USA - ZZ Top recently wrapped up a tour celebrating their 50th year as a band with a lighting package provided by Bandit Lites. Comprised of Billy Gibbons, Frank Beard and Dusty Hill, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band formed in 1969 and have sold more than 50m albums worldwide
Lighting designer John Lucksinger conceived a classic par can rig made up of moving lights to give the band the authentic rock look of yester-years.
“It’s been a fun time,” says Lucksinger. “Three guys on stage. No real frills. Just guys playing great music. It has been different in that the last few tours I was behind the console for where we had a lot of trucks, huge video walls, and lots of lights. This is just a plain and simple rock show. The band doesn’t like movement in the lighting, so the show is mostly big rock looks with hits of lights and colour chases. I’m just trying

USA - Building on the momentum of last year’s inaugural event, the West Coast Music Festival treated fans to a star-studded line up of hip-hop, DJ and rap artists this fall. Headlining the festival at Tucson’s Mercado district was Ice Cube. Supporting the festival, was a punchy and flexible light show created by John Garberson and his team at Creative BackStage that featured Chauvet Professional fixtures.
“We built our design around a large video wall,” says Garberson. “Inter Technologies, supplied the screen and hired us to do the lighting. The wall displayed some iconic images for Ice Cube. We needed lights that would stand up to the bright wall and provide colour and movement to energize the looks for Ice Cube’s show. We also needed the fixtures to be flexible enough to create distinctive looks that reflected the music of the other artists.”
Garberson

South Africa - The Joburg Zoo Festival of Lights, held in partnership with the Joburg Theatre and the City of Johannesburg, has transformed the city’s zoological gardens into a night-time wonderland for both young and old this festive season.
Many of the trees at Joburg Zoo are more than a hundred years old and contribute to the city’s magnificent forest canopy. The Festival of Lights pays homage to these majestic forest giants by bathing them in light over the festive season for all to enjoy.
Johnny Scholtz, architectural lighting specialist at DWR Distribution, worked with Joburg Zoo management and the City of Johannesburg to come up with a design for the temporary installation of lighting fixtures and audio equipment for this year’s festival. “There were a number of factors that we needed to take into consideration, such as the sheer size of th

Iceland - Prolights has appointed Exton as its new distributor for Iceland.
Exton’s Vignir Hreinsson (project manager) and Sigurjón Sigurðsson (sales manager) comment: “Our motto is ‘ambition built on equality, cooperation and fun’. We take great pride in assisting our clients in any way needed and delivering on time world class services. It means a lot to us to be able to work in this kind of industry.
“When we first approached to Prolights, we immediately appreciated their vision, intuition and quality. Prolights’ broad selection of equipment really impressed us.”
Paolo Albani, international sales manager for Prolights, adds: “Exton shares our philosophy and they are well known as a top products supplier in their country. I have no doubt that their expertise will help Prolights gain popularity throughout Iceland and we are beyond proud they jo

Australia - ADJ entered a distribution partnership with the ULA Group for Australia and New Zealand on 1 December. 
Established in 1992, ULA supplies rental houses of all sizes as well as supporting major installers who provide clients with market-leading visual solutions and services. Working from three offices spread across Australia, in addition to a dedicated facility in New Zealand, the company demonstrates versatility and commitment to each project it undertakes, whether a standalone display for an event or an extensive collaboration with a publicly listed corporation.
“We are extremely excited to extend our partnership with ADJ Group and include the world renowned ADJ product range in our portfolio,” comments Cuono (Con) Biviano, managing director of ULA Group. “The globally strong ADJ brand represents a vast range of innovative products with great ROI an

Columbia - Juan Luis Guerra recently kicked off his 2019 Literal Juan Luis Guerra 4.40 Tour Grandes Éxitos with a complete Robe specification for the lighting rig, which has been designed by Daniel Charif and is being operated and directed on the road by Emmanuel Ferry, who also programmed.
The three-time Grammy and 21-time Latin Grammy award-winning artist, musician, singer, composer and record producer has sold over 70m records worldwide and is one of the most internationally recognised Dominican artists. His signature merengue / Afro-Latin fusion style has been distinctive, popular and successful, and for this tour he is playing alongside his band, 440, creating a diverse mix of sounds in an entertaining live show.
Bogota’s new Movistar Arena provided the second stop on the tour, The show was completely sold-out with the majority of the Robe moving lights supplie

