UK - The Ambersphere team will be at full strength on Stand C20 at this year’s ABTT show which returns to North London’s Alexandra Palace on 6-7 June. The latest products from each of Ambersphere family of brands will be on show. The award winning Dalis range of LED cyc, wash and footlights will feature from Robert Juliat. The Dalis 860 300W Cyclight won the PLASA Award for Innovation in 2015 and it continues to attract strong sales while its footlight counterpart, the Dalis 862 150W Footlight earned a commendation at PLASA 2016. Completing the range is the Dalis 861which features the same control, colour-mixing and quiet operation as the 860 and 862. The contribution from Claypaky includes the Scenius Profile and two fixtures new to the market. Adding to the Scenius range is the Axcor Profile 900, the first Claypaky spotlight to use an LED source. With an output
Chile - Urdile Audio & Iluminación, PR Lighting’s Chilean distributors, are just one global partner that has been achieving extraordinary success with the Chinese manufacturer’s XR440 BWS, and its smaller sibling the XR330 BWS (denoting that these hybrid, high output moving heads combine beam, wash and spot effect). The XR440 BWS houses a powerful Osram Sirius HRI 440W lamp, and features include an advanced colour index with CYM linear colour mixing system, with macro; colour wheel with 12 colours and CTO plus open; bi-directional rainbow effect at variable speeds; step/linear colour changer; fixed gobo wheel with 13 fixed gobos plus open, and much more. Urdile have been working with PR Lighting for the past four years, both as a distributor, but at the same time demonstrating product durability through its rental division. This year alone the 15,000-sea
Italy - Protected Paradise is a striking, 12m high, mixed media installation created by Belgian artist Koen Vanmechelen, located in the garden of the Palazzio Francetti for the 2017 Biennale di Venezia (Venice Biennale) contemporary visual art exhibition. Luc Peumans of Painting with Light was contracted to light the work, a thought-provoking piece encouraging viewers to engage and question the impact of humanity on a rapidly transforming planet. It consists of two bronze trees, a 4m bronze chicken claw (symbolic of the human being), two eggs made out of marble and fibre respectively (the eggs of hope) and an impressive cage constructed from recycled material, made by ECO-OH! The bottom egg is constructed from Carrara marble and weighs 12 tonnes. The overall construction of the piece was managed by Koen Verhaert of ECO-OH!, based at Laakdal in Belgium and t
Mexico - Latin American artist Ozuna recently started his world tour in support of the Odisea album. Lighting designer Alex Soto’s first choice for lighting control was two dot2 XL-F to control a set consisting of more than 100 fixtures. Soto commented: “The dot2 is an amazing console to do any kind of show. It is fast to programme and easy to use. It is really an amazing console for a fast live show. We had a quick access to the different kind of options of the fixtures and could create different types of effects in a short time. “We had the performance divided by scenes that took the audience to a unique experience”, continued Soto. “By this they could feel and live the music. All of this to show how much the artist has grown in a year and a half of his musical career.” The lighting equipment was delivered by PRG Mexico. (Jim Evans)
UK - Indie rockers Circa Waves are making waves right now, and the release of their second album Different Creatures brings some more serious, hard-hitting and thought-provoking messages along with solid catchy rhythms. Lighting designer Ed Warren started working with Circa Waves at the start of this album campaign in October 2016. Having known their management team for some time, all the circumstances and stars aligned to make it the right time for Ed to add his ideas and imagination to the stage presentation on recent UK and European legs of the tour. Ed specified an almost entirely Robe rig including 12 x Spiiders, 12 x CycFX 8s, 36 x Halos and four DL4Ss, all supplied by CEG Hire & Productions, and operated on the road by Toby Hoggarth. Ed was left free to create a visual stage environment after receiving the new album artwork and a few pointers fr
Australia - A newly completed memorial to World War II submariners is the centre-piece of the 300m Submariners' Walk Heritage Trail on the Brisbane River boardwalk in Teneriffe, Queensland. The walk features a series of plaques and submarine-shaped seats commemorating the sailors and their service. The memorial itself comprises a landmark sign illuminated by Firefly’s Digital FloppyFlex RGBW LED neon. The hollow steel sign, by Street + Garden, is painted navy grey with letters perforated in the steel, spelling out ‘Submariners’ Heritage Trail’ in classic naval stencil font. Pixel-controlled Digital FloppyFlex inside the sign illuminates the letters, giving a stunning, colour-changing glow effect that seems to move inside the monument. The installation was up and running in time for the Teneriffe / New Farm Anzac Day dawn service, the memorial’s unofficial op
