USA - Country music star Easton Corbin has been bringing his smooth twang to audiences around the country with a lighting package provided by Bandit Lites. His newest single, Girl Like You, has been climbing the charts as fans await his much anticipated fourth studio album. Lighting designer Andy Knighton utilized GLP Impression X4S on Bandit created ‘Go-Go’ Truss, a custom designed A-type truss where a pipe can be mounted down the centre allowing smaller fixtures to be more portable. “There are also two Bandit exclusive GRNLite pars in the bottom for toners and one Robe Pointe at the top of each tower,” Knighton said. “This allows for an expedited up and down as there is not very much time in between set changes, along with fitting in various clubs and drawing low power.” Bandit also supplied Chauvet Legend 230 SR Beams, GRNLite moving washes,
USA - The early years of this century were tough on Kmart. Once the second largest retailer in the US, the company had been surpassed by faster, nimbler rivals. Emblematic of the chain’s demise were the vacant Kmart stores that dotted America’s landscape, like the one at 4411 Olton Road in Plainview, Texas. Vacant since 2002, it stood as a neglected eyesore in this West Texas town for 14 years, until it became the gleaming new home of the rapidly growing Harvest Christian Fellowship. The transformation of the old abandoned store is instantly apparent to all who pull into its spacious parking lot, thanks to the tasteful landscaping and new building façade. Inside, the utilitarian discount store interior has been turned into a warm and inviting worship environment. At the centre of it all is a bright sanctuary stage that projects a contemporary look, while still connectin
Japan - dnp Partner KIC Corporation has installed dnp Supernova Infinity Screens to create a huge display for customers of Satellite Chuetsu, an off-track betting facility in Japan. This not only meets the customer’s demands for size and clarity, but gives the facility a new selling point. Based in the Niigata Prefecture, Satellite Chuetsu wanted to upgrade its previous two 130” rear projection displays, and so turned to dnp partner KIC Corporation of Tokyo for the solution. The customer wanted a display that was not only bigger, but would also offer wider viewing angles. KIC had already installed a dnp Supernova Screen solution at Satellite Aizu, a similar facility in Fukushima Prefecture, and Satellite Chuetsu were keen to use similar technology. Satellite Chuetsu eventually chose a dnp Supernova Infinity display (comprising four 120” units) using 08:8
Czech Republic - Extravaganza is a high-profile corporate event, organized by the multinational Herbalife in the world’s most prestigious cities. The latest edition took place in Prague’s O2 Arena. The Extravaganza organization enlisted Planet Service for the design and implementation of the event. The Planet Service staff report, “Extravaganza Prague was an event of the highest technological level. For this production we used the new CORE hybrid moving heads by DTS. “The COREs have proven irreplaceable for the highly dynamic lighting design we have created. This, thanks to their great luminosity, combined with the wealth of internal effects and their super-fast movements; also they provided the versatility of Spot and Beam projections in the same fixture. “In addition to the COREs, we installed over 250 DTS projectors of various types. The stage
UK - Almost 300 Robe lighting fixtures were used to illuminate the 2017 Total Production International (TPi) Awards produced by TPi Magazine and staged at Evolution in Battersea, central London on Monday night. Robe used the opportunity of being in front of the entire industry to launch a brand new lighting fixture - the pixelPATT - featuring seven 30W RGBW LED multi-chips, one in the centre surrounded by a ring of six, housed in a super-slim and lightweight brushed metal frame - which extends Robe’s PATT range of elegant retro-styled light sources. 20 x pixelPATTs graced a spectacular lighting rig designed by Nathan Wan, together with other new fixtures including the Spiider LED wash beam and the Spikie, and favourites like Pointe, ColorStrobe and DL7 range profiles and fresnels. The starting point for the lighting design was the shape of the screen / set crea
UK - Adlib’s busy start to 2017 has included including supplying a full arena sound system for the European leg of A Day to Remember’s Bad Vibrations tour, complete with a consoles / control package for the other sections of the tour. Adlib’s Sam Proctor and Mike Flaherty have been working closely with the band's own system tech Justin Lenards to fine tune the system each day for their engineers Nate Northway at FOH and Adam Schuler on monitors. “They are all great people to work with and we’ve really enjoyed being on the tour as well as supplying a suitably punchy system to match the energy of the (punk metalcore) music,” stated Sam. Adlib has previously worked on UK arena tours with ADTR and their late FOH engineer / tour manager Jeff Kaplan, and was delighted to reunite with these very exciting live artists now being production managed on the r
