USA - The latest in a succession of lighting professionals to adopt GLP’s award-winning X4 Bar 20 platform has been designer and programmer, Brian Jenkins. Part of an experienced team based on America’s West Coast, along with people like Roy Bennett, his verdict was unequivocal. “In the moving LED batten market, GLP has hit it out of the park.” Jenkins is no stranger to the German company’s products, having originally been introduced to the Volkslicht by Seth Jackson when he was designing the Selena Gomez tour. This kick-started an enduring relationship with GLP and its staff. Now in his fourth year with Maroon 5, the LD says, “When we first fired-up in 2015, Roy Bennett designed the production and lighting, with Jason Baeri and myself handling programming and associate design duties. We’ve found a workflow that we both enjoy. “Outside the main tour, wh
Germany - Production company LaserFrame recently installed Elation Professional Platinum HFX hybrid moving heads and ACL 360 Bar effect lights into one of the world’s top clubs, Bootshaus in Cologne. Located at the Cologne shipyard, Bootshaus has been an integral part of the city’s club culture for more than a decade. Primarily a techno club, Bootshaus attracts a clientele of sophisticated clubbers who often dance to the beats of top DJs like David Guetta, Avicii, Hardwell, Afrojack and Tiesto. The club is all about quality and as a top club maintains high standards when it comes to its lighting and sound systems. Pyro, Co2, lasers and confetti are part of the standard repertoire as well. Bootshaus houses three rooms – the Mainfloor, the BLCKBX and the Dreherei, an old workshop – plus a large outdoor area where open air parties can be celebrated. The Mainfloor
USA - SGM Q-7 strobes were the main cannons of the stage lighting for Justin Bieber’s exclusive show at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami, FL. Everlast Productions have carried out the New Year’s Eve Party at Fontainebleau Hotel for several years. It was the first year that Tyler Frank spearheaded the overall design. Tyler and his crew took the shell of the structure from previous years and incorporated that into the new design for the stage. He wanted to create something that had more depth, immersion and dynamics, all the while fitting into the tight restrictions of the space. They built a 18m wide x 15m tall x 13m deep (60’ wide x 50’ tall x 40’ deep) structure and stage over an existing poolside bar. The lighting design had to be practical, bright and resilient to South Beach weather conditions. He explained why he chose the Q-7s for the stage setup:
USA - Set in the vast expanse of the Sonoran Desert in early February, the Gem and Jam Festival has a way of inspiring flights of imagination. Originally an after-party for the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, the four-day electronic music festival, which this year featured stars like The Trancident and The Floozies, pays tribute to its roots by embellishing its grounds with a captivating and sparkling array of crystalline artwork. This enchanting atmosphere was apparent at the Festival’s Onyx Stage, the only indoor stage of the four gem-inspired stages, set to go off at closing of the mainstage and continue to sunrise. The building was centred in a fantastical courtyard that housed an eclectic mix of sculptures and vendors. The stage was bejewelled with enormous clear quartz matrixes, large wooden panels riddled with intricate cut-outs of coyotes, symmetric crystal and interw
USA – In the Texas tradition of going big, Houston welcomed Super Bowl LI with a number of exciting attractions, including the Houston Skylight high atop the George R. Brown Convention Centre(GRB). Houston First Corporation, which maintains GRB, asked Nimblist to conceive and execute the Houston Skylight, a rooftop beacon that marks the centre of the city’s cultural activities. Nimblist designer and creative consultant Spike Brant devised an array of 36 Claypaky Supersharpy fixtures, mounted on staging on the GRB roof overlooking Discovery Green park. The Supersharpys swept the sky with powerful searchlight-style beams and created numerous lighting effects as well. “We have an ongoing conversation with Mike Waterman with Houston First about using light as a beacon to connect all of Houston,” says Spike Brant. “The Houston Skylight would symbolize ener
China - PR Lighting has announced the release of the XPar 150 Zoom – a compact and lightweight fixture. With its IP67 rating it is designed for extreme outdoor conditions such as building façades, landscaping and so on. Featuring multi-chip (4-in-1) multichip 150W COB (chips-on-board) LED and linear zoom, it is ideal for applications requiring superb RGBW colour mixing or high quality white light, and comes as part of a fully-featured package. This includes Strobe (0.5-33 fps); Dimmer (0-100% linearly adjustable); RGBW colour mix, with macro; Beam Angle (1/2 peak) of 22°-55°; Zoom (DMX linear zooming); Colour temperature (2700K-10000K linear correction). In terms of construction, the fixture is housed in a rugged, high-strength die-casting alloy capable of operating in ambient temperatures ranging from -20°C to 40°C. With a net weight of just 7.5kg, it mea
