Belgium - Lighting and visual design practice Painting with Light (PWL) was commissioned by interactive media and attractions specialist Alterface to light the new Popcorn Revenge dark ride at the Walibi Belgium theme park. This showcases Alterface’s new innovative ‘erratic ride’ concept, an environment combining multiple projection techniques, spectacular HD video, 3D mapping and 3D shooting plus special effects in a ride that follows a non-linear path. Wireless-controlled ride cars are routed ‘randomly’ through a selection of different rooms over their three-minute journey, allowing guests to return to Popcorn Revenge multiple times and receive a completely different and equally exciting visual and sensory experience each time. Luc Peumans and the PWL team including principal designer Iiris Roskou and project managers Peter Vandenbosh and Céline Cuypers co
USA - At InfoComm 2019, Elation Professional has a number of North American debuts to show that complement further its comprehensive product line. Making their North American debuts will be the Proteus Maximus and Smarty MAX, as well as new luminaires in the popular Fuze and Paladin series. Proteus Maximus, a powerful wash/beam and profile LED luminaire kicks out 50,000 lumens and houses a top-of-the-line design package. With a custom designed 950W LED engine and large 180mm front lens, Maximus has the power to cut through at even great distances and an IP65 protection means it can be used exposed on outdoor shows. Smarty MAX is an extreme-output Spot/Beam/Wash hybrid moving head featuring a new Platinum FLEX 400 lamp rated at 480W with up to 4,000 hours of smart lamp life. Combining CMY and variable CTO, this hybrid incorporates a full iris for dynamic beam effects. C
Denmark - ELC Lighting, manufacturer of the dmXLAN Ethernet distribution system and the Green-GO digital intercom solution, saw both ranges deployed with great success on the recent national tour by Danish rock band Nephew. Provided by tour supplier Comtech, the ELC dmXLAN system included three 10GBX and two 18GBX switches, along with two ELC NODE8 nodes and six NODE8SL slave units on a fibre network, providing the main backup switch at front-of-house and switching for both dimmer city and video city. These latest models in the ELC dmXLAN range were part of a recent investment for Comtech, from ELC Lighting and Green-GO’s Danish distributor, Light Partner. With short load-in times, the need for a fail-safe network was paramount. Light Partner’s Johan Kvartborg, who provided technical support on the tour, says: “We didn’t have time for fails on the network. We u
UK - Going Through, a play about an asylum seeker fleeing conflict in her native land, has finished its run at the Bush Theatre in London where ADB Klemantis asymmetric cyclights and Claypaky Axcor Spot 300s played key roles in the innovative staging. The play by Estelle Savasta was translated from the French and performed in English as well as British Sign Language. The words of the asylum seeker, Nour, are also expressed in projected text. “The show was a really intricate combination of moving set panels, projection and lighting,” says lighting designer Joshua Pharo. “Both performers used British Sign Language throughout, so the lighting needed to work very rigorously to keep them suitably illuminated at all times. My challenge was to integrate seamlessly with Nina Dunn's projections so the audience couldn't tell what was projection and what was light.
