USA - Four documents have been posted for public review on the ESTA website. BSR E1.29 - 2009 (R2014), Product Safety Standard for Theatrical Fog Generators that Create Aerosols of Water, Aqueous Solutions of Glycol or Glycerin, or Aerosols of Highly Refined Alkane Mineral Oil This standard is being considered for reaffirmation. It's intended to help guide product safety testing laboratories in evaluating fog-making equipment for design or construction defects that might create unacceptable hazards. It is based on UL 998 - 2006, Humidifiers, with modifications. Products covered are theatrical fog generators intended for use in professional theatrical entertainment, film and video production, theme parks, and fire safety training. BSR E1.62, Minimum specifications for mass-produced portable platforms, ramps, stairs, and choral risers for live performance
UK - Adlib has had a busy summer after making substantial investments in touring and rental video in the first half of 2018. The major purchase has been the addition of Unilumin’s UpadIII H5 5mm indoor/outdoor LED screen, which has been designed for quick and safe assembly with the demands of touring and concert style events in mind. Other new purchases include new broadcast quality camera channels, PPUs and Green Hippo KARST media servers, allowing Adlib to offer large scale video production options to all its clients, as well as versatile single solution technical packages for those wanting to source video lighting and sound equipment and expertise from one supplier. BBC Music's Biggest Weekend, the event which generally kicks off the UK festival season was expanded to multiple sites this year, Adlib supplied sound and lighting to both stages at Scone Palace
The Netherlands - Defqon.1, one of the biggest outdoor dance festivals, takes place in Biddinghuizen and is organised by Q-Dance. Its 2018 edition featured 236 of the new CLF LEDbar PRO linear LED battens. CLF LEDbar PRO fixtures were located all over the impressive mainstage, produced by Q-Dance. Hans Bokkinga, owner of Habo, comments: ‘We were looking for a powerful linear fixture to outline the shape of the stage. When looking for a linear fixture we found the CLF LEDbar PRO, which immediately caught our attention because of the big reflectors. Because of these, the fixtures are very usable for large scale shows like this.” Next to the LEDbar PRO, other CLF fixtures were deployed during the festival. CLF Ares LEDwashes were responsible for illuminating the impressive decoration and 136 CLF Aorun beams were also included in the impressive design. “We really lik
UK - LSi is sad to report the passing of Australian lighting designer Richard Pacholski – perhaps better known to many in the industry as R2 – on 19 August after a brief and intense battle with cancer. Fellow lighting designer, and LSi journalist Rob Halliday remembers his friend and colleague: “For many people taking shows, particularly musicals, down under, R2 was the friendly face that welcomed you to Australia. You immediately knew, from the ‘Hey mate’ said in that calm Aussie voice, the big open smile and that sparkly twinkle in his eye, that everything was going to be alright. “Richard began his career at the Adelaide Festival Centre, then joined the Australian Ballet. He wasn’t the first Richard there and so soon became R2, a name that just stuck. In the late 1980s, when Cameron Mackintosh set up an Australian office, R2 joined as lighting manager
Germany - Adam Hall Group has announced further expansion to its international sales team. Markus Jahnel, COO and managing director, will assume responsibility for the Group’s global business development with immediate effect. Bodo Falkenried, who has headed that department since 2013, is retiring and will complete the handover to Jahnel by the end of September. Jahnel comments: “The long-term development of new business areas and partnerships and the development and personal maintenance of our global networks are important priorities for the immediate future. I am looking forward to being even closer to our marketplace expansion.” He adds: “We would like to thank Bodo for his great work and wish him all the best for the new chapter in his life. He was a valued employee who was greatly appreciated by the entire team.” Marcel Mieger will be Adam
UAE - Dubai-based producer, organiser and promoter Envie Events connected more than 400,000 music lovers on 28 July, as revellers in du Forum, Yas Island were linked up via a live satellite connection to Belgium and beyond when the global EDM festival UNITE With Tomorrowland returned to the UAE. Six other locations across the globe were also connected to the Tomorrowland main stage in Belgium, with Italy, Malta, Spain, Taiwan, Mexico and Lebanon also enjoying dance extravaganza. The Abu Dhabi event featured live local and international DJs including the duo Lucas & Steve, SmokinGroove, Marcus Santoro, Regi, Barry Fore, Omar Basaad, D.O.D and Ummet Ozcan. Protec were called on by Envie Events to deliver audio, lighting, video, scenic, staging and rigging solutions. Having successfully delivered the technical production for the festival held in Dubai
USA - Megan Alksninis, lighting designer and technician for JDI Productions, had to design 21 Savage’s Numb The Pain tour in two weeks – a task for which the LD looked closely into the rapper’s ‘red-hot’ style. This ultimately led her to select the Chauvet Professional Rogue RH1 Hybrid as her main fixture for the mostly sold out 22-city tour. “Looking at Savage’s style and stage presence, I decided I needed something versatile for this tour, which is why I selected the Rogue RH1,” says Alksninis. “The RH1 is a hybrid, which gave me the flexibility to switch from a beam to wash look seamlessly.” As an artist, 21 Savage is known for his ‘realistic rap’, with intense lyrics and hard-driving music that reflect his coming of age on the streets of Atlanta. “My overall look can be summed up as ‘the brighter the better,’” she adds.
