Lighting

Details

18 July 2024

South Africa - 2024 was the second year that South African lighting designer Renaldo van den Berg has lit the prestigious Metro FM Awards, which is a leading celebration of African musical talent and creativity.

Renaldo specified over 200 Robe moving lights to ensure that the high-energy-high-profile live broadcast on SABC was enjoyed by a massive TV audience as well as several thousand excited music fans catching the action in Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit.

This year, 19 awards were presented, with the lifetime achievement award going to Oskido, and multiple live performances followed the awards, with a full-on festival-style concert offering another glittering line up of Africa’s finest.

Johannesburg-based MGG Productions supplied a full technical, structural and set solution and Renaldo collaborated closely with MGG’s technical stylist

Details

18 July 2024

Spain - The open-air festival series I Love Reggaeton was held in Valencia and Madrid from the end of May to the beginning of June. Acts including Maldy, Nacho, and many more played in front of nearly 30,000 spectators on the impressive main stage, which provided the platform for an equally spectacular lighting design thanks to its sharp, pyramid-shaped truss structures. The star of the lighting rig was the Cameo PIXBAR 400 IP G2 LED bar.

Two hundred and thirty-six PIXBAR 400 IP G2s were required to trace the contours of the stage measuring approximately 50m in width and up to 20m in height.

“The purpose of the festival is to offer a comprehensive audiovisual experience,” explains Efrain Andrade from Spanish rental service provider Fluge Audiovisuales. “This meant the lighting design had to be an absolute eye-catcher. With the PIXBAR 4

Details

18 July 2024

USA - The unveiling of the new Mercedes G-Class all electric wagon – produced by Team X - at Franklin Canyon Park in Beverly Hills featured a performance by Travis Scott. The Grammy-winning, platinum artist was driven out in the new Mercedes on a platform that appeared to be floating in the lake.

Seth Bernstein, who led the lighting team, used 68 Chauvet Professional Color STRIKE M motorized strobe-washes supplied by Volt Lites. He described what went into making this memorable experience a reality: “This was an impressive accomplishment. Scuba divers built an elevated stage in the park’s decommissioned reservoir. This presented immense challenges, as we didn’t want to distract from the beauty of the environment with excessively visible fixtures or positions. 

“Also, the audience walked in during the last hour of daylight, so we wanted to

Details

18 July 2024

Canada - CAST Group, creators of Wysiwyg design software, has announced all training resources available through the CAST Academy are now free for all, effective immediately.

"We believe that the key to innovation and progress lies in education," said David Ferraz, international business development manager. By making our Academy training resources free, we are ensuring that everyone can master their skills and excel in lighting design. Our goal is to support the design community in reaching their highest potential."

The CAST Academy offers a comprehensive library of training videos designed to cater to users of all skill levels as well as webinars from professional lighting designers such as Tim Routledge, Durham Marenghi, and John Rayment.

"We are always listening to our users and striving to enhance their experience with our software," Dav

Details

18 July 2024

Spain - One of Spain’s most prominent lighting designers, Xavier Costas, a member of the Asociación de Autores de Iluminación (AAI), has been a cornerstone in the AV industry for many years. With a career spanning television, corporate events, architectural, theatre, and musical events, Xavier has made a significant mark both in Spain and internationally and turns to Obsidian’s Onyx lighting control platform to bring his visionary designs to life.

Xavier’s journey with Onyx began over two decades ago and over the years, he has witnessed its evolution. “Onyx has changed over time and has adapted to new technologies and the demands of programmers,” he reflects. “Right now, I really like the intuitive aspect of the desk, how easily you can patch the products or fixtures you use in your designs.

“I also like the labelling and symbols, whi

Details

17 July 2024

UK - The Arcadia stage at Glastonbury Festival, presented annually by a collective of creatives, engineers, programmers and technicians, is one of the most recognised festival stages in the world.

This year, in place of its celebrated flame-throwing, laser-packed Spider, engineered from recycled heavy machinery, Arcadia unveiled The Dragonfly. The sculpture, which was built from a retired military helicopter and scrapped excavators, saw artists including Fat Boy Slim and Eric Prydz perform from its dazzling head. This, in turn, featured a pair of glittering compound eyes moulded from a tangram of video screens.

Video Illusions, as one of the Arcadia team’s long-term collaborators, was invited to design and manufacture a bespoke LED panel featuring a near-invisible structural framework and control. The brief further demanded that the screens be low-

Details

17 July 2024

Germany - NicLen continues to rely on Cameo in 2024, with its latest investment being the new ORON H2 phosphor laser moving head which is now available in large quantities to all NicLen customers.

