Lighting

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UK - The Association of Lighting Designers' (ALD) has announced its Sponsored Student Scheme is open for 2017 applications. For the first time, the scheme this year is available to all students studying full time in the UK, regardless of course subject. The requirement is that applicants have an interest in the process of live performance lighting and/or video and projection.

The scheme is funded by Corporate Members of the ALD and offers students opportunities to network with more experienced members, to create contacts within the world of lighting that may not otherwise be available and boost their own profile as one of the next generation of lighting designers or technicians.

ALD member, Jai Morjaria, benefitted from a year's free ALD membership when he began his studies at RADA, he remembers, "being a member of the ALD whilst being a student, gave me a non-biased sound

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UK - September has been a busy month on the road for The Prolight Concepts Group. Recently returning from PLASA 2016 where they exhibited a multitude of exciting new products which proved proving extremely popular.

Says the company, "On the whole the show was very busy for us. With having taken a few years break from exhibiting, the new venue at Olympia London was a wise choice by PLASA, providing a real buzz on the show floor with a large number of visitors to our stand."

Top products on display included the eLumen8 1RE Beam, a favourite with rental companies due to its high output along with its compact size and low price.

The CYC 500 attracted a lot of attention due to this being Prolight Concepts' first, true cyclorama wash driven by a 150W RGBW COB LED the CYC 500 outputs a true asymmetric beam with unrivalled colour mixing and 16 bit dimming.

With retro light

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UK - Chichester Festival Theatre has an international reputation for producing work of the highest quality, from large-scale musicals to distinguished dramas.

The venue recently decided to update its lighting rig; not only to install the latest technology but to also remain as environmentally friendly as possible. They approached White Light who supplied them with a range of the ETC Source Four LED Series 2 Lustrs for their Minerva Studio space.

WL has a long relationship with Chichester Festival Theatre. Not only does the technical solution specialist annually supply the lighting for the Chichester Festival but also supported their Children on the Edge fundraiser last year.

Sam Garner-Gibbons is the venue's technical coordinator. He comments, "We have wanted to make alterations to our house rig in the Minerva for a while now. As a venue, we are consciously trying to b

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UK - Few comedians would have the sheer brass neck to have their arena show opened by a three-piece progressive jazz trio, but Amy Schumer is hardly run-of-the-mill. A multiple Emmy Award winner, Schumer has become virtually omnipresent on US television, famed for her confessional, observational, self-deprecating schtick.

In September, the Jewish stand-up princess arrived in Europe to play a string of dates with Entec Sound & Light providing a complete production package to promoter Live Nation UK. Sandwiched between appearances in Dublin, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Oslo and Copenhagen, Schumer's UK tour played to audiences of between 2,500 and 3,500 people at the Edinburgh Playhouse and Manchester Apollo, culminating in her O2 Arena performance in front of an impressive 12,000 fans.

Standing in the wings every night was Live Nation tour co-ordinator Gordon Isaacs, whose fatefu

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USA - Labour Day may mark the official end to summer in the US, but for the big crowd gathered at Boston's Fenway Park the following weekend, the season was still in full swing. The hometown Red Sox were battling for a pennant, but they were 431 miles away in Toronto playing the Blue Jays.

The sweet summertime mood that enveloped fans at the historic ballpark on 9 and 10 September came not from baseball, but from a memorable concert by country music superstar Jason Aldean and special guest Kid Rock.

Contributing to the freewheeling atmosphere was a fast-moving high intensity lightshow created by Keith Hoagland that featured a floor package of Chauvet Professional Rogue RH1 Hybrid moving hybrid fixtures supplied by Bandit Lites.

"We added the floor package, because we felt that the Rogue Hybrids would be an excellent complement to the other fixtures on our rig," said Ho

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USA - Utah State University football fans will get both an eyeful and an earful this season. In addition to a massive new 67ft-by-38ft video scoreboard at the north end of Merlin Olsen Field, USU's Maverik Stadium now also has an equally impressive new sound system built around L-Acoustics' K2 enclosures.

The system was officially commissioned just ahead of the Aggies' fall season, specified and designed by Richmond, Virginia's Anthony James Partners and installed and integrated by Salt Lake City-based Poll Sound, an L-Acoustics certified provider, systems integration.

