Germany - French lighting manufacturer Ayrton launched its new compact graphic strobe, the MiniBurst, at last month’s Prolight+Sound trade show in Frankfurt. The fixture is a smaller version of the company’s MagicBurst, which was the first strobe fixture to be produced by Ayrton. Equal in physical size to MiniPanel-FX (the compact version of Ayrton’s MagicPanel-FX), MiniBurst measures 192mm x 192mm and contains 960 mono-chip, daylight-white LED sources grouped into 16 pixels on a 4 x 4 matrix. Its dimensions makes it extremely easy to integrate into lighting rigs of all sizes, yet it is capable of emitting up to 60,000 lumens, with a flicker-free output that is perfect for all TV and video applications as well as live performance, says the company. Exhibiting Ayrton’s continuous pan and tilt and accurate positioning, MiniBurst’s graphic capab
South Africa - The 12th Annual South African Film & Television Awards was hosted at Sun City’s Superbowl on 24 March with a further 2.3m viewers tuning in to watch the live SABC televised production. EPH Productions were appointed by ATTV to supply the full technical and the set for the show, as well as for the smaller Technical Awards held a couple of days prior to the main event. EPH Production’s Danie Janse van Rensburg wore three hats namely as project manager, technical director and set designer. For the proposal, with a lot of support from Leon Pheiffer (CEO, EPH Group), they came up with an idea to use suspended LED screens as the main feature, knowing that when complimented with the graphic material supplied by ATTV (Andrew Thabo Television), diverse looks would take the audience on a journey from glamour to triggering emotions with bright and patriotic colou
Europe - Irish hip hop artist, rapper and music producer Rejjie Snow burst on the scene in 2013 and has just released his debut album Dear Annie. He has also just completed a 34-date UK and European tour, which was well received. Creating the atmospheric lighting was LD Chris Yeomans, who for the three largest gigs on the tour - Dublin’s Olympia, The Roundhouse in London and La Trianon in Paris - he specified Robe moving lights as the main part of a striking design. The core rig comprised 25 Pointes arranged upstage in a 5x5 grid; eight Spiiders were positioned between the columns of Pointes, and six LEDWash 600s on the floor at the sides for 'wing washes’. Lighting was supplied by London based Colour Sound Experiment. The artist wanted to be silhouetted for much of the show so he could lurk in the shadows and play with the negative spaces, so Chris im
UK - With a capacity of 4,000 guests and two stories of nonstop action, it’s easy to see why the Cardiff University Students’ Union is clearly the largest nightclub in its city. The popular venue attracts some of the best international acts on a regular basis, as was evidenced recently by an event featuring top UK DJs Chase & Status. Tasked with providing energetic visual support to this event, local production specialists SR Production Services specified a selection of six Rogue R1 Beams and 10 Rogue R1 Wash fixtures from Chauvet Professional. Positioned on top of stage truss towers to provide sweeping beam looks over the audience, the Rogue fixtures also filled the void between the stage’s large video wall backdrop and its DJ booth. “The R1 Beams are an absolute workhorse of a beam light,” comments LD Matthew Dunford. “The small size and punchy sourc
UK - Northern Stage Theatrical Productions in Newcastle recently invested in Spotlight FresneLED 150RGBW luminaires for a touring production requiring a versatile and low-energy LED Fresnel - and after being so impressed with their performance, has now made them a regular fixture in their Stage 3. Northern Stage is the one of the largest producing theatre companies in the North of England, presenting new and dynamic original work as well as up-and-coming, innovative theatre makers. With a recent tour taking in some smaller community venues, Northern Stage production manager, Chris Durant and lighting designer, Richard Flood needed a low-power LED lighting rig featuring a multi-purpose Fresnel solution, to keep the overall power needs down. At the same time, it needed to match the quality and output of conventional Fresnels and have the option to create coloured light
USA - Magic Gives Back is an organisation that stages pro-bono magic shows at schools across the US to raise money for education projects. Started by celebrity magician and illusionist Rick Smith Jr, the organisation transforms school facilities into magical entertainment showcases. Key to setting the mood at these events is a versatile, compact and easily transportable lighting rig created by Brent Schmidt that features a collection of Rogue and Ovation fixtures from Chauvet Professional. “Rick Smith Jr. approached me three years ago about designing, building and running the production for this show,” said Schmidt, the owner of B Productions. “Since the shows often take place in schools, they are not your typical theatrical production. I’ve taken theatrical elements, magic show looks and rock concert effects from my other projects and blended them into a creation th