South Africa - The Market Theatre have invested in 8 Robin DL4S Profiles for their busy venue in Newtown Johannesburg. The theatre was looking at an LED solution to save on costs and maintenance, a common factor these days. DWR Distribution was awarded the tender to supply the DL4S fixtures which will be used in the main theatre. Nomvula Molepo, head of lighting at the Market Theatre, comments, “While we are yet to hang the fixtures on the lighting grid, I know that once they have been programmed they will work wonders and bring magic to our stage.” “The gobo set and the framing shutters makes this an extremely versatile fixture for theatre,” said Kevin Stannett of DWR Distribution. “Because of the RGBW chip you get extremely rich and high-intensity colours. We are finding that this particular fixture is receiving positive feedback from theatres world
USA - Officially, the theme of this year’s Portland Winter Light Festival was ‘Between the River and the Stars’. In reality, though, it could also have been described as ‘connecting people to light’. Held at the beginning of February on Portland’s beautiful Willamette River waterfront, the free four-day festival engaged visitors with an abundance of immersive lighting displays and interactive events like Illuminate Bike Rides and a Glow Jam circus show. Among the festival’s most engaging attractions was Harmony Park, an interactive exhibit created by Justin Metras, the founder of Portland-based Ellumiglow. Setting an appropriately immersive backdrop for this one-of-a-kind participatory exhibit was a celestial display created with six Iluminarc Colorist Line 6Qa fixtures. Metras used the RGBA linear fixtures to create a starry night sk
South Africa - The twelfth season of Idols South Africa wrapped up with a stunning finale at Carnival City Big Top Arena in Johannesburg, broadcast live on the Mzansi Magic network with a highly vocal audience of 3,500 packing into the venue - and lighting designer Joshua Cutts of Visual Frontier choosing nearly 200 Robe fixtures to be at the core of his rig. As always, the challenge was to make this final season look better and different than before, and with over 80m votes cast across Series 12, a lot of eyes are on it and production values have been honed accordingly to reflect the intense public interest and impress fans. A skilled and imaginative creative team once again united to produce amazing results. Technical production – lighting, sound, video, set and rigging - was delivered by Dream Sets for producers SIC Entertainment and the series, which also
UK - Originally performed at the Chichester Festival Theatre before transferring to Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, Running Wild is now back and embarking on a UK tour. The show is based on Michael Morpurgo’s best-selling novel and uses live-action puppetry to tell the story of Will, whose visit to Indonesia sees her and elephant Oona having to ride deep into the jungle in order to escape a tsunami. White Light was called upon to provide the lighting equipment. Running Wild is being produced by the Children’s Touring Partnership, which is a collaboration between producers Fiery Angel, CFT and a consortium of regional theatres. The lighting design for the tour is by James Whiteside. He comments, “This is an extremely busy show, with the setting ranging from the Indonesian rainforest to a rural part of England to the tsunami itself. The high
Belgium - International creative design practice Painting with Light was commissioned to design lighting and a video system, plus produce video content for the recent staging of Disney’s Beauty & the Beast musical by Marmalade in Hall 8 at Ghent Expo in Belgium. The Belgium based company’s Luc Peumans also seized the opportunity to use their new BlackTrax real-time motion tracking system for the first time on a major production . . . to ensure that all the principal cast members were perfectly illuminated as they moved around the performance space. When Luc came on-board, the set designed by Stefaan Haudenhuyse - under licence to Disney with the producers having to meet certain criteria – was already initiated. Spectacular and dynamic, it was based around a 50m long performance area in the shape of a rose in the centre of the hall with audience seated
UK - Claypaky Spheriscans were selected to deliver a display of spectacular lighting effects that merged architectural and entertainment lighting during Edinburgh's famous Hogmanay torchlight procession. The award-winning fixtures were supplied and installed on The National Monument of Scotland at Calton Hill by Edinburgh-based production and rental outfit Black Light. Project manager James Gow from Black Light worked alongside lighting designer Grant Anderson and production manager of the torchlight procession John Robb, to create a lighting plan that offered maximum impact and versatility for the event. Gow explains: "We chose to use the Claypaky Spheriscan thanks to its 360-degree pan with an IP54 rating, which makes it a unique fixture on the market. With no need to add extra weather proofing, the unit has a sleek and discreet design." One Spheriscan was plac