A total of 24 K2 modules are split between a left and a right line-array hang. In addition, seven L-Acoustics X12 high-performance coaxial speakers are installed underneath the new scoreboard, which is atop a five-story end-zone building, filling the acoustical "shadow" area directly in front of it, while an

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Spain - Mad Cool Festival is a new rock and pop music festival in Spain that debuted 16-18 June at the Caja Magica tennis grounds in Madrid. With a line-up that included Neil Young, The Who and The Prodigy, and a three-day attendance that topped 100,000, Mad Cool is off to an impressive start.

Madrid-based PRG Spain was responsible for the audiovisual production for the festival's three main stages and incorporated Elation Professional's Cuepix Panel LED matrices into the design for Stage Three, a 10,000-capacity stage located inside the main tennis court arena.

"The Mad Cool Festival has been one of our biggest productions this summer with 98 staff from PRG Spain, one full day of set-up and another of lighting, video and sound rehearsals prior to the three days of concerts," said PRG's Francisco 'Pako' Palazon, head of production and lighting design for the three main sta

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USA - To celebrate Lollapalooza's 25th Anniversary, the festival gave its estimated 400,000 attendees a very special gift: a fourth day to see some of their favourite acts live, including J. Cole, Lana Del Ray, Radiohead, Future, Red Hot Chili Peppers, LCD Soundsystem, Ellie Goulding and Haim.

Bandit Lites once again worked with C3 Presents to provide the festival lighting package for both the Samsung and Bud Light Stages, along with site lighting. Lighting designer Seth Jackson created the festival lighting rig, reaching out to the headliners to assess their production needs, and once he acquired all their information, he evaluated efficiencies.

"Seth's strongest tool is knowing the Bandit inventory," said C3 production manager Brandon Sossamon. "He applies that knowledge to the advance and keeps everything streamlined by cross referencing artist needs with Bandit invento

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Italy - Just home from Rio where he designed the lighting for the 2016 Olympic opening and closing ceremonies, Durham Marenghi shares his reflections about the project, for which he brought a massive line-up of SGM lighting fixtures including P-2, P-5, Q-7 and G-1 Beams, supplied by Italian rental company Agor

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USA - The Budweiser Made in America Festival returned to Philadelphia for its fifth season this Labour Day weekend with a star-studded lineup including the Syncrolite XL and SyncroMITE Beam. Rihanna and Coldplay headlined the weekend.

Patrick Dierson, principle designer for The-Activity and LD for the festival, explains how the Syncrolite products were used. "The XL's were an absolute workhorse for the festival's main stage as they became the main source of wash light for the rig.

"Originally specified by Rihanna's LD, Jesse Blevins, for her performance we had decided that due to load-in constraints that it might be best if we simply bought these in at the start of the build and made them the overall festival wash light. I was slightly hesitant at first but the end result was fantastic. They not only looked great both live and on camera for the festival's broadcast but the

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Brazil - Lighting rental company LPL, based in Sao Paulo, has invested in 90 Robe BMFL WashBeams to service their immediate and ongoing work.

They will join over 400 Robe fixtures that the company currently has in stock. LPL services around 800 shows and events a year of different types and sizes, covering multiple sectors including music and concert touring, festivals, corporate events and brand activations and theatre and TV productions.

Caio Bertti, one of five directors and also an LD in his own right, comments, "LPL believes that having BMFL WashBeams in stock will help to create a new demand for these workhorse high powered luminaires all over Brazil."

Before committing to such a large purchase, they thoroughly examined all the alternatives he explained. Their relationship with Robe's regional sales manager for Latin America, Guillermo Traverso added a real 'pers

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USA - From its origins as a single wine store, San Francisco's PlumpJack Group has grown into a multi-faceted hospitality and lifestyle business. In late 2015, it opened Verso, a premier event space and night club where exceptional sound quality had to be guaranteed for all events.

PlumpJack Group's business now includes award-winning wineries, luxury resorts, restaurants and clubs, as well as retail outlets. Established in a former printing works in San Francisco's Mission Street, Verso is a high quality space designed to switch quickly and seamlessly from hosting events to a nightclub.

Bradley S. Katz of the city's JK Sound had previously worked with PlumpJack on another venue, MatrixFillmore, and was asked to look at Verso as a result of that venue's success. "Verso was to be a more 'serious' venue and the AV design had to reflect their vision of a truly unique experien

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USA - Elation Professional's ACL 360 Bar colour-changing LED battens are being used by lighting designer Andy Knighton to add a flare of lighting dynamism to the Rascal Flatts Rhythms & Roots tour, a post-Vegas residency outing that has the country music trio on the road in the U.S. until mid-October.

