USA - The Firefly Music Festival wrapped this weekend with Bandit Lites once again providing the lighting package for multiple stages where more than 60,000 people took to the forest for the seventh year.
The weekend’s line up was packed with a wide array of performances with Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, The Killers and Arctic Monkeys headlining. Odesza, Lil Wayne, Logic, Martin Garrix, SZA, Alt-J, Foster the People, MGMT and Cold War Kids also took to the stages.
Bandit Lites supplied more than 200 fixtures for the main stage system including Clay Paky Mythos, Robe BMFLs, VL 3500 Washes, VL 3000 Spots, GLP X4 Bar 20, Solaris Flare Strobes, Lycian M2 spots, and grand MA 2 Full consoles for control.
“Lambda Productions Scott Cadwallader, Brian 'Tuffy' Knight, Kat Harris and Joe Gordon worked long and hard on this huge festival and really pulled out all the stops,

Australia - Eclipse Lighting and Sound recently secured multiple Martin by Harman MAC Quantum fixtures from Show Technology to supply music festivals, concerts, musical theatre shows and more.
Eclipse Lighting and Sound is an all-in-one production house that provides audio and lighting solutions for music festivals, concerts, corporate dinners, and musical theatre shows of all sizes across eastern Australia. MD Chris Neal was preparing for the upcoming festival season, and decided it was time to replace his aging Martin MAC 2000 fixtures with something that could deliver sensational lighting on stages of all sizes.
In order to meet these needs, Neal contacted Show Technology to find a powerful yet versatile fixture. Show Technology suggested the MAC Quantum, which combines the latest in LED technology with Martin's proprietary optical design.
"The Quantum fixt

USA - August Hall is following in some giant footsteps. Opened this spring in the heart of Union Square, San Francisco, the 1000-capacity club is only a short distance from legendary music halls like the original Fillmore West, as well as leading current day entertainment sites like the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, The Masonic, and Great American Music Hall.
Building on this tradition, while adding new lighting and sound technology, the venue, which has a partnership with Live Nation, is hosting artists from every musical genre as well as comedians and corporate events.
Providing visual support for the diverse mix of performers that appear on its stage is a flexible lighting rig installed by Don Lynch of Commercial Audio Video Solutions, Inc, that features a collection of over 100 Chauvet Professional fixtures and LED panels.
“We worked closely with house LD

UK Aurora Lighting is collaborating once again with lighting designer Gurdip Mahal plus gaffers James Tinsley and Adam Mitchell on Channel 4’s hit reboot of TV cult classic The Crystal Maze.
Following the production’s hugely successful format, Maze Master Richard Ayoade is back in the driving seat, guiding teams of intrepid adventurers through various themed ‘zones’ to take on a variety of dastardly challenges.
Filmed on an expansive set created by original series designer James Dillon at The Bottle Yard, Bristol, the show captures the charisma of the 90’s maze whilst incorporating a number of contemporary twists to update and enhance the look of the individual zones.
The sheer scale of the set requires a truly flexible lighting package that can both maintain ambient levels and shift easily between the moods created to accompany each specific are

Qatar - Losail International Circuit hosts the Grand Prix of Qatar every year, one of the flagship events of the MotoGP season. In 2008, the race became the first to take place by night, at a more advantageous time for television broadcasts but also in order to benefit from milder temperatures.
Thanks to a permanent lighting system, riders can ride on the 5.4km track at any time of the day. Since 2016, the Losail Circuit Sports Club team relies on Airstar to light up the paddocks where teams prepare and adjust their motorcycles.
The Airstar balloons have also provided lighting for the public area, where additional entertainment and attractions are offered to visitors, such as camel riding, falconry, or traditional Arabic coffee making. This year, the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani attended the event for the first time.
“The Grand Prix of Qatar

Germany - With 35 acts performing across three floors over 14 hours to around 18,000 dance aficionados, the traditional Mayday EDM event in Dortmund followed a familiar theme.
For LD Thomas Gerdon, who has provided production design for five of the last seven events, the only important aspect was that a radical change, relocating the stage from the end of the hall to the long side of the rectangular room, gave him a massive 24m wide performance area to light.
This he accomplished with well over 200 fixtures from GLP - predominantly GT-1 and JDC1 hybrids - but also around 36 of the powerful impression X4 XL. This huge inventory was provided or sourced by Wiesbaden-based schoko pro.
This year Gerdon lit not only the main Arena stage but also the second Empire stage for promoters, I-Motion GmbH - commending their CEO Oliver Vordemvenne for his vision in endorsing th

