Denmark - Popular Danish R&B and pop singer Burhan G is on the road with a new set and lighting design by Theis Wemuth of Aarhus based creative visual practice, Create This, with Robe Spiiders, BMFLs and Pointes right at the core of the aesthetic. Theis started his lighting design career 12 years ago and is well known in Denmark for his imagination and thinking ‘out-of-the-box’. He was asked by the artist to produce a design for the tour which promotes his latest album Pas på pigerne (Beware of Girls) which features a big band sound and style bringing a new dimension to his diverse repertoire. This set the tone for the lighting and scenic design proposed by Theis, for which he specified 18 Robe Spiiders and 25 x BMFL Spots, which are being supplied to the tour by rental company Comtech. There's no video on the tour, so it’s down to music and lighting to enha
USA - Lighting designers all have their own individual styles, and they go about the business of reflecting their clients’ music in slightly different ways. As a designer himself, John Garberson fully appreciates that, which is why “flexibility” was one of his primary goals when he put together the West Stage lighting rig for the 2017 Pot of Gold festival at the Rawhide Centre outside Phoenix. Helping him create a festival rig that could support the different styles of a very varied mix of nine visiting LDs was a collection of Maverick, Rogue and STRIKE fixtures from Chauvet Professional. “We have been doing the Pot of Gold festival for a number of years,” said Garberson of Creative BackStage. “This year, we decided to go from an old school 120K system to a mostly LED and moving light rig. The move saved on generators, gas, labor and rigging costs. Going be
USA - The summer is off to a full swing, with massive tours hitting the road, meaning Bandit Lites has again invested in increasing its already expansive touring inventory, this time purchasing Robe PATT 2013 fixtures. While harkening back to vintage, broadcast lighting looks, the elegant design of the Robe PATT 2013 provides a new element of mood and stage lighting, all the while considering the need for lighting designers to utilize fixtures that will not only meet the booming retro-style trend, but also provide warm tungsten eye-candy looks. “The Robe Patt 2013 brings a cool, sleek, retro conventional fixture to our inventory,” said Bandit’s director of technical services, Jake Tickle. “Robe has done a great job bringing this style of fixture back to the market, with more offerings in this range on the way.” These fixtures have been most recently uti
UK - Avolites' trailblazing lighting and video integration system is 'heaven sent' for lighting designer James Bawn on his latest large-scale project, live arena spectacular Heaven on Earth, which will be touring UK arenas between 4 December 2017 and 12 May 2018. The large-scale musical, produced by Eden International Productions, is a classic re-telling of the biblical tale of Adam and Eve. Written by Sara Jeffs and directed by Racky Plews, the musical boasts an original musical score and arrangements by Geoff Alexander. "The story is fantastic," says Bawn, who has been developing the production's lighting and video design for the past year. "Creatively, the production has really demanded that we all push the boundaries of our own area of expertise." Bawn, who worked closely with stage designer Jacqueline Pyle on the production, describes the creative pro
Russia - Claypaky's SharBar, the LED-based multi-beam effects light fixture, has been used to great effect on a live concert by popular Russian band, My Michelle, at the Volta Club, Moscow with lighting design by Russian designers David Misakyan and Dmitry Buryak. Led by singer-songwriter Tanya Tkachuk, the band has enjoyed great success across Russia with its modern, soulful pop sound. For the Volta Club concert, My Michelle's producer, Pavlo Shevchuk, worked with Misakyan and Buryak to create a 'cool, club show' feel for audiences. The design played to the venue's compact 8m x 6m stage area, with a height of just 4.85m overhead to the stationary truss structures. Misakyan explains: "When we thought about the production design we wanted something more than just truss warmers and colour washes - we needed a fixture suitable for dance pop-music, which would look good in
UK - Aurora continue to invest in energy efficient light sources with a host of new additions to their LED product range. As part of a pan-company programme to invest in both products and people, broadcast lighting specialists Aurora are expanding their range of LED and low energy light sources with a significant intake of new equipment. Commenting on the investment, head of lighting at VER and Aurora, David March says: “As lighting technology continues to move forward we are witnessing a definite shift in the preference for specifying LED products. To properly reflect this growing trend we are making sure we have the very latest technology available to clients operating throughout all areas of our industry.” Following on from the recent purchase of Chroma-Q Space Force, Rosco Silk 210 and Mole Richardson Vari-Soft Softlights, Aurora have now grown their inve
