UK - Sitting on the banks of the river Mersey in Liverpool, the Grade II listed Cunard Building embodies the rich maritime history of the city. Constructed in the heyday of Liverpool’s shipping industry between 1914 and 1917, the building was the headquarters of the Cunard Line until the 1960s and was also home to Cunard's passenger facilities for transatlantic journeys departing from the city. When the building’s current owners recently decided upon bolstering its evening appearance on the waterfront, they turned to local install specialists Adlib for an architectural lighting concept, who specified 24 Colorist Panel 36Qa and 14 Colorist Panel 8Qa Iluminarc fixtures to accentuate the building’s Italian Renaissance-inspired architectural aesthetic. “It was a tough task to illuminate one of Liverpool’s most iconic buildings and UNESCO World Heritage Site,”
UK - Rental production company Neg Earth Lights has added the Chroma-Q Color Force II LED cyc, wash & effects light to its stockholding and is supplying the fixture for a number of high-profile concert tours, live music events and TV shows. Lighting designer Tim Routledge approached Neg Earth looking for a LED washlight for a particular project, and was impressed by the Chroma-Q Color Force II. In recent months, he has utilised the fixture on a variety of projects. These include using nearly 60 Color Force II to powerfully illuminate the entire room as a single surface for a show by a leading British pop artist inside one of The Tanks - huge concrete, circular underground rooms at the Tate Modern measuring over 30m across and 7m high. In addition, Tim has utilised nearly 40 fixtures to provide different floor lighting packages for performers during six shows in th
South Africa - The recently-opened, multi-purpose Sun Arena at the Time Square in Pretoria (see report on the venue in LSi March 2018) hosted the Extreme Fighting Championship (EFC) in December last year. With the heavyweight title up for grabs, it was lighting designer Gary Sam who was throwing the blows. In his arsenal was the in-house Robe lighting system which South African distributor DWR Distribution supplied to the new venue. The lighting included 12 Robe BMFL Spot, 6 Robe BMFL Blades, 12 BMFL WashBeam, 24 Robe Spiiders, 24 Robin Pointes, 12 Robin LedBeam 100, 42 Longman F4Up and a LeMaitre MVS. “The brief from EFC was to make the show look as spectacular as possible, using effect lighting without compromising the TV ‘key’ lighting,” said Gary. MGG Productions were the technical support at the venue and assisted with set up, while Gearhouse South
UK - The Backstage Centre will host open days on 1-2 March, inviting visitors to discover and demo new products from leading professional brands including JTS, FBT, ADJ, Allen & Heath, DuraTruss, Elation Lighting, 5 Star Cases, JTS Microphones and Titan Power. Sat in Purfleet’s High House Production Park 11 miles east of London City Airport, the Backstage Centre has quickly garnered a reputation as one of the UK’s best-equipped production and rehearsal destinations. Taking place within the facility’s sound stage, The Backstage Event will feature demonstrations of a wealth of FBT audio solutions. Rental companies and live engineers will hear why the dual 10” Muse line array, twinned with the Mitus 218SA, has already proven itself in more than 4,000 projects worldwide. Installers will have the chance to test the weather resistance of FBT’s IP55-rated
Europe - Claypaky's new K-EYE HCR range of lighting fixtures takes LED light quality to its highest peak of performance yet, giving lighting designers and directors access to CRI values never before achieved by an LED fixture, says the company. With Claypaky's high colour rendering (HCR) algorithm, colours and textures of costumes and props retain richness and scenic finishes show off a depth and lustre never seen before under LED light. Skin tones appear more natural and in a world where entertainment is increasingly seen up-close and personal through the eye of a lens, the K-EYE HCR technology ensures performances are lit with integrity. The HCR algorithm, newly developed by Osram and Claypaky, ensures the K-EYE HCR family of wash lights deliver an unprecedented degree of control over the quality of white or coloured light. The white light that the fixture produces h
UK - The latest release of the Lightconverse 3D show platform promises to the market “a level of previously unseen 3D resolution quality and multiple new features of the award-wining software, used for high-tech show visualisation and simulation of lighting, video and special effects”. Along with increased GUI and 3D resolution, users can now capture a high-resolution video of their work along with high-res screenshots. There is no need for any extra video-capturing software or hardware thus making it even easier to show clients’ highly detailed show creations. This feature allows for high-quality and full-colour mp4 offline rendering of online recorded DMX, video and media in, resulting in a cinematographic quality video. Another anticipated addition is a built-in Light Meter, used to make calculations of centre weighted lux levels on the surface and generatio
