UK - Like many individuals passionate about the live events and performance industry, Philip French of Aldershot, UK-based rental and technical production company Peachy Productions was badly missing shows, gigs, and the camaraderie of delivering live events. He decided to do something about it, and with the support of the Surrey Event Professionals headed by Hannah Sheppard – which includes some of Surrey’s finest live event experts – the Peachy Playhouse was born. It offers two weeks of socially distanced, drive-in, COVID-compliant live entertainment, encompassing comedy, music, film and children’s shows designed to appeal to all sectors of the community, staged in the leafy environs and fresh air of Loseley Park near Guildford, Surrey. Providing the full technical production – staging, lighting, sound, and video – plus crew, Phil and lighting desi
UK - “We’re in this together,” has been a common rallying cry for communities throughout the world as they deal with the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. Andy Tugby took this to heart when he turned his home into an inspiring symbol in the Cornwall town of Camborne With business at his company, SoundONE Disco, halted because of the prohibition on events, Tugby brought some of his idle Chauvet DJ lighting fixtures home to his 160-year old house and created a Light It Blue display, the kind normally seen on landmarks and public buildings. “I felt this would be a nice gesture for my neighbours,” said Tugby. “At 8 pm people would come out to cheer the NHS, so I wanted to create an uplifting visual that would support them and serve as a positive symbol.” Working with his DJ Sam Luke Barns, Tugby positioned four freestanding and batte
Australia - Astera LED sales have been growing in Australia since the brand was fully introduced there at the start of 2019, with several leading lighting rental companies investing, including Elite Event Technology based in Canberra. Elite, headed by owner and founder Darren Russell, will typically supply a full production package – lighting, audio, video rigging and staging – to its clients, embracing all sectors of the industry, from music events to corporates and industrials, TV and theatre productions. Last year Elite purchased 96 x Astera AX1 PixelTubes in kits of eight with “all the bits”, supplied by ULA Group, Astera’s exclusive distributor for Australia and New Zealand. More recently – and in spite of the pandemic - the company has invested in another 48 AX1’s and 48 x Astera AX5’s with a full complement of accessories which are for gen
UK - ChamSys has introduced the MagicQ MQ500M Stadium console. This new desk, which offers 256 universes of control direct from the console without the need for additional processing nodes, gives designers and programmers greater flexibility at the highest level of show control, says the company. The MagicQ MQ500M Stadium incorporates an array of software features that support motorised playback faders, playback encoders and customizable illumination. Thanks to its motorized function, the playback section can be used for multiple purposes with shortcut buttons to change the function. With 15 motorised faders and 15 playback encoders per bank - and up to six banks - a total of 180 playbacks can be accessed at the touch of a button. RGB LED illumination enables different colours to be assigned to each individual fader and playback encoder enabling unlimited customisatio
USA - Elation Professional has added a full-colour-spectrum soft light to its KL series (Key Light) of broadcast-quality LED luminaires, the KL Panel. Broadcast environments require bright and highly variable lighting of very high quality. The KL Panel LED soft light delivers with superior output, precise colour temperature control, full-spectrum colour rendering and an even wash coverage. Using an efficient 295W RGBW + Lime + Cyan LED Array, the KL Panel produces soft white or full-colour washes up to 24,000 field lumens at a 100° half-peak angle. Colour reproduction is also of the highest quality with a CRI over 95 while colour temperature is easily adjustable from 2,000 to 10,000K for a wide choice of variable colour or white shade projections. Additional colour tuning is possible through a green-shift adjustment and virtual gel library. Besides its wide spe
USA - ADJ’s new Pixie Strip Series is now shipping worldwide. The series includes three sizes of pixel strip bars, which can be combined together in any combination to fit with the dimensions and design of a stage’s set or venue’s interior design. The largest model, the Pixie Strip 120 measures 2m (78.8”) in length and features 120 tri-colour RGB SMD LEDs. The mid-size bar in the series is the Pixie Strip 60, which is 1m (39.4”) long and is fitted with 60 LEDs. Finally, the smallest model in the series is the Pixie Strip 30, a 0.5m bar that features 30 LEDs. All three models have the same 16.5mm pixel pitch and are designed such that seamless pixel spacing can be achieved when any two fixtures are placed end-to-end. To aid with setting this up, the units are all fitted with magnetic end caps that will snap adjacent fixtures together to create a seamless run o