Italy - Leading Italian lighting manufacturer Claypaky is proud to have been the Headline Sponsor and host of the Showlight 2017 conference, which closed on 23 May after three extremely successful days in Florence. Over a three-year period, the Claypaky team has worked closely with the Showlight committee to help produce this extraordinary event. Showlight combines a unique mix of elements - a world-class conference, an exhibition of manufacturers and service providers, and a rich and varied social and cultural programme designed to maximize networking opportunities among delegates, manufacturers, lighting designers and students. Attracting a broad range of the world's leading lighting designers and practitioners, Showlight happens just once every four years, and has long been a favourite event on the professional show lighting industry's calendar. Staged in the beauti
USA - Visitors to this year’s InfoComm – America’s largest tradeshow for AV solutions – can expect an exceptional line-up of exciting new lighting innovations from Elation Professional. Held June 14-16 at the Orange County Convention Centre in Orlando, Elation Booth 7345/7243 will feature a number of innovations like the Artiste DaVinci, a full-featured, high-output theatrical-grade LED moving head spot luminaire with a host of colour and graphics possibilities for the creative LD. A new breed of hybrid luminaire, Elation’s versatile full-colour Paladin strobe/wash/blinder effect light, recently used as a feature light on the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest, will also be on display. The multi-functional Paladin is also IP65 protected for use in all types of environments. The new Proteus line of IP-rated arc-source moving heads also headline an outstandin
South Africa - This year will celebrate the sixth St Mary’s Battle of the Bands competition and for the third year DWR Distribution is a sponsor once again, prizes including a dot2 Node, DMX Dongle and training. The competition has moved on in regards to the technical rig and now includes a National Schools Lighting Competition. Barry Stydom gives feedback on the growth and interest from the children in this exciting project. Barry Strydom is the manager at St Mary’s The Edge Theatre in Johannesburg and has been part of Battle of the Bands since the very start. “Six years ago, we started with a totally generic rig with piles of gobos and gels,” he smiles. “It has grown to a point where any professional band would be happy to perform on the set. Then in 2015 we introduced a lighting competition and while for the last two years only Johannesburg schools have been inv
USA - With 16 studio albums and nearly 60m records sold worldwide, the multi-platinum recording artist Alan Jackson has solidified himself as one of country music’s leading talents. In a career that spans over three decades, Jackson is still hard at work touring the nation for his dedicated fans. Needing a new production design to support the current Honk Tonk Highway Tour, the management team once again enlisted the creativity of Craig Rutherford, Blueshift Design, who in turn called upon Nashville-based tour provider Elite Multimedia. “Since we have had such a long relationship with Alan, he is sort of ‘hands off’ when it comes to the designing of the production for his tours,” began Rutherford. “I typically start the process by reviewing the designs from previous tours, and then finding new ways to change it up to keep the tour fresh. Afterwards, I then speak
USA - Long before the cry “Drivers Start Your Engines” marked the start of the 101st Indianapolis 500 at 12:14 pm on Sunday 28 May, over 30,000 EDM fans at the speedway were already racing through some slick bangers at The Snake Pit Presented By Coors Light. Held on the track’s infield at Turn 3, this one-day festival within an auto race kicked off at 7 am and kept going until the chequered flag was waved track side. Accenting the performances from the likes of Zedd, Marshmello, and Adventure Club at this year’s event was a Collyns Stenzel designed light and video show that relied on Chauvet Professional COLORado fixtures to help it stand out against the Indiana sun. “This is my third year designing this show,” said Stenzel of White Light AV. “It’s fun to see all these fans have the time of their lives in a unique setting. However, there’s also a chal
UK - Richard Martin Lighting (RML) supported LD Richard Bowles in lighting one of the biggest nights in the current election campaign as Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn faced a live audience and Jeremy Paxman in May v Corbyn Live: The Battle for Number 10. Aired live from Sky Studios on Sky News and Channel 4, Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May separately faced audience questions before being grilled by Jeremy Paxman on key issues such as Brexit, social care and the economy. With the General Election just a week away and the polls narrowing between the two main political parties, the night proved illuminating on both sides. Lighting for May v Corbyn Live was designed by Richard Bowles, supported by RML and a vast rig was employed. As well as the interior lighting for the debate, Richard also designed the lighting that surrounded the exterior of the studio and an emphasis was
