Portugal - Ampco Flashlight played a major role as supplier of all lighting, rigging, video and motion systems for the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest. Preparations started as early as October 2017. The dedicated team of commercial, technical and logistics specialists, working closely together with local Portuguese partner Pixel Light, laid a solid base for a flawless production in the Altice Arena. Build-up started early April and ended with a 60-hour speed load out. Over 2500 fixtures, almost four kilometres of truss and a huge amount of, cabling, dimmers, distro’s and a state of the art data network was used in this massive TV production attracting over 350m viewers worldwide. Marc van der Wel, project director, commented: “It was very exciting being part of the team, and seeing how our specialists put so much effort, experience and knowledge into this proje
North America - Media and real-time visual processing specialist ArKaos has widened its distribution network in North America by appointing Elation Lighting as a distributor in the USA and Mexico. Elation will be promoting, distributing and servicing all ArKaos PRO’s video server range and the MediaMaster software. ArKaos MD Agnes Wojewoda comments: “With the on-going diversification of our product range, ArKaos wants to become established in the segments like architecture, architainment, churches and houses of worship, television and broadcast. Elation is a well-established independently owned company with an excellent base, track-record and contacts network.” A.C. Lighting, which was ArKaos’ exclusive distributor in North America since 2012, will continue to support and supply existing US customers and remains the brand’s exclusive distributor in
USA - AV Stumpfl will allow InfoComm visitors a first look at their next-generation media server software solution PIXERA, scheduled to be released later this year. The 64-bit system for real-time media processing, compositing and management is built around the key theme of usability. Users can gradually discover the options and features and can smoothly transition from being a beginner to becoming a specialist. Actions in the 2D and 3D space follow the same mechanisms. The system was designed so that users can execute the most important basic actions in record time and with only a minimum of effort. A radical new interface logic enables even first-time users to intuitively understand the main software mechanics. AV Stumpfl global business development manager Horst Damoser explains what makes PIXERA so special: "In order to have a real impact on the highly
USA - Ultra Music Festival, turned 20 this year and the occasion was marked, in part, by big beam lighting effects from an array of Elation Professional IP65-rated Proteus Beam moving heads that lined the top of the festival’s Main Stage. Production and lighting design for the Main Stage was by The Activity, their ninth year of involvement with the festival. The Las Vegas-based production and design firm, headed by lighting veteran Patrick Dierson, wanted to do something special for the festival’s 20th year and chose the Proteus Beam for a prominent look “Because this was Ultra’s platinum anniversary we wanted an element within the design that would specifically represent its 20 years of celebration and the Platinum Beam’s bigger brother, the Proteus, seemed like the perfect choice,” stated Dierson, who served as lighting and production designer on this ye
UK - Taking in selected venues, Tokio Myers, who stunned the judges to claim victory on Britain's Got Talent has been showcasing his genre straddling fusion of classical and contemporary musical experiences on stages across the UK. Collaborating closely with Vision Factory show designer, Sam Tozer, the VER London operation has supported the tour with a comprehensive video, projection and lighting package that helped realise the designer’s creative vision for the shows. Set against a 9 x 4m upstage LED wall, the show blends live performance with filmed footage, cutting edge graphics and intense colour that silhouettes the artist at work. Speaking about the show’s visual elements, Sam says: “Tokio Myers Our Generation tour design revolved around the basic idea of cinematography and immersing Tokio in a halo like parallel cube of light. I found using VER high
