Italy - Following the resignation of the former chairman Silvano Latteo, DTS Illuminazione has announced the appointment of Dante Latteo as chief executive officer. Dante Latteo has been appointed as new CEO in the pursuit of the company’s business continuous growth, says DTS. He is one of the founding members of the company and has been serving DTS for decades as senior board member. The new management will continue the company development process started a year ago, giving new impetus to the products innovation and brand repositioning in the world market, as well as consolidating the domestic achievements. A DTS statemenent says, “All at DTS would like to express their gratitude to Silvano Latteo for the decades of commitment as chairman. Silvano's efforts contributed to expand and consolidate the company business, thanks to his entrepreneurial attitude and in se
The doors of PLASA Show 2019 open in just a few days from 15-17 September at Olympia London, where thousands of visitors will experience the leading edge of live entertainment technology. With 220+ brands, 55+ educational sessions and a plethora of immersive features, this year’s show is ready to serve industry professionals from all sectors. PLASA’s Managing Director Peter Heath comments: “Last year’s edition of PLASA Show was heralded for its high footfall and vibrant atmosphere. We have worked hard to build upon this by offering more brands and new features for a show that is both enjoyable and productive. Of course, we couldn’t do it without the exhibitors and their technology which has developed at a dizzying rate over the years – PLASA is proud to provide a platform for such innovation, and we can’t wait to share what’s in store.”
UK - Southwest London venue Under the Bridge has benefited from the installation of a new LED wall as well as lighting and audio upgrades at its premises. “Since Under the Bridge launched in 2011, we’ve taken great pride being one of the UK’s most unique and technically-advanced, mid-sized, multi-purpose venues for hire,” says creative manager, Alan Tenenbaum. “With approximately 100 confirmed events scheduled to host for the remainder of 2019, we’re excited to share this production upgrade with our clients and audiences. The upgrade puts our intimate venue in a class of its own, beyond comparison.” The 3.9mm pixel-pitch LED screen from Absen supports a video resolution higher than Full HD (1080p), making it ideal for presentations, image projections and video content. The venue also has a new LED lighting rig, expanding the existing stock to offe
UK - German LED manufacturer Astera - integrated into the Ambersphere booth - will show its complete range of battery-powered wirelessly-operated LED products at PLASA 2019 in London, including the entire Titan family. This comprises the award-winning and popular standard 1m long Titan Tube; the little 55cm Helios Titan Tube; and the brand-new double-size 2m Hyperion Titan Tube, shown in the UK for the first time. Additionally, Astera its ever-growing range of accessories for use with Titan and their various other LED lighting products. Approximately 30 accessories will be mounted on a special ‘feature’ wall, displayed so visitors can clearly and easily see everything available to make their Astera fixtures even more flexible and adaptable. Several of these accessories will also be being displayed in the UK for the first time. Other highlights will incl
UK - City Theatrical will be demonstrating new technology on Stand H50 at PLASA Show 2019 in Olympia London from 15-17 September. Live demonstrations by City Theatrical will include PLASA 2019 Award for Innovation nominees Multiverse Transmitter 2.4GHz and Pathway Connectivity Pathport Octo DMX/RDM Gateway, new QolorFLEX HiQ, UV, and 5-in-1 LED Tape, and more. In addition to its recent nomination for the upcoming PLASA Awards for Innovation, the Multiverse wireless DMX/RDM system was recognised as the winner of the Live Design Award for Best Debuting Product at LDI 2018 for its ability to broadcast up to 10 universes of DMX data while using less radio energy than other single universe wireless DMX transmitters. Multiverse wireless DMX products use mDMX, a form of DMX proprietary to City Theatrical, which is optimised for wireless broadcast to dramatically reduce the a
Poland - Rental and visual production company Transcolor has invested in 200 Robe Spiider LED wash beams. These have been added to their rental stock which currently owns several thousand lighting fixtures including around 1,000 Robe moving lights. The company was founded in 1992 by Lucjan Siwczyk and has enjoyed success and respect as it has become active in all areas of professional lighting and visuals, especially TV, film, touring and corporate / special events. The current facilities just outside Warsaw are the company’s headquarters. In addition to offices and warehouses, this includes five full-size studios and rehearsal rooms which are in constant use for television and movie productions, promo and advertising shots, production rehearsals and a wide range of other events. As a lot of their work is TV and film-based, the proper quality of colours i
