USA - Located in Columbus, Georgia, Cascade Hills Church is a congregation filled with parishioners from all walks of life who wish to come together for a spirit-filled worship experience. Like many other churches worldwide, the technical elements behind that worship experience, including the architectural house lights, are becoming an important component to the overall sanctuary design. With an aging house lighting system of their own, Cascade Hills Church recently worked with the integration division of their longtime partner Morris, and renovated their house lighting design with Chalice LED Pendant and Recessed LED downlights from Altman Lighting. “This was actually our third technology installation at Cascade Hills Church where we have previously retrofitted their theatrical lighting, video and audio systems,” began Dustin Burggraff, Morris integration divisio
USA - Nashville’s 19th Annual Grammy Block Party returned to Cumberland Park for a party for Recording Academy’s yearly member’s event. Chris Lisle Lighting Design utilised a lighting package from Bandit Lites where musical performances included Grammy-award winning super group, Lady Antebellum, Anderson East, Moon Taxi, CeCe Winans and Muddy Magnolias. With the Nashville cityscape as a backdrop to the festivities, it is a far cry from the small stage outside of the Nashville Grammy offices that production manager Chris Lisle illuminated nearly 20 years ago. In addition to providing the lighting for the show, Chris Lisle Lighting Design (with support from Mark Anderson from their home office) also provided the production management for the stage and performances. “We couldn’t be more proud to be a part of it and to partner with the Recording Academy to
USA - Fans of Mastodon weren’t surprised when three of the band’s members appeared in an episode of Game of Thrones. Like the HBO hit, the music of this group reveals itself in lavishly detailed layers of fantasy that fire the imagination and leave easy categorisations smouldering by the wayside. The complex Mastodon experience is on full display in the quartet’s 30-city North American Emperor of Sand tour, not just in the epochal music, but also in the highly evocative light and video show that Michael Howe created and controls with the new ChamSys MagicQ MQ500 Stadium and Magic HD media server. The Emperor of Sand album takes listeners on a cosmic odyssey through time as it follows a man sentenced to death in a majestic but cruel desert. Howe’s design evokes rich imagery that reflects this musical narrative with seven 2’ wide by 14’ tall vid
USA - The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) has celebrated William Shakespeare’s legacy since 1935 with another busy summer season of plays underway. OSF also stages plays by other playwrights and is presenting UniSon at the Angus Bowmer Theatre through October, a new musical inspired by the poetry of August Wilson. Lighting designer Alex Jainchill is using dynamic lighting from Elation Professional on the play, including ZCL 360 Bar wash/effect lights and Platinum Wash 16R Pro moving heads, as well as colour-changing Elation Flex LED Tape. UniSon is the story of a dying poet who leaves a mysterious box to his apprentice with strict instructions to destroy it. The apprentice opens it however, releasing seven ‘Terrors’ that tormented the poet through his life. The seven different Terrors allowed Jainchill to use six of the ZCL 360 Bar fixtures to tr
UK -Currently running at The Vaults beneath London’s Waterloo Station, Alice’s Adventures Underground is an immersive theatrical retelling of the classic Alice in Wonderland story. Presented by theatre company Les Enfants Terribles, the play originally ran last year at the same venue and was nominated for an Olivier Award. White Light originally supplied the lighting equipment and have done so once again on this occasion. Alice’s Adventures Underground allows audience members to meet some of Wonderland’s most famous and curious inhabitants, take tea at the biggest unbirthday party with the maddest of hatters and even join the underground movement to rise against the fearsome Queen of Hearts. The lighting designer is Mike Gunning, who comments: “I have worked on shows similar in the past such as Punchdrunk’s The Drowned Man. My br
Germany - The new Claypaky SharBar and other Claypaky products were used by a trio of young artists at the annual artistic lighting awards LiO (Light is Osram) Awards 2017 in their winning installation The 5th Dimension, hosted at Munich's historic event space, the Praterinsel, by German lighting manufacturer Osram. The winning installation was designed by the artists Eylül Aslan, Sola Thoma and Frederic Hanen to explore the spatial interplay of light and dark. The artists used the SharBar in conjunction with the Claypaky Show-Batten 100 and architectural lighting product the Claypaky Odeon Flood to construct an immersive light show described by judging light artist Ingo Maurer as a "fascinating personal experience". "The 5th Dimension installation created a series of emerging walls and columns of light that appear to create a 'fifth dimension', making l