The Netherlands - Armin van Buuren played two tumultuous gigs at Amsterdam ArenA as The Best of Armin Only celebrated the conclusion of the Armin Only performance concept. Armin’s largest solo show to date in his home country of the Netherlands additionally marked 20 years of his career as a DJ / creative music producer, and it was the first time a DJ has staged a solo show at the venue, also home to Ajax Football Club. Creating an equally awesome lighting and visual design for the occasion were Andre Beekmans of The Art of Light and Marc Heinz, who united the worlds of live events, opera and drama in a visual extravaganza to match the energy and diversity of the performance. There were over 900 Robe moving lights to help achieve their imaginative goals which were delivered by lighting contractors Focus Amsterdam B.V. and Rent-All. The breakdown include
Turks and Caicos Islands - Beaches Resorts in the Turks and Caicos Islands offers endless activities for people of all ages, not to mention convenient access to some of the Caribbean's best beaches. Lighting designer Lisa Weinshrott Kimmel, of Sharp Edge Lighting Design, was recently brought onboard to design lighting for a theatre project at the vacation resort and found an Elation rig at her disposal. Beaches Resorts pride themselves on offering a wide variety of activities for the whole family and the new theatre shows make up another component in the resort’s entertainment package. “This was a new installation for four shows at the Beaches Resorts’ outdoor theatre on Turks and Caicos,” Lisa explains. “The challenges presented by this outdoor venue and multiple musicals performing simultaneously created an environment where reliable and versatile equipment was
Mexico - Ayrton has announced the appointment of Vari Internacional, S.A. as its new exclusive distributor for Mexico. The agreement was formalized at the recent sound:check Xpo show in Mexico City and takes place with immediate effect. Established in 1985 by its current president, Hugo Patiño V, and vice-president, Francisco Canales Lomelí, Vari Internacional provides professional products for video, sound and lighting. It offers services for installation, maintenance and technical training to the end user, as well as specialized technical support and professional advice pre-sale and post-sale. Vari Internacional’s defining principle is to provide top quality products and service to its customers at every stage of the process. “Our goal is not just to make sales of top quality product in the short term, but to have satisfied customers in the long term,” says V
UK - Big things have been happening over at The Prolight Concepts Group HQ during the last 18 months and the release their new 2017/18 catalogue, showcasing their full product offering, was the next step in the company’s global plan. This bumper edition features over 1800 products for the professional event, rental, installation, architectural and entertainment markets, hence it’s nickname ‘The Big One’. Prolight celebrated their 20-year milestone in 2016 with a new e-catalogue, fully integrated ERP system and dynamic website that automatically adjusts to any screen size for use with multiple devices. All of which improve efficiency, promotion and communication. This progressive approach has given Prolight a steadily increasing customer base and an ever-expanding market share. Their 21st birthday saw the publication of their first comprehensive printed catalogu
USA - Beach blankets and yoga mats aren’t normally found inside the long, high-ceilinged central nave of the National Cathedral. Recently, however, the iconic church’s usual seats and pews were removed so people could lie down on these coverings to gaze at an astonishing lightshow that transformed the building’s cavernous interior into a vast and infinitely fascinating panorama of colour with help from a collection of LED fixtures from Chauvet Professional. Elizabeth A. Coco of Atmosphere Lighting designed this transformative vista for the cathedral’s Seeing Deeper, an event its organizers say was intended to help people “find new paths for creative expression and spiritual freedom”. Live Native American flute music accompanied the two-hour lightshow to create an environment that was true to the organizers’ goals. “Atmosphere Lighting and I have been wo
Sweden - The lighting crew of the prestigious Malmö Opera venue were so impressed by the improved range of colours, brightness, and the even light of the new Chroma-Q Color Force IITM, that they purchased fixtures for a new production on their Verkstan Stage, home of the Opera house’s experimental division, Operaverkstan. The lights were used extensively during the recently completed, month long run of The Disobedience of Death, which was originally written in a Second World War concentration camp, by Austrian composer Viktor Ullman, and Czech poet Peter Klein. The writers died after being transferred to Auschwitz in 1944, so the work’s premiere was not presented until 1975, by the Dutch National Opera, at the Theatre Bellevue in Amsterdam. The Malmö Opera building is the home of the Malmö Opera company and houses one of the largest auditoriums of its typ