USA - Craig Richter believes in coming out of the gate fast when lighting a concert. “When the first song hits, I like the audience to get a full immersion of sound and light all at once,” he says of his design approach. Richter’s philosophy was on full display recently when he lit Grammy-winning rockers Halestorm on their coheadline tour with Alice Cooper with a rig that featured 52 Chauvet Professional fixtures, supplied by Bandit Lites. “This is an intense, no-nonsense rock band, so I wanted our show to match that feeling in terms of its power and directness,” says Richter. “The overall idea was to create a big massive look. I always aim to give the crowd a wow moment multiple times during the show, but I also don’t want to distract from what the band is doing on stage. People paid to come see Halestorm not me. So, for this design I wanted an old-schoo
Canada - Acting as a hub for performing arts in Winnipeg, the Centennial Concert Hall has long upheld a sense of community for the people of Manitoba. With a seating capacity in excess of 2,300, the venue is the largest performing arts space in Winnipeg. When Centennial Hall decided to upgrade its lighting system to improve energy efficiency and coverage, ArcSystem stood out as a top choice. The outdated system at Centennial Hall was causing multiple problems for the staff, patrons, and performers. On top of poor lighting quality, the old system required excessive maintenance. Denis Crymble, stage electrician at Centennial Hall, says, “I never liked the feeling of the light. To me, it was always dingy. The upkeep of it was horrendous. We had little to no flexibility in the old space.” For decades, the venue had few technology upgrades. Looking to the future, the Ce
Europe - Showlight, the quadrennial lighting colloquium, has launched a new website (www.showlight.org). The next event is taking place on 22-25 May 2021 in Fontainebleau, France. The website contains useful information to help visitors plan their attendance, as well as details on how to become a speaker, a sponsor, an exhibitor or a sponsored student. Once confirmed, speaker and exhibitor listings as well as details of the programme will become available on the website. Video clips of the last Showlight - which took place in 2017 in Florence, Italy - offer a tantalising taster of the kind of things you can expect at Showlight 2021 - this time with a little French flavour added to the favourite ingredients: an entertaining programme of conference papers and networking, mixed with pl
USA - Hard rock band Chevelle has embarked on a summer amphitheatre tour across North America, co-headlining with Breaking Benjamin and lit by Ayrton Khamsin LED profile fixtures. Chevelle has sold over four million albums in the US and has a new record forthcoming in 2020. Production designer, Robb Jibson of Chicago-based So Midwest was searching for a 1000W LED fixture, with a shuttering mechanism that could close completely over itself in one direction. He held a shoot-out featuring ‘the top contenders’ in the category. “While all the fixtures we tested did a good job, Khamsin was the most well-engineered, the most well-polished of the group,” Jibson reports. “Its optics, clarity and perceived brightness won out. I also liked its edge sharpness, the flatness of the field and the way it physically looked.” Bandit Lites, Chevelle’s lighting vendor, invested i
France - In Paris on 4 July, Grammy Award-winning jazz pianist Ahmed Jamal performed the world premiere of his album Ballades at The Louis Vuitton Foundation, a glass-clad, Frank Gehry-designed building that takes the form of a boat’s sails. Enhancing the dramatic impact of the moment was a lighting display by Puzzle SA that featured eight Chauvet Professional Rogue R1 FX-B fixtures. Arranged in an oval-like pattern behind centre-stage, their independently controlled moving heads pointing in multiple directions, the Rogue fixtures created beguiling geometric patterns that not only reflected Jamal’s music, but also harmonized with the large angular glass sails. Seemingly pointing in every direction at once as they reach for the sky, the building’s 12 glass sails work with its other features like the prismatic yellow columns by Danish artist Olafur Eliasso
Europe - Elation Professional’s European headquarters has appointed Alistair Smyth, a 24-year industry veteran who joins the growing office’s technical sales department. Smyth comes to Elation with background in customer, technical, sales and project support and will provide technical advice, assistance and training for Elation’s extensive product line. Originally from Northern Ireland, Smyth lived in England for many years before recently relocating to Kerkrade, The Netherlands, home of the Elation Europe headquarter office, where he has already started in the new position. ”I have moved from England to the Netherlands to join Elation and I am excited and happy to join the team here,” he says. “The Elation brand has been known to me for many years and I jumped at the chance to be a member of the technical and sales force. I hope to provide a valued contributio
