Organised by the STLD, ALD and Clay Paky, KOI is the only industry event that celebrates the outstanding creative achievements of lighting designers working in the sectors of Television, Theatre and Rock. At the same time it forges closer ties between the world of lighting design and the lighting industry as a whole.
Each sector is assessed by its own panel of industry experts and breaks down into a number of categories:
Television - Light Entertainment, Drama, Small Studio and Events
Rock - Stage events, Arena events and Eco Innovation
Theatre - Dance, Opera, Play and Musicals
Already nominations are flowing in from lighting designers, service providers, production managers, technicians, TV fans, theatre lovers and gig-goers.
Anyone is welcome to nominate a Rock or TV lighting designer via the official KOI website: www.knight-of-illumination.com - Theatre shows can only be nominated by the judging panel. "So, if you have seen a Rock or TV show that has 'tripped the light fantastic' for you, then please let us know," say organisers.
Nominations for the rock award will close at the end of June 2012, for TV at the end of May. By the end of July each awarding panel will have drawn up a shortlist of potential award recipients. On September 9th 2012 the final award recipients for each category will collect their prizes, in the presence of industry peers, at a glittering ceremony in central London.
They will join an ever-growing roll call of respected lighting designers including the 2011 winners: Simon Butcher, for the television drama Casualty, Roger Williams for the variety series Tonight's the Night, Matt Carter for the morning talk show ITV Daybreak, Al Gurdon for the Super Bowl Halftime Show, Michael Straun for the Glasvegas tour, Nick Whitehouse for the last Kylie tour, Jamie Thompson for The Script's tour, Charles Atlas for the dance production Tate Project, Wolfgang Goebbel for the opera Tristan und Isolde, Bruno Poet for the National Theatre production of Frankenstein, and Hugh Vanstone for the West End musical The Wizard of Oz.
Also celebrated is the Lifetime Recognition Award, which in 2011 went to Richard Pilbrow in respect of his long and influential career as a lighting designer and industry expert.
This year the Lifetime Recognition Award has been renamed The Enrico Caironi Award For Lifetime Recognition. This is in appreciation of Clay Paky's commercial director Enrico Caironi (1947 - 2011), whose passion for the art and the people of lighting inspired the creation of the Knight Of Illumination Awards five years ago.
(Claire Beeson)
