China - PR Lighting took a fresh approach to their 558 sq.m. booth design at this year’s four-day GET Show at the Poly World Trade Centre in Guangzhou. The company’s CEO Dave Liang reverted to an idea originally floated at the 2017 edition where they presented a united booth with other suppliers, in order to show customers a completely integrated, ‘finished’ solution. This year they collaborated with experienced Chinese LED display company, DGX, as well as laser company, Magical Laser and acoustics specialists, Lianhui Acoustooptical. “These are all necessary facilities in most projects, particularly events, tours, club installs, and customers like to be able to see how a full project solution will look,” says international director of sales Ernie Armas. On the other side of the booth, in anticipation of a strong international presence, there were th
Europe - eLumen8 has continued to expand its range of professional moving heads with the introduction of the 9RE Beam. This moving beam is powered by a MSD 260R9 (8000K) discharge lamp, allowing users to create sharp 2.5° beams and gobos. Showcased at the recent PLASA Focus Leeds tradeshow, this latest addition by eLumen8 has been designed with the lighting designer in mind as it not only has top quality optics and motorised focus, it also features two prisms that can be used simultaneously, giving the user a host of options to create stunning light shows. Andrew Jeffrey, Prolight Concepts Group managing director,comments: “This is the first of several new movers aimed at the rental and installation markets to be released in the coming months. The 9RE has been over 12 months in development but well worth the wait.” Additionally, this moving head features 12
Austria - Event technology provider Technic Consult has been a satisfied customer of Elation products for years, relying on products like the Platinum Beam 5R and FS 15R followspot. The company has recently opted to upgrade its inventory, adding the new Artiste Picasso LED moving heads and multi-functional Paladin effects. Technic Consult has been active in event technology for over 25 years. Located in southern Austria, near Klagenfurt am Wörthersee, the company manages lighting, sound, video and staging for live events of all kinds, including theatre, handling everything from planning to implementation. “We have been working with Elation products since 2013,” says Stefan Schwarzl, head of lighting at Technic Consult. “The reliability and quality of the equipment and personal support provided by Karl Lager have made our decision to invest in Elation much easie
UK - Lighting designer Stuart Pring has used Chroma-Q Space Force LED soft lights to illuminate the JW Anderson February Autumn/Winter Fashion Show. Pring has previously worked on The 2018 Teen Awards, a variety of television studios including for NBC/ESPN’s Wimbledon Studio, and TV series John Bishop in Conversation. The JW Anderson Fashion Show was hosted on an 11m square catwalk, which required Stuart to deliver an even coverage of light across the entire area. For this, Version 2 - lighting rental specialists for the Television, Broadcast and Event industries - provided Stuart with 36 Space Force tuneable white LED soft lights. Pring comments: “I needed to achieve an even wash of daylight white light, to faithfully reproduce the colours of the models' clothing. The fixture's output was flawless in creating a seamless coverage across the entire ca
Denmark - SPOT, an annual music festival in Aarhus showcasing up-and-coming Danish and Scandinavian talents, saw 300 artists and bands perform across 25 stages throughout the city. Lighting designer and programmer Heiða Kristín Ragnarsdóttir used a grandMA3 light console to run lighting on her stage, reserved for WILM (Women In Live Music) a European non-profit organisation that supports women working behind the scenes and backstage. For the first time, this stage was run by an all-female tech crew. Ragnarsdóttir reports: “The MA system is my first choice for everything from theatre to concerts. It is very important for me to be able to personalize the setup to fit my needs of the moment which the grandMA2 software does easily. It is highly reliable, has intuitive controls and a lot of flexibility in programming which makes it ideal for ‘busking’ festivals.