UK - Eaton’s Zero 88 will highlight its FLX range of consoles at the ABTT show on stand E23 in the West Hall at London’s Alexandra Palace next week (6-7 June). The all new FLX S24 and FLX S48 consoles, the original FLX and the ZerOS Wing will be demonstrated at this event. The desks will run with the latest ZerOS 7.9.4 software. FLX S24 is a new console that runs up to 48 LED, moving lights and conventional fixtures and is easy to learn and straightforward to use, delivering huge flexibility and multiple features at an affordable price. FLX S48, also new, has double the power of FLX S24, offering intuitive and hands-on control of up to 96 fixtures, and a touch monitor output for quick access to palettes / show overview. The quantity of available playbacks, groups and palettes are all also doubled. Both FLX S24 and S48 are portable, powerful controllers
USA - After recently expanding its inventory with a large complement of Claypaky Scenius Unico and Mythos2 fixtures, Elite Multimedia Productions has provided a portion of that equipment to Cole Swindell’s nationwide Reason to Drink Tour. The country singer-songwriter kicked off his headlining tour in Allentown, Pennsylvania in February and wrapped the first leg in LA in April. He resumed the tour a month later in Austin and will continue to play dates across the country through September. Nashville-based Elite Multimedia is the production provider for lighting, LED, video and IMAG video support. Production designer James ‘Mo’ Butts deploys 16 Claypaky Scenius Unico and 24 Mythos2 fixtures for the tour. His design for the show, in which video plays a key role in the storytelling, depicts Swindell’s evolution as an artist from playing cover songs at a c
USA - Pomona College’s Seaver Theatre is tucked away near the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains outside LA. The school’s leafy campus is reminiscent of a New England Ivy League institution, with academic standards to match having been ranked among the top 10 colleges by Forbes and US News & World Report. The college holds an attraction for visiting designers in the form of a lighting system that’s been enhanced with greater colour-mixing and zooming capabilities thanks to the addition of 60 COLORado 2-Quad Zoom Tour fixtures and 14 Ovation B-2805FC cyc lights from Chauvet Professional. “Excitement and joy have been the main reactions to these lights by the designers who’ve used them,” said Janelle Asti, the master electrician and sound engineer of the school’s Department of Theatre and Dance. “The designers who have come in and used our new fix
Europe - Singer-songwriter Adel Tawil is again on tour in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Prior to the tour, he used a number of festival appearances to present his current album So Schön Anders before embarking on an extensive theatre tour that ended with three sold-out arena shows last autumn. These included all the essential production elements of his other shows. The man responsible for the lighting design is Bertil Mark, who wanted to implement a symbiosis of clear spaces and chaos. Production rehearsals took place over three days at Black Box Music in Berlin, where most of the band now resides, and where the lighting designer now runs his own studio. "Since the band is well-rehearsed, we were able to use the three days in the rehearsal studio almost exclusively for the design," reports Bertil Mark with satisfaction. "I had listened to the album in adva
UK - British rock band Marillion treated fans to a series of immersive shows in April, with theatrical-style lighting controlled using an Avolites Tiger Touch II with Titan interface. The band worked with its long-serving lighting designer Yenz Nyholm on the light show, designed to synchronise with pinpoint accuracy to video content and on-stage action. "Each song on this tour required lighting that would act as if it were a mini-play, reflecting the stark nature of the music and immersing the audience into the experience," says Nyholm. "The design was based on beautiful, symmetrical beams of light. "Programming with Titan was a godsend - I used the Capture Atlas Suite, which integrates with Titan, allowing me to sync the lighting with the video and performance. Pre-programming using Capture meant that my position palettes were pretty much spot-on when I got to e
USA - Elation Professional will be showcasing the latest lighting at InfoComm 2018 in Las Vegas. At the Las Vegas Convention Centre, Elation will be showing the latest luminaires in the award-winning Artiste series of creative, full-featured moving heads, the Artiste Picasso and Artiste Dali. The theatrical-grade Artiste Picasso is one of the brightest (22,000 lumens) and most feature-rich profile LED lighting fixtures on the market. Feature-packed (zoom, framing, CMY, CTO, gobo wheels, animation, prisms, frost and more), it houses a high-power 600W Cool White LED engine. The Artiste Dali, a PLASA and LDI award winner, is a full-featured moving head with a unique hybrid light engine that combines a 300-watt LED source and 100-watt Laser Phosphor source for greater spot and beam capabilities from one fixture. Elation will also be showing the new Smarty Hybrid, a f
