabe Studios, the current ChamSys distributor in Hungary, will focus on the company’s flagship MagicQ range of products. Both companies will distribute the ChamSys SnakeSys line. “We are focusing our distribution to better serve all levels of the market in Hungary,” comments Aziz Adilkhodjaev, international sales and business development manager for ChamSys. “Wannabe Studios is a strong partner, and now having Chromasound on board expands our capabilities even further.” Based on Chromasound’s extensive 20-year experience in the market, ChamSys is confident that the company will be able develop the QuickQ customer base even further, according to Adilkhodjaev. “Chromasound’s understanding of this market makes them id
USA - Nimbus, the latest line of luminaires from Altman Lighting, is a personal virtual lighting studio featuring the Halo ring light and the Sidekick fill light. “We saw a need in the market for more than a ring light, so we created a lighting kit that anyone can use, anywhere,” says Nicolas Champion, vice-president of sales and marketing. The Nimbus Series LED battery and USB powered fill and ring lights were designed for video conferencing in home or office studios. The 6” Halo is a tunable ring light that can be powered from either the Sidekick (sold separately) or any USB device. The Sidekick is a high output 180 LED tunable white (3000K to 6000K) non-glare soft light that is fully dimmable and battery/USB powered. The compact design of this luminaire (no larger than a cell phone) allows for easy mounting, transportability, and discrete placement in your vid
USA - The Events United team and production manager Kevin Hart returned to live work in March at the Space Coast City Fest in Melbourne, Florida. For Events United, the two-day evangelical conference represented its first large-scale live event (with the exception of a few smaller outdoor projects) since the pandemic started. As if putting together a stage for Dove Award winners Casting Crowns, Zach Williams, Social Club Misfits, Andy Mineo and other praise music stars while dealing with COVID-19 safety protocols wasn’t enough, they also had to contend with problematic weather throughout the two-day event. “The winds got pretty intense at some points. The gusts ended up peaking around 35 mph.” said Jon Martell, who made up the Events United team along with Donald Van Slyke, Chase Clark, Ryan Lane, and Joel Pelletier. As a result of the wind, the festival ha
USA - With up to 50,000 people in and out of the Georgia World Congress Centre each day over a two-day period in February, the Cheersport National Cheerleading Championship in Atlanta may be the largest event to have taken place in the world under the COVID pandemic. Rental and production company Lite Tek Entertainment supplied and designed lighting for the event and turned to an Elation lighting package of Cuepix and DTW blinders, Protron strobes, SixPars and more to highlight team routines across five different stages. The National Cheerleading Championship is one of the biggest of its kind in the world. A typical year would see 1,400 teams competing but due to a 50%, reduction in allowed participants due to the pandemic, some 700 teams competed at this year’s event. Nevertheless, the event was huge with stages spread across two buildings and 90 acres. “Th
Europe - Prolights will run a series of online webinars on 13 and 14 April, during which the manufacturer will unveil three new moving-heads, one moving-beam and two moving-washes. Prolights will also showcase its latest products from this and last year. There will also be keynote presentations on film and TV lighting products, architectural fixtures, virtual production solutions and the entertainment lighting fixtures range. “We are excited to use what would have been a week of tradeshows to host an online event and communicate directly with customers all over the world,” comments David Ferraz, marketing manager at Prolights. “We are eager to shake hands again with all our customers, but while the world makes an effort to open back up again, we will use all tools available to us to keep contact with everyone.” Since spaces available are limited, interest
USA - ETC launched two new theatrical fixtures as part of a two-day international online event. The Source Four LED Series 3 and Desire Fresnel are designed for theatres “looking to successfully launch themselves into the modern day with incredible brightness, impressive colour mixing, and wireless DMX/RDM features.” Source Four LED Series 3 is the third generation of the colour-mixing LED fixture. When incandescent Source Four fixtures hit the market in 1992, they quickly became an industry favourite. As technology advanced, so did the fixtures. Now boasting an eight-colour mixing system that includes deep red LEDs, the fixture can produce more nuanced colours. “With Series 3, you finally get your swatch book back,” says Broadway lighting designer Justin Townsend. ETC has also added a re-designed classic to their portfolio with Desire Fresnel. A true Fresnel w