USA - Established in 1968 and sponsored by the Olympic Committee, the longstanding International Children’s Games branched out in 1994 with the launch of the Children’s Winter Games. This year the competition was held in Lake Placid, New York, giving young athletes from across the globe the chance to compete at the highest level in a wide range of winter sports. While the Games are all about exceptional sporting achievement and fostering the exchange of ideas between athletes from different countries and cultures, it’s also about putting on a memorable show for the spectators. And that’s where ADJ comes in. Having worked with the historic Olympic Centre on countless competitions, lighting designer Eric Wilson was brought in to deliver an epic lightshow for the Children’s Winter Games opening ceremony, jumping at the chance to work on a prestigious sporting ev
Europe - Hayden Borgars has covered a broad spectrum of shows during his career as a lighting designer, including a wide range of music genres, corporate, dance and theatre. Most recently he joined forces with American rap artist, Hoodie Allen (Steven Markowitz) for a British and European tour, at venues ranging from the 700-capacity Garage Glasgow to 2,000-capacity Shepherds Bush Empire. Travelling with him throughout was an inventory of 18 VDO Sceptron 10, four MAC Encore Performance Colds and two AURA XB, which combined as the cutting-edge Martin Professional lighting package, supplied by rental company, Siyan. The tour was set up essentially as a pre-album promo tour in advance of Hoodie’s next album release. Given the nature of the venues, Hayden drew on his vast theatre experience where he’d deployed Martin fixtures previously, generally the MAC 250’s
UK - GoboPlus.com, the one-stop, online shop for gobos and projection products, exhibited at PLASA Focus Leeds 2019 where the team showed off its new, high resolution glass gobos. “The new glass gobos render images in much finer detail than has been previously possible,” explains CEO Paul de Ville. “The exquisitely fine resolution allows much greater detail to be produced on smaller gobos, and has been created in response to the huge improvements in optical quality of most modern lanterns. The resultant HR gobos give the lighting designer more scope, not only allowing for more detailed images, but also enabling more accurate adaptation of standard gobo designs to fit on the new generation of smaller gobos used by many moving light fixtures.” In a further development for the company, GoboPlus.com chose PLASA Focus Leeds to introduce an additional brand into the
UK - Jamie Kluckers has joined the technical sales consultant team at Stage Electrics. Based on the South Coast, Jamie is responsible for developing new business and maintaining existing relationships with customers in this area. With over 20 years’ experience as a technical and production manager, Jamie had a long-standing relationship with Stage Electrics as a customer. “As a freelancer, Stage Electrics were my go-to supplier, it’s great to now be part of the team,” comments Jamie. “Jamie’s appointment falls in line with our continued expansion,” says commented Paul Roughton, national sales manager at Stage Electrics. “Having Jamie join us with his knowledge and background is a real positive and he is a perfect addition to the team.” (Jim Evans)
USA - Bob Schacherl, co-CEO of Robe North America, has announced that he will be stepping down from his post on 30 June 2019. “After nearly six fabulous years working with one of the most innovative and inspiring moving light manufacturers, which has included amassing a sales ‘dream team’ covering all regions, helping to take the brand to the very top of the entertainment lighting industry, it is time to spend more time with my family and in developing several ongoing projects,” he stated. Bob joined Robe at the end of 2013, just prior to the launch of the BMFL range of powerful high brightness fixtures that have become one of the Czech Republic based brand’s signature products. His career began in the 1980s with Blackstone Audio-Visual also based in Bob’s hometown of Austin, Texas. This became Blackstone Productions / Lightwave Research and the
USA - Located in Otisville, Michigan, Richfield Church of the Nazarene is dedicated to serving the community through an inspirational and heartfelt worship environment. Offering both contemporary and traditional services each week, the church recently underwent a lighting renovation to better create a positive and life-changing experience for all their members and guests. Needing an upgrade to the complete lighting system, they worked with the design professionals at Mercury Sound and Lighting who installed a new house design filled with Chalice LED downlights from Altman Lighting. “This was actually our first time working with the church and they wanted us to take a look at their theatrical and house lighting equipment which was reaching the end of its life cycle,” began Japheth Boivin, A/V solutions facilitator, Mercury Sound and Lighting. “The existing house l