USA - NBC’s World of Dance is currently in production for a 10-episode rollout this spring. Tasked with painting the stage for The Biggest Dance Competition in the World, lighting designer Oscar Dominguez of Darkfire Lighting Design brought his signature kinetic energy and a palette that included 24 Solaris Flare Q+ LR linear fixtures. “I’m in love with these new Flare LRs,” says Oscar, “they’re a versatile, violent, shootable weapon! Brighter than the original Flare (which says a lot!), we put a few fixtures in the aisles and the rest in the air. They’re the ultimate in accent lighting, as a wash, strobe, or blinder, and pixel-mapped for special effects. “The technology of these Solaris fixtures never ceases to amaze me: they keep outdoing themselves, improving on perfection. They’re very nicely designed and of the highest quality. The
UK - Each year, the very best in television is recognised at the National Television Awards. Taking place in late January, the awards, which are voted for by the British public, honour television shows, actors and presenters in a range of categories. Producers Indigo TV bring together a variety of technical suppliers to support both the glamorous red carpet arrival space and the awards at The O2 in London, which are broadcast live on ITV. Continuing a long-running relationship, PRG XL Video supplied both video and lighting technology for this year’s event. Video account manager Paul Wood has worked with Indigo TV’s Andy Bates for a number of years, and this year supplied the production team with the main LED backdrop made up of ROE Visual 7mm LED. The screen is used for all the main title logos, category information and video clips in the hall. Playback footage was
UK - Using ground-breaking LED technology from SGM, an interactive light commission entitled IN LIGHT: Illuminating Capability Brown’s Landscape, was created by light artist Laurent Louyer from Creatmosphere. In November 2016, various celebratory events took place in 120 different parks and sites all across the UK. This was to mark the 300th anniversary of renowned British Landscape Architect, Capability Brown, an historically important figure known as “England’s greatest gardener”. Many of his more than 170 park designs still exist today. Amongst these is Compton Verney, which also houses an independent national art gallery.
Compton Verney celebrated Capability’s legacy and brought it to life through a light ‘spectacular’. Compton Verney’s curator, Penelope Sexton, had the idea to create an event outside on the grounds using light as a m
USA - If the impact of a man is measured by those who love him, Randy Travis is larger than life. Bandit Lites donated a lighting package for 1 Night. 1 Place. 1 Time: A Heroes & Friends Tribute to Randy Travis where Garth Brooks, Kenny Rogers, Alison Krauss, Kane Brown, Chris Young, Travis Tritt, Wynonna, Alabama and others honoured the man Garth Brooks said, “totally saved this music and this format.” Part of the proceeds from the marathon tribute went to the Randy Travis Foundation which supports stroke research and rehabilitation. Three years ago, Randy Travis was gearing up for a two-week run when lighting designer Thom Roberts got the call that Randy had been hospitalized. “Two days later he had the stroke, and that was that,” said Roberts. “Due to some experiences earlier in my career, I hate to use the word "family" when describing a road crew and
USA - Magical is a word that is often ascribed to Louis The Child’s spacey, ethereal sound. It also accurately describes this EDM duo’s phenomenal career path. Their focus instead is on creating music that captures real moments, or as they once put it in an interview, “songs that are going to become the soundtrack to your life”. This spirit is very evident on the duo’s current tour, not only in its music but also in its immersive and highly original lightshow designed by Kendall Clark and programmed by Andrew Roman, using all Chauvet Professional fixtures supplied by Creative Production & Design (CPD) of Austin, Texas. Like the music of Louis The Child, the lightshow on the group’s sold-out 21-city tour, is powerful, evocative and very approachable. “The lighting really reflects the music and what these artists are all about,” said Justin Jenkins of
Russia - An exclusive Claypaky rig of almost 300 moving-head fixtures delivered the high-impact lighting for international game developer and publisher Wargaming Group's highly anticipated debut video game event Wargaming Fest in Moscow's Expocentre. Production and lighting designers Maxim Martynov and Jevgenij Juhnevich of Moscow-based production company MAX MAX Productions specified 81 x Claypaky Sharpy, 56 x Claypaky Stormy CC, 46 x Claypaky Mythos, 22 x Claypaky Alpha Profile 1500 and 76 x Claypaky A.leda B-EYE K20 supplied by Russian rental and production outfits Arlecchino Techno and MF Group. "The work during the preparation period of the show was extremely detailed," says Max Martynov. "We discussed every second, every costume and every colour with the Wargaming team. This design tenacity followed through into our desire to achieve the 'perfect lighting quali