South Africa - The city of Johannesburg is the country’s hub for film, television and music and that focus on the creative industries spells opportunity for those interested in fields like production, design, and multimedia technology. City Varsity school of media and creative arts plays an important role in the education of young talent in the region and access to professional equipment is essential. So when the school recently launched a new multi-cam studio at their Braamfontein Johannesburg campus they chose to outfit it with Elation Professional broadcast-optimized lighting including TVL CYC RGBW cyclorama wall wash luminaires, TVL Panel DW softlight luminaires and DW Fresnel LED lights. Elation’s South African partner The Production Warehouse (TPW) was responsible for consulting and installation on the project from start to finish, including design of the li
UK – Knight of Illumination (KOI) Awards is powering up in preparation for its luminous tenth anniversary event this September. Billed as the ultimate showcase of lighting and video design achievement in the UK, the Awards is already receiving outstanding nominations in lighting and video design as international creatives and industry supporters push to see their favourite works of 2016/17 take home a KOI sword this landmark year. Work performed or broadcast between the 1st August 2016 and 31st June 2017 in the UK in the Awards’ Television and Concert Touring & Events categories is now eligible for nomination via the official KOI website www.knight-of-illumination.com. Anyone is eligible to submit a show they feel worthy of recognition and lighting and video designers, including international designers who have worked on shows in the UK, are encouraged to sel
UK - Involve, one of the UK’s leading systems integrators specialising in the design, implementation and support of visual collaboration solutions, has recently delivered a two-room meeting space solution based on Symetrix Radius AEC technology to British commercial television studio, ITV Central. ITV required a solution to make their meeting spaces more flexible and productive whilst maintaining an easy-to-use front end. “We have a regular need for remote comms,” explained ITV’s Ian Glen. “We put two programmes out every day with reporters based in multiple locations. At the end of the day we hold a debrief conversation from those same multiple locations and we were finding that the phone system we were using was unreliable and we had great difficulty in hearing those at the remote end. “Our head of news instructed me to look into a solution and that led m
USA - In January, Toyota unveiled its futuristic Concept-i vehicle at the CES consumer electronics show at an award-winning booth lit using Elation Professional Platinum FLX hybrid moving heads and Colour Chorus series LED battens. Lighting and rigging was provided by TLS Productions. who also created the lighting design for the booth. Held January 5-8 in Las Vegas, CES is the place to see what’s next in tech and has always attracted the latest in automobile technology. Toyota used the occasion to show its Concept-i car, an intelligent car of the future with built-in artificial intelligence called Yui. The futuristically designed car with an aerodynamic shape is designed to “learn from and grow with the driver” with Yui embedded into the vehicle’s architecture. The Toyota booth at this year’s show featured two parts, explains Robert Glowacki, lighting design
Europe - Dream Theater is once again bringing their progressive metal sound to Europe. The first leg of their Images, Words & Beyond tour closes in Helsinki this month. They will resume in April in the UK and close in Vienna in May. Keeping pace with the fiery brilliance of the band’s veteran metal shredders are eight blazing Solaris Flares. “On this tour, we’re using the Flares for overhead wash and strobe effects,” says tour lighting designer and director, Steve Baird. “What I really like about Flares is their awesome power! They’re extremely bright and their multiple functions make them ultra-versatile. We’re using the Flares in full advanced mode and they’ve been rock solid performers. We haven’t had to replace a single unit thus far.” Baird adds, “Jon Greaves and Andy Scott at Lite Alt recommended the Flares to us last year and we were mo
South Africa - MGG were called upon to supply the full technical for the SAPOA Annual Convention, which celebrated its fiftieth anniversary at the Sandton Convention Centre’s Pavilion Venue in Johannesburg. For this top-notch occasion, MGG asked lighting designer Francois van der Merwe from Wizardry Group to design both the conference and banquet styled show. The South African Property Owners Association (SAPOA) is the representative body and official voice of the commercial and industrial property industry in South Africa. As they wanted something extraordinary for their golden celebration, MGG incorporated the largest VuePix configuration they had ever built comprising of some 200 x Q3 3.91mm panels. The show included Clay Paky Sharpys and Mythos and control on a grandMA2 full size. The event kicked off in the conference room where a 28m x 4.5m VuePix L6 Series 6.