UK - A large pyramid-shaped scenic element defined the stage in the British Theatre Academy’s recent production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at London’s Compass Theatre.
The pyramid succeeded in conveying a sense of time and place, but thanks to a collaboration between the BTA’s artistic director Dean Johnson and lighting designer Andrew Exeter, it also did much more.
Constructed with six Chauvet Professional COLORdash Batten-Quad-12 fixtures, supplied by T&B Events, the distinctive triangular structure was used to create a flowing wave of colour changes that accentuated the powerful current of emotions running through this story of hope, betrayal, courage, and redemption.
“Dean and I have worked together on many projects,” says Exeter. “His concept for the set in this production called for having this giant pyramid act

UK - White Light has supplied the lighting equipment for [BLANK] which recently ran at the Donmar Warehouse.
[BLANK] is a theatrical provocation, which marks 40 years of Clean Break, a theatre company that works with women affected by the criminal justice system. Featuring over 100 unnamed scenes, [BLANK] sees the director Maria Aberg choose 30 of these in order to create the production.
Featuring an all-female cast and creative team, the show has a lighting design by Jess Bernberg, who comments: “After attending meetings with Maria and Rosie Elnile (set designer), we came to the decision to keep the aesthetic quite open. Whilst part of Rosie’s inspiration for the set was mother and baby units in women’s prison, we didn’t want to create any literal space, instead choosing practical lights to break up the space and adding a sense of uniform

USA - Premier Productions recently wrapped a special 2019 USA arena tour featuring multi-platinum-selling artists Casting Crowns, Hillsong Worship and Elevation Worship. Bandit Lites provided the lighting for the concert series as each evening showcased the three acts as they gathered their fan bases for a night of worship and praise.
“It takes teamwork to pull off a show of this nature and I must say each individual involved worked together in tandem to make this show look easy and beautiful,” said Bandit Lites vice president Mike Golden. “I had the pleasure of working with production manager Cory Edwards for the first time and I was extremely impressed with his professional, confident demeanour. Putting a show of this magnitude together with three very high-profile acts requires attention to detail as well as being able to adjust on the fly. Cory guided the ship on

South Africa - Over the past few years, Blond Productions has established a strong reputation as a leading supplier of turn-key technical solutions for the live events, television and film industries across Africa.
In line with the company’s commitment to maintaining the highest technical standards, company owner, Christiaan Ballot, and the Blond Productions team have recently taken delivery of 12 Robe Esprite fixtures from DWR Distribution, Robe’s African distribution partner.
“Blond Productions services a niche clientele, and the industry has come to rely on us to bring the latest and best in production lighting to the table. We always try to invest in technology that ensures that we not only meet, but exceed our client’s expectations, and which sets us apart from the competition,” Christiaan points out.
According to Christiaan, Blond has been looki

USA - Red Rocks Amphitheatre has attracted the attention of some of the greatest musical acts in the world since 1941. Everyone from The Beatles and the Rolling Stones to U2, James Taylor, and the Eagles has played Red Rocks.
Nestled just outside of Denver, Colorado in the tiny town of Morrison, where the Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains, two giant rocks jut out from the earth creating an open-air performance venue that is nearly acoustically perfect. These monoliths not only create the perfect natural sound stage, but also provide a mesmerizing background for some impressive lighting effects.
In the spring of 2019, Barbizon Light of the Rockies completed the installation and programming of an upgraded lighting package at Red Rocks Amphitheatre. Until 2019, large 400 W mercury-vapor lights lit the historic rocks and eight outdoor PAR 64s lit the audience.

France - The eyes of the global gaming community were focused on the spectacular final of Riot Games’ League of Legends World Championship in November as teams battled to be crowned the 2019 winners.
An estimated 100m people live streamed the tournament, with a capacity 20,000 in attendance at the AccorHotels Arena in Paris. With due modesty, Riot Games CEO Nicolo Laurent described the final as “the biggest event in the history of esports”.
A grand opening ceremony kickstarted proceedings, with new projection technology simulating immersive holographs interacting with real-life singers and dancers.
TSL Lighting worked with production company Concom and lighting designers Arnold Serame of Serame Design and LeRoy Bennett of Seven Design Works to supply, deliver and man a full lighting and control system comprising more than 1,000 fixtures.
Eight trucks