The Netherlands - ETC has announced the addition of Robbi Nassi as field project coordinator for the Northern European territory. Based out of Amsterdam, Robbi will be responsible for providing sales support in the Benelux region. His role will involve managing projects and supporting regional sales manager Tim Stokholm in developing the customer and dealer network throughout the territory. With over 18 years of experience in the industry, his interest in the field began with a Performing Arts Technology degree at the Tshwane University of Technology where he went on to specialize in lighting. Prior to ETC, he was at Electrosonic SA where he worked in a sales position as a live events manager before moving to Sydney, Australia to pursue further career advancements as a technical sales representative for Event Communications. Robbi has worked on several large projects
South Africa - In a live stream filmed at MGG Productions in Sandton, and hosted on SACIA's YouTube channel, the technical production and live events industry announced the launch the national campaign #LightSAred, to be held on 5 August 2020. Sharif Baker, chair of the TPSA, announced that the technical production and live events industry will be spearheading a symbolic resistance campaign that will see buildings across the country lit up in red on 05 August. "The colour red is the international colour of emergency," Baker explains. "We are following the example set by our colleagues in Germany and the UK in lighting our national monuments red to highlight the desperate plight of our industry under current lockdown policies and regulations." Baker went on to emphasise that the #LightSAred campaign is not affiliated with any political body or ideology. "We are simply a
USA - The owner of Life Is Art Studios, Daniel Thibault created the lighting design for No Parking On The Dance Floor, a drive-in concert by Top Ten dubstep artists Subtronic and Boogie T. Just under 2,000 fans (in 500 cars) attended the sold-out show, which took place at the Hounds Drive-In Theatre in Kings Mountain, NC, with each vehicle being separated by a wide distance. Normally, when designing for a crowd that size, Thibault builds his rig for an intimate venue, focusing on tight angles, back lighting, side lighting, and close-in specials. But given the generous space between cars at this drive-in show, he had to adjust his approach. “This was definitely different,” says Thibault. “It was still a 2,000-person show, but I had to design the show, and my LD Aaron Lenchek had to run it, as if it were for a much bigger event, because the fans were so spread out.
UK - Goboplus Ltd and Rosco have teamed up to supply a gobo designed to be used light up buildings and venues in support of PLASA’s #WeMakeEvents campaign. Goboplus is offering the themed glass gobo at a discount price to help more companies and individuals take part in the campaign, which aims to raise awareness of the struggles of the live events industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company has also launched a new range of gobos to be used for projecting social distancing safety markings. In addition, Goboplus has put together three competitively-priced packages that include a lantern and gobo for projecting safety messages. The Goboquick is ideal for applications that require a compact fixture for easy LED gobo projection. Ideal for clubs, bars, restaurants and shopping malls, this silent gobo projector provides easy adjustment of focus.
USA - It was easy to get caught up in the excitement of the Riverview School’s annual fundraising gala with its spirited live auction, stage shows and convivial company, all set against a 16-acre Cape Cod campus in Derry, NH. The Events United team experienced this first hand last year when they provided the lighting, audio, video and scenic elements for the popular affair at the boarding school, which serves 11 to 22-year old students with learning challenges. Tim Messina and his team at Events United knew that they would have their work cut out when the school turned to them this year, in the wake of the COVID-19 lockdown, and asked them to host a virtual gala at their Studio Lab facility. “A big challenge for us was to take an event that was already spectacular in the live setting and create the same effect for guests virtually,” said Chase Clark, production m
UK - On Monday 6 July in collaboration with Brighton and Hove Council and many of the city's event venues, The Brighton Event Professionals Independent Committee (EPIC) joined the Light It In Red initiative aimed at bring attention on the crisis within the events industry during the COVID-19 lockdown. At 9pm on this day, many of the city's venues and outdoor event spaces turned red, including The Old Market Theatre in Hove, lit up by 96 Prolights Smart Bat. Brighton-based Reveries Events took charge of the installation. Director John Wallis, reports, “The Old Market Theatre is a high quality live theatre and venue. To light up its imposing facade we chose the Smart Bat wireless uplighters as we needed a fixture with a small enough footprint that also had a great output of light. The Smart BatPlus was quick to set up and gave us the flexibility of making changes to th