Germany - Die Fantastischen Vier - AKA iconic German rappers Fanta 4 - hit the road again on Vier und Jetzt, their biennial tour campaign for 2016-17, reaching out to an ever-loyal fan base which spans several generations and stretches across every corner of the country. Once again, the lighting, set and visual design was created by Gunther Hecker working in close collaboration with Marc Lorenz.. Gunther and Marc are a well-known FOH duo recognized for their fresh, often radical, boundary-pushing ideas and different approach. Their lighting rigs frequently contain Robe fixtures and this one followed that very trend with 60 Pointes that were integral to the epic yet raw show aesthetic developed by Gunther. Marc, from Cue Design, took on the role of lighting director plus overall visual technology and control guru, compiling and co-ordinating the lighting and video speci
USA - Atlanta-based design company, Visional Productions, used three custom-built media servers running Avolites Ai V9.1 software and an Avolites Quartz console to control and live edit a mix of pre-recorded content and live-streamed video at an annual three-day Christian youth conference in Atlanta, Georgia. Passion 2017 drew in audiences of 50,000 young adults from around the globe to Georgia's Atlanta Dome to discuss the Christian faith, fight modern day slavery and sponsor 7,000 children living in poverty. The job of designing the dynamic media display system for Passion's audience of tech-savvy 18-25 year olds fell to co-founder of Visional, Kyle Means. Means has been involved with Passion Conferences since 2013 through London-based production management company Black and White Live. Turning to the latest Ai V9.1 software, and Notch, a real-time effects gene
Europe - Swiss artist DJ BoBo is celebrating his 25th anniversary on stage by touring the grand new show, Mystorial. From April 2017 it will visit Switzerland, Austria and other parts of Europe, including 24 arenas in Germany before heading down to South America. But it has already received its world premiere during a two-week opener at the vast Europa-Park amusement park in south-west Germany, where a new arena has been built specially to host the production. Mystorial takes fans on a fascinating journey through time, mixing well-known hits with new songs, supported by a five-piece band, backing singers and 60 dancers. TV and industrial lighting specialist, Thomas Gerdon of GERDON design, was responsible for the lighting in conjunction with his partner Thomas Dietze, who has worked with the artist for nearly 25 years as his touring LD. Together they chose
USA - Recently named as the fastest growing church in the United States, Cherry Hills Community Church in Highlands Ranch, Colorado found itself in need of an audio system that could adequately keep up with its spectacular growth. After turning to the team at Franklin, Tennessee-based Mankin Media Systems to design and supply a new system, the Christian church is now enjoying a new house loudspeaker system based on L-Acoustics Kara elements. “It was one of the more complex projects we’ve ever been involved with,” says Mankin’s Tim Corder “The entire leadership of the church had changed since the last system was installed about eight years ago and the new team really wanted a system worthy of their reputation as a growing, dynamic congregation.” That was no easy feat. Corder described the room and the previous install as “the most polarizing audio ex
USA - It was a night of heart wrenching insight, professions of love and thoughtful musings as singer-songwriter Erick Baker serenaded a sold out crowd at Knoxville’s historic Bijou Theatre with a lighting package provided by Bandit Lites. In what could have been right out of a movie, Bandit Lites production manager Allison Burchett found herself bumping into Erick at the world-renowned Blackberry Farm resort, only then he was known as the brother of event planner Jennifer Laraia and husband of Jenn’s business associate Mandy. “I would always hear Erick happily humming and singing as we set-up,” shared Allison. “So one day I said to him, ‘You should sing for a living!’ I was surprised when he responded with, “Well, actually I do!’ I can only imagine the look on my face, so he said, ‘My name is Erick Baker,’ and before he could say another word,
UAE - Maestra Dubai is supplying full technical production – lighting, audio, video, staging, rigging, special FX and power distribution - to the 2016-17 series of Groove on The Grass dance events. Now in its fifth edition, the five events for this season are produced by the Artists Network and being staged at the Emirates Golf Club, Dubai, each enjoyed by around 5000 dance music fans. A sizzling line-up for the last Groove a couple of weeks ago included a host of leading international music makers like Rӧyksopp, Agents of Time, Dewalta, Marc Houle and Steve Bug …among many more who played on two stages, and kept going despite heavy rain at some points. “We’re excited to be part of the energy and success of this great phenomenon which is known for putting production values high on the agenda,” says Maestra Dubai’s managing partner Tom Clements, addi