USA - Hall & Oates have hit the road with Train co-headlining a North American arena tour this summer.
Lighting designer Paul ‘Arlo’ Guthrie from Minneapolis-based TOSS Film & Design has selected a large complement of Claypaky Sharpy Washes and Mythos 2 fixtures for the rig.
For the new show, Hall & Oates and Train each do a set then the bands join forces for a dynamic finale. The tour launched 1 May in Sacramento and will conclude in Seattle in mid-August.
Guthrie has designed a look for the tour that “feels modern but harkens back a bit to Hall & Oates’s legacy,” he says. “The lighting is reminiscent of rigs past with newer fixtures and more modern equipment. The video component is also larger than before.”
Downstage a front-projection screen has the form of a curved theatre proscenium. Mid-stage is an upside-down ‘U’ c

Singapore - Show production and equipment hire company The Show Company (ShowCo), supplied 120 Claypaky Scenius Unico fixtures for Katy Perry's performance at the Singapore Indoor Stadium as part of her current worldwide tour Witness: The Tour.
Designed by production designer Es Devlin and lighting designer Baz Halpin, who also produced the tour, Witness hooks in audiences with its whirlwind of rich video content, large-scale props and wide-eyed lighting effects, delivered in part by the powerful capabilities of the Claypaky Scenius Unico.
"The production is large format and makes a bold statement with its enormous 'eye-shaped' LED screen," says Halpin, "I wanted to make sure that the lighting design complemented not just the screen's shape, but was also able to compete with the incredible amount of light emitting from it."
After discussion with associa

USA - The Hangout Music Festival, a three-day event that takes place on a sandy beach on the Gulf of Mexico, served up a diverse line-up featuring The Killers, The Chainsmokers, Kendrick Lamar, The Man and a host of other stars.
Supporting the music on the popular Surf Stage was a rig that included Rogue RH1 Hybrid moving fixtures from Chauvet Professional and Ilumipanels from sister company Iluminarc, supplied by Bandit Lites. Put together by lighting designer Dizzy Gosnell and project manager Gene Brian, the rig was run by festival LD Alexandra Gagnon.
A key element of the Surf Stage design was a series of overhead curved truss structures that conveyed images of rolling waves. Riding on those “waves” and adding movement and colour to them, were 18 Rogue RH1 Hybrid fixtures. The Rogue units were arranged in groups of six, flown on the three curved truss formation

Israel - Moshe Kimchi Lighting Design has recently invested in Robe technology, with an initial purchase of 60 x Halo RGB LED rings, quickly followed by 18 x MegaPointes. The purchases were made via Robe’s Israeli distributor, Danor Theatre and Studio Systems.
Company owner Moshe Kimchi is an Israeli lighting designer whose work typically involves designing the project as well as supplying the lighting kit. He used the Robe fixtures for his Journey into Space installation at the 2017 Festival of Light in Jerusalem where he was one of the contributing artists. The Halo RGBs were an integral element of a symbolic giant spaceship that he created, complete with lighting effects synced to a soundscape.
Kimchi also used them to help light a large sculptural, illuminated menorah (nine-branched candelabrum) built at the Jerusalem municipality square for the Hanukkah h

Brazil - Avolites has struck a new partnership with HPL Light Company, who will represent the British brand's Titan products in Brazil.
Sāo Paulo-based HPL has a 15-year history as a distributor of entertainment lighting and sound products in the country. The company has announced it will be holding a series of workshops on the Titan range for its customers.
Andrea Nascimento, CEO of HPL, comments: "Avolites is a renowned company with lots of market and industry know-how. Partnering with them brings value to both our company and to our clients in many ways. We hope that this partnership will strengthen ties with the market, increase the demand and supply of Avolites in Brazil and bring many benefits to us all."
Larissa Gaeta, marketing director for HPL, adds: "HPL offers the Brazilian market a lot in the way of professional lighting solutions, but until now we h

UK - Live coverage of the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was viewed by millions worldwide - and ‘attended’ by four Hogs.
UK lighting designer and programmer Bill Peachment, Gaffin Riley and Will Plenty supplied four High End Systems Road Hog 4 consoles for Sky News’ live coverage of the 19 May event in Windsor.
It was a marathon for everyone watching and for the media covering it. While Peachment’s day started at 4am and stretched to midnight, he’s used to long days and was “proud to be a part of it." Activities surrounding the wedding were scripted to the minute, but anything could happen at a live event. Peachment wasn’t worried. He’s trusted Road Hog 4 consoles to see him successfully through his career of television and musical events in the UK.
"Live TV is a fast-moving environment," says Peachment. "We don’t get rehearsal t