UK - The Prolight spotlight at PLASA Focus, Leeds was the release of the 2019/20 catalogue and numerous new products showcased including a moving head, IP pixel mappable fixture and some genetically enhanced truss. There was an extra element of fun on this year’s stand in the form of a gigantic sized catalogue, which drew in the crowds. The event saw the official release of the 2019/20 catalogue The Big One – 2nd Edition, with visitors eager to pick up their copy. The marketing and purchasing departments have worked hard over the last few months to get the catalogue ready for its big release and features over 2,200 products. As a company, Prolight is continually adding products to provide customers with everything they need for installations and events from peripherals such as cables, connectors and cases through to high quality luminaries, along with st
USA/UK - Electronic wizard and Mercury Prize winner James Blake has been touring the States prior to returning to his native UK for theatre dates, and appearances at European festivals, starting with All Points East. On the road with him is Blake’s long-serving, and experienced LD, Chris Bushell, accompanied by an inventory of GLP fixtures, chosen, he says “for their uniqueness and versatility”. These include 18 of the JDC1 hybrid strobes (which he affectionately dubs ‘J-Dogs’) and 16 award-winning X4 Bar 20 battens (which with a wink he refers to as Twizzlesticks). When James Blake’s Assume Form album touring cycle was announced he zipped into action, production designing to a brief that was to have less equipment on show “and less of the circus that can surround a show as it increases in size.” He explained, “Last time we went out, there was
Belgium - The Ancienne Belgique - AB as it’s universally known - sits right in the bustling heart of old Brussels as part of a vibrant multicultural metropolis and a thriving music scene. The venue has just purchased 24 x Robe MegaPointes which join the 50 x Spiiders that have graced the house lighting rig since 2017. Together with some other lights, these ensure that the very best production values can be offered for all incoming shows - for those who might be using the full house rig and not carrying any of their own kit as well as those touring with specials packages and hooking into the house ‘top’ rigs each night. Head of AB’s lighting department, Renaat Van Hee, explained that they were extremely happy with the Spiiders and looked to Robe again to invest in new spot / beam fixtures. “We have good contact and have enjoyed great service from
Switzerland - Built in 1910, the rustic Alpine-style Volkshaus concert hall in Zurich provides a stark contrast to the many sleek glass and steel structures that dot the trendy western section of Switzerland’s largest city. Volkshaus offers excellent acoustics, which explains why so many internationally renowned bands representing every music genre have performed at the venerable venue. For all its charm and other attractive qualities, though, the Volkshaus’ small stage can present a challenge for a lighting designer seeking to create big majestic looks. Massimo Tomasino overcame this issue in early May for two sold-out shows by Antonello Venditti, thanks to some help from Chauvet Professional Maverick fixtures, supplied by Fumasoli Audio & Lights Rental. Tomasino used 14 Maverick MK2 Spots and 12 MK2 Wash units in his floor package. He arranged six of the spot
USA - The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (HLSR) is the largest livestock exhibition and rodeo in the world, drawing more than two million people each year. An especially large draw is the 20 consecutive evenings of rodeo and concerts held at Houston’s NRG Stadium. HLSR recently unveiled a new star-shaped concert stage and backdrop truss structure for the shows that supports LED video and hundreds of intelligent lights, among them Elation Protron Eclypse, Elation Paladin, and Elation Fuze Wash Z350 fixtures. Production company LD Systems has been working on HLSR since 1985 and for the 2019 version (25 February to 17 March 17) again provided complete audio, video and lighting production services and technical support for the NRG stage. LD Systems deployed a stadium-wide system of automated lights that lighting designer Nathan Brittain used to create spectacular look
UK - Maestra Group has made some major sound, lighting and video equipment investments recently in the London office, including white sound and lighting kit, which will ensure all its clients have the most flexible and dynamic solutions available for their shows and events. The equipment is proving especially popular for car launches and other automotive events, fashion shows, corporates, industrials and expo stands as well as for art exhibitions, parties and architainment applications, where white equipment is often better suited to blend into the environment than traditional black. The kit includes a substantial purchase of 30 x custom coated white Robe moving lights – 12 x LEDBeam 150s, 12 x Spiider LED WashBeams and six Pointe multipurpose fixtures which bring Maestra London’s total stock of Robes to over 100 including black versions of these three types and ot
UK - Le Mark Group has announced the appointment of Jeff Demain as northern sales manager, UK. Demain has worked in the entertainment industry for over 35 years. His experience has encompassed sound, lighting, sales and installation, and he has managed key projects in Russia, the Middle East and the UK. His history has included leading companies including Concert Light Systems, Playlight Hire, White Light North and most recently, HSL Blackburn. “I have known Jeff for many years and have always been in awe of his industry knowledge,” said Linda Gibbons, joint managing director. “With Jeff now on the ground locally, he is perfectly positioned and readily available to meet with many more companies interested in our products and to expand our sales in the north of the UK. It is an important move forward for the company.” “We are all delighted to have Jeff
