USA - Production and rental houses across the entertainment technology industry have had to think creatively in order to continue to serve the industry and stay in business. One of the more successful has been Synergetic of Bensalem, Pennsylvania, which has converted a portion of their warehouse to a professional TV studio for live streaming complete with a full Elation Professional lighting system. President and CEO at Synergetic, Jason Weldon, says that opening the studio has allowed them to pivot from their usual business of supplying entertainment technology gear for live events in the Mid-Atlantic region. “We’ve been able to offer customers the ability to hold a virtual event in a professional setting,” he says while acknowledging that the redirection to a live streaming and professional recording space has also been an economic lifesaver. “While we’re not 10
Mexico - At the start of 2020, Ana Casillas released Tú a tu vida y yo a la mía which roughly translates to ‘You To Your Life, Me To Mine’. It is an apt title for the Baja California born singer at this point in her career, as she sets out the path to interpret regional and traditional Mexican music in a bold new way. Drawing on her Michoacan and Jaliscience roots, she has worked with renowned composers and executive producer Juan Páez, Casillas to create a sound that builds on traditional music that celebrates the majesty and beauty of Mexican culture. Casillas’ new sound was on full display this summer when she recorded a video at the Morelos Theatre in Toluca. Reflecting her music with intensely dynamic and colourful looks was a lightshow that featured the Maverick MK3 Wash, Maverick MK 1 Hybrid, Maverick MK3 Profile, Maverick MK3 Spot and Rogue R3 S
China - A watch tower that overlooks China’s second-longest river - the Yellow River - is lit by Christie laser projectors for a light show aimed at promoting Yellow River culture and boosting the local cultural tourism industry. Located in Lanzhou, capital of Gansu province, the 90m high Yellow River Tower is the centrepiece of a night-time extravaganza titled The Great Lanzhou, which made its official debut on 29 September ahead of China’s 71st National Day celebrations. The outdoor show features 3D projection mapping, stage lighting, lasers, atmospheric effects and live performances to tell the story of the Yellow River basin - birthplace of ancient Chinese civilisation, and the most prosperous region in early Chinese history. Projection is accomplished by Christie’s newly-appointed distributor Zhongqing Yingye Group using 32 Christie 1DLP and 3DLP l
Australia - The 2020 Parrtjima Festival of Light at Alice Springs in Australia’s Northern Territory provided a rare reminder of the community, camaraderie, magic and imagination evoked by lighting art. Moved from its original April slot to September, the 10-day event organised by the Northern Territories Major Event Company (NTMEC), and produced and curated by AGB, went ahead due to the state’s successful Covid-19 management strategy. Featuring a carefully picked collection of amazing and fun light artworks together with a spectacular nightly lightshow designed by Richard Neville from Mandylights delivered to a locally produced soundtrack, 80 x Robe MegaPointes were used to throw lighting and effects onto a section of the West MacDonnell mountain range. The lighting equipment was supplied by Melbourne-based MPH Australia, who have been involved as event sup
Germany - The Mercedes-Benz Classic Centre in Fellbach is the official Mercedes-Benz showcase for classic cars and is a must-visit for any car enthusiast. It offers original parts, repairs, restoration and information for historical Mercedes-Benz vehicles that have been out of production for at least 15 years. Mad Music Event Technology of Stuttgart was called on to upgrade a portion of the vehicle lighting at the Classic Centre and chose a large number of full-colour Elation Professional KL Panel LED softlights for the job. The KL Panel creates soft white or full-colour washes of up to 24,000 lumens at a 100° half-beam angle. According to Mad Music CEO Mathias Bremgärtner, the decision to go with the KL Panel was because of the "very good options for colour temperature adjustment, the very good CRI value, the excellent homogeneous coverage and the exact colour rende
USA - The oldest, continuously operating motor race track in the USA has seen its share of historic moments since it opened in 1904. But on 18 September, the Fairgrounds Speedway gave lockdown-weary Nashvillians a chance to ride off into the future when it served as the site of Tempo Presented By Eamotion, a 60-minute drive-through experience that engaged the senses with an immersive array of sights and sounds. Entering the track’s winding two-mile course, visitors were greeted by a dazzling mosaic of colourful images created by a sea of sparkling lights, along with over 2,000 video panels and 400ft wide projection mapped surfaces. Tying this panorama together was a matrix of laser light that seemed to envelop the entire course in its glow. Dustin L Derry programmed and ran the laser show on his ChamSys MagicQ MQ500 Stadium console. “This was an exciting pro