Europe - A-ha are currently out for an extensive tour of the UK and Europe, running from early June till late August, playing a variety of headline shows in UK stadiums and European festival appearances.
With the band revisiting their original trademark electronic sound, show designer Stu’ Farrell has conceived a thought provoking staging for the band that sees specialist supplier Video Design provide some unusual LED and a distinct degree of autonomy for Julien Hogg, Farrell’s long-time collaborator and custodian of all things video.
“The visual concept is intended to make the audience think about what they are seeing,” Hogg began. “Stu’s design sees three long strips of LED on the front of double wide risers approximately three-foot tall, one for each band member. The Vanish25 panels we have from Video Design are chosen to allow the lighting behind to shi

Australia - Novatech Creative Event Technology has given its 12 Elation Proteus Hybrid fixtures some serious punishment over the last few months. First, they left them outside for five weeks in February in Adelaide, copping the full heat of a SA summer. They then migrated north for four weeks on the beach at The Gold Coast for the Commonwealth Games.
The Adelaide Fringe Festival’s Parade of Light saw projection art from creatives including The Electric Canvas and Illuminart light up the heritage-listed buildings along Adelaide’s North Terrace, while Novatech’s Proteus stock beamed colours and break-ups.
“We had the Proteus out in three pods of four, controlled from a PC,” said Ashley Gabriel, director of sales and marketing at Novatech. “We were projecting across a major six-lane road onto buildings, while fighting lots of ambient light and a backgro

USA/UK - The latest incarnation of The Killers’ stage set owes much to the band’s Nevada heritage. As the band originally emerged from 20th Century Las Vegas, the design was to reflect an image of the small towns that straddled the American West.
Long-time Killers LD, Steven Douglas explains the process, “Our set designer, Josh Zangen from Fireplay had already put in place a large water tower stage right that harked back to the original look of the small American town and we felt something was required to balance that look on stage left.”
“We talked about something that was reminiscent of old Las Vegas signage and casino awnings. Josh came back with the initial drawings of large lit arrows pointing at a downward angle; the band loved them.” The design was put out to Jon Perry of Perry Scenic who, in turn, subcontracted the project to Specialz.
Specia

UK - The Knight of Illumination Awards, which in 2018 marks its 11th year of celebrating the achievements of show lighting and video designers in Television, Theatre, and Concert Touring & Events, welcomes eight new additions to its judging panels this year.
The judging panels for each of the three disciplines consists of a range of critics and specialists with expert knowledge in their field who, once nominations have closed, will meet to select the three final shortlisted designs and one winner for each award.
David Benedict's theatre panel welcomes three new judges: Zoë Anderson, critic for Dancing Times and author of The Royal Ballet: 75 Years and The Ballet Lover's Companion; Michael Billington, chief theatre critic of The Guardian and author of State of the Nation: British Theatre since 1945 and The Life and Work of Har

UK - Penn Elcom has launched its new PDU16 range of premium rack-mounting power distribution: the PDU16-UN, the PDU16-EU, the PDU16-PC and the PDU16-AV.
The 2U high horizontal mounting PDU16 series has been developed in response to growing customer demand in the 19-inch rack market.
Features include a backlit LCD monitoring display on the front of each unit, showing essential operational feedback and data including voltage, current, power in watts and energy level. PDU16-UN (universal) main in/outs on Circuit A are a panel mounting 32A 240V IP44-C-FORM input socket feeding through to a 16A IP44 C-FORM output socket via an illuminated circuit breaker.
The PDU16-EU main in/outs on Circuit A are a panel mounting 32A 240V IP44 C-FORM input socket feeding through to a 16A IP44 C-FORM output socket via an illuminated circuit breaker.
PDU16-PC has a panel mountin

Europe - ADB launched Lexpert, a new line of white-light LED fixtures for theatre lighting, a Hathor software update and a new remote control surface, Wily!.
The latest update to Hathor features a continually updated fixture library and a special video tutorial and technical assistance service. ADB’s Wily! - a practical smart tool for remote control - is available for iPad or iPhone. It is compatible with the full range of hardware consoles using the software Prego or Hathor. Once connected to the computing unit, Wily! behaves like the front panel of a classic lighting console. Users can connect up to four tablets, which can be joined as an entire interface to provide a larger surface. The software is modular, so it can also be used as an extension of a physical console.
ADB is also posting a series of tutorials in English and French on its new YouTube channel, wher