Canada - Numerous fixtures from PR Lighting were on duty when Mexican group Banda MS recently played the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario over three nights. In order to create maximum dynamics for this award-winning band, Heriberto Montalvo (Hammer) and his team, alongside First Born Productions, turned to Mega Systems, PR Lighting’s North American distributor, to provide inventory. From PR Lighting, they deployed the popular new Phantom, rigging several of these fixtures on the truss - over the band and on the sides. Housing an Osram 440W discharge source, the Phantom is an astounding Beam, Wash and Spot hybrid moving head. With three different modes, the fixture comprises a 0°-2.8° beam (in Beam mode), 2.8°-60° (in Spot mode) and 10°-60° (in Wash mode), which allowed the unit to create multiple effects onto the crowd and stage. They also specifie
South Africa - OppiKoppi music festival offers a lively mix of genres embracing rock, electronic, jazz, world and acoustic sounds. Pretoria based rental company Stage Effects, run by Theo Papenfus, has been involved in OppoKoppi for several years. Papenfus first worked as a tech on the event, and since 1999 Stage Effects has been a supplier. This year they provided site-wide lighting and visuals for five production stages. Production lighting for the main stage (James Phillips Stage) was designed by Erik de Bruin, who this year used Stage Effects’ new Robe MegaPointes. He also used 12 x standard Pointes, plus some other fixtures including LED washes, LED battens and 4-cell blinders. OppiKoppi 2018 was only the second time Erik had used MegaPointes – supplied to Stage Effects earlier in the year by Robe’s South African distributor DWR. The first was
USA - LumenRadio has announced an OEM partnership with Hive Lighting, with LA-based Hive set to utilise LumenRadio’s wireless technologies. Hive Lighting provides lighting solutions for the film, photography and broadcast industries as well as science and sports, and also has an architectural fixture line, ArcHIVE. Robert Rutherford, Hive Lighting founder, comments: “LumenRadio is the entertainment industry standard for adding reliable wireless DMX control for production lighting. We chose LumenRadio to allow our fixture to be compatible with all of the control systems in place throughout the film, TV and digital production industry.” Robert Larsson, sales director at LumenRadio, adds: “We are very happy to have Hive Lighting onboard as an OEM partner. Hive is an innovative company with great people and great products and we are delighted they have decid
UK - The Chroma-Q Space Force LED fixture has expanded its applications from the illumination of large studio environments to also include more subtle performances on the stage, having recently provided atmospheric lighting for a classic opera production at the Arcola Theatre. Written by Benjamin Britten and first performed in 1946, The Rape of Lucretia is the first of several operas to be performed at the Arcola Theatre’s Grimeborn Opera Festival. In its 11th year, the festival celebrates bold new versions of classic operas and new pieces from up-and-coming composers, musicians and companies. Robert Price, lighting director for the production, was visiting Chroma-Q’s UK distributor, A.C. Entertainment Technologies for a demo of the new Vista 3 by Chroma-Q lighting & media control software when he spotted the Space Force. He comments: “
UK - Broken Wings is a new musical that recently premiered in the West End at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. Based on Lebanese-born poet Kahlil Gibran’s autobiographical tale of the same name, the show is written by Nadim Naaman (The Phantom of the Opera) and composer Dana Al Fardan. As a leading supplier to West End productions, White Light was called upon to supply the lighting equipment. The show was lit by lighting designer Nic Farman, whose previous West End credits include The Toxic Avenger and 3Women. He comments: “For this particular production, the director Bronagh Lagan and I decided that light would be extremely helpful in conveying a sense of both location and time. The show features the older Gibran reflecting back on his life so the narrative switches to the past frequently. “I worked closely with Bronagh to develop the pa
Europe - Royal Caribbean has again built the largest and most advanced cruise ship in the world, an Oasis-class ship named Symphony of the Seas that features all new experiences while continuing to minimize the energy footprint with energy-efficient infrastructure like Elation Professional LED lighting systems. Symphony has spent her inaugural summer season sailing to destinations in the Mediterranean and will head to Miami in early November to begin Eastern and Western Caribbean itineraries. Elation Professional has supplied a large energy-efficient LED lighting package to Royal Caribbean. Symphony of the Seas is the fourth Royal Caribbean Oasis-class ship to sail with Elation lighting. Built at the Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France, Symphony of the Seas can host around 6,600 passengers plus 2,200 crew. The ship first sailed in April of this