France - Jacky Fregonese of French lighting and visual rental and production company Loctambule, based near Strasbourg, has put smiles on faces with a series of amusing product and business tutorials that have gained a large fan following on social media. With all events and shows cancelled and the industry closing down with the French COVID-19 lockdown, Jacky, who heads the company with his wife Catherine Saint-Georges, wanted to do something creative to boost morale while so many usually busy companies and talented technicians, designers, production managers, event organisers all push through until events can re-start. Jacky was originally inspired to start the funny tutorials with products Loctambule has in rental stock, which includes Robe MegaPointes, Esprites, BMFL Blades and PixelPATTs, all of which have featured and generated interest amongst technicians and ot
Germany - German Light Products (GLP) has announced an automatic 12-month product warranty extension for any of its products with an original warranty due to expire between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021. The company has been using the hashtag #keepthelighton and #KTLO during the pandemic. The year-long extension is being applied to every product within the GLP portfolio. In order to simplify the process, the extension has already been registered through every GLP office and those of their distributors. Customers are not required to take action in order to ensure that the extension will be applied as this has already been done. “GLP recognises and understands that the vast majority of our products have been sitting idle for many months, and will continue to do so in anticipation of their next call to duty,” declared Ud
USA - Following many weeks of COVID-19 lockdown, the people of Athens, Texas had the opportunity to enjoy live music again last month when neighbourhood event space Common Area Market hosted a community music festival called CAM Fest. Production for the event was supplied by fledgling local company Gain Stage Productions, including a lighting rig comprised exclusively of ADJ LED-powered fixtures. Based on the site of a 100-year-old cotton gin that serves as a local landmark in Athens but had been abandoned for decades, Common Area Market is the brainchild of Marine Corps vets and married couple Chris and Amanda Marholz. The vision for Common Area Market is a venue where the people of Athens can gather to eat, enjoy live music and celebrate big events. Following a successful Kickstarter campaign last year, the first phase of the site’s redevelopment has been completed
UK - The newly lit Mirfield Station underpass in West Yorkshire is the first UK installation for the new Eminere RGBW LED fixtures from architectural lighting brand Anolis – a Robe business – with 16 luminaires installed as part of an improvement works scheme undertaken by train operator Grand Central and partner JMD Rain Ltd. in conjunction with Kirklees Council and Network Rail. The new lighting transforms the previously dull, moody, and uninviting dark space on Station Road beneath the railway tracks – through which passengers must pass before accessing the station – into a vibrant, welcoming, contemporary, and comfortable space. The Emineres were specified by lighting designer Kevin Dugdale from Winchester-based Designs for Lighting, who is a specialist in street and public space lighting. Kevin has been working as a consultant to Kirklees Council, th
USA - Chauvet Professional has introduced the F6 Strip IP linear video panel. Measuring 1000 x 34.5 x 68.2 mm (39.37 x 1.36 x 2.69 in), the new outdoor-ready product can fit in tight spaces, add an extra dimension to set pieces, and be arranged in unique patterns, making it suited for a wide variety of applications, including drive-in shows and livestream productions, says the company. A 6.9 mm pitch strip, the F6 Strip IP is compatible with all Chauvet Professional F series panels, allowing it to display the same images as other video pieces on the stage. It works with the VIP Drive 83R Nova, using the Novastar control protocol. The VIP Drive 83R Nova can auto-detect F6 Strip IPs when they’re plugged in, making it easy to ‘drag-n-drop’ into the mapping software. “The F6 Strip IP opens up new options for incorporating video displays into designs,” said
UK - Techs on the Decks saw 24 artists and technicians unite to present a 24-hour electronic music live stream broadcast on Facebook Live, YouTube and Twitch. The event - which has currently fundraised £4,000 for technical entertainment charity Backup - was the brainchild of Gordon Torrington from Hampshire-based rental company Liteup. The idea was spawned from a conversation he had with Liteup’s MD Marc Callaghan and freelance LD Warren Hutchison about the work of the charity in supporting many industry peers including a friend and colleague of all at Liteup, lighting director and programmer Jonathan Rouse who passed away recently and is much missed. Techs on the Decks was viewed by 37,000 people creating a buzz around the industry and giving those directly involved a chance to do what they are so passionate about, as the industry remains closed since mid-ma