USA - Gear Park, Nashville’s full-service facility that specializes in storage of musical and stage equipment for artists, has announced Steve Powell as the new general manager. Steve joins the team following 18 years of working at Bandit Lites. “I have always enjoyed new challenges and have been given many rewarding opportunities at Bandit Lites,” he says. “I am excited to be part of Gear Park and am looking forward to growing this business.” Gear Park's goal is to provide clients with a safe, protected, and comfortable space, to not just store equipment, but to work on the gear all while in a user friendly environment. “Our location is quiet and secure, away from the traffic of metro Nashville but with easy access to I-24,” says Powell. “There is a large amount of space to pull gear out of a locker and work on it. We have secure lockers, climat
UK - GDS has announced the appointment of Lorraine Nugent as business development manager for its architectural lighting team. Lorraine is a highly qualified and widely respected architectural interior designer, who has worked with a host of high profile companies including Concord Lighting and Jaguar Cars. Her role will comprise a whole-project approach which will see her involved on both the sales and design side of the team. Matt Lloyd, managing director, GDS, comments, "As we expand the scope of applications for GDS products, it's essential that we bring on board team members with both technical expertise and specific market experience. Lorraine is exactly the person to take GDS's products further and deeper into the architectural lighting sector.” Lorraine Nugent looks forward to her role, "GDS's status in the theatre-lighting world is of the highest order and
China - PR Lighting has launched upgraded versions of two of its products, and has now released the XR 330 Beam II and XR 250 Beam II. While the XR 330 Beam II is equipped with the Osram Sirius HRI 330W lamp the XR 250 Beam II houses a Philips MSD Platinum 11R 250W lamp to produce a laser-like parallel beam. These products are designed to meet the requirements of small and medium installation applications. Rich in features, they are compact and easy to maintain and install. Features include: colour wheel with 13 colours; fixed gobo wheel with 16 gobos and rotating gobo wheel with 12 gobos (three prisms and frost wheel. The fixture also contains: electronic strobe (0.3-20 fps); Dimmer (0-100%, linearly adjustable); Motorized linear Focus and Zoom. The Head movement offers 540° (pan) and 270° (tilt), with auto position correction, and light angle of 3°.
USA - History runs deep throughout the Lone Star State. Perhaps nowhere in Texas is this more evident than in the little town of Granbury. A look at the well preserved 19th century homes and original frontier storefronts that line the downtown district make it easy to see why Granbury bills itself as “The Place Where Texas History Lives.” Although the people of Granbury celebrate their rich history, they also have their eyes firmly fixed on the future.This balance between the time-honoured and contemporary was evident recently when the local Acton United Methodist Church installed a massive new LED video wall in its traditional sanctuary. Made with Chauvet Professional C6 Panels, the 26’ wide by 10’ high wall engages worshippers with crisp and colouful contemporary images, as well as text and IMAG video. Yet, when it’s not in use, this high-tech wall “virtu
Keeping Music Live - London mayor Sadiq Khan has welcomed government proposals to safeguard live music venues by strengthening the ‘agent of change’ principle. It comes weeks after the mayor’s office announced the rate of small music venue closures has slowed, with numbers in the capital staying the same for the first time in a decade. In its Housing White Paper, released this week, the government outlined plans to amend the National Planning Policy Framework and strengthen the agent of change principle. This means that developers must take into account existing venues when building nearby and be responsible for ensuring their properties are adequately soundproofed. Implementing the principle was one of a number of recommendations made in a report published last year on how to tackle the decline of grassroots music venues. Welcoming the step, Khan describe
Europe - The Holiday on Ice Time show is back on the road with a new creative team and a new look, with lighting and visuals designed by Jeffrey Goes from Amsterdam based creative design practice Live Legends - and a lighting rig featuring over 170 Robe moving lights. Holiday on Ice producer Kiki Venhuizen and new executive producer Jay Smith contacted Live Legends when looking for a new integrated design that would encompass lighting and video visuals for the re-launch of Time (the original show name was Speed), which has been a big hit with audiences throughout Europe. Live Legends’ work embraces all sectors and genres – concerts and live music events, TV and theatre productions, corporate and industrials, but this was their first ice show. “Holiday on Ice was looking for a fresh approach,” said Jeffrey who has been using Robe prod