Germany - From 4-10 November, Berlin was transformed into an open-air exhibition and event venue as part of a large-scale festival. Used to illuminate a 150m long artistic Skynet along Straße des 17. Juni, as well as a large festival-ending stage show at Brandenburg Gate, were Elation weatherproof Proteus and Paladin series luminaires. celebrating the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall
The city honoured the peaceful revolution of the autumn of 1989 with numerous exhibitions, events and art projects. One of the most interesting was a Skynet of approximately 120,000 ultra-light, partially reflective flags onto which 30,000 people from all over the world had inscribed with handwritten messages and memories of the events of 30 years ago. Installed on behalf of the Kulturprojekte Berlin GmbH, the Skynet was the creation of Patrick Shearn and his team at the American

USA - ChamSys has become one of the first lighting console manufacturers to release software capable of importing GDTF personality files directly.
The company’s ChamSys MagicQ software is free to download for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It supports an output on up to 64 universes without additional hardware or dongles, making it an ideal test platform for GDTF.
In addition to importing the basic channel information from GDTF, the MagicQ inbuilt MagicVis 3D visualisation and plot views will automatically make use of 3D and 2D information provided in the GDTF files.
Demoed at LDI, ChamSys MagicQ software with the ability to import GDTF personality files received an overwhelmingly enthusiastic reception from all who saw it.
Chris Kennedy, ChamSys’ software director, comments: "ChamSys is a strong supporter of GDTF and the philosophy behind it. The entertai

Robe equipment was chosen to be part of a new permanent multimedia spectacular, From Dusk to Dawn, which is projected onto the western slope of Masada Mountain near the Dead Sea in Israel.
The area is operated by Israel Nature and Parks, a government organisation that manages nature reserves and national parks across the country. This environment is also a UNESCO designated World Heritage Site.
Robe BMFL Blades and IP rated Robe ColorStrobes are now a main part of the light show designed by Eran Klein & Ben Alon from Cochavi & Klein light architects which supports the new large format (approx. 120m wide and 60m high) video images which are mapped onto the mountain’s rugged terrain.
The lighting supports the moving images and the narrative as it covers this vast canvass with a series of special lighting and effects, complete with a dramatic soundtrack

UK - Television lighting director Bernie Davis successfully trialled the new VL2600 Profile LED luminaire from Vari-Lite on the BBC Proms classical music festival this summer.
Staged through August and September at London’s Royal Albert Hall, the BBC Proms has an intense schedule, with concerts broadcast daily on BBC Radio and many performances recorded or broadcast live on BBC Television. With such time pressures, it’s essential for lighting fixtures to be reliable and versatile, but also quiet in operation and great-looking on camera.
“I was looking for a good, programmable profile spot that would be quiet enough for use on the Proms yet flexible enough to provide a high-quality light source with good zoom range, good shuttering on a flat field, and colour suitable for camera,” says Davis.
Having seen a demo of VL2600 Profile, Davis decided to trial the

USA - In addition to the 11 new lighting fixtures and LED video panels announced in the run-up to the event, ADJ used LDI 2019 to launch four extra products.
The Encore Profile Pro range is a new series of professional LED-powered ellipsoidal fixtures designed for theatrical, broadcast and performance environments. The Focus Spot 6Z and Focus Wash 400, meanwhile, are head luminaires that join the ranks of ADJ’s popular Focus Series.
The Focus Spot 6Z harnesses the power of a 300W cool white LED engine and pairs it with precision-engineered optics to create an impressively sharp and bright output. While still retaining a compact design, this is ADJ’s most feature-rich Focus Series moving head to date.
Bringing a dedicated wash luminaire to the Focus Series for the first time, the new Focus Wash 400 features a 400W HEX LED engine (red, green, blue, amber, cyan

USA - Claypaky launched a North America operation and enjoyed award success at the recent LDI tradeshow held in Las Vegas.
The company’s European and American team joined forces on the stand, designed in keeping with the ‘It's Real’ marketing campaign that marked the launch of the laser-source beam moving head, Xtylos, in North America. Dedicated demos took place every hour and visitors also saw the Mini-B, the HY B-EYE, the Axcor series fixtures; the Sharpy Plus, and three fixtures which made their world premieres - Sharpy Plus AQUA, ReflectXion and CloudIO.
Meanwhile, Xtylos took home two LDI Awards, winning the Best Debuting Product Award and the Best Advancement in Lamp Technology Award.
Claypaky CEO Marcus Graser comments: “We have invested a lot of resources in recent years, not just to create an innovative luminaire, but to conceive and develop a t