Europe - ArKaos has launched GrandVJ 2.5, a new version of its GrandVJ software designed for control of video sources by VJs. The new version will help optimise functionality of the host of pixel-based LED fixtures and media products as well as for ‘conventional’ video surfaces such as LED and projection screens. The launch follows 'intensive research and development' and the new release has been 'comprehensively' tested by the user base. ArKaos’ managing director, Agnes Wojewoda, comments: “We have listened extensively to what our VJ and video operator community has been requesting and taken that valuable feedback and their wish-lists on-board in developing this version of GrandVJ.” There is also improved support for DPI display scaling and for international characters, as well as faster movie playback for ProRes on Mac and Windows and more rapi
UK - Aurora Lighting Hire supported lighting director Gurdip Mahal on a major installation for Revolution, one of the largest entertainment sets on UK television. SKY One took over the vast space at Cardington Studios for extreme sports show Revolution. Hosted by Jackass star Steve-O and Maya Jama, Revolution is an extravaganza of high speed action featuring BMX riders, skates and boarders going head to head across a spectacular custom designed course. Working with award winning lighting director Gurdip Mahal for the eight-episode run, Aurora provided a vast array of lighting, control and rigging equipment to light up the large-scale production. To achieve the intense colour applied throughout the show, a mix of over 200 Robe 1200, VariLite VL3500 and Martin Quantum Wash fixtures were installed to provide a highly controllable, vibrant
Portugal - 17 Robe RoboSpot Base Stations controlling tracking Robe BMFL fixtures provided a remote followspotting solution for production lighting designer Jerry Appelt at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest. The RoboSpot system was specified onto the show by Jerry and his gaffer Matthias Rau, and used extensively throughout the event’s final and two live semi-finals, which were beamed and streamed live via host broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP), reaching a final worldwide audience of around 200 million. The RoboSpot system was supplied by main lighting contractor Flashlight from the Netherlands, who worked in conjunction with Pixelight from Portugal. The RoboSpots, each with individual MotionCameras, were all from Robe’s powerful BMFL series of moving lights – a mix of BMFL Blades and BMFL WashBeams. Having these on the rig for key lighting
USA - Country music singer, songwriter and rising star Kane Brown is on the road opening for Chris Young’s Losing Sleep tour, and lighting designer Andrew James wanted a practical and spectacular specials rig to give the young artist’s set full impact. He turned to Robe moving lights - 18 x Pointes and five Spikies - supplied to the tour as a specials package by 4Wall Nashville. James’ starting point for this design was that he and production manager Tyler Oplinger wanted something different for Kane’s set which needed to look fabulous and be set up onstage and de-rigged quickly and efficiently during the changeover. He had already started to think along cart-based ideas for movability, and he also happened to have Atari’s Q*bert in his head! This inspired the basic shape of the set which he realized would also make a great base for lamp placeme
UK - While the 2014 Disney film production of Into the Woods garnered huge amounts of 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 the atmospherics.
Portugal - Lighting designer Jerry Appelt chose more than 700 Ayrton fixtures for his design at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Appelt chose not to incorporate a video element in the show, instead returning to a lighting-based design in which Ayrton fixtures were a key creative feature, adding depth, architecture and variety to the visuals. “The exemplary cooperation with Ayrton was vital for the success of the show and the almost 800 fixtures from Ayrton gave Jerry an important addition to his toolbox, enabling him to create a magnificent, multi-layered design that was absolutely needed to master this beast without having LED screens or any other video canvas in our set up,” says ESC head of production, Ola Melzig. “And guess what, we did not miss video for a second of the whole eight hours of spectacular broadcasts we created in the wonderful city of Lisbon.