"The ACL 360 Bars are used as a 'spice' for this show to enhance an otherwise typical video background," says Knighton, who has been designing the lighting for Rascal Flatts since 2003. "We were attracted to them due to their affordability, weight, and versatility. The overall visual concept was to be strategic and tasteful and not just bang away all night. They are used in every song but never do we repeat a feature."

With full 360-degree continuous rotation and a full palette of colour from seven individual 15W RGBW LEDs, a surprising variety of effects can be had from the

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UK - Hawthorn invited guests to step into virtual Battersea Evolution at the Smart Group's relaunch of London's most unique and versatile event space.

The successful showcase event relaunched Battersea Evolution to the event industry; demonstrating its flexibility and unveiling its new brand. As technical partner to the venue, Hawthorn delivered the full technical production for the event, which included creating and delivering a virtual reality experience for 280 guests.

Hawthorn teamed up with the Smart Group to create a high impact set-up within the venue - designed to demonstrate the size and flexibility of the space whilst retaining an intimate atmosphere.

The production included an elegant lighting design that packed a punch for the 40m kabuki reveal with pyrotechnics and supported the slick on-screen footage which was shown across 8 x 16ft HD projected screens.

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UK - Chroma-Q launched their new Color Force II range of professional LED luminaires at PLASA 2016 to much interest from visitors. The product received a special commendation at the show's Awards for Innovation - with judges praising the fixtures' notable evolution from the original Color Force range.

After Color Force revolutionised the lighting market six years ago, the next generation Color Force II range utilises the very latest fully homogenised optics to deliver a superior single colour blend with no unsightly colour mixing shadows, even higher quality saturates and pastels, a purer white, and at least 50% more output.

Designed for shows and events requiring the highest level of technical and artistic performance, other benefits shared across the Chroma-Q lighting portfolio include exceptional colour consistency fixture-to-fixture and batch-to-batch, theatrical grade

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UK - ProLights received a great reception to their latest product line-up showcased on the A.C. Entertainment Technologies stand at PLASA 2016. Highlights included the ArenaCOB LED blinder, as used on Coldplay's recent stadium tour, and the stunning new Stark1000 LED Wash Light.

The ProLights ArenaCOB4 IP65 LED blinder family were supplied to leading rental company Lite Alternative, for the European leg of Coldplay's A Head Full of Dreams stadium tour. World-renowned tour lighting designer, Paul Normandale, commented, "I needed an IP-rated wash fixture - as well as a blinder - that would be reliable and crew friendly."

The new ProLights STARK1000 LED Wash Light proved a great hit, with orders being taken at the show. This next generation "workhorse" LED wash features 19 of Osram's new 40W RGBW LEDs with a bespoke optical design, to provide a powerful, smooth output

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UK - PLASA London 2016 proved to be the best UK show yet for Current RMS. The new venue, Olympia, in central London made the event much more accessible, helping play a part in such a busy stand for Current RMS. The team were flat out, providing demos of the online hire management system, on a range of devices, across all three days of the event.

Also helping contribute to a busy stand was the buzz around all of the new features released within the system since last year's show. These included; Free Scan, an easy process to add additional items to a job, a new Costing Module, helping log all job costs and summarise projected profitability, as well as Part Invoicing and an Open API allowing rental businesses to create exciting integrations.

The Current team were thrilled to see so many new faces on the Stand: "We were rushed off our feet the entirety of PLASA, which was fant

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UK - PLASA 2016 has been chalked up as a resounding success by Ambersphere Solutions. The combination of the demo areas that showcased new products from Clay Paky and Ayrton Lighting and the enthusiastic hospitality of the whole Ambersphere team proved a real winner, attracting a constant stream of visitors - customers both old and new.

MD Glyn O'Donoghue reflects on the show: "PLASA London was a real success for Ambersphere. We were excited to feature a whole host of new products from our manufacturing partners. From Clay Paky, we highlighted the Scenuis Profile, which won a PLASA Award for Innovation at the show, plus Hepikos the new beam wash partner for Mythos and Sharbar, which is a new 6 beam mirror-based LED batten from Clay Paky. We put together a demo-show which was very well received."

The opposite side of the demo area was dedicated to Ayrton as O'Donoghue expla

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South Africa - District Six the Musical, by David Kramer and Taliep Peterson, was brought to life at Pretoria Boys High School at the Desmond Abernethy Hall with the technical supplied by AJR Audio.