Spain - Barcelona-based lighting designer Ezequiel Gomez has worked on Spanish singer David Bisbal’s latest Hijos del Mar tour which has already visited Spain and Latin America. The LD chose Robe for the majority of the moving lights, with Spiiders, Pointes and LEDWash 300s key fixtures on the rig. Ezequiel, who has been working for the artist since 2009, insisted the stage and scenic design for this tour had been a collaborative effort between the artist himself, Brian Sellei from Menos que Cero, Universal Music, Barcelona-based LED specialists LEDSCONTROL and performing arts collective SomosLuz (We Are Light), of which Ezequiel is a member. LEDSCONTROL presented the initial ideas from which the stage look evolved, coming up with an idea to have partially enclosed LED ‘cabinets’ for the band risers. Ezequiel and his team at SomosLuz adapted this and made
USA - The Conga Room-LA Live isn’t photographed and videoed quite as often as the celebrities who frequent the nightlife, concert, and private event venue, but it comes very, very close. Located directly across the street from the Staples Centre, the sleekly designed 1000-capacity multi-room site regularly hosts press conferences, after parties and other functions associated with major award shows like the Grammys, Emmys, X-Games, VMAs, and ESPYs, as well as film and album releases, all of which are press magnets. Lately, the photos and videos taken at the celebrity co-owned A-list venue are looking better than ever, thanks to the installation of 34 Chauvet Professional fixtures, supplied by RAT Sound and designed by Aaron Silvie. “There has been a stunning improvement in our image quality on film and still photography as a result of these lights,” said Woody Nus
UK - The Gatecrasher Classical club night landed at Sheffield City Hall in January, with dramatic lighting controlled by Avolites consoles. Birmingham-based Stage Production provided the technical know-how for the laser and lighting spectacular, achieving that 'Gatecrasher feeling' by hitting the crowd with myriad effects. The team supplied all lighting, rigging, staging and technical production for the event and designed the light show. Stage Production managing director Jordan Lake was production director/designer for the gig, working alongside Ben Butler as lighting director/designer. The duo used an Avolites Sapphire Touch and Tiger Touch II console with Fader Wing to control the ambitious production. "Gatecrasher fans expect massive lighting shows and it was up to us to deliver," says Lake. "Gatecrasher has always understood that it takes more than a big-na
Ireland - Avolites has appointed A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) as its exclusive distributor in Ireland for its range of lighting control and dimming products. AC-ET will be running a series of Avolites product demonstrations, road shows and hands-on training sessions in Ireland. They will also hold stock of core Avolites products ready for immediate despatch from their UK warehouses. Aaron Cripps, AC-ET’s regional sales representative for Ireland, says: “Taking on the exclusive distribution of Avolites' lighting control & dimming solutions in this territory gives us the opportunity to focus further on providing first-class sales, service and support to what is a fantastic range of products. “We’ve recently supplied Avolites consoles to venues such as INEC Killarney and the Cork Opera house, where their versatility and ease of operation means
The Netherlands - International creative design practice Painting with Light was commissioned by Panasonic to produce a high-impact multimedia live show for their booth at this year’s ISE expo at Amsterdam RAI. In 2017, Painting with Light’s creative director Luc Peumans developed a show that featured simultaneous tracking and projecting onto multiple objects, resulting in a dynamic live performance piece that combined a number of cutting-edge technologies, illustrating their capabilities, together with the flexibility of Panasonic’s latest projectors. This year, Luc received a brief from Panasonic’s European product marketing manager for projectors and visual solutions, Thomas Vertommen, who wanted to take it one step further and create a more graphical show that was even more technically ambitious. Panasonic is continuously following live entertainment
USA - Bass-guitarist Victor Wooten’s Victor Wooten Trio performed recently at the Caribou Room, a new live music venue just outside Boulder, CO. Pushing his bass to its creative limits, as he moved from finger tapped melodies to thunderous slapping sections, Wooten took his audience on a musical journey that wove its way through blues, jazz, fusion, rock and other genres. Keeping pace with him note for note was a Tim Farquhar lighting design that featured Chauvet Professional Rogue and Chauvet DJ Intimidator fixtures. “Victor Wooten is a great artist, so obviously my goal was to keep the centre of attention on him while still conveying emotions on stage with the lighting,” said Farquhar, who in addition to being a touring LD, is the house LD at the Caribou Room. “The Rogues and Intimidators were ideal in this regard, giving me the looks I wanted, without distractions