The Cameo ORON H2 is based on a 260-watt phosphor laser engine, which acts as an energy-efficient and long-lasting replacement for discharge lamps in the 480-watt class. With its combination of beam, spot and wash, and an unrivalled zoom range of 0.6° to 32° for laser moving heads, the IP65-capable ORON H2 is suitable for flexible use on medium and large stages – both indoors and outdoors. It features19 fixed and 12 rotating gobos as well as two combinable effect wheels with six prisms, beam ovalisers and frost filters.

“In recent years, Cameo has continuously expanded its portfolio and closed individual gaps in a targeted manner,” explains NicLen m

Details

16 July 2024

Germany - Cologne-based motion design and show development studio, visualprime, is used to doing things on a large scale, and Hannover’s Fairground Festival of electronic music is no exception. The second iteration of this relatively new festival – already classed as Germany’s third-largest indoor festival - took place in the cavernous spaces of the Hannover exhibition halls hosting 40,000 party-goers over two remarkable days.

A line up of top international EDM acts included headliners Paul Kalkbrenner, Ben Böhmer, Jan Blomqvist, Stephan Bodzin, ArtBat, Camelphat and Charlotte de Witt.

visualprime lighting designer, Tobias Reinartz, employed over 100 Ayrton fixtures to inject dynamism, colour and striking linear arrays across the stage and dance floor, choosing 84 laser-sourced Cobra fixtures rigged overhead throughout the hall for dramatic be

Details

15 July 2024

USA - Building on the success of Elation’s SixBar series, Elation has introduced the SIX+ BAR series.

The SIX+ BAR represents an innovative line of creative IP65-rated LED batten solutions that ‘harmonises the latest in LED colour technology with versatile design for greater artistic expression’. The SIX+ BAR offers more output, a broader colour spectrum and an overall superior quality of light.

Equipped with 20W RGB+Lime+Amber+UV LEDs and boasting an impressive CRI of 93, the SIX+ BAR offers an array of colours. Its meticulously engineered optical system ensures even light distribution, and the proprietary RGBLA+UV engine delivers high-fidelity whites and intense primaries with no colour fringing. Extra-large 50 mm lenses make it suitable for direct view applications and individual cell control opens up for a myriad of design possibilities.

Details

12 July 2024

UK - Girls Aloud are back on the road for the first time in 11 years, with their Girls Aloud Show tour, creatively directed by Beth Honan and lit by Peter Barnes.

Lighting, video, automation and rigging equipment – including some new innovations – and crew are all supplied by PRG UK to Production North, whose Iain Whitehead is overseeing all related technical production elements for the first leg of the tour that plays UK and Irish arenas including five sold out nights at London’s O2.

PRG UK’s account manager Yvonne Donnelly is co-ordinating everything. Yvonne stated, “It’s been an absolute pleasure collaborating with Iain and the creative team again on this groundbreaking tour for PRG, showcasing our newly developed RollCat tracking system alongside some of our tried and tested proprietary Icon range and with Ground Control running our n

Details

12 July 2024

France - Those who walked down the Place de la Cathédrale during a recent three-day festival, were reminded of this each night when they passed the six-century-old  Strasbourg Cathedral. The towering (32.6m high) church enchanted all with its intimate flow of colours and movement that played out on its surface.

The emotions aroused by the building’s visual dance was done without music, as the city elected not to map the cathedral’s lighting. For Daniel Knipper, the designer who created this powerful panorama, working without music, was, in many respects, a liberating thing. “It enabled me to find a freedom of rhythm, and therefore to propose pauses that really allow the facade to be seen in way that is impossible in a 12-minute mapped show.

“Interestingly, my first years on the Cathedral were without music!” continued Knipper.

“

Details

11 July 2024

USA - Global creative and production studio Raw Cereal creates immersive live experiences for some of the world’s best-known artists including country music stars whose Morgan Wallen and Lainey Wilson, thrilling fans with Raw Cereal-designed shows that include Elation Rayzor series lights.

Founded in 2022 by Cort Lawrence and Anders Rahm, Raw Cereal is a comprehensive creative studio based in Los Angeles, specialising in production, show, stage, lighting, and content design for some of the best productions worldwide. In the business for over a decade, Cort and Anders have worked with top acts like J Balvin, Kid Cudi, Machine Gun Kelly, All Time Low and Matchbox Twenty, as well as Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, Beyoncé and Coldplay.

"We see ourselves as a global agency, delivering creativity to clients worldwide," Cort Lawrence commented. “We

Details

11 July 2024

The Netherlands - ParkCity Live 2024 impressed visitors with spectacular stage designs and lighting displays, thanks to the creative efforts of Wesley Houben from None Of The Above and Rob Debets from Prismatic Lighting who carried out this project on behalf of SLF Group Rental & Sales.