USA - Back in 1991, Jeffrey Metter was board operating the band lighting console for The Grateful Dead when he got a call inviting him to Atlantic City. Country and pop superstar Kenny Rogers needed a lighting director for an upcoming concert. It was supposed to be a weekend gig, but 26 years later the South African- born lighting designer is still with the multi-platinum singer, lighting the final Kenny Rogers tour. Travelling with them as they crisscross the US is a touring package comprised entirely of Chauvet Professional fixtures. Made up of 14 Rogue R2 Wash and eight Rogue RH1 Hybrid fixtures, as well as an assortment of 20 COLORado par units, the rig is substantially smaller than the lighting package Metter used when he began his association with Rogers. Still, the rich warm colours and tight focus of the Chauvet Professional fixtures is helping the designer create a
Israel - I Am Jerusalem is a new multimedia interactive experience designed to welcome visitors to one of the most famous cities in the world, offering a fast-moving history and snapshots explaining how cultural diversity is fundamental to the dynamics and development of life in this vibrant gateway to the Middle East. Robe Pointes moving lights were specified by the installation division of Danor Theatre & Studio Systems as part of the entertainment lighting scheme in the movie theatre which features 270 degree wrap-around HD video and a video ceiling. The venue is located in the basement of Jerusalem’s central retail environment - Mamilla Boulevard. During the 25-minute show, the city’s rich and colourful history is unfolded to an intimate audience of 200 complete with pitching and moving seats to ensure a roller coaster ride! Orphan Group Creati
USA – Lighting designer Bob Barnhart, who has lent his talents to 19 Super Bowl Halftime Shows, chose Claypaky Mythos and Sharpy fixtures to help illuminate Lady Gaga in her solo turn at Super Bowl LI at Houston’s NRG Stadium. Lady Gaga began the Halftime Show with a tribute to America singing God Bless America and This Land is Your Land on the roof of the stadium. She performed some dizzying flying effects, crooned a medley of her hits, led high-energy dance routines and closed with a rendition of Bad Romance in an action-packed, 12-minute show. Barnhart first used Claypaky Mythos fixtures on a Super Bowl Halftime Show two years ago with Katy Perry. This year he employed 56 Mythos on field truss set against the upstage wall below the first row of seats. The lights were positioned on 2.5-foot spacings from the centre of the field out to the 20
Mexico - Justin Bieber kicked off year two of his comeback tour with a sold-out concert at Monterrey, Mexico’s Estadio BBVA Bancomer arena. Accenting the star’s performance and lending an aura of timelessness to the evening was a powerful and evocative Corey FitzGerald lightshow that featured 88 Chauvet Professional Maverick MK2 Wash fixtures, supplied by Serpro Producciones of Monterrey. “We were very honoured to have provided lights for this concert,” said Renato Betancourt, CEO of Serpro Producciones. “Recently, we made an investment in the Maverick MK2 Wash because we wanted a fixture that could deliver the output and colours that would be needed for major productions – and at the same time would be flexible enough to work well for a range of musical styles.” With 12 40W Osram RGBW LEDs, the Maverick MK2 Wash met Betancourt’s criteria for output and
USA - December saw the opening of Rumba Room Live, an upscale Latin-themed nightclub and concert venue in Anaheim, California. Located at the Anaheim GardenWalk and built new from the ground up, the club, which features state-of-the-art Elation entertainment lighting and video systems, has energised the nightclub scene in Anaheim. The 10,000sq.ft venue has the flexibility to host 1,000 people and hold a variety of events yet maintains a chic, intimate feel. Working with the club’s architect and ownership to develop the design and look of the venue was Michael Betancourt, general manager at Southern California-based Props AV, the production company that designed, supplied and installed the Elation lighting and video package. “When the Rumba Room Live project first came to the table the feel that they wanted to go for was a Latin-themed nightclub and live venue with a sex
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