UK - Robe co-hosted a ground-breaking LED Theatrical event staged by staff and students on the Theatre Production course at Guildford School of Acting (GSA), part of the University of Surrey. The Czech Republic based manufacturer supplied around 50 LED luminaires to the event and to GSA’s 2017 gala musical production staged at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in central Guildford, Surrey, including its DL7 theatrical range - plus the new Spiider LED wash beam, CycFX 8s, Spikies and VIVAs - plus technical support. The idea of an LED Theatre event was originated by GSA Lighting Tutor Mig Burgess and facilitated by Ashley Lewis from Robe UK. She wanted to devise some innovative and fresh ways to demonstrate lighting technologies in a working environment. Several productions are staged across the university's various venues over an academic year and Mig felt that as theatre pro
Finland - AVITA Audiovisual Expo, the largest trade fair of the audiovisual industry in the Nordic countries, will bring together players in the industry at Messukeskus in Helsinki on 26–27 September. The fair will showcase new products and services of both domestic and international players in the sector, and the interesting briefings and training sessions it offers will also provide a good foundation for sharing professional information. The two-day event has been revamped and will showcase a wide selection of new products and services in the audio visual industry. Both domestic and international importers, manufacturers and service providers in the audiovisual sector will showcase their new products and services for visitors – both for those who use audio visual devices as tools or to support their operations and for those who are planning to buy audio visual products
USA - Chauvet Professional has extended the Maverick family with the introduction of the Maverick MK3 Wash, a powerful and intensely bright RGBW LED moving wash. Powered by 27 40W Osram Ostar LEDs, the new pixel mappable fixture has the output and performance features needed for even the largest arena applications, says the company. “We were very encouraged by the response to our Maverick series when it was introduced last year,” said Albert Chauvet, CEO of Chauvet. “Designers who embraced Maverick told us they wanted a wash fixture for larger venues that had all of the features they valued in the series. The MK3 Wash is the next step for Maverick.” As is true of all Maverick models, the MK3 Wash has fast and smooth pan and tilt movements, but its output and brightness have been seriously stepped up for long throw applications. Depending on the zoom angle, the
USA - Built in the 1980’s, Christ the Redeemer Parish Church is a thriving part of the community in Atco, New Jersey. From more humble beginnings, when Deacon Charles “Chick” McAleer was part of the team that helped wire the original Church, the initial sound system used just six pendant style loudspeakers distributed down the sides of the congregation seating. Localisation, intelligibility and overall sound quality were lacking for today’s worship services, which can be attended by over 800 people. Music now also plays a much greater part in many services. The Church found JD Sound & Video through an internet search and, after seeing the work they had done for other local churches and Catholic high schools, invited them for a consultation. JD Sound & Video designed a system using Community’s E Eries Entasys loudspeakers, having previously used them with gr
South Africa - Lighting designer, Michael Broderick will present a theatre lighting workshop at DWR Distribution on 25 May from 9am to 5pm. Working as a lighting designer for over 15 years, Michael is keen to mentor people, particularly youngsters, who have a passion for theatre. Topics include: Aims and Objectives of Stage Lighting; Controllable Properties of Light; Light and Colour;Lighting Positions and Angles; Lighting Instruments; Dimmers and Control and The Basics of Stage Design. (Jim Evans)
USA - Philips Lighting has announced that its stage lighting is providing lighting effects central to the artistic stage design of the Chicago-based alternative rock band Wilco’s world tour. In support of the tenth studio album, Schmilco, the tour is visiting the US, Europe and South America. Lighting designer Jeremy Roth has pronounced the Philips Vari-Lite VL4000 Spot "integral" to the tour's ambitious theatrical set design - which is stylistically closer to a Broadway or an opera backdrop than a standard rock and roll set. Wilco front-man Jeff Tweedy's visual concept for the tour was inspired by a 3D-forest scene theatre set in a Masonic temple in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In true experimental Wilco style, Tweedy wanted to emulate this juxtaposition of the natural world and overt theatricality for the band's show. He called upon Roth, the band's lighting design