USA - Berkeley Dent, Jason Pastel, Trevor Creany, Dustin Lee and the team at 81 Productions demonstrated the unifying power of music in a real sense during this cold, hard winter. With live music venues in their area of Roanoke, VA, locked down, and musicians out of work, they launched The Space Shop Sessions, a series of five livestream concerts, each featuring a different Roanoke band, and each supported by a different hometown business. Taking place over a two-month period, the sessions helped feed the local appetite for live music, while also providing gigs for some of the region’s favourite groups, and giving businesses a chance to engage directly with customers. Helping the 81 Productions team create a flowing series of distinctive, colourful looks that reflected the personality of each band in the livestream series, was the company’s “virtually all Chauve
China - League of Legends’ World Championship 2020 Finals were staged at the new Pudong Football Stadium in Shanghai, a high-profile, hi-energy event notable for many things, which – in addition to being an eSports calendar highlight – included a spectacular production lighting design by Mat Stovall of LampedUp and his team. Thirty-seven Robe RoboSpot systems were part of a large lighting rig for the event, specified by Mat and associate LD Trevor Stirlin Burk of Visual Noise Creative, and supplied by Christie Lites out of their UK and US bases to the event’s main technical contractor, Creative Technology (CT) Shanghai. Robert Roth coordinated for Christie Lites, working closely with the CT Shanghai team headed by Aaron Ross Durdin, Sam Tibble and Daniel Sun. Mat wanted RoboSpots on the event for several reasons. He needed “a quality white light source
Bahrain - Woodroffe Bassett Design (WBD) recently designed and delivered a new lighting and video installation on the façade of the Sakhir Tower at the Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in time for the first Grand Prix of the Formula One season. The circular viewing tower is the centrepiece of the BIC and has become a key visual element of the television broadcast of the race, seen all over the world. The design of the scheme enhances the night-time drama of the track illumination installed in 2014 and follows the original visual concepts that were developed in collaboration with architectural design practice Stufish in London five years ago. The dynamic and colour-rich scheme is a deliberate counterpoint to the myriad of powerful white lights that illuminate the track during the night races. The design explores the geometry of the spectacular building and articulat
The Netherlands - The sustainable AFAS Theatre, which is incorporated in the new HQ of software developer AFAS, named the AFAS Experience Centre in Leusden, has recently been equipped by Rolight with 74 Infinity TS-260C7 Profile engines from Infinity’s Signature series. The AFAS Experience Centre has been designed from the ground up to create an “experience” for clients, employees and visitors - a complex that includes office space, meeting rooms, relax areas, demonstration rooms, fitness area, gym, educational spaces, studios, patio & atrium suitable for events, exhibitions and social gathering. The complex takes ecological and environmental aspects into account as much as possible. Almost energy neutral, it is fitted with solar panels, sedum roofs, heat pumps, heat exchangers, triple glazing, a multitude of sensors and 50 charging stations for electric vehi
Germany - Fine & Bright’s Hybrid Studio Berlin is located in the bustling heart of Germany’s capital. The new 425sq.m space is housed in a century-old former malt factory. Its black and white tile floor and industrial fittings serve as reminders of the building’s past, whilst its advanced design make it suited to provide clients with COVID-safe options for connecting to customers through virtual productions, or (once it is permitted by the government) with combined virtual/live events accommodating an audience of up to 50 people. “We developed this studio with our partners ICT AG and the Malzfabrik, in order to offer our customers a high-quality and fully equipped space for digital and hybrid events during the COVID-19 pandemic,”explains Robert Ulm, CEO of Fine & Bright. “The studio has all the digital tools required for the quick and direct implementatio