UK - Event production and equipment specialists Light Fantastic Production Services partnered with award-winning international innovation festival Unbound to deliver an immersive two-day experience at The Old Truman Brewery, London. Supplying a complete production package covering every aspect of the event, LFPS provided full installation, technical infrastructure and management of the busy two-day programme attended by over 5000 visitors and featuring presentations from a host of world leading brands. Working within the ‘blank canvas’ interior space of the Truman Brewery, the LFPS team transformed the entire first floor into a series of high-tech zones, including the Main Stage, Future Stage, Networking Zone, Partners Lounge, Exhibition and VR/Interactive area. Handling every detail, LFPS provided lighting, audio, video, rigging, draping, set design and co
Singapore - SCM Production recently upgraded their inventory with Martin by Harman lighting solutions. SCM Production delivers professional audio and lighting services for corporate events, product launches, trade shows, celebrations and more. With the goal of better serving their clientele and ensuring premium lighting for a wide range of live events, SCM Production made the decision to expand its lighting inventory with an array of Martin lighting solutions, including the new MAC Encore Performance, MAC Quantum Wash and Rush MH 7 fixtures. “We chose Martin fixtures because we wanted to provide our clients with the most versatile and powerful lighting solutions,” says Ng Boon Kok, director of SCM Production. “For audio, we’ve been using JBL sound reinforcement systems in Singapore’s most prestigious venues for years. Our new Martin inventory enables us to p
USA - The Four: Battle for Stardom is a new US reality TV show and singing competition produced by ITV Entertainment and Armoza Formats, with the second season just completed following a successful premier on Fox at the start of the year. Lighting designer Tom Sutherland of DX7 DESIGN produced a large scale immersive 360-degree lighting environment for this second season. It was a distinctive aesthetic shift from the look and feel of the first season, and this time around, he included Robe MegaPointes and Spiiders on the rig. The show was recorded in Studio 14 of the CBS Studio Centre in LA and the lighting equipment was supplied by California based Felix Lighting. The programme format does not feature stage auditions. The artists - also known as the challengers - are placed in a ‘holding room’ before coming into the studio to sing in front of a live
UK - The Rock and Bowl festival started out in 2009 as a small community-driven live music event round the back of a local pub. Today, it attracts fans from throughout the UK with its mix of music, food and good times. To reflect the festival’s coming of age on its 10th anniversary, its organisers committed to making their stage bigger and bolder than ever for headliners like Rews and Think Floyd. Ashley Heritage and Nic Farman helped them achieve this goal with a dynamic, fast-moving lighting rig anchored by Rogue and Nexus fixtures from Chauvet Professional supplied by CSPAV. The duo deployed 30 Rogue R2 Wash and 12 Rogue R1 FX-B moving fixtures, along with 20 Nexus 7x7 warm white blinders/audience washes, on four levels of trussing to create massive tour-like lighting displays throughout the three-day festival. "Given the growth of the festival in recent y
World - P!NK’s 2018 Beautiful Trauma world tour is set to be her highest ever grossing tour, with over $100m already taken in ticket sales. The singer is bringing her hallmark mixture of exotic staging and aerial acrobatics combines with quality vocal reproduction – courtesy of a Sennheiser Digital 6000 system – to venues around the world. Sennheiser has a long association with P!NK through her RF coordinator and monitor engineer for the band, Horst Hartmann. For her 2013 The Truth About Love Tour, he specified an integrated in-ear monitor and microphone system to help facilitate her technically and physically challenging show. For the current tour, the microphone system has been updated with Sennheiser’s latest technology, including its Digital 6000 system, both handheld and bodypack, an improved custom mic/in-ear combo, and wireless monitoring v