Austria - With this year’s Summer Night Concert, an event that has been taking place since 2004, the Vienna Philharmonic wanted to send a signal of hope in the year of coronavirus. As a result, the concert went ahead - albeit with a small number of spectators on site - as a live broadcast event on the TV channels ORF2 and 3SAT. The concert production itself, under the direction of Valery Gergiev, and featuring soloist Jonas Kaufmann, had to be optimised for television broadcasting. With highly experienced DoP Jerry Appelt at the helm, the production was able to fall back on a proven concept. “The Summer Night Concert had already been broadcast on TV in previous years, so we didn't have to reinvent the wheel in terms of TV-compatible lighting,” stated Appelt. For the important white light, he opted once again for the GLP impression S350 and S35
USA - Now into its third year, Nights of the Jack is a Halloween experience which sees the historic King Gillette Ranch in the Santa Monica mountains of Los Angeles filled with thousands of hand-carved jack-o’-lanterns. Arranged into themed displays, the pumpkins are further enhanced by colourful background lighting from ADJ IP65-rated LED wash fixtures as well as smoke and bubble effects from ADJ atmospheric generators. Named after King C. Gillette, founder of the Gillette razor brand, who owned and developed the land in the 1920s, the King Gillette Ranch is a 588-acre site in the Calabasas region of Los Angeles that is now owned and operated by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority. Having successfully launched in 2018 and experienced considerable growth last year, Nights of the Jack 2020 was put in jeopardy – as with so many events – by Covid-19.
USA - Cut off from her normal routine by the lockdown, the multi-Grammy winning artist Torri Kelly retreated to her home studio to embark on a musical journey of self-reflection and discovery. The result is her aptly named EP Solitude. When Kelly appeared ‘virtually’ on The Late Show with James Corden late this summer to support its release, lighting designer Julien Reux deployed 18 Chauvet Professional STRIKE 1 fixtures supplied by PRG. “I wanted to give off an angelic aura to the performance,” said Reux, owner of ReuxLight Design. “The warm white glow from the STRIKE fixtures was critical to conveying this mood.” Kelly’s performance was videoed at The Beehive Studios in Los Angeles and livestreamed to Corden’s set at the CBS network facility. Arranged in a 22ft semi-circle behind the guitar-toting star, the STRIKE 1 fixtures create
Germany - The LD Talent Club held its Warehouse Competition 2020 contest finale in September at the historic Zeche Zollern in Dortmund, where Claypaky fixtures were among more than 500 lighting instruments featured in show projects and on site illuminating architecture and landscapes. Eighty-eight young lighting designers from Germany participated in previous legs of the competition, which afforded them a platform to showcase their skills. Just nine were invited to the finale where, using the same complement of lighting fixtures, they created live, time code shows to selected music tracks. A panel of senior LDs and online voters named Jakob Link the winner. The event was live streamed by online event magazine Mothergrid and hosted by well-known German personalities. The result was a production very much like popular music talent shows The X Factor and
Singapore - Prolights has entered into a distribution agreement for Malaysia and Singapore, with Acoustic & Lighting Systems. The Asian company is a household name in distribution of professional sound, lighting and accessories solutions. General manager, Eugene Yeo, comments: “We support customers in many sectors of the industry, and thrive to offer them the best solutions for their applications. We see Prolights as a manufacturer with a vast product catalogue, allowing to tailor our customer's needs to their offering. Their tech-savvy R&D and sales make our lives very easy - we can see they are product-oriented and very passionate about the products they release.” “We wanted to reinforce our presence in Asia, and Acoustic & Lighting Systems are the result of our ambition,” says Paolo Albani, international sales manager for Prolights. “Eugene and
Italy - Molpass srl, the exclusive distributor for MDG products in Italy, recently supplied a fog solution to film company, 2aFilm, for a shoot on the banks of the River Po. The new film, Lei Mi Parla Ancora (She Still Speaks To Me), is directed by Italy’s prolific, award-winning director, producer and screenwriter, Pupi Avati. One scene called for a naturalistic covering of fog on a long stretch of road beside the River Po for a number of cars to pass through. Luckily, one of the cameramen, Carlo Molinari was familiar with MDG products, being the son of Giorgio Molinari, CEO of Molpass, and recommended an Me4 fog generator because of its huge output capacity and ability to cover the outdoor distance required. To ensure a substantial supply of realistic fog along the full length of the road, the team at Molpass used an ingenious solution, suggested by
USA - New Orleans-based RZI Lighting has announced Kimberly Wytcherly as its new operations manager. Wytcherly previously worked as a team leader in operations for a thriving production company in Louisiana. She brings with her years of production experience that helps RZI Lighting to provide to the needs of its customers. “We are happy to have her on our staff and we look forward to the contributions she will bring to RZI Lighting.” Sayas RZI, “RZI Lighting was founded in 1999. Since its inception, we have strived to provide the best service and equipment to our customers. We have clients nationwide which are mainly production companies, churches, theatrical and sports venues, construction, and electrical companies. We focus on lighting sales, rentals, fixture repairs, labour crews, and venue installations.”