South Africa - A new Anolis LED lighting installation is helping to highlight the lush and beautiful foliage in Cascades Gardens, part of the five-star luxury Cascades Hotel property in Sun City, South Africa. Cascades is right at the heart of the Sun City casino and entertainment complex, and Johannesburg-based creative agency Cinevation was commissioned by Sun International to reimagine some of the resort’s public areas, including the gardens, with a brief to make them more accessible and enjoyable to the public. Cinevision proposed a phased creative lighting scheme starting with the 150m long pathway from the hotel to their ground floor restaurant Bocado. Up until this time, during the evening house, it had been bathed in almost total darkness. In turn, Cinevation asked lighting experts DWR to assist with the specification of fixtures and undertake the installati
UK - Slideatron - the 20-metre LED Christmas tree slide - entertained thousands of visitors from November 2017 until January 2018 in Wembley Park, London. Designed and produced by event and place-making agency Produce UK, the attraction allowed visitors to reach another level of festivities by accelerating through the tube in 18 seconds. Guiding the public to the huge structure was a set of eight Airstar Crystal lighting balloons. The 160cm wide LED spheres were deployed around the structure in order to light up the area and enhance the spirit of Christmas. Lana Guascone, project director for Slideatron and producer at Produce UK explained: “Our ambition was to create something impactful, creative and futuristic – but also fun. Every element of the project, including the lighting, needed to fit the evolving nature of Wembley Park as a place of innovation and excite
USA - Visitors who entered the Roland exhibit at NAMM during a performance by one of the company’s many star endorsers experienced a sense of attending a concert. When they returned a short time later, they felt an equally immersive, but quite different, sensation of walking through a high-tech showroom. Contributing to the creation of this flexible exhibit space was a versatile lighting design by Justin Preston that featured a collection of over 90 Chauvet Professional fixtures, including 32 Maverick MK2 Wash units. Having this number of high-output moving fixtures in the lighting design for a trade show exhibit represented outside-the-box thinking, but for Preston it made perfect sense, given his objective of creating a multi-dimensional environment. “Our concept in lighting the Roland space was to merge a club and a trade show look,” he said. “While we wanted to
Czech Republic - 2018 signalled the end of the record-breaking 19-date ice arena tour across Slovakia and Czech Republic by Kabat. The multi-platinum selling Czech rock band stunned audiences with an in-the-round show design, complete with 360° stage, wrap-around video screens and a high-impact light show powered by the cutting-edge technology of Italian lighting manufacturer Claypaky. Lighting and show designer Radek Havliček of production company Pink Panther Agency s.r.o, was responsible for the tour's lighting and production design. Marking nearly two decades of creative partnership between Pink Panther and Kabat, Havliček's latest design stunned audiences with its immersive flair and sophisticated use of space. "The tour's stage spreads across most of a regulation-size ice hockey rink," explains Havliček. "It was the biggest stage that had ever been used on
USA - Philips Lighting stage lighting fixtures were chosen to meet the strict lighting demands on the set of 2017's popular feature film, Pitch Perfect 3. With eight performances filmed across four locations, in both day and night shoots, the design team, including production lighting designer Trevor Burk and lighting directors Zach Matusow and Mat Stovall chose to use the Philips VL4000 Spot, VL3500 Wash and VL550 Wash, due to their quality of light output, colour range and versatility. Burk says: "The VL4000 Spot performed well as a key light in the aquarium scene and in the finale. It was really important to have high-level colour control and the super even field of the VL4000 Spot. In addition, we used the VL3500 Wash as a big, straightforward cannon of light in the aquarium scene, while for the festival performances at the airforce base, it was obvious we
USA - In an effort to “better provide ready-to-use LED video solutions for your entertainment, architectural and commercial designs”, PixelFLEX reports that it has joined the Vectorworks, Inc. software content community. The design symbols, images and specifications for the PixelFLEX FLEXTour, FLEXLite Plus and FLEXCurtain HD video solutions, including accessories, will be available for download in all Vectorworks CAD and BIM design programmes beginning in March. “As we have continued to expand our LED video solutions into a multitude of different markets, it has become imperative that we provide designers with the tools necessary to quickly complete their designs,” said Jon Chavez, technical director at PixelFLEX. “We have been very fortunate to have many talented professionals incorporate our solutions into their design portfolios, and our partnership wit