Argentina - Award winning Argentinian lighting designer Ariel del Mastro was asked to add his own touches of lighting inspiration to latest thrilling stage show created by choreographer / producer Flavio Mendoza, Mahatma, which played the summer season at the Luxor Theatre in Villa Carlos Paz, Cordoba and has now transferred to the Teatro Broadway in Buenos Aires. The show is Indian influenced, featuring a blend of exuberant and reflective music and dance capturing the humour, colour, diversity and wisdom of the culture in a vibrant and animated performance for which Ariel chose Robe moving lights as his principal fixtures. Fourteen Spikies, 18 Spiiders and 16 Squares were on the rig at the Luxor – the first time all of these new fixtures made their theatrical debut in Argentina. The big challenge in lighting the show, said Ariel, was to capture the man
USA - In a move to expand their International sales division, Altman Lighting has announced the appointment of Jaime Friedstadt as their new international sales director. With a wealth of knowledge in both the architectural and entertainment lighting industries, Friedstadt will now manage the Altman Lighting sales channels in the Caribbean, Latin American, European, Middle Eastern and African markets. “With the expansion of our product offerings and our growth in a worldwide market, we are very fortunate to have Jaime join us to reinforce our efforts and expand our market presence accordingly,” stated Julie Smith, Altman Lighting general manager. Friedstadt has over 20 years of experience providing quality sales support and generating client relationships for a number of entertainment and architectural lighting manufacturers. Prior to joining Altman Lighting, Fried
Europe - LumenRadio is now making SuperNova 4 available for download. SuperNova 4, a complete system management tool for lighting rigs, was showcased at ProLight + Sound in April and brings an all new flat UI design and improved performance. The new features and improved UI has “made this market leading RDM management tool even better”. With support for both CRMX and third party Art-Net nodes from other manufacturers, SuperNova provides a clear and detailed view of the status of your entire network – both wired and wireless devices. RDM enabled fixtures can be configured and monitored from the software, with configuration of common parameters just a click away. SuperNova 4 features a new and improved UI. The all-new flat design is aimed to work extremely well on not only your regular laptop, but also on tablet type computers with touch screen, such as Micr
Europe - Kiev delivered on its promise to present an awesome show and Green Hippo technology was key to the 62nd Eurovision Song Contest looking better than ever. Bringing together a crack team of skilled practitioners, this year’s Green Hippo Eurovision team’s video production heavily featured in the visual design of the show. Highlights included a large LED wall behind the stage, LED floor, Pixel-mapped lights and a projection-mapped arch over the stage. To help ensure the polished performance the MA2 and time code-driven set-up used a total 16 Green Hippo Boreal touring Media Servers, all running Hippotizer V4.2.1 software. At any one time, up to nine of the Boreals were active, driving a complex set-up. In addition to Green Hippo itself, various companies supplied the legion of Green Hippo Boreals: DigiGobos / Beacon Gobo Group: exclusive Green Hippo distribut
UK - Award winning lighting designer Francis Clegg applied his imagination and magic to the latest Snarky Puppy UK tour, where his penchant for creating interesting and different visual environments is perfectly suited to the band’s improvisational instrumental jazz-pop sounds. Colour Sound Experiment was delighted to be the lighting and video supplier for the tour. The west London based company has worked on other projects with Francis, part of creative practice design MIRRAD, including most recently, Giggs and Kano. “You know that a design will look fresh and alternative when Francis’ name is on it,” commented Colour Sound’s H (Haydn Cruickshank). Francis worked on Snarky Puppy’s 2015 UK tour, their first with full production. He finds the fluidity and organic nature of the music and performance very inspirational. Every show is unique, and that provided
USA - Flogging Molly concerts tend to be raucous affairs with plenty of moshing, sing-alongs and foot stomping energy, as this seven-piece band steamrolls its way through its unique blend of Celtic and punk music. Lighting designer Peter Therrien of JDI Productions is capturing these good time feelings on the band’s current US and European tour with a colourful, fast-moving lightshow created with Chauvet Professional Rogue and Legend fixtures. “Lighting this band is a great experience, because they have such a strong connection to their fans and their energy is contagious,” said Therrien. “I wanted to give this show some big looks with lots of colour, aerial effects and movement to match the party atmosphere at a Flogging Molly concert. At the same time, I also wanted to be able to slow things down for when the band takes a pause to do ballads and slow jams.”
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