USA - The Yost in Santa Ana, California, is enjoying new life as a modern live event space thanks to entertainment production company N-EFFECT Productions and an entertainment technology package that includes Elation Professional lighting. First opened in 1913 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the space initially housed vaudeville acts, silent films, and talkies but has also seen service as a live theatre, house of worship, live performance venue and nightclub. N-EFFECT Productions and owner Kris Plourde started renovation of The Yost in June 2017 and he says almost $1m was put into the venue to give it the encore it deserved. By tapping into the old-world vibe of the storied venue, the new incarnation’s customizable Elation lighting system, QSC line array and large 3mm LED wall can transform events into extraordinary experiences. “It
Israel - Ronen Najar is a lighting designer used to working under some pressure, and for the 2018 Israeli Independence Day (Yom Ha'atzmaut) opening ceremony on Mount Herzl, Jerusalem, he needed those steely nerves as part of the creative team helping to commemorate a historically significant moment in Israel’s history, the 70th anniversary of the 1948 Declaration of Independence. Ronen chose to use 55 x Robe MegaPointes and 68 x BMFLs - a combination of Spots and WashBeams - to illuminate the vast performance area built around the tomb of Theador Herzl, founder of modern political Zionism, at the top of the Mount of Remembrance, the site of Israel’s national cemetery and a resting place for the country’s war dead. The event is organised by the Culture Ministry and broadcast live on all Israeli TV channels. It’s also attended by an invited audience of 7,5
Europe - German company GLP has become the next major lighting manufacturer to campaign for exemption of stage lighting from the Energy Directorate’s Ecodesign Working Plan 2016-2019. GLP says it would be “deeply affected” by the plans, which in their current form would impose a minimum efficiency of 85lm/W and a maximum standby power of 0.5W on all light sources from September 2020. Udo Kuenzler, GLP MD, comments: “If this becomes law, it could mean extinction for theatres, concert venues and other sections of the performing arts since no tungsten fixtures and many LED-based entertainment fixtures don’t appear to meet these requirements. “GLP stands for the responsible use of energy and the resources of our planet. However, it is not very helpful do this on flat-rate regulations as provided for in the current EU working paper. Therefore, we advoca
USA - Upon the opening of the world's largest architectural and commercial lighting trade show, Altman Lighting will be at Lightfair 2018 in booth 3922 inside McCormick Place, Chicago, on 8-10 May. In preparation for their showcase of innovative architectural and commercial lighting solutions, Altman Lighting will be highlighting the power and performance capabilities of their Gallery LED series, Chalice LED downlights, and the popular Spectra Cyc wall wash family of LED luminaires. “With so many talented architectural and commercial lighting professionals all gathered at one time, Lightfair is a significant opportunity for us to demonstrate the innovation behind our lighting solutions,” said Nick Champion, Altman Lighting vice president of North American Sales. “It is amazing to see how the technology behind the industry has grown over the last several years, a
UK - Since their formation in 2017, Lights Control Rigging (LCR) has supplied kit for many high-profile tours and artists ranging from Ed Sheeran and Dizzee Rascal to rising stars such as Wolf Alice and Sundara Karma. “At the moment we seem to be sending out equipment for a different tour every week,” says LCR director, Mike Oates. “The key is being able to work with the artists, their lighting designers and make sure we have the right, high quality equipment available at the right time. We work closely with A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET), who supply much of the equipment we hold in rental stock.” Recent purchases from AC-ET have included Chroma-Q Color Force II Battens, Luminex networking equipment and ProLights static lights. LCR also sources many of their consumables and specialised cables from AC-ET - cabling being supplied under the Tourflex Cab
USA - Arizona’s famed Valley of the Sun is located in a desert, but from 11-15 April, this hot, dry landscape was shaking with thunder, not the meteorological kind, but the rolling four-stroke variety, as over 70,000 motorcyclists from every corner of North America, descended on the area for the 22nd annual Arizona Bike Week. At the end of each day, after all the charity rides and swap meets were over, most bikers said goodnight (temporarily) to their Hogs, Blackbirds and Hurricanes and headed off to the event’s fairground concert venue to see multi-platinum headliners like ZZ Top, Shinedown, Collective Soul and Chevelle. Supporting these performances with some potent hard-driving looks was a flexible festival rig supplied by Creative BackStage that featured Chauvet Professional Maverick, Rogue and STRIKE 4 fixtures. Designed to create maximum impact with plenty o