USA - Emmylou Harris and the Nash Ramblers took the stage at the fabled Ryman Auditorium in celebration of the anniversary of their original live recording of the Grammy-winning 1992 LP, At the Ryman, which took place in an effort to restore the crumbling “Mother Church”. With the Ryman now fully restored, Harris and the Ramblers (Sam Bush, Jon Randall, Al Perkins, Larry Atamanuik and Byron House) returned to the hallowed stage where they performed the album once again in its entirety, this time with a lighting package provided by Bandit Lites. Lighting designer Bob Peterson supplemented the house lighting from the Ryman with Bandit Lites VL 3000 Spots, GLP X4S wash lights, along with a Grand MA 2 lite console for control. “I used the VL 3000 workhorses for three primary purposes: band and feature backlight, floor texture and some low angle beam grap
USA - Every lighting designer knows how important it is to keep tour managers happy. So, when the TM for Animals As Leaders said he wanted to minimize the number of fixtures on the floor package for the band’s 22 city summer tour while still delivering the multi-dimensional looks that the group’s intricate mix of progressive music demands, lighting designer Victor Zeiser took his words to heart. The owner of Squeek Lights, Zeiser delivered what the manager wanted and then some, with a lean, but abundantly productive rig that includes two strobes, three batten fixtures and four Maverick MK2 Spots from Chauvet Professional. Zeiser fit the whole lighting rig on one pallet that’s transported in a bus-towed trailer for the tour, which supports the band’s Top Ten Album The Madness of Many. “We got very clear instructions from the band’s management about w
UK - Attracting over 5,500 attendees, Europe’s largest digital marketing conference, the Adobe Summit EMEA 2017 returned once again to ICC ExCeL London. Creative technical event production expert, Hawthorn was once again chosen by Taylor Bennett Partners to deliver the full technical design and production for the two-day event. Focused on the future of digital marketing, delegates from Europe, the Middle East and Africa gathered to soak up tips and insights from the Adobe Marketing Cloud and its partners. Led by group creative director Pete Harding, Hawthorn was tasked to bring Taylor Bennett’s impressive vision to life, delivering the technical production for the main conference plenary, exhibition space, break-out rooms and the muchly-anticipated Summit Celebration. In the Community Pavilion, a six-metre long, five-metre wide and three-metre high tunnel construc
UK - Chroma-Q will feature a selection of their latest and award-winning theatrical lighting products at the ABTT Show 2017 (stand A40). The new, multi award-winning Color Force IITM batten range utilises homogenised optics to provide a superior RGBA colour blend of high quality saturates and pastels – and a purer white – with no unsightly colour-mixing shadows. Combined with their formidable output for cyc lighting up to 12m, they are suitable for theatres and venues. The new Color One 100XTM PAR offers nearly 60% more output than its predecessor, is one of the brightest fixtures in its category and is convection cooled. The award-winning Inspire house lighting range gives venues the ability to deliver seamless pure white or mixed colour lighting from stage to audience, for a truly immersive experience, and is convection cooled. Also showing is the Spa
Belgium - One time professional actor Stan Van Samang made his musical breakthrough back in 2006 winning the music talent TV show, Steracteur Sterartiest (VRT). While the Belgian artist has recorded a string of successful albums since, it’s arguably his live performances – with intimate audience interaction – which have garnered him notoriety. Tasked with bringing the most out of these live performances on Stan’s recent tour of Belgium, LD Bart Rogge specified 16 Chauvet Professional Maverick MK 2 spot and 24 R2 Rogue wash fixtures to stunning effect. As Stan Van Samang’s live shows are all about interaction between audience and artist, Rogge decided upon a visual interaction of his own, that between the Maverick MK 2 spot and 24 R2 Rogue wash fixtures. “The Maverick and Rogue fixtures formed the basis of my lighting concept,” commented Rogge. “T
UK - Now open at the V & A Museum, The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains is the first international retrospective of one of the world’s most pioneering and influential bands. The exhibition offers an immersive and multi-sensory journey through the career of Pink Floyd, chronicling their music, design and staging, from the 1960’s through to the present day. Following the company’s work on last year’s Exhibitionism, the Rolling Stone’s exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery, White Light was called upon to oversee the lighting installation and supply the lighting equipment on this occasion. Produced by Concert Productions International, Their Mortal Remains was curated by Aubrey ‘Po’ Powell, the creative director of Pink Floyd, who worked closely with band members Roger Waters, David Gilmour and Nick Mason. It is designed by Stu