Held in Heerlen, this year's festival featured performances from Level 42, Di-rect, Chef'Special, Joost, Paul Elstak, Brennan Heart and many more.

The Mainstage, a highlight of the festival, was brought to life by the design of Wesley Houben. Assisting him was Rob Debets, who played a crucial role as system technician.

Central to the Mainstage design were 66 Showtec Stage Blinder FLEX Blaze fixtures. These powerful LED stage blinders added intense bursts of light with traditional tungsten dimming, creating dramatic visual effects that captivated the audien

Details

10 July 2024

UK - Flames, lasers and lights fired up the night sky at the 2024 Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts as Arcadia launched its new Dragonfly concept – a sculptural installation, performance arena, a live show and a complete world of visual, aural and sensory experience, taking the art of imagining recycled industrial and military scrap metal to new and different levels.

Lighting included six of Robe’s new iBOLTS, a laser-source searchlight style moving light, and 12 x iPointe65s – an IP65 version of Robe’s MegaPointe moving light – fixtures stood out from over 200 lights illuminating the Arcadia Arena.

The Dragonfly’s body was projection mapped adding texture and depth, the head comprised a custom transparent video screen made from 200 LED tiles and lasers were its wings. In true Arcadia style, the show featured an impress

Details

10 July 2024

Ireland - 3LR Lighting played a central role in specifying a new house lighting system for the Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM) in Dublin. One of Europe’s oldest and most prestigious music conservatoires, RIAM recently undertook an expansion and technical upgrade to mark its 150th anniversary.

As part of this, its 309-capacity Whyte Recital Hall has a new ArcSystem LED house lighting from ETC – for whom 3LR Lighting, as manufacturer’s representative, conducted the detailed consultation. Quality house lighting is, of course, fundamental to any auditorium which prioritises its aesthetic quality as much as its acoustics, for example. Here, however, aesthetic requirements were perhaps of even greater importance than usual.

As 3LR Lighting’s Matt Lloyd recalls, “The colour temperature, the CRI – how the light interacted with flesh tones –

Details

10 July 2024

Canada - Vaughan, Ontario-based bb Blanc, a leading name in the AV production industry, has expanded its equipment portfolio with the acquisition of 48 Claypaky Sharpy X-Frame lighting fixtures.

"bb Blanc's decision to invest in Claypaky products was driven by the superior quality and technological innovation that Claypaky consistently delivers," says Adam Palleschi, managing director of bb Blanc. "The choice of Claypaky reflects bb Blanc's dedication to using the best tools available to create unforgettable event experiences."

According to Palleschi, Sharpy X-Frames stand out for their versatility and efficiency, making them an ideal addition to bb Blanc's lighting inventory. These all-in-one fixtures combine beam, profile, and wash functions, enabling a wide range of lighting effects with a single unit.

"The X-Frames can serve multiple purp

Details

09 July 2024

UK - The Chauvet Professional Color STRIKE M got to make over 100,000 pairs of eyeballs dance at Glastonbury this year. Playing a role in what Rolling Stone called ‘a stunning lightshow’ for Saturday night headliners Coldplay, the motorized strobe-wash was used to create a seemingly endless flow of  looks that captivated what was one of the largest crowds in the festival’s history.

Supplied by Upstaging, the high-output IP65-rated fixtures were positioned throughout the rig by LD  Shaheem Litchmore. From these positions they created a glow over the performance area. The fixtures also flashed their colour rendering prowess, blasting out a rainbow of dynamic chase sequences.

Every bit of the Color STRIKE M’s versatility was needed, as Coldplay took the gigantic crowd on a multifarious musical journey. In addition to performing album

Details

09 July 2024

The Netherlands - The Royal Theater Carré (Koninklijk Theater Carré) is a Neo-Renaissance style theatre in Amsterdam, located on the banks of the river Amstel. Founded in 1887, it was originally built as a permanent venue for the Carré circus family and their popular ‘horse-play’ circus-theatre shows, but was later repurposed to also stage a variety of performances, revue theatre and operettas. Currently, the circular design 1,700-capacity auditorium is used for a mix of musicals, pop and music concerts and cabaret shows.

The auditorium lighting has recently received an upgrade with the existing lighting replaced by 36 x Anolis Ambiane XP56 LED fixtures fitted with 20-degree lenses.