South Africa - The Blue Man Group visited South Africa for the very first time in February and March this year and, whilst performing at The Teatro at Montecasino in Johannesburg, they celebrated the 200th performance of their world tour. South African sound engineer, Christo Davis, has worked with Blue Man Group for the past year, mixing an average of four shows or more a week on a DiGiCo SD7, with his deputy sound engineer covering the rest. The Blue Man Group, established in New York by three friends in 1991, are known for their award-winning shows that captivate audiences with music, comedy, fresh stories, custom instruments and technology. “I did a show with them in Australia about four years ago and I just hit it off with the sound designer,” says Christo. “We have similar philosophies and approaches on how we like to do things and he’d been trying to ge
USA - The lively and varied 2017 US festival season continues with the 2017 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival staged at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, where Robe moving lights were chosen by leading LDs like Steve Lieberman of SJ Lighting who specified Spiiders and Pointes for the Yuma stage and Gabriel Fraboni, who added 90 x Spikies as specials for Dutch DJ Martin Garrix’s two sets in the Sahara Tent over the event’s two weekends. The 125,000-capacity festival is one of the U.S.’s highest profile music and arts extravaganzas. It’s also one of the most in demand festivals, with 2017’s nearly 200,000 tickets selling out in three hours despite 52,000 more being available over the weekend than in 2016. Steve Lieberman and Los Angeles based SJ Lighting has been involved in designing the Yuma Stage since it started six years ago and works in
UK - The South Downs Planetarium at the Sir Patrick Moore building in Chichester, Sussex, UK, reopened following a technology upgrade and installation of a new media server and show control system from 7thSense Design. The upgrade of the 100-seat star theatre was led by Brighton-based immersive experience experts TEQ4. Working closely with TEQ4, 7thSense integrated a single Delta Nano Media Server and show control system as a cost-effective yet powerful solution for the two-channel fulldome display. Martin Howe, founder and managing director of TEQ4 commented, “Delta was the obvious package for this project. It can play uncompressed images straight from Fulldome content without the time-consuming slicing that is often necessary. Also, the enhanced User Interface feature allows the operators to control the entire system from a browser running on a tablet. This all-in-
Europe - Holotronica, owner of Holo-Gauze, 3D display solution for large hologram effects, has announced Gerriets GmbH as its exclusive European sales partner. The German company will distribute Holo-Gauze in the UK, Europe and Russia and featured the system on its stand at Prolight and Sound in Frankfurt. “Gerriets is enthusiastic about this partnership with Holotronica for Holo-Gauze and is looking forward to a great future for this product,” comments Andreas Gause, director for marketing and key account management at Gerriets. “We’re absolutely delighted to be partnering with Gerriets and look forward to seeing Holo-Gauze being used in even more countries and for even more fantastic events and broadcasts,” says Holo-Gauze inventor and Holotronica owner/CEO Stuart Warren-Hill. “Holo-Gauze is ideal for live events, allowing live performers to be situated
UK - Avolites has announced the appointment of Canada's AVL Media Group and Malaysia's Acoustic & Lighting System (A&L) as its new distribution partners for Canada and South-East Asia respectively. The two new partnerships will see Avolites' products available across Canada, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia. The move comes at a time when the Avolites' brand enjoys its largest order book in company history and a rapidly growing international client base. Of the Canadian expansion Andrew Hope, managing director of AVL Media Group, says, "Avolites is an iconic brand offering an exceptional portfolio of lighting and video products, unique in the Canadian market." The AVL Media Group partnership was officially launched at Expo-Scène - the only major Canadian event dedicated to lighting, sound, and video technologies. The trade show was held at the
Belgium - Visual design practice Painting with Light's Paco Mispelters has added imagination and style to the current Studio 100 tour of new youth musical Unidamu. The tour visits four Belgian theatres and is a co-production with TV channel Ketnet. The Unidamu (Universe of Dance & Music) journey started with Ketnet Musical, a talent scouting competition TV show with a mission to source new singing, dancing and acting talent, resulting in 24 fresh and enthusiastic faces picked from 12,000 hopefuls to make up the cast. Painting with Light and Studio 100 have enjoyed a long and positive working relationship and this is the third edition of the musical show. It has a strong anti-bullying narrative and tells the tale of two worlds - a reality which is grey and devoid of music, fun or entertainment and the sci-fi fantasy world of Unidamu - fil