USA - A sense of foreboding runs through Murder Ballad like the creaking noise in a dark and unfamiliar house. The Julia Jordan and Juliana Nash rock musical tells the story of a love triangle gone bad, as it spins into a vortex of ever-increasing pain, betrayal and shattered emotions. In a recent production of the 2012 cult favourite at the Broward Centre for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale, lighting designer Clifford Michael Spulock captured the apprehension of characters caught in a world turned upside down. Helping him evoke this feeling in powerful, unsettling fashion were the gobo capabilities of the Chauvet Professional Rogue R1 Spot fixture. “The show is really charged with emotion as it moves through the breaking and splintering of relationships,” said Spulock. “I wanted to portray this feeling as literally as I could, not just with color,
UK - West London lighting and video rental specialist Colour Sound Experiment has expanded its fleet of vehicles with a new artic and trailer – a Volvo FH460 Globetrotter Euro 6 tractor unit, complete with a 45' Schmitz Cargobull low-ride Tri-axle semi-trailer. This vehicle - chosen for its efficiency and dynamics - is an investment made for the convenience of trucking equipment to tours and festivals across the UK and Europe. It will also offer clients an additional element of cost-effectivity as Colour Sound can offer independent trucking services for large one-offs. The truck will be especially busy during the upcoming festival season and will help streamline overall production logistics by reducing the off-site pick-ups required. “All our vehicles have been bought with a view to making our operations as flexible and versatile as possible to suit client n
Mexico - Experiencias Xcaret is aptly named. A collection of majestic parks by the sea, this eco-tourist destination is intended for those who want not merely to visit Mexico, but to experience it in all its natural beauty and rich cultural traditions. Within its expansive grounds, visitors can enjoy over 40 attractions that afford them the opportunity to wander through lush jungles, swim in underground rivers, explore caves, contemplate evocative Mayan ruins, and enrich their minds and senses with an array of other activities. The winner of three consecutive Travvy Awards (the international tourism industry’s equivalent of the Oscars), Experiencias Xcaret is constantly seeking ways to enhance its offerings to visitors, while maintaining its earth-friendly environmental footprint. It did both recently when it upgraded the lighting in its theatres with Ovation E-260WW IP LE
USA - Singer songwriter Jackson Browne is takin’ it easy these days on lamp changes and power requirements by using an all-LED touring rig which includes High End Systems Sola Series. Lighting designer/director Steve Comer chose five SolaFrame 2000s from lighting vendor Bandit Lites on his springtime acoustic concert tour, which ran through 13 U.S. cities 22 March through 9 April. “Our acoustic tour is a scaled-back tour production wise,” Comer explains. “I had to design a rig that could fit in a minimal truck footprint and still go up easily on a daily basis.” The LD says using an all-LED rig has been an ongoing goal. “We have been pushing to go 100 percent LED with Jackson for a long time now. The fixtures that were always lacking were LED spot fixtures. I tried the SolaFrames because of their light output (at 26,000 lumens from a 600 watt LED sourc
USA - A Yiddish-language production of Fiddler on the Roof opened at Stage 42 in New York City on 21 February with direction by Joel Grey and lighting design by Peter Kaczorowski. Playing an important role in this version of the musical are Elation Colour 5 Profile LED ellipsoidal spots supplied by G Scott Designs. Associate designer is Ethan Steimel who says that Kaczorowski required a fixture that colour changed in a tight warm palette from no colour incandescent to gel colours L162 to L147. He adds that the designer also wanted to achieve a deep blue. The solution was found in the Colour 5 Profile LED ellipsoidal. Housing a 180W RGBAM (Red, Green, Blue, Amber, Mint) LED engine, the Mint LED enhances the production of variable white colour temperatures from 3,200 to 6,500K and increases the CRI. An exceptionally flat field of light, CRI over 94, and a professi
Europe - Ayrton and Lightpower have announced that, from 1 July 2019, Lightpower will take over the exclusive distribution of Ayrton in Germany. "We are looking forward to working with Ayrton,” states Herbert Marx, sales director of Lightpower. “Ayrton is an extremely dynamic brand with innovative, market-leading products of the highest quality. Ayrton's high-quality standards and product and portfolio strategy are a perfect match for Lightpower." “It is a big step for Ayrton to join forces with Lightpower,” comments Michael Althaus, Ayrton’s global sales director. “A short four years after introducing Ayrton to the German market, it is now time for the next distribution level. To have a broader sales approach, to develop new markets and to also offer convincing service on the after sales side.” (Jim Evans)