UK - Bandit Lites has appointed Jerry Archer as an installation and service specialist to its sales and installation team. Archer will work from the company’s base in Charlotte, North Carolina. His responsibilities will include helping organise and provide support and ideas for the creations of new lighting systems, installing those systems and then maintaining those systems over time. Chris Barbee, Bandit Lites Director of Sales and Installation: “We have spent the better part of a year looking to add this position in Charlotte in order to support our work in the Carolinas as well as nationally. We have a very diverse portfolio of projects which demands a person with a wide skill set and a great personality. We wanted to find the right person for our team and Jerry is definitely the right fit.” Archer adds: “I am absolutely thrilled to be a part of the Bandit
USA - Southeastern University’s College of Arts & Media in Florida doesn’t just teach in the classroom, it also offers students real world experience through a variety of activities, including the chance to work at its TV station. Featuring professional-level programmes, the station provides an invaluable outside-the-classroom opportunity to develop skills in every facet of broadcasting. Recently, Southeastern University enhanced the level of its TV broadcasts even further by adding four Ovation B-2805FC LED batten fixtures from Chauvet Professional to its Bolin Studio. Supplied by Barbizon Lighting, the RGBA-Lime battens replaced older fixtures that were not performing efficiently. Beyond the issue of reliability, however, the Ovation fixtures brought a new level of realistic colour mixing to the university’s broadcast studio. Southeastern University’s bro
World - Justin Timberlake launched his Man of the Woods tour with Claypaky Scenius Unico fixtures supporting the show as it travels the world. Man of the Woods is Timberlake’s sixth headlining tour; it follows the release of his fifth studio album of the same name. The tour kicked off in Toronto and played dates in North America until the commencement of the European leg in July. More North American dates are scheduled from September through the tour’s conclusion in Denver next January. The show presents Timberlake’s music in several ‘worlds’ themed around the origins of the songs. The in-the-round set is composed of multiple stages spanning the arena space. “It’s a very choreographed show because we didn’t want to block any seats. A lot of work went into making sure that everything can be seen everywhere,” says Nick Whitehouse,
EMEA - Production Resource Group (PRG) and VER have completed their merger in Europe and the Middle East, becoming the largest entertainment and equipment and services provider. The entities will be controlled by The Jordan Company, GSO Capital Partners and PRG Management.Jere Harris will serve as chairman and CEO of PRG and VER, and Stephan Paridaen will be president and COO. Harris comments: “For more than 20 years PRG has been diligent in offering its clients the best production service and equipment in the entertainment industry. Growth across disciplines, markets and geographies has always been a key part of our strategy. Now, our ability to support all types of entertainment productions globally will take on new meaning, raising an already high bar to an unprecedented level.” According to a statement, combining PRG and VER’s strength will now offer
UK - Current RMS will be back once again exhibiting at PLASA London in September, where they’ll be showcasing their latest features built for the AV, lighting and staging industries, including a number of new updates. The team will be on hand to show how simple managing the entire rental process from start to finish becomes with Current RMS, thanks to the convenience and the ease of one cloud-based solution. See the real-time availability of your kit from any device, effortlessly create quotes and orders to send online to your clients, seamlessly scan to allocate and book out your kit, and manage your crew, transport and venues all from one system. Since the success of last year’s PLASA London show, the team has been working to implement some of their user feedback, based on votes on their open Customer Wishlist. New updates have included Choosing Accessories
China - Showtec International recently partnered with Harman Professional Solutions to create a visual experience at the Beijing International Automotive Exhibition. Showtec was hired to provide lighting for the biennial auto show in which manufacturers such as Lexus, BMW and Mercedes-Benz showcase their latest luxury models to the largest and fastest growing auto market in the world. In order to ensure an elegant atmosphere with immersive lighting, Showtec relied on an array of Martin by Harman lighting fixtures. “High-end events like the Beijing Auto Show require state-of-the-art lighting solutions to highlight the importance of the new innovations being exhibited,” comments Henry Ang, managing director, Showtec International, Singapore. “With this goal in mind, the Martin fixtures were a perfect fit, helping to transform the venue into a supercharged visual e