France - French band Shaka Ponk is touring through 2018 with a rig that includes flexible lighting pods full of Elation Rayzor 360Z LED fixtures, as well as Elation’s new narrow-beam DARTZ 360 LED moving head. Lighting design is by Alexandre Bucher of the 4eleven company, who has worked with Shaka Ponk for seven years as a lighting and video programmer and has toured with the band several times. The current MonkAdelic tour is his first as lighting designer. The LD, who also serves as lighting director on the tour, works with a set rich in scenery and detail with accompanying video show. Bucher uses lighting to add another layer of dynamism to the set while accentuating the on-screen visuals and has integrated the two Elation LED source luminaires in his design in large numbers. Compact Rayzor 360Z fixtures, high-speed LED beam/wash luminaires with zoom, are l
Sweden - Philips Lighting played a central role in the lighting for Melodifestivalen 2018, the popular television series in which Sweden's entry to the Eurovision Song Contest is selected annually. The VL6000 Beam, from the Philips Entertainment Lighting portfolio, was chosen by award-winning lighting designer Fredrik Jönsson, one of Europe's leading experts in lighting entertainment events for television. Jönsson has been responsible for lighting Melodifestivalen since 2002, and has also lit the Eurovision finals on two occasions, in 2013 and 2016. For Melodifestivalen 2018, Jönsson selected the Philips VL6000 Beam luminaire to fill a specific role in his lighting design. He says, "The set designer created a kind of radio mast set-piece, suspended just above the sweet-spot on stage, so we needed some kind of big, beamy lighting instrument that
USA - Excitement for ABC-TV’s Academy Awards show built well before the telecast began with the arrival of celebrities captured by the Oscars Opening Ceremony: Live from the Red Carpet. The pre-show, held on famed Hollywood Boulevard outside the Dolby Theatre, featured for the first time Claypaky K-EYE K20 HCR LED wash lights selected by lighting designer Madigan Stehly. Stehly has worked on the Red Carpet show for the last five years. This year marked his first in the lighting designer’s seat. He describes his brief for the live broadcast as “daylight reinforcement” since the show leads into golden hour, which “quickly changes the intensity, quality and colour of light” as the sun sets. “The whole Red Carpet is the show, not just the defined interview stages,” says Stehly. “Celebrities arrive and interact with each other – that’s part of
UK - New Robe MegaPointes and LEDBeam 150s, purchased by SJ from Birmingham UK based rental and technical specialist DMX Productions, were used to spectacular effect in lighting the 2018 Voice in a Million (VIAM) extravaganza which was staged at London’s SSE Wembley Arena. VIAM amasses some of the largest children’s choirs in the world. The Voice in a Million organisation was founded by Robert and Jo Garofalo in 2006, to raise awareness of the millions of children worldwide who are orphaned, abandoned or separated from their birth parents. In 2009 the VIAM shows began to showcase children’s choirs from around the UK. Now these annual shows are full scale arena concerts with some of the largest children’s choirs in the world, this year comprising 10,000 children’s voices. DMX productions, for the second year, supplied lighting and all other technical
UK - Students from the University of South Wales Lighting and Technology department, who were given the opportunity to operate the lights for a music video shoot by The Haus Band at The Wales Millennium Centre last month. The students got to use a variety of consoles, including a ChamSys PC Wing to run a David Howard- and Dominic Boston-designed rig that featured over 50 moving lights, including Chauvet Professional Maverick and Rogue fixtures. Aside from getting the chance to operate this impressive gear, the students garnered valuable insights into the lighting design process. “It was really nice to lead a project with students from conception, though programming and production, to completion,” said Howard. “It’s something I had not yet done on a university project of this scale. It was also nice to see pre-visualised programming come to life on a real rig,
USA - Steven Wilson is out on tour with a lighting package provided by Bandit Lites, bringing his ever-evolving sound to audiences around North America. The English musician and singer-songwriter released his fifth studio album To the Bone in the fall of last year, and while lighting director Tellson James is apt to note that Steven’s sound dictates the lighting, he also works to make sure the mood of the lighting matches the songs. Bandit Lites is supplying Martin MAC Viper Profiles, GLP JDC1 Strobes, Clay Paky B-EYE K20, a Road Hog for control along with Chauvet VIP X6iP Video Panels. With each venue featuring its own lighting fixtures, James shared how the Bandit-supplied package is crucial in crafting a consistent look that is still adaptable no matter whatever unknown factors the venue is going to throw their way. “The B-EYE s offer something t