These were delivered by Lumen Solutions, the architectural division of lighting sales specialist, Controllux, and installed by the Carré’s in-house lighting tea

Details

09 July 2024

Europe - Ayrton has announced the official launch of its new IP65-rated Rivale Wash, the first ultra-equipped wash luminaire in Ayrton's new Ultimate range. A new addition to its IP65 3 Series, Rivale Wash has been developed especially for mixed indoor and outdoor use, including in salt-laden environments.

Rivale Wash, has been designed to emphasise volume, create depth and dreamlike atmospheres that leave a lasting impression. Whether playing with light and shadow, highlighting a detail, mastering chiaroscuro, searching for the perfect nuance or chiselling space, this new-generation luminaire delivers incomparable satisfaction. In addition, Ayrton’s signature moves of continuous rotation on the pan and tilt axes are included as standard to ensure maximum design creativity and freedom. Rivale Wash’s incredible ability to create extremely subtle atmospher

Details

09 July 2024

USA - It started in 1994 as the Gatlin Brothers Theatre, and later the Crook and Chase Theatre, before housing Christ United Methodist Church; ultimately, it would become the home of Palmetto Pointe Church. But the building on Fantasy Way in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina was always home to some combination of faith and music, and in its current form, its 2,000-seat auditorium hosts Sunday services by Pastor Jamie Barfield and occasional concerts by artists including Tauren Wells and Danny Gokey.

What all of these events now share is a venue with a lighting rig that as of early this year features 30 newly installed elektraLite Stingray Profile Cast RGBW 350-watt ellipsoidal fixtures. The elektraLite fixture arrays were designed and installed by Paul D. Sweetman of Sweetman Designs, who worked with audio specialists MC Sound Consultants to completely renovate t

Details

08 July 2024

UK - Former Britain’s Got Talent contestant Calum Scott is back on the road in 2024 with a new campaign, The Songbook So Far, a world tour, which is playing larger venues than before for headliner shows, together with a run of high-profile festival slots reflecting his ever-growing fanbase.

A new lighting rig for the tour was created and specified by LD Elliot Baines of Spiralstagelighting. Elliot has been working with the artist since summer 2022, initially as the lighting operator, and was then asked to design lighting for this new tour, for which he specified 30 x Robe Esprite and 54 x Spikies which are being supplied for the UK full production shows by Hampshire-based Liteup.

Calum’s management wanted fresh and different styling for this tour, so Elliot presented an eye-catching design that was scalable and highly practical to tour a

Details

05 July 2024

Poland - The award-winning Opera Baltycka (Baltic Opera) in Gdansk, on Poland’s north coast, has invested in new Robe lighting fixtures with the purchase of 18 x TX1 PosiProfiles and four Paintes which have been installed into its current building.

The opera house has a colourful and varied history and was originally built and opened as an equestrian sports hall in 1915. It went through various other iterations, and the first opera was performed there in 1950, and since then the building has undergone several renovations. While the cozy 476 capacity makes it Poland’s smallest opera hall, The Baltic Opera has a formidable reputation for excellence, high production values and world class performances.

Lighting specialist Marek Lebida has been working full time at the Opera since the Robe fixtures arrived last year, supplied by Robe’s Polish distr

Details

05 July 2024

UK - Theatre Lighting Design: Conversations on the Art, Craft and Life, a new book offering fascinating insights into the design processes, work and lighting lives of 14 leading lighting designers, will launch on 25 July 2024 – and is available to pre-order now.

Written by lighting designers Emma Chapman and Rob Halliday, the book features individual interviews with lighting designers Neil Austin, Natasha Chivers, Jon Clark, Paule Constable, Rick Fisher, Richard Howell, Howard Hudson, Jessica Hung Han Yun, Mark Jonathan, Amy Mae, Ben Ormerod, Bruno Poet, Jackie Shemesh and Johanna Town.

A final interview talks to the lighting team responsible for creating the hit musical Billy Elliot about how the lighting design evolved as the show was created and then how it has been maintained as the show has been remounted over the last 18 yea

Details

05 July 2024

Belgium - “The atmosphere during a concert in a theatre hall is very different from that at a festival or in an arena,” Tourist LeMC said at the start of his Onrust tour. That is why the Flemish hip-hop-folk artist eschewed his usual venues and built this 23-show tour around more intimate theatres.

Communicating with the audience was critical to Tourist LeMC’s vision for this tour.  Building on the theme of his recent hit The Other, he wanted to emphasise the importance of people overcoming the boundaries that separate them, an especially important ideal in times like these.

Setting a supportive tone for Tourist LeMC on this tour was an engaging, intimate lighting design by Maarten De Man of MDM Productions that featured Chauvet Professional fixtures supplied by Splendit.

“This was the very first time that Tourist LeMC playe