USA - Chauvet DJ is introducing a range of new products including the company’s first CMYO colour-mixing fixture and the first Intimidator to use built-in RGBW colour-mixing instead of a colour wheel. Covering a broad product range, from washes, to movers, to pin spots, the new fixtures ‘represent the latest in lighting technology’. Many of them offer advanced DMX control features. Among the new wash units are the Wash FX Hex, a multi-purpose effect light that packs a punch with hex colour (RGAW+UV) LEDs and six chasing zones, as well as the Kinta HP, which features ‘dazzling displays of thousands of multi-coloured beams’. The Kinta HP also boasts new colour mixing capabilities, as it is the first Chauvet DJ effect light to feature an innovative grouping of a CMYO (cyan, magenta, yellow and orange) as well as RGBW (red, green blue, white) colour-mixing.
USA - Home to the Kansas City Ballet, Lyric Opera of Kansas City and Kansas City Symphony, The Kauffman Centre for the Performing Arts is a cultural cornerstone delivering diverse performing arts experiences. The Kauffman Centre first opened in 2011 and was designed by Moshe Safdie. Now wanting to update their exterior lighting design to better illuminate and accentuate the classic architecture, the centre worked with Lankford Fendler + Associates who created a new lighting design using Anolis Lighting LED luminaires supplied by Premier Lighting and Controls. “The Kauffman Centre is an key part of the community and a world-renowned cultural arts institution, so the design brief they brought to us was really quite simple,” says lighting designer Dav Bettenhausen, Lankford Fendler + Associates. “The ownership wanted to replace the old 175-watt T6 3000K ceramic metal hal
Honduras - A large Elation rig was used to light up the 2020 edition of the Noche del Sabor benefit show in Honduras with proceeds going to support the Honduran Foundation for Children with Cancer. Held at Expo Centro, a renowned venue in the city of San Pedro Sula, Noche del Sabor is an open air party boasting top musical entertainment and the best of Honduran food. Despite a bit of rain at show time, nothing could dampen the enthusiastic crowd of some 10,000 who gathered for the emotional evening amid the sounds of Colombian musician Juanes and pop group Piso 21. Technical aspects of the production, including the lighting set up, was handled by Pro504, a rental company based in San Pedro Sula whose professional team is experienced in the production, design, set up and operation of large events. Pro504 works on many of the most prestigious events in Honduras, includi
The Netherlands - The new Theater Zuidplein in Rotterdam has over 200 Robe LED fixtures - including T1 Profiles, Spiiders, LEDBeam 150s and ParFect 150s - installed as part of an all-LED lighting rig. It is among the first cultural centres worldwide to have no dimmers. Theater Zuidplein was designed by architects De Zwarte Hond and is located in the dynamic Rotterdam-Zuid (south) district, offering a lively programme of multi-genre work. It has two auditoriums - the largest one with a 1000 capacity (standing) and 600 seated, plus a smaller flexible studio space and Hall Z which is in the entrance - together with a café / restaurant and a branch of the Rotterdam Library. It replaces an existing structure built in 1953 half a kilometre down the road. The lighting specification was created by theatre consultants Theateradvies b.v. Amsterdam and Benelux-based Contro
USA - New tools mean new workflows, and ETC has a long history of creating online tools to help Eos users evolve their programming skills. Now ETC is has announced the release of a new video learning series focusing on Eos Augment3d, the new 3D programming environment released with Eos v3.0. The 38-part video series may be found on YouTube or in the Expert Topics section of the Eos Family Video Learning Series, along with a new workbook to accompany the videos. The video series includes instruction on getting started with Augment3d, with topics such as importing 3D models and objects, adding, patching, moving and focusing fixtures, working with focus palettes in XYZ mode, and working with Staging Mode in Live and Blind. Additional videos take users through the Fixture Position Estimation Tool, which uses a series of focus palettes to calculate your fixtures’ position