AJR's Head of Lighting Marnus Schoeman was responsible for the lighting design, while the school children were the performers and worked as backstage crew. The poignant production included Robe Pointes, miniPointes, Robin 100 LEDBeams and CycFX8s.

Going back in history, District Six was an area in Cape Town named in 1867 and was an ethnically diverse community of former slaves, merchants, artisans and immigrants. While dilapidated District Six had its share of crime and poverty, it had life, a soul, and was a place where music was significant. In the early twentieth century, black South Africans were forcibly removed from District Six. In 1966, a further 60 000 people of

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UK - As the spotlight of the Knight of Illumination awards moves from centre stage for another year, the Association of Lighting Designers (ALD) acknowledges the success of its members in the winning line-ups across all the disciplines of live performance lighting.

ALD professional members Michael Hulls and Mark Henderson won awards for their significant works in dance and theatre respectively, and Bernie Davis was awarded for his work on the televised BBC Proms Season 2015/2016. ALD Fellow Patrick Woodroffe won in the Concert Touring category for his use of light on Adele's 2016 live tour.

ALD honorary member John Offord received the Enrico Caironi Award for Lifetime Recognition for his unstinting support of and influence upon the industry.

Since its inception, the Knight of Illumination Awards has raised the awareness, understanding and appreciation of lighting desig

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South Africa - TSO Productions is a new company established by well-known South African technician and musician, Kgomotso Malebye. For a company that's three months old, Kgomotso has been busy every week and supplied the technical for the Gsport Awards, an event which encourages women in sport and which was broadcast live for SABC 2, among a number of other events.

"There is a demand to buy more gear because the word has gone out quickly and I'm doing a lot of work," he said. "Sometimes it feels unreal, if I can put it like that. I feel blessed because as you know it's a tough industry, the competition is high and I thank God that I still have the business."

Because it's a small company, Kgomotso is there for every event, from set-up to strike, the first one in and the last one out. "My family give me support", he says, and he will always be grateful for his mom, a nurse,

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Germany - One of Germany's most influential artists of recent years is pop rapper Cro, who is just wrapping up an MTV Unplugged Open Air tour that played dates across the country this summer.

Lighting design was by one of Germany's preeminent designers, Gunther Hecker from CUE Design, who incorporated Elation Professional Platinum FLX hybrid moving heads supplied by German production company satis&fy.

Known for wearing a panda mask when he performs, Cro's music is a catchy fusion of rap and pop, called 'raop', which, based on his audiences, attracts fans of all ages. His popularity is at an all-time high and for the MTV Unplugged Open Air tour he was supported on stage by a 20-member strong orchestra positioned across three tiers and fronting horizontally-tiered LED screens.

Gunther Hecker handled the entire visual design for the tour - lighting, set and video - his fi

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UK - The International Arbitration Charity Ball brings together 600 high profile figures, firms and specialists for an evening of fine dining and spectacular fundraising. The event raises money for Save the Children's Emergency Fund and has raised over £1,300,000 since the first event in 2010.

The ball gives the Arbitration community the chance to come together, network, and support Save the Children. Following its work on other charity fundraisers, White Light was called upon to provide the production support for the evening.

The biennial International Arbitration Charity Ball took place on Thursday 8 September at Guildhall, London. Having previously worked on the event, WL was asked to offer its services once again. Gemma Howell, special events senior manager for Save the Children, comments, "We approached WL as we required a reliable company who would be able to t

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Europe - High End Systems has released its latest OS for Hog 4 lighting consoles. Hog 4 OS 3.5.0 offers numerous new features and enhancements for the platform's wide user base; the company is also touting new features in development for release in the near future.

Hog 4 OS v3.5.0 fully supports Compound Fixtures (single fixtures with multiple parts), providing easy scheduling and patching without the need to manually and, renumber, and patch individual parts.

Hog 4 OS v3.5.0 communicates directly with several video matrix switcher products over Ethernet. This allows smaller productions to control video equipment directly from a lighting console without the need for additional control systems or operators. Hog 4 OS supports the Barco MatrixPro-II SD/HD/3G-SDI series, the Blackmagic Smart VideoHub series, the Lightware MX series, and the AJA KUMO 16x16 series switchers.

  1. GoboPlus.com enjoys busy PLASA 2016
  2. Fineline Lights Shambala festival
  3. James Whiteside lights Unfaithful at Found111
  4. Ovation and Rogues at NY Fashion Week event
  5. Showlight 2017 at PLASA Show 2016
  6. Litecom invests in Robe's BMFLs and DL4s
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