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
USA - Elation Professional has released the IP65-rated Paladin, a versatile hybrid LED luminaire that functions as a bright blinder, powerful strobe and high-output wash light. Adding to its flexibility, this multi-functional light also houses a motorized zoom for full beam control and its IP65 rating means it can be used on all types of events without the need for weather protection. Paladin is a new breed of hybrid. More than a powerful full-colour strobe, Paladin also functions as a high-power wash light, blinder or eye candy effect in one brilliantly bright luminaire. Twenty-four 40W RGBW LEDs produce a blistering 990 watts of power for intense and colourful effects and RGBW colour mixing gives a full spectrum of colour options, including high-impact white light. A motorized zoom expands the beam from 9° to 25° with output at its narrowest angle measured at 43,240 lux
USA - Based in Greensboro, NC, GLP partner SE Systems has recently increased its inventory of the German manufacturer’s advanced LED solutions, by adding quantities of the X4 Bar versatile battens, and investing for the first time in the GT-1 Spot/Beam hybrid. The company has vast experience, having been founded in 1973 by the highly respected Wade ‘Cliff’ Miller, who remains sole owner to this day. A ‘turn-key’ live event production services company with a national spread, SE Systems also operates separate sales and installation divisions. Their relationship with GLP extends back five years. “GLP is a ‘workhorse’ component of our lighting inventory,” declares John R. Lewis, director of SE Systems Inc, production services. “We were initially attracted by the quality of their products, and quite honestly every equipment manufacturer should stri
Europe - Popular Belgian / Dutch girlband K3 are on the road again for an extensive live schedule through 2017 reaching out to their young and enthusiastic fanbase with a completely new lighting and video design originated by Luc Peumans of Genk-based creative practice, Painting with Light. This is the first full tour with the ‘new’ K3, since a TV competition staged last year found three new faces to take over from the previous band members, two of whom had been part of the foundation of the K3 phenomenon in 1998. This was followed by a transition tour featuring all six K3 girls performing both together and in their two separate line-ups. Painting with Light has worked with K3 – known for their colourful, high-octane power-pop stage shows – for the last 15 years. The band is managed by Studio 100 and the staging concept for this tour was developed by Stefaan H
USA - More than 1,500 ProPower RPD power distro racks are in service across North America and Teri Productions of Knoxville, Tennessee owns a fair share of them. Recently, the venerable, full-service rental and staging company has been building their inventory to accommodate new business with a variety of tours and events, ranging from Lil Wayne to motivational guru Tony Robbins. “Using the latest technology, we’ve converted our lighting designs to eliminate dimmer racks,” says Teri Productions’ Jay Coatney. “Running entirely on ProPower power distros, these lighting systems are a green solution, since much less power is needed. For example, a system that previously required six 400-amp services can now be powered with two 200-amp services. Even with this added efficiency, we sometimes use 12 ProPower RPD racks in large arenas.” Coatney adds: “There are s
Ukraine - Internationally renowned lighting designer and director of photography Jerry Appelt specified the new Claypaky Scenius Unico as the main stage workhorse fixture for his richly composed lighting design for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, hosted at the International Exhibition Centre, Kyiv, Ukraine. This year, 42 countries participated in the global TV phenomenon, each supported by a striking stage and light show embracing video, special effects and a procession of scenic props and costumes, all of which combined to make the lighting of this world famous event an ever more challenging proposition. Taking up that challenge for the third time, Appelt’s lighting solution was born from a creative collaboration with scenic designer Florian Wieder. This was centred around a fresh take on the Proscenium arch, which curved majestically from upstage, and was fu
UK - A top of the range light and sound system is now delivering all the right notes at The Borderline in Soho, a 300 capacity intimate basement live music venue transformed by new owners DHP Family. The venue has been remodelled to create a flowing space that provides the best possible experience for both performer and audience. As well as creating improved sight lines, more than £100,000 has been invested in a high spec audio and light system. With excellent audio established as a hallmark for all DHP Family venues, top of the list was the installation of an L-Acoustics PA system to deliver a signature hi-fi quality sound throughout the venue. DHP Family technical manager Dave McVea said: “The audio system we inherited was an eclectic mix of gear that had clearly been amassed over a period of time. While it did the job, there was no real design to the sys