UK - Robe will debut a moving head and a linear bar fixture whilst showcasing its latest lighting products for theatre, concert touring and rental on stand D40 at PLASA 2019 (15-17 September, London Olympia). The company is also launching the first in a new trilogy of live expo shows. Making an exhibition launch will be the Esprite LED profile moving light. The fixture houses a 650W WTE (White Transferrable Engine) light source - a changeable LED engine engineered in-house by Robe, through which the company promises to eliminate common white-source issues such as unpredictable life and performance inconsistency. Also debuting at the show will be Tetra (from Tetragnatha), a linear bar fixture that builds on Robe’s Spiider and Tarrantula LED technology. Utilising
UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) will exclusively show over 20 brands from across its dedicated lighting, rigging, audio and video sales divisions on stand E30 at PLASA 2019 (15-17 September, London Olympia). The stand will feature at least six products that have been nominated for the PLASA Awards for Innovation 2019, including the Prolights PixieWash XB, a single source RGB+WW LED wash light with extensive zoom and high CRI. Also nominated from Prolights is Mosaico XL, a long-throw IP66 LED fixture for projecting gobos and textures onto buildings and landscapes with colour mixing, animation wheel and framing shutters. LumenRadio’s TimoTwo module, which brings concurrent CRMX (wireless DMX/RDM) and Bluetooth to a single chip, and BroadWeigh’s Bluetooth system that sends data straight to a smart device, have also been nominated. Other nominees include
UK - ETC and High End Systems return to the PLASA Show (15-17 September, London Olympia) on stand J38A/B with a selection of new products, Tech Talks seminars by ETC specialists, and an evening of networking and Augment3d games. Visitors can explore the newest innovations including High End Systems’ TurboRay effects fixture; the Augment3d software for the Eos family of consoles, and the ArcSystem range of houselight fixtures. Augment3d is ETC’s first integrated 3D programming environment, which will be a part of the upcoming Eos v3.0 software. It combines pre-visualisation, live interaction and augmented reality, allowing users to work more effectively before and during production periods. On Monday, 16 September, visitors can attend ETC’s networking event from 5pm where there will be an extra chance for attendees to experience first-hand how to pro
USA - Perry Farrell recently wrapped a tour with a lighting package provided by Bandit Lites. Farrell, Jane’s Addiction front man and a founder of the Lollapalooza festival, dazzled audiences with deep cuts, popular favourites and new songs from his most recent project, Kind Heaven, his first solo album since 2001. Lighting designers Todd Erickson and Mark Janowitz created a rig that would be versatile enough to provide the classic rock look to match earlier songs as well as lower light movement look for the newer material. “The artist had some clear vision of some photographic artists that he wanted the set pieces to look like,” says Erickson. Bandit Lites supplied GLP X4S as side light across the band, casting the low-light, theatre look. GLP X4 Bar 20 provided light to the set pieces from below as well as acting a gradient light source, while V
USA - With a rich history of providing a genuine worship experience to families across the greater Orlando area, Calvary Orlando has recently set off on a new direction. Wanting to better illuminate the sanctuary as part of a complete lighting and dimming upgrade, they turned to Techni-Lux who designed and specified a new house system filled with Chalice LED downlights from Altman Lighting. “Calvary Orlando is the second largest church in the Orlando area, and it is also used as a special event and live concert facility,” says Tony Hansen, Techni-Lux head lighting designer and project specialist. “We have worked with them for a number of years, and this is a project that has really been in need for some time. The lighting system dated back to its original construction and it was very antiquated. Additionally, they were having consistent issues with the dimming system a
UK - With thousands of performers taking to hundreds of stages across the city, this year’s Edinburgh Festival and Fringe proved to be the busiest ever for full technical production provider Hawthorn, who supplied equipment to performances across both festivals. Having headed to Edinburgh for their 29th festival season, this year saw Hawthorn provide lighting, rigging and power distribution to the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF). The International Festival presents a programme featuring performers and ensembles from the worlds of dance, opera, music and theatre. Hawthorn was tasked with providing equipment to an array of performances in Festival Theatre, Kings Theatre, Lyceum Theatre, The Studio and Usher Hall as well as providing kit to the opening ceremony which took place at Tynecastle Park. As well as supplying equipment to EIF, Hawthorn was also kep