UK - While the 2014 Disney film production of Into the Woods garnered much attention, thanks in part to its all-star Hollywood cast including the likes of Meryl Streep and Johnny Depp, a recent UCL theatre production has succeeded in stripping down the Stephen Sondheim classic to its thematic core - exposing the eternal battle between darkness and light.
Instrumental in this exploration of desire, ambition and relationships through classic Brothers Grimm characters such as Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella and Rapunzel was a combination of Chauvet Professional Maverick MK1 Spot and MK3 Wash fixtures, specified by LD Alex Forey.
With the general concept for the lighting based around the need to support the director’s post-apocalyptic vision, the cutting and powerful effects of the Maverick combination were called upon to create unique and harrowing atmospheri

Poland - Centrum Spotkania Kultur (Centre for the Meeting of Cultures) - ‘CSK’ for short - in the heart of Lublin, Poland’s ninth largest city, is a performance and culture venue that opened in 2016.
Its main auditorium is now the second largest stage in Poland, and there is also a chamber space and a cinema hall with a programme of new, classic, reimagined and experimental works by creatives from all over Poland and across Europe.
CSK has 70 x Robe luminaires in the main stage space - a combination of LEDWash 800s, BMFL Spots, Pointes and ParFect 100s - which were specified by CSK’s head of technical, Bart Pyczek.
He was involved in the specification process early-on, when the initial equipment schedules were being proposed by Lublin-based theatre consultant Boleslaw Stecmach. “His practice is involved in many important buildings all over Poland, howev

UK - Hofesh Shechter Company celebrated its 10th anniversary and kicked off the first day of Brighton Festival in May with a performance of Grande Finale, the latest original dance work from award-winning choreographer Hofesh Shechter.
Signature to any Shechter production is the ‘Hofesh Haze’, a distinctive thick haze with an even, creamy look that remains consistent throughout the performances. To achieve this effect, Adam Hooper, head of production at Hofesh Shechter, relies on MDG haze and fog generators which are hired locally at each venue, or brought along by the company if there is no local availability. “Because haze is such a large part of Hofesh’s productions, we only use MDG haze and fog generators and specify them on every rider, with no substitute,” he says.
In Grand Finale, the set in Tom Scutt’s design consists of seven rolling

Sweden - When the 2018 World Team Table Tennis Championships were held 29 April-6 May in Halmstad, Sweden, the tournament attracted a worldwide viewer audience of 400 million. Lighting and sound rental company Tylösound AB served as the official technical supplier to the Championships and used Elation Professional’s Fuze Wash 575 cool-white LED PAR moving head luminaires to meet the strict illumination requirements.
Held at Halmstad Arena, with roughly 3000 live spectators each day, the event featured eight days of live TV and was streamed live. Light levels onto three centre courts - and every area of each court - were carefully monitored. “We required a measurement of at least 1600 lux on each 9 x 20m court,” stated Paul Aladin, owner of Tylösound AB, supplier of lighting, sound, smoke and LED screens for the event.”
Working with Elation, Aladin initially b

Australia - Michael Althaus, Ayrton’s global sales director, led a series of Ayrton open houses with its exclusive Australian distributor Show Technology at their offices in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.
“The visit underlined the strong partnership between Show Technology and Ayrton, and our joint commitment to our customers,” Althaus commented. “The events went very well, with nearly 200 customers in attendance, and the response was overwhelming. Show Technology have done an amazing job already in introducing Ayrton to the market. Showcasing and comparing our range of products in this manner was mind and eye-opening for our customers.”
The new Ayrton products showcased included: Ghibli, Merak, Mistral, Minipanel TC and FX and Miniburst. Customers in Australia’s three major cities were also treated to a preview of what is around the corner with a demonstr

UK - The Martin by Harman MAC Encore Wash was awarded the Lighting Product of the Year 2018 at the recent ABTT Theatre Show in London. It was described by the Association of British Theatre Technicians adjudicating committee as “a suitable and long overdue alternative to a discontinued tungsten moving head favourite”.
MAC Encore is a new family of full-featured, low weight, LED moving heads that deliver levels of light quality and consistent performance. Featuring whisper-quiet performance, both the MAC Encore Performance and MAC Encore Wash are available in two dedicated colour temperature variants (WRM and CLD) for a wide variety of applications where critical lighting is required.
MAC Encore Wash WRM is an LED-based, replacement for the much-loved, discontinued MAC TW1, offering 3000 K warm tungsten emulation that challenges the output quality of a real incande

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