UK - The north Bristol warehouse of lighting and rigging supplier Utopium has suffered a fire on the night of 21-22 May, destroying the entire lighting and rigging inventory, the company reports. An investigation has been opened into the cause of the fire. The whole team are said to be devastated by the fire. Utopium founder Colin Bodenham comments: “It is heart-breaking to see everything we have created destroyed in one devastating event. The main consolation is that nobody was hurt in the blaze. We are focused on fulfilling our commitments to clients approaching a busy summer season working with trusted partners in the industry. I am allowing myself a little time to grieve the loss of some treasured artefacts amassed over the years.” More news is expected soon. (LSi Online)
USA - After 21 years in the dark, the classic Grain Belt Beer sign is once again brightening the Minneapolis skyline. Built in 1941, the 50x40ft landmark was the largest free-standing signage in the region, but since 1996 the old incandescent lamps have been dark. A recent renovation by S.M.L. Electrical, supported by JTH Lighting, features over 1,000 Intelligent Marquee Systems (IMS) RGBW LED lamps. "Pat and Sean Lawrance of S.M.L. Electrical approached us to find a colour changing, power line control solution,” explains Mike Steskal of JTH Lighting. “They wanted to use existing wiring and S14-style lamps to maintain the sign’s historic look. The system also had to handle the harsh Minnesota cold, which was amply proven last New Year’s Eve when fired up with the thermometer at -8 °F." "Located 100ft above a river, you don’t want to be replacing lamps," says
USA - Matt Calabrese says he thrives on spontaneity. Good thing, too. As lighting designer for the increasingly popular and much travelled progressive funk jam band Kung Fu, his career has taken him on a wildly original, and thoroughly enjoyable, ride. Every show is a new adventure for the Connecticut-based LD, not just as a result of his client’s constantly changing set lists, but also because of the wide variety of venues where they perform. “Designing for Kung Fu is a great experience, where things never repeat themselves,” said Calabrese, as he finished a gig with the band at the legendary Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY, where they opened for more. Helping him navigate his way through his long and winding tour schedule is his consistent and reliable ground package of Rogue R1 Spot and COLORdash Batten-Quad 12 fixtures from Chauvet Professional. “The f
USA - High End Systems lighting fixtures were riding high in the rig of RodeoHouston. with LD Nathan Brittain having specified 14 SolaSpot 1000s and 10 Sola HyBeam 2000s to meet his demands for lighting with an impactful kick, while reining in power consumption. LD Systems provided the gear for the nightly concert series during February and March at Houston’s NRG Stadium. After each day of bull riding and mutton busting, with horses, clowns and kids kicking up the dust, the self-propelled stage steered itself to the centre of the arena for the evening’s performance with top name acts. This year’s new concert stage - designed and fabricated by Tait, with support from LD Systems - unfolded like a flower, revealing its five-pointed star shape. The stage used vertical motion control for the star point stage sections and its rotating centre stage section. Its
USA - The ESTA Control Protocols Plugfest, the event that enables manufacturers and developers to test their lighting products for network interoperability, is scheduled to take place from 20-23 July at the D/FW Marriott Solana in Westlake, Texas. Plugfest offers delegates an opportunity to connect their lighting product with those of other manufacturers to test and resolve network compatibility issues. The event also offers a chance to take advantage of the knowledge and experience of the Control Protocols Working Group - one of the Technical Standards Program’s largest working groups. ESTA invites the industry to drop in and experience Plugfest. Attendees can bring controllers, intelligent lights, control protocol analysers, and other network connected components. The event is open to both ESTA and non-ESTA members. Full details are available at
USA - Late in 2016, research agency Gallup conducted a survey of jam band fans to determine the “approval ratings” of different groups. The Vermont-based quartet Twiddle earned the highest score, even edging out fellow Green Mountain State stars Phish. Although the first-place finish might have surprised some, it wasn’t particularly shocking to the legion of Twiddle fans that turn out to see the band play at festivals and music halls from Maine to California. Twiddle has recorded upwards of 50 EPs as well as multiple studio albums, but for the band’s true fans the greatest pleasure comes from seeing them perform live. Joyfully blending reggae, funk and rock, with some spirited dashes of hi-def shred thrown in, the band takes fans on a carefree journey, where a delightful surprise seems to wait around every musical bend. Adding to the magic at a recent Twiddle
USA - In 1946, more than 100 founding parishioners came together to build a community where families could worship as one, establishing the St. Rose of Lima Catholic Community. Built around a host of ministries that include a school, an early childhood centre, and various summer programmes, the sanctuary within the community is relied upon as part of the foundation for spiritual growth. With an outdated lighting system which needed replacement, the church worked with the Houston-based manufacturers rep LESCO Lighting Technology who installed a bright and energy-efficient worship design using Chalice LED downlights and Pegasus LED Fresnels from Altman Lighting. “This was our first time working with the congregation at St. Rose of Lima, and we were brought on to help them update their current house and stage lighting system to LED technology,” said Manuel Moran, LES