UK - Claypaky has appointed A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) as its distributor for the UK, while AC-ET sister company A.C. Entertainment Technologies Ireland has become Claypaky's distributor in the Republic of Ireland. The agreement came into effect on 1 September. Marcus Graser, designated CEO of Claypaky, comments: "We are honoured by AC-ET’s decision to dedicate special resources and commitment to the distribution of our products. The collaboration between our two companies started back in the '70s, but this new agreement - based on a shared vision of a more modern relationship - marks a decisive change that everyone will benefit from." Jonathan Walters, AC-ET’s UK sales & purchasing director, remarks: "We are delighted to be working with Claypaky. The brand has been a leader in stage lighting for decades, producing some of the world’s m
UK - High End Systems has introduced the newest member of the Sola Series, the SolaWash 1000 automated luminaire. SolaWash 1000 is available in two versions; either with an Ultra-Bright engine producing 20,000 field lumens or a High CRI Engine featuring incredibly accurate colour rendering. The fixture includes a full framing shutter system, CMY/CTO linear colour mixing system, a seven plus open position replaceable colour wheel, iris and dual Linear Frost systems for medium and heavy frost. Sharp edge focus performs throughout the entire 12° - 55° zoom range. A TM-30 Filter boosts the Ultra-Bright engine to 85+ CRI. Automated lighting product manager Matt Stoner comments: “The SolaWash 1000 offers an elegant feature set for our users. Whether you are using the fixture as an Ultra-Bright wash light with framing, a high CRI key light for face lighting or even a wid
USA - Growing up in northeastern Louisiana, country star Tim McGraw was familiar with the kind of hot, humid night he encountered when he took the House of Power Stadium stage as the headliner presented by Orange Motorsports and Entertainment and House of Power Production at the at the Orange County Fairgrounds. On stage, McGraw relied on his team, including long-time lighting designer Patrick Brannon, to bring the kind of production associated with a multi-Grammy winning icon. Although the House of Power Stadium stage was not nearly as large as many that McGraw performs on, Brannon was able to give him comfortably familiar production-style looks with help from a rig that featured a collection of Chauvet Professional fixtures, including the new Maverick MK3 Profile, supplied by Dynamic Productions. “When I design for a full production tour, it’s exactly that. The t
UK - Artistic Licence will show its latest DMX512-to-DALI conversion product, DMXtoDALI quad. With support for DALI DT8 (colour), DMXtoDALI quad is specified for the new generation of DALI products coming to market. Artistic Licence has extensive experience in DMX512 and DALI interconversion. Its popular DIN rail solution, Rail-DMX-DALI, was launched several years ago to serve customers needing to add DALI fixtures to DMX based lighting control systems. With the continued growth of the crossover market, Rail-DMX-DALI is still very much in demand. However, the recent introduction of DALI DT8 (colour control) means that this product is not compatible with the very latest DALI technology. Artistic Licence redesigned Rail-DMX-DALI to incorporate the new standard, and to implement major product upgrades that greatly improve the performance and user experience.
Czech Republic - Robe has unveiled Esprite, the company's new LED moving head. The luminaire, which incorporates a new type of LED light source and outputs 27,000 lumens, is set to debut at the upcoming PLASA Show (15-17 September, London Olympia). Designed as an LED replacement for discharge fixtures, Esprite is the first in a new series of Robe luminaires to feature the company’s 650W WTE (White Transferrable Engine) white LED light source, a replaceable/transferable engine that promises to eradicate issues such as unpredictable lifecycles and other performance inconsistencies. The LED module also holds a host of data in addition to date, serial number and usage, which can be accessed via a free mobile app. Other design features in Esprite include a new cooling system that removes any airflow over the optics
Germany - Udo Lindenberg, one of Germany’s most enduring rock stars, is back on the road with Live 2019, another trademark spectacular touring production. This time around, lighting designer Günter Jäckle has included 22 VL6000 Beams from Vari-Lite in his touring rig. Described by Jäckle as, “like a rock and roll circus, revue, craziness, freak-show, rock show”, an Udo Lindenberg performance is a busy visual extravaganza, with up to 50 performers on stage. To deal with all this activity, Jäckle balances theatrical lighting techniques with supercharged rock and roll show lighting. “The first thing for me is to be a director,” he says, “to allow the audience to see what they should see, and not what they should not.” Discussing his design priorities, he says, “The star must be in the foreground - not the lightshow. Also, we don’t make effects becau