UK - London’s Saatchi Gallery is hosting Beyond The Road, an immersive exhibition and independent project developed by Punchdrunk creatives Colin Nightingale (creative producer) and Stephen Dobbie (sound designer and creative director). Presented by Beyond Projects in collaboration with the gallery, Beyond The Road merges the worlds of visual arts, music and film, and offers visitors a chance to leave behind their modern day lives and lose themselves in a multi-sensory world led by sound. Collaborating with contemporary artists, filmmakers and photographers, the exhibition deconstructs a soundtrack by music pioneer James Lavelle (UNKLE), to create a completely new and multi-disciplinary sound experience. Nightingale and Dobbie now seek to reinvent how people experience and interact with music, so it becomes an environment which visitors are fre
Europe - Popular UK band The Kooks have just completed the latest UK and European leg of an ongoing world tour in support of their fifth studio album, Lets Go Sunshine, released late last summer. Jordon Cooper of Moth Lights is their lighting designer and lighting equipment for this latest tour was supplied by LCR including 69 x Robe LEDBeam 150s and 32 x Spiider LED wash beam as the moving lights, plus a pair of BMFL WashBeams being controlled by a RoboSpot remote follow spotting system. Jordon has worked with the band since the album launch last year. He was recommended by their stage manager Will Matthews with whom he’d previously worked on Band of Skulls, and when he and The Kooks production manager Dave Skelton saw Jordon’s design for Skindred at Brixton Academy, it confirmed his credentials as well as his talents as a designer and he was offered The Ko
UK - Production designer, Tom Campbell used multiples of GLP’s award-winning impression X4 Bar 20s, as well as the new FR1 compact automated light and innovative KNV Cubes in a GLP-dominated stage when guitar-dominated band The Hunna played a small UK tour of mostly O2 Academy theatres recently. The MIRRAD lighting designer, who has been working with the band for the past two years, adopted completely different scenography from that used when the band last played Brixton Academy in January 2018. “We started from scratch this time,” Tom Campbell confirms. “We wanted to drive video content but without using a video wall or projection - instead doing something a bit more obscure.” His solution was to light the back wall with 48 of the X4 Bar 20s, pixel-mapped into an Avolites Ai Q3 video server, provided by MIRRAD (while Liteup Productions supplied the Bar 20’
Israel - MA Lighting was once again the control solution of choice for the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest staged at the Tel Aviv Expo Centre which featured lighting design created by Ronen Najar and Dakar Azulay. Fifteen grandMA2 consoles graced the FOH technical area, controlling 71,061 parameters and a mix of over 2,500 light sources and LED fixtures. These were lighting the main stage – another elegant design by Florian Wieder – the auditorium and the green room. MA was chosen by several on the creative and technical team co-ordinated by ESC’s head of production Ola Melzig, including Jack Collins, the event’s lighting systems and control specialist who has worked on several ESCs in recent years. “The multiuser functionality and ability to control every fixture from every console and to alter fixture types to suit your needs were two big advantag
South Africa - In response to popular demand, lighting designer Michael Taylor Broderick will once again present a two-day theatre lighting workshop on 19 and 20 June at DWR Distribution, Johannesburg. Michael instils a sense of passion to those working in a theatre environment and topics include stage lighting, controllable properties of light, lighting positions and angles, light and colour, elements of design and lighting instruments. The workshop will be held at DWR, Block C, Unit 1, Kimbult Industrial Office Park, 9 Zeiss Street, Laserpark, Honeydew. The cost is R1 700 for both days and includes lunch and refreshments. Kindly let us know if you have any dietary requirements. Bookings can be made online. (Jim Evans)
Australia - TMB has announced that Firefly Lighting has been appointed as TMB’s regional distribution partner for Australia. Offering signature TMB brands, including Solaris, ProPlex, IMS, and more, Firefly will provide sales, support, service, and stocking inventory to the Australian professional market. “Local commerce is beneficial for all. Australian customers will now enjoy all the benefits of having a distributor close at hand with the full confidence of TMB,” says TMB sales manager, Tim Obermann. “We are confident that the benefits of an intermediate distribution channel with local associations and personal relationships will become immediately apparent. We couldn’t ask for a better partner than Firefly.” “Our association with TMB goes back many years,” explains Firefly manager James Whittall, “and we’re very pleased to be exclusive distrib
UK - Highlite UK hosted its first open day event Wednesday 29 May. At their headquarters in Wiltshire the Highlite team introduced the visitors to the newly built Infinity Chimp training facility and welcomed them to the demo-showroom. The Infinity Chimp training facility with the 100.G2 and 300.G2 light controllers was received very well. Product specialist Jack Kelly presented the Chimp light controllers and further Chimp training is planned for 19 June. The Chimp units are fully featured light controllers, equipped with Wireless DMX, versatile and well suited for various applications. There was a lot of interest shown in the moving heads from the Showtec Polar Series, a range of IP-65 rated fixtures, built around strong LED engines. The Infinity Furion moving heads also received a lot of attention. Another point of interest for the Open day visitors was the Sh