Germany - SKALAR is a compelling piece of immersive kinetic light art created by artist / designer Christopher Bauder and musician / composer Kangding Ray. Ninety Robe Pointes, 65 x double sided mirrors suspended on 195 special motors each with a perimeter ring of 180 addressable pixels feature in one massive cathedral like industrial landmark building. Kraftwerk in Berlin is the still magnificent shell of a derelict power station that once electrified central East Berlin when the city was divided by cold war politics. SKALAR “juxtaposes technology and imagination in a cerebral dichotomy to engage the mind and soul in generating the very human reactions of profound emotions”. While Christopher’s conceptual starting point was renowned American psychologist Robert Plutchik’s ‘wheel of emotions’, his physical one was Kraftwerk itself
USA - Having previously been involved with putting together the lighting design for James Arthur’s club/theatre tour in early 2017, LD Michael Straun has moved up to lighting the larger arenas for the artist — again using GLP fixtures extensively in his toolkit. He was invited by Meggan McKenzie, creative director of production company, The Live Dept, after previously working with the company on shows with Tinie Tempah and Katy B. He and McKenzie worked closely to evolve the concept. “She would send me ideas which I would adapt and add lighting elements. We wanted to move away from custom builds so we used different fixtures in different ways to create the stage set,” said Straun. “James was also involved throughout the entire creative process. The key was to make the show look big and impressive - and the wall of JDC1’s did this.” This is GLP’s new lo
South Africa - Both beginner and advanced users are catered for at DWR Distribution’s Vectorworks training sessions presented by Francois van der Merwe. The dates range from 12 to 16 March and delegates are able to choose if they would like to patriate in one or more training sessions hosted over this time. The basic training will be held on 12 March and delegates can expect to discover the fundamentals of Vectorworks with topics covered such as Layouts, Balettes, Basic Tools, Classes and Layers. The cost for this one-day training session is R850. Intermediate Training will be held on 13 & 14 March. Here Francois will discuss preferences, Basic Spotlight, Basic Renderworks and Intermediate Tools. The cost for this two-day course is R1 700.00. Advanced Users are invited to participate in training held from 15 & 16 March. The exciting module will cover w
Europe - The combination of sound and sight is very evident in Marilyn Manson’s current Heaven Upside Down tour of Europe and North America, both in its music, which opens with a cover of The Doors’ Vietnam-era song The End, and in its richly evocative lightshow that designer Nico Riot controls with his new ChamSys MagicQ MQ500 Stadium console. “There is a strong theatrical element to a Marilyn Manson show,” said Riot, the co-owner of Nantes, France-based Chirac Design. “We create a moody, immersive look on stage with saturated colours, lots of strobes and blinders, a large abstract cross of lights, and V-shaped configurations on either side of that cross to draw attention to Manson.” Riot’s 15-universe show also features a variety of up-lighted backdrops. Not surprisingly, given the artist’s iconoclastic nature, Marilyn Manson’s shows
UK - A dazzling array of lighting exhibits and artworks brought London to life in January when Lumiere London took to the capital to bring the biggest ever festival of light to the city's streets. Running from the 18-21 January, it showcased London's spectacular and iconic architecture and streets with more than 50 works created by international and local artists. Once again, event organiser Artichoke has worked alongside Unusual – both the services and rigging division – to make the event possible. Unusual’s Jim Dugan explained: "Lumiere is always an amazing project for us – Unusual has worked with Artichoke on this for some years now –Unusual Services handles the technical production element of Lumiere (this encompasses all technical aspects of an event from power to building permissions and road closures). Unusual Rigging provide the rigging expertise. W
USA - Ilusio, Magic on Ice, a riveting spectacular created by and starring Steve Wheeler, has played to millions of people in more than 4,000 performances across the US, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. To help light the show when it appeared last fall at The Berglund Centre in Roanoke, Virginia, lighting designer Emiliano Morgia chose Claypaky Sharpys and Sharpy Washes supplied by Lee Hartman & Sons in Roanoke. 24 Sharpys were mounted on four custom trusses built by Wheeler Productions over the show’s ice rink. Ten Sharpy Washes were placed on the floor as back lights. “Sharpys are unique beams lights. There is nothing in the market that can compete with them – my choice was obvious,” says Morgia. “Claypaky is without doubt my favourite brand in the industry, not only for the high quality of the hardware and the quality of the light beams.