Europe - Avolites and MA Lighting recently joined forces with the organisers of entertainment technology trade event Prolight+Sound to shut down the booth of prolific counterfeit operation PPL (Popular Lighting) from Guangzhou, China. This is just one of a number of steps that both businesses are taking to prevent the distribution of counterfeits. It also sends out a clear message to all manufacturers making direct copies that their actions will not be tolerated. Avolites sales director Koy Neminathan explains: "Avolites synchronised efforts with MA Lighting and with the support of Prolight+Sound to successfully close PPL's booth down before the Prolight+Sound show even opened. PPL shamelessly manufactures and sells counterfeit Avolites and MA Lighting badged products at respected trade shows around the world and we are determined to put a stop to this." Michael Adena
USA – The Irideon line of architectural fixtures from ETC features “exceptional light output and a sleek, unassuming industrial design that blends in with any space”. The newest addition to this family, the WLZ or, Wash Light Zoom fixture, is no exception. This feature-rich design is designed for museums, lobbies, and retail environments. Similar to the other fixtures in the Irideon family, the WLZ is available in a wide variety of colour temperatures ranging from 3000 K to 5000 K, and three mounting variations - track mount, portable and canopy. When using a track data distribution system, both 3-circuit EUTRAC fitting for the 230V market and 2-circuit DataTrack fitting for 120V markets are available. Each fixture can be individually addressed for DMX-controlled dimming or adjusted using the trim pot located on the track adapter. In addition to the DMX control o
France - Dushow, one of France’s leading technical production companies, has invested in 20 of Robe’s RoboSpot remote follow spotting systems. Dushow’s commercial director Christian Lorenzi commented, “We see this as a big innovation in the follow spotting world. It’s very flexible and gives everyone involved in staging all types of shows many more options.” The RoboSpot system comprises a BaseStation and a MotionCamera that communicate via DMX with no latency and enable several of Robe’s most popular moving lights – including, currently, the BMFL Spot, BMFL Blade, BMFL WashBeam, DL7S Profile, DL4S Profile, MegaPointe and Pointe - to be controlled from anywhere in a venue or space. The RoboSpot MotionCamera is available either as a separate unit or integrally on the BMFL Follow Spot fixture, a modified version of Robe’s signature high powered l
USA - Elation Professional has announced the launch of the new Smarty Hybrid, a compact yet full-featured CMY colour-mixing Spot/Beam/Wash hybrid moving head with stage smarts thanks to innovative and highly efficient “FLEX” lamp technology. Building on the success of the company’s Platinum range of moving heads, Elation has worked closely with Philips engineers to further improve Platinum lamp technology. The result is a new long-life Philips Platinum FLEX 200 lamp that sits at the heart of the Smarty Hybrid. The ‘smartly’ designed discharge lamp/ballast package produces an impressively high output for such a compact fixture while performance remains resourcefully economical with a lamp life of 6,000 hours, double that of other fixtures in its class. The Platinum FLEX 200 lamp is dimmable via the internal ballast, which not only dims the lamp electronicall
Europe - Mistral TC, is a new 14,000 lumen white LED spot fixture from Ayrton, and just one of the new developments in Ayrton’s Automated Luminaires range. Launched at Prolight+Sound 2018, Mistral-TC is the latest in Ayrton’s range of fixtures, named both in honour of North African desert winds and some of the hottest performance cars on the planet, which “signifies a new era in the company’s development as it focuses on a sensational new range of LED spot and wash light fixtures”. Sharing a form factor with its compact sibling, Merak, Mistral-TC is a versatile, feature-rich, white LED source spot in a small package and a weight of less than 19 kg. Designed for applications requiring perfect colour reproduction, Mistral-TC features an entirely new white LED module, calibrated at 7000K, with a native CRI greater than 90 and high TM30 readings, making it suita
UK - In keeping with its commitment to providing clients with impactful, seamlessly executed experiences, On Event Production Co. has kept pace with the latest technology. This practice recently led it to add 20 Chauvet Professional Maverick MK1 Spot fixtures to its lighting inventory. The Maverick addition came at the end of a long and extensive research process that began when On Event Production Co. first encountered the MK1 Spot at last year’s Prolight + Sound. Impressed by what they saw at the Frankfurt show, the On Event Production Co. team surveyed industry members about the product and did a cost analysis before putting it to a shoot-out test with competing fixtures. “We shot out the Mavericks against some of their competitors at our showroom, and they were certainly the best value for the money when you looked at features, optics and brightness,” commen