Israel - The Eurovision Song Contest 2019 (ESC) has been an extraordinary showcase of Italy, thanks to the great singing show of runner-up Mahmood and the high-quality performance of the DTS products. For the first time, DTS fixtures were chosen for the ESC: 376 Katana LED bars were shining in the main hall with their “blade of light” and 48 Synergy 5 Profile were installed in the Green Room. Lighting designer Ronen Najar says of the DTS products, “We hung the KATANA around the stage and above the crowd. KATANA was the perfect fixture for continuing the triangle ceiling design and completing the lines from the triangle video strip. With the new module designed for us we used the KATANA all the time. SYNERGY was hung in the Green Room and helped us to duplicate the feeling from the main venue. We were very happy and all units worked without problems.” The
UK - Avolites is spearheading an alliance between major lighting console and media server manufacturers to combat the growing threat of counterfeiting. “We have a unique opportunity to join forces with our genuine rivals to form a united front against forgers who are reverse engineering our products and stealing our IP,” says Avolites’ sales director, Koy Neminathan. “We relish competition from other innovative, authentic manufacturers, as this drives forward new features and products - it’s great that we can team up in this way to stamp out those who are threatening not only our individual businesses but our entire industry. “However, we do not welcome competition from fake companies who produce substandard copies of our kit. When these fraudulent products make their way into the supply chain it’s not just the originating manufacturer that suffers, but a
France - Le Moulin Rouge, the emblematic cabaret of Parisian nights and entertainment since 1889, recently renewed its followspots and chose Alice, the latest in Robert Juliat's generation of LED followspots. Three new Robert Juliat Alice 600W LED followspots have recently joined the iconic Moulin Rouge revue, Féerie. This show, which has been on the bill for 19 years, tells the story of the Moulin Rouge over two hours of amazement and spectacle, mixing dance scenes and variety acts. Every evening, a dream world is invented on stage with 60 artists, 1000 feather costumes, crystals and sequins, exceptional performances, sumptuous sets and original French music, not to mention the famous French-cancan. Robert Juliat’s Alice followspots have found their place in this legendary venue, installed on a technical bridge, from where they cover distances of 15m to 30m across
UK/Italy - Goboservice by Sunland Optics has announced the appointment of Indira Metenova as technical consultant for the UK market. Indira was recently promoted from account manager of the Italian branch and has a background in customer relations, marketing and running social media platforms. Indira says: “I am delighted to be starting my new role in such a respected company dedicated to creating products that are both premium quality and best-in-class. I am looking forward to meeting and cementing relationships with all our existing and potential new clients across the UK.” (Jim Evans)
UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) will demonstrate its extensive and exclusive portfolio of leading theatrical technologies - including new lighting, audio, rigging, and video products - at the ABTT Theatre Show 2019, taking place on 5th - 6th June at London’s Alexandra Palace. Highlights from AC-ET will include Chroma-Q's multi award-winning Color Force II cyc, wash & effects and Inspire house lighting LED fixtures, featuring colour-mixing homogenised optics. Showing at ABTT for the first time will be the Vista 3 by Chroma-Q lighting and media control system. Prolights fixtures on stand will include the Pixie Wash XB, a 280W single source LED wash luminaire and the Jetspot4Z, which features full CMY colour mixing and a custom optical system. Meanwhile, the Luminex Luminode Ethernet & DMX processor, first unveiled at Prolight + Sound, will al
UK - Penn Elcom’s LED lighting division is now offering OSRAM’s new LR700S niche LED lighting product, the LINEARLight Rigid NICHE range. The LR700S is a versatile product for “ensconcing in any hard to reach or access place, corner, niche, nook or cranny and will provide LED solution for numerous scenarios like coves, cabinets, shelves and stair lighting in multiple sectors including offices and workspaces, retail environments, public buildings, leisure facilities and homes”. There are five colour temperatures available - 2500K - 4500K to suit / blend with other lighting and natural lighting conditions - and five different standard rigid lengths range from 102mm to 1194mm, all with a viewing angle of 120° so it can be fitted around corners and neatly under shelves. The ultra-slim strips of LED are easily inter-connectable and can be painlessly slotted