USA - The Town of Cary, a diverse and thriving community in the heart of North Carolina, had a dilemma. The ambient lighting in the Town Council Chambers was in dire need of renovation. Cailen Waddell (program supervisor of technical operations for the Town of Cary) was charged with finding a solution for the chamber. Cailen’s extensive background in audio, visual, and lighting production made him keenly aware of the challenge to find a quality retrofit that would dim smoothly on camera, operate at precise low levels without flickering during council meetings, and integrate with the current lighting controls. Adding to the pressure, the town had recently identified lamp replacements in the Council Chambers as high-risk and potentially hazardous. Maintenance staff were having to change lamps over seating risers, and the slope of the riser system complicated maintenanc
UK - The Prolights LED lighting range provides a solution for multi-purpose venue, New Cuts Art Centre (The Cut) in Suffolk. Since opening its doors 17 years ago, creative entertainment, education and enterprise hub, The Cut, has gone from strength to strength, becoming a centre for arts in the community, and now offers a full programme of activities, including; a weekly cinema, theatre, music, regular art exhibitions and an educational programme. Looking to the future, the venue decided it was time to upgrade their existing lighting rig in the theatre to LED. As the space is used for a variety of performances and events, they needed fixtures that were versatile, easy to use and that could work for a range of styles - Prolights fixtures proved to be the answer. Callum Macdonald of CM Lighting oversaw the specification and install of the lighting fixtures. He comm
USA - Pink Talking Fish create their own rock and roll spree every time they take the stage, fusing the sounds of Pink Floyd, The Talking Heads and Phish into a transformative musical mix. This was evident when the band played their two-and-a-half hour show at the Jericho Drive-In in Glenmont, NY, with renditions of Phish’s Simple, Pink Floyd’s Happiest Days Of Our Lives/Another Brick In The Wall Part 2 and Talking Heads’ This Must Be The Place. Keeping pace with the band every step of the way on their outdoor musical odyssey, was a Vin Pugliese designed lightshow that featured 12 Chauvet Professional Rogue fixtures supplied by High Peaks Event Production. “We flew six Rogue R2X Washes on the downstage truss and had six Rogue R1 Beams hung on the upstage truss,“ said Roger Sharp, president of High Peaks. “Vin combined these with his own
Belgium - Architectural lighting firm Magic Monkey and system integrator NetherLED recently collaborated to illuminate Deutsche Bank’s Belgian headquarters in uptown Brussels with an animated display powered by Martin Exterior Wash outdoor LED lighting fixtures. Located at the corner of a high-traffic intersection in Brussels’ uptown district, the nine-story building designed by architect Maurice de Maet features three street-facing façades lined with 59 columns. To make the building stand out during the holiday season as well as the rest of the year, Deutsche Bank hired Magic Monkey and NetherLED to design and install a state-of-the-art architectural lighting solution. To provide dazzling illumination, precise control and all-weather reliability, Magic Monkey and NetherLED selected Martin Exterior Wash 100 and 200 outdoor-rated RGBW colour mixing wash lights. “
Spain - Madrid’s Teatro Real, the most emblematic theatre in Spain, incorporates GoldenSea UV Ultraviolet-C disinfection products, supported by Madrid-based Stonex, to guarantee the well-being and health of its artists, workers, and spectators. This tried and tested solution is a complement to traditional cleaning and ensures 99.9% virus inactivation. From the moment it reopened its doors, the Teatro Real has adopted all the mandatory and recommended health measures specified by the Community of Madrid: limited audience capacity, the use of hydroalcoholic gel for cleaning hands, and the mandatory use of masks during the entire performance is the new way to enjoy culture in Spain. In addition, the theatre has taken the initiative to reinforce its disinfection protocols with ultraviolet-C light technology, applying it across many areas within the theatre as an extra s
USA - The 29th series of the popular TV dance competition Dancing With The Stars (DWTS) returned to ABC this month with new host Tyra Banks and 178 x Robe MegaPointes on the lighting plot as part of lighting designer Tom Sutherland’s precision-crafted epic look for the first series performed without a live audience. It is being broadcast until the end of November from CBS Television City, West Hollywood, California. Tom’s company DX7 Design was initially asked to develop lighting for the 2019 season by executive producer Andrew Llinares. He, Tom, and director Phil Heyes - who has been on DWTS USA for five years - have also all previously worked together including a while back on X-Factor in the UK. The set - including the extensive video elements like a giant LED panel chandelier filled with lights - was designed by Florian Wieder. Felix