Spain - The Love the 90s festival staged three ‘extravaganza’ shows in 2019 in Madrid, Seville and Valencia.
Lighting and show designer Eduardo Valverde from Madrid-based creative specialist Pixelmap Studios was this year’s creative director, and his brief included imagineering the stage layout, set architecture including LED screens and the lighting.
Prominent on his lighting plot were around 150 Robe moving lights including Pointes, MegaPointes, LEDBeam 150s and LEDWash 800s, complete with three RoboSpot systems run with BMFL Spots, all supplied by rental company Fluge.
Due to the different venues, the rig design varied slightly for all of the shows, but the Robes were right at the heart of the aesthetics for each of the one-day hi-energy, all-action concerts featuring a dynamic multi-artist line-up with Dr Alban, La Bouche, Sonique and many more classic

USA - Keeping pace with Don Broco on their first North American tour this autumn was a fast-moving Steve Kosiba lighting design that featured Chauvet Professional Rogue fixtures from Squeek Lights.
“The show is very high energy,” explains Kosiba. “Don Broco has a big sound with lots of changes. The band is like a force of nature on stage. I wanted to reflect that with the lighting. One way we did this was to get very detailed with the cueing, as this was a timecoded show. We had 256 cues in one particular song.”
Kosiba also reflected the flavour of his client’s stage presence by directing light in multiple directions, often changing the orientation of beams quickly and dramatically to accent different moments. “Different positions keep the show visually interesting,” he said. “This is something I always try to do. I want to change up positions as much

USA - Mark Carver, lead designer at Nashville-based Carver Lighting Design, turned to Elation’s compact Smarty Hybrid moving head to help the GMA Dove Awards celebrate their 50th anniversary. Presented by the Gospel Music Association and aired exclusively on the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), the Dove Awards have honoured excellence in Christian and Gospel Music since 1969.
The 50th anniversary show was held 15 October at Nashville's Lipscomb University. With multiple awards to hand out and 20 performances to light across both a main and satellite stage, Carver says diversity in looks was essential. “The Smarty Hybrids were definitely the main workhorse fixture on the show,” states Carver, who has lit the awards show for the last few years. “This isn’t the type of show where we had a lot of different fixtures to choose from so we really relied on the Smarty

France - Lighting industry professionals are invited to present their ideas for conference papers for the 2021 programme of Showlight, the quadrennial event taking place on 22-25 May 2021 in Fontainebleau.
Anyone involved in lighting - whether lighting designers, lighting directors, directors of photography, architectural lighting designers or those in associated crafts like programmers and manufacturers - are invited to submit their ideas.
Subjects might include innovative designs; unusual projects, large or small; solving the impossible; the future and the past - where should we be going and what should we have learned; issues that are affecting our industry and how we work. Talks are to be 20 minutes in length to enable as many papers as possible to be presented over the three-day period.
If you would like to become part of Showlight 2021 by presenting a pape

UK - Stage Engage has invested in Luxibel B Blinded1 fixtures for its growing film premiere and product launch events.
The pro AV and staging company, based in London and Exeter, was looking for an IP-rated, LED stage blinder solution for high profile projects such as the BBC Peaky Blinders season 6 world premiere, which took place in Birmingham.
“We were looking for a multi-purpose, high brightness, IP-rated fixture that we could use for a variety of corporate events, film premieres and product launches,” says Cameron Baker, operations manager at Stage Engage. “The quality of the Blinded1 is very good and they have been super reliable. The connectors are great, the display makes sense and the quality of the materials is very good. Investing in them was a no-brainer.”
Created as the little brother of the B Blinded, the 110W B Blinded1 has the same functi

South Africa - Newzroom Afrika, a channel on Multi-Choice’s DStv satellite pay-TV service, went live earlier this year in time for the South African elections. The set, based at their new premises in Linden, was designed by Michael Gill Designs, built by Sets Drapes Screens (SDS), part of the Gearhouse Group of Companies and features Absen DW 2.9 LED panels, Green Hippo Boreal+ and dot2 lighting console supplied by DWR Distribution.
“The project was very exciting,” says Michael Gill of MGD. “I can honestly say that Thokozani Nkosi and Thabile Ngwato, the television producers and entrepreneurs, are the two most forward-thinking individuals I have ever worked with. Their way of thinking is so youthful, fresh and digital. The mindset behind Newzroom Afrika is that news breaks on your telephone these days and not always on TV. With an emphasis on social media platforms l

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