UK - GoboPlus.com, the one-stop, online shop for gobos and projection products, will be showcasing its new brand, FollowSpotSales.com at ABTT. The company is also delighted to have industry stalwart, Mandy Bullock, join them to lead this new division. Bullock, a well-known and respected figure within the industry, brings to FollowSpotSales.com, nearly 50 years of industry experience and an extensive background in sales and rental roles. “I am really excited to be joining this incredible team,” says Bullock. “By joining GoboPlus.com and heading up FollowSpotSales.com I am going back to my roots. I have a real passion for our industry and the creative and focused people we work with and have missed selling lanterns and consumables.” FollowSpotSales.com is a new UK distributor for LDR of Italy, one of the last remaining independent lantern and follow spot manufac
UK - Stage Electrics has supplied the Lyric Theatre in Carmarthen, Wales, with a lighting control upgrade alongside additional staging. The theatre, part of the Carmarthen Theatres Group, was seeking a lighting control solution that offered professional grade programming power, along with the ability to integrate into other systems, making transitioning between desks simple. “ETC’s Ion Xe was the obvious choice for the Lyric Theatre,” comments Neal Tomlinson, technical sales consultant at Stage Electrics. “We sought out a solution that offered flexibility, whilst being able to work coherently with the grade of fixtures coming through the venue. This theatre hosts a number of touring shows, so compatibility was a must.” Looking to further expand their offerings to touring shows, in terms of space, the theatre has invested in a Prolyte LiteDeck staging
Israel - The Eurovision Song Contest 2019 was hosted by Israel at the Expo Tel Aviv and boasted over 700 Ayrton fixtures in its massive lighting rig. Set designer, Florian Wieder, and Tel Aviv-based lighting designers, Ronen Najar and Dakar Azulay created individual looks for each of the 41 competing countries. Wieder’s stage design was based on triangles and the number 12 - important symbols for Israel - while Najar and Azulay chose a large number and variety of lighting fixtures which allowed them to create enough unique looks to handle a show of this size and diversity. Key to their enormous and extremely adaptable design were over 700 LED lighting fixtures from Ayrton. “Our main idea was to maintain the special stage design developed by Florian,” explains Najar. “We therefore chose to use a significant amount of Ayrton MagicBlades to create new geom
Belgium - ADC is a full technical production rental company based in Zaventem near Brussels airport in Belgium, and is a recent investor in Robe LED moving lights with the purchase of 20 x Spiiders, 24 Spikies and eight DL7S Profiles which were delivered by Benelux distributor Controllux. ADC was founded 27 years ago by Daniel van Ruyssevelt, specialising in large format projection back in the days of scrolling projectors. When this discipline went digital, they upgraded all the technology and became strong in corporate and special events, conferences, and outdoor spectaculars and performances. As the business developed, ADC found an increasing demand for providing lighting as part of a more comprehensive ‘visuals’ package, and then sound was also added to the production packages. The initial lights purchased were generics, followed by the first generation of
The Netherlands - Elation Europe will be holding a training day dedicated to Obsidian Control Systems’ Onyx lighting control platform on 3 July at the company’s European headquarters in Kerkrade. The Onyx foundation training, running from 9:00am to 5:00pm, will take users from console start-up through software layout to patching and running a basic show, with the objective to gain confidence in patching and running a show from scratch while acquiring a basic understanding of features. Features to be covered include software layout and philosophy, patching, creating, changing and deleting groups, changing and deleting pre-sets, cue lists and chases. The cost is €150.00 (excluding VAT if applicable) and includes a NX-DMX interface for every participant. Participants should bring a laptop to run w
UK - Following the release of their studio album Ephyra, Woman’s Hour brought their musical journey to a close with a final show in their hometown, before parting ways to work on separate projects. The band performed a farewell concert at The Dome in Tufnell Park, London, on Friday 22 March. Creating an appropriately ethereal vibe for the concert was a production concept that drew on simple, but impactful imagery, while it played with negative space. Created by David Howard, and based entirely on lighting, this design was controlled by a ChamSys MagicQ MQ80 console. Forming the foundation of the band’s entire stage aesthetic was an illuminated structure of a house. The aim of the house was to provide a softly-lit space that the dancers and band could interact with, perform inside and use to show contrast and progression over the course of the show.
UK - Wakefield-based Backstage Academy recently presented a graduation showcase, which saw third-year students assessed across five presentations. The students were assessed in a project-based environment, with each team working under a project manager. The event was supported by many industry partners, some of whom had arrived fresh from attending PLASA Focus Leeds. Vice-principal Rachel Nicholson explained the idea of designing real world concepts - effectively transforming black box studio/stages into coruscating jewels - had grown out of the Live Visual Design & Production course. “It’s the first time we’ve presented the work in this fashion,” she confirms. “The team looked back at last year and decided they wanted more scope to visualise. Our live visual design course has always been project based, so we adapted that to the other courses - which seem