USA - The ColorSource Relay system kick-started a new era of power control, bringing budget-friendly system infrastructure with data distribution to theatres, houses of worship, schools and community centres. Now the ColorSource Relay is upgrading its simple configuration and wireless performance with the addition of wireless RDM. The latest release of the Relay software – version 1.1.0 – is available to download and offers venues the ability to add wireless RDM to their ColorSource Relay system. RDM makes the convenient system even simpler to use, letting users identify and address their equipment wirelessly and then configure and monitor it, no matter where it’s placed in the rig. The Relay and ColorSource Transmitter have a 100m (328ft) range and require minimal setup and no programming. “The ColorSource Relay system was already a ground-breaking tool, but n
UK - Lighting control specialist and manufacturer Eaton Lighting Systems will be exhibiting their Zero 88 product range at the Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT) Show in London on 6-7 June. The Zero 88 team are seizing this industry networking opportunity and showcase to highlight some new, exciting and innovative products on stand number E23. The new powerCON TRUE1 AlphaPack 3 is a three channel portable dimmer unit that can be safely rigged to a vertical or a horizontal bar via a standard clamp attached to one of two new m10 mounting positions. It can also be wall mounted using a custom mounting bracket. The updated Chilli Pro 12 bypass (with dimmer, relay, bypass, RCD & RBCO options) is a 12 channel, inductive installation dimmer with individual channel bypass switches for use when direct, uninterrupted mains power is needed. Chilli Pro 12 B
UK - Curry and a beer as a social concept has much to recommend itself. Easy, fast, tasty, and satisfying; what could you possibly add that would make it better? Well, how about a couple of life size shark holograms? Liz Berry of Hologramica is gaining quite a reputation for juxtaposing reality with illusion. For Avolites’ founder director, Steve Warren the opportunity was irresistible. “We do a couple of these a year in the demo room at our London HQ in Park Royal. The ‘Avolites and Robe Designers’ Curry Club’ is an open house for people working in video and lighting live events. “Yes, people come to the curry night knowing it will have an element of product presentation, but we also make the effort to promote the evenings as a networking event; it’s more than just a sales pitch. Tim Meadowcroft, one of the LD’s who attended this one said to me before
Ukraine - Elation Professional played a major role in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Kyiv with over 800 lighting products used as audience and stage lighting by lighting designer Jerry Appelt and Eurovision Song Contest head of production Ola Melzig. Elation Professional served as an official technical event supplier to the 2017 show with a large portion of the intelligent lighting package made up of Elation lights. In the rig were 351 Elation Paladin hybrid strobe/blinder/wash lights, 132 Platinum FLX hybrid moving heads, 140 Platinum 1200 Wash and 70 Platinum Seven moving head LED wash lights, along with 110 SixBar 1000 LED battens. Providing the lighting, video and rigging technology for the show was PRG in cooperation with LITECOM. The Eurovision stage, designed by Florian Wieder, featured a large circular LED stage floor with a dramatic, modern arch pro
UK- Underneath the Victorian railway arches in London’s Shoreditch district lies Cargo, one of the capital’s edgiest late-night bar and club venues. While the venue’s genuine Banksy graffiti art-filled courtyard is a magnet for art aficionados and tourists alike, the club itself has been busy building up a formidable reputation of its own thanks to an eclectic music programme. To install an appropriately multifaceted lighting rig, Cargo recently approached London-based installation specialists, Halo lighting, which specified a number of Chauvet Professional and Chauvet DJ fixtures. “Cargo approached us wanting a lighting rig capable of supporting a wide variety of dub, house, techno and electro events,” commented Yann Guenancia, director of Halo Lighting. “The combination of Chauvet Professional Rogue R1 Wash and Legend 230SR beams, in addition to Chauvet D
USA - Bon Jovi rocked the house with the band’s This House Is Not For Sale Tour. The tour’s complex staging featured a grandMA2 full-size console provided by PRG and was in support of Bon Jovi’s eponymous thirteenth studio album released last fall. It was the first to feature Hugh McDonald and Phil X as full-time band members. The tour picked up the album’s theme with a set featuring a stylized house under construction. “The tour represented the next chapter of Bon Jovi,” says Spike Brant, the show’s creative producer and designer and CEO of Nimblist. “It was a dynamic show – a nod to old fashioned rock ’n roll with a fine art, metaphorical abstractness. Nothing about the design was fake, and with no fascia, the machines became the tools to tell the story.” “Not many shows use this much motion to create a sense of structure,” notes Joe B