UK - Cornwall’s Eden Project was born of optimism in 1996, when the visionary Sir Tim Smit announced, what many thought to be an impossible plan: to convert a defunct 160-year old clay pit into a site that would become a world-renowned attraction and education centre. This July, the Eden Project served as a new symbol of hope, when GLX Productions used a collection of Chauvet Professional COLORado Q40 LED panels to create a brilliant glow throughout its massive Biomes as part of Light It In Red, the initiative aimed at drawing attention to the severe challenges faced by the entertainment and event industry in the UK and the entire world. The vivid red hues that shimmered through the hexagonal cladding panels of the Biomes, (like the light that shined on other iconic structures throughout the UK), not only raised awareness of the situation faced by the 25,000 business
South Africa - The South African event industry is planning a widespread protest action to highlight the lack of government support for the sector, which has been severely affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Taking place on 5 August, the Light SA Red campaign is calling on anyone concerned about the future of live events to join in by illuminating a building in ‘emergency red’. The campaign is inspired by Germany’s Night of Light and the UK’s Light It In Red. To shine a light on the lack of state backing for the industry, it will take place exactly five months since South Africa enforced a blanket ban on all live events due to COVID-19, leaving many freelancers, venues and businesses out of work. “The South African events industry is dying, and we are being ignored,” say the organisers in a statement. “Our aim is for government and financial institutio
Puerto Rico - Drone show specialist Verge Aero delivered a stunning aerial performance on 4 July at Puerto Rico’s first drive-in music festival in San Juan, headlined by local artist Pedro Capó. Promoted by Move Concerts (Puerto Rico) and No Limit Entertainment, the AT&T Drive-In Summer Fest was the island’s first step towards the return of live events since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. Verge Aero was called in by Roly Garbalosa of Garba Music Corp to add its specialist technology to the event. A renowned production manager on the Latin American music scene, Garbalosa was looking for a spectacular way for the concert’s main sponsor, communications company AT&T, to announce its launch of 5G network services in Puerto Rico. With corporate sponsorship playing an increasingly major role in live events, Verge Aero’s drone technology presents
USA - GearSource Holdings, operator of the GearSource.com web platform since 2002, is launching in August the G3 Marketplace, the company’s third major generational upgrade to its platform. Founder Marcel Fairbairn comments: “It’s funny, but people have become so complacent in their beliefs that all software should magically perform with perfection, while following advancements in technology you’d see from tech giants including Google, Facebook and Apple. In fact, I remember a customer saying to me, why can’t your search just work - like Google. The obvious answer is that we don’t employ thousands of world class engineers to work exclusively on our search functionality. In fact, we have three great coders, developing and maintaining our entire e-commerce platform,” says Fairbairn. Fairbairn understands the challenges of bringing a complex project to lif
Canada - Lighting designer Pierre Roy has toured extensively over a 30-year career as well as handled lighting duties for a number of artists in his own hometown of Quebec. For this year’s Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, he lit a special Facebook Live concert by one of the top rock artists in Quebec, Martin Deschamps, using an Elation rig directed by an Obsidian Control Systems NX4 console, a lighting control platform Roy has worked with for much of his career. Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day is one of the most important holidays in Quebec and across French Canada, a day to display the region’s fleur-de-lys flag and celebrate its Francophone identity with parades and outdoor concerts. With a storm in the forecast however, the Martin Deschamps show was moved indoors, on very short notice, to the Rolland-Brunelle Cultural Centre in Joliette, Quebec. Although the 24-hour notification mea
France - More commonly known by her stage name, Izïa, Izïa Higelin is the rock star daughter of 70s pop legend Jacques Higelin. The Senegal-born actress and musician recently completed a 24-date French tour on the back of her new album, Citadelle. It took an inspired deployment of GLP’s X4 atom, with its tiny form factor, by the artist’s LD, Jordan Magnée, to provide an imaginative backdrop. The result was a tiltable matrix of 96 atoms (from a total complement of 124 pieces), each with a 30W full-colour LED source, to bring the scenography to life. These were mounted on a structure fabricated by S Group, which also supplied the fixtures, having purchased them specifically for the tour. The versatility of the atom was demonstrated in the 9:1 zoom ratio - from a wide 34° wash down to a tight 3.5° beam - that enabled a constant variation of narrowing or ex