USA - Antioch Bible Baptist is not the largest church in the world, but it is making a difference in every corner of the globe. Each fall the suburban Kansas City house of worship hosts a Go Global Missions Conference, at which its members are asked to make a promise to support one of its 75 global missions, which stretch from Uruguay to the Philippines to Tanzania. The church doesn’t confine its work to overseas either; operating under the motto, Not in the city but for the city, it also does a great deal of outreach work closer to home. Wanting to devote its resources to these missions, the church is careful not to overspend on its main campus north of Kansas City. However, music plays an important role in its two Sunday services, and its sermons are featured on live podcasts, so it needed quality sound and lighting systems to engage worshippers. It got both recen
UK - Stage Electrics has supplied the University of Huddersfield with a raft of live sound equipment to allow students on its BA (Hons) Music Technology, BA (Hons) Music Technology and Popular Music and BMus (Hons) Creative Music Technology courses to get hands on experience with the latest digital products. “Working with digital consoles for live sound is something we have wanted to develop into our courses for quite some time,” says the university’s Stewart Worthy, who teaches the courses along with fellow lecturer Alex Harker. “The other part of the university already runs music technology courses with industry standard analogue consoles such as Allen & Heath and Avid, but we wanted to do something different in our area, offering two different consoles with different operating principles to give our students a more diverse experience. We’re delighted that we
UK - UK - The Knight of Illumination Awards 2017 (KOI), which celebrates the creative talents of international lighting and digital content designers working in the UK, has announced the appointment of a new chair of the Concert Touring & Events category - Jess Allan. Well-known in the industry, Jess has worked in professional show lighting and event production for almost 20 years, gaining extensive experience of both technology and design while working in various roles for companies including Martin Professional and TAIT. In addition, Jess has been a member of the organising committee for Showlight, the prestigious quadrennial lighting conference, for the past eight years. Most recently, Jess has launched Productionomics, a company providing specialist consultancy services to the event production industry, including data research, product launch, strategy planning
UK - Taking place from 9 – 10 May, PLASA Focus Leeds has established itself as the essential event for entertainment technology in the North of England. This year, the exhibition will once again take place at the Royal Armouries Museum where companies from across the globe will showcase the very latest technology. One of these is White Light, with the complete technical solution specialist exhibiting on stand N-C24 with a range of revolutionary technology. Since its formation in 1971, WL has forged a reputation for supplying technical solutions including lighting, audio, video and rigging to projects of all sizes across the UK, Europe and worldwide. At PLASA Focus Leeds, the equipment on display will showcase the full range of what the company can offer its customers. WL’s business development Manager Mark Morley comme
UK - Robe's new Spiider LED wash beam is a versatile fixture that is making an impact in many environments and even a few Spiiders will go a long way as lighting designer Gareth Weaver recently demonstrated when lighting a UK tour of intense dance piece The Suffocating Truth, created by Lukas McFarlane of The Untitled Dance Company. The show visited five cities and played totally different spaces in each. Apart from being highly adaptable, Gareth needed a rig that would fit into a trailer and work aesthetically in the six unique venues, that was also flexible enough to provide dynamic lighting for the work which explores sexuality, expectation and emotional crises. In addition to the four Spiiders which were on the floor at each corner of the space, Gareth also used four Robe DL4S Profiles on Manfrotto stands. Moving lights were “absolutely essential to get th
UK - The Prolight Concepts Group, distributors of LEDJ, Equinox, Global Truss, eLumen8 and Clever Acoustics, has appointed Arenna Matthewson as regional sales manager for London and the South East. Arenna joins the team at a time of expansion for the group and is already a familiar face, having previously worked for Avolites and TMB. “Arenna is looking forward to meeting our existing customers, and welcoming new clients,” says group managing director, Andrew Jeffrey. (Jim Evans)
